Legacy of Leonid Brezhnev
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First, then General Secretary of the CPSU
Foreign policy
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The full understanding of the history of the late
While his rule provided stablity to his country and increased the standard of living,
Immediate legacy
When
Brezhnev's family, Yuri, Galina and Yuri Churbanov, were investigated and both Yuris were arrested on charges of political corruption during Mikhail Gorbachev's administration.[11] Churbanov, Brezhnev's son-in-law, was sentenced to twelve years in prison on charges of large-scale embezzlement and corruption. By December 1988 Churbanov had been stripped of all state honours, and sent to a labour camp. Galina, along with the rest of Brezhnev's family, lost all their state privileges. The city of Brezhnev reverted to its old name Naberezhnye Chelny, and a group within the Soviet leadership wanted to rename all towns, street, factories and institutions bearing Brezhnev's name.[12] This was actually carried through by the authorities in December 1988 when the Soviet Government issued a decree which stated all town, streets, factories, institutions and the like bearing Brezhnev's and Konstantin Chernenko's were to revert to their former name.[13] According to his grandson Andrei Brezhnev, the very name Brezhnev had become a curse for the family, and several family members had been forced out of their jobs and their friends had deserted them.[12] Brezhnev, who had inflated his role in World War II, was rescinded the Order of Victory on 21 September 1989 in a Supreme Soviet convocation.[14]
During the Gorbachev Era, Brezhnev's rule was considered less successful than that of Joseph Stalin; in an opinion measurement poll only 7 percent chose the Brezhnev Era as good, while 10 percent picked the Stalin Era as good.[15] Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Boris Yeltsin's subsequent market reforms, many Russians viewed the Brezhnev era with nostalgia; they missed the stability of that era which had subsequently been lost during the Gorbachev era.[16]
Historical assessments
Historians have expressed a range of views for Brezhnev and his rule. The scholarly literature dealing with him is scarce and, with the exception of the period immediately after his death, overwhelmingly negative. Very little has been written about Brezhnev in
The author of The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline Seweryn Bialer has a more mixed assessment of Brezhnev's reign. Bialer notes that the era was a time of "lost opportunities", but admits that the economic growth during Brezhnev's first years weakened "the rationale for radical reform". However, as Bialer notes in his book, even the gerontocracy which Brezhnev himself had created were disillusioned with Brezhnev's leadership when he died in 1982.[23] In his book Russia's Transformation: Snapshots of a Crumbling System Robert Vincent Daniels argues that Brezhnev "gave the country stability, if nothing else, even though it was the stability of the police state", and that his domestic and external policies tried to ensure the "status quo".[24] Daniels believes that Brezhnev's reign can be separated into two parts, the first, starting in 1964 and ending in 1975 conforms to a "status quo leadership, building the economy, pursuing détente, and maintaining political equilibrium at home". The second phase, which began in 1975, was exactly the opposite; the economy stopped growing, the collective leadership ended with Nikolai Podgorny's removal, Brezhnev developed a cult of personality and the Soviet Union itself started to stagnate.[25] Historians Jiří Valenta and Frank Cibulka noted in their book Gorbachev's New Thinking and Third World Conflicts that Brezhnev's legacy was a "mixture of achievements and failures in both domestic and foreign policy". However, they argue that by the time of his death his failures had become severe chronic systematic problems. Brezhnev's main achievements, according to Valenta and Cibulka, was his foreign and defense policies, however, with the economy in decline these achievements were not durable in the long-run. They also note that the Soviet Union was able to consolidate itself as a superpower, which in turn increased their influence in non-communist Third World countries.[26]
On a positive note, Ian Thatcher argues that "[r]ather than deserving a reputation as the most vilified of all Soviet leaders, Brezhnev should be praised as one of the most successful exponents of the art of Soviet politics." He argues that Brezhnev was a good politician within the framework of the Soviet political system.[27] Dmitry Peskov said "Brezhnev wasn’t a minus for the history of our country, he was a huge plus, he laid a foundation for the country’s economics and agriculture."[28] Archie Brown wrote in his book, The Rise & Fall of Communism, that "From the point of view of Communist rulers, the Brezhnev era was in many ways successful." Brown adds that the Soviet Union reached "rough parity with the United States" militarily by the early 1970s, and became a superpower in the military sense of the world.[29] According to Brown "The Brezhnev era was a time when tens of millions of Soviet citizens lived a peaceful and predictable life than hitherto" and where "Most people did not live in fear of the KGB."[30]
Donald J Raleigh draws a mixed message, depicting a regime that entered strong and left weak:[31]
- Brezhnev came to power in a country eager for stability. Under Brezhnev, the Soviet people experienced a dramatic rise in their standard of living. They took pride in their country’s status as a global superpower and in Brezhnev’s role as the architect of détente, a relaxation in cold-war tensions with the United States. The Soviet economy did stagnate during his tenure, however, after he rejected attempts to decentralize it, giving rise not only to episodic shortages of consumer goods but also to deficits in the Soviet “myth economy,” which bred cynicism.
Opinion polls
Russia
Brezhnev has fared well in Russian opinion polls when compared to his successors and predecessors. However, in the West he is most commonly remembered for starting the economic stagnation which triggered the
Brezhnev's top-ranked popularity has continued well into the 21st century. In 2013, 56 percent of respondents expressed positive feelings in a poll by Russia's Levada Center. He scored a bit ahead of Lenin, (55 percent). Stalin (50 percent), Tsar Nicholas II (48 percent), and Khrushchev (45 percent). Trailing far behind in "positive feelings" were Mikhail Gorbachev (20 percent) and Boris Yeltsin (22 percent).[37]
Ukraine
In a 2018
Footnotes
- ISBN 978-1-315-48272-9.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
donaldwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "The Soviets: Changing the Guard". Time. 22 November 1982. p. 3. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
- ^ White 2000, p. 211.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 428.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 429.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 430.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 432.
- ^ Kort 2010, p. 357.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 19.
- ^ Geldern, James von. "Our Little Father". Soviethistory.org. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ^ a b White 1993, p. 79.
- ^ Staar 1991, p. 42.
- ^ Chaney 1996, p. 263.
- ^ White 1993, p. 80.
- ^ Churbanov 2001, p. 149.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 1.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 2.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 27.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 427.
- ^ Nizameddin 1999, p. 44.
- ^ Dyker 1987, p. 166.
- ^ Bialer 1986, pp. 55–56.
- ^ Daniels 1998, p. 46.
- ^ Daniels 1998, pp. 49–50.
- ^ Valenta & Cibulka 1990, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 207.
- ^ Staff writer (5 October 2001). "Putin's spokesman praises Soviet leader Brezhnev". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 415.
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 416.
- ^ Donald J. Raleigh, "Russia's Favorite: Reevaluating the Rule of Leonid Il'ich Brezhnev, 1964-82" Russian Studies in History 52.4 (2014): 3-11 at page 4.
- ^ a b Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 6.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 4.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 5.
- ^ "Russians Satisfied with Brezhnev's Tenure". Angus-Reid.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
- ^ ВЦИОМ: Лучшие лидеры — Брежнев и Путин (in Russian). Rosbalt.ru. 25 April 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
- ^ Raleigh, "Russia’s Favorite", p 4.
- ^ "Survey shows Ukrainians most negatively regard Stalin, Lenin and Gorbachev". Kyiv Post. 20 November 2018.
- ^ Radio Free Europe(20 November 2018)
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0061138799.
- Bacon, Edwin; Sandle, Mark (2002). Brezhnev Reconsidered. ISBN 978-0333794630.
- ASIN B000IX2J6M.
- Chaney, Otto Preston (1996). Zhukov (2 ed.). ISBN 978-0806128078.
- Churbanov, Alexander (2001). Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity: A History of the Soviet and post-Soviet Eras. ISBN 978-0826413505.
- ISBN 978-0847687091.
- Dyker, David (1987). The Soviet Union under Gorbachev: Prospects for Reform. ISBN 978-0709945192.
- Fainberg, Dina, et al. Reconsidering Stagnation in the Brezhnev Era: Ideology and Exchange (2016)
- Kort, Michael (2010). The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath. ISBN 978-0-7656-2387-4.
- Nizameddin, Talal (1999). Russia and the Middle East: Towards a new Foreign Policy. ISBN 978-0312225384.
- Raleigh, Donald J., ed. Russia's Favorite: Leonid Il'ich Brezhnev, 1964-82 (ME Sharpe, 2014).
- Raleigh, Donald J. "Russia's Favorite: Reevaluating the Rule of Leonid Il'ich Brezhnev, 1964-82: Guest Editor's Introduction." Russian Studies in History 52.4 (2014): 3-11.
- Dönninghaus, Victor, and Andrei Savin. "Leonid Brezhnev." Russian Studies in History 52#4 (2014), pp 71–93.
- ISBN 978-0674034938.
- ISBN 978-0817991029.
- Ward, Christopher J. Brezhnev’s Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism (2009). the Baikal–Amur Mainline Railway project (BAM) was the most important industrial project of the Brezhnev era. Ward says it was a massive, corrupt failure.
- ISBN 978-0521458962.
- ASIN B003QI0DQE.
- Valenta, Jiří; Cibulka, Frank (1990). Gorbachev's New Thinking and Third World Conflicts. ISBN 978-0887382123.
