Editing Leonid Brezhnev (section)

==Rise to power==
=== Promotion to the Central Committee ===
Brezhnev left the Soviet Army with the rank of major general in August 1946. In May 1946, he was appointed the first secretary of the [[Zaporizhzhia]] regional party committee, where his deputy was [[Andrei Kirilenko (politician)|Andrei Kirilenko]], one of the most important members of the [[Dnipropetrovsk Mafia]].{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} After working on reconstruction projects in Ukraine, he returned to Dnipropetrovsk in January 1948 as regional first party secretary. In 1950 Brezhnev became a deputy of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], the Soviet Union's highest legislative body. In July that year he was sent to the [[Moldavian SSR]] and appointed Party First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Moldova]],{{sfn|McCauley|1997|p=48}} where he was responsible for completing the introduction of collective agriculture. [[Konstantin Chernenko]], a loyal addition to the "mafia", was working in Moldova as head of the [[agitprop]] department, and one of the officials Brezhnev brought with him from Dnipropetrovsk was the future USSR Minister of the Interior, [[Nikolai Shchelokov]]. 

In 1952, Brezhnev met with [[Stalin]] who subsequently promoted him to the Communist Party's [[Central Committee]] as a candidate member of the Presidium (formerly the [[Politburo]]){{sfn|Bacon|2002|p=7}} and made him a member of the [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]]. Following Stalin's death in March 1953, Brezhnev was demoted to first deputy head of the political directorate of the Army and Navy.

=== Advancement under Khrushchev ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0628-0015-035, Nikita S. Chruschtschow.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Nikita Khrushchev]], the leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Brezhnev's main patron]]

Brezhnev's patron Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as General Secretary, while Khrushchev's rival [[Georgy Malenkov]] succeeded Stalin as Chairman of the [[Council of Ministers]]. Brezhnev sided with Khrushchev against Malenkov, but only for several years. In February 1954, he was appointed second secretary of the [[Communist Party of Kazakhstan|Communist Party]] of the [[Kazakh SSR]], and was promoted to General Secretary in May, following Khrushchev's victory over Malenkov. On the surface his brief was simple: to make the new lands agriculturally productive. In reality, Brezhnev became involved in the development of the Soviet missile and nuclear arms programs, including the [[Baykonur Cosmodrome]]. The initially successful [[Virgin Lands Campaign]] soon became unproductive and failed to solve the growing Soviet food crisis. Brezhnev was recalled to Moscow in 1956. The harvest in the years following the Virgin Lands Campaign was disappointing, which would have hurt his political career had he remained in Kazakhstan.{{sfn|McCauley|1997|p=48}}

In February 1956 Brezhnev returned to Moscow and was made candidate member of the Politburo assigned in control of the defence industry, the [[Soviet space program|space program]] including the [[Baykonur Cosmodrome]], [[heavy industry]], and capital construction.<ref name="soyouthinkyoucandance">{{cite news |author=Hough, Jerry F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQoAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49 |page=49 |title=Soviet succession and policy choices |work=[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]] |date=November 1982 |access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref> He was now a senior member of Khrushchev's entourage, and in June 1957 he backed Khrushchev in his struggle with Malenkov's Stalinist old guard in the Party leadership, the so-called "[[Anti-Party Group]]". Following the Stalinists' defeat, Brezhnev became a full member of the Politburo. In May 1960, he was promoted to the post of Chairman of the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]], making him the nominal head of state, although the real power resided with Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and Premier.{{sfn|Hough|Fainsod|1979|p=371}}

=== Replacement of Khrushchev as Soviet leader ===
Khrushchev's position as Party leader was secure until about 1962, but as he aged, he grew more erratic and his performance undermined the confidence of his fellow leaders. The Soviet Union's mounting economic problems also increased the pressure on Khrushchev's leadership. Brezhnev remained outwardly loyal to Khrushchev, but became involved in a 1963 plot to remove him from power, possibly playing a leading role. Also in 1963, Brezhnev succeeded [[Frol Kozlov]], another Khrushchev protégé, as Secretary of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]], positioning him as Khrushchev's likely successor.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|p=615}} Khrushchev made him [[Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Second Secretary]], or deputy party leader, in 1964.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|p=616}}

[[File:Kekkonen kuuntelee.jpg|thumb|upright=1.55|Brezhnev (center) partaking in a hunting outing with Khrushchev (far left) and Finnish president [[Urho Kekkonen]] (second from right) in 1963, one year before Khrushchev's ousting]]

After returning from [[Scandinavia]] and [[Czechoslovakia]] in October 1964, Khrushchev, unaware of the plot, went on holiday in [[Pitsunda]] resort on the [[Black Sea]]. Upon his return, his Presidium officers congratulated him for his work in office. [[Anastas Mikoyan]] visited Khrushchev, hinting that he should not be too complacent about his present situation. [[Vladimir Semichastny]], head of the [[KGB]],{{sfn|Service|2009|p=376}} was a crucial part of the conspiracy, as it was his duty to inform Khrushchev if anyone was plotting against his leadership. [[Nikolay Ignatov]], whom Khrushchev had sacked, discreetly requested the opinion of several [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] members. After some false starts, fellow conspirator [[Mikhail Suslov]] phoned Khrushchev on 12 October and requested that he return to Moscow to discuss the state of [[Soviet agriculture]]. Finally, Khrushchev understood what was happening, and said to Mikoyan, "If it's me who is the question, I will not make a fight of it."{{sfn|Service|2009|p=377}} While a minority headed by Mikoyan wanted to remove Khrushchev from the office of First Secretary but retain him as the [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] of the [[Council of Ministers (Soviet Union)|Council of Ministers]], the majority, headed by Brezhnev, wanted to remove him from active politics altogether.{{sfn|Service|2009|p=377}}

Brezhnev and [[Nikolai Podgorny]] appealed to the Central Committee, blaming Khrushchev for economic failures, and accusing him of [[Voluntaryism|voluntarism]] and immodest behavior. Influenced by Brezhnev's allies, Politburo members voted on 14 October to remove Khrushchev from office.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|p=5}} Some members of the Central Committee wanted him to undergo punishment of some kind, but Brezhnev, who had already been assured the office of the General Secretary, saw little reason to punish Khrushchev further.{{sfn|Service|2009|p=378}} Brezhnev was appointed First Secretary on the same day, but at the time was believed to be a transitional leader, who would only "keep the shop" until another leader was appointed.{{sfn|McNeal|1975|p=164}} [[Alexei Kosygin]] was appointed [[head of government]], and Mikoyan was retained as [[head of state]].{{sfn|Taubman|2003|p=16}} Brezhnev and his companions supported the general party line taken after Stalin's death but felt that Khrushchev's reforms had removed much of the Soviet Union's stability. One reason for Khrushchev's ouster was that he continually overruled other party members, and was, according to the plotters, "in contempt of the party's collective ideals". The Soviet newspaper ''[[Pravda]]'' wrote of new enduring themes such as [[collective leadership]], scientific planning, consultation with experts, organisational regularity and the ending of schemes. When Khrushchev left the public spotlight, there was no popular commotion, as most Soviet citizens, including the [[intelligentsia]], anticipated a period of [[Economic stability|stabilization]], steady development of Soviet society and continuing economic growth in the years ahead.{{sfn|Service|2009|p=378}}

Political scientist [[George W. Breslauer]] has compared Khrushchev and Brezhnev as leaders. He argues they took different routes to build legitimate authority, depending on their personalities and the state of public opinion. Khrushchev worked to decentralize the government system and empower local leadership, which had been wholly subservient; Brezhnev sought to centralize authority, going so far as to weaken the roles of the other members of the Central Committee and the Politburo.<ref>George W. Breslauer, ''Khrushchev and Brezhnev As Leaders'' (1982).</ref>