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There were signs last week that the logjam at the top had finally begun to break. Soviet officials hinted to members of the French delegation that Gorbachev who is responsible for agriculture, had emerged from the Central Committee session as the No. 2 man in the leadership and that he might soon be given "a high rank in the state bureaucracy." If Andropov had been grooming Gorbachev to succeed him, as had been widely thought, Gorbachev was apparently shrewd enough not to press his claims now. In a move that could be significant, he gave the closing address at the party meeting that elected Chernenko; when Andropov was named, that honor had gone to Chernenko. Another hint of Gorbachev's rise in status came when he stood at Chernenko's right as the leadership paid its respects to Andropov at the neoclassical House of Trade Unions. Gorbachev later assumed a prominent position among the pallbearers at the funeral.
Since the Central Committee session was closed to the public, it was during Andropov's burial ceremony that Soviets heard Chernenko speak for the first time as leader of the Communist Party. The performance did not inspire confidence. Standing atop the dark red marble Lenin Mausoleum in 23° F weather, Chernenko read the prepared text of his eulogy haltingly, almost gasping his words. He restated briefly the main foreign policy themes of his address to the party plenum. Noting that the Soviet Union was ready "for honest talks on the basis of equality and equal security," Chernenko also warned that "we will not be scared by threats." His voice sounded thin and quavering as he said, "Farewell, our dear friend and comrade, Yuri Vladimirovich! Your bright image will remain with us forever."
In contrast, Gromyko and Ustinov seemed poised and assured as they stepped to the podium, conveying the impression that the foreign policy Establishment and the military were strong pillars of the new regime. In a resonant baritone, Gromyko stated bluntly that "those who are pursuing a policy of militarism, the mad arms race and interference in the internal affairs of other countries should renounce this policy and substitute for it a policy of peace and cooperation." Ustinov added his own forceful commentary. Ten times he invoked Andropov's name, praising the late Soviet leader for his "unflagging attention to securing a reliable defense."
The funeral rites had unfolded with solemn precision, a fitting tribute to a leader who had stressed discipline and order. As the strains of Chopin's Funeral March sounded over and over again in mournful monotony, the procession set off from the House of Trade Unions toward Red Square along 600 yards of streets that had been brushed clean of ice and snow. A burial plot had been marked off for Andropov in the special cemetery along the Kremlin wall reserved for prominent Communist leaders. Appropriately, Andropov was buried alongside Felix Dzerzhinsky, the man who in 1917 had founded the security agency that grew into the KGB empire that Andropov ran before becoming party leader.