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Leonid Brezhnev

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Leonid Ilich Brezhnev (Леони́д Ильи́ч Бре́жнев) (lay-o-NEED eel-YIHCH BREHZH-nyehf) (December 19, 1906 - November 10, 1982) was a Soviet politician. He was First/General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1964 - 1982) and was twice Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1960 - 1964 and 1977 - 1982).

Although an ethnic Russian, Brezhnev was born in Kamenskoye (now Dneprodzerzhinsk) in the Ukraine. During the whole Great Patriotic War, he served the field army in positions of deputy chief and chief of political departments of army and front level. In 1943, when his 18th Army was part of the 1st Ukrainian Front, he was a subordinate of Nikita Khrushchev. He ended the war at the rank of Major-General, decorated by two Order of the Red Banner, "For Defense of the Caucasus" medal, Red Star medal, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitskiy, 2nd class.

Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union longer than any previous leader except Stalin. Under his leadership, standards of living continued to improve: urban salaries grew by around 75% and rural wages doubled. Nevertheless, a sharp disparity between urban and rural living standards remained. Large quantities of consumer goods and home appliances were manufactured, although of limited choice of brands and mediocre quality. Nevertheless, many former Soviet citizens believe that their standard of living and social security reached its zenith under his rule. Under his tutelage, industrial output also increased by 75%, and the Soviet Union became the world's largest producer of oil and steel.

Others note the economic inefficiency that became notorious under Brezhnev, the repression of those who disagreed with the Soviet regime, the environmental vandalism that occurred throughout the country, and the strain on the economy imposed by the arms race and space race. During the late Brezhnev's rule the shadow economy grew considerably, since legal salaries provided only meagre living. (See History of the Soviet Union: The Brezhnev era for more details.)

After 1965, Brezhnev attempted to rehabilitate Stalin, and there was some talk of doing so on the 90th anniversary of Stalin's birth in 1969, but Brezhnev backed down from these plans.

Brezhnev was awarded more than 200 medals, including six Orders of Lenin. He received most of them while he was General Secretary. He was given the Hero of the Soviet Union title and awards five times (see the five Red Star medals worn in his official portraits).

He introduced the Brezhnev Doctrine, which stated:

"When forces that are hostile to socialism and try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries."

In 1972, together with Richard Nixon he started the "warming" of the cold war, a period known as detente, by signing the SALT I treaty. The culmination was the joint Apollo-Soyuz space project. The period ended with the Soviet invasion of Afganistan.

In 1977, a new Soviet constitution was promulgated, replacing the 1936 Stalin constitution.

During Brezhnev's last years, in a sign of the development of a personality cult around him, he published several books (Novaya Zemlya and others) that exaggerated his participation in combat. These books were obligatory for study at schools.

Brezhnev timeline

This section is copied from totse.com's free article Leonid Ilych Brezhnev

Preceded by:
Nikita Khrushchev		 List of leaders of the Soviet Union Succeeded by:
Yuri Andropov