SOVIET UNION: Brezhnev: A Comfortable Hero

Not since Stalin became a septuagenarian in 1949 has there been such an outpouring of praise in the Soviet Union. Newspapers daily headlined Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev's long record of accomplishments. He was festooned with medals from the Communist states of Eastern Europe. His life was depicted in a documentary film, his collected speeches were issued in new editions, and the official news agency Tass carried a synopsis of his career that covered eleven feet of Teletype paper. These celebrations underscored Brezhnev's position as the sole survivor among the big-power leaders of...

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