The historical portrait of Brezhnev, his reforms. The political portrait of Brezhnev (briefly)

The personal and political portrait of Brezhnev LI for many historians, political scientists and ordinary people looks rather ambiguous. The presence of this man in power was marked by the greatest economic upsurge of the USSR, but at the same time the prerequisites that led to the collapse of the state were laid during this period. We will attempt to reproduce the personal and political portrait of Brezhnev. A brief description of the biography of this statesman is given below.

Birth

Before we begin to describe the historical portrait of Brezhnev, we should briefly dwell on the biographical aspects of the life of this politician, since in many respects they have left a significant imprint on the formation of the personality. Naturally, you should start from birth.

Leonid Brezhnev was born in 1906 in the village of Kamenskoye, which was in Ekaterinoslav province, on the territory of modern Ukraine. His father was Ilya Yakovlevich, and his mother - Natalia Denisovna Mazalova. Both parents were workers, Russians by nationality.

In addition to Leonid Ilyich, there were two more children in the family - Vera and Yakov, but they were born a little later than their famous brother.

Youth

After graduation from the school and a short work at a creamery, Leonid Ilich entered a land surveying school in the city of Kursk, after graduating from it in 1927 he worked as a land surveyor and land surveyor in various regions of the country, and by 1930 he was already deputy. Head of the regional land administration.

In 1927 the wedding of Leonid Brezhnev and Victoria Denisova took place.

In 1931 he enrolled, and four years later he graduated from the Institute in Dniprodzerzhinsk in engineering direction, where he studied at the evening faculty, at the same time working as a mechanic. After the arrival of Brezhnev in high school career, he went up sharply. In 1931, at the age of twenty-five, he became a member of the Communist Party.

After graduation he served in the army in Transbaikalia, where he was promoted to the post of political instructor. After leaving office in 1936, he became the director of the technical school in Dneprodzerzhinsk.

In 1937, Brezhnev was appointed deputy head of the City Executive Committee of the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk. At the same time, he was moving higher and higher along the party ladder. So, since 1939 he became the secretary of the regional committee of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

During the Patriotic War, Brezhnev was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. At first he was engaged in mobilization measures, and then became a brigade commissar. By the end of the war, he received the post of chief of political administration of the 4th Ukrainian Front in the rank of major general.

Progress on the party ladder

After the war, Leonid Ilich continued his advancement on the career ladder in the party service. This period had a considerable influence on how the historical portrait of Brezhnev was formed.

Already in 1946 he became the head of the Zaporozhye regional committee, and the following year he was transferred to a similar post of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee. In these positions, he received state awards for the postwar reconstruction of the regions, including the Order of Lenin.

In 1950, Leonid Ilyich was waiting for a significant increase. He became the party leader of one of the Soviet republics - the Moldavian SSR, and this was already the first echelon. In 1952 he was simultaneously elected a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. But after Stalin's death, he is released from all posts and appointed head of the political administration of the Navy. In 1955, Brezhnev again became the first secretary of the Party organization of the republic - this time in the Kazakh SSR. It was at this time there rose virgin land.

Since 1956, Leonid Ilich has worked in the secretariat of the Central Committee, and since 1957 he has been elected to the Presidium of this body.

From 1960 to 1964, Leonid Ilich was the head of the Presidium of the Armed Forces. Thus, he got close to the very top of power in the USSR, taking the third most important post in the country. The political portrait of Brezhnev is becoming more and more clear.

Khrushchev's removal from power

The key event that influenced the historical portrait of Brezhnev was the removal in 1954 of the first secretary of the CPSU, that is, the actual leader of the state, Nikita Khrushchev, from power.

Khrushchev did not enjoy much love from the Soviet people, and in the party elite almost always from the moment of coming to power there was quite a strong opposition to Nikita Sergeyevich. Representatives of the inner-party opposition did not like Khrushchev's position on the reform of society, as well as his unsuccessful economic policy. Brezhnev initially did not adhere to this group of party officials, and even in 1957 he supported Nikita Sergeyevich, when he was unsuccessfully tried to be removed from the leadership of the state.

But by the mid-sixties the situation had changed. The opposition to Khrushchev, in view of his unconvincing policies and failures in economic activity, has been growing ever stronger. Leonid Ilich became aware of the need to change the leadership of the state. In this light, the political portrait of Brezhnev of that time testifies to his ability to respond to the needs of certain changes, and not to adhere to a clearly established and rigid way.

The initiators of the plot to dislodge Khrushchev were: member of the Presidium of the party NV Podgorny, head of the KGB V.Ye. Semichastny, and also former secretary of the Central Committee A. Shelepin, who had occupied the same post. Brezhnev, although he joined the conspirators, but did not conduct an active activity in this direction. Although, according to other sources, it was Leonid Ilich who suggested to Semichastny to physically eliminate Khrushchev, which was refused.

The party leadership, accusing Nikita Sergeevich of voluntarism, amateurism, and unsuccessful foreign and economic policies, offered the first secretary of the party either to voluntarily agree to resign from all posts, or to leave with a scandal. Khrushchev chose the first.

Appointment of First Secretary

It was also decided to divide the posts of the first secretary of the CPSU and the head of the Council of Ministers, previously concentrated in the same hands. Leonid Brezhnev was appointed to the first post, and Kosygin, on the second.

Initially, the party leadership viewed these two figures as compromise, and perhaps even temporary, but, as it turned out, an entire epoch in the development of the country was associated with their activities. The historical portrait of Brezhnev is associated precisely with this period.

Political struggle

As already mentioned, the highest party officials considered Brezhnev's presence at the head of the state as temporary, so he had to endure a difficult struggle with opponents within the party apparatus in order to prove his right to lead the country. The ability to conduct such a struggle brings some colors to the historical portrait of Brezhnev.

In 1967, the contradictions between Brezhnev and the party group became more acute, including Shelepin, Semichastny, Podgorny and Egorychev. This group of party members decided that it was time to dismiss the "temporary" first secretary and put Shelepin in his place. For these purposes, the soil began to be probed in the form of speeches at party meetings with petty criticism of various decisions of the government. But by this time Leonid Ilich was strong enough and, unlike Khrushchev, managed to prevent a conspiracy.

In 1967, Shelepin was expelled from the secretariat of the Central Committee and transferred to the post of union leader of trade unions. Yegorychev was removed from his post as First Secretary of the Moscow branch of the CPSU and transferred to the post of deputy. Minister of Agriculture, and later was sent as ambassador to Denmark. VM Semichastny from the post of the head of the KGB was transferred to work in the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. In his place was appointed loyal to Brezhnev man - Yu V. Andropov. Also by this time the appointment of a number of other persons close to Leonid Ilich belongs to the leading state posts. This Chernenko KU, Tikhonov NA , Tsvigun SK, Shchelokov NA, etc. The activity of many of them was previously connected with the city of Dnepropetrovsk, which later gave grounds to say that in the government of the USSR The "Dnepropetrovsk clan" was established.

The last of the main opponents of Brezhnev from the political arena was eliminated NV Podgorny. This happened already in 1977, when, because of the deteriorating health of Leonid Ilyich, there were fears that Podgorny, who held the post of chairman of the Presidium of the Armed Forces, might encroach on the post of secretary general. In this regard, he was sent into retirement on the pretext of retirement.

Reforms

Speaking about the historical portrait of Brezhnev and his reforms, it needs to be clarified that although during his reign for a while reform policy was being implemented, but Leonid Ilyich was not the initiator at all. The main engine of innovation was Kosygin, who was the chairman of the Council of Ministers. This post was equivalent to the current post of head of government or prime minister in some countries. Without mentioning this state figure, it is impossible to compile a complete historical portrait of Brezhnev. The internal policy of the Secretary General himself, on the contrary, was aimed at the preservation of the old regime, although under the pressure of economic factors Leonid Ilich was forced to accept Kosygin's proposals temporarily.

Although Kosygin, unlike Shelepin, did not enter into direct confrontation with Brezhnev, but it was noticeable that many of his steps were perceived negatively by the secretary general.

Economic transformations of 1965, which went down in history under the name of Kosygin reform, consisted in the liquidation of territorial planning bodies, in reducing the number of planned indicators, in expanding the independence of individual enterprises. The main indicators of the activities of enterprises should be their profitability and profitability.

The expansion of the independence of enterprises was not to the liking of the party nomenclature headed by Leonid Brezhnev. The historical portrait of this leader is characterized by rather conservative views. It is not without reason that the state policy of that time, unlike the Khrushchev thaw, is usually called neo-Stalinism, and the economic phenomena in the state are stagnation. Since the beginning of the 1970s, Kosygin's reforms have begun to curtail, methods of strict state management of the economy began to be practiced, as before.

The rejection of reforms predetermined the economic collapse of the Soviet Union in the future.

Economic development of the USSR

At the same time, it should be noted that it was in the Brezhnev period that the standard of living of citizens in the USSR reached unprecedented heights. Therefore, many people who lived in those days, with nostalgia remember the stagnation as a "golden age".

But the high standard of living was achieved only by "eating away" those reserves that were accumulated in the USSR in previous periods due to the hard work of the representatives of the common people. In addition, it was under Brezhnev that an essential part of the budget revenues was provided by the export of oil, significant reserves of which began to be developed in Siberia. Until the end of the 70-ies the price for this resource was high, it allowed to ensure high economic performance. But at the same time, this fact has tied the economy of the country to oil prices, which since the beginning of the 1980s with the collapse of the value of black gold was one of the factors that contributed to the collapse of the country's economy.

Also, the negative phenomena of the Brezhnev era were overproduction in some spheres of the national economy and a shortage of goods in others.

Foreign policy

Even at the beginning of his reign, Brezhnev faced the problem of the Czechoslovak uprising, which was directed against the actual control of the USSR over this country. He took a strong-willed decision to introduce Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia to suppress the uprising. Thus, he managed to maintain the influence of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.

At the same time, the beginning of the 1970s was marked by the normalization of relations with the United States. The American president even visited Moscow.

The situation changed after 1979, when the Soviet Union introduced troops to Afghanistan. This led to the fact that relations between the USSR and Western countries were heated with renewed vigor, and a number of sanctions were imposed against the Soviet Union.

Last years

In the last years of life Leonid Brezhnev began to experience significant health problems. He survived several heart attacks and strokes, which affected his mental abilities. In addition, he had a narcotic dependence on sleeping drugs, without which he could not sleep.

Since the late 1970s, Brezhnev could no longer lead the state, and the country's administration actually passed into the hands of his closest associates, although Leonid Ilyich remained secretary general until his death.

Death

Leonid Brezhnev died in November 1982, at one of his dachas. As doctors determined, death came because of cardiac arrest. The secretary general did not name the desired successor, so the country was waiting for a new struggle for power.

Leonid Ilyich was buried on Red Square.

general characteristics

Let's try to outline in general outline the political portrait of Brezhnev. In short, we talked about the main milestones of his biography, which will help to add a holistic picture.

Leonid Ilyich was a man of conservative views, an old temper. In many respects he sympathized with Stalin's policy, although officially it was not decided to rehabilitate it. At the same time, it was sometimes noted that he was able to reconsider his former views and was flexible in changing the situation. But with the age of this capacity for flexibility, Brezhnev became less and less, and by the end of the rule, the desire to preserve the old order, regardless of external changes, was becoming clearer.

It should also be noted that in order to achieve the highest goal, Brezhnev was ready to commit acts that were at odds with the generally accepted norms of morality.

But we need to understand that the historical portrait of Brezhnev on the algorithm, drawn up in advance, will not be able to be recreated, since it was a fairly vivid and controversial figure in the history of the country.