Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982), Soviet statesman and Communist Party official, who was the leader of the Soviet Union for 18 years and was the best known of a three-man committee that held power from 1964 until his death in 1982. Brezhnev played a large role in improving relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s. During the 1970s Brezhnev led the Soviet Union in a number of military actions, including the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.