Talk:Yuri Andropov

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This could sound unbelievable:
....Both campaigns were carried out by a typically Soviet administrative approach and harshness vaguely reminiscent of Stalin's rule.
But this is from my personal, documented, experience.

• I "voluntarily" joined the "Abstinence Society", with dues, meetings, and all. I still keep the membership card.
• At daytime, a cinema used to be blocked, people's identities verified and those who were watching movies during their worktime were punished.

The latter tale tells two things, isn't it? Mikkalai 19:48, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

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"Andropov's legacy remains the subject of much debate within Russia and elsewhere, both amongst scholars and in the popular media. He remains the constant focus of television documentaries and popular non-fiction, particularly around important anniversaries" - although I recall him being parodied in the video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes, his status in the UK - I can only speak for the UK - is one of total obscurity. Whereabouts is he 'the constant focus of television documentaries and popular non-fiction'? I'm not saying that he isn't, merely that this sentence needs expansion. A search of both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com reveals a flurry of books with 'Andropov' in the title from 1983-1984, but very little thereafter. - Ashley Pomeroy 13:58, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Jewish origin 2 Request for translation of the German version 3 Is this an error or does it need rewording? 4 Image replacement

[edit] Jewish origin

Some are claiming he was Jewish (eg this and this). Was he? Kwantus 05:43, 2005 Jan 17 (UTC)

This calls it a rumor. I doubt it's more than an antisemitic rumor. What's certainly clear is that he didn't practice judaism, and that he didn't consider himself to be jewish. So that pretty much rules out both the religious and ethnical aspects. He could only be jewish if you consider anyone with a jewish ancestor to be jewish, which is a poor definition, and would probably make most Europeans jewish. --BluePlatypus 02:01, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Why do you call it an anti-semitic rumor? If someone's ancestors are Jewish, the person is Jewish no matter what. How are most Europeans of Jewish ancestry? And the article you provided is old, written in 1983.

[edit] Request for translation of the German version

As many other articles concerning Socialism in general and the Soviet Union in particular this article is badly in need of a total revision ! I do not want to appear immodest but I think I have written quite a good German version of the Andropov article on Wikipedia. Contrary to the English version the German one (which admittedly is still a work in progress) really tries to be both factually correct, comprehensive and (more or less) truly objective, not containing the typical Wikipedia-style gossip, factual errors and above all anti-Soviet and anti-socialist prejudices. Since I do not have the time to do so by myself at present, perhaps somebody with a good faculty of the German language could try to translate the German article into English. Markus

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[edit] Is this an error or does it need rewording?

The Early life section says "Andropov was the son of a railway official and was probably born in Nagutskoye" this is disputed further down in the Controversy section.

Perhaps saying "Andropov's biography stated he was the son of a railway official" and adding a reference to the controversy section.

[edit] Image replacement

To replace the Andropov photo that a 'bot deleted, I found a photo [1] on a Marxist website that claims that all of its content is "Creative Commons". So I presume that its OK for Wikipedia. (The only "problem" with the photo is that he's giving a quite friendly wave, for a KGB guy.) There may be some other photos too, I didn't spend time looking through their gallery [2] and photo album [3]. - Ryanjo 02:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)