Yuriy Andropov

Yuri Andropov Юрий Андропов
Andropov c. 1983
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 12 November 1982 – 9 February 1984
Preceded by	Leonid Brezhnev
Succeeded by	Konstantin Chernenko
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 16 June 1983 – 9 February 1984
Preceded by	Vasili Kuznetsov (acting)
Succeeded by	Vasili Kuznetsov (acting)
4th Chairman of the Committee for State Security (KGB)
In office 18 May 1967 – 26 May 1982
Premier	Alexei Kosygin Nikolai Tikhonov
Preceded by	Vladimir Semichastny
Succeeded by	Vitaly Fedorchuk
Personal details
Born	Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (1914-06-15)15 June 1914 Stanitsa Nagutskaya, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	9 February 1984(1984-02-09) (aged 69) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Spouse(s)	Tatyana Andropova (m. 1940s–1984; his death)
Children	Igor Andropov Irina Andropova
Residence	Kutuzovsky Prospekt
Signature
Central institution membership 1973–1984: Full, 24th, 25th, 26th Politburo 1967–1973: Candidate, 23rd, 24th Politburo 1962–1967 & 1982–1984: Member, 22nd, 23rd, 26th Secretariat 1961–1984: Full member, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th Central Committee Other political offices held 1957–1967: Head, Department for Relations with the Communist and Workers' Parties of the Socialist Countries 1954–1957: Ambassador, Hungary Leader of the Soviet Union ← Brezhnev Chernenko →

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (/ænˈdroʊpɔːf, -pɒf/;Russian: Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов, tr. Yuriy Vladimirovich Andropov; IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ɐnˈdropəf]; 15 June [O.S. 2 June] 1914 – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who was ambassador to Hungary from 1954 to 1957, during which time he was involved in the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, and then Chairman of the KGB from 1967 until 1982. Later in 1982, he became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a position he held until his death fifteen months later.

Andropov was born in Nagutskaya, Stavropol Region, Russian Empire, on 15 June 1914. He was the son of a railway official, Vladimir Konstantinovich Andropov, who was of a noble Don Cossack family and Yevgenia Karlovna Fleckenstein, the daughter of a Moscow watchmaker, Karl Franzovich Fleckenstein, who was originally from Finland. Andropov was educated at the Rybinsk Water Transport Technical College and graduated in 1936. Both of his parents died early, leaving Yuri an orphan at the age of thirteen. As a teenager he worked as a loader, a telegraph clerk, and a sailor for the Volga steamship line.