Historian draws_Yuri Andropov

Sometimes when reading for research – or watching documentaries – I can get carried away by the authors – or actors in the story. And so I google – and sketch away.

Today – Yuri Andropov, a long-serving Head of the KGB and then a GenSec of the USSR.

Andropov is one of those controversial, ambivalent figures in history, revealing both – obvious – traits of a repressive „strong-hand“ leader who suppressed opposition and free thinking in his country, and still tried to pull through reforms that were overdue – reforms without reforms, I might say. Andropov´s personal story is also of interest: a story of loneliness and decades he lived and held back to his severely ill spouse. Personal loyalties, one might say…