Leonid Ilich Brezhnev biography

Profile

During the 1970s, Leonid Brezhnev tried to normalize internal and international relations through the policy known as détente. He also built up the USSR’s military-industrial complex, which left much of the rest of the economy deprived. In 1979 Brezhnev signed the arms treaty SALT II with President Jimmy Carter, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and the USSR invaded Afghanistan.