Iurii Andropov

Born June 2 (15), 1914, at Nagutskaia station in Stavropol’ Krai.

A Soviet government and Party figure, Andropov has been a member of the CPSU since 1939. He was born into the family of an office worker. He began his career as a worker in 1930. In 1936 he graduated from the technical school for water transport and worked as a Komsomol organizer for the Central Committee of the All-Union Lenin Komsomol at the Volodarskii shipyards in Rybinsk. In 1937 he was elected secretary of the Yaroslavl’ oblast committee of the All-Union Komsomol, and in 1938 he became the first secretary of that committee. In 1940 he was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Lenin Komsomol of Karelia. In 1944 he transferred to Party work and served at first as second secretary of the Petrozavodsk city committee and, beginning in 1947, as second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Karelia. In 1951, Andropov was transferred to work in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1953–57 he was engaged in diplomatic work as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Hungarian People’s Republic. Beginning in 1957, he was in charge of a section of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Since 1961 he has been a member of the Central Committee. From November 1962 to July 1967 he was a secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and since 1967 he has been a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Since May 1967 he has been chairman of the Committee for State Security (KGB) under the USSR Council of Ministers. He was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the third, sixth, and seventh convocations. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and also medals.