Paul Goble
Staunton, May 8 – Officials and activists in Kursk Oblast have formed a regional committee to plan the commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Leonid Brezhnev in December of this year, an action that likely enjoys Putin’s backing and may spread to other locations in the Russian Federation in the months ahead.
The organizing committee wants to establish a memorial to the former Soviet dictator in the center of the regional capital of Kursk and includes among its members the father of one of Putin’s assistants (echofm.online/news/vlasti-kurskoj-oblasti-ponjdderzhali-ustanovku-pamyatnika-brezhnevu-s-inicziativoj-vystupil-otecz-pomoshhnika-putina).
Lt.Gen. Gennady Dyumin says that he will bear all the costs of the erection of such a monument and stresses that while Brezhnev was not born in Kursk, he lived and worked there in the first years of his life. Consequently, it is important that the city and region take the lead in memorializing him.
Brezhnev today has neither the large number of supporters or large number of opponents among Russians. Instead, most have mixed feelings about him, as someone whose rule was generally quiet for most of them but who behaved in ways that made him the subject of some of the best Soviet anecdotes.
Dealing with the Brezhnev period is especially hard for Putin now given that like the late Soviet dictator, the current Russian one is aging and has both supporters and opponents who back Putin in much the same way they earlier backed Brezhnev with mixed feelings.
Calling attention to Brezhnev by putting up memorials will only increase the number of those on both sides who will draw parallels between Putin and the former CPSU leader.
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