Editing Mikhail Gorbachev (section)

==Secretary of the Central Committee of CPSU==

[[File:RIAN archive 644463 First stage in the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|Gorbachev was skeptical of the deployment of Soviet troops in Afghanistan (pictured here in 1986)]]

In November 1978, Gorbachev was appointed a Secretary of the Central Committee.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=92|2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=36|3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=157}} His appointment was approved unanimously by the Central Committee's members.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=161}} To fill this position, Gorbachev and his wife moved to Moscow, where they were initially given an old [[dacha]] outside the city. They then moved to another, at [[Sosnovka]], before being allocated a newly built brick house.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=164–175}} He was given an apartment inside the city, but gave that to his daughter and son-in-law; Irina had begun work at Moscow's [[Russian National Research Medical University|Second Medical Institute]].{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=165, 166}} As part of the Moscow political elite, Gorbachev and his wife now had access to better medical care and to specialized shops; they were given cooks, servants, bodyguards, and secretaries, many of these spies for the KGB.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=165}} In his new position, Gorbachev often worked twelve to sixteen hour days.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=165}} He and his wife socialized little, but liked to visit Moscow's theaters and museums.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=40|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=166}}

In 1978, Gorbachev was appointed to the Central Committee's Secretariat for Agriculture ([[Secretariat of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|25th term]]), replacing his old patron Kulakov, who had died of a heart attack.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1pp=95–96 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2pp=38–39}} Gorbachev concentrated his attentions on agriculture: the harvests of 1979, 1980, and 1981 were all poor, due largely to weather conditions,{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1pp=7, 102–103, 106–107 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=40 |3a1=Galeotti|3y=1997|3p=32|4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4pp=175–177}} and the country had to import increasing quantities of grain.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=107|2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=40}} He had growing concerns about the country's agricultural management system, coming to regard it as overly centralized and requiring more bottom-up decision making;{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=177–78}} he raised these points at his first speech at a Central Committee Plenum, given in July 1978.{{sfn|McCauley|1998|p=34}} He began to have concerns about other policies too. In December 1979, the Soviets sent the [[Soviet Armed Forces|armed forces]] into [[Soviet–Afghan War|neighbouring Afghanistan to support]] its [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Soviet-aligned government]] against [[Afghan mujahideen|Islamist insurgents]]; Gorbachev privately thought it a mistake.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=173}} At times he openly supported the government position; in October 1980 he for instance endorsed Soviet calls for Poland's Marxist–Leninist government to crack down on [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|growing internal dissent in that country]].{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=173}} That same month, he was promoted from a candidate member to a full member of the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] ([[Politburo of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|25th term]]), becoming the youngest member of the highest decision-making authority in the Communist Party.{{sfn|Medvedev|1986|p=107}} After Brezhnev's death in November 1982, Andropov succeeded him as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of the Communist Party]], the ''de facto'' leader in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was enthusiastic about the appointment.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1pp=118, 121–122 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=43|3a1=McCauley|3y=1998|3p=41|4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4pp=179–180}} However, although Gorbachev hoped that Andropov would introduce liberalizing reforms, the latter carried out only personnel shifts rather than structural change.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=180}} Gorbachev became Andropov's closest ally in the Politburo;{{sfn|Medvedev|1986|p=123}} with Andropov's encouragement, Gorbachev sometimes chaired Politburo meetings.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=181, 191}} Andropov encouraged Gorbachev to expand into policy areas other than agriculture, preparing him for future higher office.{{sfnm|1a1=Galeotti|1y=1997|1p=32 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=181}} In April 1983, in a sign of growing ascendancy, Gorbachev delivered the annual speech marking the birthday of the Soviet founder [[Vladimir Lenin]];{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=123 |2a1=Galeotti|2y=1997|2p=32|3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=181}} this required him re-reading many of Lenin's later writings, in which the latter had called for reform in the context of the [[New Economic Policy]] of the 1920s, and encouraged Gorbachev's own conviction that reform was needed.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=182}} In May 1983, Gorbachev was sent to Canada, where he met Prime Minister [[Pierre Trudeau]] and spoke to the [[Parliament of Canada|Canadian Parliament]].{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=124 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2pp=46–47 |3a1=McCauley|3y=1998|3p=31 |4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4pp=182–185}} There, he met and befriended the Soviet ambassador, [[Aleksandr Yakovlev]], who later became a key political ally.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=47 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=31 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=182}}

In February 1984, Andropov died; on his deathbed he indicated his desire that Gorbachev succeed him.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=50|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=190–191}} Many in the Central Committee nevertheless thought the 53-year-old Gorbachev was too young and inexperienced.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=138|2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=56}} Instead, [[Konstantin Chernenko]]—a longstanding Brezhnev ally—was appointed general secretary, but he too was in very poor health.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1pp=138–139|2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2pp=51–52|3a1=McCauley|3y=1998|3p=43|4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4p=192}} Chernenko was often too sick to chair Politburo meetings, with Gorbachev stepping in last minute.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=57|2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=43|3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=193}} Gorbachev continued to cultivate allies both in the Kremlin and beyond,{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=193}} and gave the main speech at a conference on Soviet ideology, where he angered party hardliners by implying that the country required reform.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1pp=158–159|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=193–195}}

In April 1984, Gorbachev was appointed chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Soviet legislature, a largely honorific position.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=142|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=196}} In June he traveled to Italy as a Soviet representative for the funeral of Italian Communist Party leader [[Enrico Berlinguer]],{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=44|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=195}} and in September to [[Sofia]], Bulgaria to attend celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of its liberation from the Nazis by the Red Army.{{sfn|Medvedev|1986|p=155}} In December, he visited Britain at the request of its prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]; she was aware that he was a potential reformer and wanted to meet him.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=159 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=59 |3a1=McCauley|3y=1998|3p=44 |4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4p=196}} At the end of the visit, Thatcher said: "I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together".{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=159 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=44 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=201}} He felt that the visit helped to erode [[Andrei Gromyko]]'s dominance of Soviet foreign policy and sent a signal to the United States government that he wanted to improve [[Soviet–US relations]].{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=197}}