(1906-82); Soviet leaderRising through the Communist party, he became chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1960 and, when Nikita Khrushchev fell in 1964, first secretary (later general secretary) of the party. He shared power with Alexei Kosygin but emerged as the chief Soviet leader. In 1977, retaining his party post, he became president of the USSR. Brezhnev's hard line toward democratic or independent trends in neighboring countries, evidenced by the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia (1968) and Afghanistan (1979), often conflicted with his attempts at DéTente with the West.
MANICS REFERENCE:
'BREZHNEV - MARRIED INTO GROUP SEX' (Revol lyrics)
(1869-1940) British statesman.
(1933- ); became the leader of the Nation of Islam in 1977. 
(1870-1924); Russian revolutionary, founder of Bolshevism, and major force behind the
founding of the USSR. 
Among the Soviet government's first acts were the signing of the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk with Germany and the distribution of land to the peasants. The Bolsheviks
(who became the Communist party) asserted that the October Revolution had created a
proletarian dictatorship; in fact, it was the party that ruled. Political opposition was
suppressed, but civil war, complicated by foreign invasion and war with Poland, continued until
late 1920. In 1919 Lenin established the Third International, or Comintern, to further
world revolution. His policy of war Communism, prevailing until 1921, brought extensive
nationalization, food rationing, and control over industry. In an attempt to boost the economy,
he launched the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed some private enterprise. Lenin's death
in 1924 precipitated a power struggle in which Stalin was victorious. Lenin's main contributions
to Marxism were his analysis of Imperialism and his concept of a revolutionary party as a
highly disciplined unit. He was one of the greatest and most practical revolutionists of all
time.
(1928-67); Cuban revolutionary leader;
A physician and political activist, Che Guevara became (1956) Fidel Castro's
chief lieutenant and a guerrilla leader in the Cuban revolution (1959).
He served as minister of industry (1961-65), then left Cuba to foster revolutions
in other countries. Captured in Bolivia (1967), he was executed.
(1931- ); Soviet political leader, last president of the USSR (1988-91). 
(1894-1971); Soviet leader
(1769-1821); emperor of the French; known as "the little corporal"
(1928-1998) Cambodian Communist leader
(1879-1953); Russian revolutionary, head of the USSR (1924-53). 
When the Bolsheviks took power (Nov. 1917)
he became people's commissar of nationalities. He also played an important administrative
role in the civil war (1918-20). In 1922 Stalin was made general secretary of the party.
Lenin, before he died in 1924, wrote a testament urging Stalin's removal from the post
because of his arbitrary conduct; but in the struggle to succeed Lenin, Stalin was victorious.
By 1927 he had discarded his erstwhile allies Bukharin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev; in 1929
Trotsky, his major rival for the succession, was exiled from the USSR. Forcible agricultural
collectivization and breakneck industrialization began in 1928. The state, instead of
withering away, as Marx had foreseen, was glorified. Nationalism was revived as socialism in
one country. The military was reorganized along czarist lines. Conservatism permeated official
policy on art, education, and the family. Political repression and terror reached a
height in the 1930s. In a public trial Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, and others were charged
with conspiring to overthrow the regime; they confessed and were executed. Enormous
numbers of ordinary citizens also fell victim. Stalin's foreign policy in the 1930s focused on
efforts to form alliances with Britain and France against Nazi Germany; the 1939
Russo-German nonaggression pact marked the failure of these efforts. The German invasion (June 22)
found him unprepared; at war's end (1945) 20 million Russians were dead. At the Teheran
Conference and the Yalta Conference Stalin gained Western recognition of a Soviet sphere
of influence in Eastern Europe. The paranoia of his last years led to a period of terror
reminiscent of the 1930s. On his death (1953) his body was placed next to Lenin's. In 1956,
at the 20th Party Congress, Khruschchev denounced Stalin's tyranny, but destalinization has
never been thoroughgoing.
(1879-1940); Russian revolutionary, a leader in the founding of the USSR. 
(1931- ); Soviet and Russian politician, former present the president of
Russia. Born in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) and educated at the Urals
Polytechnic Institute, Yeltsin began his career as a construction worker (1953-68).
He joined the Communist party in 1961, becoming a member of the central
committee in 1981. In 1985, he was chosen by Mikhail Gorbachev as Moscow party boss
and in 1986 he was inducted into the party's ruling Politburo. Attracting a large following
as a populist advocate of radical reform, he won (1989) election to the USSR's Supreme
Soviet as an opposition member. In 1990 he was elected to the Russian Republic's Supreme
Soviet, was elected Russian president by the Supreme Soviet, and resigned from the Communist
party. He retained (1991) the presidency in a popular election and became Gorbachev's chief
liberal opponent. His drinking and awkard public appearances are famous.