Leonid brezhnev biography summary worksheet

Original Source: Literaturnaia gazeta, 14 September 1988.

Above all else, what we perhaps particularly need at present is a clear and accurate evaluation of the age of stagnation. We should, we must understand what happened in nearly two decades of Leonid Brezhnev’s leadership of the country, with his entourage and the whole administrative apparat. We must understand not, of course, in order to forgive, nor in order to curse. We must understand in order to evaluate the experience of the past for the sake of a better future. Because, as has often been said, peoples are at least partially rewarded for their great trials by the great lessons they learn from them.

The concept of stagnation itself requires further study. It can hardly be doubted that in some spheres (first and foremost the economy) a trend toward stagnation did indeed come increasingly to the fore, while in other spheres, such as those of politics and morality, there was an actual regression in comparison with the ten-year period of the Khrushchev thaw. The abandonment of reforms (and in many respects the return to the command-and-administer system of the Stalinist era), the freeze of living standards, the general delay of absolutely self-evident decisions and the substitution of trite political verbiage in their place, the corruption and degeneration of power in which whole strata of the people became increasingly involved, the loss of moral values and the universal decline in morality-if that is stagnation, what is a crisis? Foreign policy in particular fully reflected the contradictory nature of Brezhnev’s time, when every step forward along the path of detente was followed by two steps back. Only a few years separate two events of such disparate nature, the Final Act in Helsinki and the war in Afghanistan.

Out of all the multifaceted aspects of stagnation, I would like to touch on just one: How did it come about that in such a difficult pe

Brezhnev was an archetypal Soviet politician, head of the USSR, the First General Secretary of the CPSU, and the first person in Soviet history to hold both the leadership of the party and of the state. He was also known for the USSR’s massive buildup of nuclear arms. Brezhnev played a large role in improving relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s. Brezhnev was the best known of a three-man committee that held power of the Soviet Union for 18 years from 1964 until his death in 1982.

See the fact file below for more information on Leonid Brezhnev or alternatively, you can download our 32-page Leonid Brezhnev worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Early Life

• Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 12, 1906, in Kamenskoye (now Dneprodzerzhinsk) in Ukraine, first born of Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev (a metal worker) and Natalia Denisovna Mazalova.
• He was forced to go to work at age 15. After witnessing World War I and the Russian Revolution, he joined the Red Army. He played an active part in the mobilization and evacuating industry.
• He went back to school at age 20 as a part-time student in Land Management, and then received a technical education in Metallurgy.
• Brezhnev showed early signs of leadership and political ambitions. He joined a communist group known as Komsomol in 1923, an organisation used to express its opposition to the idea of possessing private property and the all-Union Communist party of Bolsheviks.
• A hard worker a

Explore the character, family life, and legacy of Leonid Brezhnev with this “Famous Figure” activities bundle. Empower students to discover and analyze important facts about his contribution to others. This bundle (provided in both PDF & Google Drive versions) is a powerful research organizer that’ll get students digging deep into Brezhnev’s background.

This download includes:

1. Lesson Plan

2. Evaluation Worksheet

3. Biography Reading

4. Quote Analysis Worksheet

5. Intro PowerPoint provides an easy visual for the students to understand the assigned tasks.

6. Video Link

I hope you and your students enjoy this bundle of activities!

You can also download this as part of THE SECOND SEMESTER OF WORLD HISTORY here.

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