Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev () ( – November 10, 1982) was effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, and was twice Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state), from 1960 to 1964 and from 1977 to 1982.

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Brezhnev was born in Kamenskoye (now Dniprodzerzhyns'k) in Ukraine, the son of a steel worker. Despite being an ethnic Russian, he retained specific Ukrainian pronunciation and manners for his whole life. Like many working class youth in the years after the Russian Revolution, he received a technical education, at first in land management and then in metallurgy. He graduated from the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute and became an engineer in the iron and steel industries of eastern Ukraine. He joined the Communist Party youth organisation, the Komsomol in 1923 and the Party itself in 1931.

November 10: November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining....

1982: 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar....

Soviet Union: The Soviet Union, also called The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (?????????? ?????; tr.: Sovetsky Soyuz or (????) ; tr.: Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik ), was an officially socialist state founded in 1922, centered on Russia, and dissolved in 1991. From 1945 until its d...