Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Леонид Брежнев | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union[a] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 14 October 1964 – 10 November 1982 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Nikita Khrushchev (as First Secretary) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Yuri Andropov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 16 June 1977 – 10 November 1982 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Deputy | Vasily Kuznetsov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Nikolai Podgorny | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Vasily Kuznetsov (acting) Yuri Andropov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 7 May 1960 – 15 July 1964 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Kliment Voroshilov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Anastas Mikoyan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Kamenskoye, Heart attack | 19 December 1906||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Political party | CPSU (1929–1982) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse |
Metallurgical engineer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Allegiance | Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Branch/service | Red Army Soviet Army | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years of service | 1941–1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | Marshal of the Soviet Union (1976–1982) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Commands | Soviet Armed Forces | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Central institution membership
Other political offices held
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First, then General Secretary of the CPSU
Foreign policy Media gallery |
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Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev
Brezhnev was born to a working-class family in Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine) within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. After the results of the October Revolution were finalized with the creation of the Soviet Union, Brezhnev joined the Communist party's youth league in 1923 before becoming an official party member in 1929. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, he joined the Red Army as a commissar and rose rapidly through the ranks to become a major general during World War II. Following the war's end, Brezhnev was promoted to the party's Central Committee in 1952 and rose to become a full member of the Politburo by 1957. In 1964, he garnered enough power to replace Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the CPSU, the most powerful position in the country.
During his tenure, Brezhnev's governance improved the Soviet Union's international standing while stabilizing the position of its ruling party at home. Whereas Khrushchev often enacted policies without consulting the rest of the Politburo, Brezhnev was careful to minimize dissent among the party elite by reaching decisions through consensus thereby restoring collective leadership in the Kremlin. Additionally, while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and by the 1970s he made Soviet Union the most powerful country. He strengthened the Soviet Union's dominion over Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the massive arms buildup and widespread military interventionism under Brezhnev's leadership substantially expanded the Soviet Union's influence abroad (particularly in the Middle East and Africa), although these endeavors, particularly the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, proved to be highly costly and badly strained the Soviet economy in later years after Brezhnev's death.
Conversely, Brezhnev's disregard for political reform ushered in an era of societal decline known as the
After 1975, Brezhnev's health rapidly deteriorated and he increasingly withdrew from international affairs, while keeping his hold on power. He died on 10 November 1982 and was succeeded as general secretary by Yuri Andropov.
Early life and early career
1906–1939: Origins
Brezhnev was born on 19 December 1906 in
Like many youths in the years after the
Brezhnev joined the Communist Party youth organisation, the Komsomol, in 1923, and the Party itself in 1929.[9] From 1935 to 1936 he completed the compulsory term of military service. After taking courses at a tank school, he served as a political commissar in a tank factory.
During Stalin's
1941–1945: World War II
When
When the Germans occupied
Rise to power
Promotion to the Central Committee
Brezhnev left the Soviet Army with the rank of major general in August 1946. He had spent the entire war as a political commissar rather than a military commander. In May 1946, he was appointed the first secretary of the
and made him one of ten secretaries of the Central Committee. Stalin died in March 1953 and, in the reorganization that followed, Brezhnev was demoted to first deputy head of the political directorate of the Army and Navy.Advancement under Khrushchev
Brezhnev's patron Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as General Secretary, while Khrushchev's rival
In February 1956 Brezhnev returned to Moscow and was made candidate member of the Politburo assigned in control of the defence industry, the
Replacement of Khrushchev as Soviet leader
Khrushchev's position as Party leader was secure until about 1962, but as he aged, he grew more erratic and his performance undermined the confidence of his fellow leaders. The Soviet Union's mounting economic problems also increased the pressure on Khrushchev's leadership. Brezhnev remained outwardly loyal to Khrushchev, but became involved in a 1963 plot to remove him from power, possibly playing a leading role. Also in 1963, Brezhnev succeeded
After returning from
Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny appealed to the Central Committee, blaming Khrushchev for economic failures, and accusing him of voluntarism and immodest behavior. Influenced by Brezhnev's allies, Politburo members voted on 14 October to remove Khrushchev from office.[23] Some members of the Central Committee wanted him to undergo punishment of some kind, but Brezhnev, who had already been assured the office of the General Secretary, saw little reason to punish Khrushchev further.[24] Brezhnev was appointed First Secretary on the same day, but at the time was believed to be a transitional leader, who would only "keep the shop" until another leader was appointed.[25] Alexei Kosygin was appointed head of government, and Mikoyan was retained as head of state.[26] Brezhnev and his companions supported the general party line taken after Stalin's death but felt that Khrushchev's reforms had removed much of the Soviet Union's stability. One reason for Khrushchev's ouster was that he continually overruled other party members, and was, according to the plotters, "in contempt of the party's collective ideals". The Soviet newspaper Pravda wrote of new enduring themes such as collective leadership, scientific planning, consultation with experts, organisational regularity and the ending of schemes. When Khrushchev left the public spotlight, there was no popular commotion, as most Soviet citizens, including the intelligentsia, anticipated a period of stabilization, steady development of Soviet society and continuing economic growth in the years ahead.[24]
Political scientist George W. Breslauer has compared Khrushchev and Brezhnev as leaders. He argues they took different routes to build legitimate authority, depending on their personalities and the state of public opinion. Khrushchev worked to decentralize the government system and empower local leadership, which had been wholly subservient; Brezhnev sought to centralize authority, going so far as to weaken the roles of the other members of the Central Committee and the Politburo.[27]
1964–1982: Leader of the Soviet Union
Consolidation of power
Upon replacing Khrushchev as the party's First Secretary, Brezhnev became the de jure supreme authority of the Soviet Union. However, he was initially forced to govern as part of an unofficial Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name Troika) alongside the country's Premier, Alexei Kosygin, and Nikolai Podgorny, a Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and later Chairman of the Presidium.[28][29] Due to Khrushchev's disregard for the rest of the Politburo upon combining his leadership of the party with that of the Soviet government, a plenum of the Central Committee in October 1964 forbade any single individual from holding both the offices of General Secretary and Premier.[24] This arrangement would persist until the late 1970s when Brezhnev firmly secured his position as the most powerful figure in the Soviet Union.
During his consolidation of power, Brezhnev first had to contend with the ambitions of Alexander Shelepin, the former Chairman of the KGB and current head of the Party-State Control Committee. In early 1965, Shelepin began calling for the restoration of "obedience and order" within the Soviet Union as part of his own bid to seize power.[30] Towards this end, he exploited his control over both state and party organs to leverage support within the regime. Recognizing Shelepin as an imminent threat to his position, Brezhnev mobilized the Soviet collective leadership to remove him from the Party-State Control Committee before having the body dissolved altogether on 6 December 1965.[31]
By the end of 1965, Brezhnev had Podgorny removed from the Secretariat, thereby significantly curtailing the latter's ability to build support within the party apparatus.[32] In the ensuing years, Podgorny's network of supporters was steadily eroded as the protégés he cultivated in his rise to power were removed from the Central Committee.[33] By 1977, Brezhnev was secure enough in his position to replace Podgorny as head of state and remove him from the Politburo.[34][35]
After sidelining Shelepin and Podgorny as threats to his leadership in 1965, Brezhnev directed his attentions to his remaining political rival, Alexei Kosygin. In the 1960s, U.S. National Security Advisor
Brezhnev was adept at politics within the Soviet power structure. He was a team player and never acted rashly or hastily. Unlike Khrushchev, he did not make decisions without substantial consultation from his colleagues, and was always willing to hear their opinions.[38] During the early 1970s, Brezhnev consolidated his domestic position. In 1977, he forced the retirement of Podgorny and became once again Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, making this position equivalent to that of an executive president. While Kosygin remained Premier until shortly before his death in 1980 (replaced by Nikolai Tikhonov as Premier), Brezhnev was the dominant figure in the Soviet Union from the mid-1970s[39] until his death in 1982.[36]
Domestic policies
Ideological Development
Brezhnev has defined the iconic "Developed Socialism" as the
Repression
Brezhnev's stabilization policy included ending the liberalizing reforms of Khrushchev, and clamping down on cultural freedom.[41] During the Khrushchev years, Brezhnev had supported the leader's denunciations of Stalin's arbitrary rule, the rehabilitation of many of the victims of Stalin's purges, and the cautious liberalization of Soviet intellectual and cultural policy. However, as soon as he became leader of the Soviet Union, he began to reverse this process, and developed an increasingly authoritarian and conservative attitude.[42][43]
By the mid-1970s, there were an estimated 5,000 political and religious prisoners across the Soviet Union, living in grievous conditions and suffering from malnutrition. Many of these prisoners were
Economics
Economic growth until 1973
Period | Annual GNP growth (according to the CIA )
|
Annual NMP growth (according to Grigorii Khanin) |
Annual NMP growth (according to the USSR) |
---|---|---|---|
1960–1965 | 4.8[45] | 4.4[45] | 6.5[45] |
1965–1970 | 4.9[45] | 4.1[45] | 7.7[45] |
1970–1975 | 3.0[45] | 3.2[45] | 5.7[45] |
1975–1980 | 1.9[45] | 1.0[45] | 4.2[45] |
1980–1985 | 1.8[45] | 0.6[45] | 3.5[45] |
[note 1] |
Between 1960 and 1970, Soviet agriculture output increased by 3% annually. Industry also improved: during the
The
During 1928–1973, the Soviet Union was growing economically at a faster pace than the United States and Western Europe. However, objective comparisons are difficult. The USSR was hampered by the effects of World War II, which had left most of the western USSR in ruins; however, Western aid and Soviet espionage in the period 1941–1945 (culminating in cash, material and equipment deliveries for military and industrial purposes) had allowed the Russians to leapfrog many Western economies in the development of advanced technologies, particularly in the fields of nuclear technology, radio communications, agriculture and heavy manufacturing. By the early 1970s, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest industrial capacity, and produced more steel, oil,
Economic stagnation until 1982
The Era of Stagnation, a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev, was attributed to a compilation of factors, including the ongoing "arms race"; the Soviet Union's decision to participate in international trade (thus abandoning the idea of economic isolation) while ignoring changes occurring in Western societies; increased authoritarianism in Soviet society; the invasion of Afghanistan; the bureaucracy's transformation into an undynamic gerontocracy; lack of economic reform; pervasive political corruption, and other structural problems within the country.[62] Domestically, social stagnation was stimulated by the growing demands of unskilled workers, labor shortages and a decline in productivity and labor discipline. While Brezhnev, albeit "sporadically",[43] through Alexei Kosygin, attempted to reform the economy in the late 1960s and 1970s, he failed to produce any positive results. One of these reforms was the economic reform of 1965, initiated by Kosygin, though its origins are often traced back to the Khrushchev Era. The reform was ultimately cancelled by the Central Committee, though the Committee admitted that economic problems did exist.[63] After becoming leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev would characterize the economy under Brezhnev's rule as "the lowest stage of socialism".[64]
Based on its surveillance, the CIA reported that the Soviet economy peaked in the 1970s upon reaching 57% of American GNP. However, beginning around 1975, economic growth began to decline at least in part due to the regime's sustained prioritization of heavy industry and military spending over consumer goods. Additionally, Soviet agriculture was unable to feed the urban population, let alone provide for a rising standard of living which the government promised as the fruits of "mature socialism" and on which industrial productivity depended. Ultimately, the GNP growth rate slowed to 1% to 2% per year. As GNP growth rates decreased in the 1970s from the level held in the 1950s and 1960s, they likewise began to lag behind that of Western Europe and the United States. Eventually, the stagnation reached a point that the United States began growing an average of 1% per year above the growth rate of the Soviet Union.[65]
The stagnation of the Soviet economy was fueled even further by the Soviet Union's ever-widening technological gap with the West. Due to the cumbersome procedures of the centralized planning system, Soviet industries were incapable of the innovation needed to meet public demand.[66] This was especially notable in the field of computers. In response to the lack of uniform standards for peripherals and digital capacity in the Soviet computer industry, Brezhnev's regime ordered an end to all independent computer development and required all future models to be based on the IBM/360.[67] However, following the adoption of the IBM/360 system, the Soviet Union was never able to build enough platforms, let alone improve on its design.[68][69] As its technology continued to fall behind the West, the Soviet Union increasingly resorted to pirating Western designs.[67]
The last significant reform undertaken by the
The
Agricultural policy
Brezhnev's agricultural policy reinforced traditional ways of organizing collective farms and enforced output quotas centrally. Although there was a record-high state investment in farming during the 1970s, the evaluation of agricultural output continued to focus on the grain harvest. Despite some improvement, there were still problems such as insufficient domestic production of fodder crops and a declining sugar beet harvest. Brezhnev attempted to address these issues by increasing state investment and allowing privately owned plots to be larger. However, these actions were not effective in solving fundamental problems like a shortage of skilled workers, a ruined rural culture, and inappropriate farm machinery for small collective farms. A significant reform was necessary, but it was not supported due to ideological and political considerations.
Brezhnev's agricultural policy reinforced the conventional methods for organizing the
Agricultural output in 1980 was 21% higher than the average production rate between 1966 and 1970.
Experimentation with "links" was not disallowed on a local basis, with Mikhail Gorbachev, the then First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, experimenting with links in his region. In the meantime, the Soviet government's involvement in agriculture was, according to Robert Service, otherwise "unimaginative" and "incompetent".[74] Facing mounting problems with agriculture, the Politburo issued a resolution titled, "On the Further Development of Specialisation and Concentration of Agricultural Production on the Basis of Inter-Farm Co-operation and Agro-Industrial Integration".[74] The resolution ordered kolkhozes close to each other to collaborate in their efforts to increase production. In the meantime, the state's subsidies to the food-and-agriculture sector did not prevent bankrupt farms from operating and rises in the price of produce were offset by rises in the cost of oil and other resources. By 1977, oil cost 84% more than it did in the late 1960s. The cost of other resources had also climbed by the late 1970s.[74]
Brezhnev's answer to these problems was to issue two decrees, one in 1977 and one in 1981, which called for an increase in the maximum size of privately owned plots within the Soviet Union to half a hectare. These measures removed important obstacles for the expansion of agricultural output but did not solve the problem. Under Brezhnev, private plots yielded 30% of the national agricultural production when they cultivated only 4% of the land. This was seen by some as proof that de-collectivization was necessary to prevent Soviet agriculture from collapsing, but leading Soviet politicians shrank from supporting such drastic measures due to ideological and political interests.[74] The underlying problems were the growing shortage of skilled workers, a wrecked rural culture, the payment of workers in proportion to the quantity rather than the quality of their work, and too large farm machinery for the small collective farms and the roadless countryside. In the face of this, Brezhnev's only options were schemes such as large land reclamation and irrigation projects, or of course, radical reform.[75]
Society
Over the eighteen years that Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union, average income per head increased by half; three-quarters of this growth came in the 1960s and early 1970s. During the second half of Brezhnev's premiership, the average income per head grew by one-quarter.
When the USSR's economic growth stalled in the 1970s, the
While some areas improved during the Brezhnev era, the majority of civilian services deteriorated and living conditions for Soviet citizens fell rapidly. Diseases were on the rise[83] because of the decaying healthcare system. The living space remained rather small by First World standards, with the average Soviet person living on 13.4 square metres. Thousands of Moscow inhabitants became homeless, most of them living in shacks, doorways and parked trams. Nutrition ceased to improve in the late 1970s, while rationing of staple food products returned to Sverdlovsk for instance.[84]
The state provided recreation facilities and annual holidays for hard-working citizens. Soviet trade unions rewarded hard-working members and their families with beach vacations in Crimea and Georgia.[85]
Social rigidification became a common feature of Soviet society. During the
Foreign and defense policies
Soviet–U.S. relations
During his eighteen years as Leader of the USSR, Brezhnev's signature foreign policy innovation was the promotion of détente. While sharing some similarities with approaches pursued during the Khrushchev Thaw, Brezhnev's policy significantly differed from Khrushchev's precedent in two ways. The first was that it was more comprehensive and wide-ranging in its aims, and included signing agreements on arms control, crisis prevention, East–West trade, European security and human rights. The second part of the policy was based on the importance of equalizing the military strength of the United States and the Soviet Union.[according to whom?] Defense spending under Brezhnev between 1965 and 1970 increased by 40%, and annual increases continued thereafter. In the year of Brezhnev's death in 1982, 12% of GNP was spent on the military.[88] By 1970s, the Soviet Union became the most powerful country.[89][90]
At the
By the mid-1970s,
After
During Brezhnev's rule, the Soviet Union reached the peak of its political and strategic power in relation to the United States. As a result of the limits agreed to by both superpowers in the first SALT Treaty, the Soviet Union obtained parity in nuclear weapons with the United States for the first time in the Cold War.[97] Additionally, as a result of negotiations during the Helsinki Accords, Brezhnev succeeded in securing the legitimization of Soviet hegemony over Central and Eastern Europe.[98]
The Vietnam War
Under the rule of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union initially supported North Vietnam out of "fraternal solidarity". However, as the war escalated, Khrushchev urged the North Vietnamese leadership to give up the quest of liberating South Vietnam. He continued by rejecting an offer of assistance made by the North Vietnamese government, and instead told them to enter negotiations in the United Nations Security Council.[99] After Khrushchev's ousting, Brezhnev resumed aiding the communist resistance in Vietnam. In February 1965, Premier Kosygin visited Hanoi with a dozen Soviet air force generals and economic experts.[100] Over the course of the war, Brezhnev's regime would ultimately ship $450 million worth of arms annually to North Vietnam.[101]
In early 1967, Johnson offered to make a deal with
In the aftermath of the Sino–Soviet border conflict, the Chinese continued to aid the
Sino–Soviet relations
Soviet
Later in 1969, the deterioration in bilateral relations culminated in the
Intervention in Afghanistan
After the
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The first crisis for Brezhnev's regime came in 1968, with the attempt by the Communist leadership in
As pressure mounted on him within the Soviet leadership to "re-install a revolutionary government" within Prague, Brezhnev ordered the
The Brezhnev Doctrine
In the aftermath of the Prague Spring's suppression, Brezhnev announced that the Soviet Union had the right to interfere in the internal affairs of its satellites to "safeguard socialism". This became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine,[121] although it was really a restatement of existing Soviet policy, as enacted by Khrushchev in Hungary in 1956. Brezhnev reiterated the doctrine in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party on 13 November 1968:[118]
When forces that are hostile to socialism 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.
— Brezhnev, Speech to the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party in November 1968
Later in 1980, a
In 1980–81 representatives from the Eastern Bloc nations met at the Kremlin to discuss the Polish situation. Brezhnev eventually concluded on 10 December 1981 that it would be better to leave the domestic matters of Poland alone, reassuring the Polish delegates that the USSR would intervene only if asked to.[124] This effectively marked the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Notwithstanding the absence of a Soviet military intervention, Wojciech Jaruzelski ultimately gave in to Moscow's demands by imposing a state of war, the Polish version of martial law, on 13 December 1981.[125]
Cult of personality
The last years of Brezhnev's rule were marked by a growing personality cult. His love of medals (he received over 100) was well known, so in December 1966, on his 60th birthday, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. Brezhnev received the award, which came with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star, three more times in celebration of his birthdays.[126] On his 70th birthday he was awarded the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union's highest military honour. After being awarded the rank, he attended an 18th Army Veterans meeting, dressed in a long coat and saying "Attention, the Marshal is coming!" He also conferred upon himself the rare Order of Victory in 1978, which was posthumously revoked in 1989 for not meeting the criteria for citation. A promotion to the rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union, planned for Brezhnev's seventy-fifth birthday, was quietly shelved due to his ongoing health problems.[127]
Brezhnev's eagerness for undeserved glory was shown by his poorly written memoirs recalling his military service during World War II, which treated the
Health problems
Brezhnev's personality cult was growing at a time when his health was in rapid decline. His physical condition was deteriorating; he had been a heavy smoker until the 1970s,
Upon suffering a stroke in 1975, Brezhnev's ability to lead the Soviet Union was significantly compromised. As his ability to define Soviet foreign policy weakened, he increasingly deferred to the opinions of a hardline
The Ministry of Health kept doctors by Brezhnev's side at all times, and he was brought back from near death on several occasions. At this time, most senior officers of the CPSU wanted to keep Brezhnev alive. Even though an increasing number of officials were frustrated with his policies, no one in the regime wanted to risk a new period of domestic turmoil which might be caused by his death.
Last years and death
Brezhnev's health worsened in the winter of 1981–82. While the Politburo was pondering the question of who would succeed, all signs indicated that the ailing leader was dying. The choice of the successor would have been influenced by Suslov, but he died at the age of 79 in January 1982. Andropov took Suslov's seat in the
In March 1982 Brezhnev received a concussion and fractured his right
National and international statesmen from around the globe attended his funeral. His wife and family were also present.[146] Brezhnev was dressed for burial in his Marshal's uniform along with his medals.[138]
Legacy
Brezhnev presided over the Soviet Union for longer than any other person except Joseph Stalin. He is remembered for donning the mantle of a peacemaker and a common-sense statesman.[147] He is often criticised for the prolonged Era of Stagnation, in which fundamental economic problems were ignored and the Soviet political system was allowed to decline. During Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader there was an increase in criticism of the Brezhnev years, such as claims that Brezhnev followed "a fierce neo-Stalinist line". The Gorbachevian discourse blamed Brezhnev for failing to modernize the country and to change with the times,[148] although in a later statement Gorbachev made assurances that Brezhnev was not as bad as he was made out to be, saying, "Brezhnev was nothing like the cartoon figure that is made of him now."[149] The intervention in Afghanistan, which was one of the major decisions of his career, also significantly undermined both the international standing and the internal strength of the Soviet Union.[96] In Brezhnev's defense, it can be said that the Soviet Union reached unprecedented and never-repeated levels of power, prestige, and internal calm under his rule.[150]
Brezhnev fared better when compared to his successors and predecessors in Russia.
In the West, stagnation hypothesis is generally accepted with regards to the rule of Brezhev.[156]
Personality traits
Russian historian Roy Medvedev emphasizes the bureaucratic mentality and personality strengths that enabled Brezhnev to gain power. He was loyal to his friends, vain in desiring ceremonial power, and refused to control corruption inside the party. Especially in foreign affairs, Brezhnev increasingly took all major decisions into his own hands, without telling his colleagues in the Politburo.[157] He deliberately presented a different persona to different people, culminating in the systematic glorification of his own career.[158]
Brezhnev's vanity made him the target of many political jokes.[127] Nikolai Podgorny warned him of this, but Brezhnev replied, "If they are poking fun at me, it means they like me."[159]
In keeping with traditional socialist greetings, Brezhnev kissed many politicians on the lips during his career. One of these occasions, with Erich Honecker, was the subject of My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love, a mural painted on the Berlin Wall after its opening and dismantlement.[160][161][162][163]
Brezhnev's main passion was driving foreign cars given to him by leaders of state from across the world. He usually drove these between his dacha and the Kremlin with, according to historian Robert Service, flagrant disregard for public safety.[164] When visiting the United States for a summit with Richard Nixon in 1973, he expressed a wish to drive around Washington in a Lincoln Continental that Nixon had just given him; upon being told that the Secret Service would not allow him to do this, he said "I will take the flag off the car, put on dark glasses, so they can't see my eyebrows and drive like any American would" to which Henry Kissinger replied "I have driven with you and I don't think you drive like an American!"[165]
Personal life
Brezhnev was married to Viktoria Denisova (1908–1995). He had a daughter, Galina,[164] and a son, Yuri.[166] His niece Lyubov Brezhneva published a memoir in 1995 which claimed that Brezhnev worked systematically to bring privileges to his family in terms of appointments, apartments, private luxury stores, private medical facilities and immunity from prosecution.[167] Brezhnev had an apartment at 26 Kutuzovsky Prospekt, the same building in which Mikhail Suslov and Yuri Andropov lived.[168][169]
Honours
Brezhnev received several accolades and honours from his home country and foreign countries. Among his foreign honours are the
See also
- Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev
- Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union
- Neo-Stalinism
Explanatory notes
- Department of Commerce economist, criticized the CIA estimates to be too low. He used the same CIA methodology to estimate West German and American growth rates. The results were 32% below the official GNP growth for West Germany, and 13 below the official GNP growth for the United States. In the end, the conclusion is the same, the Soviet Union grew rapidly economically until the mid-1970s, when a systematic crisis began.[48]
- Growth figures for the Soviet economy varies widely (as seen below):
- Eighth Five-Year Plan(1966–1970)
- Gross national product (GNP): 5.2% [49] or 5.3% [50]
- Gross national income (GNI): 7.1% [51]
- Capital investments in agriculture: 24% [52]
- Ninth Five-Year Plan(1971–1975)
- GNP: 3.7% [49]
- GNI: 5.1% [51]
- Labour productivity: 6% [53]
- Capital investments in agriculture: 27% [52]
- Tenth Five-Year Plan(1976–1980)
- Eleventh Five-Year Plan(1981–1985)
- ^ As First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 14 October 1964 to 8 April 1966. The office was renamed back to General Secretary at the 23rd Party Congress,[1] which had been its name from 1922 to 1952.[2]
- ^ In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Ilyich and the family name is Brezhnev.
- ^ Russian: Леонид Ильич Брежнев, IPA: [lʲɪɐˈnʲit ɨˈlʲjidʑ ˈbrʲeʐnʲɪf] ⓘ;[3]
Ukrainian: Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, romanized: Leonid Illich Brezhniev, IPA: [leoˈn⁽ʲ⁾id iˈl⁽ʲ⁾ːidʒ ˈbrɛʒnʲeu̯].
Citations
- ^ McCauley, Martin (1997), Who's who in Russia since 1900 p. 48. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-13898-1.
- ^ Brown, Archie (2009). The Rise & Fall of Communism, p. 59. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0061138799.
- ^ "Brezhnev". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ISBN 978-0-313-28112-9.
- ^ "Wikimedia commons: L.I. Brezhnev military card".
- ^ "File:Brezhnev LI OrKrZn NagrList 1942.jpg".
- ^ "File:Brezhnev LI Pasport 1947.jpg". 11 June 1947.
- ^ Brezhnev LI OrOtVo NagrList 1943.jpg (image). 18 September 1943 – via Wikimedia Commons.
- ^ a b c Bacon 2002, p. 6.
- ^ "ЖИЗНЬ ПО ЗАВОДСКОМУ ГУДКУ". supol.narod.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 12 June 2022.
- ^ a b McCauley 1997, p. 47.
- ^ a b Green & Reeves 1993, p. 192.
- ^ Murphy 1981, p. 80.
- ^ Childs 2000, p. 84.
- ^ a b McCauley 1997, p. 48.
- ^ Bacon 2002, p. 7.
- ^ Hough, Jerry F. (November 1982). "Soviet succession and policy choices". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. p. 49. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ Hough & Fainsod 1979, p. 371.
- ^ Taubman 2003, p. 615.
- ^ Taubman 2003, p. 616.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 376.
- ^ a b Service 2009, p. 377.
- ^ Taubman 2003, p. 5.
- ^ a b c Service 2009, p. 378.
- ^ McNeal 1975, p. 164.
- ^ Taubman 2003, p. 16.
- ^ George W. Breslauer, Khrushchev and Brezhnev As Leaders (1982).
- ^ Bacon 2002, p. 32 "In the mid-1960s appraisals of Brezhnev centered on the new leadership of the Soviet Union as a whole. Just as in the early Khrushchev years, it was not immediately apparent after 1964 who wielded how much power in the Soviet hierarchy. The immediate talk was of a triumvirate of Brezhnev at the head of the Communist Party, Kosygin as prime minister (Chairman of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers), and ― after December 1965 ― Podgorny as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet."
- ^ Daniels 1998, p. 36 "Podgorny, a longtime member of the [party] apparatus, joined the Secretariat in 1963 with Brezhnev, which made him also figure as a candidate for supreme power. At first number-three in the post-Khrushchev troika, along with the new Secretary-General Brezhnev and Prime Minister Kosygin, Podgorny rose more recently to the number-two position in Communist protocol, after Brezhnev but ahead of Kosygin. Overall, this history indicates that the post of President of the Republic, long a merely honorary one, ha[d] acquired growing importance and influence in the Communist hierarchy."
- ^ Service 2003, p. 379.
- ^ Roeder 1993, p. 110.
- ^ Roeder 1993, pp. 79–80.
- ^ Willerton 1992, p. 68 "Podgorny's Khar'kov network was among the largest of the Brezhnev period. Its size reflected both Podgorny's important role in Ukraine during the 1950s and early 1960s as well as his status as Brezhnev's main political rival. Podgorny developed this network not only while he was moving up in the Ukrainian party apparatus, but also during his career as Ukrainian party boss (1957 to 1963)...An investigation of the Khar'kov party organization and publication of a CPSU [Central Committee] declaration on its deficiencies in 1965 severely weakened this elite cohort. Highly placed protégés only moved downward during the Brezhnev period. [Vitaly] Titov, who had headed the Party Organs Department and had been promoted as a party Secretary in 1962, was quickly demoted in 1965 from the CPSU Secretariat and transferred to head the troubled Kazakh party organization. Podgorny's successor in Ukraine, Piotr Shelest, was ultimately ousted in favor of Brezhnev's longtime protégé, Shcherbitsky. Shelest's position in the all-union party hierarchy was never an especially important one, although his position had merited a brief membership in the Politburo. [¶]Those Podgorny associates who became CC members had moved up from Khar'kov and Kiev in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Some advanced to Moscow with Podgorny...Nearly all were 'retired' either when Shelest was ousted or when Podgorny was removed in 1977."
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 403 "[In 1965] Podgorny took Mikoyan’s place as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, combining that with his Politburo membership. He held both offices until Brezhnev felt strong enough unceremoniously to remove him in 1977. By then Brezhnev decided he had waited long enough to add the dignity of becoming formal head of state to his party leadership."
- ^ Guerrier 2020, p. 1314 "In 1977 Brezhnev engineered Podgorny's removal from the Politburo and then from the chairmanship of the Supreme Soviet on June 16. Brezhnev assumed the chairmanship himself while remaining first secretary, thus gaining diplomatic status as head of state while also maintaining the real power that came as leader of the CPSU."
- ^ a b Brown 2009, p. 403.
- ^ Bacon 2002, pp. 13–14 "By the end of the [1960s], T.H. Rigby argued that a stable oligarchic system had developed in the Soviet Union, centered around Brezhnev, Podgorny, and Kosygin[;] plus Central Committee secretaries Mikhail Suslov and Andrei Kirilenko. Accurate though this assessment was at the time, its publication coincided with the further strengthening of Brezhnev's position by means of an apparent clash with Suslov. [¶] At a Central Committee plenum in December 1969, Brezhnev gave a frank speech on economic matters, which had not been agreed with other Politburo members in advance. This independent line both surprised and angered colleagues, particularly Suslov, Shelepin, and first deputy prime minister Kiril Mazurov, who wrote a joint letter critical of the speech which they intended to be discussed at the next Plenum in March 1970. Brezhnev, however, exerted pressure on Suslov and his colleagues, the Plenum was postponed, the letter withdrawn, and the General Secretary emerged with greater authority and pledges of authority from his erstwhile critics."
- ^ Bacon 2002, p. 10.
- ^ Willerton 1992, pp. 62–63 "The Brezhnev network constituted a broad coalition of politicians and interests which was in an organizational position to structure the [Soviet] policy agenda. Trusted subordinates guided those state organizations critical to the realization of the Brezhnev program. Meanwhile, members of this network linked a number of important regional party organizations, both within the RSFSR and outside it, to the regime in Moscow...In general, network members headed the [Central Committee] departments responsible for cadres, party work, and important sectors of the economy. By the mid-1970s, the Politburo members and CPSU secretaries supervising these departments were all Brezhnev protégés. From an organizational standpoint, the Brezhnev-led network of patronage factions was the dominant element in the [Soviet] national leadership..."
- ^ Leonid, Brezhnev (2 September 2015). "Brezhnev on the Theory of Developed Socialism". Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. World Marxist Review. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 380.
- ^ a b Service 2009, p. 381.
- ^ a b Sakwa 1999, p. 339.
- ^ a b Service 2009, p. 382.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 40.
- ^ Kotz & Weir 2007, p. 35.
- ^ Kotz & Weir 2007, p. 39.
- ^ Kotz & Weir 2007, p. 40.
- ^ a b c Kort 2010, p. 322.
- ^ a b Bergson 1985, p. 192.
- ^ a b Pallot & Shaw 1981, p. 51.
- ^ a b Wegren 1998, p. 252.
- ^ a b Arnot 1988, p. 67.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 385.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 386.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 389.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 407.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 397.
- ^ a b Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 47.
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- ^ a b Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 28.
- ^ a b Oliver & Aldcroft 2007, p. 275.
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It was not the gas pedal but the steering wheel that was failing
- ^ a b Ter-Ghazaryan, Aram (24 September 2014). "Computers in the USSR: A story of missed opportunities". Russia Beyond the Headlines. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
- ^ James W. Cortada, "Public Policies and the Development of National Computer Industries in Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, 1940—80." Journal of Contemporary History (2009) 44#3 pp: 493–512, especially page 509-10.
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Brezhnev's economic programs had led to increases of industrial productivity as well as higher standards of living for most Soviet citizens.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 423.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 416.
- ^ a b Service 2009, p. 417.
- ^ Service 2009, p. 418.
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- ^ Pakistan & Gulf Economist. Economist Publications. 1982. p. 7.
Leonid Brezhnev was the builder of militarily the most powerful country of the world that USSR is today - a fact that even its adversary, the United States of America acknowledges.
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- ^ a b Herd & Moroney 2003, p. 5.
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- ^ "Russian leaders: Their illnesses and deaths". 1 November 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
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- ^ Wesson 1978, p. 252.
- ^ a b c Service 2009, p. 426.
- ^ Schattenberg 2017, pp. 591, 593.
- ^ Doder, Dusko (2 April 1982). "Brezhnev Reported to Be Seriously Ill". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021.
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- ^ "USSR: MARKING THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION". Reuters. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
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- ^ "At Brezhnev's Bier, Grandeur, Gloom, and the Lurking Presence of the KGB". The New York Times. Vol. 132, no. 45496. 13 November 1982. p. A4.
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- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 2.
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- ^ a b Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 5.
- ^ "ВЦИОМ: Лучшие лидеры — Брежнев и Путин" (in Russian). Rosbalt.ru. 25 April 2007. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
- ^ "Brezhnev Beats Lenin as Russia's Favorite 20th Century Ruler". RIA Novosti. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.[dead link]
- ^ Kolyandr, Alexander (22 May 2013). "Brezhnev Tops List of Most Popular 20th-Century Moscow Rulers". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
- ^ "Survey shows Ukrainians most negatively regard Stalin, Lenin and Gorbachev". Kyiv Post. 20 November 2018.
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 6.
- ^ Roy Medvedev, "Brezhnev-A Bureaucrats Profile", Dissent (Spring 1983): 224–233.
- ^ John Dornberg, Brezhnev: The Masks of Power (1974).
- ^ Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 29.
- Corbis. Archived from the originalon 20 April 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2013. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker kiss on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republics.
- ^ "President Brezhnev Kissing Jimmy Carter".
- ^ "Dubcek and Brezhnev". Archived from the original on 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Brezhnev Hugs Poland's Ruler". The Deseret News. Associatged Press. 1 March 1982. p. 1 – via Google News.
- ^ a b Service 2009, p. 384.
- ^ Horne, Alistair. Kissinger's Year: 1973. pp. 159–160.
- ^ Chiesa 1991, p. 23.
- ^ Luba Brezhnev, The World I Left Behind: Pieces of a Past (1995). Discussion of Party corruption covered in Konstantin M. Simis, USSR: The Corrupt Society (1982) (Online review).
- ISBN 978-06911-927-27.
- ^ Tommy O'callaghan (10 October 2018). "Peter I's cottage to Gorbachev's lavish dacha: Russian leaders' residences in pictures". rbth. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
General and cited references
- Anderson, David L.; Ernst, John (2007). The War That Never Ends: New Perspectives on the Vietnam War. ISBN 978-0813124735.
- Arnot, Bob (1988). Controlling Soviet Labour: Experimental Change from Brezhnev to Gorbachev. ISBN 978-0873324700.
- Bacon, Edwin (2002). "Reconsidering Brezhnev". In Bacon, Edwin; Sandle, Mark (eds.). Brezhnev Reconsidered. ISBN 978-0333794630.
- Bacon, Edwin; Sandle, Mark, eds. (2002). Brezhnev Reconsidered. ISBN 978-0333794630.
- Bergson, Abram (1985). The Soviet Economy: Toward the Year 2000. ISBN 978-0-04-335053-9.
- Breslauer, George W. Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders (1982).
- ISBN 978-0061138799.
- Brutents, Karen N. (1998). Тридцать лет на Старой площади (Thirty Years on the Old Square) (in Russian). Moscow: Международные отношения (International Relations). OCLC 1263966220.
- Byrne, Malcolm; Paczkowski, Andrzej (2008). From Solidarity to Martial Law: The Polish Crisis of 1980–1981. ISBN 978-9637326844.
- Chiesa, Giuliettlo (1991). Time of Change: Insider's View of Russia's Transformation. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1850433057.
- Childs, David (2000). The Two Red Flags: European Social Democracy and Soviet communism since 1945. ISBN 978-0415171816.
- Crump, Thomas. Brezhnev and the Decline of the Soviet Union (Routledge, 2013) online.
- Dallin, David. Soviet foreign policy after Stalin (1961) (online).
- Daniels, Robert Vincent (1998). Russia's Transformation: Snapshots of a Crumbling System. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-8709-0.
- Dönninghaus, Victor, and Andrei Savin. "Leonid Brezhnev: Public Display Versus the Sacrality of Power", Russian Studies in History 52.4 (2014): 71–93. online
- Gaddis, John Lewis (2005). The Cold War: A New History. ISBN 978-1594200625.
- Green, William; Reeves, W. Robert (1993). The Soviet Military Encyclopedia: A–F. ISBN 978-0813314297.
- Guerrier, Steven W. (2020). "Podgorny, Nikolai Viktorovich (1903-1983)". In Tucker, Spencer C. (ed.). The Cold War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781440860768. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
- Herd, Graeme P.; Moroney, Jennifer D. (2003). Security Dynamics in the former Soviet Bloc. Vol. 1. ISBN 978-0415297325.
- Hiden, John; Made, Vahur; Smith, David J. (2008). The Baltic Question during the Cold War. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415569347.
- Hornsby, R. (2023). The Soviet Sixties. Yale University Press.
- ISBN 978-0674410305.
- Kakar, M. Hassan (1997). Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979–1982. ISBN 978-0520208933.
- Kornberg, Judith; Faust, John (2005). China in World Politics: Policies, Processes, Prospects. ISBN 978-1588262486.
- ISBN 978-0-7656-2387-4.
- Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 (2nd ed., 2008) (excerpt).
- Kotz, David Michael; Weir, Fred (2007). Russia's Path from Gorbachev to Putin: The Demise of the Soviet System and the New Russia. ISBN 978-0-415-70146-4.
- Loth, Wilfried (2002). Overcoming the Cold War: a history of détente, 1950–1991. ISBN 978-0-333-97111-6.
- McCauley, Martin (1997). Who's who in Russia since 1900. ISBN 0-415-13898-1.
- McCauley, Martin (2008). Russia, America and the Cold War, 1949–1991. ISBN 978-0582279360.
- McNeal, Robert (1975). The Bolshevik Tradition: Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev. Spectrum. ASIN B001VLGRB8.
- Magnúsdóttir, Rósa. "The Lives and Times of Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev." Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 21.1 (2020): 207–217. excerpt
- Murphy, Paul J. (1981). Brezhnev: Soviet Politician. ISBN 978-0899500027.
- Oliver, Michael J.; Aldcroft, Derek Howard (2007). Economic Disasters of the Twentieth Century. ISBN 978-1848441583.
- Ostrovsky, Alexander. Кто поставил Горбачёва? (Who put Gorbachev?)(2010). Archived 7 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine. ISBN 978-5-699-40627-2.
- Pallot, Judith; Shaw, Denis (1981). Planning in the Soviet Union. ISBN 978-0-85664-571-6.
- Roeder, Philip G. (1993). Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics. ISBN 0691019428.
- Rutland, Peter, and Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock. "Looking Back at Brezhnev." Russian History 41.3 (2014): 299–306. online
- Sakwa, Richard (1998). Soviet Politics in Perspective. ISBN 978-0415071536.
- Sakwa, Richard (1999). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917–1991. Routledge. ISBN 978-0582784659.
- Schattenberg, Susanne. "Emotions and Play-acting in the Cold War: How Leonid Brezhnev Won and Lost the West’s Trust", Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 45.3 (2018): 313–341. online
- Schattenberg, Susanne (2017). Leonid Breschnew: Staatsmann und Schauspieler im Schatten Stalins: eine Biographie (in German). Wien: S2CID 186937428.
- Schattenberg, Susanne (2021). Brezhnev: The Making of a Statesman. I.B. Tauris.
- ISBN 0-674-01801-X.
- ISBN 978-0674034938. (online).
- Szumski, Jakub. "Leonid Brezhnev and Edward Gierek: The making and breaking of an uneven friendship." The Soviet and post-Soviet Review 45.3 (2018): 253–286. online[permanent dead link]
- ISBN 978-0393051445.
- Wegren, Stephen (1998). Agriculture and the State in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia. ISBN 978-0-8229-8585-3.
- Wesson, Robert G. (1978). Lenin's Legacy: The Story of the CPSU. ISBN 978-0817969226.
- Willerton, John P. (1992). Patronage and Politics in the USSR. ISBN 0521392888.
- Zemtsov, Ilya (1989). Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika. ISBN 0-88738-260-6.
- Zubok, Vladislav Martinovich (2007). A Failed Empire: the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev. ISBN 978-0807859582.
- Zubok, Vladislav. "‘Do not think I am soft…’: Leonid Brezhnev." in Mental Maps in the Era of Détente and the End of the Cold War 1968–91 (2015): 6-23. online
External links
- Archival footage of Leonid Brezhnev – Net-Film Newsreels and Documentary Films Archive
- Annotated Bibliography for Leonid Brezhnev from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- Our Course: Peace and Socialism. Collection of Brezhnev's 1973 speeches
- CCCP TV Videoprograms with L. Brezhnev on Soviet TV portal (in Russian)
- Brezhnev's rules in 14 points by RIA Novosti (in Russian)
- The Anti-Imperialist Empire: Soviet Nationality Policies under Brezhnev by Jason A. Roberts, 2015