Leonid Brezhnev
He was Khrushchev's successor from the mid-1960s until his death in 1982. He rigorously suppressed dissidents, people who spoke out against the government. Under his rule, critics faced arrest and imprisonment. Some were even locked away in insane asylums! In his self-titled Brezhnev Doctrine, he asserted that the Soviet Union had a right to intervene militarily in any Warsaw Pact nation. At the same time, he also pursued détente and disarmament with the United States.
To learn more about Brezhnev and his rise to power, click below. Cold War Museum: Leonid Brezhnev To view a small timeline of Brezhnev's Soviet rule and accomplishments, click below. Imerson Kent.com: Leonid Ilich Brezhnev 1906-1982 |