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ceremonies obligatory for Kremlin leaders, including the review
of the May Day parade from atop Lenin's Tomb. He was
glimpsed a few times in June, and again disappeared, this time
for the entire summer. He didn't emerge from his long isolation
until September, just at the time when Andropov vanished for
good. Many Western observers then suspected that Chernenko's
illness was of a political nature. That it was not is borne out by
the fact that in the long run he recovered from it, whereas all
political illnesses in the USSR at such a high level are usually
terminal: the way back into the Kremlin is blocked. In response
to pestering questions by Western correspondents, people from
Chernenko's office stated that he had pneumonia, and that his
advanced age made for a long course of that illness - certainly a
reasonable explanation. Moreover, since early youth Chernenko
has been an inveterate smoker, and has used the very strong
Russian cigarettes trademarked Belomorkanal, which ultimately
brought about chronic emphysema.
In general, considering that the Kremlin is gradually being
converted into a nursing home and kremlinology is ever more
overlapping with gerontology, it would be better if Kremlin studies were put in the hands of moonlighting doctors rather than in
those of scholars, journalists, and CIA agents.
Actually, no one could explain better than a doctor the condition Andropov was in when, on May 1, 1983, supported by aides,
he climbed to the top of Lenin's Tomb and stood there for several
hours with a waxen face, a frozen smile, and a fixed stare before
the holiday crowd of many thousands which, like a gigantic caterpillar, wended its way through Red Square. And one wonders
how that imaginary doctor would explain why, two days after
the May Day parade, when the East German leader Erich
Honecker was being decorated with the Gold Star and the Order
of Lenin, Andropov's hands trembled violently and it took a great
effort for him to pin the regalia on the breast of the loyal satrap.
From that time on, the same thing repeatedly happened with
Andropov at all of his public appearances during the rest of his
life. On June 6, at a dinner in the Great Kremlin Palace in honor
of Finnish President Mauno Koivisto, when he was about to propose a toast, he almost dropped the goblet and spilled some wine.
