Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich 1906-82
Soviet statesman

Born in Kamenskoye (then called Dneprodzerzhinsk), Ukraine, the son of a steelworker, he joined the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) in 1923 and, having trained as an agricultural surveyor, worked on the collectivization programmes in Belorussia and the Urals region during the 1920s. He was accepted into the Communist Party (CPSU) in 1931, studied at the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute until 1935, and in 1938 was appointed party propaganda chief at Dnepropetrovsk where he impressed the new Ukrainian party chief, Nikita Khrushchev, with his organizational skills. Between 1941 and 1945 he served as a political commissar to the Southern Army and after the war was sent to Moldavia as party chief (1950-52) to 'sovietize' the newly-ceded republic. The CPSU leader, Joseph Stalin, inducted Brezhnev into the secretariat and the politburo, as a 'candidate' member (1952). Brezhnev was removed from these posts following Stalin's death in 1953, but, with Khrushchev's patronage, returned to favour in 1954, being sent to Kazakhstan to oversee implementation of the new 'virgin lands' agricultural programme. From 1956-57, he returned to the politburo and secretariat, was removed in 1960, but returned and was elected the new CPSU General Secretary in 1964, when Khrushchev was ousted. He emerged as an international statesman during the early 1970s and in May 1977 gained the additional title of State President, becoming the first person to hold simultaneously the position of General Secretary and President of the Supreme Soviet. During the later 1970s, however, as his health deteriorated, policy-making became paralysed and economic difficulties mounted. The Brezhnev era saw the Soviet Union establish itself as a military and political superpower, extending its influence in Africa and Asia. At home, however, it was a period of caution and, during the 1970s, of economic stagnation, which was criticized by the Gorbachev administration.