Soviet Union: Under an Invisible Hand

In absentia, Andropov guides two key Kremlin meetings

The rush-hour traffic on Moscow's broad boulevards was moving at a crawl when the convoys of black ZIL limousines, amber lights gleaming, appeared out of the morning mist. The motorcades whipped by at 70 m.p.h., down empty center lanes marked off for official traffic. The more than 300 members of the Communist Party's Central Committee were on their way to the Kremlin for their annual winter session. All of them but one. There was no hint of the whereabouts of the Soviet Union's head of state, Yuri Andropov, 69, who had not been seen in public since Aug. 18. In his role as Party General Secretary, Andropov normally would run this very important policy meeting. Would he dramatically reappear, thus dispelling the rumors that he was too ill to lead his country effectively?

The first news from the closed-door Central Committee plenum came early in the evening. The official TASS press agency wire fell silent and then, as Western newsmen hovered over their teleprinters, the news agency's English-language service clicked back to life, teasingly printing out a test line again and again: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Then came an equally puzzling message. The Central Committee members had "acquainted themselves" with the text of an Andropov speech, reported the TASS dispatch. But had they heard Andropov speak? When the text of the address finally clattered over the wire, all doubt was removed. "I deeply regret that because of temporary causes, I will not be able to attend the session of the plenum," wrote Andropov. He went on to explain that he had given the party program "much thought and was preparing to speak and outline some of my ideas."

Details of the illness that kept Andropov from delivering his message in person remain as murky as ever. Soviet spokesmen have claimed for weeks that their leader is recuperating from a cold. But Andropov's failure to appear at the all-important Central Committee meeting and, later in the week, at a session of the Supreme Soviet, the country's parliament, belied any such nonsense. Andropov is suffering from a serious illness and, presumably, is slowly recovering. Says a top-ranking U.S. official: "The truth is that no one really knows what has happened to Andropov." That apparently included Western intelligence services.