Editing Yuri Andropov (section)

===Suppression of dissidents===
{{See also|Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union}} Throughout his career, Andropov aimed to achieve "the destruction of dissent in all its forms" and insisted that "the struggle for human rights was a part of a wide-ranging imperialist plot to undermine the foundation of the Soviet state".<ref name="Andrew"/> To this end, he launched a campaign to eliminate all opposition in the USSR through a mixture of mass arrests, [[involuntary commitment]]s to psychiatric hospitals, and pressure on rights activists to emigrate. These measures were meticulously documented throughout his time as KGB chairman by the underground [[Chronicle of Current Events]], a [[samizdat]] publication that was itself finally forced out of existence after its 30 June 1982 issue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Chronicle of Current Events |url=https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/ |website=A Chronicle of Current Events|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023222258/https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/ |archive-date=23 October 2016 }}</ref>

On 3 July 1967, Andropov proposed to establish the KGB's Fifth Directorate to deal with the political opposition<ref name="Nuti">{{cite book|last=Nuti|first=Leopoldo|title=The Crisis of Détente in Europe: From Helsinki to Gorbachev, 1975–1985|year=2009|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=978-0-415-46051-4|page=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3k9ednYVbwC}}</ref>{{rp|29}} (ideological [[Counterintelligence|coun{{shy}}ter{{shy}}in{{shy}}tel{{shy}}li{{shy}}gence]]).<ref name="Albats">{{cite book|last=Albats|first=Yevgenia|title=KGB: state within a state|year=1995|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-995-0|page=177|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeYEhcHWjEUC}}</ref>{{rp|177}} At the end of July, the directorate was established and entered in its files cases of all Soviet dissidents, including [[Andrei Sakharov]] and [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]].<ref name="Nuti"/> In 1968, as KGB chairman, Andropov issued the order "On the tasks of State security agencies in combating the ideological sabotage by the adversary", calling for struggle against dissidents and their imperialist masters.<ref name="Andrew"/>
[[File:RIAN archive 101740 Yury Andropov, Chairman of KGB.jpg|thumb|left|Andropov in 1974 as [[List of chairmen of the KGB|KGB Chairman]]]]

After the [[Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev|assassination attempt against Brezhnev]] in January 1969, Andropov led the interrogation of the captured gunman, [[Viktor Ilyin|Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin]].<ref>{{cite web |date=25 January 2009 |title=Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review |url=http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1742 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130045925/http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1742 |archive-date=30 January 2009 |access-date=29 April 2011 |publisher=Axis Information and Analysis (AIA)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McCauley|first=Martin |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-31786-783-8|page=354}}</ref> Ilyin was pronounced insane and sent to Kazan Psychiatric Hospital.<ref>{{cite book|last=Albats|first=Yevgenia |title=KGB: State Within a State |year=1995 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |location=London |isbn=978-1-85043-995-0 |pages=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeYEhcHWjEUC&q=%22viktor%20ilyin%22%20%2Bbrezhnev&pg=PP1}}</ref> On 29 April 1969, Andropov submitted to the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] an elaborate plan to create a network of [[psychiatric hospital]]s to defend the "Soviet Government and socialist order" from dissidents.<ref name="Albats"/>{{rp|177}} In January 1970, Andropov submitted an account to his fellow Politburo members of the widespread threat of the mentally ill to the regime's stability and security.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/22-january-1970-pb-151xiii/|title="Report from Krasnodar Region KGB", 22 January 1970, Pb 151/XIII, ''The Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial''.|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-date=5 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005030209/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/22-january-1970-pb-151xiii/|url-status=dead}}</ref> His proposal to use psychiatry for struggle against dissidents was implemented.<ref name="Коротенко">{{cite book|last1=Коротенко|first1=Ада|last2=Аликина|first2=Наталия|script-title=ru:Советская психиатрия: Заблуждения и умысел|year=2002|publisher=Издательство «Сфера»|location=Киев|isbn=978-966-7841-36-2|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFEeAQAAIAAJ|language=ru}}</ref>{{rp|42}} As head of the KGB, Andropov was in charge of the widespread deployment of psychiatric repression.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bloch, Sidney |author2=Reddaway, Peter |title=Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow Over World Psychiatry|year=1985|publisher=[[Westview Press]]|isbn=978-0-8133-0209-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rgc1AAAAMAAJ|pages=187–188}}</ref>{{rp|187–188}} According to [[Yuri Felshtinsky]] and [[Boris Gulko]], Andropov and the head of the Fifth Directorate, [[Filipp Bobkov]], originated the idea to use psychiatry for punitive purposes.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Felshtinsky, Yuri |author2=Gulko, Boris |title=The KGB Plays Chess: The Soviet Secret Police and the Fight for the World Chess Crown|date=2013|publisher=SCB Distributors|isbn=978-1936490011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVwyH0XkbGkC&pg=PT136}}</ref>

The repression of dissidents<ref name=letter>Letter by Andropov to the Central Committee (10 July 1970), [http://www.yale.edu/annals/sakharov/sakharov_english_txt/e014.txt English translation] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311040614/http://www.yale.edu/annals/sakharov/sakharov_english_txt/e014.txt |date=11 March 2007 }}.</ref><ref name="Bruno">{{Cite web|url=http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/dis80/lett83-1.pdf|title=Order to leave the message by Kreisky without answer; facsimile, in Russian. (Указание оставить без ответа ходатайство канцлера Бруно Крейского (Bruno Kreisky) об освобождении Орлова (29 июля 1983)|access-date=6 May 2007|archive-date=14 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614130337/http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/dis80/lett83-1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> was a big part of Andropov's agenda and targeted such prominent figures as [[Andrei Sakharov]] and [[Roy Medvedev]]. Some believe that Andropov was behind the deaths of [[Fyodor Kulakov]] and [[Pyotr Masherov]], the two youngest members of the Soviet leadership.<ref>{{cite book|author =Seliktar, Ofira|title=Politics, Paradigms, and Intelligence Failures: Why So Few Predicted the Collapse of the Soviet Union|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYApu5aBVboC|page=95|isbn=978-0-7656-1464-3}}</ref> A declassified document revealed that as KGB director, Andropov gave the order to prevent unauthorized gatherings mourning [[Murder of John Lennon|John Lennon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113935|title=Memorandum from the KGB Regarding the Planning of a Demonstration in Memory of John Lennon |publisher=Wilson Center Digital Archive|date=20 December 1980|access-date=16 August 2013}}</ref>

Beginning in January 1972, Andropov led the implementation of the Soviet [[détente]] strategy.{{sfn|Epstein|1996|pp=265–266}}

In 1977, Andropov convinced Brezhnev that the [[Ipatiev House]], where [[Tsar]] [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] and his [[House of Romanov|family]] were [[Execution of the Romanov family|murdered]] by [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] revolutionaries during the [[Russian Civil War]], had become a site of pilgrimage for covert [[Restoration of the Russian monarchy|monarchists]].<ref name="THE LAST ROMANOV MYSTERY">{{citation|title = THE LAST ROMANOV MYSTERY|url =https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/08/21/the-last-romanov-mystery|author = Robert K. Massie|magazine =The New Yorker|date = 13 August 1995|access-date = 6 June 2019}}</ref> With the Politburo's approval, the house, deemed to be not of "sufficient historical significance", was demolished in September 1977, less than a year before the murders' 60th anniversary.<ref>{{cite book|page=261|last=Pringle|first=Robert W.|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|date=2015|isbn=978-1-4422-5318-6|type=e-book}}</ref>

According to [[Yaakov Kedmi]], Andropov was particularly keen to persecute any sign of [[Zionism]] in order to distance himself from his [[Jews|Jewish]] heritage. He was personally responsible for orchestrating the arrest and persecution of [[History of the Jews in the Soviet Union|Soviet Jewish]] activist [[Natan Sharansky]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bergman |first1=Ronen |author-link1=Ronen Bergman |title=The KGB's Middle East Files: The fight against Zionism and world Jewry |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4886594,00.html |access-date=24 March 2020 |work=Ynetnews |date=12 January 2016 |language=en}}</ref>