Dimensions of the Shadow Reforms of Yuri Andropov’s Bureaucratic Management: Lessons from the Myths of the Totalitarian Leadership of the USSR

Abstract

The article discusses the issue of bureaucratic leadership and economic reforms in the USSR during the administration of Yu. V. Andropov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The article analyzes Andropov's consistent policy in the Soviet bureaucratic system and his uncompromising position in the fight against corruption. In this regard, the article emphasizes the years of his leadership, in which the reforms of the Soviet economy occupied a significant place, trying to inspire confidence in the Soviet society and citizens. However, the totalitarian regime of the USSR and the bureaucratic system simply blocked the package of measures proposed by the General Secretary. An analysis of the works examining the personality and party and state activities of Yu. V. Andropov allows us to conditionally distinguish two periods of the formation and development of the historiography of the problem. The first, personifying the Soviet era, ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The second covers the 1990s, as well as the beginning of this century. Within the framework of the first period, the activities of Yu. V. Andropov were covered in various works devoted to the problems of modern Soviet history. Against this background, the position of Western researchers turned out to be preferable. In the West, the steady growth of interest in Yu. V. Andropov on the part of Sovietologists was mainly due to his activities as Chairman of the KGB. At the same time, it cannot be denied that, as a rule, the noted works were distinguished by their tendentiousness and bore the imprint of the Cold War.