Word: brezhnevs
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...Kremlin succession: The Soviet Union is in deep crisis. Its economy is in serious trouble. Soviet power is overextended globally, and there is mounting disaffection among diverse social and ethnic groups. When [President Leonid] Brezhnev goes, his successors will face two choices. They can keep making outlandish appropriations for defense and engaging in global adventures, or they can face up to their internal problems, turning away from military expansionism toward reform of the domestic system. Russia has experienced throughout its history periods when the government had to turn inward to cope with its problems. The idea that the greatness...
...funeral, Brezhnev appeared grief-stricken as he shuffled along, supported by aides, behind Suslov's coffin. Before the body was lowered into a grave next to Joseph Stalin's beside the Kremlin Wall, Brezhnev read a eulogy: "While saying goodbye to our comrade, I would like to tell him, 'Sleep peacefully, our dear friend; you have led a great and glorious life...
...Brezhnev's advanced age and his less than robust demeanor at the nationally televised funeral underline new anxieties about who will succeed him in the key post of Communist Party chief. Had he outlived Brezhnev, Suslov was expected to use his formidable authority as senior Politburo member to ensure an orderly transfer of power. The leading contenders for Brezhnev's job now include Politburo Stalwarts Andrei Kirilenko, 75, and Konstantin Chernenko, 70. According to Yale University Kremlinologist Wolfgang Leonhard, no current Soviet leader except Brezhnev comes "anywhere near Suslov in influence, stature, administrative skill and statesmanship...
Since taking over from Nikita Khrushchev in 1964, with Suslov's indispensable assistance, Brezhnev relied on his No. 2 man to support his policies in the Politburo. Suslov could also be counted upon to supply the ideological rationale for such demonstrations of force as the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the military occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. As a predictable factor in Soviet behavior, Suslov will also be missed by veteran U.S. specialists. In the arcane field of Kremlinology, Suslov, at least, could be depended upon to counsel tough actions to preserve ideological purity. Government experts predicted...
...dictator gave Suslov major roles in a series of bloody purges costing 20 million lives that began in 1931 and ended only with Stalin's death in 1953. A member of the ruling elite since 1947, Suslov kept his top-level posts under Khrushchev and Brezhnev. As the Politburo member in charge of ideology, international Communism and China, Suslov was instrumental in crushing the 1956 Hungarian revolution, and he presided over the final ideological rupture between Moscow and Peking...