Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

(1911–85), General Secretary of the Communist Party of the soviet union and President (1984–5). His career prospered through his position as protégé of brezhnev , with whom he had first worked for the party in the region of moldova . He entered the politburo in 1978, but in 1982 found himself blocked as immediate successor to his patron. Only when andropov died two years later did Chernenko become general secretary. He was now supported by a nomenklatura generally anxious to obstruct the rising influence of the reformist gorbachev . The latter did not have long to wait, however, as the new Soviet leader was already chronically ill. Chernenko's death in office, early in 1985, marked not only the definitive passing of the Brezhnev era but also what turned out to be the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union itself. ... log in or subscribe to read full text