media concept Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982

With the light hand of Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the USSR, this time was called the "period of stagnation." Some people call the time of Brezhnev, many people call this time the "golden age of the USSR."

The period of the life of the USSR in 1965-1980 is rightly called the Brezhnev era, and only in the evil language of perestroika - the period of "stagnation". It is not surprising that after the 1990s, when people experienced all the vileness of capitalism, polls of citizens of different nationalities, former residents of the USSR, showed a very revealing phenomenon. Of all the historical eras, as they were imagined by the inhabitants of the former country of the Soviets, the Brezhnev era received the most positive assessments, and perestroika was named the worst time.

As in any historical period, so in the Brezhnev era, there are pluses and minuses.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and the years of his reign do not cause such heated debate among compatriots as Stalin or even Khrushchev. However, this person also causes very contradictory assessments, and the corresponding period left a variety of impressions in the memory of the people.

In this article, we will consider the main points of the era of the reign of Leonid Brezhnev.

RISE TO POWER

Leonid Brezhnev began his political path after the end of the Great Patriotic War and owed his promotion to Nikita Khrushchev.

Until 1962, Khrushchev's position as the leader of the party was strong, but then the depressing economic indicators, ill-conceived reforms of education and the economic apparatus, the increasingly pretentious and unpredictable public tirades of the First Secretary began to disturb his entourage. Outwardly, Brezhnev showed loyalty to Khrushchev, but behind the scenes, in 1963, he took part in a conspiracy on the side of Alexei Kosygin, Alexander Shelepin and Nikolai Podgorny, whose goal was to replace the leader. In the same 1963, instead of Frol Kozlov, Leonid Ilyich became the second secretary of the Central Committee - that is, Khrushchev's official successor.

On October 14, 1964, when Khrushchev went on vacation, the conspirators convened the Central Committee, which supported them and sent Khrushchev a notice of his resignation. Brezhnev has now become First Party Secretary, Alexei Kosygin - Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The last defender of Khrushchev, Anastas Mikoyan, received the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet for one year, but then he was replaced by Podgorny.

DOMESTIC POLICY

The main task of the USSR since the mid-1950s was to get out of the emergency program of "mobilization socialism" and switch the energy of the war and restoration periods to the development and modernization of all spheres of public life.

Today, not many people remember that Brezhnev's "stagnant" time began ... with reforms. However, before that, it is worth mentioning the "reforms" of the previous Secretary General - Khrushchev, who destroyed the private market of the USSR.

The coup d'état of 1953 and its cover at the XX Congress (part 1) http://inance.ru/2015/02/iuda/

The fact is that after the Judas Report of the 20th Congress of 1956 (http://inance.ru/2015/02/iuda/), little was said about the Stalinist system, and in particular, the role of market relations was hushed up.

The USSR, above all, depended on foreign markets. When grain fell in price due to the “Great Depression”, only the export of timber could provide the funds needed to survive in the war: this caused the growth of the Gulag as a production complex and the emergence of self-financing in it. With all the cruelty (“big rations kill, not small ones”), the latter showed effectiveness, and in February 1941 the Plenum of the Central Committee of the VPK (b) decided to extend self-support to the rest of the economy. By the way, for some reason, the creation of self-supporting accounts is attributed to Brezhnev (as stated - in 1965).

Despite the war, market relations have taken hold in a number of sectors. Khrushchev had already uprooted them: they interfered with the emerging class of the party nomenklatura - where did the “red directors” come from? Brezhnev in this area only used the already established state of affairs.

Thus, a small business, called cooperation, produced at least 6% of industrial output before the war, including 40% of furniture, 70% of metal utensils, and almost all toys. 114 thousand industrial enterprises (in Moscow in 1936 there were 15 thousand) employed 1.8 million people.

The first Soviet tube receivers (since 1930), radiograms (since 1935) and televisions (since 1939) were produced by the Leningrad Artel Progress-Radio. About a hundred design bureaus, 22 experimental laboratories and even 2 research institutes worked in the business sector. The industrial cooperation had its own pension system (which the village was deprived of), consumer and even housing lending.

Its benefits exceeded today's small business benefits, and its executives, in addition to profits, were rewarded along with industrial executives of a comparable level.

Trade of agricultural producers was taxed at 3% of turnover, which made accounting unnecessary. Attempts to cut them off from markets and enslave them (which the mafia is now doing well) were punished mercilessly. Registration of fishing artels took less than a day (http://kprf.ru/rus_soc/99271.html). But Khrushchev practically reduced the legal private market to zero, essentially carrying out the seizure of other people's property and transferring it to the jurisdiction of "party bosses." Khrushchev in 1956 covered and liquidated this sector of the national economy, along with personal plots (which, by the way, under Stalin were up to 1 hectare). It should be noted that in the all-Union economic discussion in 1951, D.T. Shepilov, A.N. Kosygin defended both the household plot of collective farmers and the freedom of artel entrepreneurship.

In 1956, he decided to completely transfer to the state all artel enterprises by 1960 - the only exceptions were small artels of consumer services, art crafts, and artels of the disabled, and they were forbidden to carry out regular retail trade in their products. The defeat of artel entrepreneurship was cruel and unfair. The above-mentioned "Radist" became a state-owned plant. "Metallist" - Mechanical Repair Plant. "Red Partisan" - Rosin plant. "Jupiter" turned into the state plant "Burevestnik". Artel property was alienated free of charge. Shareholders lost all contributions, except for those that were subject to return based on the results of 1956. Loans issued by artels to their members were credited to the budget. The trading network and public catering enterprises in the cities were alienated free of charge, in the countryside for a nominal fee.

As a result, in 1965, after the removal of Khrushchev, restorative reforms had to be carried out.

The reform was a complex of five groups of the following measures:

• The bodies of territorial economic management and planning were liquidated - the councils of the national economy, created in 1957, enterprises became the main economic unit. The system of sectoral management of industry, all-Union, Union-Republican and Republican ministries and departments were restored.
• The number of directive planned indicators was reduced (from 30 to 9). The indicators remained valid for: the total volume of production in current wholesale prices; the most important products in physical terms; the general payroll; the total amount of profit and profitability, expressed as the ratio of profit to the amount of fixed assets and normalized working capital; payments to the budget and appropriations from the budget; the total volume of capital investments; assignments for the introduction of new technology; volume of deliveries of raw materials, materials and equipment.
• The economic independence of enterprises expanded. Enterprises were obliged to independently determine the detailed range and range of products, to invest in production at their own expense, to establish long-term contractual relationships with suppliers and consumers, to determine the number of personnel, the amount of their material incentives. For non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, enterprises were subject to financial sanctions, and the importance of economic arbitration increased.
• Key importance was attached to the integral indicators of the economic efficiency of production - profit and profitability. At the expense of profits, enterprises were able to form a number of funds - funds for the development of production, material incentives, socio-cultural purposes, housing construction, etc. Enterprises could use the funds at their discretion (of course, within the framework of existing legislation).
• Pricing policy: the wholesale selling price was supposed to provide the enterprise with a given profitability of production. Long-term standards were introduced - the norms of the planned cost of production that were not subject to revision for a certain period.

In agriculture, purchase prices for products increased by 1.5-2 times, preferential payment for excess harvest was introduced, prices for spare parts and equipment were reduced, and income tax rates for peasants were reduced. returned

As a result of the implementation of the 8th Five-Year Plan (1966-1970), it became the most successful in Soviet history and was called "golden". 1900 large enterprises were built, including a car factory in Tolyatti.

The team of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin used the effective planning system that Stalin created during the war one hundred percent. Over the next fifteen years, they strengthened the margin of safety, which, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, allowed the new states of the CIS to live for twenty years, practically without creating anything new.

SOME INDICATORS OF THE PERIOD OF THE BREZHNEV ERA

Positive developments

By 1980, the production and consumption of electricity in the Soviet Union had increased by 26.8 times compared to 1940, while in the United States, over the same period, generation at power plants increased by 13.67 times.

In 1980, the Soviet Union ranked first in Europe and second in the world in terms of production in industry and agriculture. If in 1960 the volume of industrial output of the USSR compared to the United States was 55%, then 20 years later, in 1980, it was already more than 80%, although the quality of products did not always correspond to the American one.

In social terms, over the 18 Brezhnev years, the real incomes of the population increased by more than 1.5 times. The population of Russia in those years increased by 12 million people. This should also include the commissioning under Brezhnev of 1.6 billion square meters. meters of living space, thanks to which 162 million people were provided with free housing. At the same time, rent did not exceed 3% of family income on average, although in the absence of a competitive housing market. There were successes in other areas, for example, in tractor construction: the Soviet Union exported tractors to forty countries of the world, mainly socialist and developing countries. The pride of the Soviet leadership was the constant growth in the provision of agriculture with tractors and combines, however, grain yields were significantly lower than in industrialized capitalist countries (in 1970, 15.6 centners per hectare in the USSR against 31.2 centners per hectare in the USA, 50 3 c/ha in Japan and the Commonwealth of Australia - 11.6 c/ha), and it was not possible to achieve an increase in yield - in 1985 it amounted to 15 c/ha. However, there was a big difference in the regions - for example, in Moldova, the yield was 29.3 c / ha, in Russia - 15.6 c / ha, in the Baltic republics - 21.3 - 24.5 c / ha (all data from 1970) .

In general, to assess the efficiency of agricultural production, it is necessary, of course, to take into account climatic conditions. Nevertheless, in the RSFSR, the gross grain harvest (in weight after processing) was one and a half to two times higher than after perestroika, and similar proportions can be seen in the number of main types of livestock.

Negative phenomena

First of all, this is a steady decline in growth rates, stagnation in the economy:

In the last 12-15 years, the development of the national economy of the USSR has begun to show a tendency towards a noticeable decrease in the rate of growth of the national income. If in the eighth five-year plan its average annual growth was 7.5% and in the ninth - 5.8%, then in the tenth it decreased to 3.8%, and in the first years of the eleventh it was about 2.5% (with the growth of the country's population on average by 0.8% per year). This ensures neither the required rate of growth in the living standards of the people, nor intensive technical re-equipment of production.

The lag behind the West in the development of science-intensive industries was also significant. For example, the state of computing has been characterized as "catastrophic":

The situation in Soviet computer technology seems catastrophic: domestic computers are produced on an outdated element base, they are unreliable, expensive and difficult to operate, they have little RAM and external memory, the reliability and quality of peripheral devices are incomparable with mass Western ones. In all respects, we are 5-15 years behind. ... The gap separating the USSR from the world level is growing faster ... We have become close to the fact that now not only they could not copy Western prototypes, but in general they were not even able to follow the world level of development.

WHAT FACTORS COULD PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY IN THESE YEARS?

Under Brezhnev, the USSR won a new space victory over the Americans - Alexei Leonov made the first manned spacewalk. In 1971, the USSR launched the world's first orbital station Salyut-1 into orbit.

In 1964-1985, the country as a whole developed. New cities and towns, plants and factories, Palaces of Culture and stadiums were built; universities were created, new schools and hospitals were opened. The USSR came to the forefront in space exploration, the development of aviation, nuclear energy, fundamental and applied sciences.

Our education was considered the best in the world, the highest achievements were observed in medicine, the social security system. An independent life included a new generation of energetic and inquisitive young people, some of whom actually became the personnel base of dissidents and democratizers of Perestroika (we wrote about it in the article - http://inance.ru/2015/10/perestrojka/).

Soviet people lived with confidence in the future and did not live in poverty, no one rummaged through the garbage dumps, even the most modest earnings were enough for food and clothing, paying for utilities and rest during the vacation period.

However, it should be noted that many scholars associate the stability in the economy of that period with a sharp increase in the price of oil, which allowed the leaders of the state to further postpone reforms without losing profits. There is a version that the rise in oil prices at that time was associated with the payment by the Americans of compensation to the leadership of the Soviet Union for their silence on the question: “Did the Americans fly to the moon?”

Soviet party and statesman.
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1964 (since 1966 General Secretary) and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1960-1964. and since 1977
Marshal of the Soviet Union, 1976

Biography of Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906 in the village of Kamenskoye, Yekaterinoslav province (now it is the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk).

L. Brezhnev's father, Ilya Yakovlevich, was a metallurgical worker. Brezhnev's mother, Natalya Denisovna, had the surname Mazelova before her marriage.

In 1915, Brezhnev entered the zero class of a classical gymnasium.

In 1921, Leonid Brezhnev graduated from a labor school, went to his first job at the Kursk oil mill.

1923 was marked by joining the Komsomol.

In 1927, Brezhnev graduated from the Kursk land management and reclamation college. After studying, Leonid Ilyich worked for some time in Kursk and in Belarus.

In 1927 - 1930. Brezhnev holds the post of land surveyor in the Urals. Later he became the head of the district land department, was deputy chairman of the District Executive Committee, deputy head of the Ural Regional Land Administration. He took an active part in the collectivization in the Urals.

In 1928 Leonid Brezhnev married.

In 1931, Brezhnev joined the VKP(b) (All-Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks).

In 1935, he received a diploma from the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute, being a party organizer.

In 1937 he entered the metallurgical plant. F.E. Dzerzhinsky as an engineer and immediately received the post of deputy chairman of the Dneprodzerzhinsky city executive committee.

In 1938, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was appointed head of the department of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and a year later he received a secretary position in the same organization.

During the Great Patriotic War, Brezhnev occupied a number of senior positions: Deputy Head of the Political Directorate of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Head of the Political Department of the 18th Army, Head of the Political Directorate of the Carpathian Military District. He finished the war with the rank of major general, although he had "very weak military knowledge."

In 1946, L.I. Brezhnev was appointed 1st Secretary of the Zaporozhye Regional Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine, a year later he was transferred to the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Committee in the same position.

In 1950, he became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in July of the same year - the 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Moldova.

In October 1952, Brezhnev received from Stalin the post of secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and became a member of the Central Committee and a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee.

After the death of I.V. Stalin in 1953, the rapid career of Leonid Ilyich was interrupted for a while. He was demoted and was appointed 1st Deputy Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy.

1954 - 1956 the famous uplift of virgin lands in Kazakhstan. L.I. Brezhnev consistently holds the positions of 2nd and 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic.

In February 1956, he regained his position as secretary of the Central Committee.

In 1956, Brezhnev became a candidate, and a year later a member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee (in 1966 the organization was renamed the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee). In this position, Leonid Ilyich led science-intensive industries, including space exploration.

Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich (12/19/1906 - 11/10/1982) a party, military, statesman, and also a political figure who held leading positions in the Soviet state for eighteen years - starting from 1964. until his death in 1982.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906. in the village of Kamenskoye, located in the Yekaterinoslav province. In 1915 Leonid began his studies at a classical gymnasium, where he studied until 1921. The following year, he got a job at an oil mill. Two years later he joined the Komsomol. He graduated from the technical school of land surveying and reclamation (in the city of Kursk), as well as the metallurgical institute (in Dneprodzerzhinsk).

Leonid Brezhnev graduated from the technical school in 1927 and, having received a land surveyor's diploma, began working as a land surveyor.

This year he met Victoria Denisova. In 1928, Brezhnev married Viktoria Petrovna Denisova, with whom he later had two children, Galina and Yuri, and in the same year he was sent to work in the Urals. In 1930 he first entered the capital's institute of mechanical engineering, and then transferred to Dneprodzerzhinsk to the metallurgical institute, working simultaneously with his studies at the factory. In 1935-1936. served in the army. In 1938 became head of the department of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and a year later became the secretary of the regional committee.

During the war years, he was deputy head of the political department of the Southern Front, in 1943 he was appointed head of the political department of the eighteenth army, and in 1945. - Head of the political department of the Fourth Ukrainian Front. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev ended the war with the rank of Major General, which he was awarded in 1943.

In 1946 became the first secretary of the first Zaporozhye, and then the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee. Since 1950 - was appointed the first secretary of the Communist Party of Moldova.

In 1952 at the nineteenth party congress, on the recommendation of I. Stalin, Brezhnev was elected secretary of the Central Committee, as well as a candidate member of the presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

In 1953 became deputy chief of the political department of the Army and Navy.

In 1954 Brezhnev was transferred at the insistence of Khrushchev to Kazakhstan, where he became first the second, then the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.

In 1957, Leonid Brezhnev became a member of the presidium, as well as secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in 1960 he was appointed chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council.

In 1964, Brezhnev became the head of the assembled conspiracy against Khrushchev, taking the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party after the removal of Nikita Sergeevich. In 1966, Brezhnev became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, remaining in this post until the end of his life. This year, Brezhnev was awarded the first title of Hero of the Soviet Union (in total, it was awarded to Leonid Ilyich four times).

In the late sixties, Brezhnev had serious problems with his health, after which a team of doctors was constantly with him, and medical rooms were equipped where Brezhnev lived and worked.

In 1976, Brezhnev was awarded the title of Marshal of the USSR. Then he experienced clinical death for the first time. Doctors were able to bring Brezhnev back to life, but from that moment on, his facial expressions and speech were impaired. With him, a team of resuscitators began to be constantly on duty. In total, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev suffered several strokes and heart attacks, more than once doctors brought him out of a state of clinical death.

11/10/1982 Brezhnev died in Moscow.

The main achievements of Brezhnev

• After the reign of Khrushchev, the Soviet economy shook, the Russian village was destroyed, the socialist community split. Brezhnev, before heading the state, already had vast managerial experience. He went through various levels of leadership and oversaw the defense industry. The Brezhnev era, referred to as the "period of stagnation", had its positive aspects. Under Brezhnev, the USSR turned into a superpower, at that time the standard of living rose, and extensive housing construction was also launched. There was stability in the country, citizens felt confident in the future. The USSR actively participated in the space program. At the same time, the style of Brezhnev's rule was characterized by conservatism. As a politician, Brezhnev was not able to clearly see the prospects for the development of the state. The political life of the Union of the Brezhnev era was characterized by the growth of the bureaucratic apparatus and the strengthening of its arbitrariness.

Important dates in Brezhnev's biography

• December 19, 1906 - was born in the village of Kamenskoye.
• 1915 - admission to the classical gymnasium.
• 1921 - graduation from the gymnasium. Leonid goes to work at an oil mill in Kursk.
• 1923 - joining the Komsomol.
• 1927 - the beginning of work in the Urals as a land surveyor. Acquaintance with Victoria Petrovna Denisova.
• 1928 - married to Victoria Denisova, graduated from the land reclamation technical school.
• 1931 - joining the CPSU (b).
• 1935 - graduated from the metallurgical institute.
• 1935-1936 - military service.
• 1937 - began work as an engineer at a metallurgical plant. Appointment of Deputy Chairman of the Dneprodzerzhinsk city executive committee.
• 1938 - appointment as head of the department of the Dnepropetrovsk regional party committee.
• 1939 - appointment as secretary of the regional committee.
• 1943 - appointment as head of the political department of the eighteenth army.
• 1945 - appointment as head of the political department of the Fourth Ukrainian Front.
• 1946 - Appointment as the first secretary of the first Zaporozhye, and then the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Committee.
• 1950 - appointment as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Moldova.
• 1952 - election as secretary of the Central Committee, as well as a candidate member of the presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
• 1953 - appointment as deputy head of the political department of the Army and Navy.
• 1954 - transferred to Kazakhstan, where he becomes first the second, and then the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.
• 1957 - Leonid Brezhnev became a member of the presidium, as well as the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
• 1960 - appointment as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council.
• 1964 - Brezhnev becomes the head of a conspiracy against Khrushchev and, after the removal of Nikita Sergeevich, takes the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
• 1966 - Brezhnev becomes General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Assignment of the first title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
• 1976 - Brezhnev was awarded the title of Marshal of the USSR.
• 1977 - also becomes Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council.
• 11/10/1982 - Brezhnev died in Moscow.

• There are many jokes and anecdotes dedicated to Brezhnev.
• Dominoes were Leonid Brezhnev's favorite board game.
• The city of Naberezhnye Chelny, renamed after the death of the leader into the city of Brezhnev, is located near Izhevsk, which was called Ustinov in honor of the former Minister of Defense. For some time there was a bus route between these cities with the interesting name Brezhnev-Ustinov.
• Brezhnev holds the record among Soviet state leaders in terms of the number of Orders of the Golden Star of the Hero. He was also the only person who possessed the Order of Victory, whose award was later dismissed as contrary to the status of this order. Only military leaders who made a strategic turning point in a certain military operation or the commanders-in-chief of the allied armies could possess this order. And Brezhnev, who spent the entire war in managerial positions in the political apparatus, had no rights to this order.

Leonid Ilya Brezhnev (1906-1982) - a famous statesman of the Soviet Union.

From about the age of 30, Brezhnev held leadership positions.

If we talk about the highest posts in the state, then the period from 1966 to 1982 (by the date of death) can be called the period of Brezhnev's rule. During these years, he served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Brezhnev also served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (from 1960 to 1964 and from 1977 to 1982). The period of Brezhnev's rule went down in history as a period of stagnation.

War, virgin lands, the construction of Baikonur - with his participation. He began his career with the light hand of Stalin. Brezhnev organized the removal of Khrushchev. Before that, he asked the head of the KGB Semichastny the possibility of physically eliminating Khrushchev.

The country is tired of the unpredictable Nikita. The students of the higher party school demanded that Khrushchev be removed. KGB paratroopers gathered during the exercise to scatter leaflets from the plane, addressed to the army and the population.

The palace coup was being prepared for a year, all the threads led to Zavidovo, where Brezhnev usually hunted, who put “pluses” and “minuses” against each name of the members of the Central Committee. He treated each one separately. The organizers took risks and, just in case, replaced Khrushchev's bodyguards.

The Presidium of the Central Committee took place, which adopted a resolution to hold a meeting with the participation of Khrushchev. Brezhnev was the first to take the floor. Everything was reduced to the features of the character and style of Khrushchev's work. All of them were unanimous in the opinion that the immediate removal of Nikita Sergeevich would be a common good.

Until late in the evening, Khrushchev's sins were listed. The defendant admitted his mistakes and agreed to sign his resignation. Brezhnev was nominated for the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

The arrival of Brezhnev actually meant the rejection of the ideals of communism. These people did not read Marx, Lenin, Stalin, so they treated Suslov with such respect, who studied the works.

The post-Stalin leaders did not understand well where to steer, shied from one extreme to another and led the country to collapse. Not wanting to admit their helplessness, they began to blame everything on the "unusable system."

As a result - only words and not a single economic and social problem has been solved. This is the state we live in now. Under Stalin, an official who overspent 2,000 rubles risked his life. Starting with Brezhnev and to this day, we see a “successful” fight against corruption.

One thing was clear to Brezhnev: it was necessary to correct the situation into which Khrushchev had driven the country - the collective farms were written off their debts, returned their household plots, restored normal ministries, purchased food and manufactured goods abroad, and abolished religious persecution. Everyone wanted peace after the crazy Nikita, the enthusiasm of the people faded, the slogans no longer worked.

Production was not updated, scientific developments were not introduced, the intelligentsia was dissatisfied with everything, the number of apparatchiks grew. Agriculture after the Khrushchev era never recovered. Lack of spirituality, drunkenness, divorces grew. Problems piled up and got worse.

There came the triumph of the nomenklatura, enjoying privileges and power, degenerated into a caste of the irremovable. Everyone voted “yes” for everything, the country lived by inertia. Even then, sects began to penetrate into Russia. Wealths accumulated, hence the oligarchs in the future grew. The secret services used the opportunity to live without a deficit. The party has become a place for a career.

Everyone lived with a double morality, the ideology grew more and more into verbiage. Philistinism has risen to the level of the norm of life, therefore, with such nostalgia, those times are remembered by the townsfolk. The nomenklatura no longer had to be concerned about the good of the country, and it began to arrange its own well-being, to live according to its own special laws. The ideological and moral degradation of power has reached the highest level. I wanted luxury, open and impudent.

Brezhnev grew decrepit, ill, rejoiced at numerous awards and honors. It was clear that there was a deliberate undermining of the authority of the government, of the communist idea. The margin of safety created under Stalin was weakening. The world backstage was gradually disintegrating the USSR, rehearsing future "revolutions" in Czechoslovakia and Poland. CIA agents penetrated the intelligence services of the USSR, Gosplan - everywhere.

In addition to weapons, they did not produce competitive goods, they were forced to sit on the oil needle. The economy was falling apart and lagging behind the West more and more. Goods became scarce, people were chasing foreign junk, which was crowding out domestic products. Corruption grew without Stalinist strictness. Entire branches of the shadow economy have appeared. More and more became those who were ready to be sold (and therefore recruited) to Western intelligence services.

There were ideological dissidents. Anti-Soviet speeches became more frequent: in Arkhangelsk, at a demonstration, someone opened fire from a machine gun; in 1975, the Watchtower ship rebelled. The junior lieutenant made an attempt on Brezhnev, fired a pistol, but at the wrong car: he killed the driver, wounded the cosmonaut Beregovoy.

Those who have been abroad (there were a lot of them in Tolyatti) went crazy from Western abundance, accessible pornography. Western culture increasingly captured the Soviet youth. The anti-Russian ideology was being pushed more and more actively, the history of the country was falsified. That was the Brezhnev time, which for some reason they continue to call stagnation.

Outwardly, everything looked very calm, but behind the scenes there was a fierce undercover struggle for future power. In 1979, Brezhnev asked for a pension - they did not let him go. Companions continued to figure out who would win.

Romanov was compromised with a service from the Hermitage, which he allegedly ordered to give out for his daughter's wedding. Kulakov was found at the dacha with a bullet in his head. They poisoned Chernenko with fish, after which he fell seriously ill. Tsvigun, Shchelokov, Shcherbitsky shot themselves. He died in a strange car accident Masherov. The doctor Brezhnev Rodionov died unexpectedly.

It seemed that Brezhnev's health had been thoroughly worked on: a few short years - and cheerful, energetic, he turned into a ruin. Since 1975, Chernenko had a facsimile of Brezhnev and the right to stamp state documents. Who had already prescribed sleeping pills to Brezhnev, but he used them immeasurably, up to 8 tablets a day.

In many ways, this was facilitated by a pretty nurse, clearly attached by the special services, with whom he did not want to part. No less strange is the case during Brezhnev's visit to Tashkent, when part of the tribune with the audience collapsed on him, breaking his collarbone (an incredible mistake (?) of the guards).

Brezhnev stopped trusting Andropov and thought about a successor. On the eve of the November holidays, he arranged an interrogation for Chazov about Andropov's health, and planned a plenum of the Central Committee for the end of November, where important personnel changes were expected. On November 9, Brezhnev met with Andropov, what they talked about is unknown. The next morning, Brezhnev was found dead in his dacha. He died suddenly, in his sleep, a few days before the plenum, at which he was going to name a successor.

Andropov was the first to arrive at the deceased, followed by the faithful Chazov, members of the Politburo were not allowed. Andropov took the briefcase with compromising information on all members of the Politburo and only a day later gave the command to inform about the death of Leonid Brezhnev.

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Biography and episodes of life Leonid Brezhnev. When born and died Brezhnev, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. politics quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Leonid Brezhnev:

born December 19, 1906, died November 10, 1982

Epitaph

Stopped running time
And the pain squeezed my whole soul,
A man has passed away
There are few in the world.

Biography

To this day, judging by opinion polls, this man is considered the best ruler of Russia, more than half of the respondents have a positive attitude towards him. The biography of Leonid Brezhnev is the story of a working man who faithfully served his country.

Brezhnev was born in the village of Kamenskoye (now the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk) in Ukraine, into a working-class family. Following in the footsteps of his father, Leonid graduated from a technical school, and then from a metallurgical institute, while working at a factory as a fireman and a locksmith. And almost immediately he began to move first along the trade union, and then the party ladder. So, during the Great Patriotic War, Leonid Ilyich worked as a political worker. After the war, further advances in the political biography of Brezhnev followed - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, head of the Supreme Council. He also actively participated in the process of removing Nikita Khrushchev from the post of head of state, after which he took the post of first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Despite the fact that at first they did not see him as a contender for this post, Brezhnev was able to prove himself well - educated, reserved, friendly, conservative, executive. At that time, the country needed just such a leader - not a leader, but a functionary.

Brezhnev worked as head of state for 18 years, and the attitude towards Brezhnev's rule is still twofold - they are considered both years of stabilization and stagnation. Thus, a military balance was achieved between the USSR and the USA, a number of important strategic treaties were signed, the national gross income increased, but at the same time there was a failure in the economy and an exorbitant growth of bureaucracy. The state of Brezhnev's health also affected the deterioration of the board, for the past few years he has been very ill. On November 7, he hosted a festive parade, and on November 10 he was gone. When Brezhnev died, there were many versions of Brezhnev's death - from heart disease to leukemia and jaw cancer. Officially, the death of Leonid Brezhnev was announced only the next day. Brezhnev's funeral took place on November 15, he was buried at the Kremlin wall.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev on vacation

life line

December 19, 1906 Date of birth of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.
December 11, 1927 Marriage with Victoria Denisova.
1929 Birth of daughter Galina.
1933 Birth of son Yuri.
1937 Election of Brezhnev as Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Dneprodzerzhinsk City Council.
1939 Secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
1941 Leaving for the front.
1950 Leading party work.
1964 The removal of Nikita Khrushchev, the election of Brezhnev as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
1964-1982 Brezhnev's years as head of the USSR.
April 8, 1966 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
1977 Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
November 10, 1982 Date of Brezhnev's death.
November 12-15, 1982 Farewell to the body of Brezhnev in the House of Unions.
November 15, 1982 Funeral of Leonid Brezhnev.

Memorable places

1. Bust of Leonid Brezhnev in Dneprodzerzhinsk, where the General Secretary was born.
2. Brezhnev's childhood home in Dneprodzerzhinsk.
3. Dneprodzerzhinsk State Technical University (former Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute), where Brezhnev studied.
4. Monument to Brezhnev in Novorossiysk called "Man walking through the city."
5. Memorial plaque on the house in Dnepropetrovsk where Brezhnev lived in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Episodes of life

Brezhnev's contemporaries noted that he was a rather sentimental and kind person, which his entourage often used. He often helped his acquaintances and those who turned to him with a request and were able to pity him. It happened that after watching the film, he was so touched by the acting of the actor that he immediately offered to award him an order or some honorary title. So, Brezhnev was very fond of the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring". While watching the last episode, when Stirlitz was informed that he had been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Leonid Ilyich turned to those around him and asked: “Have you already handed it over? I'd like to do it myself." And a few days later he personally presented the Order of Lenin and the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union to Tikhonov, being sure that he was the real Stirlitz.

Testaments

“We should not save on people, we must save people.”

“Only with the torch of knowledge, a people who have won their freedom can light their way to a happy future.”

"Knowledge, human genius are becoming in our time the most important source of progress and power of each country."

Film by Leonid Parfyonov "And personally Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev"

condolences

“With deep emotion, we received the news of the death of President Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. The activities of this outstanding state leader, whom we have had the honor of knowing for more than 22 years, are inscribed as a bright page in the history of the Soviet Union and its relations with other countries. On behalf of myself and on behalf of the Moroccan people, we ask you to convey our sincere and deep condolences to the family of the deceased great man and the leaders of the Soviet Union.
Hassan II, King of Morocco

“The deceased was an outstanding statesman who throughout his life worked for the prosperity and happiness of his country and made a significant contribution to the formation of a period of detente in relations between East and West. On behalf of the Turkish nation and myself personally, I would like to express my most sincere condolences on this sad loss to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the neighboring USSR, its government and people, as well as the family of His Excellency Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.
Kenaya Evren, President of the Republic of Turkey

"The world has lost one of the most prominent political figures, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - an outstanding leader, and the Republic of Austria - a true friend."
Bruno Kreisky, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria

"Mr. Brezhnev will be remembered by the Olympic family for his great contribution to the development of sport and our movement, in particular for his support for the Games of the XXII Olympiad in Moscow."
Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the IOC