Cadre Change and Anti-Corruption

• Andropov and Gorbachev believed effective government was more important than representative government, leading to a shift away from ensuring local people held government posts.
• This resulted in the replacement of existing local leaders with Russians, including popular leaders in Central Asian republics in 1986.
• Brezhnev's appointments from the republics were replaced by Russians, leading to the Soviet Government becoming more dominated by Russians at all levels.
• This created resentment in non-Russian republics, with major riots in Kazakhstan in 1986 over the replacement of local Kazakh Dinmukhammed Kunaev with a Russian Gennady Kolbin