Crisis in the Kremlin - Our 1982 USSR
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Chapter Twelve: Rising Star of Mikhail Gorbachev (November 1984 - January 1985)
The death of Indira Gandhi opened the possibility of a pro-American prime minister in India, which could be a geopolitical disaster for the USSR. This is why the Soviet leadership decided to support Rajiv Gandhi, who became the youngest Indian prime minister at the age of 40. Rajiv Gandhi continued the pro-Soviet stance and sought very close diplomatic and economic relations between India and the USSR to counterbalance the alliance between Pakistan and China in Asia. On the topic of mass demonstrations in Poland after the assassination of Jerzy Popiełuszko, General Secretary Romanov ordered the Polish government to punish the killers in a public trial to calm down the Polish population and to give the Communist government the appearance of accountability and responsibility. The trial was followed by the reorganization and reform of the Polish secret services to avoid such incidents in the future. Furthermore, the Soviet leadership pressured First Secretary Jaruzelski to adopt a more liberal policy towards the Catholic Church to gain more support among the Polish population.
(Rajiv Gandhi - new Indian prime minister who maintained pro-Soviet course of India and laid foundations of modern India)
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide, whilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000. The assassination of Indira Gandhi itself had taken place shortly after she had ordered Operation Blue Star, a military action to secure the Harmandir Sahib Sikh temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, in June 1984. The operation had resulted in a deadly battle with armed Sikh groups who were demanding greater rights and autonomy for Punjab and the deaths of many pilgrims. Sikhs worldwide had criticized the army action and many saw it as an assault on their religion and identity.
In the aftermath of the pogroms, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city; the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 1,000 displaced persons. The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised. The collusion of political officials connected to the Indian National Congress in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement. The Akal Takht, Sikhism's governing body, considers the killings a genocide. A few days after the massacre, many surviving Sikh youths in Delhi had joined or created Sikh militant groups. This led to more violence in Punjab, including the assassination of several senior Congress Party members. The Khalistan Commando Force and Khalistan Liberation Force claimed responsibility for the retaliation, and an underground network was established.
Operation Moses was the covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews (known as the "Beta Israel" community or "Falashas") from Sudan during a civil war that caused a famine in 1984. Originally called Gur Aryeh Yehuda ("Cub of the Lion of Judah") by Israelis, the United Jewish Appeal changed the name to "Operation Moses" The operation, named after the biblical figure Moses, was a cooperative effort between the Israel Defense Forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States embassy in Khartoum, mercenaries, and Sudanese state security forces. Years after the operation completed, it was revealed that Sudanese Muslims and the secret police of Sudan also played a role in facilitating the mass migration of Ethiopian Jews out of Sudan. Operation Moses was the brainchild of then Associate U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, Richard Krieger. After receiving accounts of the persecution of Ethiopian Jews in the refugee camps, Krieger came up with the idea of an airlift and met with Mossad and Sudanese representatives to facilitate the Operation.
After a secret Israeli cabinet meeting in November 1984, the decision was made to go forward with Operation Moses. Beginning November 21, 1984, it involved the air transport by Trans European Airways of some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan via Brussels to Israel, ending January 5, 1985. Over those seven weeks, over 30 flights brought about 200 Ethiopian Jews at a time to Israel. Trans European Airways had flown out of Sudan previously with Muslims making the pilgrimage to Mecca, so using TEA was a logical solution for this semi-covert operation because it would not provoke questions from the airport authorities. Before this operation, there were approximately as few as 250 Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. Thousands of Beta Israel had fled Ethiopia on foot for refugee camps in Sudan, a journey which usually took anywhere from two weeks to a month. It is estimated as many as 4,000 died during the trek, due to violence and illness along the way. Sudan secretly allowed Israel to evacuate the refugees. Two days after the airlifts began, Jewish journalists wrote about “the mass rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews.”
(Refugees from Ethiopia enroute to Israel)
Operation Moses ended on Friday, January 5, 1985, after Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres held a press conference confirming the airlift while asking people not to talk about it. Sudan killed the airlift moments after Peres stopped speaking, ending it prematurely as the news began to reach their Arab allies. Once the story broke in the media, Arab countries pressured Sudan to stop the airlift. Although thousands made it successfully to Israel, many children died in the camps or during the flight to Israel, and it was reported that their parents brought their bodies down from the aircraft with them. Some 1,000 Ethiopian Jews were left behind, approximately 500 of whom were evacuated later in the U.S.-led Operation Joshua. More than 1,000 so-called "orphans of circumstance" existed in Israel, children separated from their families still in Africa, until five years later Operation Solomon took 14,324 more Jews to Israel in 1991. Operation Solomon in 1991 cost Israel $26 million to pay off the dictator-led government, while Operation Moses had been the least expensive of all rescue operations undertaken by Israel to aid Jews in other countries.
The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres were the first massacres of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The massacres took place on 30 November 1984, in two tiny farming villages in the Mullaitivu district in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government labeled this as an attack on civilians by the LTTE. The Kent and Dollar farms were located near Manal Aru, a divisional Secretariat in the Tamil district of Mullaitivu. Manal Aru was of immense importance since it was situated on the border of three districts, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee and Anuradhapura, and more importantly it was the sole gateway between the North and the Eastern parts of the island where the Tamil community was the majority. Realising its strategic importance and in a bid to quell the rising threat of Tamil separatism, Manal Aru was renamed as Weli Oya (Sinhalese translation of the Tamil name) and an attempt was sought to colonize the area with Sinhalese people.
The Kent and Dollar farms were donated by a wealthy Tamil landowner in 1978 for the resettlement of Hill Country Tamil refugees displaced by the 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom. The farms were prosperous and the Tamil farmers were cultivating minor crops. However, by October 1983 the Superintendent of Police Arthur Herath saw the farms as being obstacles to the northward expansion of Sinhalese colonization in Padaviya and accused the farmers of being "terrorists" or of "harbouring terrorists". In June 1984, the Vavuniya police led by Arthur Herath raided the farms and the Tamil families were driven away. The government subsequently took over the farms, converted them into open prisons and settled 450 Sinhalese prisoners and their families as part of a program sponsored by the National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali to solve the "Tamil problem". The settlement of prisoners was used to further harass Tamils into leaving the area. The Sinhalese settlers admitted that young Tamil women were abducted, brought there and gang-raped, first by the security forces, next by prison guards and finally by prisoners.
About 50 LTTE cadres travelled in the night in two buses armed with rifles, machine guns and grenades. One of the buses went to Dollar Farm and the other to Kent Farm. The attacks was timed to start at about the same time in the early hours of the morning. The LTTE fighters shot and killed the guards, the women and children and most of the male members of the families. Some of the prisoners were thrust into a room in a building and blasted with explosives. 62 Sinhalese; including 3 jail-guards, 31 women and 21 children were killed. The second bus proceeded to the Kent Farm 8 kilometres away and killed 20 more home guards. The death toll of Sinhalese civilians killed by the LTTE attack numbered 65 Sinhalese villagers; including 3 jail-guards, 31 women and 21 children were killed. The second bus that proceeded to Kent Farm killed 20 more home guards. The next morning, the police and the troops conducted a cordon and search operation and the government claimed that the troops had killed 30 "terrorists", but Tamil sources stated that the victims were all civilians from the neighboring Tamil villages. The LTTE also stated their cadres had returned without suffering any loss.
In the two days immediately after the massacre, Tamil civilians in the surrounding areas were subjected to killings, arrests and disappearances by the Sri Lankan security forces. According to an affidavit of a former detainee provided to the Amnesty International, over 100 Tamil men detained from these areas were brought to the Iratperiyakulam army camp in the northern Vavuniya District, shot dead and their bodies were burned by the Sri Lankan Army. From 1988 to 1989 Sinhalese villages in Weli Oya was put on a war-footing. A total of 3,364 families, most of them landless peasants, were settled in Weli Oya. A further 35,000 persons comprising 5,925 families were also settled under the same scheme.
(Meeting between Gorbachev and Thatcher in London)
On December 16, 1984, the leader of the reformist wing of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Since 1983, Gorbachev, on the orders of General Secretary Romanov, has been meeting with Western leaders on a regular basis instead of the conservative Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, as Gorbachev represented the new and more open policy of the USSR. During the meeting between Gorbachev and Thatcher, a number of issues were raised, including arms control, the role of nuclear weapons, the virtues and vices of socialism and capitalism, and the most pressing issues of international relations. Most of the time they argued and enjoyed the argument, but then they found some middle ground and were able to agree on surprisingly many issues, such as resolving local conflicts, reforming the Soviet economy, and even working through the intensely controversial issue of the Afghan War. Nevertheless, Gorbachev's visit to London was a diplomatic success, and many within the Soviet leadership suggested that Gorbachev should replace Gromyko as the new foreign minister. In the meantime, in January 1985, Prime Minister Nikolai Tikhonov announced his retirement at the age of 80 after serving the Soviet State and the Communist Party for many decades. Now the question is who should replace Tikhonov as the new Soviet prime minister, as many politicians were eager to take the role.
(Nikolai Tikhonov - Soviet Prime Minister between 1980 and 1985)
(Rajiv Gandhi - new Indian prime minister who maintained pro-Soviet course of India and laid foundations of modern India)
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide, whilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000. The assassination of Indira Gandhi itself had taken place shortly after she had ordered Operation Blue Star, a military action to secure the Harmandir Sahib Sikh temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, in June 1984. The operation had resulted in a deadly battle with armed Sikh groups who were demanding greater rights and autonomy for Punjab and the deaths of many pilgrims. Sikhs worldwide had criticized the army action and many saw it as an assault on their religion and identity.
In the aftermath of the pogroms, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city; the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 1,000 displaced persons. The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised. The collusion of political officials connected to the Indian National Congress in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement. The Akal Takht, Sikhism's governing body, considers the killings a genocide. A few days after the massacre, many surviving Sikh youths in Delhi had joined or created Sikh militant groups. This led to more violence in Punjab, including the assassination of several senior Congress Party members. The Khalistan Commando Force and Khalistan Liberation Force claimed responsibility for the retaliation, and an underground network was established.
Operation Moses was the covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews (known as the "Beta Israel" community or "Falashas") from Sudan during a civil war that caused a famine in 1984. Originally called Gur Aryeh Yehuda ("Cub of the Lion of Judah") by Israelis, the United Jewish Appeal changed the name to "Operation Moses" The operation, named after the biblical figure Moses, was a cooperative effort between the Israel Defense Forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States embassy in Khartoum, mercenaries, and Sudanese state security forces. Years after the operation completed, it was revealed that Sudanese Muslims and the secret police of Sudan also played a role in facilitating the mass migration of Ethiopian Jews out of Sudan. Operation Moses was the brainchild of then Associate U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, Richard Krieger. After receiving accounts of the persecution of Ethiopian Jews in the refugee camps, Krieger came up with the idea of an airlift and met with Mossad and Sudanese representatives to facilitate the Operation.
After a secret Israeli cabinet meeting in November 1984, the decision was made to go forward with Operation Moses. Beginning November 21, 1984, it involved the air transport by Trans European Airways of some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan via Brussels to Israel, ending January 5, 1985. Over those seven weeks, over 30 flights brought about 200 Ethiopian Jews at a time to Israel. Trans European Airways had flown out of Sudan previously with Muslims making the pilgrimage to Mecca, so using TEA was a logical solution for this semi-covert operation because it would not provoke questions from the airport authorities. Before this operation, there were approximately as few as 250 Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. Thousands of Beta Israel had fled Ethiopia on foot for refugee camps in Sudan, a journey which usually took anywhere from two weeks to a month. It is estimated as many as 4,000 died during the trek, due to violence and illness along the way. Sudan secretly allowed Israel to evacuate the refugees. Two days after the airlifts began, Jewish journalists wrote about “the mass rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews.”
(Refugees from Ethiopia enroute to Israel)
Operation Moses ended on Friday, January 5, 1985, after Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres held a press conference confirming the airlift while asking people not to talk about it. Sudan killed the airlift moments after Peres stopped speaking, ending it prematurely as the news began to reach their Arab allies. Once the story broke in the media, Arab countries pressured Sudan to stop the airlift. Although thousands made it successfully to Israel, many children died in the camps or during the flight to Israel, and it was reported that their parents brought their bodies down from the aircraft with them. Some 1,000 Ethiopian Jews were left behind, approximately 500 of whom were evacuated later in the U.S.-led Operation Joshua. More than 1,000 so-called "orphans of circumstance" existed in Israel, children separated from their families still in Africa, until five years later Operation Solomon took 14,324 more Jews to Israel in 1991. Operation Solomon in 1991 cost Israel $26 million to pay off the dictator-led government, while Operation Moses had been the least expensive of all rescue operations undertaken by Israel to aid Jews in other countries.
The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres were the first massacres of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The massacres took place on 30 November 1984, in two tiny farming villages in the Mullaitivu district in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government labeled this as an attack on civilians by the LTTE. The Kent and Dollar farms were located near Manal Aru, a divisional Secretariat in the Tamil district of Mullaitivu. Manal Aru was of immense importance since it was situated on the border of three districts, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee and Anuradhapura, and more importantly it was the sole gateway between the North and the Eastern parts of the island where the Tamil community was the majority. Realising its strategic importance and in a bid to quell the rising threat of Tamil separatism, Manal Aru was renamed as Weli Oya (Sinhalese translation of the Tamil name) and an attempt was sought to colonize the area with Sinhalese people.
The Kent and Dollar farms were donated by a wealthy Tamil landowner in 1978 for the resettlement of Hill Country Tamil refugees displaced by the 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom. The farms were prosperous and the Tamil farmers were cultivating minor crops. However, by October 1983 the Superintendent of Police Arthur Herath saw the farms as being obstacles to the northward expansion of Sinhalese colonization in Padaviya and accused the farmers of being "terrorists" or of "harbouring terrorists". In June 1984, the Vavuniya police led by Arthur Herath raided the farms and the Tamil families were driven away. The government subsequently took over the farms, converted them into open prisons and settled 450 Sinhalese prisoners and their families as part of a program sponsored by the National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali to solve the "Tamil problem". The settlement of prisoners was used to further harass Tamils into leaving the area. The Sinhalese settlers admitted that young Tamil women were abducted, brought there and gang-raped, first by the security forces, next by prison guards and finally by prisoners.
About 50 LTTE cadres travelled in the night in two buses armed with rifles, machine guns and grenades. One of the buses went to Dollar Farm and the other to Kent Farm. The attacks was timed to start at about the same time in the early hours of the morning. The LTTE fighters shot and killed the guards, the women and children and most of the male members of the families. Some of the prisoners were thrust into a room in a building and blasted with explosives. 62 Sinhalese; including 3 jail-guards, 31 women and 21 children were killed. The second bus proceeded to the Kent Farm 8 kilometres away and killed 20 more home guards. The death toll of Sinhalese civilians killed by the LTTE attack numbered 65 Sinhalese villagers; including 3 jail-guards, 31 women and 21 children were killed. The second bus that proceeded to Kent Farm killed 20 more home guards. The next morning, the police and the troops conducted a cordon and search operation and the government claimed that the troops had killed 30 "terrorists", but Tamil sources stated that the victims were all civilians from the neighboring Tamil villages. The LTTE also stated their cadres had returned without suffering any loss.
In the two days immediately after the massacre, Tamil civilians in the surrounding areas were subjected to killings, arrests and disappearances by the Sri Lankan security forces. According to an affidavit of a former detainee provided to the Amnesty International, over 100 Tamil men detained from these areas were brought to the Iratperiyakulam army camp in the northern Vavuniya District, shot dead and their bodies were burned by the Sri Lankan Army. From 1988 to 1989 Sinhalese villages in Weli Oya was put on a war-footing. A total of 3,364 families, most of them landless peasants, were settled in Weli Oya. A further 35,000 persons comprising 5,925 families were also settled under the same scheme.
(Meeting between Gorbachev and Thatcher in London)
On December 16, 1984, the leader of the reformist wing of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Since 1983, Gorbachev, on the orders of General Secretary Romanov, has been meeting with Western leaders on a regular basis instead of the conservative Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, as Gorbachev represented the new and more open policy of the USSR. During the meeting between Gorbachev and Thatcher, a number of issues were raised, including arms control, the role of nuclear weapons, the virtues and vices of socialism and capitalism, and the most pressing issues of international relations. Most of the time they argued and enjoyed the argument, but then they found some middle ground and were able to agree on surprisingly many issues, such as resolving local conflicts, reforming the Soviet economy, and even working through the intensely controversial issue of the Afghan War. Nevertheless, Gorbachev's visit to London was a diplomatic success, and many within the Soviet leadership suggested that Gorbachev should replace Gromyko as the new foreign minister. In the meantime, in January 1985, Prime Minister Nikolai Tikhonov announced his retirement at the age of 80 after serving the Soviet State and the Communist Party for many decades. Now the question is who should replace Tikhonov as the new Soviet prime minister, as many politicians were eager to take the role.
(Nikolai Tikhonov - Soviet Prime Minister between 1980 and 1985)
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How much power does the office of Soviet Prime Minister actually hold? Is it possible to “promote” Gromyko to the position to get him out of the foreign office without insulting him and his allies?
Officially, the position is very powerful as the prime minister oversees all state administrative duties, national economy and socio-cultural development, but in reality all power is in the hands of the General Secretary Romanov.
1. Should Mikhail Gorbachev replace Andrei Gromyko as the new Soviet foreign minister?
A) Yes, it's time for new blood;
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhov seems like a good man. A pragmatic like him should keep the ship straight.
A) Yes, it's time for new blood;
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhov seems like a good man. A pragmatic like him should keep the ship straight.
1 - A; It is good to have new people, but I don't want it to sound like a dismissal, I would recommend giving them a prestigious position or at least guaranteeing them for a year before giving them a good retirement and a series of recognitions.
2 - Nikolai Ryzhov, is a candidate open to the necessary reforms and will be a good option.
2 - Nikolai Ryzhov, is a candidate open to the necessary reforms and will be a good option.
A) Yes, it's time for new blood.
B) Nikolai Ryzhov seems like a solid choice if given space to work.
B) Nikolai Ryzhov seems like a solid choice if given space to work.
Strangely enough this is my first time properly voting in this thread in quite a while.
Also having Gorbachev as foreign minister will be a very convenient excuse to continue using photos featuring him throughout this story.
However I agree with @ruffino that Gromyko should at least be given a prestigious position or be given a guarantee of a good retirement since the old man (who will be dead by 1989) still has a lot of allies and power in the Soviet Union.
I will say A, because we do need a change after all the years that Andrei Gromyko has been working for the Soviet Union, the man is getting old.
Also having Gorbachev as foreign minister will be a very convenient excuse to continue using photos featuring him throughout this story.
However I agree with @ruffino that Gromyko should at least be given a prestigious position or be given a guarantee of a good retirement since the old man (who will be dead by 1989) still has a lot of allies and power in the Soviet Union.
Nikolai Ryzhov seems to be very popular candidate within the party so I will support his ascension to become the new prime minister.
1. Should Mikhail Gorbachev replace Andrei Gromyko as the new Soviet foreign minister?
A) Gorbachev is very useful for foreign affairs but I'd also go with @ruffino plan for Gromyko so we don't have to deal the problems that'll come from it.
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhkov
A) Gorbachev is very useful for foreign affairs but I'd also go with @ruffino plan for Gromyko so we don't have to deal the problems that'll come from it.
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhkov
Pangur
Donor
1. Should Mikhail Gorbachev replace Andrei Gromyko as the new Soviet foreign minister?
A) Yes, he is very capable and has the potential to be General Secretary
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhov is the best pick, he has the right approach.
A) Yes, he is very capable and has the potential to be General Secretary
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhov is the best pick, he has the right approach.
1. A) It is time for new blood.
2. Promote Gromyko into the position to get him out of the way.
1. A. We are trying to improve our relations with the West. Gorbachev will be good as the new face. Give Gromyko some nice, prestigeous job. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, as IOTL?
2. Ryxhov seems a reasonable choice. Yakovlev is too liberal and Gromyko is a diplomate with little experience in economy, social policy etc.
2. Ryxhov seems a reasonable choice. Yakovlev is too liberal and Gromyko is a diplomate with little experience in economy, social policy etc.
1. Should Mikhail Gorbachev replace Andrei Gromyko as the new Soviet foreign minister?
A) Having proven himself capable and with our interests in improving relations with the Vest, Mikhail Gorbachev would be a good fit to bring a new face to the role of foreign minister. I'll also add my agreement with the suggestion of @ruffino regarding Gromyko.
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhov will make for a fine choice of prime minister.
A) Having proven himself capable and with our interests in improving relations with the Vest, Mikhail Gorbachev would be a good fit to bring a new face to the role of foreign minister. I'll also add my agreement with the suggestion of @ruffino regarding Gromyko.
2. Please write down who should become the new Soviet prime minister after retirement of Nikolai Tikhonov?
Nikolai Ryzhov will make for a fine choice of prime minister.