Brezhnev - A Biography
Research Project of Prof. Dr. Susanne SchattenbergFew Soviet politicians are seen as being so colourless, grey and boring as Brezhnev. On the official photographs, he looks like a fossilised apparatchik. However, they conceal the fact that Brezhnev was once perceived as young, dynamic and the "hope of the party", that he was a womaniser and loved fast cars. There continues to be very little research on the Brezhnev period. Stagnation and Cold War, corruption and the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 continue to be the usual keywords.
The project envisages a biography of Brezhnev that portrays him as a party leader, foreign politician and human being, yet above all uses him as a prism to throw light upon the late Soviet Union as a whole. The goal is not a chronological account of his life but a problem-oriented analysis of his leadership style and the culture from which he originated and which he represented. Central themes are the way in which he established his power, his policy of clientelism and his role as a mediator between different interest groups. In addition, the project will examine Brezhnev's relationship to the dissidents, his impression of and policy toward them. It will also analyse how he represented the Soviet Union to the outside world. Altogether, Brezhnev will appear as an actor in various contexts and interactions: the circle of his family and friends, the Politburo and the CC, the capitalist world and the dissidents.