Schattenberg has done a service in rescuing the Brezhnev period from obscurity. The Morning
Star [Offers an] unparalleled examination of the Brezhnev papers. Literary Review Leonid
Brezhnev was leader of the Soviet Union for eighteen years a term of leadership second only in
length to that of Stalin. He presided over the Brezhnev Doctrine which accelerated the Cold
War and led the Soviet Union through catastrophic foreign policy decisions such as the
invasion of Afghanistan. To many in the West he is responsible for the stagnation (and to some
even collapse) of the Soviet Union. But much of this history has been based on the only two
English-language biographies (both published before Brezhnev's death and without access to
archival sources) and Brezhnev's own astonishingly untrue memoirs - written for propaganda
purposes. Newly translated from German Schattenberg's magisterial book systematically
dismantles the stereotypical and one-dimensional view of Brezhnev as the stagnating Stalinist
by drawing on a wealth of archival research and documents not previously studied in English.
The Brezhnev that emerges is a complex one from his early apolitical years when he dreamed of
becoming an actor through his swift and surprising rise through the Party ranks. From his
hitherto misunderstood role in Khrushchev's ousting and appointment as his successor to his
somewhat pro-Western foreign policy aims deft consolidation and management of power and
ultimate descent into addiction and untimely death. For Schattenberg this is the story of a
flawed and ineffectual idealist - for the West this biography makes a convincing case that
Brezhnev should be reappraised as one of the most interesting and important political figures
of the twentieth century.
