In a somewhat left-handed compliment, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant described Russia's new bosses as "competent and unpretentious." So far, at least, they have plenty to be unpretentious about. The start of their rule was not auspicious. Nikita Khrushchev was deposed and out of sight, but his invisible presence still badly cramped the style of the new Moscow team. When Premier Aleksei Kosygin and his teammate Leonid Brezhnev, new head of the Communist Party, made their first joint public appearance in Red Square to hail Russia's three most recent cosmonauts, applause from the onlookers was markedly listless. Visibly ruffled, Brezhnev...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
