Word: leonid
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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...
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...
...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...
...words were inflammatory, but the audience took them in stride. Referring to the discredited era of Leonid Brezhnev, who died in 1982, Vladimir I. Melnikov, an obscure official from the Russian republic, declared from the podium at the 19th All-Union Communist Party Conference, "People who in previous times actively conducted the policy of stagnation cannot now be on, or work in, central party or Soviet organs in the period of restructuring...
...degree to which Gorbachev has adapted Western-style political techniques to Soviet politics and how he has applied them to the organization of the conference. Perhaps surprisingly for a man who was born in the closed society of Stalin and rose to prominence in the closed-minded society of Leonid Brezhnev, Gorbachev knows about the straw man, the trial balloon and the bandwagon effect, and has used them in a subtle and effective campaign to make sure that he can win next week's game of perceptions...