Page "Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" Paragraph 44

Chernenko was elected as a compromise candidate by the Politburo ; the Central Committee could never have accepted another candidate, considering that the majority of the Central Committee members were old Brezhnev appointees.

The Politburo could not, despite its powers, elect a General Secretary not supported by the Central Committee.

Even so, several leading Politburo members supported Chernenko, such as Nikolai Tikhonov and Viktor Grishin.

To make matters worse for Chernenko, he did not have control over the Politburo ; both Andrei Gromyko and Dmitriy Ustinov were both very independent politically, and the Politburo still contained several leading Andropov protégés, such as Gorbachev, Vorotnikov, Solomontsev and Heydar Aliyev.

Chernenko never got complete control over the Central Committee and Party apparatus ; while Andropov never succeeded in removing the majority of Brezhnev appointees in the Central Committee, he had succeeding in dividing the Central Committee along factional lines.

In this confusion, Chernenko was never able to become a strong leader.

For example, Gorbachev quickly became the party's de facto Second Secretary, even though Chernenko did not support him.

The distribution of power within the Central Committee turned Chernenko into little more than a figurehead.

In contrast to previous general secretaries, Chernenko did not control the Cadre Department of the Central Committee, making Chernenko's position considerably weaker.

However, Chernenko did strengthen his position considerably at the beginning of 1985, not long before his death.

Chernenko died on 10 March 1985, and the Central Committee appointed Gorbachev General Secretary on 11 March.