Yuri Andropov is the last great statesman of the USSR. A man whom even his enemies admired. Diplomat, party worker, head of the most powerful intelligence service in the world - the KGB, head of the party and state, leader who tried to renew and reform our country. It seems that we know everything about him. But this is an illusion, because Andropov was not only the greatest, but also the most closed and “secret” person in the USSR. His work in the KGB is still shrouded in a veil of legends, myths, and even outright lies. A true history of a large-scale - and, moreover, virtually bloodless - story has not yet been written! - the cleansing of the party and state apparatus, which was started by state security agencies on Andropov’s orders and which, had he managed to complete it, would have led to the improvement of society and the salvation of the country. In a new book by the most authoritative historian of the Russian special services, based on newly declassified archival materials, for the first time the true scale of the personality of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, the colossal amount of work done by this outstanding person, and his invaluable role in Russian history are reflected. The author convincingly proves that only Andropov was able to cleanse and revive the Soviet Union and that his untimely, tragically early death predetermined the death of a great power.