For Community Activity: Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War

For our community playthrough of Crisis in the Kremlin, we can choose whether Chernenko does not die in March 10 1985 and continues on for… however long he does, or we can choose another possible General Secretary.

Information on the candidates:

Konstantin Chernenko (age 73) (Incumbent) - Faction: Conservatives.
Incumbent General Secretary and a lifelong party apparatchik who rose through the regional and central apparatuses, he represents the stability-oriented wing of the leadership. His outlook prioritizes continuity of the Brezhnev-era consensus and cautious changes in administration, he is known for halting Andropov’s corruption purges, and Chernenko had a plan to restore Volgograd’s name to Stalingrad.

read his wiki article here

https://www.reddit.com/r/ussr/s/1gsil5ASOb

Chernenko can make Major Doctrine Changes on Day 1 due to incumbency.

ALL OTHER GENSECS HAVE 1 YEAR (12 irl days) WAIT PERIOD FOR MAJOR DOCTRINE REFORMS SUCH AS ECONOMY, STATE, NEW APPOINTMENTS, ETC DUE TO CHANGE IN ADMINISTRATION

Mikhail Gorbachev (age 54) Faction: Reformists
A fast-rising Stavropol party secretary and Central Committee agriculture specialist, he is the youngest full Politburo member and is known for his reformist tendencies. He advocates for accelerating scientific-technical progress to achieve growth and a supposed restructuring of economic management. One of Andropov’s protégés. Presently serving as Second Secretary of the CPSU since Feb 9 1984.

Grigory Romanov (age 62), Faction: Conservatives
Andropov’s rival protégé to Gorbachev, former Leningrad party boss and current Central Committee secretary overseeing the military-industrial complex, he is a hardline conservative. His experience is rooted in defense production and regional administration. He is hated by the intelligentsia and known as a “Red Stoic”, and seen as a foil to Gorbachev.

Andrei Gromyko (age 75) Faction: Moderates
Long-serving Foreign Minister and a Politburo member since 1973, he is the chief architect of Soviet diplomacy and a master of international affairs. His outlook is cautious and state-centric, with a focus on preserving the USSR’s global position through negotiation and firmness. He voted yes on the 1947 partition of Palestine, calling a binational state for Jews and Arabs “infeasible”.
Nicknamed “Mr. No” by the western press for his heavy usage of the Soviet’s veto at the UN.

Viktor Grishin (age 70) Faction: Conservatives
A career party organizer who spent decades in the Moscow city apparatus, he rose from the Komsomol and trade union ranks to become First Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee in 1967, a post he held for 18 years. A full Politburo member since 1971 and a candidate member since 1961, he built his power base as the unchallenged boss of the capital's party organization and was a close associate of Brezhnev's conservative inner circle, and known for bringing the ill Chernenko out in public for voting in 1985.

Vladimir Shcherbytsky (age 67) Faction: Conservatives
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine since 1972 and a full Politburo member since 1971, he was a protégé of Brezhnev's from their shared Dnipropetrovsk years and earned a reputation as an enforcer of Moscow's line in Ukraine in suppressing nationalist dissent.

After a GenSec is chosen we will draft a 5 Year Plan and Ideological Platform.