Brezhnev Photos

[aironmeiden]

...
I love the random pine branch in his hat in the second photo below. Camouflage!

At first i thought that by "Camouflage" and "pine branch" you meant the eyebrows
Very funny photo indeed

...They both reached about the same stage of mummification by the end.

:laff

[deValcourt]

Now we all know about Brezhnev's propensity for young women and have probably heard some of the stories about his awful behavior (unforgivable to me) while in office. Well, I met a gentleman in Turkmenistan who was a former Soviet attaché to India. I think I've mentioned this story before and you can take it with a grain (or handful) of salt, but I tend to believe him.

The reason I believe him is that the whole story came about because I had ingested a small amount of contaminated public water from eating fresh fruit that I had washed off in my hotel sink and did not know to peel the skin off afterward (they had commercials on the TV that showed a cartoon dinosaur getting a glass of water from the tap, drinking it and then falling on his back dead - crosses over his eyes and all). I was sick for days, but I had to make the meeting with this fellow that would keep me away from easy access to a toilet for several hours. Anyway, I mentioned my stomach problems to him in passing to excuse myself from the meeting. He invited me to dinner at his house that evening and when I tried to beg out because of the way I felt, he said he had something that would fix my intestinal problems. In short, he was right and they were silver leaf coated tablets from India that he said had many uses - one would settle stomach problems quickly - which it did - and the other was that it was a sort of herbal "Viagra." He didn't tell me that part until after dinner when he told me the following story which had to do with this medicine.

When he returned home from one of his appointments in India, just like now, all those who worked abroad were flown first to Moscow to be debriefed by the Office of Foreign Affairs and the KGB before they were allowed to go home. His luggage was searched and they found that he had several large bottles of this medicine and when he explained what it was it was confiscated "for further investigation by the KGB" and he might get them back if they proved to be safe or something like that. He did tell the KGB interrogators that it had sexual potency properties - which was why they were immediately delivered to Brezhnev.

As I mentioned, the tablets were coated with a thin layer of silver for many reasons, most of all to extend the shelf life. They had to be chewed in order for the medicine to be released, but those directions were not explained to the Gensec.

The story goes that Brezhnev arranged for a young girl (age varies, but no older than 18) to be brought to him that night and he had taken two tablets at a time a four hours before the tryst and when things didn't do as they were supposed to (because he did not chew them) he kept taking them every 30 minutes or so until he and the woman were alone. That was the same night that Brezhnev died officially of a heart attack. Immediately after his death, one of the bottles of this medicine was found next to his bed and it didn't take long for the KGB to track down how he had gotten them and sent a plane in the middle of the next night to Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) to pick up the man and bring him back for intense interrogation about why he had poisoned the General Secretary.

He told me they kept him for several days in Lubyanka while an autopsy was performed and doctors found 16 undigested tablets in his stomach and several more partially digested in his intestines. The man was informed that he was being charged with the murder of Brezhnev and had to sit in terror while tests were performed. It was finally determined that the cause of death had nothing to do with the tablets, but as a footnote, if he had chewed that many tablets it would have killed him - according to the doctors and the man telling me the story.

He said he was finally released but was never allowed to leave the USSR again. A very strange "punishment" for someone who was exonerated.

Anyway, it was a story told to me after a dinner which had plenty of wine and so-called brandy or cognac served, so you can believe it or not. I just wanted to share this amusing anecdote about Brezhnev's final days.

Phillip

[Pobeda45]

Phillip,

You've painted "broad strokes" of that story before and it's great! Wonder if it's true, it wouldn't surprise me too much.

George

[medals73]

Actually, I've spoken (in Hindi, damn, their Hindi was good, especially after the third/fourth round of drinks) with a number of folks at the CCCP embassy in New Delhi, and the story rings true (or "better than true") :thumbsup .

[deValcourt]

Like I said, I believe him because he had nothing to gain by making up the story. He knew nothing of me or why I was there other than to meet with the president and he kept making that happen. And just for someone to b that close to the seat of power in a very turbulent country says a lot about his life and the respect garnered him later in life (he was still renovating a new house - an extremely rare thing; i.e. to be able to build even the smallest of homes in one of the few "green" suburbs of Ashgabat when most of the people were "repressed" (Monty Python joke).

One day I tell you guys about the Turkmen women who were swimming in the hotel pool (a plush hotel at which I and my "interpreter" from Moscow were the only guests) one night and they didn't know we could see them until some time later. The only one using just a swimsuit - as opposed to being fully clothed - was shocked and horrified when she realized we were out on the balcony drinking Turkish beer and watching them.:nono

Phillip