On this day 43 years ago, on November 23, 1982 (October 9, 1982 lunar calendar), Andropov became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Andropov On November 23, 1982, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union elected the former KGB leader Andropov as the successor to the late Leonid Brezhnev with unexpected speed. Yuri Andropov, 68, was appointed General Secretary. Until shortly before Brezhnev's death, Andropov was the head of the KGB and was in charge of foreign espionage and domestic security. Andropov pledged in a speech to continue Brezhnev's program, but he was not bound by the late leader's détente policy. Andropov, by contrast, attacked the western powers. "We know very well that the imperialists never welcome peace," he said. "Peace can only be safeguarded by the unwarranted power of the Soviet armed forces." Western observers were surprised by the speed with which Andropov was appointed. Konstantin Chernenko, who had been expected to be qualified to compete with Andropov for the leadership of the party, volunteered to elect Andropov. Chernenko took the post of chairperson of the Council of Ministers as head of state. Andropov (1914.06.15-1984.02.09), the son of a railway worker, was a telegrapher, a film projectionist, and a boatman on the Volga River. He joined the Communist Party in 1939 and served as the leader of the newly formed Karelian-Finnish Autonomous Republic Youth League from 1940 to 1944. He was transferred to Moscow in 1951, served as ambassador to Hungary from 1954 to 1957, and served as the head of the KGB in 1967.