Yuri Andropov

After becoming General Secretary, Andropov launched investigations and personnel changes targeting several corrupt networks and officials protected under Brezhnev. The campaign helped expose scandals previously regarded as politically untouchable.

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Directly implicated

Andropov's discipline campaign sent police and auxiliaries to check people present during working hours in cinemas, restaurants, public baths and shops to identify employees absent from their jobs.

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Directly implicated

The authorities strengthened penalties and controls intended to reduce absenteeism, drinking at work and low productivity. This policy formed part of Andropov's attempt to restore efficiency to a stagnating economy.

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Directly implicated

A Soviet fighter shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007 after it entered Soviet airspace, killing all 269 people on board. The incident triggered a major international crisis under Andropov's leadership.

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Political responsibility

After KAL 007 was shot down, Andropov issued a statement accusing US intelligence of orchestrating an elaborate provocation involving the South Korean aircraft. Subsequently released archives characterise this allegation as false.

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Personally implicated

During a meeting with a delegation of US senators, Andropov stressed the urgency of a nuclear agreement and warned that the absence of limits would increase the threat of war.

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Directly implicated

Specialist literature attributes to Andropov a crucial role in systematising the use of psychiatric diagnoses and special hospitals against dissidents considered ideologically dangerous.

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Directly implicated

Andropov's KGB monitored and then helped dismantle the Moscow Helsinki Group, whose members documented violations of Soviet human rights commitments. Arrests, trials, exile and pressure almost silenced the group.

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Directly implicated

Person targeted by the proceedings

dissidents

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Following Sakharov's criticism of Afghanistan, he was sent to Gorky without trial and placed under close surveillance. As head of the KGB and a Politburo member, Andropov was central to the apparatus responsible for monitoring him.

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Shared responsibility

Archives show that Andropov, head of the KGB, joined Ustinov and Gromyko among the small group advocating military intervention and the removal of Hafizullah Amin. The final decision was adopted on 12 December 1979 in Brezhnev's office.

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Personally implicated

Human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky was arrested and then convicted, notably of treason, in a trial that became an international cause. The case formed part of the KGB's campaign against dissident and Jewish emigration networks.

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Institutional responsibility

Person targeted by the proceedings

Anatoly Shcharansky

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Andropov was among the leaders favouring a solution involving expelling Solzhenitsyn rather than imprisoning him for an extended period in the USSR. The writer was arrested, deprived of citizenship and sent to the West.

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Directly implicated

The Czechoslovak crisis strengthened the KGB's conviction that political liberalisation could threaten the regime. Under Andropov, the security apparatus intensified surveillance of intellectuals, national activists and networks considered ideologically dangerous.

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Directly implicated

The KGB closely monitored Sakharov, his visitors, correspondence and public statements while seeking to limit his influence. Fifth Directorate files illustrate the personal attention given to prominent dissidents.

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Directly implicated

As Soviet ambassador to Hungary, Andropov was central to exchanges between Nagy's government and Moscow during the uprising. Hungarian leaders questioned him about Soviet troop movements as the intervention was being prepared.

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Directly implicated