On November 10, 1982, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died. The General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee had been seriously ill since 1974. The list of his ailments is impressive.
Among them: heart disease, jaw cancer, due to which the Secretary General could barely speak, gout, emphysema. He could also have leukemia. In the last years of his life, Brezhnev found it increasingly difficult to cope with his responsibilities. He was an old, deeply ill man, exhausted by almost a decade of constant physical illness.
The death of the Secretary General had been expected literally any day for a long time. And yet, when it happened, everyone was stunned. Brezhnev died on November 10, 1982. 3 days before, he hosted a military parade in the main square of the country and looked pretty good. No one expected that the Secretary General would no longer exist so soon. What were the reasons for his unexpected departure, historians are still arguing.
Political struggle is the main reason
Leonid Ilyich did not have much hope for his fragile health, so he own care been preparing for a long time. Since the mid-70s I have been trying to find a successor. As always happens in such a situation, political infighting and hidden struggle began in the circle of the head of state. Yuri Andropov became especially active. There was strong opposition against him in the Central Committee, but Yuri Vladimirovich dealt with his opponents decisively and energetically.
The post of successor to the aging Brezhnev was almost assigned to Andropov. And suddenly, in the summer of 1982, the candidacy of Vladimir Shcherbitsky came forward. Leonid Ilyich wanted to recommend him for the post of the new head of the USSR. Undercover political struggle it immediately escalated. It took very little to “push” Brezhnev into the grave.
Resuscitation efforts were too lax
According to one version, Brezhnev could “accidentally” exceed his usual dose calming tablets, which he often took in Lately. When Colonel V. Medvedev discovered his body, Andropov was one of the first to appear at the dacha of the late Secretary General. According to the testimony of the same Medvedev, the latter took the news surprisingly calmly.
The doctors who arrived on the call tried to revive Brezhnev “for show,” but it was all in vain. Yes, no one particularly sought to resurrect the “bygone era.” The new contender for the throne, Andropov, was right there, in the same room with the body of the late Brezhnev. It was clear to everyone that he would soon take the still warm position of head of the Soviet state.
Problems with my daughter
According to another version, Brezhnev was driven into his grave by the court case against his daughter. Galina Brezhneva was distinguished by an irrepressible, violent disposition. She changed husbands and lovers like gloves. Her latest hobby was the artist of the Romen Theater B. Buryats, a gypsy by nationality. At the end of 1981, he was accused of stealing diamonds.
Suspicion also fell on Galina Brezhneva, as she carefully tried to shield her lover. This was well known to Leonid Ilyich. Brezhnev's entourage did not spare him - they informed him of all the details of the case. Perhaps this was done deliberately in the hope that another blow from the unlucky daughter would reduce weak hearted Secretary General to the grave. And so it happened.
The funeral was not without an unpleasant moment. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, the servants could not hold it and dropped it. During the live broadcast! The whole country saw how the coffin with Brezhnev's body fell awkwardly to the bottom of the grave. After this incident, the moments of immersion of the coffin into the grave of the following general secretaries it was decided not to be shown on television anymore.
This person is usually blamed for the stagnation, as a result of which one of the best and most progressive economies of the twentieth century crashed and completely fell to pieces. The effective, well-functioning work of the centralized economy choked, dragging with it to the bottom of destruction and collapse all previous developments and achievements. The reign of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was marked by many events and achievements, most of which turned out to be fake, just like the orders on the broad chest of the next leader. But was it really so useless or even harmful? Let's look objectively at who exactly the lover of three times kissing was, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and in fact, the king and god of the period of stagnation.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev: a short biography of a man with big eyebrows
After Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was removed, with his strange and sometimes completely economically unfounded projects and ideas, such as the widespread cultivation of corn, from the Baltic states to Taimyr and Chukotka, something had to be done with the country. The first steps of Brezhnev's rule were truly economically justified, they were beneficial and of great meaning. Khrushchev's projects were overthrown and closed, and Kosygin's economic reforms gave more independence to enterprises. It was decided to reduce the planned indicators, and at the same time the possibility of market turnover of products that were produced above the plan was introduced, which was a real breakthrough.
Unlike the militant atheist Khrushchev, Brezhnev calmly and judiciously treated ancient temples, and religion in general. He looked at buildings as architectural monuments, and the new Criminal Codes and amendments to the Constitution were aimed not only at strengthening the propaganda and influence of scientific communism among the masses, but also at protecting a person’s religion, albeit at an embryonic level. Therefore, the massive destruction of Orthodox and other churches was suspended during his tenure as head of a huge and powerful country.
Previously, quite recently, every child knew how long Brezhnev ruled the country and what happened during this long and difficult period, which, however, was also filled with strong shocks, which was not customary to talk about. At the very beginning, Brezhnev showed the highest rates of economic growth, although he was far from Stalin’s successes. During Brezhnev's reign, a huge number of hydroelectric power plants were built, as well as, directly related to them, factories for the production of the “winged metal” of aluminum. However, it was not immediately possible to correct the damage caused to agriculture by his predecessor and his crazy idea of \u200b\u200bplanting everything with corn, and it is not clear whether it was possible to completely correct it at all.
In the seventies, the first Soviet “Kopeyka” rolled off the assembly line, and four years later the construction of the BAM opened, where thousands and even hundreds of thousands of specialists from a wide variety of fields found themselves. In the first third of the reign, the country really walked “ahead of the rest of the planet,” cosmonauts carried out new research, robots worked in orbit and at home instead of people, the Soviet Union easily inflicted one defeat after another on its enemies, and the nuclear missile shield, built in as soon as possible, did not allow them to raise their “snake” heads even a centimeter.
Those dissatisfied with the regime were expected special units KGB, but the majority of the population at that time lived truly freely and happily. The Union was one of ten countries in terms of gross product per capita, education was accessible and free, and also the best in the world, however, like medicine, science was promoted, and young people were involved in social work, encouraged and promoted. There has been a clear leap forward in sports and culture. So how could it happen that for how many years Brezhnev ruled, and after his death everything almost immediately fell apart, crumbled and turned into dust, a fragile memory of a great era.
Origin and childhood of Brezhnev
Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev was born, studied and grew up in the village of Kamenskoye, Yekaterinoslav province, which today is called Dneprodzerzhinsk, Dnepropetrovsk region. After completing his studies, he began working as a technical worker at a metallurgical plant. There he met Natalya Denisovna Mazalova, with whom he immediately fell in love and decided to marry her. She also had a proletarian origin, was a peasant’s daughter. On December 6 (19), 1906, the Brezhnevs’ first-born was born, whom it was decided to name Lenechka. Subsequently, they also had a sister, Leonida Verochka, as well as a brother, Yakov.
Lenka was not much different from Kamensky's yard boys; he also stole neighbor's apples, chased pigeons and climbed on roofs, for which he was repeatedly punished by his strict father. At the age of nine, he was enrolled in a local gymnasium, graduating from which only in the twenty-first year, that is, after the revolution. That same year, he got a job in Kursk, where a new oil mill had opened, and decided to join the Komsomol organization. A young and purposeful guy was noticed and in the same twenty-third year he was sent to study at the Kursk Land Surveying and Reclamation College, without interrupting his work.
Brezhnev's reign: from rise to death
Having received his diploma, young Brezhnev first worked as a land surveyor by profession, and then was assigned to the Urals, where he suddenly and unexpectedly rushed along the party line. At first he was an ordinary land surveyor, then he became the head of a department, deputy chairman of the district executive committee, and then the right hand of the head of the Ural Regional Land Administration. At this time, Leonid decides to study further, moves to Moscow, where he simultaneously works at a factory as a mechanic. In the thirty-fifth year of the twentieth century, after receiving a diploma as an engineer of thermal power plants, he went to repay his debt to his native country in the form of military service, having already been a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Worth knowing
The cadet, and then the political instructor of the tank company Leonid Brezhnev, did his military service in a far from pleasant place, fifteen to twenty kilometers from Chita, in the village of Peschanka. He immediately received his first officer rank, with which he left the army - lieutenant.
Prerequisites for a high position: exploits and accomplishments
After returning from service in the cold and damp Peschanki, Brezhnev returned home and became the director of the metallurgical technical school in his native Kamensky, which by that time had already been renamed Dneprodzerzhinsk, and in May 1937 at a meeting he was unanimously elected to the position of chairman of the city executive committee. This was a real breakthrough that was worth building on. But suddenly the Great Patriotic War broke out and I had to give up thoughts about a career for four long years. Lenya was engaged in the mobilization, curtailment and evacuation of industry, and then he himself joined the army.
At the very beginning of the forty-second year, at a turning point for the country, Leonid Ilyich received his first Order of the Red Banner, and in October of the same year he received the rank of colonel. At the front, the colonel did not hide behind the soldiers; he swam to Malaya Zemlya more than forty times, without fear of mines or shelling, and even once was blown up by a mine along with a seiner, after which he was caught by ordinary soldiers and rescued. In forty-four he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. At the Victory Parade in the capital, Brezhnev was already the commissar of the combined regiment of the 4th Ukrainian Front, he cheerfully and proudly raised his head, minted a step at the head of the column, hand in hand with the front commander, Army General Eremenko.
It is interesting that they tell the story that Stalin first saw Brezhnev when, in 1946, he worked in Zaporozhye as secretary of the regional committee. It was then that Joseph Vissarionovich said that this handsome young man would go far. For his success in reviving the metallurgical plant, he received the first Order of Lenin in 1947. In the same year, he was appointed first secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional party committee, where he remained until the fiftieth. This summer, in incredible heat, he had to go to sultry Chisinau - he was appointed first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova.
Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee: years of life and reign
Brezhnev served as Moldovan leader for exactly two years, after which Stalin himself summoned him, deciding to personally “test a handsome Moldovan,” who was not one at all. He passed the test and was then admitted to the Central Committee for the first time. Contrary to expectations, there was no further rapid rise, since Stalin unexpectedly died in 1953 and Brezhnev generally found himself on the sidelines of life, without work, without connections and without prospects, but this was temporary. By the next year, not without the patronage of the “great corn farmer,” he was transferred to even hotter Kazakhstan, where he became first the second secretary, and then the first.
From the fifty-sixth year of the twentieth century, he became the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for defense industry, took part in space program, and in the winter of fifty-eighth he was already Deputy Chairman and member of the Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee throughout the RSFSR, where he had strived so earnestly and for a long time. Also, his merits include the preparation of the future cosmonaut Gagarin; it was he who oversaw this project. This is where the years of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev's reign begin to count down.
Brezhnev's stubborn path to the top ended with a conspiracy against Khrushchev, in which he himself took a direct part. In 1964, having sent his predecessor into retirement, Leonid Ilyich took over the post of Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and even suggested that the KGB director eliminate Nikita Sergeevich in the full sense, that is, kill him. Fortunately, he did not agree and everything worked out. On October 14 of the same year, he was unanimously elected First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee for the RSFSR.
After this, it was formally decided to return to the “Leninist” principles of collective management, and the party actually subordinated the government. However, the welfare of the people steadily increased, the country developed, everything around worked. Unexpectedly, in sixty-four, an attempt was made on Leonid Ilyich. The young lieutenant fired at the car, in which there was no sign of Brezhnev, the cosmonauts were traveling in it, but “himself,” as they say, went a different route altogether. Already by the sixty-sixth, the post of first secretary of the Central Committee was abolished, and in its place the post of general was introduced; Lenechka adored all sorts of beautiful titles and awards.
It seemed that everything was going perfectly, but already in the sixty-eighth year of the twentieth century, Brezhnev began to have persistent and really significant health problems, which greatly frightened Kosygin and the others. In 1972, Leonid Ilyich suffered his first stroke, the consequences of which turned out to be quite serious, but in May an American president came to Moscow for the first time and had to receive him, it was Nixon. Then Ford and Carter also came to the USSR, and later George Bush also attended Brezhnev’s funeral. At the very beginning of seventy-six he was overtaken by clinical death, from which the illustrious professors from medicine barely managed to get the secretary general out.
Period of stagnation: the worst years of Leonid Ilyich's reign
Despite the fact that the health of the Secretary General caused great concern among doctors, he still continued to actively govern the country. True, many believed that due to dependence on sleeping pills and sedatives He was already a puppet in the wrong hands. Nevertheless, he managed to travel to the States twice, to France four times, and to Federal Germany three times, but he could no longer manage anything. According to relatives, by that time he wanted to retire, to retire, but no one would let him go.
In 1978 he was awarded the Order of Victory, already like a toy for a small child, he began to write memoirs and books of memoirs, and just a year later the decision was made to send troops to Afghanistan. Planning to cope for weeks or at least extreme case, months, no one imagined that this would drag on for ten long years. In 1980, the Olympics were held in Moscow, at which the team Soviet Union won a clear medal advantage. In March 1982, while speaking at an aircraft factory in Tashkent, a bridge suddenly collapsed on the sick and old Brezhnev. The broken collarbone never healed after that.
Personal life and death of dear Leonid Ilyich: remembered for a long time
The years of Brezhnev's life and rule cannot be called simple or calm. He rushed the country forward, leaving all his competitors behind, but his illness turned him into a wax doll, which was actually carried from place to place to where it was necessary to wave a hand from the podium.
Wife and kids
Much to my surprise, family life Leonid Ilyich's life could not have been better, according to at least, he was married only once and never even thought about divorce. They met Victoria Petrovna, née Denisova, at a dance in 1925, and got married on December 11, 1927. This marriage produced two children, whose fate was not easy.
- Galina (April 18, 1929), one of the most scandalous persons of the Soviet Union in general and among the children of the Politburo in particular. She was eccentric, capricious, managed to get married several times, and her spouses included a trainer, a circus performer, a tightrope walker, and even a deputy minister.
- Yuri (March 31, 1933), who later became a party and government figure.
Galochka's fate was not the best; the famous parent raised a spoiled daughter who knew no limits in anything. But the son worked hard for the good of his homeland, achieved everything on his own, and then fell ill with cancer and died at the age of eighty in 2013.
The death of the lover of three kisses and his memory
While at the state dacha “Zarechye-6”, on the night of November 10, 1982, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died in his sleep. He was discovered only in the morning, closer to nine, but son-in-law Yuri Churbanov claimed that the blood clot came off in the middle of the night, blocked the artery and stopped the access of oxygen to the brain, which is why Brezhnev died quietly without waking up. They didn’t call an ambulance, since the blue face indicated that resuscitation was completely unnecessary, then they called Andropov. He immediately arrived and, among other things, took a briefcase with a combination lock, in which, according to Brezhnev himself, incriminating evidence on members of the Politburo was kept. The general public was informed about the death of the Secretary General only a day later, when it was no longer possible to keep silent.
Brezhnev's funeral took place only on the fifteenth; he was buried near the Kremlin wall on Red Square. They say that we still need to look for more pompous, pretentious and luxurious funerals. Representatives from thirty-five countries came to say goodbye to the kisser. Among those wishing to pay their last respects to Leonid Ilyich, in some strange way, was the President of Pakistan himself, actually an enemy of the USSR who supports the Mujahideen. Then he managed to have a conversation with Gromyko and Andropov, which served as the first sign of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Despite the condemnation by modern historians and the people of Brezhnev’s activities and the stagnation he created, monuments to him were erected and now exist, for example, there is a bust at the Kremlin wall, as well as in the city of Vladimir. Memorial plaques are attached to many buildings, stamps and commemorative coins were issued in his honor, and his image has been repeatedly depicted in literature, music and cinema.
He headed the USSR for 18 long years. Many articles, books have been written about him and several films have been made. Of interest are not only his biographical data and activities as a politician, but also his personal life, his passions and tastes.
Those who knew Brezhnev note that, having become the leader of the USSR, his tastes changed a little. And this is not strange, because now he had high position and great opportunities. But still he was a simple person by nature. He was not particularly interested in literature, theater and music, but he had his favorite performers - Lyudmila Zykina, Alla Pugacheva, Joseph Kobzon. In addition, he was very fond of cinema.
At his country dacha there was a cinema hall, where he liked to watch various films. He looked documentaries(most often about nature), and his favorite feature film was the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” which he watched very often.
It is also noted that the leader was very sentimental. Everyone knows about his famous kisses and how he could cry while watching a movie or listening to a song. Thus, while watching the film “Belorussky Station,” which they did not want to allow on screens because of the negative portrayal of the Moscow police, Brezhnev began to cry. Tears were caused by the moment in which fellow soldiers sing a song about the airborne battalion. After this, the film was released on a wide screen, and the song was played at all concerts where Leonid Ilyich was present.
Leonid Ilyich had a clear schedule. At eleven o'clock he was already asleep, and woke up no later than nine.
Those who knew Brezhnev for a long time often recall that it was Brezhnev’s wife who tried to somehow attract him to luxury. She wanted to dress beautifully and even had a special apartment for gifts that were given to her husband. But still Brezhnev remained quite a simple person. His dacha, which at one time was the subject of much gossip due to its luxury, was actually quite simple. Only the pool, in which Leonid Ilyich loved to swim in the mornings, distinguished her from the rest. There was also billiards in the house, and next to the house there was a tennis court, but the leader did not play billiards or tennis. Compared to the dachas of other party leaders, his country house was very modest.
The Secretary General had a great love for cars and awards. He often liked to drive at breakneck speed. As long as his health allowed him, he always got behind the wheel himself. As Secretary of State Kissinger recalls, that he was on a visit to the USSR in 1973, Brezhnev demonstrated his ability to drive to him too. He put Kissinger in a car given by Nixon (a black Cadillac) and drove at high speed along rural roads. By the end of his life, Brezhnev had 10 cars, and all of them were gifts from heads of different states.
There are whole legends about Brezhnev's exploits in the war. Despite the fact that the Secretary General did not take part in important battles, in the book written by his referents, Leonid Ilyich stands as a great strategist who made a huge contribution to the victory. No less interesting is his passion for awards and orders. He had more than 200 of them. He was awarded the Order, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, he was awarded the title of hero and the title of Marshal of the USSR 4 times. The most resonant was the presentation of the Order of Victory to Brezhnev, which was awarded to only 16 people before the Secretary General, including Dwight Eisenhower, Broz Tito and other great people. The award was very valuable and rare, the order was made in exactly the same way as the others in 1945 and by the same master. After Brezhnev's death, his daughter Galina tried to take the order out of the country, but was stopped at the airport. In 1989, the Decree on awarding Brezhnev was canceled. In addition, he received awards from Latin America and Africa. During the funeral, 44 officers carried his awards, pinned to velvet pillows.
As for culinary preferences, until the 70s he could eat anything and did not worry about his health. I really loved Russian cuisine and Ukrainian borscht. As his wife says, he loved various borschts, and for the main course she prepared him roast and cutlets. He was not indifferent to dumplings with cabbage and pies with peas. But because excess weight, about which he was very worried, his diet began to be limited dietary dishes. So, for dinner he could only eat cottage cheese and drink tea. Among Leonid Ilyich’s favorite drinks was the Estonian-made Kolokolchik lemonade, and among alcoholic drinks was Zubrovka vodka. He always washed down his medications with this vodka. Those close to Brezhnev note that he knew how to drink and was able to alcohol intoxication they didn't see him.
Many stories about Brezhnev are connected with women. According to his granddaughter, after the war he stopped loving his wife Victoria, but because of his love for his children, he remained with her. Among his women were Tamara, a “field wife”, nurses, singer Anna Shalfeyeva and Todor Zhivkov’s daughter.
One of Brezhnev's favorite pastimes was hunting. A lot of photographs have been preserved depicting the Secretary General during the hunt. When hunting, he liked the opportunity to be in nature, to be alone, to communicate with people in an informal setting. In addition, he loved playing dominoes and chess and knew a lot of Yesenin’s poems by heart.
Most memories of Brezhnev are positive. Everyone notes his simplicity and kindness, ability to joke and be close to the people. He was not a communist theorist and never rushed into ideological discussions. Despite all the negative assessments of his activities, sources indicate that he loved his homeland and wanted the best for his people.
Leonid Brezhnev - famous political leader, who carried out his active work in Soviet time. He spent almost 20 years at the heights of power in the Soviet Union, first as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and then as head of the USSR.
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev
The "Brezhnev era" was marked by stagnation, as the country's economy was completely destroyed due to failed reforms, which subsequently led to the collapse of the Union. Brezhnev's reign modern Russia is assessed differently in society - some consider him the best ruler of the 20th century, while others even today offer him “words of gratitude” with sarcasm for the collapse of the country, which became inevitable following the reign of Leonid Ilyich.
Childhood and youth
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906 in the village of Kolomenskoye in the Yekaterinoslav province, which today has become the Ukrainian metallurgical city of Dneprodzerzhinsk in the Dnepropetrovsk region. His parents, Ilya Yakovlevich and Natalya Denisovna, were ordinary working people. The future leader of the USSR was the first-born in the family; later he had younger sister Vera and brother Yakov. The Brezhnev family lived in modest conditions in a small apartment, but the children were surrounded by the love and care of their parents, who tried to compensate them for their material benefits with their attention.
Leonid Ilyich’s childhood was essentially not very different from the children of that time; he grew up as an ordinary yard boy who loved to chase pigeons. In 1915, the future politician entered a classical gymnasium, and immediately after graduating in 1921 he went to work at an oil mill. After two years of working life, Brezhnev joined the ranks of the Komsomol and then went to study at a local technical school to become a land surveyor. In 1927, he received a land surveyor diploma, which allowed him to work in his specialty, first in the Kursk province, and then in the Urals as the first deputy head of the district land administration.
In 1930, Leonid Ilyich moved to Moscow, where he entered the local Agricultural Institute of Mechanical Engineering, and a year later transferred to evening studies at the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute. While receiving higher education, the future politician simultaneously works as a fireman at the Dnieper Metallurgical Plant. Then he joined the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks.
Leonid Brezhnev in the army After graduating from the institute in 1935 and receiving an engineering diploma, Leonid Brezhnev went to serve in the army, where he received his first officer rank of lieutenant. Having repaid his debt to his homeland, the future head of the USSR returned to his native Dneprodzerzhinsk and became the director of the metallurgical technical school. In 1937, the biography of Leonid Brezhnev completely switched to politics, which he was actively involved in until the end of his days.
Party activities
Leonid Brezhnev's political career began with the position of head of a department of the regional committee communist party In Dnepropetrovsk. That period of Brezhnev’s activity fell on the years of the Great Patriotic War. Then he took an active part in the mobilization of the Red Army and was involved in the evacuation of the country's industry. He then served in political positions in the active army, for which he was awarded the rank of major general.
In the post-war years, the future head of the USSR was engaged in the restoration of enterprises destroyed during the war, while paying attention to party activities, holding the post of first secretary of the regional committee of the Zaporozhye Communist Party, where he was appointed on the recommendation of the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, with whom he had by that time developed a trusting relationship. Friendship with Khrushchev became the “passing ticket” for Brezhnev on the path to power.
While at the top of the Communist Party, Leonid Brezhnev met the then-current head of the USSR, who in 1950 appointed a loyal communist to the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee of Moldova. At the same time, the politician became a member of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee and the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Navy and the Soviet Army.
After Stalin's death, Brezhnev lost his job, but in 1954, again under the patronage of Khrushchev, he became secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, in whose position he was engaged in the development of virgin lands and actively took part in preparations for the construction of the Baikonur cosmodrome. Also at that time, the future head of the USSR oversaw the development of space technology in the country and participated in the preparation of the first manned space flight, which was made.
Governing body
Leonid Brezhnev's path to power ended with a conspiracy against Nikita Khrushchev, who was subsequently removed from government and party positions. Then the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee went to Leonid Ilyich, who on his way eliminated all his opponents and placed devoted people in key positions, including Nikolai Tikhonov, Semyon Tsvigun, Nikolai Shchelokov.
Since 1964, with the arrival of Brezhnev, conservative tendencies and gradually growing negativity both in the economy of the USSR and in the social and spiritual life of society returned to the country. The Brezhnev party apparatus saw in its leader the sole defender of the system, therefore the government rejected any reforms in order to preserve the previous regime of power endowed with broad privileges. The country formally returned to the “Leninist” principles of collective leadership, the country’s party apparatus completely subordinated the state apparatus, all ministries became ordinary executors of party decisions, and there were no non-party leaders left in the top leadership.
The growth of bureaucracy and bureaucratic arbitrariness, corruption and embezzlement became the key epithets characterizing the power of the USSR during the years of Brezhnev's rule. The development of the foreign-industrial complex became a special concern of the new ruler, since he did not find solutions to the internal stagnant crisis in society and was completely focused on foreign policy. At the same time, the Union began to again use repressive measures against “dissidents” who tried to protect their rights in the USSR.
The achievements of Leonid Brezhnev during his reign of the Soviet state generally consisted of achieving political détente in the 70s, when agreements were concluded with the United States on the limitation of strategic offensive weapons. He also signed the Helsinki Agreements, which confirmed the integrity of the inviolability of Europe's borders and agreement to non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign states. In 1977, Brezhnev signed the Soviet-French declaration on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
All these processes were crossed out by the introduction Soviet troops to Afghanistan. The participation of the USSR in the Afghan conflict led to the introduction of an anti-Soviet UN Security Council resolution, as well as sectoral Western sanctions, mainly affecting the gas industry. The USSR's participation in the Afghan conflict lasted almost 10 years and took the lives of about 40 thousand Soviet soldiers. Then the United States announced “ cold war“The USSR, and the Afghan Mujahideen turned into an anti-Soviet war squad led by the American leadership.
Under the leadership of Brezhnev, the USSR also took part in the Vietnam and Middle East military conflicts. During the same period, the head of the Soviet state agreed to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact countries, and in 1980 he began preparing military intervention in Poland, which significantly worsened the attitude of the world community towards the USSR.
The results of Leonid Brezhnev's reign resulted in the final collapse of the country's economy, which his successors were unable to restore. At the same time, many today consider the “Brezhnev era” better times for the Soviet people.
Personal life
Personal life Leonid Brezhnev was stable. He was married once, whom he met in 1925 at a dance in the college dormitory. Historians claim that the family life of the leader of the USSR was calm - his wife took care of the house and children, and he took care of politics.
Over the years of their marriage, Victoria gave birth to her husband’s children, Yuri and, who in her youth was one of the most scandalous figures Soviet elite. At the same time, there were a lot of legends about Brezhnev’s love affairs, which were never confirmed in modern history.
The Secretary General was distracted from everyday work by hunting and cars. Brezhnev left home almost every weekend to disconnect from everyday problems, which on weekdays he experienced exclusively with the help of sedative pills, without which he could not live and work. He also regularly went to all kinds of theatrical productions and circus performances, attended sports matches and even attended the ballet. Such an “active” vacation became an outlet for Leonid Ilyich, who found himself in complete power political system of that time, requiring complete dedication from the leader.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev rose to the heights of power from the very bottom of the workers, so he clearly understood what a hard life was. He was not wasteful, he transferred every penny he earned to a savings book, and his needs were no different from an ordinary “little” person. At the same time, he did everything possible to soviet people for the first time they put on normal shoes and clothes, got housing and household appliances, purchased personal cars and improved their diet. This is why people are nostalgic for the Brezhnev era, when the country began to pay increased attention to improving the well-being of ordinary people.
Death
Leonid Brezhnev died on November 10, 1982 from sudden stop hearts during sleep. The death of the leader of the USSR occurred at the state dacha "Zarechye-6" and shocked the entire Soviet Union, which plunged into mourning for several days. According to historians, Brezhnev’s health began to fail from the beginning of 1970, when the Secretary General practically did not sleep for days due to the Prague Spring.
Even then, during meetings, one could notice a violation of his diction, which was associated with uncontrolled use sedatives. At the end of 1974, the Soviet leader’s associates realized that Leonid Ilyich was “ending up” as an independent politician, since the work of his apparatus was entirely concentrated in the hands of Konstantin Chernenko, who had a facsimile, as well as the ability to put stamps on state documents with Brezhnev’s signature.
At the same time, the first person to learn about Brezhnev’s death was Yuri Andropov, who was the second person in the country after Leonid Ilyich. He instantly arrived at the scene of the Secretary General’s death and immediately took Brezhnev’s briefcase, in which the politician kept incriminating evidence on all members of the Politburo. Only a day later did he allow the public to be notified of the death of the head of the USSR.
Leonid Brezhnev was buried on November 15, 1982 on Red Square near the Kremlin wall in Moscow. Leaders of 35 countries from all over the world attended his funeral, which made the farewell to the Secretary General the most magnificent and pompous after Stalin’s funeral. A lot of people were present at the funeral of the Soviet leader, some of whom could not hold back their tears and sincerely regretted the death of Leonid Ilyich.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (December 6 (19), 1906 - November 10, 1982) - , Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Chairman of the Defense Council of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union, four times Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor.
Biography
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born in Ukraine in the Yekaterinoslav province, into a Russian family of hereditary workers. His grandfather, father, brother worked at the largest plant in the country at that time, the South Russian Metallurgical Society, and L. Brezhnev himself interned here as a fifteen-year-old teenager. Afterwards, the plant is closed for reconstruction, and the Brezhnev family is forced to move to the village and engage in agricultural work. Leonid Brezhnev entered the reclamation technical school, graduated four years later, and in 1929, the year of the “great Stalinist turning point,” he became a candidate member of the party and began to engage in the then urgent collective farm construction.
In the thirties, Leonid Ilyich studied at the institute in the evenings in a blue-collar specialty, worked at a factory during the day, and at the same time carried out party work. For two years, 1935-1936, L. Brezhnev served in the army as a junior commander, then returned and headed the technical school. In 1937, when other saboteurs were being purged from the party, Leonid Ilyich was transferred to party work and by the beginning of the war he became secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional party committee. During these years, L. Brezhnev worked under the direct leadership of N. Khrushchev.
Since June 1941, Leonid Ilyich, as secretary of the regional committee, has been organizing the mobilization of the population into the Red Army and leading the evacuation of industry in his region beyond the Urals. After the occupation of the Dnepropetrovsk region by the fascists, L. Brezhnev was drafted into the active army as a political worker. L. Brezhnev took part in the defense of the Caucasus, the liberation of Ukraine, and the offensive on German territory.
The most famous military episode in the biography of L. Brezhnev is the landing of troops as part of units of the 18th Army in the Novorossiysk region and the retention of a strategically important bridgehead, which later received the name “Malaya Zemlya”. The bridgehead was held for 225 days, until the main forces of the Soviet troops united with units of the 18th Army. With the rank of colonel, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev during this time found himself under fire more than once, even participated in hand-to-hand combat, and sank along with other paratroopers in Tsemes Bay. L. Brezhnev ended the war in Prague, as a major general as head of the Political Directorate of the 4th Ukrainian Front.
In 1946, L. Brezhnev was demobilized and returned to party work to lead regional party committees in Ukraine. Having shown good results in restoring the national economy from post-war devastation, Leonid Ilyich received a promotion and in 1950 headed the leadership of the Republican Communist Party - the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Moldova. The day after his death, already on March 6, 1953, rapid personnel changes began in the country's leadership. L. Brezhnev, receives the rank of lieutenant general and heads the Main Political Directorate of the entire Army and Navy. As a person trusted by N. Khrushchev, in June 1953, L. Brezhnev is on the side of N. Khrushchev against L. Beria and, among other officers, takes part in the arrest of L. Beria on June 26. As a result of N. Khrushchev's victory, he becomes the head of the Soviet state, and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev makes a rapid party career.
At the beginning, L. Brezhnev was sent to work in Kazakhstan, where he was entrusted with leading the development of virgin and fallow lands. Panteleimon Kondratyevich Ponomarenko was appointed the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, and L. I. Brezhnev was appointed the second. It is known that shortly before his death, I.V. Stalin considered Ponomarenko as a successor and continuer of his work and, obviously, N. Khrushchev exiled a possible competitor away from Moscow, assigning his most reliable subordinate as his deputy - to keep an eye on him.
The size of the territory where agricultural work was to begin was 1300 by 900 kilometers; the area of plowed fields was supposed to exceed the territory of England. During two years of work in the virgin lands, millions of specialists from Russia and Ukraine came to work in Northern Kazakhstan, hundreds of thousands of them remained to live in Kazakhstan forever. Thanks to the development of virgin lands in the mid-fifties, the share of the Russian population here amounts to 60% of the total population, which determines the political and cultural integration of Kazakhstan and Russia after the collapse of the USSR.
L. Brezhnev wrote:
The directors of the state farms, together with the main specialists, went to the steppe, having in their pockets only an order of their appointment, a bank account number and a seal. They came, drove a peg into the ground with the name of the state farm and began to act... The directors of state farms also had briefcases, and in them - maps of land in the land management of new farms, where water sources were located, where estates should appear, where pastures were, and where fields were. .
When virgin soil reached its finest hour, the republic sold a billion pounds of grain to the state, L. Brezhnev reported to the party congress on the work completed and was transferred to work in Moscow, at the CPSU Central Committee.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev again supported N.S. Khrushchev in the struggle for power and took his side when the “anti-party group” Molotov-Malenkov-Kaganovich “and Shepilov, who joined them,” tried to remove him. In 1960, after the retirement of K. E. Voroshilov, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev took his position as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR. Formally, this was the third most important position in the state, and informally Leonid Ilyich occupied high positions in the ruling hierarchy. Brezhnev did not strive to be a leader at that moment. However, Nikita Khrushchev's adventurist policies increasingly caused discontent within the country. The common people did not like Khrushchev and expected the return of the old order, the liberal opposition was also dissatisfied, but on the contrary, they expected even greater concessions from him in the field of ideology, the party bureaucracy suffered from his voluntarism.
Economic activity was a failure, food cards were introduced in cities, and in one case it was even necessary to suppress worker discontent by military means, which was nonsense for Soviet times. In October 1964, a conspiracy was formed against N. Khrushchev by senior party and state functionaries, the initiators of which were A. Shelepin and KGB Chairman V. Semichastny. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev knew about the existence of the conspiracy, but was not an active participant in it, although he did not side with N. Khrushchev. Chosen as a temporary, not very strong and compromise figure, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was appointed to the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and remained in this post for eighteen years, outliving in a political sense all the other “main” conspirators.
The activities of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev at the first stage of his leadership of the country were clearly positive. All unreasonable initiatives in the economic sphere introduced during the time of Khrushchev were curtailed. According to the economic reform initiated by Kosygin, the independence of enterprises was expanded, the number of planned indicators, material incentives and economic calculations were reduced. The growth rate of output at the beginning of L. Brezhnev’s reign rose relative to the “Khrushchev” level, although it continued to remain below the “Stalin” level. The damage caused to agriculture by N. Khrushchev could not be compensated during the reign of L. Brezhnev, and the country continued to purchase grain abroad.
In 1968, an armed uprising, inspired by Western intelligence services, broke out in Czechoslovakia. Many Czechs who supported the Soviet Union were repressed by the rebels. The USSR could not calmly look at the anti-Russian uprising on its distant borders, so on August 21, 1968, Soviet troops were brought into Prague and, after short skirmishes with the rebels, order was restored in Czechoslovakia. This turn of events did not cause any complaints from the United States, since the Americans, during preliminary consultations, confirmed that they recognize the Yalta agreements of 1945 on the post-war division of spheres of influence and do not intend to enter into an armed conflict with the USSR over Czechoslovakia. The Prague events became the reason for the subsequent activities of the so-called. dissidents to maliciously discredit the Soviet Union. After the Prague events of 1968, it became clear to the leadership of the USSR that liberalization and commercialization economic activity could lead to the growth of the social base of pro-Western forces within the USSR, therefore further economic transformations were no longer carried out on the basis of market reforms.
He foresaw the energy crisis in Western countries in the early seventies and met it head on. Geological surveys were carried out in the USSR, as a result of which the largest Samotlor deposit was discovered. A large hydrocarbon raw material base allowed the country to avoid the crisis that was strangling other countries of the world, to develop a new branch of the national economy - the chemical industry, and to receive an additional 200 billion dollars, using it to rearm the army and build major economic facilities.
In the seventies, during the heyday under the rule of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the world's largest hydroelectric power stations were built, along with aluminum smelters associated with them; the “winged metal” smelted there was used in the construction of new aircraft factories and in the production of automobiles. In 1970, the first VAZ-2101 car, the famous “kopek”, rolled off the assembly line; in 1974, the grandiose construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline began.
During the early reign of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, our country was a model of power and glory. Russian cosmonauts set one record after another, automatic interplanetary stations explored near and distant planets solar system. Soviet fleet was present in all corners of the world's oceans, the country inflicted a number of military defeats on hostile powers in conflicts on the territory of other states. In particular, by supporting the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the USSR inflicted the most devastating military defeat USA throughout its existence. The term "Vietnam syndrome" is still widely used today, referring to the feeling of fear and humiliation that the United States experienced in 1975. Nuclear missile weapons created in the USSR, their quality and quantity, did not allow other countries to enter into open military confrontation with our country.
The majority of the population of the USSR, during the reign of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, lived happily and at ease. Economic growth in the country was ensured not due to backbreaking labor and tension of the entire national body, as, for example, during the time of Stalinist industrialization or post-war reconstruction, but due to the industrial base created earlier and updated under Brezhnev.
Dissidents dissatisfied with the regime and supported by the country's enemies were under the control of the KGB during Brezhnev's time. The USSR was one of the ten countries that had the highest per capita income, the education system was the best in the world, and higher education was available to almost everyone. The Soviet healthcare system provided universal access to medicine for all citizens of the country. In the field of sports and culture, the Brezhnev era today resembles the golden age.
In 1979, Soviet troops were sent to Afghanistan. As practice has shown, this decision was correct and justified. The danger of armed conflicts was removed from the country's borders, the war was carried beyond its borders. Afghanistan during the presence of Soviet troops there was a relatively stable state, and there was no threat of chemical warfare against Russia. Losses during the nine years of war amounted to only thirteen thousand people, soldiers who died with weapons in their hands, the knowledge that they were defending peaceful life in their country and the understanding that they were participating in a dangerous business. Today, heroin attacks in Afghanistan kill every year one hundred thousand boys and girls across Russia, defenseless, on the thresholds of their homes. This is incomparably worse and more unfair. The war has moved from distant approaches to the territory of the country itself, it is burning in the North Caucasus, houses in the capital are being blown up.
The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan became the reason for the US demarche to boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Only athletes from friendly USSR or neutral states came to the competition, but, nevertheless, the Olympics became an unforgettable sporting event for the country. Soviet athletes confidently beat all other states in terms of the number of medals won, once again confirming the strength of Soviet sports. It cannot be ruled out that the United States simply took advantage of the opportunity with Afghanistan at that time, so as not to embarrass itself by being defeated by the USSR in an open sports competition at the 1980 Olympics.
In the second half of the seventies, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev fell ill and could not devote much time to governing the country. The quality of management also suffered. Along with undoubted successes in the life of the country, negative processes began to develop in the seventies. The main problem of that period was the degeneration of the ruling layer, the leadership of the Komsomol and. T.n. the elite of that time was mired in double-dealing, lies and opportunism. While declaring some values in words, the Komsomol leaders themselves professed others, calling on the people to selflessness, and were more interested in personal consumption than in the affairs of the country. Communist phraseology has reached the point of absurdity. The leadership stratum has become detached from the people, the people have fenced themselves off from their formal leaders with a wall of apathy or humor.
The second problem was the increase in corruption processes. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a non-confrontational person by nature, so criminal prosecution of unscrupulous civil servants was practically not carried out under him. Economic managers at all levels practiced illegal economic schemes; the leadership of many regions and even republics felt like appanage princes. For example, in Central Asia, some republican leaders had their own prisons, in which they kept unwanted people without trial or investigation. As a result of corruption and foreign policy changes observed by economists (in 1971, the United States invented a system that allowed it to exploit other countries, including the USSR), the economic situation in our country worsened by the beginning of the eighties, and a shortage of goods formed. L. Brezhnev several times asked his entourage to accept his resignation for health reasons, but those close to him benefited from a system with a weak and sick leader.
The Brezhnev circle in the late seventies and early eighties cared about their own clan interests and often ignored the interests of the state as a whole. His closest associates indulged the sick leader in his weaknesses and awarded him orders and medals, the abundance of which caused general laughter. L. Brezhnev became Marshal of the USSR, four times Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor, Knight of the Order of Victory, and had more than two hundred other insignia. In recent years, psychic and occult magician Dzhuna Davitashvili, as well as a team of resuscitation doctors, have been assigned to the paralyzed head of state. Based on the condition of the sick leader, experts in Western countries tried to make forecasts about who and when would replace him in a high leadership position.
In his personal life, before his illness, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a cheerful and cheerful person. He loved hearty feasts, hunted big game on special government lands, and collected best cars different countries and loved to drive them himself at great speed. “One day he took me to the black Cadillac that Nixon gave him a year ago. With Brezhnev at the wheel, we raced at high speed along narrow, winding country roads, so that we could only pray that some traffic policeman would appear at the nearest intersection and put an end to this risky game,” recalled one senior American official. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev had a son and daughter. Yuri Leonidovich worked as Deputy Minister foreign trade, Galina Leonidovna, was an expressive person, married the future Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Yu. Churbanov.
Meaning
The period of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev's reign had both its positive and negative sides. At the first stage of L. Brezhnev's reign, he played a noticeable positive role in the life of our state; in the second half, negative processes began to grow in the country. L. Brezhnev ruled for eighteen years, longer than any other Soviet ruler, with the exception of I.V. Stalin. During the crisis of the eighties, the period of Leonid Ilyich’s reign was called a “period of stagnation,” but now, after the devastation of the nineties, it is increasingly presented as a period of prosperity, peace, stability and state power. Most likely, both of these opinions have a right to exist, since the Brezhnev period was very heterogeneous in nature.
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