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As Brezhnev junketed around the country in connection with the Lenin celebrations, he enjoyed a sudden burst of publicity that struck many Western diplomats as extremely unusual. Three times in four days Brezhnev appeared prominently—and usually alone—on Soviet television. Nothing like it had been seen in Russia since Khrushchev's days. While Brezhnev spoke in a Kharkov tractor factory, where he awarded the Order of Lenin to the workers, the cameras flashed back and forth from his face to huge portraits of Lenin hanging in the hall. As sustained applause greeted the very mention of his name, the TV screens showed Brezhnev embracing officials, kissing women factory workers, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd, and planting a birch tree at the dedication of a new shrine at Lenin's birthplace in Ulyanovsk. Brezhnev also filled the front pages of Soviet newspapers. Even after Kosygin and Podgorny reappeared, the party boss continued to hog the headlines and prime TV time.
Supremely Self-Assured. Brezhnev was heard as well as seen. In the past, he has often acted as spokesman for the collective leadership. On successive evenings last week, he delivered what amounted to state-of-the-nation and state-of-the-world addresses. He spoke in an authoritative and supremely self-assured manner, and discussed matters that in the past have been the provinces of Kosygin and Podgorny.
Brezhnev declared that the Soviet Union seeks a reasonable solution to the arms race with the U.S. in the SALT talks in Vienna (see box, page 33). In the next breath, however, he hastened to reassure the Soviet generals, on whom he counts for support. "If anyone tries to gain military superiority over the Soviet Union," said Brezhnev, raising and lowering his clenched fist for emphasis, "we will reply with the necessary increase in military might."
On the China problem, Brezhnev struck a moderate, almost conciliatory stance. He renewed the Soviet call for a European security conference and issued the standard warning to Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab lands. Brezhnev also declared that a U.S. defeat in Viet Nam, which he described as "inevitable," would be proof of the changing balance of power between the capitalist and Communist blocs.
Drive for Quality. In his domestic address, Brezhnev conceded what every Russian housewife already knew—that there are serious shortages of meat and other staples. He also admitted that Russia's critical housing shortage is far from solved. Brezhnev pinned most of the responsibility on inefficient management and indifferent workers. Said Brezhnev: "Not infrequently, valuable working time is squandered, people report late or are absent altogether without valid reasons, and sometimes people do not come to work because they are drunk."