Leonid Brezhnev

*I WAS GOING TO HAVE A PHOTO OF BREZHNEV HERE, BUT I COULDN'T GET IT TO WORK. Imagine, if you will, a photo of an old, Soviet Russian guy here.* :)

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. He was the fourth leader of the Soviet Union following the brutal regimes of Vladimir Lenin, Iosif Stalin, and Nikita Khrushchev. Not that Brezhnev’s regime was necessarily pleasant, but it did not have the purging associated with the other eras of soviet leadership (like under Lenin or Stalin). The Soviet Union under Brezhnev was stagnant and corrupt.

THE EARLY YEARS

Good old Leonid was born in the Ukraine to Russian parents in 1906. He followed in his father’s footsteps and started working at the local iron and steel plant in the year 1922. Brezhnev joined the Komsomol in 1923 and started pursuing some technical degrees. During this time, he also held leadership positions, fully joined the Communist party (1931), and spent some time in the military as a political commissar (but never was a military commander). Over time, Leonid rose in the ranks of the Communist Party and in 1964 led the group that forced Khrushchev from power. After a brief stint as part of a "collective leadership," Brezhnev emerged as the dominant power and became the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He was part of the first generation without knowledge of life before the Bolshevik Revolution.

His eighteen-year reign has been described as stagnant, but despite this characterization, several doctrines, advancements, and wars materialized during his time as leader. Brezhnev focused on the external components (military and foreign affairs) of the Soviet Union and put other people (such as Aleksey Kosygin, Nikolay Podgorny, and later Mikhail Gorbechev) in charge of the internal issues and relations with noncommunist states.

MILITARY AND SPACE

Brezhnev spent a lot of money on military, foreign relations, and aerospace technology, but, essentially, it was at the expense of the economy. For the military, Brezhnev improved both the army and the navy with better tools and more men. Under the watchful eye of Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov (the commander-in-chief of the navy), the surface and submarine components of the Soviet Navy were built-up and even rivaled the United States Navy. As for aerospace technology, the Soviet Union beat the United States into space in 1957 with Sputnik and also put the first man in space with Yuri Gagarin in 1961. However, to its credit, the U.S. was the first country to put a man on the moon on July 20, 1969. During Brezhnev’s reign, the Soviet Union made some technological advances, however perhaps not to the extent of the U.S.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

As far as foreign relations, Brezhnev developed his concept known as the Brezhnev Doctrine which basically states that the Soviet Union can use force anywhere there is a threat to socialism. Later, the United States countered with the Reagan Doctrine. Proxy Wars were fought between the Soviet Union and the United States through countries such as Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan. Countries in Africa were also involved. There was a period of Detente between the Soviet Union and the United States from 1969 until the election of Reagan in 1980 (or by the Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979). During this period of détente, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) agreement was signed in 1972 by Brezhnev and Nixon. There was cooperation between the two space programs, and the two countries also discussed environmental issues and trade.

DOMESTIC ECONOMY

While Brezhnev concentrated on foreign relations and the military, the domestic sector stagnated and then declined. There were several problems. The cost of the improved military, proxy wars, and the space program greatly limited the amount of funds available for the country. Not many consumer goods were produced, and food was in short supply. Grain had to be imported at high prices. The health, education, and housing systems did have enough funds to function. Brezhnev increased the Soviet Union’s external power but ignored and hid the economic problems. There was also censorship on dissident writers, intellectuals, and scientists. Many people were exiled or imprisoned. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union made it difficult for Jews who wanted to relocate to Israel. Other ethnic groups were suppressed during this time, such as the Lithuanians, Latvians, and Tatars. The state of living in the Soviet Union slowly and gradually declined under Leonid Brezhnev’s leadership.

DEATH

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died on November 10, 1982 from a heart attack. After Brezhnev’s death, Andropov and Chernenko each ruled for a few years. Then, in 1985, Mikhail "Gorby" Gorbechev came to power and tried to institute reforms (glasnost, perestroika, uskorenie, and democratization) to save communism and the Soviet Union.