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==Biography==
==Biography==
Brezhnev was born in Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine) into a Russian worker's family in 1906. After graduating from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum, he became a metallurgical engineer in the iron and steel industry, in Ukraine. He joined Komsomol in 1923 and, in 1929, became an active member of the CPSU. He was drafted into immediate military service during [[World War II]] and left the army in 1946 with the rank of major general. In 1952, Brezhnev became a member of the Central Committee and, in 1964, succeeded [[Nikita Khrushchev]] as First Secretary, while Alexei Kosygin succeeded Khrushchev in his post as Soviet Premier.
Having been a land surveyor in the 1920s, Brezhnev became a full member of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) in 1931 and studied at the metallurgical institute in Kamenskoye (now Dniprodzerzhynsk). After graduating (1935), he worked as an engineer and director of a technical school and also held a variety of local party posts; his career flourished under [[Joseph Stalin]]’s regime, and by 1939 he had become secretary of the regional party committee of Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovsk).


As a leader, Brezhnev took care to consult his colleagues before acting, but his attempts to govern without meaningful economic reforms led to a national decline by the mid-1970s, a period referred to as the "Era of Stagnation", a significant increase in military expenditure which, by the time of Brezhnev's death, stood at approximately 12.5% of the country's GNP, and an aging and ineffective leadership set the stage for a dwindling GNP compared to Western nations. While at the helm of the USSR, Brezhnev pushed for détente between the Eastern and Western countries. At the same time, he presided over the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to stop the Prague Spring, and he sent the Soviet military to Afghanistan in an attempt to save the fragile regime, which was fighting a war against the CIA-backed mujahideen. However, in December 1981, he decided not to militarily intervene in Poland, instead allowing the country's government to impose martial law and effectively marking the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine.
During [[World War II]] Brezhnev served as a political commissar in the Red Army, advancing in rank until he became a major general (1943) and head of the political commissars on the Ukrainian front. After the war he again held posts as chief of several regional party committees in Ukraine. In 1950 he was sent to Moldavia as first secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party with the task of sovietizing the Romanian population of that recently conquered territory. In 1952 he advanced to become a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a candidate member of the Politburo.


After years of declining health, Brezhnev died on 10 November 1982 and was quickly succeeded in his post as General Secretary by [[Yuri Andropov]]. Brezhnev had fostered a cult of personality, although not nearly to the same degree as Stalin. Mikhail Gorbachev, who would lead the USSR from 1985 to 1991, denounced his legacy and drove the process of liberalisation of the Soviet Union. In spite of this, opinion polls in Russia show Brezhnev to be the most popular Russian leader of the 20th century.
BRITANNICA
 
 
HOMEPOLITICS, LAW & GOVERNMENTWORLD LEADERSPRESIDENTS & HEADS OF STATES
Leonid Brezhnev
PRESIDENT OF SOVIET UNION
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Alternative Title: Leonid Ilich Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev, in full Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, (born December 19, 1906, Kamenskoye, Ukraine, Russian Empire [now Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukraine]—died November 10, 1982, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet statesman and Communist Party official who was, in effect, the leader of the Soviet Union for 18 years.
 
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Leonid Brezhnev
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Leonid Brezhnev
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BORN
December 19, 1906
Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukraine
DIED
November 10, 1982 (aged 75)
Moscow, Russia
TITLE / OFFICE
Head Of State, Soviet Union (1977-1982)
Head Of State, Soviet Union (1960-1964)
POLITICAL AFFILIATION
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
ROLE IN
Afghan War
Brezhnev Doctrine
Prague Spring
Having been a land surveyor in the 1920s, Brezhnev became a full member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1931 and studied at the metallurgical institute in Kamenskoye (now Dniprodzerzhynsk). After graduating (1935), he worked as an engineer and director of a technical school and also held a variety of local party posts; his career flourished under Joseph Stalin’s regime, and by 1939 he had become secretary of the regional party committee of Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovsk). During World War II Brezhnev served as a political commissar in the Red Army, advancing in rank until he became a major general (1943) and head of the political commissars on the Ukrainian front.
 
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education: From Brezhnev to Gorbachev
Leonid I. Brezhnev assumed leadership after Khrushchev retired in 1964. On Nov. 10, 1966, a decree was...
After the war he again held posts as chief of several regional party committees in Ukraine. In 1950 he was sent to Moldavia as first secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party with the task of sovietizing the Romanian population of that recently conquered territory. In 1952 he advanced to become a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a candidate member of the Politburo.
 
When Stalin died (March 1953), Brezhnev lost his posts on the Central Committee and in the Politburo and had to accept the position of deputy head of the political department of the Ministry of Defense with the rank of lieutenant general. But in 1954 [[Nikita Khrushchev]], who had gained full power in Moscow, made Brezhnev second secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party (1954), in which capacity he vigorously implemented Khrushchev’s ambitious Virgin and Idle Lands Campaign in Kazakhstan.
 
Brezhnev was soon promoted to first secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party (1955), and in 1956 he was reelected to his posts on the CPSU Central Committee and in the Politburo. A year later, after he had loyally worked against the “antiparty group” that attempted to remove Khrushchev, Brezhnev was made a full member of the Politburo, and in 1960 he became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet—i.e., the titular head of the Soviet state.
 
In July 1964 he resigned that post to become Khrushchev’s assistant as second secretary of the Central Committee, by which time he was considered Khrushchev’s heir apparent as party leader. Three months later, however, Brezhnev helped lead the coalition that forced Khrushchev from power, and, in the division of spoils that followed, Brezhnev became first secretary (after 1966, general secretary) of the CPSU (October 15, 1964). Following a brief period of “collective leadership” with Premier Aleksey Kosygin, Brezhnev emerged clearly as the dominant figure.
 
As head of the party, Brezhnev left many affairs of state—e.g., diplomatic relations with noncommunist states and internal economic development—to his colleagues Kosygin and Nikolay V. Podgorny, chairman of the Presidium. Brezhnev concentrated on foreign and military affairs. When Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubček tried to liberalize its communist system in 1967–68,
 
Brezhnev developed the concept, known in the West as the Brezhnev Doctrine, which asserted the right of Soviet intervention in cases where “the essential common interests of other socialist countries are threatened by one of their number.” This doctrine was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies in 1968.
 
During the 1970s Brezhnev attempted to normalize relations between West Germany and the Warsaw Pact and to ease tensions with the United States through the policy known as détente. At the same time, he saw to it that the Soviet Union’s military-industrial complex was greatly expanded and modernized. Under his leadership, the Soviets achieved parity with the United States in strategic nuclear weapons, and their space program overtook the American one. A huge navy was fitted out and the army remained the largest in the world. The Soviet Union supported “wars of national liberation” in developing countries through the provision of military aid to left-wing movements and governments.
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