Brezhnev began his career as the General Secretary with the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965, which showed the establishment of an authoritarian ideology. After that, Brezhnev approved the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and ended with the Soviet–Afghan War which continued after his death; he installed an authoritarian regime that lasted throughout his life and the lives of his two successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.