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>Mikhail Gorbachev, 52, represents a new breed of better-educated Soviet technocrat. The son of peasants from the rich farming region of Stavropol in southwest Russia, Gorbachev holds a law degree from Moscow State University and another degree in agronomy from the Stavropol Agricultural Institute. His knowledge of farming, the weak link in Soviet economic planning, won him a place in the Secretariat and catapulted him into the Politburo's inner circle at the tender age of 49. Continuing failures on the farm have cut short the careers of past agricultural experts, but Gorbachev appears to be flourishing even though he has presided over a string of bad harvests (before the much improved 200 million-ton yield in 1983).
Canadian officials had a chance to size up the Kremlin's rising young star when Gorbachev led a parliamentary delegation to Ottawa in May 1983. A balding man of medium height with a birthmark on his forehead that is airbrushed out of official portraits, Gorbachev exudes confidence, authority and a willingness to learn. As he traveled to Ontario and Alberta visiting large family-owned farms and agricultural processing plants, Gorbachev repeatedly asked questions about Western farming techniques.
Gorbachev's Canadian hosts were impressed by his performance at a joint session of the Senate and House of Commons foreign affairs committee. Responding to tough questions about Soviet arms policy, the Middle East and human rights, Gorbachev presented official Soviet positions calmly and succinctly. He responded testily only when he was asked about KGB activities abroad. The notion that the Soviet Union was exporting revolution, said Gorbachev, was "nonsense, fit for the speech of uneducated people."
Gorbachev is thought to have been a personal favorite of Andropov's. He was chosen to give the keynote address at the April 22, 1983, ceremony honoring Lenin's birthday, a speech characterized by a calm, businesslike approach to national problems. Gorbachev is also said to have been given the additional responsibility of helping to make party personnel decisions. When John Chrystal, an Iowa businessman, was received at the Kremlin in November, it was Gorbachev who passed along a message from the ailing Soviet leader. Had Andropov lived longer, Gorbachev might have been groomed as heir, but his relative youth could keep him from assuming power this time around.
>Grigori Romanov, 61, is thought by some Western observers to be the odds-on favorite to succeed Andropov. A shipbuilding designer from the region of Novgorod, northwest of Moscow, he earned a degree through correspondence courses and night school. Romanov eventually became leader of the Leningrad party organization and was promoted to full membership in the Politburo when he was only 53. In June 1983 he was brought to Moscow to assume a post on the Secretariat, strengthening his position as a contender. Looking dapper and self-assured with every strand of his silver hair in place, Romanov delivered the main address at the Kremlin gathering five months later to mark the 66th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.