page_title: Leonid Brezhnev
section_title: The Brezhnev Doctrine
hierarchical_section_title: Leonid Brezhnev / Leader of the Soviet Union (1964–1982) / Foreign and defense policies / Eastern Europe / The Brezhnev Doctrine
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Zentralbild Gahlbeck 18.4.1967 Th-Qu VII. Parteitag der SED - 18.4.1967. Der Generalsekretär der ZK der KPdSU, Leonid Breshnew, verlässt unter dem Jubel der Delegierten und Gäste nach seiner Rede an den Parteitag das Rednerpult. Im Präsidium (1. Reihe v.r.n.l.:) Herbert Warnke, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED; Chivu Stoica, Mitglied des Exekutivkomitees und des Ständigen Präsidiums des ZK der RKP; Paul Verner, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED; (fast verdeckt) Max Reimann, Erster Sekretär des ZK der KPD; Kurt Hager, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED; Nguyen Duy Trinh, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der Partei der Werktätigen Vietnams; Gerhard Grüneberg, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED; Stanko Todorow, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der RKP; (fast verdeckt) Paul Fröhlich, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED; Jiri Hendrych, Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED; (fast verdeckt): die Mitglieder des Politbüros des ZK der SED Willi Stoph und Erich Honecker, der Erste Sekretär des ZK der SED Walter Ulbricht.
context_page_description: Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union as General Secretary of the governing Communist Party and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. His 18-year term as general secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin's in duration. While Brezhnev's rule was characterized by political stability and notable foreign policy successes, it was also marked by corruption, inefficiency, and rapidly growing technological gaps with the West.
  Brezhnev was born into a Russian worker's family in Kamenskoye, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire. Upon the Soviet Union's formation in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution, Brezhnev joined the Communist party's youth league in 1923. He became an official party member in 1929. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, he joined the Red Army as a commissar and rose rapidly through the ranks to become a major general during World War II. Brezhnev was promoted to the Central Committee in 1952 and became a full member of the Politburo in 1957. In 1964 he ousted Nikita Khrushchev and took over as First Secretary of the CPSU, the most powerful position in the Kremlin.
context_section_description: In the aftermath of the Prague Spring's suppression, Brezhnev's announced that the Soviet Union had the right to interfere in the internal affairs of its satellites to "safeguard socialism".  This became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, although it was really a restatement of existing Soviet policy, as enacted by Khrushchev in Hungary in 1956. Brezhnev reiterated the doctrine in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party on 13 November 1968:
  When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries.
  — Brezhnev, Speech to the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party in November 1968
  Later in 1980, a political crisis emerged in Poland with the emergence of the Solidarity movement. By the end of October, Solidarity had 3 million members, and by December, had 9 million. In a public opinion poll organised by the Polish government, 89% of the respondents supported Solidarity. With the Polish leadership split on what to do, the majority did not want to impose martial law, as suggested by Wojciech Jaruzelski. The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc was unsure how to handle the situation, but Erich Honecker of East Germany pressed for military action. In a formal letter to Brezhnev, Honecker proposed a joint military measure to control the escalating problems in Poland. A CIA report suggested the Soviet military were mobilizing for an invasion.
  In 1980–81 representatives from the Eastern Bloc nations met at the Kremlin to discuss the Polish situation. Brezhnev eventually concluded on 10 December 1981 that it would be better to leave the domestic matters of Poland alone, reassuring the Polish delegates that the USSR would intervene only if asked to. This effectively marked the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Notwithstanding the absence of a Soviet military intervention, Wojciech Jaruzelski ultimately gave into Moscow's demands by imposing a state of war, the Polish version of martial law, on 13 December 1981 .
caption: Brezhnev at a Party congress in East Berlin in 1967
exif: {}