Yuri P. Andropov died yesterday of a chronic kidney ailment less than 15 months after he succeeded Leonid I. Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. The official announcement was read on radio and television at 2:30 P.M. today (6:30 A.M. New York time) and repeated throughout the day. Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72 years old, a Brezhnev protege who served as the second-ranking secretary, will lead the funeral commission. Foreign diplomats took this as an indication that he might succeed Mr. Andropov.
The Soviet leadership said official mourning would last from Saturday until the burial in Red Square. Mr. Andropov’s death, from a chronic kidney ailment that had kept him from public functions for six months, left vacant several key positions. In addition to being party leader, he was chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the equivalent of head of state, and chairman of the Defense Council, with authority over the armed forces. The official announcement said Mr. Andropov died at 4:50 P.M. on Thursday “after a long illness,” identified by the medical bulletin as having involved nephritis, diabetes and hypertension “complicated by a chronic kidney deficiency.” The medical statement said he had been receiving treatment on an artificial kidney machine for 12 months, but had suffered a deterioration in his condition toward the end of January.
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, who died Thursday in Moscow at the age of 69, came to the pinnacle of the Kremlin hierarchy in November 1982 after 15 years at the head of the K.G.B., the Soviet Union’s internal-security and intelligence agency. During his rule of a little more than a year, Mr. Andropov made tentative attempts to improve the performance of the Soviet Union’s Government-run economy, which had long been plagued by waste and inefficiency. He did so one step at a time, explaining his caution with the old Russian proverb, “It is better to measure seven times before cutting once.” But in foreign affairs, East-West relations deteriorated badly as arms control talks broke down and the two sides deployed new types of medium-range missiles in Europe, apparently signaling a new round in the arms race.
Mr. Andropov had moved in the inner circles of the Communist Party for many years. He clearly put himself in position for the top post just six months before Leonid I. Brezhnev’s death when he left the K.G.B. and became one of the national party secretaries under Mr. Brezhnev, who was the General Secretary. Mr. Brezhnev had put him in charge of the security police 15 years earlier, to reorganize the agency after the jolting defection to the United States by Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, and to enforce strict party control.
The U.S. said it wanted to reaffirm its desire “for a constructive and realistic” dialogue with the Soviet Union during this period of transition in Moscow. A statement read by Secretary of State George P. Shultz was meant as a prompt signal, State Department officials said, that Washington was more ready than ever for a significant improvement in relations, in keeping with President Reagan’s exhortations last month.
Vice President Bush was designated by President Reagan to lead the United States delegation at Mr. Andropov’s funeral. The President instructed Mr. Bush to convey “to the new Soviet leadership our hope for an improved dialogue and cooperation which can lead to a more constructive relationship between our two countries.”
Mr. Andropov’s funeral will be attended by leaders of some Allied governments in Western Europe as a gesture toward improving East-West relations. Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, who did not attend Leonid I. Brezhnev’s funeral in 1982, said he would go to Moscow, and it was reported in London that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was represented at the Brezhnev funeral by her foreign minister, might attend the Andropov funeral.
Yuri V. Andropov’s death put an end to the shortest period of rule in Soviet history, if Georgi M. Malenkov’s week as titular Communist Party chief after Stalin’s death can be overlooked. But neither the worsening Soviet-American chill that marked Mr. Andropov’s 15 months as leader nor the changes he set in motion through the Soviet Union’s ponderous economic system and bureaucracy are considered likely to be altered anytime soon, no matter who succeeds him. The chief reason, most diplomats agree, is that Mr. Andropov’s economic experiments, his crackdown on corruption, and even his hard line in foreign relations found the support of a populace yearning for a tough “khozyain,” or boss — and, more important, the support of powerful men and institutions.
Power brokers like Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov, now arguably the most powerful man in the Politburo, or Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, and institutions like the military, the K.G.B. or elements that support change in the state planning bureaucracy, had apparently welcomed Mr. Andropov’s drive to stir the dormant economy and end the stagnation that had settled over the bureaucracy during the Brezhnev years. Of the men who might succeed Mr. Andropov, and that includes a goodly portion of the Politburo, not one seems to have the kind of political clout that Mr. Andropov had when he succeeded Leonid I. Brezhnev. Not one, therefore, is thought likely to challenge the Andropov coalition or program for quite some time.
Of the potential successors, Konstantin U. Chernenko, the former aide to Mr. Brezhnev who was named to head the Andropov funeral commission, may prove too tainted by his former allegiance for the Politburo’s liking. His appointment to lead the commission, Soviet sources said, could simply reflect his ceremonial role as Second Secretary of the Communist Party.
Of the younger men on the Politburo, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Mr. Andropov’s apparent favorite, may be too young at 52 years old and too green; Grigory V. Romanov, 61, brought to Moscow from his Leningrad power base only last June, may not have enough power in the capital, and Geidar A. Aliyev, 60, the respected First Deputy Prime Minister, has the disadvantage of being an Azerbaijani in a position probably reserved for a Russian.
China and the Soviet Union signed a $1.2 billion trade agreement today. The announcement came as the Chinese Government announced the death of Yuri V. Andropov. But it withheld comment on the Soviet leader, whose tenure saw a continuation of the easing in relations between the two countries that had begun under his predecessor, Leonid I. Brezhnev. The trade protocol provides for an increase of about 50 percent in commerce between the two countries in the next year. It was signed here by Ivan T. Grishin, a Soviet Deputy Foreign Trade Minister, and Chen Jie, who holds a similar post in the Chinese Foreign Trade Ministry.
About 400 Americans were evacuated from Beirut with only a few hours’ notice. After many appeals from American citizens for transport, the United States Embassy announced that “because of the unsettled conditions in Lebanon” it would evacuate any Americans in addition to Lebanese in the process of taking up United States citizenship.
Israeli jets attacked Palestinian guerrilla positions in the hills east of Beirut in the area of Bhamdun along the Beirut-Damascus highway. They were the first Israeli raids in Lebanon since Shiite Muslim and Druze militiamen took over West Beirut Monday. The area is in a mountain region controlled by Druze militiamen and where two Palestinian factions have headquarters.
A senior Administration official expressed optimism that the pullback of the marines from Beirut to ships offshore could begin “in a matter of days” and be completed within a month. The official said the move’s timetable would be “influenced by the political state of play” in Lebanon.
President Reagan holds many conference calls about the “Beirut situation.”
The President of Iran, Hojatolislam Ali Khamenei, said Thursday that his country would stop the oil flow from the Persian Gulf to the West if the United States became actively involved in the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranian press agency reported. The agency dispatch, received in London, quoted President Khamenei as having made the threat in an address at an air force fighter base in southeastern Iran. The agency quoted him as saying that “if the U.S. Administration actively got involved in the Iraqi-imposed war and carried out its hollow threats, Iran would stop the oil flow to the U.S. and the West.” Teheran has threatened to block the gulf if Iraq disrupts movement of Iranian oil. The two countries have been at war for 40 months. The United States has said it would move to keep the gulf open to shipping if attempts were made to close it.
The Libyan Ambassador to Italy, who was shot outside his Rome apartment January 21, died in a hospital today, officials said. The diplomat, Ammar D. el-Taggazy, was hit by three bullets in the abdomen, head and shoulder, according to hospital officials, and never regained consciousness. The police said the diplomat, head of the Libyan People’s Bureau in Rome since 1980, had been attacked by two gunmen. Witnesses said the attackers fled after shooting the diplomat with a silenced pistol in the parking lot of his apartment building. The official Libyan press agency issued a statement suggesting that followers of Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, were responsible for the shooting.
Serious human rights violations were turned up by the State Department in its annual survey of 106 countries, but the department said it found significant progress in Central and South America.
Guatemalan opposition leaders are calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Gustavo Adolfo Lopez Sandoval, saying he has been unable to halt a recent surge in political violence. A communiqué issued on Thursday by the Guatemalan Christian Democratic Party said “it is evident that the Interior Minister has shown irresponsibility and negligence in the face of the growing wave of violence that has hit the country.”
The communiqué called for the official to resign, a move it said would help secure guarantees for the coming Constituent Assembly elections. There was no immediate response from the Interior Ministry. Church, opposition and human rights groups have complained that political violence in Guatemala has increased since the military government of Brigadier General Oscar Mejia Victores took power in a coup last August.
A passenger train bound for New Delhi slammed into the rear of a train standing on the tracks about 18 miles west of here today, killing at least 43 people, officials said. At least 48 others were injured in the wreck at Bahadurgarh station shortly after 6 A.M., the authorities said. A railway spokesman said the stationary train, the Punjab Mail express, bound for Bombay, stopped just after leaving the station when someone pulled the emergency cord. The passenger shuttle plowed into the train, knocking three cars of the Punjab Mail off the tracks, the spokesman said. All the casualties were aboard the Punjab Mail, he said. It was not known who pulled the emergency stop cord or why.
The largest monthly rise in more than a year in producer prices for finished goods was reported for January by the Labor Department. Led by a sharp rise in food prices, the January Producer Price Index rose six-tenths of 1 percent, as much as it gained for all of 1983. The increase surprised some forecasters, but others said it was not a cause for alarm.
President Reagan telephones both David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite.
An anticancer diet has been proposed by the American Cancer Society. The society’s guidelines exceed somewhat its previous diet-cancer recommendations. The society’s new guidelines go somewhat beyond similar diet-cancer recommendations issued in the past. Specifically, the society suggests Americans avoid obesity, eat less fat and drink alcohol and eat cured and smoked foods only in moderation. It also suggests they eat more fiber and fruits and vegetables rich in certain cancer-preventing factors. This is the first time the cancer society, the nation’s largest voluntary health organization, has made explicit recommendations to the American public as to the foods they should eat to prevent cancer. The statement also extends the dietary advice issued last year by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, which made no specific recommendations about obesity and fiber.
Challenger’s return to Earth was scheduled for 7 A.M. tomorrow at Cape Canaveral. It will be the first landing of a space shuttle at its launching base. The runway there is one of the world’s longest.
An order to halt work on a pumping station in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania, clouded the future of the station and an uncompleted nuclear power plant that needs water from the station. The order by the Neshaminy Water Resources Authority was based on reports of faulty construction by the Mergentime Corporation of Flemington, New Jersey, the contractor.
Kevin Andrew Collins, age 10, disappeared in San Francisco, California, on his way home from basketball practice. He was a fourth-grader at St. Agnes School in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. His family lived on Sutter Street in the city’s Western Addition. Kevin was last seen at approximately 7:55 p.m. at the corner of Oak Street and Masonic Avenue, waiting for the No. 43 bus. Witnesses reported seeing him at the bus stop talking to a tall blond-haired man. He was never seen or heard from again. He is presumed to be dead, but his remains were never found, and the case remains unsolved. He would have been 50 this year.
In the days that passed, billboards, milk cartons, and national magazine covers showing Kevin’s picture circulated nationwide as the country searched for the boy. This, along with the development of a 1983 television movie about the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh, helped spark nationwide interest in the plight of missing children. Parents were educated on how to better protect their children from stranger abductions and law enforcement officials learned how to better coordinate their response to child abductions.
An appeal of probation sentences for two men convicted of holding 19 Mexicans in slavery in Texas is being considered by the Justice Department. The department said the sentences were excessively light. The men were convicted by a jury in Texas after testimony that they bought the aliens from a broker for $50 each, forced them at gunpoint to live in a tiny, unheated shack without windows or toilets, and made them work morning to night for no pay and little food. The defendants, Steven Crawford and Randall Craig Waggnor, were convicted on more than a dozen counts, including conspiracy, transportation of illegal aliens, and forcing the aliens into involuntary servitude. They had faced possible sentences of 95 years in prison and fines of $70,000.
The captain was too short to see over the wheel without standing on a chair. The first mate was three inches shorter. That did not deter the two boys from stealing a ferry at Cumberland Island, Georgia, and heading for Miami on Wednesday, the authorities said. The 12-year-old captain and his mate, 13, navigated the $200,000 vessel for 10 miles on their intended 400-mile journey. But they became frightened by rough water and deliberately ran aground at Little Tiger Island, the authorities said. The two managed to sail the 60-foot, 54-ton R.W. Ferguson safely through Cumberland Sound and into the Atlantic Ocean on an out-going tide. The boys face charges of burglary and grand theft. They are scheduled to be arraigned next week.
Longshoremen in Rhode Island approved a new contract yesterday but 5,000 others in three cities remained off the job a second day, forcing some ships to alter their destinations. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association were still on strike in Baltimore, Boston, and Philadelphia. In Providence, Rhode Island, the longshoremen said they ratified a new contract. Jack Gomes, president of I.L.A. Local 1329 declined to release the details.
Widespread outbreaks of flu or flu-like diseases have been reported in 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Health officials said the outbreaks would probably spread in the coming weeks. Strains of type A influenza have been confirmed in 13 of the 14 states, while Minnesota said it had also isolated cases of type B flu, an official said yesterday. Both strains cause the same symptoms, fever, head and muscle aches and sore throat but type A is generally more contagious.
After five months of discussion, the Mets and Keith Hernandez, who was eligible for free-agency at the end of the season, come to terms on an $8 million, five-year contract. The deal makes the first baseman the second-highest paid player in franchise history, earning slightly less than George Foster’s $10 million, five-year pact signed precisely two years ago.
Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins a career 4th Olympic gold medal when he takes out the 30k event in Sarajevo; 3 gold in Lake Placid 1980.
A British couple achieved a measure of perfection, and two American couples moved into medal contention today as figure skating began in the XIV Olympic Winter Games. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of Nottingham, England, received perfect scores of 6 from three of the nine judges for their interpretation of the Westminster waltz. That was the third of the three compulsory dances in ice dancing. They were the first perfect scores for a compulsory dance in Olympic history.
The ice dancing was held in the afternoon before 1,800 spectators in an arena that seats 8,500. They watched Judy Blumberg and Michael Seibert of New York place third in the compulsory dance competition. At night, to the cheers of perhaps 1,000 Americans among the crowd of 4,500, Kitty and Peter Carruthers of Wilmington, Delaware, tied for second place in the short program of the pairs competition.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1160.7 (+7.96).
Born:
Alex Gordon, MLB leftfielder and third baseman (World Series Champions-Royals, 2015; All-Star, 2013-2015; Kansas City Royals), in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Luis Cruz, Mexican MLB third baseman, shortstop, and second baseman (Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees), in Navojoa, Mexico.
Zaza Pachulia, Georgian NBA center (NBA Champions-Warriors, 2017, 2018; Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons), in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union.
Bernard Scott, NFL running back (Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens), in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Courtney Brown, NFL defensive back (Dallas Cowboys), in San Francisco, California.
[Ed: I remember what a huge deal this was in San Francisco. The kid just vanished without a trace and was never found. Close to thirty years later a cold case squad developed a suspect, a pedophile who lived near where he disappeared. But the guy had died some years before, and no conclusive evidence was ever turned up. Kevin’s remains were never found.]
History Diaries 