Israel pushing for Kurdish state?

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

by Chris Doss


---
If a Georgian with a goofy accent can be a Great
Russian chauvinist. Let's see, Stalin - Georgian,
Khrushchev = Ukrainian, Brezhnev = probably an ethnic
Ukrainian from Moldova, Gorbachev = from Ukraine
too... hey, were any of the "Great Russian chauvinist"
leaders actually Russian? Nope.

^^^^^^

CB: Ah, but Chernenko, he was Russian :>)




 <http://lego70.tripod.com/image/ussr/chernenko.jpg> 	
Konstantin Ustinovich CHERNENKO


b. September 11 [24], 1911, Bolshaya Tes', Minusinsk region, Yeniseysk
province, Russian Empire
d. March 10, 1985, Moscow, USSR

	
Title:   Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
(Председатель Президиума Верховного Совета СССР) 	
Term:    April 11, 1984 - March 10, 1985	
Elected:         April 11, 1984, 1st session of the 11th Supreme Soviet	
Term began:      April 11, 1984, took the chair after election	
End of term:     March 10, 1985, deceased	

Born to a Russian peasant family in Siberia, Konstantin Chernenko the
Communist Party in 1931 during his army service. In 1933-1941 he headed
department of propaganda and agitation in Novosyolovo and Uyar regions. In
1941-1943 Chernenko was a secretary of the Krasnoyarsk regional party
committee, but quit the job to study in the Higher School of Party
Organizers, Moscow (1943-45). He was sent to Penza as a secretary of party
provincial committee in charge of propaganda and agitation (1945-48). Then
he was moved to Moldavia becoming head of agitation and propaganda
department (1948-56), where he met Leonid Brezhnev
<http://lego70.tripod.com/ussr/brezhnev.htm> , who brought him to Moscow
(1956) to head mass agitation section of agitation and propaganda department
of the Central Committee. In May 1960 - July 1965 Chernenko served as chief
of the chancellery of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium.

When Brezhnev took over the party leadership, he made Chernenko chief of the
General Department (July 1965 - Nov. 1982). Elected a candidate member of
the Central Committee (1966-1971) at the 23rd party congress, Chernenko was
promoted to full membership (1971-1985) at the 24th congress. In 1976 he was
elected secretary (March 5, 1976 - Feb. 13, 1984) of the Central Committee
and joined the Politburo as candidate member (Oct. 3, 1977 - Nov. 27, 1978).
Then he was quickly promoted to full membership (Nov. 27, 1978 - March 10,
1985). Chernenko was considered a close associate of Brezhnev, but after his
death he was unable to rally a majority of the party factions behind his
candidacy to be head of the party and lost out to Yury Andropov
<http://lego70.tripod.com/ussr/andropov.htm>  who became general secretary
on Nov. 12, 1982. 

Andropov's reforms targeted at eliminating corruption and cutting privileges
in the higher party ranks estranged the party bureaucracy. In attempt to
return to Brezhnevism, the aging Politburo, of which seven members died in
advanced age in 1982-1984, plumped for the conservative Chernenko, who was
elected (Feb. 13, 1984) general secretary following the death of Andropov on
Feb. 9. On April 11, 1984, Chernenko was elected chairman of the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet. However, deteriorating health of Chernenko made him
unfit to govern effectively. His frequent absences from official functions
left little doubt that his election had been an interim measure. He died in
office on March 10, 1985.

Sources: Text: Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 3rd edition; Annual
Supplements to the Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1985, 1986; Izvestiya
TsK KPSS, 1990, No. 7, p. 130; The Britannica Encyclopaedia, Multimedia
Edition, ©1994-1998.