The director charged with corruption in case that stretched beyond the Moscow food store itsell into the heart of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party.
The Director's pathetic plea fell on deaf ears and be was sentenced to death for economic crimes against the state.
Is it any wonder that such friends the Gastronom director Moscow party boss politburo member Victor Grishin lobbied feverishly for Constantin Chernenko take over as General Secretary Soviet Communist Party? Behind the official facade of mourning. solemn following Anan UsIc dropov's death, the entire mafia will have been revelling gastronomic feasts celebrate the ena of threat tar more menacing to them than the fearsome L'S arms build-up that is Inland 6 months t8: 12 months £15 (12 months only)
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taken as unusual.' frightening the mass of Soviet citizens.
Whatever else may be said leaders of the Soviet Communist they differed from Chernenko in significant respect.
They were not nonentities. Chernenko was picked up by Brezhnev at the start of the 1950s in Moldavia, the Western republic which the Soviet Union had rethe ed our end war.
Chernenko was a secretary there who gratiated himself with Brezhnev to such an extent that he became part of the latter's retinue.
By the end of the 1950s Chernenko was persona secretariat, and by the late 1970s the ageing general secretary was powerful SUBSCRIBE I enclose cheque/PO payable to Socialist Action for f Send 1o: Socialist Action Subs, 328 Upper St. London N/ 2XP.
enough to bring his pliant secretary right into the politburo. Thus, the sole basis for Chernenko's rise was his loyalty usefulness to his boss. He level achieved anything on his own.
Chernenko's rise was part of the pattern during the 1970s whereby Brezhnev packed the upper echelons of the state own most stamping ground Dnepropetrovsk the Eastern Ukraine. Their qualification was often little more than their personal lovalty to their godfather. Chernenko, head of the Central Committee's General Department, overseeing appointments, was the organiser the mafia's rise to power.
Brezhnev
The late 1970s and early 80s were glorious days, Indian summer, for Brezhnev's clients. have been going. pot, the Americans may have turned ugly, but so what! At Special free book offer!
Take out a years inland subscription and we will send you free one of these books: Thatcher and Friends by John Ross • Hard Times by Bob Sutcliffe or Over our Dead Bodies -Women Against the Bomb Introductory offer for new readers: Eight issues tor just f2! Chernenko represents Brezhnev era of corruption last their years of service to une! leaders all tha hard graft and intrigue -had off. thei hands trembled it was only Wage. They had absolutely nothing to fear as their fingers fumbled of police do the cold around in the till.
Police, was that dangerous man dropov had to stick security and not meddle •cOw such fields as corruption and economic crime.
15 months of the dropovshchina. rISI the KGB, to suicide by the heartless Andropov for corruption. Then for the first time ince the torties, a powe ful Central Commite 'comrade' was from the party for corruption and it was none Shchekolov. And with him other than Chief went Medunov, Krasnodar party boss who had made Brezhnev so comfy down there during those long summer holidays in his dotage.
Then there was poor old deputy premier Novikov, an authentic Dnepropetrovsk veteran if ever there was one. All he the come datin of te the foundations huge PHant tor nuclear power stations, Atomash, by siting a dam nearby Atomash, whose construction began in 1974, must now be moved elsewhere along with Ine whole newtowi of 'olgo-Donsk buil round house the 100,000 workers. But Andropov lacked any party spirit and did the most awful thing. Andropov — old gang glad to be shot of him He sacked Novikov.
asked the Brezhnev mafia, Andropov died not a moment too soon. He had cooked up a thoroughly plar to get rid of the Tikhonov Prime Minister this Mara of lesser, whole host of and even younger cronies. Now life can move al more leisurely pace.
Here the Soviet leadership in 1984. The Reaganites are on the rampage in the third world, the West is re-arming at gallop, the unemployment figures are still rising in Western Europe, the labour movements of the capitalist world are unde attack. And the state officially claiming to be the rallying centre for anticapitalist forces throughout the world is dominated by a corrupt, authoritarian to very clinging to lounger younger technocrats whom Andropoy tried to promote and who might more successfully • have dealt with the cynicism anger frustrations of the Soviet masses find their path once again blocked Thus Chernenko's accession makes a convulsive struggle within the Communist party more likely as the more reform-minded officials lose But mean While there cripple the shuffle around, trying to keer their balance remember what day it is. It is not a pretty sight.
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•I AM THE victim of power struggles at the top. If Andropov had not won out in the struggle to succeed Brezhnev, nothing that I had been doing would have attracted displeasure or been With these words, the former director of Gastronom One ended his final plea to a Moscow court last year.
party apparatuses with his whom came from ors old