Leonid Brezhnev died at the Zarechye-6 state dacha
November 10 1982 years
Leonid Brezhnev died at the Zarechye-6 state dacha. He was the General Secretary, a four-time Hero of the Soviet Union, and recipient of 117 Soviet and foreign awards. He was the country's highest-ranking official during the 18 years that went down in history as the "era of stagnation." A figure of many jokes.
An entry in Brezhnev's school diary: "Wears four October stars."
Born in 1906 in Ukraine. Worked as a land surveyor, then trained as a heat and power engineer. Joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. During the war, he served in political positions.
The head of the political department of the 18th Army, Colonel Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, sailed to Malaya Zemlya forty times, and this was dangerous, since some ships were blown up by mines along the way... (Pravda, 1943)
In the 50s, he held leadership positions in Moldova and Kazakhstan. In 1953, he participated in the arrest of Beria. In 1964, he organized Khrushchev's ouster. According to Pyotr Shelest, he even proposed physically eliminating him. He was elected First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
The Brezhnev era got off to a rousing start. In 1966, the "golden" 8th Five-Year Plan began, along with Kosygin's economic reforms. The country switched to a five-day week. Soviet citizens acquired refrigerators and televisions.
By the early 1970s, reforms that had given enterprises greater autonomy were rolled back. Stagnation set in. This was exacerbated by Western sanctions following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. More than 15000 Soviet citizens died in the war unleashed by members of the Politburo. Fifty countries declared a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Brezhnev in front of the mirror:
I'm old, I'm a superstar!
Health problems began in the 50s. He suffered from asthenia and was addicted to the sleeping pill Nembutal. In 1976, he experienced clinical death. His inability to govern the country in his final years was obvious. He died at 75. He was followed, in short successions, by his successors from the aging Politburo.
The period of "carriage racing" ended in 1985 with the arrival of 54-year-old Gorbachev, who set a course for reform and democracy. However, history soon rhymed. Only the word chosen for the era of the new, permanent rule was more elegant: not "stagnation," but "stability."