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It did indeed appear that the Soviet Union wanted to put the world on notice that the era of drift, of weak and enfeebled leadership that began in Brezhnev's declining years, had come to an abrupt end. A small circle of aging leaders, men whose careers spanned most of their nation's history, had handed over power to someone from the younger generation, an event as monumental in its way as the death of Stalin in 1953. The Kremlin no longer could be viewed as the domain of ailing and absent rulers; its boss was now a man of vigor who might well lead the Soviet Union into the 21st century.
Before moving into the future, Gorbachev had to take leave of the past. His first days in power were filled with the pomp and panoply of a funeral that brought heads of state and other dignitaries from 49 nations to the Soviet capital. Television coverage gave Soviet citizens a closer look at their new leader, who is better known in the West than in his own country thanks to extensive Western press coverage of his visit to Britain last December. Evening news programs showed Gorbachev and the Politburo delegation as they paused inside the House of Trade Unions to contemplate the alabaster profile of Chernenko; the open coffin was set high amid a bank of purple, red and white flowers. At one point, Gorbachev bent over to express his condolences to Chernenko's widow Anna. Gorbachev's wife Raisa was seated at her side. During the 42 hours that Chernenko's body lay in state, convoys of buses brought groups of party faithful, many of them workers and farmers from outlying regions, to swell the crowds that waited patiently to walk past the bier.
In most details, the Chernenko funeral differed little from the final rites for Brezhnev and Andropov. The crack gray-uniformed honor guards, goose- stepping beside the red and black-bedecked gun carriage, each balancing his rifle on one hand, seemed as coldly perfect as a precision gear wheel put through one more rotation. Portraits of Chernenko bobbed above the crowds in a regular pattern as the cortege made its way into Red Square.
What seemed to be the only moment of genuine emotion came from Chernenko's widow. While cameras discreetly looked on in long focus, Anna Chernenko kissed her husband's cheek and repeatedly bowed her head against his shoulder until she had to be drawn away from the casket. Fog horns and sirens keened as the coffin was lowered into a plot on the Kremlin Wall terrace, opposite to where Brezhnev and Andropov are buried. As the national anthem sounded, the red and gold hammer-and-sickle flag above the Kremlin was hoisted back to full staff and troops marched briskly past the Lenin Mausoleum to the sounds of a military march. The old era had ended.
After the funeral, Vice President George Bush, French President Francois Mitterrand, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and a long line of other distinguished visitors quietly filed past Chernenko's grave. Then they passed through the Kremlin gates to meet the new man in charge.