Chernenko - Rise to the Top
The major event in Chernenko's life occurred in 1950, when Brezhnev arrived in Kishiniv to become the first secretary of the Moldavian Central Committee. Brezhnev worked in Moldavia only until 1952, and Chernenko until 1956. But when Brezhnev became CC secretary for heavy industry and the defense industry in 1956, Chernenko was named head of the mass political work section of the Central Committee's Propaganda-Agitation Department.
When Brezhnev became chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet in 1960, and again when he became first (and then general) secretary of the CPSU in 1964, he selected Chernenko to head his personal secretariat. Chernenko had been exposed to a wide range of decisions as a personal assistant but had no significant experience of his own outside the ideological sphere.
A key role in the environment of Leonid Ilyich was played by Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko. In the early years, many did not even notice Chernenko. He was wrongly mistaken for his assistant Brezhnev, and did not suspect that special role he had played in the system of power for many years.
Chernenko did not seek to expose himself to the fore, avoiding publicity. He did not like to perform and could not. Everyone believed that he should remain in the shadows. He did not mind: in the shadows, it means in the shade. His strength was different.
By nature, he was closed, terse. He spoke in an indistinct patter. Of medium stature, he stooped. In his youth he was cheerful and cheerful, not indifferent to the ladies. He smoked at the age of nine. In the office, there was always cigarette smoke. He only quit smoking when the Secretary-General became the non-smoking Yu.V.Andropov. He was the only secretary of the CPSU Central Committee who had a woman as a personal secretary. Strictly punctual. He never spoke without a pre-prepared text, even before the employees of his department, although he spent half his life on propaganda work. According to AM Alexandrov-Agentov, assistant to all the last secretaries-general, he possessed a subtle intuition for capturing the moods and directions of thought of his superiors, he knew how to adapt himself to this direction, he knew how to report things so that they did not irritate him, smooth out sharp corners.
Under his leadership, the computerization of the apparatus began, and special control was established for information contained in technical systems. For seventeen years Chernenko headed the general department of the Central Committee. Previously, the general department was called a special sector, and it was headed by Stalin's permanent helper-the famous Poskrebyshev. But even with him, it was only a party chancery. Chernenko turned a special department into an instrument of power and a governing body of the party apparatus.
The task of the general department is "servicing the highest organs of the party". It was an organizational and technical service. But it turned out differently. No document, including the most secret, the most important, could not pass the general department. It depended on Chernenko what papers would be placed on the table to the secretary general, which people would have an opportunity to express their opinion, what information the general would receive.
Even KGB materials went through the head of the general department. Only in exceptional cases did the chairman of the State Security Committee report personally to the general.
The helpers of Brezhnev recalled that Chernenko himself brought to Leonid Ilyich all the important documents that had arrived at the highest echelons of the Central Committee, accompanying them with his comments and recommendations. And he did this with great skill, he knew how to report the matter so that it did not cause irritation, smooth out the sharp corners, which Leonid Ilyich particularly liked.
Deputies of the Politburo and the secretaries of the Central Committee depended on the location of Chernenko. They could not go to the secretary-general without a report. Everyone had to ask for permission, explain on what issue they want to see the general. Only Chernenko could look to Brezhnev any minute and solve any question. Solving personnel questions, Brezhnev necessarily consulted primarily with Chernenko, who knew everything about the party secretaries, about the staff of the apparatus, about the highest nomenclature, including the very delicate details of their life.
Chernenko in his speeches about detente had been somewhat more general, but he has also been fervent in the extreme in supporting detente. And indeed, in one of the most remarkable of his speeches in February 1980, a few months after Afghanistan and a time when everybody else was saying how wonderful the Afghan invasion was, how necessary it was, Chernenko only made an extremely small mention of Afghanistan and did not support this venture. He obviously didn't say it was bad, but he did not say it was good. In the version published in Pravda he did not even mention Afghanistan at alla kind of behavior in the Soviet Union which usually connotes opposition.
Jerry F. Hough noted [Soviet Succession - Issues and Personalities, Problems of Communism, September-October 1982] "... despite the enormous apparent strength of Chernenko's position, he is difficult to visualize as a general secretary. Since 1960, his main role has been head of Brezhnev's personal secretariat - his Aleksandr Poskribyshev - and such people rarely are chosen to succeed their masters in any system. They find it difficult to establish an independent image, and their proximity to power and their service as the leader's "no man" have usually made them many enemies. Chernenko's background is also most unimpressive."
Since the second half of the 1970s, when Brezhnev's health began to deteriorate, "Kostya's friend" became an irreplaceable person for him. He first came to prominence in 1975 at a time when Brezhnev's health was quite poor, appearing in foreign policy settings (e.g., the Helsinki Conference of Chiefs of State), in which he served largely as an aide-de-camp. The following year, when Brezhnev's health was much improved," Chernenko did not figure as a member of Soviet delegations. But he publicly returned to Brezhnev's side when the latter's health deteriorated once more. In 1978, he was appointed among the top leaders of the country, becoming a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Conceivably, Chernenko had been functioning more as Brezhnev's eyes and ears-and even as his memory than as a real policymaker. If he was serving as personnel secretary, he had not built much of a local machine-only 15 of 71 RSFSR obkom first secretaries had been changed in the five years up to 1982, and some give every appearance of being allied with other contenders.
Chernenko was considered a close ally and promoter of Leonid Brezhnev. However, after the latter's death, he could not find sufficient support among the groupings in the party leadership to assume the post of Secretary-General, who ultimately went to Yu. V. Andropov, elected by the Central Committee plenum on November 12, 1982. The course of the new party leadership to strengthen the fight against corruption and reduce the privileges of the party apparatus caused a negative response from the nomenclature. Therefore, after the death of Yu. V. Andropov in 1984, moods prevailed in favor of resuscitation of the Brezhnev era.
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