ABSTRACT
The Gorbachev era began on 11 March 1985, following the deaths in rapid succession of the three previous General Secretaries of the CC CPSU, Leonid Brezhnev (November 1982), Yury Andropov (March 1984), and Konstantin Chernenko (March 1985). Though Andropov, a former KGB chief, had begun his period in office with a campaign against corruption and absenteeism in the workplace, his tenure had been too short to herald any major changes. Chernenko’s time at the top provided the farce toward the end of a long drama: a virtual clerk of Brezhnev with few ideas and lacking in intellect, taking over the reins of the country. Like Andropov, he was too ill to rule for long. The new secretary, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, aged 54, was evidently the unanimous choice of the ruling Politburo’s members following his nomination by the veteran foreign affairs minister, Andrey Gromyko. A possible contest for the leadership with Moscow party boss Viktor Grishin failed to materialize. A robust, balding, stocky man with a prominent birthmark, Gorbachev was endowed with remarkable energy. He had risen through the Soviet system, but was now in a position to determine its direction.
