Chernenko, Konstantin Ustinovich (1911–1985)

Soviet politician, leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and president 1984–85. He was a protégé of Leonid Brezhnev and from 1978 a member of the Politburo.

Chernenko, born in central Siberia, joined the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) in 1929 and the CPSU in 1931. The future CPSU leader Brezhnev brought him to Moscow to work in the central apparatus in 1956 and later sought to establish Chernenko as his successor, but he was passed over in favour of the KGB chief Yuri Andropov. When Andropov died in February 1984 Chernenko was selected as the CPSU's stopgap leader by cautious party colleagues and was also elected president. From July 1984 he gradually retired from public life because of failing health.