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5 місяців тому+1
Why are you saying "keev"? It was not referred to that at the time. Why not say 'volgograd' instead of 'stalingrad' if you're going to use modern names?
I remember a joke from the Brezhnev days in the USSR A ghost train is travelling through the snows of Siberia with Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev on board. It breaks down and everyone is stranded. Lenin says "let's organise the train staff into collectives and pass a resolution for the train to work". Stalin says "no, no, no. Let's arrest all the train staff, shoot the driver and replace him with a secret policeman". Brezhnev says "can't we just pull down the blinds, close our eyes, sway from side to side making train noises and pretend the train is moving?"
Funny how it was Stalin who industrialized the Soviet Union in a decade so that it could defeat the Nazis. Seems like he would have been the best one to run the train service. If the Western BS was even mildly true the Soviet Union would have been easily overrun by the Nazis.
But what does Chruschtschow do? He leaves the train, releases all the Train Staff and Passengers, takes a piss in Stalins Drink and grows some Corn 🌽 near the train tracks.
@@josefstrauss9017 Yes, i also knew it with Khrushchev: After Stalin has the entire train personnel shot, Khrushchev denounces this a deviation from the Leninist Principles and has the good names of the train personnel posthumously restored. As the train still doesn´t show any signs of movement, Brezhnev quietly rises, closes the window curtains, sits down again with closed eyes and starts to rhythmically rock up and down on his seat while saying: "tadam-tadam-tadam-tadam..."
Very interesting. I grew up in the waning days of Brezhnev and I remember hearing his name a lot on the news. I remember how uneasy everybody seemed when Brezhnev died, because nobody here in the US knew what was going to happen next.
Yes same here was a Teenager in Australia. After he died a series of old Sick men took over. 83 was scary when They shot the Korean airliner down And tensions with President Reagan froze. Thought there was going to be Nuclear war. The stress of it and other Problems sent me into depression That year.
@@martinjenkins6467That was Yuri Andropov. He almost kick started W.W.3in 1983. He believed Ronald Reagan attempted to attack USSR with his constant anti communism rhetorics!
@@martinjenkins6467 Ironically Gorbachev was the only Soviet head of State to have been born in the USSR itself, everyone else was old enough to have originally been born in the old Russia empire when they still had a Tsar.
For many older Russians this was a golden age of stability, full employment and a major housing programme. They contrast it with the instability of Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
@@alfonsasgrinevicius7477 Please do tell us more..!! Have you ever thought about creating your own channel with the experiences that you, and others encounterd..?
For many younger westerners, we fondly wish we were alive during times pre mass migration with good jobs, good standard of living, cheap housing and social homes for all 😢
Really good stuff. No BS, straight to the story, easy to listen to and follow and informative. Some UA-camrs are more obsessed with talking around the subject without getting to the subject matter, but this was perfect clarity.
At the end of the film, I noticed the same things, along with the rapid-fire pace of the narrator. The challenging names and political terminology, accompanied by authentic footage in the background, followed a clear trajectory. The repetition of character names helped make them more familiar. Additionally, there was a quick recap of the story, allowing viewers to construct their own perspective on the characters and the overall narrative. Often, historical stories can become convoluted by irrelevant side paths, including names and events that don’t contribute to the context. To truly understand history, it’s crucial to stay within the context and timeline. Rather than attempting to memorize every detail, focusing on small yet complete stories that fit into the broader historical narrative can lead to lasting comprehension. In my personal experience, this approach works best for me, especially since I have a terrible memory. My memory is so bad that I can’t remember what my point was, but it’s a good video🧐
This excellent documentary of a man I knew very little about dispite being born during his reign as the head of the Soviet Union needs and deserves far more then the quarter-million views it currently has. I can't wait to see if other videos on this channel are as well put together!
Truly excellent work. I understand (and, to a certain extent, respect) Brezhnev much more. Thank you for your work of balanced and non-ideological history!
Those of us who grew up in the 79s and 80s, remember hearing a lot about Brezhnev. His name was synonymous with Soviet Union. He definitely played a key role to influence contemporary world history.
@@Miodrag.Vukomanovic No, it's very true. I grew up during the 70s in the US, and Brezhnev's name was always in the news when it came to the Soviet Union.
THANK YOU FOR THIS GEM! At the age of 90, I am an American woman who has lived through the Complicated History of “ The Modern World of Nations And Their Relationships, both Cultural and Military.” And because of my husband’s work as a highly respected university administrator, was, to my astonishment, privileged to meet both of the Gorbachevs and Eduardo Shevardnadze. But have always been left feeling overwhelmed by my ignorance of Russian history-especially that of the growth and decline of Communism. Heartfelt thanks for this amazingly detailed biographical study of Leonid Breznev and his rise and fall. It is just what I needed to get a better grasp of World History and the effect that world leaders have on all of us across our now-tiny planet. We all, who lived in optimistic awareness through the fall of Russian Communism, once had such hope for world detente and peace…and now The Age Of Putin and the ugly re-growth of world Fascism has destroyed our sad little dreams. ( Partly, I blame the current failure of American Secondary Education for this dismal failure of awareness)
God bless you mam, I'm just a youngster at 63 and I couldn't agree more regarding the disappointment you have felt since the fall of the USSR. Some even asserted it was the end of history. Unfortunately in America our secondary students took it to mean no more studying. To be fair to students though we have some awful history--and English--teachers pretending to teach in our secondary schools.
Thank you for this. I was a youth at the time of Brezhnev in power. This video shows us a more civilized, pragmatic, less ideological person than we thought Russians to be. One of my first memories as I learned to read were pamphlets about what to do in case of a nuclear attack. Another one was air raid sirens located here and there, just in case. There were not so subtle threats to Russian families living here, messages like "We know where you are". This was after the Korean War and during the Vietnam War leading to the Afghan War. "The West" was and is skeptic of Russia with reason. Now we are back to square one, the efforts of Brezhnev and others have been overturned. Back to Crazy Times.
So threatening Russians living in the west is somehow justified?" Is it acceptable to be Skeptical of people simply for being Russian ? Have you considered that the western view of Russian people is Largely a creation of western propagandists? I'm sure the U.S is completely innocent in the whole thing and has done nothing to make other countries skeptical of America . Why are Americans so afraid of anyone not American .
What is the human dilemma? There was a fall in Heaven. Then there was a fall on Earth. Then the 1st person born (Cain) killed the 2nd person born (Abel). So we can see who we are. Because of focus on self, humans are either predators or prey.
My name is Brechnev Etta from Cameroon 🇨🇲 I was named by my Father as a child, today I am 35 years old, and i decided to check the story of the man i was named after, his story is a confirmation that names can influence a child's behavior, in secondary school i studied Biology, chemistry, physics, maths geography economics etc, in the university i studied Agriculture, i love Agriculture a whole lot. And i joined the Cameroon 🇨🇲 military after my university and when the English resistance arised in Cameroon, i had to flee to Dubai and now i am into Engineering. Watching this stories today i really wish to become this man Brezhnev
Excellent. The algorythm dropped this in my lap and I really enjoyed. Nice job putting this together. Never knew much about him and always wondered how anyone climbed and survived through the Stalin, WW2 etc. Seemed like a very bright guy who learned a lot on the job through many different assignments. Definitley a climber with a keen intuition of what was going on politically in the heirarchy of Soviet leadership. As a long time (now retired) vet of the corporate world, have to tip my hat to his machiavellian survival skills, always managing to advace his career.
I unexpectedly enjoyed this profile. I wouldn't want to be ruled by Brezhnev (or live in the Soviet Union, period), but you really captured how much even the greatest leaders are prisoners of their times, and how the length of their lives manipulates how they are remembered - more for the last years than the first. It strikes me that Brez and Henry VIII of England have a lot in common.
@@markfrancis5164 Jagger has been sober for decades. The level of drug abuse for musicians is typically greatly exaggerated as a whole for the free advertizing/branding and because of a few over-represented examples of genuine addicts that often don't make it to 40.
Thank you for shining a light on the internal machinations of what was always to me just a procession of names with no background. Although I'm generally distrustful of authoritative narratives, you make him come across as a reasonable person astride an immense slowly evolving system brought undone by "Events, dear boy, events'"
Despite the huge differences between 'the west' and Russia, it's not difficult to have a grudging respect for this man. Excellent video - I learned a lot.
Hmm. I wonder if Andropov survived long enough ussr would have survived I guess. But Andropov also made a lot of decisions which contributed to the collapse.
Ironically, a man who introduced something dubbed "The Era of Stagnation" by the official Russian historiography is by far the most popular Soviet/Russian statesman today, although he the one who largely ignored long-term anachronisms and economical problems and started military adventures that cost the USSR much of its prestige, or what was left of it. After Czechoslovakia alone, nobody in the west considered communism anything idealistic and progressive.
If only today's socialists could only see what the USSR has done to the people's under its control and influence, capitalism may not be perfect or fair but it's still far better than what communism always become.
@kingfuqurmahmen6792 So you mean the early 50s with paranoid Stalin, post war famines, gulags and 30 000 000 dead, or the botched reforms of Khrushchev? If anything, USSR was interesting in the 1920s and then under Glasnost, those were the only times when it had some idealism, optimism and vital force of people who believed in it, other than that it was just geriatric dictatorship of boomers.
@@dipakbose2677 believe it or not, the Soviet Union no longer exists and conflating it with modern Russia is a good indication that you don't have a clue what you're writing about.
He was a conservative, self-fellating Russian strongman, often quiet about his personal life and lackluster in his personal ability. Why wouldn't Russians love him?
I remember Brezhnev featuring in news and current affairs during the 1970's and he was usually portrayed through the lens of western political outlook but far from being the remote heartless autocrat he comes across in this documentary as a very intelligent thoughtful and moderate statesman who favoured consensus over coercion and who did his best to enhance the conditions of the people he governed. His tenure as general secretary set the template for Mikhail Gorbachev's diplomatic relations with other world leaders.
My understanding is that Brezhnev was trying to protect Taraki by telling to have Amin removed from power. However, Amin's informants found out about this and alerted him. Once Taraki returned to Kabul was when Amin had him executed. It was THIS, along with Amin's communication with the U.S. that the U.S.S.R. invaded.
@@kenosabi Mon cherie, my home "state" would be Stockholm, Sweden. And yes, been to Russia and the US. "The Holodomor,[a] also known as the Great Ukrainian Famine,[b] was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930-1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union. "
@@Gurra_Gforce My grandmother lived in the Kursk region of Soviet Russia. In the 1930s, they often experienced famine; due to severe spring frosts, it was not possible to harvest crops in the fields. So they ate dandelion roots, nettles and the like. There were no domestic animals in the villages, so they had to eat pigeons. On January 17, 1940 in Moscow it was -42 degrees Celsius, a record for those years. That's why what they call the Holodomor was not planned. They could always feed themselves if they harvested locally. So tell your tales somewhere else
There is a funny anecdote that in preparation for SALT treaty talks when meeting with Kissinger he said, we must make it work, God will not forgive us if we fail. Which was very striking coming from the leader of the world's fist officially atheist polity.
Nice observation. Many communists view the state/party as a supreme deity. It may also be that he wasn't a true believer in the ideology and just adopted it as the winds of opportunity shifted in that direction.
When Dr. Radhakrishnan, the then Indian Ambassador to Moscow and the future President of India met Stalin and said: God bless you, Stalin's eyes got filled with tears.
The whole “godless communism” trope is vastly overblown. Before the revolution in 1917, Russia was an Orthodox Christian country. After the revolution, people just practiced their religious beliefs in secret. There were nowhere near as many atheists there as people think.
It's important to notice that many verbal expressions are used without us really thinking of the literal words. It's about the subsconscious collective feeling that we associate to them. It's like calling "son of a bitch" to a wall, or any object, after you were hurt by it.
In general knowledge classes, we were taught that USSR was fine till Nikita Khrushchev but when Brezhnev overthrew him, he started investing heavily in Defence sector, taking resources away from Agricultural and Industrial sector, triggering the Era of Stagnation. We were also taught that he increased bureaucracy which lead to increase in corruption and Nepotism. When Gorbachev came, he tried to fix the economy but it was nearly an impossible task due to the 18 years of economic stagnation, furthermore Chernobyl disaster put him at a even worse position.
Great documentary about this man. While it may be termed the "Era of Stagnation" it might be better termed the "Era of Stability" After Kruschev's constant changes and reshuffling of things. This really gives a much better insight to Brezhnev as opposed to what the western press was putting out there. Thanks so much for sharing this interesting and informative documentary.
There is a darker side. What was Brezhnev's role in Ukraine during the holodomor? Who presided over the incarceration of human rights advocates in psychiatric institutions where they were stupified with drugs?
Brezhnev didn't have anything to do with the Holodomor, everything points to him being completely uninterested in the campaign against so-called "wreckers" and in arresting Kulaks. He was a logistical genius, and the areas he governed faired relatively well.
Brezhnev wasn't involved in the Holodomor, if he was he most likely wouldn't have survived the 1930s.Stalin removed most of the people who could connect him to it.
During the mythical “holodomor” Brezhnev was 20 years old, so his role doesn’t even exist. All this “human rights advocates” were traitors and were punished legally
Your comment is based on false assumptions and historical distortions. Brezhnev was not involved in the Holodomor, which took place in 1932-33, when he was a regional party secretary in Dnepropetrovsk. He had no authority or responsibility over the policies that caused the famine in Ukraine and other regions of the Soviet Union . Brezhnev became the leader of the Soviet Union only in 1964, after the death of Stalin and the ousting of Khrushchev. He presided over a period of political repression, but also of détente with the West and economic stagnation . He developed the **Brezhnev Doctrine**, which allowed for Soviet intervention in cases where "the essential common interests of other socialist countries are threatened by one of their number" . This doctrine was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979, but it had nothing to do with the Holodomor or Ukraine . As for the incarceration of human rights advocates in psychiatric institutions, this was a practice that began under Khrushchev and continued under Brezhnev, but it was not limited to Ukraine or to dissidents of Ukrainian origin. It affected many people who opposed or criticized the Soviet regime, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity . Moreover, this practice was condemned by many Jewish activists and intellectuals, who also suffered from discrimination and persecution in the Soviet Union . Jews in Ukraine were not complicit in the Holodomor or the repression of human rights; on the contrary, they were often victims of both . Therefore, your comment is misleading and inaccurate. It tries to blame Brezhnev and Jews for crimes that they did not commit or were not responsible for. It also ignores the complex and tragic history of Ukraine and its relations with Russia and other neighboring countries. You should learn more about the facts before making such baseless accusations.
He was not a monster on the level of Stalin, Lenin or Hitler. Or Putin for that matter. For most of his life he was just a party careerist. But he was responsible for implementing policies resulting in the death, imprisonment and enslavement of tens of millions. My grandfather had a similar background but only rose to the level of the Apparat of the Central Committee. It was an extremely weird world that they lived in. All based on personal connections, all influence and power bestowed by the party. The party elite lived in an environment completely separated from common people, so it's hard to tell how they saw reality. Like, they had their separate distribution centers (raspredelitel) instead of shops, where you could actually get items not available to the regular public - nothing special, just quality meat and fish products, caviar, alcohol, fruits and vegetables, regular stuff you'd see in a contemporary high end supermarket... While regular population had to wait in line for two hours on an odd chance a supermarket sold bananas or two days in line if a sports store sold Adidas sneakers. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s he was a joke. Only you couldn't make that joke publicly. Again - he's responsible for countless death and suffering so who cares he liked to drive expensive cars. He's guilty as all of them are. My grandfather never learned how to drive because the Central Committee provided him with a car and a chauffeur.
mentally limited people. dont u know western billionaire have different way of living compared with ordinal western people. they eat different food. they drive different cars. it is a big surprise for u?
@@JoseGomez-cz1vc Very true. And places like Cuba and Ukraine used to be major suppliers of agricultural products to the world, before authoritarian governments took over. It takes a lot of effort from people like Brezhnev to really mess things up... 😃
@@sergecashman4822 Cuba has a hard time trading goods because of the economic embargo placed on them by the US. Blaming that on the supposed 'authoritarian nature' of the government is having it backwards. You really think a government likes to see their own people dealing with shortages? As for 'the party elite living in a completly seperate environment', it says in THIS video, that Brezhnev moved to Moscow living in a three-room apartment. Basic stuff. So apart from a few food items they could acquire being party-workers, that doesn't sound like living 'completely seperatly' from the people
@@raymondhartmeijer9300 I haven't been to Cuba so I won't argue about that too much. However I spent miserable 19 years in the Soviet Union so I absolutely stand by what I say. The party elite (and as you can understand there's only one party) had a completely different life from regular people like doctors, engineers, university professors etc. Never even mind the working class. At least working class had something to steal... A three room apartment was not an easy thing to get without powerful connections. Even moving to Moscow was an extremely difficult thing to achieve, almost completely impossible for a regular person. Remember - all real estate belonged to the government controlled by the party. My grandparents on both sides were able to move to Moscow because of either a high rank in the party or a mid-rank in the KGB. And they had other perks like dachas (summer houses, which in this case means a large mansion with a huge garden in a gated community), they lived in buildings where only party officials were allowed to live, they were allowed to travel abroad and buy foreign merchandise, the list goes on. One thing they were not entitled to is their own opinion. On joke about Brezhnev as he was the leader of USSR goes like this - "I don't mind freeing the dissidents from prisons, but what the ones above me are going to say?"
According to the Russians who lived in the Soviet Union, Brezhnev era was a era of stability, progress, happiness, and continuous developments in every aspects. Possibly that is the reason Western observers are so much critical about him and praise Gorbachev who destroyed the Soviet Union.
That is true. A lot of people go after him for having an exploding black market, an increase in corruption & econonic stagnation. What is failed to be pointed out that is that these problems started to happen or at least start to balloon enough when he got very ill & hence couldn't do anything as ruler. What I find interesting is that Brezhnev wanted to reform Gosplan to be automated & computerized (Glushkov's plan), but lower level party officials did not approve of the plan. Deep down, the reason why bourgeois academia goes after Brezhnev (also why they go after Stalin, Castro, Putin, Xi, Husák ,Honecker, Chávez, maduro, Assad, & Zhivkov) because he massively threatened Western hegemony, achieving parity w/the USA at a time, when we were ironically entering an era of stagnation ourselves. It was an increasing possibility that if things did not change, the Soviets could win the Cold War. The Eastern Bloc's living standards began to match those of the West for the first time too.
He was a conservative hardener who blocked democratization in favor of walking back to stalinist policies mitary adventures and crushing dissent with tank treads he is as responsible for the death of the USSR as any leader
Excelent and informative profile of Brezhnev. I remember him from the news in my early youth but I have found it very difficult to learn more about the man until now. A complicated man who looked out for himself but also did a lot of positive things for his country. BUT eventually he ran out of juice and the country crashed into the limitations of its economic system. I remember him as a sinister figure in TV but the cold war were not a time for nuances.
A total discovery for me. I was a child when B. was in power, and my image of him was that of a tyrant. Thanks for making me reconsidering that. Brilliant as always.
If Brezhnev had passed away in 1975 he may have been regarded as a benevolent and successful leader. Sure, the USSR kept 5,000 political prisoners under his reign but that's nothing compared to Lenin and Stalin.
В 1975 году СССР по ВВП обгонял США на 2 процента... У вас нищие РАБОЧИИ были в трейлерх жили... А у нас в домах квартирах... Стакан бензина стоили как стакан газировки...
Brezhnev was a product of his time, system and situation. He had great strengths and the weaknesses that usual come with strengt that is unchecked in any way.
As I was a child for most of Brezhnev’s tenure, I really didn’t understand a lot about him and his achievements. This video has been an education. It gives an insight into the Russian humanity, people like ourselves trying to survive in a post nuclear world. This has been educational. I thank you for your work bringing his story to us. 😊
An extremely revealing insight into the life an career of Leonid Brezhnev, very well illustrated. I was surprised that the photograph of Brezhnev in the Red Square parade was omitted.
Most Russians today consider Brezhnev the best leader of the 20th century, but this only after experiencing Gorbachev and Yeltsin. When he died in 1982 he wasn't missed, and Gorbachev blamed him for pretty much everything, especially corruption, but this always was sthe stituation in Russia, and it could be stopped only with extreme Stalin-style terror. In retrospect, Brezhnev was a very down-to-earth, realistic, and quite successful leader, both domestically and externally. Also, he is quite fondly remembered by religious people, both Christian and Muslim, because he unofficially stopped the persecution of religious activity.
Imagine that disaster in the Brezhnev era, that according to statistical data, for those 18 years of his rule, 160 million Soviet citizens acquired their own apartments or houses ??? Some got apartments built by the state, and some got extremely cheap state loans to build their own houses - horror! Such a catastrophe has never happened in the west ....
@@davidgenie-ci5zl You don't have the KGB, but you have the NSA, which arrests, imprisons and kills people 100 years after Stalin. USA did not have Gulags but they imprisoned 100,000 women, children and men in camps because they were Japanese Americans during WW2. During Brezhnev's time, there were 385,000 people in prisons in the USSR, today there are 2 million people in prisons in the USA??? No, you don't have apartments, most Americans live in apartments that are owned by banks or housing corporations, in the USSR they reached that 93% live in their own apartments or houses.
@@dmitryletov8138 Gulags were for the political prisoners, Not real criminals. While a Soviet might have had a small apartment, many more Americans had freedom, a nicer home, car, TV set, ample groceries, and LIBERTY. The communist system was murderously horrible.
@@davidgenie-ci5zlno you don’t, the vast majority of people under 30 don’t have a house or an apartment that can call their own, and probably they will never have one.
I was just curious about the history of the cold war and it was interesting learning about this guy. He went through a tumultuous time in the Soviet era.
I can't listen to continuous speech without so much as a two second break between. That's the difference with these kind of self-made YT docs and professional documentaries; there are breaks in between for a reason.
I always wondered whatever happened to the two Colt Single Action Army revolvers that Chuck Connors gave to Brezhnev when he came to the United States? Brezhnev was very fond of American western films and television shows, especially The Rifleman. For a time, The Rifleman was one of only a handful of non-Communist created shows to appear on Soviet television.
@@sergeymanakov6267 Please research this…Brezhnev visited Nixon in 1974 and he met Chuck Conners. Conners gave those 2 Colt revolvers as gift. Before Brezhnev left Washington he spotted Conners in the crowd and walked up to him giving Conners a bear hug and handshake. When Brezhnev died in 1982 Connors asked to be part of the official US delegation to attend Brezhnev’s funeral, but was denied to go.
Informative video - I learned much. I was born in 1954. During my formative years (1960s and 1970s), much political competition existed between the USA and the USSR. The American media painted the Soviet Union as a repressive and evil country. The Afghanistan invasion only solidified that perception. Yet the 1960s Kennedy and King assassinations didn't do the USA any favors. I knew little about Brezhnev until today. There was more to the man than what I thought I knew. Thanks for sharing this.
Brezhnev seems like a reasonable guy. He wasn't blood thirsty like Stalin and opened the Soviet union to the world. I was born in the late eighties but I think 1960-1980 period was very interesting
Fantastic documentary! He was a very different Soviet Leader to say the least and I think lead to people like Gorbachev, which lead to the end of the Soviet Union, but I think that was for the better and worse in many regards.
Growing up in Jamaica, during the 70s, I remember admiring Brezhnev, and followed the "rise and fall of all the Others after him,.. amazing times, back then, when..
Great video, thanks. I'll always be convinced that compared with his two two predecessors, he was the best possible choice. After the extremes of Stalin and Khrushchev , the USSR needed a safe, in charge. Stalin and Khrushchev terrified the nation; in their own way; and I dare say Western leaders breathed a little easier, with Détente?.
I did research on Brezhnev's daughter Galina Brezhneva. She was a complete loose cannon who did not care about her father's wishes or the optics of her behavior. Galina was married 4 times and divorced all 4 times! Her last husband married her when he was 29 and she was 64! Unheard of back then in the Soviet Union. She was also considered hypersexual and highly promiscuous. Was a huge alcoholic and even did some embezzlement during her heyday. Brezhnev was the leader of the Soviet Union, but his life was boring compared to his daughter Galina's!
All the leaders of the USSR came from the lower classes, from the people. Stalin was the son of a shoemaker, Khrushchev was the son of a miner, Brezhnev was the son of a worker, Andropov was the son of a minor employee, Chernenko and Gorbachev were born in the village. The USSR was a truly democratic country.
Wszechstronny polityk, mający swoją wizję zarządzania, organizowania gospodarki, innowacyjne metody w realizowaniu celów w różnych okolicznościach i warunkach narodowościowych. Nowoczesny Mąż Stanu, podnoszący prestiż swojej ojczyzny na arenie międzynarodowej, nie ustępując politykom "zachodnim". Godny wzór do naśladowania. Dziękuję za interesujący i historyczny materiał. Greetings from Poland.
@@fazole This is not faith, these are facts. Czech historians themselves admit that "Prague Spring of 1968" was a prepared political and military operation and its goal was to deploy Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia - everything hat its price. Czechs and Russians are Slavs, my brothers. Just like the coup operation on Kiev`s Maidan 2013/14, the target a US Navy and Marines base in Crime + rockets aimed at Moscow, 400 km (Thank God it was unsuccessful).
@@fazole dear fazole. or fasol . tell me please how much times USA sent killers in Cuba to kill Castro ? if mexica will ask russia to install russian nukes in mexica do u believe usa will not send troops, will not start "limited scale invasion"? did usa send weapon in nicaragua or not?
Pronciation a bit wobbly in places, eg Nag-ey: Nodge would be nearer. However, given you had to cover multiple countries I'm sure I couldn't have done any better. You've covered a very complex period well, given the time you had available.
Brezhnev was a noted repressive tyrant who imprisoned anyone who opposed him. He regularly attacked neighboring countries, e.g., Czechoslovakia. He also destroyed the Soviet economy through his oppressive policies.
Attacking countries? This country was a part of Warsaw pact, and the intervention of Russians, poles, germans and hungarians in 1968 was absolutely legal, as it was secured in the Warsaw pact documents. Destruction of economy started in the USSR after Gorbachov came to power and started his crazy policy, which destroyed the industry of the USSR
He was the leader of a declining great power: The Soviet system was forced, it didn't grow naturally. It was a system built and sustained by Lenin and Stalin 1920 to 1950 ( Forced system) 1950 to 1991 ( expiring system) USSR = invention of Lenin and Stalin with German aid and support. Failed system: Fall behind Have too many problems Stagnation Decline Successful system: Progress Solutions to problems Improvement Successful systems: USA China Japan Europe
Brezhnev was a formal leader, but the decisions were made collectively by the Politburo, where other figures like Andropov, Gromyko, Kosygin, Suslov etc. had their share of influence. In that period USSR was still a totalitarian state, but it was not a one-person dictatorship.
tell me please how much times USA sent killers in Cuba to kill Castro ? if mexica will ask russia to install russian nukes in mexica do u believe usa will not send troops, will not start "limited scale invasion"? did usa send weapon in nicaragua or not? to support anti government rebels
It's interesting that the video states (14:55) that Stalin believed the deal between Germany and the Soviet Union would only delay war with Germany but Hitler attacked (15:25) "earlier than Stalin had anticipated". The most common opinion is that Stalin was completely taken by surprise and thought the report of Germany's attack was inaccurate at first. Saying that Stalin had Molotov agree to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact simply to buy time for the Soviet Union to prepare for war with Germany does not ring true.
Exactly.Winston Churchill tried to warn Stalin about Hitler's plans but he ignored. Soviet spies based in Japan even gave him the exact date Hitler was planning to attack USSR but still he refused to believe. He was caught off guard and heavy industry had to be quickly moved to avoid capture by the German army
Leonid Brezhnev was the leader of the CPSU from 1964 until his death in 1982, whose eighteen-year tenure was recognized as the time of social and economic stagnation in the late Soviet Union. The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy that proclaimed that any threat to "socialist rule" in any state of the Soviet Bloc in Central and Eastern Europe was a threat to all of them, and therefore, it justified the intervention of fellow socialist states His political legacy was to have been the attainment of what was called “developed” or mature socialism, which in reality was a way to explain the stagnation of the system. The so-called Brezhnev Constitution was promulgated in 1977. Additionally, while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and strengthened the Soviet Union's dominion over Central and Eastern Europe.
время правления брежнева никем не была признана "застоем" это слово вбросил в политическую риторику горбачев настоящий застой и более того деградация начались в СССР после прихода к власти Горбачева по всему СССР началась межнациональная рещня образовалась мафия легализовавшаяся под видом "кооператоров " из магазинов пропали продукты и импортнын и советского производства появился спид наркомания начала расти наркоторговля и наркопроизводство участились взрывы на угольных шахтах в двое с 1985 по 1991 погибли в два раза больше шахтеров чем с 1989 по 1985 год в СССР с 1985 появились проститутки до 1985 их небыло с 1985 начинают появляться молодежные банды наркоманов воров рекетиров и многое прочее 1985 год когда Горбачев приходит к власти в СССР для советских граждан начинается ад а не жизнь таким образом именно с 1985 года начинается "застой стагнация и деградация" в одном флаконе
tell me please how much times USA sent killers in Cuba to kill Castro ? if mexica will ask russia to install russian nukes in mexica do u believe usa will not send troops, will not start "limited scale invasion"? did usa send weapon in nicaragua or not? to support anti government rebels
It’s difficult to assess a Soviet’s character, as the system was a cutthroat arena where silence and treachery were critical skills to merely stay alive. I think Brezhnev, like every other Soviet survivalist, willed his ideals upon himself to stay in the game. It seems like he’d have made an effective manager, had he been born, raised, cultured, and educated in a capitalist society.
Brezhnev was definitively a better leader than his predecessor Chrustschow and all the people in power during the first years of the SU, the 30's, 40's, 50's. The economic problems can also origin from the environment: These were the first moves to colonize land that had never been colonized before. Moreover, in Kazakhstan, where water is a scarce commodity, his usual ways to pay farmers more and to give party members a second chance didn´t work so well with too less water. If he had not become that ill, he likely would have wanted Gorbatchow to become his successor. This doc shed new light on his early life, too. So thank you very much for uploading!
Everybody's supposed to be equal but the people that were on the government have servants and mansions and eat the best food and have the beautiful women take advantage everywhere they can
As a Bangladeshi, I pay my tribute to Comrade Brezhnev, President Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny, and Prime Minister Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin for their unconditional support to Bangladesh’s liberation war. All three were posthumously honored with the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour.
Do a one about Zhou Enlai he was china’s 1st Premier from 1954 till his death in 1976 and 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1949-1958 seems right after Moa and Deng Oh do Jiang Zemin now that he’s died last year
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Why are you saying "keev"? It was not referred to that at the time. Why not say 'volgograd' instead of 'stalingrad' if you're going to use modern names?
People's profile please make one about Jan Smits and Hertzog
I remember a joke from the Brezhnev days in the USSR
A ghost train is travelling through the snows of Siberia with Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev on board. It breaks down and everyone is stranded.
Lenin says "let's organise the train staff into collectives and pass a resolution for the train to work".
Stalin says "no, no, no. Let's arrest all the train staff, shoot the driver and replace him with a secret policeman".
Brezhnev says "can't we just pull down the blinds, close our eyes, sway from side to side making train noises and pretend the train is moving?"
Good joke! 😄😄😄😄😄
Funny how it was Stalin who industrialized the Soviet Union in a decade so that it could defeat the Nazis. Seems like he would have been the best one to run the train service. If the Western BS was even mildly true the Soviet Union would have been easily overrun by the Nazis.
But what does Chruschtschow do? He leaves the train, releases all the Train Staff and Passengers, takes a piss in Stalins Drink and grows some Corn 🌽 near the train tracks.
Oh Dear....
@@josefstrauss9017 Yes, i also knew it with Khrushchev: After Stalin has the entire train personnel shot, Khrushchev denounces this a deviation from the Leninist Principles and has the good names of the train personnel posthumously restored. As the train still doesn´t show any signs of movement, Brezhnev quietly rises, closes the window curtains, sits down again with closed eyes and starts to rhythmically rock up and down on his seat while saying: "tadam-tadam-tadam-tadam..."
I really like how is your documentary is chronologically and smoothly transitioned between different eras and topics . Keep up the great work.
What do you mean they left out the most important part
Prayers that was the one who sent this over soldiers to their death in Afghanistan
Very interesting. I grew up in the waning days of Brezhnev and I remember hearing his name a lot on the news. I remember how uneasy everybody seemed when Brezhnev died, because nobody here in the US knew what was going to happen next.
Yes same here was a Teenager in Australia. After he died a series of old
Sick men took over. 83 was scary when
They shot the Korean airliner down
And tensions with President Reagan froze. Thought there was going to be
Nuclear war. The stress of it and other
Problems sent me into depression
That year.
According to what my parents and grandparents told me, in the USSR many people were also worried for the future after Brezhnev died.
@@martinjenkins6467That was Yuri Andropov. He almost kick started W.W.3in 1983. He believed Ronald Reagan attempted to attack USSR with his constant anti communism rhetorics!
@@martinjenkins6467 Ironically Gorbachev was the only Soviet head of State to have been born in the USSR itself, everyone else was old enough to have originally been born in the old Russia empire when they still had a Tsar.
believe me or not in USSR also nobody has no idea what was going to happen next.
"I don't always surf the internet but when I do, eyebrows."
~Brezhnev
The internet did not exist when he was alive.
@@johnstudd4245DUH
Move over, Frida Kahlo . . .
@@johnstudd4245 You sound fun
😂😂😂
For many older Russians this was a golden age of stability, full employment and a major housing programme. They contrast it with the instability of Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
Illusions but yes, it was
Are talking about the gulags?
During this golden age the empire of evil became helluva rotten. I lived in it.
@@alfonsasgrinevicius7477
Please do tell us more..!!
Have you ever thought about creating your own channel with the experiences that you, and others encounterd..?
For many younger westerners, we fondly wish we were alive during times pre mass migration with good jobs, good standard of living, cheap housing and social homes for all 😢
Really good stuff. No BS, straight to the story, easy to listen to and follow and informative. Some UA-camrs are more obsessed with talking around the subject without getting to the subject matter, but this was perfect clarity.
At the end of the film, I noticed the same things, along with the rapid-fire pace of the narrator. The challenging names and political terminology, accompanied by authentic footage in the background, followed a clear trajectory. The repetition of character names helped make them more familiar.
Additionally, there was a quick recap of the story, allowing viewers to construct their own perspective on the characters and the overall narrative.
Often, historical stories can become convoluted by irrelevant side paths, including names and events that don’t contribute to the context. To truly understand history, it’s crucial to stay within the context and timeline. Rather than attempting to memorize every detail, focusing on small yet complete stories that fit into the broader historical narrative can lead to lasting comprehension.
In my personal experience, this approach works best for me, especially since I have a terrible memory.
My memory is so bad that I can’t remember what my point was, but it’s a good video🧐
You Brits🥴.
This excellent documentary of a man I knew very little about dispite being born during his reign as the head of the Soviet Union needs and deserves far more then the quarter-million views it currently has. I can't wait to see if other videos on this channel are as well put together!
Truly excellent work. I understand (and, to a certain extent, respect) Brezhnev much more. Thank you for your work of balanced and non-ideological history!
Those of us who grew up in the 79s and 80s, remember hearing a lot about Brezhnev. His name was synonymous with Soviet Union. He definitely played a key role to influence contemporary world history.
This sounds like something a bot would say...
@@Miodrag.Vukomanovic No, it's very true. I grew up during the 70s in the US, and Brezhnev's name was always in the news when it came to the Soviet Union.
@@kurtfrancis4621 That's because he was the General Secretary of the communist party from 1965 to 1982.
@@kurtfrancis4621so was any world leader 😂
I remember when a McDonalds opened in Russia as part of trade agreements & Brezhnev had a Big mac & beer
THANK YOU FOR THIS GEM! At the age of 90, I am an American woman who has lived through the Complicated History of “ The Modern World of Nations And Their Relationships, both Cultural and Military.” And because of my husband’s work as a highly respected university administrator, was, to my astonishment, privileged to meet both of the Gorbachevs and Eduardo Shevardnadze. But have always been left feeling overwhelmed by my ignorance of Russian history-especially that of the growth and decline of Communism. Heartfelt thanks for this amazingly detailed biographical study of Leonid Breznev and his rise and fall. It is just what I needed to get a better grasp of World History and the effect that world leaders have on all of us across our now-tiny planet. We all, who lived in optimistic awareness through the fall of Russian Communism, once had such hope for world detente and peace…and now The Age Of Putin and the ugly re-growth of world Fascism has destroyed our sad little dreams. ( Partly, I blame the current failure of American Secondary Education for this dismal failure of awareness)
God bless you mam, I'm just a youngster at 63 and I couldn't agree more regarding the disappointment you have felt since the fall of the USSR. Some even asserted it was the end of history. Unfortunately in America our secondary students took it to mean no more studying. To be fair to students though we have some awful history--and English--teachers pretending to teach in our secondary schools.
I’ve never read such utter nonsense 😂
SUPER COOL OLD WOMAN RIGHT HERE.
Thank you for this. I was a youth at the time of Brezhnev in power.
This video shows us a more civilized, pragmatic, less ideological person than we thought Russians to be.
One of my first memories as I learned to read were pamphlets about what to do in case of a nuclear attack.
Another one was air raid sirens located here and there, just in case.
There were not so subtle threats to Russian families living here, messages like "We know where you are".
This was after the Korean War and during the Vietnam War leading to the Afghan War.
"The West" was and is skeptic of Russia with reason.
Now we are back to square one, the efforts of Brezhnev and others have been overturned.
Back to Crazy Times.
Yeah but this time you have a truly unhinged person who is running for office so wiser minds cannot prevail if he wins.
So threatening Russians living in the west is somehow justified?" Is it acceptable to be Skeptical of people simply for being Russian ?
Have you considered that the western view of Russian people is Largely a creation of western propagandists?
I'm sure the U.S is completely innocent in the whole thing and has done nothing to make other countries skeptical of America .
Why are Americans so afraid of anyone not American .
What is the human dilemma? There was a fall in Heaven. Then there was a fall on Earth. Then the 1st person born (Cain) killed the 2nd person born (Abel). So we can see who we are. Because of focus on self, humans are either predators or prey.
Thank you for a well done documentary. Learned much about Brezhnev I was unaware of previously….
.
My name is Brechnev Etta from Cameroon 🇨🇲 I was named by my Father as a child, today I am 35 years old, and i decided to check the story of the man i was named after, his story is a confirmation that names can influence a child's behavior, in secondary school i studied Biology, chemistry, physics, maths geography economics etc, in the university i studied Agriculture, i love Agriculture a whole lot. And i joined the Cameroon 🇨🇲 military after my university and when the English resistance arised in Cameroon, i had to flee to Dubai and now i am into Engineering. Watching this stories today i really wish to become this man Brezhnev
He was a tyrant . under him many were sent to camps.
Oh. I would rather be alive.
Excellent. The algorythm dropped this in my lap and I really enjoyed. Nice job putting this together. Never knew much about him and always wondered how anyone climbed and survived through the Stalin, WW2 etc. Seemed like a very bright guy who learned a lot on the job through many different assignments. Definitley a climber with a keen intuition of what was going on politically in the heirarchy of Soviet leadership. As a long time (now retired) vet of the corporate world, have to tip my hat to his machiavellian survival skills, always managing to advace his career.
he had very good interpersonal skills. how to look like a good friend to everybody.
even foreign leaders became his friends.
I unexpectedly enjoyed this profile. I wouldn't want to be ruled by Brezhnev (or live in the Soviet Union, period), but you really captured how much even the greatest leaders are prisoners of their times, and how the length of their lives manipulates how they are remembered - more for the last years than the first.
It strikes me that Brez and Henry VIII of England have a lot in common.
Except Henry seemed able to attract wives for whatever reason.
Brezhnev was a survivor, someone who knew how to play the game and not be purged,
Henry was one of the worst Kings we ever had. Even by standards of monarchy, he was bad.
Brezhnev didn't execute his wives.
Henry was a terrible human being
I definitely would love to live in the Soviet Union for atleast like 9 years.
@@ssg9offical What an oddly specific and dull hell.
You guys have truly outdone yourselves. I learned so much from this particular documentary. Kudos.
Extraordinary documentary, extremely well done.
He was younger when he died than Sir Mick Jagger is today. And we always thought of Brezhnev as ancient… 😱
Turns out cigarettes and vodka aren't great for you.
Jaggers must be on the right drugs…
@@markfrancis5164 Jagger has been sober for decades. The level of drug abuse for musicians is typically greatly exaggerated as a whole for the free advertizing/branding and because of a few over-represented examples of genuine addicts that often don't make it to 40.
@@XhumpersX Well, yes ! "ROCK MUSICIANS - BEES AGAINST HONEY"))))
@@markfrancis5164exactly - product of the times - technology and advances in meds
Thanks!
Thank you!
Thank you for shining a light on the internal machinations of what was always to me just a procession of names with no background. Although I'm generally distrustful of authoritative narratives, you make him come across as a reasonable person astride an immense slowly evolving system brought undone by "Events, dear boy, events'"
best documentary i've seen on Brezhnev. Well done..
I’m always waiting for the next video … by far my favorite channel
Despite the huge differences between 'the west' and Russia, it's not difficult to have a grudging respect for this man. Excellent video - I learned a lot.
best ussr leader from perspective of ussr people. 70s were peak ussr
Hmm. I wonder if Andropov survived long enough ussr would have survived I guess. But Andropov also made a lot of decisions which contributed to the collapse.
@@NostalgicMem0ries only before 1970 he was good. later he was too old. too lazy to do something good
@@eliotness4029 age is major issue for world leaders, usa is great example, two grandpas running for president again...
@@NostalgicMem0ries usa want check on his own skin how good or bad it was in USSR in 1980
Ironically, a man who introduced something dubbed "The Era of Stagnation" by the official Russian historiography is by far the most popular Soviet/Russian statesman today, although he the one who largely ignored long-term anachronisms and economical problems and started military adventures that cost the USSR much of its prestige, or what was left of it. After Czechoslovakia alone, nobody in the west considered communism anything idealistic and progressive.
If only today's socialists could only see what the USSR has done to the people's under its control and influence, capitalism may not be perfect or fair but it's still far better than what communism always become.
@kingfuqurmahmen6792 So you mean the early 50s with paranoid Stalin, post war famines, gulags and 30 000 000 dead, or the botched reforms of Khrushchev? If anything, USSR was interesting in the 1920s and then under Glasnost, those were the only times when it had some idealism, optimism and vital force of people who believed in it, other than that it was just geriatric dictatorship of boomers.
Why should anyone in the Soviet Union should care about the opinion of the Anglo Americans who are the enemies of Russia?????
@@dipakbose2677 believe it or not, the Soviet Union no longer exists and conflating it with modern Russia is a good indication that you don't have a clue what you're writing about.
He was a conservative, self-fellating Russian strongman, often quiet about his personal life and lackluster in his personal ability. Why wouldn't Russians love him?
I remember Brezhnev featuring in news and current affairs during the 1970's and he was usually portrayed through the lens of western political outlook but far from being the remote heartless autocrat he comes across in this documentary as a very intelligent thoughtful and moderate statesman who favoured consensus over coercion and who did his best to enhance the conditions of the people he governed. His tenure as general secretary set the template for Mikhail Gorbachev's diplomatic relations with other world leaders.
"I kissed President James Carter on the lips in public."
-Brezhnev
That's because nobody else would.
@@danwright4012 Good one!! hahahaha! 😀
Yuck....!!!
This was a very good documentary! Very well made and love the old footage. Good work!
My understanding is that Brezhnev was trying to protect Taraki by telling to have Amin removed from power. However, Amin's informants found out about this and alerted him. Once Taraki returned to Kabul was when Amin had him executed. It was THIS, along with Amin's communication with the U.S. that the U.S.S.R. invaded.
Outstanding video. Earned a like and subscribe!
Thx for the very detailed view of this man & the circumstances that molded him into the leader he was.
This is a more better documentary on him and more detailed . He seems to be a more reforming leader than the hard-line image i had of him.
He was a hard-liner. This program is pure Soviet hagiography.
@@jeffreykalb9752 Directly involved in the Holodomor - Mass starving of millions of Ukrainians
Says the dude that's never left the west and most likely has never left his home state. 🙃
@@kenosabi Mon cherie, my home "state" would be Stockholm, Sweden. And yes, been to Russia and the US.
"The Holodomor,[a] also known as the Great Ukrainian Famine,[b] was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930-1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union. "
@@Gurra_Gforce My grandmother lived in the Kursk region of Soviet Russia. In the 1930s, they often experienced famine; due to severe spring frosts, it was not possible to harvest crops in the fields. So they ate dandelion roots, nettles and the like. There were no domestic animals in the villages, so they had to eat pigeons. On January 17, 1940 in Moscow it was -42 degrees Celsius, a record for those years. That's why what they call the Holodomor was not planned. They could always feed themselves if they harvested locally. So tell your tales somewhere else
One of the best channels on UA-cam!
There is a funny anecdote that in preparation for SALT treaty talks when meeting with Kissinger he said, we must make it work, God will not forgive us if we fail. Which was very striking coming from the leader of the world's fist officially atheist polity.
Nice observation. Many communists view the state/party as a supreme deity. It may also be that he wasn't a true believer in the ideology and just adopted it as the winds of opportunity shifted in that direction.
Stalin went to Confession several times during WWII. The priest took his secrets to the grave.
When Dr. Radhakrishnan, the then Indian Ambassador to Moscow and the future President of India met Stalin and said: God bless you, Stalin's eyes got filled with tears.
The whole “godless communism” trope is vastly overblown. Before the revolution in 1917, Russia was an Orthodox Christian country. After the revolution, people just practiced their religious beliefs in secret. There were nowhere near as many atheists there as people think.
It's important to notice that many verbal expressions are used without us really thinking of the literal words. It's about the subsconscious collective feeling that we associate to them. It's like calling "son of a bitch" to a wall, or any object, after you were hurt by it.
In general knowledge classes, we were taught that USSR was fine till Nikita Khrushchev but when Brezhnev overthrew him, he started investing heavily in Defence sector, taking resources away from Agricultural and Industrial sector, triggering the Era of Stagnation.
We were also taught that he increased bureaucracy which lead to increase in corruption and Nepotism.
When Gorbachev came, he tried to fix the economy but it was nearly an impossible task due to the 18 years of economic stagnation, furthermore Chernobyl disaster put him at a even worse position.
'ussr was fine' 🤣🤣 60000000 citizens were unalived by the communist party. Some government huh
I appreciate the briefing and the life of Brezhnev.this channel also amazing and important for my study about soviet union.thanks
Great documentary about this man. While it may be termed the "Era of Stagnation" it might be better termed the "Era of Stability" After Kruschev's constant changes and reshuffling of things. This really gives a much better insight to Brezhnev as opposed to what the western press was putting out there. Thanks so much for sharing this interesting and informative documentary.
There is a darker side. What was Brezhnev's role in Ukraine during the holodomor? Who presided over the incarceration of human rights advocates in psychiatric institutions where they were stupified with drugs?
Brezhnev didn't have anything to do with the Holodomor, everything points to him being completely uninterested in the campaign against so-called "wreckers" and in arresting Kulaks. He was a logistical genius, and the areas he governed faired relatively well.
Brezhnev wasn't involved in the Holodomor, if he was he most likely wouldn't have survived the 1930s.Stalin removed most of the people who could connect him to it.
During the mythical “holodomor” Brezhnev was 20 years old, so his role doesn’t even exist. All this “human rights advocates” were traitors and were punished legally
Your comment is based on false assumptions and historical distortions. Brezhnev was not involved in the Holodomor, which took place in 1932-33, when he was a regional party secretary in Dnepropetrovsk. He had no authority or responsibility over the policies that caused the famine in Ukraine and other regions of the Soviet Union . Brezhnev became the leader of the Soviet Union only in 1964, after the death of Stalin and the ousting of Khrushchev. He presided over a period of political repression, but also of détente with the West and economic stagnation . He developed the **Brezhnev Doctrine**, which allowed for Soviet intervention in cases where "the essential common interests of other socialist countries are threatened by one of their number" . This doctrine was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979, but it had nothing to do with the Holodomor or Ukraine .
As for the incarceration of human rights advocates in psychiatric institutions, this was a practice that began under Khrushchev and continued under Brezhnev, but it was not limited to Ukraine or to dissidents of Ukrainian origin. It affected many people who opposed or criticized the Soviet regime, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity . Moreover, this practice was condemned by many Jewish activists and intellectuals, who also suffered from discrimination and persecution in the Soviet Union . Jews in Ukraine were not complicit in the Holodomor or the repression of human rights; on the contrary, they were often victims of both .
Therefore, your comment is misleading and inaccurate. It tries to blame Brezhnev and Jews for crimes that they did not commit or were not responsible for. It also ignores the complex and tragic history of Ukraine and its relations with Russia and other neighboring countries. You should learn more about the facts before making such baseless accusations.
@@NostalgicMem0riesnice bot post, but methinks you protest too much. He never mentioned anyone's religion.
Love your content guys! You always come through! Suggestion: last leader of the soviet union mikhail gorgachev
No, Taylor Swift
too stupid
@@richwinds7179 No, Jonathan Swift.
Thanks for an outstanding programme: hugely informative and very balanced.
It's all about interpretations, but I feel this documentary paints a too light a picture of this man.
Exactly they skip over a bunch of bad things he did
He was not a monster on the level of Stalin, Lenin or Hitler. Or Putin for that matter. For most of his life he was just a party careerist. But he was responsible for implementing policies resulting in the death, imprisonment and enslavement of tens of millions.
My grandfather had a similar background but only rose to the level of the Apparat of the Central Committee. It was an extremely weird world that they lived in. All based on personal connections, all influence and power bestowed by the party. The party elite lived in an environment completely separated from common people, so it's hard to tell how they saw reality. Like, they had their separate distribution centers (raspredelitel) instead of shops, where you could actually get items not available to the regular public - nothing special, just quality meat and fish products, caviar, alcohol, fruits and vegetables, regular stuff you'd see in a contemporary high end supermarket... While regular population had to wait in line for two hours on an odd chance a supermarket sold bananas or two days in line if a sports store sold Adidas sneakers.
When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s he was a joke. Only you couldn't make that joke publicly. Again - he's responsible for countless death and suffering so who cares he liked to drive expensive cars. He's guilty as all of them are. My grandfather never learned how to drive because the Central Committee provided him with a car and a chauffeur.
mentally limited people.
dont u know western billionaire have different way of living compared with ordinal western people. they eat different food. they drive different cars.
it is a big surprise for u?
Shortages and misery was exactly the same in places like Cuba, no difference, same with corruption
@@JoseGomez-cz1vc Very true. And places like Cuba and Ukraine used to be major suppliers of agricultural products to the world, before authoritarian governments took over. It takes a lot of effort from people like Brezhnev to really mess things up... 😃
@@sergecashman4822 Cuba has a hard time trading goods because of the economic embargo placed on them by the US. Blaming that on the supposed 'authoritarian nature' of the government is having it backwards. You really think a government likes to see their own people dealing with shortages?
As for 'the party elite living in a completly seperate environment', it says in THIS video, that Brezhnev moved to Moscow living in a three-room apartment. Basic stuff. So apart from a few food items they could acquire being party-workers, that doesn't sound like living 'completely seperatly' from the people
@@raymondhartmeijer9300 I haven't been to Cuba so I won't argue about that too much.
However I spent miserable 19 years in the Soviet Union so I absolutely stand by what I say. The party elite (and as you can understand there's only one party) had a completely different life from regular people like doctors, engineers, university professors etc. Never even mind the working class. At least working class had something to steal...
A three room apartment was not an easy thing to get without powerful connections. Even moving to Moscow was an extremely difficult thing to achieve, almost completely impossible for a regular person. Remember - all real estate belonged to the government controlled by the party. My grandparents on both sides were able to move to Moscow because of either a high rank in the party or a mid-rank in the KGB.
And they had other perks like dachas (summer houses, which in this case means a large mansion with a huge garden in a gated community), they lived in buildings where only party officials were allowed to live, they were allowed to travel abroad and buy foreign merchandise, the list goes on.
One thing they were not entitled to is their own opinion. On joke about Brezhnev as he was the leader of USSR goes like this - "I don't mind freeing the dissidents from prisons, but what the ones above me are going to say?"
According to the Russians who lived in the Soviet Union, Brezhnev era was a era of stability, progress, happiness, and continuous developments in every aspects. Possibly that is the reason Western observers are so much critical about him and praise Gorbachev who destroyed the Soviet Union.
That is true. A lot of people go after him for having an exploding black market, an increase in corruption & econonic stagnation. What is failed to be pointed out that is that these problems started to happen or at least start to balloon enough when he got very ill & hence couldn't do anything as ruler. What I find interesting is that Brezhnev wanted to reform Gosplan to be automated & computerized (Glushkov's plan), but lower level party officials did not approve of the plan.
Deep down, the reason why bourgeois academia goes after Brezhnev (also why they go after Stalin, Castro, Putin, Xi, Husák ,Honecker, Chávez, maduro, Assad, & Zhivkov) because he massively threatened Western hegemony, achieving parity w/the USA at a time, when we were ironically entering an era of stagnation ourselves. It was an increasing possibility that if things did not change, the Soviets could win the Cold War. The Eastern Bloc's living standards began to match those of the West for the first time too.
He was a conservative hardener who blocked democratization in favor of walking back to stalinist policies mitary adventures and crushing dissent with tank treads he is as responsible for the death of the USSR as any leader
Excelent and informative profile of Brezhnev. I remember him from the news in my early youth but I have found it very difficult to learn more about the man until now.
A complicated man who looked out for himself but also did a lot of positive things for his country. BUT eventually he ran out of juice and the country crashed into the limitations of its economic system. I remember him as a sinister figure in TV but the cold war were not a time for nuances.
This is my favorite content of yours, love it. Thanks for your effort 😍😍😍
A total discovery for me. I was a child when B. was in power, and my image of him was that of a tyrant. Thanks for making me reconsidering that. Brilliant as always.
If Brezhnev had passed away in 1975 he may have been regarded as a benevolent and successful leader. Sure, the USSR kept 5,000 political prisoners under his reign but that's nothing compared to Lenin and Stalin.
А что загнивающий запад в сша в 1975 сделал бесплатное образование доступно медицина? Достоиные пенсии и зарплаты%?
В 1975 году СССР по ВВП обгонял США на 2 процента... У вас нищие РАБОЧИИ были в трейлерх жили... А у нас в домах квартирах... Стакан бензина стоили как стакан газировки...
@@РатиборКрышень wow.
@@РатиборКрышеньCapitalism: “Work or starve.”
Communism: “work and starve.”
@@jimtalbott9535true
Excellent Documentary !
Brezhnev was a product of his time, system and situation. He had great strengths and the weaknesses that usual come with strengt that is unchecked in any way.
As I was a child for most of Brezhnev’s tenure, I really didn’t understand a lot about him and his achievements. This video has been an education. It gives an insight into the Russian humanity, people like ourselves trying to survive in a post nuclear world. This has been educational. I thank you for your work bringing his story to us. 😊
“God will not forgive us if we fail”
Leonid Brezhnev
It’s ironic that Brezhnev would say that because the former USSR was an atheist country.
Doubt he ever said that. He was an atheist.
An extremely revealing insight into the life an career of Leonid Brezhnev, very well illustrated. I was surprised that the photograph of Brezhnev in the Red Square parade was omitted.
Nice reference to German Chancellor Willy Brandt. Would love to have you do a documentary on him in the future.
Why?
A traitor, womaniser, hypocrite, coward etc. etc.!
Just Google..... Radikalen erlass.....
A cheap con man with no honour!
GBR remained the loyal friend to USSR until the end. Thats why Gorby allowed the unification so easily.
@@marguskiis7711
My previous comment regarding Brandt has been deleted!
What does GBR stand for....GDR?
@@norbertschmitz3358 West, yes, West Germany had very good relationships with USSR from 1972 onwards
German democratic republic (east Germany)@@norbertschmitz3358
Brilliant video. Learned a lot! Thank you!
Most Russians today consider Brezhnev the best leader of the 20th century, but this only after experiencing Gorbachev and Yeltsin. When he died in 1982 he wasn't missed, and Gorbachev blamed him for pretty much everything, especially corruption, but this always was sthe stituation in Russia, and it could be stopped only with extreme Stalin-style terror. In retrospect, Brezhnev was a very down-to-earth, realistic, and quite successful leader, both domestically and externally. Also, he is quite fondly remembered by religious people, both Christian and Muslim, because he unofficially stopped the persecution of religious activity.
no they don't, speak for yourself
@@flownamenot according to opinion polls. Maybe among defectors & younger Russians.
Speak for yourself
Secretary Brehnev was a global statesman. Whose brand of statesmanship is sorely needed and missed today.
I would have to say, I agree with you...
Imagine that disaster in the Brezhnev era, that according to statistical data, for those 18 years of his rule, 160 million Soviet citizens acquired their own apartments or houses ??? Some got apartments built by the state, and some got extremely cheap state loans to build their own houses - horror! Such a catastrophe has never happened in the west ....
In America we have homes and apartments, and no kgb, gulags and such.
@@davidgenie-ci5zl You don't have the KGB, but you have the NSA, which arrests, imprisons and kills people 100 years after Stalin. USA did not have Gulags but they imprisoned 100,000 women, children and men in camps because they were Japanese Americans during WW2. During Brezhnev's time, there were 385,000 people in prisons in the USSR, today there are 2 million people in prisons in the USA??? No, you don't have apartments, most Americans live in apartments that are owned by banks or housing corporations, in the USSR they reached that 93% live in their own apartments or houses.
@@davidgenie-ci5zl there were no gulags after Stalin. BTW GULAGs population was in most years lower that US prisons's population these days.
@@dmitryletov8138 Gulags were for the political prisoners, Not real criminals. While a Soviet might have had a small apartment, many more Americans had freedom, a nicer home, car, TV set, ample groceries, and LIBERTY. The communist system was murderously horrible.
@@davidgenie-ci5zlno you don’t, the vast majority of people under 30 don’t have a house or an apartment that can call their own, and probably they will never have one.
I was just curious about the history of the cold war and it was interesting learning about this guy. He went through a tumultuous time in the Soviet era.
I can't listen to continuous speech without so much as a two second break between. That's the difference with these kind of self-made YT docs and professional documentaries; there are breaks in between for a reason.
Interesting documentary. Thanks for posting.
His death was literally the end of USSR too.
Well there was still Andropov after him and then Chernenko who didn't last at all (he was terminally ill)
Literally it was not
@@fintonmainz7845 less than 10 years later there was no USSR any more.
@@marguskiis7711 so for slightly less than 10 years there was, literally, still a USSR
@@fintonmainz7845 It was an agony
41:13 I didn't know Brezhnev drove around here in Ontario! That's pretty cool! :D
You should also want to make video on yuri andrropov
Very objective. Congratulations.
I always wondered whatever happened to the two Colt Single Action Army revolvers that Chuck Connors gave to Brezhnev when he came to the United States? Brezhnev was very fond of American western films and television shows, especially The Rifleman. For a time, The Rifleman was one of only a handful of non-Communist created shows to appear on Soviet television.
where do you keep bringing this nonsense from?
@@sergeymanakov6267 “Keep”??? Keep implies I’ve posted more than once. FYI smartass, I posted once and it’s based on facts.
@@sergeymanakov6267
Please research this…Brezhnev visited Nixon in 1974 and he met Chuck Conners. Conners gave those 2 Colt revolvers as gift. Before Brezhnev left Washington he spotted Conners in the crowd and walked up to him giving Conners a bear hug and handshake. When Brezhnev died in 1982 Connors asked to be part of the official US delegation to attend Brezhnev’s funeral, but was denied to go.
Thank you for this very well done presentation, in much appreciation..
This adds much in what I have read..
Informative video - I learned much. I was born in 1954. During my formative years (1960s and 1970s), much political competition existed between the USA and the USSR. The American media painted the Soviet Union as a repressive and evil country. The Afghanistan invasion only solidified that perception. Yet the 1960s Kennedy and King assassinations didn't do the USA any favors. I knew little about Brezhnev until today. There was more to the man than what I thought I knew. Thanks for sharing this.
Brezhnev seems like a reasonable guy. He wasn't blood thirsty like Stalin and opened the Soviet union to the world. I was born in the late eighties but I think 1960-1980 period was very interesting
Good lord what a shocking amount of infighting... I'm amazed they could get anything done at all.
Fantastic documentary! He was a very different Soviet Leader to say the least and I think lead to people like Gorbachev, which lead to the end of the Soviet Union, but I think that was for the better and worse in many regards.
Growing up in Jamaica, during the 70s, I remember admiring Brezhnev, and followed the "rise and fall of all the Others after him,.. amazing times, back then, when..
Great video, thanks. I'll always be convinced that compared with his two two predecessors, he was the best possible choice. After the extremes of Stalin and Khrushchev , the USSR needed a safe, in charge.
Stalin and Khrushchev terrified the nation; in their own way; and I dare say Western leaders breathed a little easier, with Détente?.
The video encouraged me to leave a comment and say what I think but I don't know because I wasn't there. But it was a good video
Just realized that I had same major in university than Brezhnev.. and have even worked in similar jobs as he did in begining of he's caree..
Very informative..ive always thought of him as a mean old dude who was planning something evil. There was so much more to him
Wanted to hear more about his relationship with Nixon.
Of all the major Soviet leaders and figures Brezhnev is the one I studied the least. This video has gone a long way in rectifying that.
I did research on Brezhnev's daughter Galina Brezhneva. She was a complete loose cannon who did not care about her father's wishes or the optics of her behavior. Galina was married 4 times and divorced all 4 times! Her last husband married her when he was 29 and she was 64! Unheard of back then in the Soviet Union. She was also considered hypersexual and highly promiscuous. Was a huge alcoholic and even did some embezzlement during her heyday. Brezhnev was the leader of the Soviet Union, but his life was boring compared to his daughter Galina's!
Nice and detailed
I am no expert on the subject of this documentary, however, it seems particularly flattering when contrasting Brezhnev to his counterparts.
Sounds like a chill guy!
All the leaders of the USSR came from the lower classes, from the people. Stalin was the son of a shoemaker, Khrushchev was the son of a miner, Brezhnev was the son of a worker, Andropov was the son of a minor employee, Chernenko and Gorbachev were born in the village. The USSR was a truly democratic country.
🙄
You could say that working class people could make it to the top, but not that it was democratic.
I didn't know Brejnev did all this good work. This video really changes my perception of him.
Wszechstronny polityk, mający swoją wizję zarządzania, organizowania gospodarki, innowacyjne metody w realizowaniu celów w różnych okolicznościach i warunkach narodowościowych. Nowoczesny Mąż Stanu, podnoszący prestiż swojej ojczyzny na arenie międzynarodowej, nie ustępując politykom "zachodnim". Godny wzór do naśladowania. Dziękuję za interesujący i historyczny materiał. Greetings from Poland.
You believe this even though he sent the tanks into Prague in 1968?
@@fazole This is not faith, these are facts. Czech historians themselves admit that "Prague Spring of 1968" was a prepared political and military operation and its goal was to deploy Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia - everything hat its price. Czechs and Russians are Slavs, my brothers.
Just like the coup operation on Kiev`s Maidan 2013/14, the target a US Navy and Marines base in Crime + rockets aimed at Moscow, 400 km (Thank God it was unsuccessful).
@@fazole dear fazole. or fasol . tell me please how much times USA sent killers in Cuba to kill Castro ? if mexica will ask russia to install russian nukes in mexica do u believe usa will not send troops, will not start "limited scale invasion"? did usa send weapon in nicaragua or not?
Pronciation a bit wobbly in places, eg Nag-ey: Nodge would be nearer. However, given you had to cover multiple countries I'm sure I couldn't have done any better. You've covered a very complex period well, given the time you had available.
Brezhnev was a noted repressive tyrant who imprisoned anyone who opposed him. He regularly attacked neighboring countries, e.g., Czechoslovakia. He also destroyed the Soviet economy through his oppressive policies.
Attacking countries? This country was a part of Warsaw pact, and the intervention of Russians, poles, germans and hungarians in 1968 was absolutely legal, as it was secured in the Warsaw pact documents. Destruction of economy started in the USSR after Gorbachov came to power and started his crazy policy, which destroyed the industry of the USSR
He was the leader of a declining great power:
The Soviet system was forced, it didn't grow naturally. It was a system built and sustained by Lenin and Stalin 1920 to 1950 ( Forced system)
1950 to 1991 ( expiring system)
USSR = invention of Lenin and Stalin with German aid and support.
Failed system:
Fall behind
Have too many problems
Stagnation
Decline
Successful system:
Progress
Solutions to problems
Improvement
Successful systems:
USA
China
Japan
Europe
@@Tethloach1idiotic post from an idiot pretending to be smart lol
Brezhnev was a formal leader, but the decisions were made collectively by the Politburo, where other figures like Andropov, Gromyko, Kosygin, Suslov etc. had their share of influence. In that period USSR was still a totalitarian state, but it was not a one-person dictatorship.
tell me please how much times USA sent killers in Cuba to kill Castro ? if mexica will ask russia to install russian nukes in mexica do u believe usa will not send troops, will not start "limited scale invasion"? did usa send weapon in nicaragua or not? to support anti government rebels
Very well presented. I learned a lot of new stuff. Paul in Oz.
It's interesting that the video states (14:55) that Stalin believed the deal between Germany and the Soviet Union would only delay war with Germany but Hitler attacked (15:25) "earlier than Stalin had anticipated". The most common opinion is that Stalin was completely taken by surprise and thought the report of Germany's attack was inaccurate at first. Saying that Stalin had Molotov agree to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact simply to buy time for the Soviet Union to prepare for war with Germany does not ring true.
Exactly.Winston Churchill tried to warn Stalin about Hitler's plans but he ignored. Soviet spies based in Japan even gave him the exact date Hitler was planning to attack USSR but still he refused to believe. He was caught off guard and heavy industry had to be quickly moved to avoid capture by the German army
Great documentary but some background music or some change in pace would have been great.
Leonid Brezhnev was the leader of the CPSU from 1964 until his death in 1982, whose eighteen-year tenure was recognized as the time of social and economic stagnation in the late Soviet Union.
The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy that proclaimed that any threat to "socialist rule" in any state of the Soviet Bloc in Central and Eastern Europe was a threat to all of them, and therefore, it justified the intervention of fellow socialist states
His political legacy was to have been the attainment of what was called “developed” or mature socialism, which in reality was a way to explain the stagnation of the system. The so-called Brezhnev Constitution was promulgated in 1977.
Additionally, while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and strengthened the Soviet Union's dominion over Central and Eastern Europe.
время правления брежнева никем не была признана "застоем" это слово вбросил в политическую риторику горбачев
настоящий застой и более того
деградация начались в СССР после прихода к власти Горбачева
по всему СССР началась межнациональная рещня
образовалась мафия легализовавшаяся под видом "кооператоров "
из магазинов пропали продукты
и импортнын и советского производства
появился спид
наркомания начала расти
наркоторговля и наркопроизводство
участились взрывы на угольных шахтах в двое
с 1985 по 1991 погибли в два раза больше шахтеров чем с 1989 по 1985 год
в СССР с 1985 появились проститутки до 1985 их небыло
с 1985 начинают появляться молодежные банды наркоманов
воров рекетиров
и многое прочее
1985 год когда Горбачев приходит к власти в СССР для советских граждан начинается ад а не жизнь
таким образом именно с 1985 года начинается "застой стагнация и деградация" в одном флаконе
tell me please how much times USA sent killers in Cuba to kill Castro ? if mexica will ask russia to install russian nukes in mexica do u believe usa will not send troops, will not start "limited scale invasion"? did usa send weapon in nicaragua or not? to support anti government rebels
He was a great and wise man. I had idea until now.
It’s difficult to assess a Soviet’s character, as the system was a cutthroat arena where silence and treachery were critical skills to merely stay alive. I think Brezhnev, like every other Soviet survivalist, willed his ideals upon himself to stay in the game. It seems like he’d have made an effective manager, had he been born, raised, cultured, and educated in a capitalist society.
He had a lot of democratic character..
Great video !
Do one for Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, Mao Mao Anying, Mao Anqing and Georgy Zhukov.
Manners!
@@yetigriff Manners for what? Your stupid exclamation!?
@@matthewkituyi7182 say please and ask nicely.
@@matthewkituyi7182manners your mum will smack your bum
@@matthewkituyi7182 please and thank you
Brezhnev was definitively a better leader than his predecessor Chrustschow and all the people in power during the first years of the SU, the 30's, 40's, 50's. The economic problems can also origin from the environment: These were the first moves to colonize land that had never been colonized before. Moreover, in Kazakhstan, where water is a scarce commodity, his usual ways to pay farmers more and to give party members a second chance didn´t work so well with too less water. If he had not become that ill, he likely would have wanted Gorbatchow to become his successor. This doc shed new light on his early life, too. So thank you very much for uploading!
Everybody's supposed to be equal but the people that were on the government have servants and mansions and eat the best food and have the beautiful women take advantage everywhere they can
Some people are more equal than others.
/ not mine
As a Bangladeshi, I pay my tribute to Comrade Brezhnev, President Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny, and Prime Minister Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin for their unconditional support to Bangladesh’s liberation war. All three were posthumously honored with the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour.
Economic reforms were needed in the 1970s Brezhnev didn't enact them.
He was the man most responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union.
exactly.
Excellent production, a really superb documentary!
In answer to your two questions at the end: Yes.
Do a one about Zhou Enlai he was china’s 1st Premier from 1954 till his death in 1976 and 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1949-1958 seems right after Moa and Deng Oh do Jiang Zemin now that he’s died last year
Do one about Pedos!!!
No, Taylor Swift
Very informative program.