We explain who Leonid Illich Breznev, first secretary of the Central Committee of the PCUS. In addition, the “Brézhnev doctrine” during its USSR government.
Who was Leonid Illich Breznev?
Leonid Brézhnev was a Ukrainian politician who led the Soviet Union Between 1964 and 1982. During his government, the Soviet Union reached its international political height and the greatest worldwide influence in its history.
Brézhnev carried out A great expansion of the Soviet Armed Forces and achieved nuclear parity with the United States. This implied the recognition of the United States of the Soviet Union as a global power, which led to the signing of the treaties for the limitation of the production of weapons of mass destruction (Salt I and Salt II).
However, the ambition for the influence in the countries of Africa and Central Asia, their intervention in the Afghanistan war and the deterioration of the Soviet economy marked the final decline of their government.
See also: History of the Soviet Union (USSR)
Leonid Brézhnev's personal life
Leonid Brézhnev was born on December 19, 1906 in the city of Kamianskéwithin the Ukrainian region of the Russian Empire. His parents, Ilya Yakolevich Brézhnev and Natalia Denisovna belonged to the urban working class. During his childhood he crossed the Russian revolution that overthrew the Tsarist government and imposed a communist government with the creation of the Soviet Union.
He had a technical education in high school, oriented to agricultural management and metallurgy. When he was 17, he entered the Komsomol, the PCUS youth organization. Then, in 1923 he entered as a full member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (PCUS). In 1926 he met Viktoria Petrovna Denísova, with whom he married two years and with whom he had his two children, Galina and Yuri.
In 1931 he entered the Metallurgical Institute of Dneprodzerzhinsk to study engineering and graduated in 1935. His militancy on the PCUS of those years brought him closer to Nikita Jrushchovwho facilitated the political ascent within the party during the following years.
Between 1935 and 1936, he performed the mandatory military service. He studied at the tank school and then served as a political commissioner. From there he began to develop the links that would lead him to his political career.
Leonid Breznev's political life
Ascent within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
During the 1930s, Stalin carried out a policy of repression and persecution to eliminate opposition and dissidents within the USSR. The majority of the victims were members of the party, of the armed and professionals. Those members of the PCUS who survived the Stalinist purges had a fast political ascent within the party during the following years.
Thus, in 1939, after occupying different local positions (such as the direction of the Metallurgical Institute of Dneprodzerzhinsk) Brézhnev was appointed party secretary at Dnipropetrovskone of the largest cities in the region.
During World War II, his rise within the party was reflected in his rise in military rank. At the end of the war, He dedicated himself to the work in the reconstruction of the areas destroyed by the war in Ukraine. In 1950, he achieved the position of deputy within the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the main legislative body of the country. In parallel, he became the first secretary of the party in the Moldova region.
After Stalin's death, with the rise of Nikita Jrushchov, Brézhnev continued his political ascent. He was commissioned by the political direction of the Army and the Navy. In 1955, he obtained the position of Kazakhstan's first secretary, one of the constitutive republics of the Soviet Union. Then, he was appointed full member of the Politburo, the highest governing body of the USSR. In 1960, he achieved the position of President of the Supreme Soviet Presidium.
Between 1962 and 1964, he worked along with other party leaders, at the departure of Jruschev from the USSR government. He got the members of the Politburo to vote for Jruschev's dismissal and appointed him first secretary of the PCUS.
Government of the Soviet Union
When assuming the USSR government, Brézhnev defended what was called a “collective leadership.” He considered, together with the rest of the members who had supported him for the dismissal of Jruschev, that the collective consensus of the party's leaders had to prevail over the individual authority. During the 1960s and 1970s, Brézhnev left many of the main state issues in the hands of Alekséi Kosyguin and Nikolai Podgorni, and concentrated especially on international relations.
Regarding the internal policy of the USSR, the Brézhnev government He developed an increasingly repressive attitude about freedoms and culture. The KGB (government intelligence agency) obtained more and more functions and, by the end of the 1960s, had infiltrated most organizations that opposed the government.
In economic terms, the Brézhnev government was characterized by great economic growth linked to the increase in agricultural production already improvement in industrial productivity. However, this economic boom began to deteriorate in the early 1970s.
In the international field, with Andréi Gromiko at the head of Soviet diplomacy, Brézhnev affirmed the concept that in the West was known as “Brézhnev Doctrine”: He argued that the USSR had the right to military intervention in cases where “the essential interest of other socialist countries were threatened by one of them.” This doctrine was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the USSR and the states of the Warsaw Pact in 1968.
On the other hand, taking advantage of the decolonizing process of the Western powers, Brézhnev expanded the Soviet area of influence in Africa and other parts of Asia.
Regarding relations with the United States during the Cold War, the Brézhnev government period coincides with the height of the distension era. Relations with Western Germany in 1970 were normalized, the Cuatripartite Agreement on Berlin was signed in 1971.
In addition, the Salt (1972 and 1979) agreements were achieved and the final act of the Helsinki Conference in 1975 was signed. However, the final period of his government was marked by the return to the tension, from the deployment of the SS-20 in Europe and the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
In the early 1980s, Brézhnev began to have serious health problems. During the last years of his government, political decisions remained in the hands of the Politburo and under the influence of some party leaders such as Gromiyko, Ustínov and Andrópov. Leonid Brézhnev died from a heart attack on November 10, 1982.
See also: the relaxation in the cold war 1962-1975
The Breznev doctrine
It is known as “Brézhnev doctrine” to the international policy that Brézhnev carried out during his government. The leader argued that it was necessary to intervene in the policy of the socialist countries of the East Block when events were presented that endangered the stability of communist regimes.
In that sense, in 1968 Brézhnev directed the invasion of the Troops of the Warsaw Pact to Czechoslovakia, when the local government began to make reforms to release some features of the political, economic and social regime.
For Brézhnev's attitude, the growth of the USSR during his government and the way of publishing his ideas, for many it became evident that the leader defended the supremacy of the Soviet Union in the East Block and believed that the USSR had the right to intervene and, in some cases, direct the internal policy of communist countries.
In retrospect, through this doctrine the action of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact was justified during the insurrection of Berlin (1953) and the Hungarian revolution (1956).
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References
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023). “Leonid Brezhnev”. Britannica Encyclopedia.
https://www.britannica.com/ - Palmowski, J. (2000). “Leonid Breznev”. To Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History. Oxford University Press.
- Van Dijk, R., Gray, WG, Savranskaya, S., Suri, J., & Zhai, Q. (eds.). (2013). “Brézhnev, Leonid.” Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge.
