Word: brezhnevs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...moment, the new Soviet leader, whatever his drawbacks, plunged vigorously into the mandatory round of receptions and speechmaking. In his international debut, he seemed intent both on exuding confidence and authority and on reversing his longstanding image as nothing more than Brezhnev's loyal aide...
After a state funeral for Andropov in Red Square attended by thousands, Chernenko received more than 170 foreign dignitaries amid czarist-era splendor in the Kremlin's Hall of St. George. Unlike his predecessor, who had engaged in reception-line diplomacy following Brezhnev's funeral, Chernenko shook hands stiffly, his face rarely creasing into the smile of the practiced politician. He did not appear to greet such Communist stalwarts as Cuban Leader Fidel Castro or Polish Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski with any more enthusiasm than he greeted Vice President George Bush or British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
...style of Western diplomatic gestures. TIME has learned that Thatcher, in consultation with Washington, hopes to expand bilateral meetings between East-bloc and Western foreign ministers in order to lay the groundwork for a possible superpower summit along the lines of the 1974 meeting between President Gerald Ford and Brezhnev in Vladivostok. Said Thatcher: "If there is to be progress on arms control, it will come not through negotiating skill alone but because a broader understanding has been reached...
...mend. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had the feeling that the new Soviet leadership was "weighing its words." Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau saw hope in the fact that "there was a repetition of the use of the word détente and a real continuity with the Brezhnev spirit." But Chernenko gave Western leaders no hint that the Soviet Union was about to change its position on the new NATO missiles in Europe. Reports on Chernenko's round of meetings carried by the official news agency TASS were decidedly more guarded than most Western assessments...
...make it the first time when he was competing with Andropov. Now that the better man is gone he'll get his chance." Said a worried Moscow housewife: "We are going back to the old ways. Andropov was a strong leader and a strict disciplinarian. Chernenko is like Brezhnev, softer. The Soviet people need someone who will make them work...