Dear Editor
Dear Editor Eminence Rouge Robert V. Daniels' interesting article on "Andropov and the New Soviet Generation" (NL, January 24) prompts me to put forward another interpretation of the power change...
...Its focus is the attempt by a Turkish assassin who spent time in Bulgaria on the life of John Paul II, a deed widely believed to have originated in the Kremlin...
...This faction then gained momentum and eventually won the upper hand during the months between Andropov's entry to the innermost circle of power and his elevation to the top post...
...New York City John Duncan...
...Mainly, though, it was fueled by the repercussions of the Pope affair...
...What is more important, however, is that in recent years Brezhnev had been much too fatigued to be the real ruler of the Politburo, a job-indeed, a permanent battleground-that requires enormous energy and constant alertness...
...The reins of power were held by the strongman behind him-M.A...
...The media should have trained its sights on this ideologue-kingmaker in searching for the author of the shooting of John Paul II...
...As the Western press increasingly referred to a likely Soviet involvement in the plot, Suslov's partisans clearly found it difficult to defend his legacy, which proved to be a time bomb...
...He would make an excellent target as an unregenerate Stalinist...
...Suslov got rid of Podgorny (who had apparently opposed his bid for leadership) and took charge of the Kremlin's power center as the senior man at the Secretariat...
...When the attempt failed and Western intelligence services began hinting at Soviet involvement, the debate over the issue of Suslov's competence surely intensified in the Kremlin...
...The man who combined the dire skills of Robespierre and Joseph Fouche (the father of the modern police state) had no difficulty, though, in keeping his quiet adversaries in line until his death...
...It should first be noted, therefore, that the primary responsibility for the plot lies less with former KGB head Yuri Andropov (despite what Western journalists have been suggesting) than with the man who was the Politburo boss at the timeostensibly Leonid Brezhnev...
...Chernenko-who was Suslov's crony and heir apparent, not Brezhnev'shad the lead at the outset...
...The Politburo apparently decided to preserve the risky status quo and continue the fiction of Brezhnev's leadership, since maneuvers to succeed the Party chief already were under way...
...During his last half decade he was a mere figurehead whose activities were confined to stage-managed appearances...
...Its success was partly due to resentment stirred by the ideologue-inquisitor among Politburo members...
...The reshuffle was actually a subtle coup by the kingmaker, a master manipulator...
...Thus, paradoxically, the plot against the Pope seems to have been the major factor contributing to Andropov's victory in the race for the leadership...
...The details were doubtless left to the KGB...
...Suddenly I had an image of the nun teaching my social studies class, her knuckles whitening on the ruler she used to maintain order...
...Suslov...
...Even Stalin, with his enormous capacity for evil, would have considered anything so drastic as a dialectical blunder, or a trap to embarrass him...
...Such a course has a rich potential: If only out of dialectical necessity, events could turn KGB-man Andropov into a Khrushchevite "liberal," thereby re-igniting the torch of de-Stalinization...
...A Soviet decision to kill the Pope could only have been made after careful deliberation by the Politburo, and the order to implement it would have had to come from the General Secretary himself...
...This redoubtable sister, like Ravitch, thought that doing what comes naturally was on a par with racism, sexism, theft, drug use, and murder...
...Suslov alone had the power and the fanatical zeal to persuade the Soviet hierarchy to accept the scheme, which bears the mark of his character...
...Dear Editor Eminence Rouge Robert V. Daniels' interesting article on "Andropov and the New Soviet Generation" (NL, January 24) prompts me to put forward another interpretation of the power change in Moscow...
...Western observers failed to see the absurdity of the charade: the ailing General Secretary supposedly venturing to extend his power when he could hardly walk or speak...
...Actually, she probably considered nonmarital sex even worse, but never mind that...
...With the continuing accumulation of evidence implicating the KGB in the hands of Italian authorities, the coming months could have a decisive effect on the Politburo's direction...
...The plan was worse than extreme: It was foolhardy...
...Nevertheless, Andropov's response to the scheme could hardly have been favorable-and not because of scruples...
...While continuing the facade of Brezhnev's preeminence, Suslov in reality replaced him in 1977...
...In the aftermath of Solidarity's triumph in Poland, Suslov who was determined all along to crush the movement-must have recognized that the Pope would be the greatest obstacle to the success of contingency plans for restoring totalitarian order in Warsaw, and so proposed assassinating the Pontiff...
...The principal difference is that Ravitch, too sophisticated to pain...
...Whatever the privately expressed views of the practical Andropov about Suslov's recklessness may have been, once the decision was made, the KGB chief and other reluctant members of the Politburo were obliged to go along...
...He rose to the top with the shakeup of June 1977 that led to Nikolai V. Podgorny's removal and culminated in the addition of "President" to Brezhnev's title...
...lurid pictures of the damnation thai awaits homosexuals and others, uses fashionable buzz words like "the new narcissism...
...In fact, the era of Brezhnev's eminence rouge had ended...
...The KGB, or its chief, or its Bulgarian subsidiary, would not dream of eliminating even the least significant of Moscow's foreign enemies, let alone the Bishop of Rome, without full authorization from the top...
...The tremors that shook Moscow following Suslov's demise in late January 1982 (such as the arrest of Galina Brezhnev's friend and suggestions in the press that Brezhnev might resign), indicated more than ever that the Party's nominal leader was powerless...
...Moscow will never openly admit any guilt in the assassination attempt, of course, but it could squarely place the blame on Suslov by demoting him in the Kremlin's Valhalla and denouncing his ideological heritage...
...In my Catholic high school I heard many of the same shibboleths about the family being eroded by the godless tide of extramarital fooling around, about the supposed widespread belief among the sinful in "the view that there is no right or wrong, normal or not normal" when it comes to sex...
...New York City Lazlo T. Kiss Sex Education An adolescent memory came to me while reading Diane Ravitch's report on sex education as currently taught ("The New Sex Education," NL, December 13,1982...
...He was soon challenged by an emerging anti-Suslov faction that managed to transfer Andropov to the Party Secretariat in May...
Vol. 66 • March 1983 • No. 5
