Yuri Andropov
His earliest documented name was Grigory Vladimirovich Andropov-Fyodorov; he changed it to Yuri Andropov only several years later. While his original birth certificate disappeared, it was established that Andropov was in fact born in Moscow where his mother had been working in a women's gymnasium since 1913 throughout 1914 and until 1917.
Yuri Andropov
He gave different versions of his father's fate: in one case he divorced his mother soon after his birth, in another — died of illness. The "father" he referred to — Vladimir Andropov — was in fact his stepfather who lived and worked at Nagutskaya and died from typhus in 1919. The Fyodorov surname belonged to his second stepfather (since 1921) Viktor Fyodorov, a machinist assistant turned a school teacher. His real father remains unknown; he probably died in 1916 — a date written in Andropov's 1932 resume. During the 1937 check it was reported that his father served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army. Andropov was thoroughly interviewed four times, yet he was so convincing that he managed to drop all charges and joined the Communist Party in 1939.