Léonid Brejnev

Léonid Ilitch Brejnev (in Russian: ЛеонидИльичБрежнев) (January 1st, 1907 of the Gregorian Calendar or December 19th 1906 of the Calendar Julien - November 10th 1982) is a Soviet politician with the head of the Soviet Union of 1964 with 1982 (initially in partnership with others, then, by accumulating higher mandates).

General secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (PCUS) of 1964 to 1982, he was twice president of the Præsidium of the Supreme Soviet (Head of the State), of 1960 to 1964 and 1977 to 1982.

Rise in the Nomenklatura

Leonid Brejnev was born in Kamenskoye (nowadays Dnieprodzerjinsk), in Ukraine, wire of a Russian metallurgist. As very many proletarian young people at times of the Russian Révolution it accepted a technical education, in management of the metallurgy territory then. It became in 1923 member of the organization of the youth of the Communist party, the Komsomol, then integrated the Party itself in 1931.

In 1935 - 36 it makes its obligatory military service. Initially engaged in a body of armoured tanks it follows courses on the tanks before being useful finally as political police chief. Following that, he becomes director of metallurgy the technical school of Dnieprodzerjinsk. He is quickly transferred to the regional center from Dniepropetrovsk and in 1939 he becomes secretary of the Party, in load of heavy industries of defense.

He belongs to the first generation of Soviets who did not know the period having preceded the revolution Russian and same too young people to have really taken part in the fights for the succession of Lénine at the post of head of the party in 1924. At the time when it enters to the Party, Joseph Stalin was already the uncontested Master; Brejnev, like much of other young Communists of then, grows and accepts Stalinism without putting questions too much. Those which survived the great purgings of 1937 - 39 obtained fast promotions, since these eliminations opened many stations in the levels high and average of the party and the State.

In June 1941 the Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union and Brejnev takes part in the evacuation of industries of Dniepropetrovsk towards the east, before the city does not fall between the hands from the Nazis, on August 23rd. As the majority of the members of the party of average row it are enlisted in the Red Army as political police chief. Indeed, the Red Army followed the principle of the double command: all the military formations were under the orders of a professional officer and a political police chief. This organization was hated by the officers. Brejnev in October becomes deputy political administration for the southern face, with the rank of police chief of brigade.

In 1942, whereas the Ukraine is invaded, Brejnev is sent in the the Caucasus as delegated administration. In April 1943 he becomes chief of the political department of the 18th army. The same year, this army goes up to the face in Ukraine to support the Red Army which had just taken the initiative to sink in the west. The commander-in-chief of this frontline is Nikita Khrouchtchev, which quickly becomes an enthusiast “to support” of Brejnev. At the end of the war, Brejnev occupies the political post of police chief of the 4th Ukrainian face which enters to Prague after the German capitulation.

In August 1946 it leaves the Red Army with the row with general major. It has just passed the totality of the war as police chief and not as soldier. After having taken part in the reconstruction projects of the Ukraine he becomes first secretary with Dniepropetrovsk. In 1950 it becomes deputy Supreme Soviet, the Parliament marionette with the hands of Joseph Stalin. The same year, it is named first secretary of the party in Moldavie, Rumanian territory incorporated in the Soviet Union first once in 1940 then definitively in 1944. In 1952 he becomes member of the central committee and is presented in the form of a candidate for præsidium (named Politburo before).

Brejnev and Khrouchtchev

Stalin dies in March 1953 and the reorganization which followed abolishes præsidium to reconstitute a more reduced politburo. Although Brejnev is not member of the politburo, it is named chief of the political directory of the army and the marine, with the rank of lieutenant-general, a very important place. This promotion is probably due to the new capacity of its mentor Khrouchtchev who succeeds Stalin as general secretary of the Party. In 1955 it is made first secretary of the party to the Kazakhstan, a strategic station.

Brejnev in February 1956 is destined for Moscow to control the industry of defense. With the space program, heavy industry is the principal construction of the country. He is from now on a key character and in June 1957 he supports Khrouchtchev in his fight against the Stalinist old guard carried out by Viatcheslav Molotov, Gueorgui Malenkov and Lazare Kaganovitch for the direction of the party. The defeat of the latter opens the doors of the politburo to him.

In 1959, Brejnev becomes secretary of the central committee and the May 5th 1960 obtains the title of president of præsidium of the Supreme Soviet i.e. of Head of the State. This station did not confer real capacities, but made it possible to go abroad, which develops at Brejnev a taste for the Western luxury articles.

Until worms 1962, the place of Khrouchtchev as chief of the party is solid but its results not being more satisfactory, it starts to worry its pars. The rise of the economic difficulties of the Soviet Union increased the pressure. Seemingly, Brejnev remains honest, but in 1963 it is implied in a plot warped by Anastase Mikoyan, with for goal to replace Khrouchtchev. This year it succeeds Frol Kozlov, as secretary of the central committee, and becomes by this station the official successor of Khrouchtchev. October 14th, 1964 whereas Khrouchtchev is on vacation, the conspirators strike and make him lose its station. Brejnev becomes first secretary of the party, Alexeï Kossyguine Prime Minister and Mikoyan Head of the State (in 1965 Mikoyan took its retirement and was replaced by Nikolaï Podgorny.)

Chief of the party

During the Khrouchtchev years, it had approved the denunciation of the dictatorship of Stalin, the rehabilitation of the victims of the purgings and the limited of the Soviet political life and intellectual liberalization. But as soon as he became the leader he started to reverse this process. In a speech in May 1965 commemorating the twentieth birthday of the defeat of Germany, Brejnev mentioned Stalin in a positive way for the first time. In April 1966 it took the title of general secretary, who had been the title of the “ small father of the peuples ”. The lawsuit of the writers Youri Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky, in 1966, marked the change towards a repressive cultural policy. Under Youri Andropov, the political police (the KGB) found most of the capacity which she had enjoyed under Stalin, however without the most terrible excesses.

Under Brejnev, the relations with the China continued to be degraded, The thaw of the sino-American relations, at the beginning of 1971, marked a new phase in the international relations. To avoid the formation of an anti-Soviet alliance enters the the United States. In May 1972, the president Richard Nixon went from Vietnam, removing an important obstacle in the relations with the United States.

the June 18th 1979 with Vienna

The zenith of the relaxation of this period was the signature of the final act of Helsinki into 1975 which ratifies the border the Soviet Union accepts that the participating States respect the Human rights and fundamental freedoms including those of thought, conscience, religion or belief, all that without religion. But these principles were never applied and the internal political opposition liberalization in the Soviet Union and its satellites. The problem of the emigration of the Soviet Jews became a source of increasing irritation which could not be levelled at the time of the meeting between Brejnev and the president Gerald Ford with Vladivostok in November 1974.

However, a East-West economic thaw clearly preceded the political thaw, in particular between the Soviet satellites and Western Europe with an increase in the commercial exchanges and technical collaborations, but also with the Soviet Union. Among the examples emblématiques, production under license of cars FIAT 124 by the combine Lada (model which launched the Soviet mark) as from 1966, or the production of sodas by Pepsi-Cola as from 1974.

In the years 1970 the Soviet Union reaches the maximum of its political power and strategic with the scandal of Watergate, under the admiral Sergei Gorshkov the Soviet Union became a world naval capacity for the first time and by the means of Cuba intervened including militarily in Africa. This power leads the Soviet Union has a paradox in this area: in Angola, the Soviet, cuban and East-German soldiers protect the Marxist mode allied from José Eduardo dos Santos by making safe the oil wells exploited by the Western companies, in particular Exxon.

During this time Brejnev consolidates its internal position. In May 1976 it appointed itself marshal and in June 1977 it obliges Podgorny to take its retirement and becomes again president. The June 18th 1979 with Vienna, it signs, at the sides of Jimmy Carter, the agreements SALT II concerning the disarmament of the United States and the Soviet Union.

In 1981, it would have - according to one Italian board of inquiry - financed the attempted murder of the pope Jean-Paul II.

Crisis of the mode

However the Soviet capacity on the international plan and that of Brejnev in interior policy depend on the economy of the Soviet Union, but this one becomes stagnant as from 1965 and shows even signs of decline. The delay of agriculture in is an example. In spite of the Heavy industry, the USSR does not obtain that poor outputs so much so that corn should be imported.

The enormous expenditure for the armed forces and to a lesser extent for the space program made neglect the basic needs like the habitat. The growing importance of the informal economy (one used the euphemism “the economy of the shade”, makes the black-market of it) was a kind of answer, but it involved a generalized corruption. The personal taste of Brejnev for the cars in is an illustration.

Moreover, in the years 1960-1980, his/her son-in-law was implied just like the Uzbek leader of the time, Charaf Rachidov, in the famous business known as of the “Uzbek cotton”, where important sums were diverted by the means of falsifications of the statistics: it was besides the most important fraud of the Soviet era.

The last years of its reign were remembered by an omnipresent worship of the personality reaching a top for its seventieth birthday in December 1976. This propaganda which could not be based any more on terror was unable to order respect or fear and the population scorned it. Brejnev was interested especially in the international questions by leaving the internal questions to its subordinates. Among those, the person in charge of agriculture, Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, became more and more convinced that a fundamental reform was necessary. Without no plot being woven but the health of the old chief declined.

The last act, the heritage which would be fatal with its successors, was the decision in December 1979 to intervene in Afghanistan, where an unpopular Communist regime had great difficulties in keep the capacity. That stopped the relaxation abruptly going even until an embargo by the United States and the supply of armaments to the Afghan rebels. Brejnev in March 1982 was victim of an heart attack. Its capacity was not any more that ghostly and he died in November.

Its reign on the USSR was the second by his duration, but its posthumous reputation is catastrophic, as well in the people as in the historians. It blocked any evolution and badly estimated the will of its adversaries in certain military adventures. One severely judges his vanity and his eagerness to waste the money in useless luxury articles. His discharge one can remind that the Soviet Union reached a level record of power and that he was a skilful negotiator.

See too

Union of the Soviet socialist republics
Leader of the USSR

Simple: Leonid Brezhnev

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