Historical Figure
Leonid Brezhnev
d. 1982
Leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982
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Biography
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He also held office as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1960 to 1964 and later from 1977 to 1982. His tenure as General Secretary and leader of the Soviet Union was second only to Joseph Stalin's in duration.
In Their Own Words (5)
Of late, attempts have been made in the USA — at a high level and in a rather cynical form — to play the "Chinese card" against the USSR. This is a shortsighted and dangerous policy.
As quoted in Peace, Détente, and Soviet-American Relations : A Collection of Public Statements (1979), p. 222 , 1979
It is madness for any country to build its policy with an eye to nuclear war.
As quoted in Indefensible Weapons : The Political and Psychological Case Against Nuclearism (1992) by Robert Jay Lifton and Richard A. Falk, p. 224 , 1992
Every man must be made to realize that further retreat is impossible. He must realize with his mind and heart that this is a matter of life and death of the Soviet state, of the life and death of the people of our country...the Nazi troops must be stopped now, before it is too late.
Statement made in World War II, as a commissar on the southern front, as quoted in Leonid I. Brezhnev : Pages from his Life (1978) by Academy of Sciences of the USSR, p. 49; also in For the Soul of Mankind : The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War (2007) by Melvyn P. Leffler, p. 237 , 1978
Soviet people are better off materially and richer spiritually.
As quoted in Our Friends Speak : Greetings to the 25th CPSU Congress (1976), p. 268 , 1976
The most important thing in my life, its leitmotif, has been the constant and close contacts with working people, with workers and peasants.
As quoted in Sputnik : Digest (1967), p. 48 , 1967
Timeline
The story of Leonid Brezhnev, told in moments.
Served as a political commissar during World War II. Participated in the defense of the Caucasus and the liberation of Ukraine. Reached the rank of major general by war's end, though his actual combat role was modest.
Led the coup that removed Nikita Khrushchev. The Politburo voted Khrushchev out while he was vacationing on the Black Sea. Brezhnev became General Secretary. He was 57.
Ordered Warsaw Pact forces into Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring. 200,000 troops, 2,000 tanks. The Brezhnev Doctrine declared the Soviet Union's right to intervene in any socialist state that threatened the bloc.
Signed the SALT I arms limitation treaty with Richard Nixon in Moscow. The first agreement to cap nuclear arsenals. Both men understood the math of mutual annihilation.
Authorized the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Expected it to last weeks. It lasted a decade, killed 15,000 Soviet soldiers, and became the USSR's Vietnam.
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