November 10, 2004
In Memoriam
Leonid Brezhnev(Ilich)
b. Dec. 19, 1906, Kamenskoye, Russia [now Dniprodzerzhinsk, Ukraine]
d. Nov. 10, 1982, Moscow, Soviet Communist Party leader (1964-82)
From The Memorial Office of
The Secretary of the One Leader , The Great Leader
Leonid Brezhnev became a full member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1931. By 1939 he had become secretary of the regional party committee of Dnepropetrovsk. During World War II he served as a political commissar in the Red Army. In 1950 he was sent to Moldavia as first secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party. In 1952 he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a candidate member of the Politburo, but he lost those posts after Stalin's death (March 1953). In 1955 he became first secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party, and in 1956 he was reelected to his posts on the CPSU Central Committee and the Politburo. A year later, Brezhnev was made a full member of the Politburo, and in 1960 he became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (titular head of state). In July 1964 he resigned that post to become Nikita Khrushchev's assistant as second secretary of the Central Committee, by which time he was considered Khrushchev's heir apparent as party leader. Three months later, however, he helped lead the coalition that forced Khrushchev from power, and became (Oct. 15, 1964) first secretary of the CPSU (after 1966, general secretary). During the 1970s he attempted to normalize relations between West Germany and the Warsaw Pact and to ease tensions with the United States through the policy known as détente. He was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in June 1977, thus becoming the first person in Soviet history to hold both the leadership of the party and of the state. He retained his hold on power to the end despite his frail health and growing feebleness.
Posted by Santino at November 10, 2004 03:35 PM