Word: brezhnevs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...soon as the poster appeared in the perestroika display window on Gorky Street in downtown Moscow, passersby paused to stare and snicker. The hulking, black silhouette shown atop an awards stand was unmistakably that of Leonid Brezhnev, bushy eyebrows and all. But in place of his numerous military ribbons, the deceased Soviet leader wore a row of stripes labeled CORRUPTION, EMBEZZLEMENT, GRAFT and MONEYGRUBBING. The lower tiers of the stand, two caricatured gangsters -- one American, the other Italian -- stared up at Brezhnev with apparent surprise. The caption beneath the cartoon said it all: SO, MAFIOSO, YOU FINALLY...
...cold war really over? No doubt the withdrawal from Afghanistan marks a change. It signifies the demise of the Brezhnev Doctrine, first enunciated with the invasion of Czechoslovakia exactly 20 years ago. Brezhnev declared that socialism will suffer no losses: countries that come under Marxist- Leninism remain under Marxist-Leninism. Afghanistan is the first breach in that doctrine. (Grenada is too small to count.) Enthusiastic believers in the demise of the cold war also point to Gorbachev's words to show that the Soviet Union, apostle of revolution ("national liberation"), has become the defender of stability. A favorite quote...
Another recent elaboration in the press of the conventional wisdom puts it this way: "In the heyday of Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet Union tried hard to promote Communism in the Third World . . . Now, under what might be called the Gorbachev Doctrine, the Kremlin has adopted a more cautious stance, backing away from confrontation." Why? Because "the Kremlin has been disappointed by the inability of Third World Marxists to impose stable Communist systems on underdeveloped societies...
...chief cause of that instability in the 1980s is resistance. The Gorbachev Doctrine became necessary because the Brezhnev Doctrine failed. The Brezhnev Doctrine failed because it met armed resistance. And that resistance drew strength and sustenance from the U.S., more precisely from the Reagan Doctrine, the American policy of supporting anti-Communist guerrillas in the newest outposts of the Soviet empire: Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua...
...officially referred to as the "stagnation period," but it might just as well be called the Bronze Age. During his 18 years in power, Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev became infamous for indiscriminately heaping medals, ribbons and other decorations on himself and party cronies. Even though he played only a minor role in World War II, Brezhnev sported four shiny stars, each honoring him as a Hero of the Soviet Union...