Tatyana Andropova (;

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

: Lebedeva; 1917–1991) was a Soviet woman who was the second wife of Soviet leader,

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...

Biography

Lebedeva was born in 1917. She graduated from a pedagogical school and joined the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

activities where she was appointed to the Komsomol in

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

in 1940. The same year Tatyana met her future husband at the Komsomol work in

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (, ; Karelian language, Karelian, Veps language, Vepsian and ) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population of the city is 280,890 as of 2022. ...

where she was the secretary of the Zaretsk district committee. At that time Yuri Andropov was serving as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the

Karelo-Finnish SSR The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR), also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 31 March 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR on 16 July 1956 ...

. Andropov's wife and two children did not move to the region with him when he was appointed the post. Following his contact with Tatyana Yuri Andropov divorced his first wife. Tatyana and Yuri married in Summer 1941 and had two children, Igor and Irina. Igor was born shortly before their marriage which was harmonious. In 1951 the family began to live in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

when Yuri Andropov was assigned to the central committee of the Communist Party. From 1954 to 1957 Yuri Andropov served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Soviet Union to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Tatyana and their children accompanied him. In the late October 1956 extensive protests against the Soviet Union occurred in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, and their residence was besieged by the protestors which had negative long-term effects on Tatyana's health. She left Budapest, but returned there after two months. As a result of this incident Tatyana would experience

hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...

and suffer from acute headaches during her lifetime. In addition, since then, she was terrified of crowds and open spaces. The family lived at Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow where Suslov and Brezhnev also lived. Due to health problems Tatyana did not fulfil the official duties when Andropov was the general secretary of the Communist Party and lived as a recluse in their apartment. She died in 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andropova, Tatyana 20th-century Russian women 1917 births 1991 deaths Soviet women in politics Wives of heads of state of the Soviet Union