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gained notoriety for its ruthless, but selective,
use of workplace harassment, forced emigration,
and confinement to psychiatric hospitals to sup-
press dissent. Outside the Soviet Union, the KGB
was also linked to terrorist acts, such as the
attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II and the
death of a Bulgarian dissident with the poisoned
tip of an umbrella. Suslov's death in early 1982
allowed Andropov, a Politburo member since
1973, to leave the KGB and prepare his chal-
lenge to succeed Brezhnev. After Brezhnev's
death in November 1982, he outmaneuvered
Konstantin
CHERNENKO
to become general secre-
tary of the party. Andropov's regime will best be
remembered for its tentative domestic reforms,
heightened tensions with the West, and his poor
health, which kept him on dialysis for most of
his time in power. The unsuccessful campaign to
halt the deployment of NATO Pershing and
Cruise missiles in Europe and the disaster of the
Korean passenger airliner shot after entering
Soviet air space were major diplomatic setbacks.
His domestic reform program amounted to little
more than a renewed emphasis on old-style
party discipline to combat corruption and absen-
teeism. His most important legacy, however, is
his promotion of reform-minded politicians,
including Gorbachev, to carry out the next stage
of reforms of the troubled Soviet system.
Anna Ivanovna
(Hulton/Archive)
proved to be short-lived, however, as Anna, now
empress, took advantage of divisions within the
gentry, promptly tore up the agreement, exiled
or executed the members of the council, and
reassumed full autocratic powers. Her reign has
long been portrayed unfavorably as dominated
by unpopular German advisers, most notably
Ernst-Johann
BIRON
, her lover from Kurland.
Unwilling and unfit to involve herself in matters
of state, she delegated power to Biron, whose
rule was long remembered as a time of great cru-
elty, police terror, persecution of Old Believers,
and the exile of almost 30,000 people to Siberia.
During her reign many of the obligations and
limitations that Peter the Great had placed on
the gentry were rolled back, a process that was
followed by her successors. The cadet school for
the gentry opened in St. Petersburg in 1731
allowed its graduates to become officers without
serving in the lower ranks. That same year,
Anna Ivanovna
(1693-1740)
empress
The daughter of Ivan V and niece of
PETER I
the
Great, Anna was the widowed duchess of Kur-
land at the time of her election as empress in
1730. One of several possible successors to the
throne after the death of
PETER II
marked the end
of the male Romanov line, Anne was chosen by
the influential Supreme Privy Council, an advi-
sory body of nobles and de facto rulers of Russia
since 1726, contingent on her accepting impor-
tant restrictions on her power. Historians have
seen this as a tentative step toward a type of
monarchical constitutionalism closer to Western
European practices. The restrictions on autocracy
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