Yuri Andropov

I have been working on this book since leaving Russia in April of 1972. It was my wish to write this book in English, and there were what seemed to me to be serious reasons for doing so. In recent years there has appeared a wealth of literature, in Russian, about Russia. As a rule, this literature has been published outside the USSR by authors who still live in the Soviet Union or who have only recently left it. A fair amount of important literature is being translated into English, but I believe it will be read main ly by specialists in Russian studies, or by those who have a great interest in the subject already. The majority of Russian authors write, of course, for the Russian reader or for an imagined Western public. It is my feeling that Russian authors have serious difficulties in understanding the men tality of Westerners, and that there still exists a gap between the visions of Russians and non-Russians. I have made my humble attempt to bridge ~his gap and I will be happy if I am even partly successful. The Russian world is indeed fascinating. Many people who visit Russia for a few days or weeks find it a country full of historical charm, fantastic architecture and infinite mystery. For many inside the country, especial ly for those in conflict with the Soviet authorities.

Andropov and the U.S. Media: A Comparative Study of Yuri Andropov s Premiership of the USSR as viewed through the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was the leader of the Soviet Union from November 12, 1982 until his death on February 9, 1984. During this period, Yuri Andropov was reported on extensively in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. The cleavage between the traditionally left-wing New York Times and the right-wing populist Chicago Tribune was minimal in their respective coverage of Andropov s tenure as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Notwithstanding the issue of nuclear arms control, the Left-Right deviation between the two newspapers did not exist. Both newspapers exhibited a center-right orientation in their coverage of Mr. Andropov in particular and the Soviet Union as a whole."

By turns radical, uncertain, ambitious, and autocratic, Mikhail Gorbachev in his bid to reform the Soviet Union has shaped the contemporary world. In 1985, he set out to modernize the Soviet state and revive his Communist Party. Instead, by the end of 1991, the USSR had fragmented and the Party was banned. Institutions which had survived for 70 years, notwithstanding Stalin's murderous purges and the Nazi war machine, proved unable to survive his well-meant reforms.