Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The "Era of Stagnation", a derogatory term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev, was a period marked by low socio-economic efficiency in the country and a gerontocracy ruling the country. [26] Yuri Andropov (aged 68 at the time) succeeded Brezhnev in his post as general secretary in 1982. In 1983, Andropov was hospitalized and rarely met up at work to ...
On becoming leader, Gorbachev saw withdrawal from the war as a key priority. [73] In October 1985, ... followed by the Soviet Army killing about 150 Azeris. [175]
Of the eleven individuals appointed head of state, three died in office of natural causes (Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko), one held the position in a temporary role (Charles Haman), and four held posts of party leader and head of state simultaneously (Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev).
Gorbachev became first and last president of the Union. [2] His tenure was marked by the legal and political confrontation with Russia and other republics of the USSR which eventually led to their full independence in late 1991.
The coup leaders demanded that Gorbachev formally declare a state of emergency in the country, but he refused. [414] Gorbachev and his family were kept under house arrest in their dacha. [415] The coup plotters publicly announced that Gorbachev was ill and thus Vice President Yanayev would take charge of the country. [416]
Andropov was succeeded by another short-lived leader, Konstantin Chernenko. [74] After his death, Yeltsin took part in the Central Committee plenum which appointed Mikhail Gorbachev the new General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , and thus de facto Soviet leader , in March 1985.
The coup collapsed in two days, and Gorbachev returned to office while the plotters all lost their posts. Yeltsin subsequently became the dominant leader and Gorbachev lost much of his influence. The failed coup led to both the immediate collapse of the CPSU and the dissolution of the USSR four months later.
The Soviet leadership also believed that his individualistic leadership style ran contrary to the ideal collective leadership. [1] Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin succeeded Khrushchev in his posts as First Secretary and Premier respectively, and Mikhail Suslov , Andrei Kirilenko , and Anastas Mikoyan (replaced in 1965 by Nikolai Podgorny ...