When it comes to Leonid Brezhnev, who was once the leader of the world's most powerful country, his image does not always correspond to his identity. Perhaps it has something to do with his personal characteristics. In 1964, Brezhnev seized supreme power by overthrowing Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in a coup d'état. No matter how you look at him, he looks like a big warlord, with a heavy army, an iron fist and no cultural standards. The anecdotes that happened to him are full of the characteristics of a warlord.
Brezhnev, who had just ascended to the throne of power, cherished one thing very much, and it was even a little naïve to say it - that is, medals. One of his favorite items is all kinds of medals, and he has even developed a strange habit of collecting all kinds of medals. At first, he took advantage of his position in the Soviet Union to have him awarded all kinds of combat heroes and Lenin medals, and then hung the ** full, and asked the secretary to sort out those metal medals every time he was on a formal occasion or when taking pictures. Later, Brezhnev was not satisfied, and as the leader of the Eastern Bloc, he asked other Soviet vassal states to also give him medals, saying that he was not only a Hero of the Soviet Union, but other countries should also be grateful to him. The small nations had no choice but to comply, and the result was that the medals were so colorful that they hung up to 69 at a time, and their clothes could barely bear the weight. As a joke, Brezhnev's military uniform was almost able to detect whether it could be used as body armor.
Another of his habits is smoking. As a Soviet, Brezhnev's non-drinking Xi was surprising. But when it comes to smoking, he can't control himself and is a complete smoker. He had a peculiar habit of asking everyone in the room to light a cigarette when he himself was not a smoker, everyone had to smoke it, and then blow it in his face with a fan, and smelling the smoke was a great pleasure for Brezhnev. This also led to various illnesses in his later years.
One of the things Brezhnev was best at was speeches. As the leader of a country, especially such a powerful country as the Soviet Union, this does not seem to make sense. But Brezhnev was a military man who came to power through a coup d'état, and he really lacked cultural accomplishments. He wasn't nervous when he spoke, but he couldn't say anything substantial, because he didn't have anything in his head at all. At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, as a leader, he had to speak on stage, which was very difficult for Brezhnev. To make matters worse, the speech was lost at the scene. Brezhnev only said five words: "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh", which became the laughing stock of the entire Western world at that time, and the Soviet leaders were so low!However, during the Brezhnev administration, for the first time, the USSR surpassed the United States in military power, achieved superiority in the number of nuclear warheads, and narrowed the gap with the United States in terms of naval forces. However, the long arms race and economic stagnation eventually laid the groundwork for the collapse of the Soviet Union.