However, when it became clear that the secretaryship would not go to Chernenko, but instead Yuri Andropov, Shevardnadze swiftly reiterated his position and gave his support for Andropov.

Chernenko, the official second-ranking secretary, competed for power with Mikhail Gorbachev.

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.

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

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

Of these three, Konayev and Shcherbytsky were Brezhnevites, and Vorotnikov, while not supporting Gorbachev, took it for granted that Gorbachev would succeed Chernenko.

At the same meeting, Grishin was asked to chair the commission responsible for Chernenko's funeral ; Grishin turned down the offer, claiming that Gorbachev was closer to Chernenko than he was.

When Chernenko died in March 1985, Gorbachev assumed power unopposed.

Following the death of terminally ill Konstantin Chernenko, the Politburo elected Mikhail Gorbachev to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) in March 1985, marking the rise of a new generation of leadership.

Chernenko was then elected to replace Andropov, despite concerns over his own ailing health, and against Andropov's wishes ( he stated he wanted Gorbachev to succeed him ).

Arkady Volsky, an aide to Andropov and other general secretaries, recounts an episode that occurred after a Politburo meeting on the day following Andropov's demise: As Politburo members filed out of the conference hall, either Andrei Gromyko or ( in later accounts ) Dmitriy Ustinov is said to have put his arm round Nikolai Tikhonov's shoulders and said: " It's okay, Kostya is an agreeable guy ( pokladisty muzhik ), one can do business with him ...." The Politburo failed to pass the decision for Gorbachev, who was nominally Chernenko's second in command, to run the meetings of the Politburo itself in the absence of Chernenko ; the latter due to his declining health, began to miss those meetings with increasing frequency.

As Nikolai Ryzhkov describes it in his memoirs, " every Thursday morning he ( Mikhail Gorbachev ) would sit in his office like a little orphan – I would often be present at this sad procedure – nervously awaiting a telephone call from the sick Chernenko: Would he come to the Politburo himself or would he ask Gorbachev to stand in for him this time again?

The papers had the same format: page 1 reported the party Central Committee session on 11 March that elected Gorbachev and printed the new leader's biography and a large photograph of him ; page 2 announced the demise of Chernenko and printed his obituary.

" Soviet Policy: From Chernenko to Gorbachev ," Aussenpolitik, 36, No. 4, April 1985, 357 – 75.

* Urban, Michael E. " From Chernenko to Gorbachev: A Repolitization of Official Soviet Discourse ," Soviet Union / Union Soviétique, 13, No. 2, 1986, 131 – 61.

Within three years of the deaths of Soviet Leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko, Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo in 1985.

Chernenko was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.

Yuri Andropov, Brezhnev's 68-year-old successor, was seriously ill with kidney disease when he took over, and after his death fifteen months later, he was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko, then 72, who lasted thirteen months before his death and replacement with Gorbachev.

The last four Soviet leaders ( Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev ) were all senior Secretaries before becoming General Secretaries.

During the final months of Konstantin Chernenko's life, Grishin had been considered as a possible contender to succeed Chernenko as the General Secretary and as a possible alternative to Mikhail Gorbachev.

When Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985, Ligachev was promoted to become a Secretary of higher status, and was generally viewed as one of Gorbachev ’ s primary allies: he had helped organize a pro-Gorbachev faction in hope of having Gorbachev succeed Andropov in 1984, although this attempt failed ( instead, Konstantin Chernenko was chosen as a stop-gap candidate ).

Upon Andropov's death in 1984, the aged Konstantin Chernenko took power ; after his death the following year, it became clear to the party hierarchy that younger leadership was needed.

Mikhail Gorbachev became the party's general secretary in 1985 following an interregnum after Brezhnev's death in 1982 when the party was led first by Yuri Andropov and then by Konstantin Chernenko.

But Andropov's ability to reshape the top leadership was constrained by his poor health and the influence of his rival ( and longtime ally of Leonid Brezhnev ) Konstantin Chernenko, who had previously supervised personnel matters in the Central Committee.

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.

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

At the Central Committee plenary session on 13 February 1984, four days after Andropov's death, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Premier, and Politburo member Nikolai Tikhonov moved that Chernenko be elected general secretary, and the Committee duly voted him in.

In the spring of 1984, Chernenko was hospitalized for over a month, but kept working by sending the Politburo notes and letters.

By the end of 1984, Chernenko could hardly leave the Central Clinical Hospital, a heavily guarded facility in west Moscow, and the Politburo was affixing a facsimile of his signature to all letters, as Chernenko had done with Andropov's when he was dying.

The only ones who saw him on a regular basis were Politburo members Dmitriy Ustinov, Andrei Gromyko, Konstantin Chernenko and Viktor Chebrikov.

Andropov died on February 9, 1984 and Chernenko was elected his replacement on February 13 but Chernenko was a compromise stopgap candidate as Gorbachev – Andropov's protege – lacked sufficient support in the Politburo.

Four days after Andropov's death, on 9 February 1984, Chernenko was elected as the party's General Secretary.

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

At 71, Konstantin Chernenko was in poor health, suffering from emphysema, and unable to play an active role in policy making when he was chosen, after lengthy discussion, to succeed Andropov.

Although Chernenko had called for renewed détente with the West, little progress was made towards closing the rift in East − West relations during his rule.

Kremvax was announced on April 1, 1984 in a posting ostensibly originated there by Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko.

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( 24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985 ) was a Soviet politician and the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Chernenko was also Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 11 April 1984 until his death.

Chernenko was born to a poor family in the village of Bolshaya Tes ( now in Novosyolovsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai ).

Chernenko then steadily rose through the Party ranks, becoming the Director of the Krasnoyarsk House of Party Enlightenment then in 1939, the Deputy Head of the AgitProp Department of Krasnoyarsk Territorial Committee and finally, in 1941 he was appointed Secretary of the Territorial Party Committee for Propaganda.

It was in the 1940s that Chernenko established a close-knit relationship with Fyodor Kulakov.

The turning point in Chernenko ’ s career was his assignment in 1948 to head the Communist Party ’ s propaganda department in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In 1960, after Brezhnev was named chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ( titular head of state of the Soviet Union ), Chernenko became his chief of staff.

In 1971 Chernenko was promoted to full membership in the Central Committee: Overseeing Party work over the Letter Bureau, dealing with correspondence.

During Brezhnev's final years, Chernenko became fully immersed in ideological Party work: Heading Soviet delegations abroad, accompanying Brezhnev to important meetings and conferences, and was a member of the commission that revised the Soviet Constitution in 1977.

After Brezhnev's death in November 1982, there was speculation the position of General Secretary would fall to Chernenko, however he was unable to rally enough popular support for his candidacy within the Party, and the posting fell to former KGB chief Yuri Andropov.

Yegor Ligachev writes in his memoirs that Chernenko was elected general secretary without a hitch.