ABSTRACT
Towards the close of the Brezhnev era, the average age of the members of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was 64. Members of government averaged ten years in office. These two pieces of data suffice to indicate the Soviet government's dire need for new personnel. Under Andropov, two first deputy chairmen as well as one deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, ten out of a total of sixty-four ministers, and nine out of twenty-two State Committee chairmen were newly appointed. Chernenko appointed one deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, eight ministers, two chairmen of state committees, and two chairmen of Union republic Councils of Ministers, overall thirteen new members of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Both Andropov and Chernenko advocated a clear separation of state and Party functions. Social background and recruitment patterns of new members of the Council of Ministers under Andropov and Chernenko resembled those under Brezhnev.
