Who led the Soviet Union from February 1984 until his death in March 1985?

• A. Yuri Andropov
• B. Konstantin Chernenko
• C. Mikhail Gorbachev
• D. Leonid Brezhnev

Answer: (B)

In the Soviet Union, the person who led the country was the General Secretary of the Communist Party, the position that held the real power. When Yuri Andropov died in February 1984, Konstantin Chernenko, a senior party official, stepped in as General Secretary and thus as the country’s leader. His time in office lasted just over a year because of serious health problems, ending with his death in March 1985. After Chernenko’s passing, Mikhail Gorbachev became the new General Secretary and began the sweeping reforms of the late Soviet era. Brezhnev had died earlier in 1982, so he wasn’t in power during this interval, and Gorbachev did not take over until after Chernenko.