Word: brezhnevs
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...thinking than the recent events in Poland. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa signing an agreement, smiling even, with Polish Communist officials. The union grew out of economic despair in 1980 and was crushed the next year by the imposition of martial law, one of the last ironfisted displays of Brezhnev-style authority...
Almost 20 years earlier, at the start of the Brezhnev era of economic stagnation and recurring rounds of repression, I was assigned to TIME's Moscow bureau. I took up residence with my family in an apartment block reserved for foreigners and set out to cover what was, despite the depressing realities of Soviet life, a fascinating story. Then, on a May morning in 1970, I received a phone call from an official in the Soviet Foreign Ministry. "Your work here is finished," he said. There were no accusations, no explanations, just "Your work here is finished," and a departure...
Having justified itself for two decades and more as a medium of political expression -- obliquely during the Brezhnev years, sometimes rantingly during the current thaw -- the Soviet stage sees itself as needing to rediscover its true concern, the human soul. Audiences apparently agree. While theatergoers continue to clap for lines of topical invective, they seem to respond most strongly to intimate glimpses of lost love, betrayal by friends and alcoholic desperation, whether in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Moscow Art Theater or in quasi-documentary scripts about prostitutes and gravediggers performed by the city's most impressive acting troupe...
...Gorbachev is wondering how Soviet history will judge him, he will do well to remember that the country's leaders tend to die twice: once in body and soul, and later in public opinion. While Joseph Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev were accorded elaborate state funerals, their reputations since then have changed quite markedly. Stalin is viewed negatively by 62% and positively by only 7%, though that rating is almost double among people who see perestroika as a deviation from Marxism-Leninism...
...Brezhnev has suffered an even more dramatic fall from grace. His strongest negative rating, 80%, comes from Communist Party members who bitterly blame him for abusing his post and causing the party's prestige to decline. On the other hand, Nikita Khrushchev, a reformer of sorts who was thrown out of office and saw his reputation tarnished before he died, is enjoying a modest boost in popularity. More than 29% view him favorably, compared with only 5% for Brezhnev...