Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev Biography and Timeline

Birth of Leonid Brezhnev

Born in Kamenskoye, later Dneprodzerzhinsk, into a working-class family.

Steel Mill Employment

Begins working in the steel industry as a teenager in his home town.

Komsomol Membership

Joins the Communist youth organization Komsomol, beginning a formal association with Soviet political institutions.

Kursk Technical School Graduation

Graduates from the Kursk land-management and reclamation technical school.

Land Surveying Career

Begins work as a land surveyor and local administrator after completing technical training.

Ural Land Administration

Works in land administration in the Urals during the early collectivization period.

Metallurgical Institute Studies

Returns home and begins studies at the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute.

Communist Party Membership

Joins the Communist Party while studying metallurgy in Dneprodzerzhinsk.

Role range: 1917-1991

Metallurgical Institute Graduation

Completes his metallurgy degree and qualifies as an engineer.

Tank Officer Training

Undertakes military training as a tank officer after completing his engineering studies.

Metallurgical Technical School

Serves as director of the metallurgical technical school in Dneprodzerzhinsk.

Deputy Chairman of City Soviet

Becomes deputy chairman of the local Soviet, advancing from engineering into public administration.

Regional Party Department Appointment

Takes charge of a department within the Dnepropetrovsk regional Communist Party organization.

Dnepropetrovsk Party Secretary

Becomes a secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional Communist Party committee.

Armaments Conversion Oversight

Helps oversee conversion of regional industry toward wartime armaments production.

Red Army Political Service

Enters full-time Red Army political work after Germany invades the Soviet Union.

Role range: 1939-1945

Front-Line Political Administration

Serves in political administration supporting Soviet forces fighting on the southern sector of the Eastern Front.

Role range: 1939-1945

Promotion to Major General

Is promoted to major general while serving as a political officer during the Second World War.

Role range: 1939-1945

Eighteenth Army Political Work

Carries out senior political work with formations of the Eighteenth Army during wartime operations.

Role range: 1939-1945

Fourth Ukrainian Front Political Work

Serves in senior political administration as Soviet forces advance through Eastern Europe.

Role range: 1939-1945

Wartime Political Service

Ends the European war as a senior political officer with the rank of major general.

Role range: 1939-1945

Zaporizhzhia Party Leadership

Returns to civilian party work and helps direct postwar reconstruction in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Dnepropetrovsk Regional First Secretary

Becomes First Secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional Communist Party organization.

Role range: 1917-1991

Dnepropetrovsk Reconstruction

Oversees industrial reconstruction and party administration in the heavily damaged Dnepropetrovsk region.

Moldavian Communist Party First Secretary

Becomes First Secretary of the Communist Party organization in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Role range: 1917-1991

Moldavian Collectivization

Directs party consolidation and agricultural collectivization while leading the Moldavian Communist Party.

Role range: 1950-1952

Nineteenth Party Congress Promotion

Advances into the senior Soviet party leadership after the Nineteenth Communist Party Congress.

CPSU Central Committee Membership

Is elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Role range: 1917-1991

CPSU Central Committee Secretary

Is elected a Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee.

Role range: 1917-1991

Military Political Promotion

Receives promotion to lieutenant general while serving in senior military political administration.

Navy Political Directorate

Is transferred to senior political administration in the Soviet Navy after Stalin's death.

Transfer to Kazakhstan Party Leadership

Moves to Kazakhstan as the party's second-ranking official, helping staff the expanding Virgin Lands campaign.

Role range: 1954-1955

Virgin Lands Programme

Helps organize Communist Party personnel for Khrushchev's Virgin Lands agricultural campaign.

Takes Charge of Kazakhstan Communist Party

Replaces the previous republican party leader and assumes overall political responsibility for Kazakhstan.

Role range: 1955-1956

Return to CPSU Secretariat

Returns to Moscow as a Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee.

Virgin Lands Harvest

Oversees the Kazakhstan party organization during a major Virgin Lands grain harvest.

Sputnik Programme Oversight

Holds senior party responsibility for defense industries during the period of the first Sputnik launch.

CPSU Presidium Membership

Becomes a full member of the CPSU Presidium, later renamed the Politburo.

Role range: 1917-1991

Defense Industry Oversight

Receives responsibility for strategic missile, defense and heavy-industry matters within the party leadership.

Role range: 1957-1960

RSFSR Bureau Deputy Chairman

Becomes deputy chairman of the Central Committee bureau responsible for the Russian Soviet republic.

Role range: 1958-1960