Today is the birthday of my favourite General Secretary: Leonid Brezhnev. The Soviet leader ruled his country from 1964 to 1982. And in a way is known for having some of the best years of the Soviet Union while simultaneously stagnating the country into a state of disarray and certain doom.
Leonid Brezhnev falls into a strange category of Soviet leader. He doesn't have the military absolute power of Joseph Stalin but he's not as Democratic as Mikhail Gorbachev or even as open-minded as Khrushchev.
When comparing Brezhnev with Stalin I always think of Roman Emperor's. Stalin is very much a Julius Caesar type. He takes absolute power and holds it above your head. Will use fear, intimidation and Brute Force to keep that power and when given the opportunity will cease even more. Creating massive resentment within his own people and definitely within his own party.
Now the only difference between Stalin and Caesar is that Stalin was able to keep his power with Brute Force until his death. Why'll Julius Caesar was killed by the Senate or possibly Brutus depending on who you believe.
Whereas Brezhnev is more like Augustus Caesar. He's the absolute ruler And everybody knows it. But he didn't take away all the power from the senate (Soviet politburo) Thus giving the illusion that his underlings had true power and that they weren't completely subservient to him. Now this might have been true in some sense, the KGB always had its own agenda and every District of the Soviet Union ran with its own organisation when it could. But none of them ever tried to oppose Brezhnev if not even in his latest years.
Now one of his major keys to success was knowing when to put his friends into power. Towards the end of Brezhnev's life almost everybody in the higher echelons of the Soviet government were personal friends of of his. He leaned from From Stalin and Khrushchev how to manipulate the system. Khrushchev was forced out in the long run because he tried to shake the boat too much and forced stress not only on the Soviet government but the people and economy as well. Stalin Resorted to imprisonment and bribery Of much of the upper office. It works well for as long as the Army is under your thumb.
But Leonid Brezhnev was able to keep his power without resorting to such Extreme Measures. That's not to say that he never used bribery and he certainly imprisoned people when he needed to. But his more sensible approach to power led to a kind of stable and livable Soviet Union. The economy never grew and life never got any better but it also never got that much worse. People could go on with their lives and they could keep to their own Affairs without being affected too much by the highest of government.
It's also important to remember that Leonid Brezhnev presented the Soviet Union in a much nicer light than his predecessors. Everyone before him always tried to throw strife and fear at that their enemy's. Brezhnev tyred to throw friendship at his enemies and turn them into neutral acquaintances if not allies. He was able to re-establish a connection with Yugoslavia under Tito and he was able to strengthen U.S. relationships, especially in the days of Richard Nixon. He also did okay with Lyndon Johnson and was able to push Jimmy Carter around quite a bit. However he didn't care for Ronald Reagan that man prove to be quite the past.
But I think most of all what I like about Leonid Brezhnev was his style. He was a big solid elderly man when he came into power he dressed himself up in more metals than just about any other Soviet leader and or military officer in history at one point he had more medals than General Zhukov! He had a love of smoking (particularly American cigarettes*) and he enjoyed drinking. He almost took on a monster look to him over the years but I realise that's a standard joke with just about any Soviet politician and for that matter American politician. But I really think Brezhnev stuck out compared to the rest. There's just something about his demeanour that I love so much. He's the perfect Dictatorial leader.*The funny thing is Kennedy had a love for Cuban cigars. Both the leaders of their respective superpowers wanted each others Goods. If only there was better cooperation the Cold War might have not been so economically destructive them both Nations.
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