Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1906-82), Soviet statesman. A qualified land surveyor and metallurgist, he served as a political officer in the Red Army during World War II. He succeeded Khrushchev as first secretary of the Communist party in 1964 and became president of the Soviet Union in 1977. His rule is now remembered as a period of stagnation and repression. The so-called `Brezhnev Doctrine’ authorized the Soviet Union to intervene in its satellite states to defend communism.
