Left without a leader, the "team" of Andropov, some of whose members took important positions in the party and state just two months ago, clearly understood that they had little chance of defeating the old members of the Politburo, old as in a direct, so in a figurative sense. Therefore, at the very first meeting after the death of Yu.V.Andropov, the Politburo meeting unanimously decided to recommend to the Plenum to elect K.U. Chernenko as the new General Secretary of the Central Committee.
Andropov's most significant legacy to the Soviet Union was his discovery and promotion of Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Beginning in 1978, Gorbachev advanced in two years through the Kremlin hierarchy to full membership in the Politburo. His responsibilities for the appointment of personnel allowed him to make the contacts and distribute the favors necessary for a future bid to become general secretary. At this point, Western experts believed that Andropov was grooming Gorbachev as his successor. However, although Gorbachev acted as a deputy to the general secretary throughout Andropov's illness, Gorbachev's time had not yet arrived when his patron died early in 1984.
