Yuri Andropov

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов; 15 June 1914 – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Following the 18-year rule of the late Leonid Brezhnev, Andropov served in the post for only 15 months, from November 1982 until his own death in February 1984. Earlier in his career, Andropov served as the Soviet ambassador to Hungary from 1954 to 1957, during which time he was involved in the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, and then Chairman of the KGB from 1967 until 1982.

Early life
Andropov was born in Nagutskaya, Stavropol Region, Russian Empire, on 15 June 1914. He was the son of a railway official, Vladimir Konstantinovich Andropov, who was of a noble Don Cossack family and Yevgenia Karlovna Fleckenstein, the daughter of a Moscow watchmaker, Karl Franzovich Fleckenstein, who was of German descent and originally from Finland. Andropov was educated at the Rybinsk Water Transport Technical College and graduated in 1936. Both of his parents died early, leaving Yuri an orphan at the age of thirteen. As a teenager he worked as a loader, a telegraph clerk, and a sailor for the Volga steamship line.