On 10 November 1982, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the third General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the fifth leader of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 75, a month before his 76th birthday, after suffering heart failure following years of serious ailments. His death was officially acknowledged on 11 November simultaneously by Soviet radio and television. Brezhnev was given a state funeral after three full days of national mourning, then buried in an individual tomb on Red Square at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Yuri Andropov, Brezhnev's eventual successor as general secretary, was chairman of the committee in charge of managing Brezhnev's funeral, held on 15 November 1982, five days after his death.
The funeral was attended by fortyfour heads and deputy heads of state, twentythree heads and deputy heads of government, twentynine heads of foreign, justice, defence, or other government ministries, six leaders of foreign legislatures, and five princes. Most of the world's Communist party-led nations in 1982 were represented at the funeral; fortyseven Communist parties from countries where the party was not in power also sent representatives. United States President Ronald Reagan sent Vice President George H. W. Bush. Eulogies were given by Yuri Andropov, Dmitry Ustinov, Anatoly Alexandrov, Viktor Pushkarev, and Alexei Gordienko.
Final year
Brezhnev had had various cardiovascular ailments since 1974. By 1982, the most deleterious of these had become arteriosclerosis of the aorta and cardiac ischemia and arhythmia, all of which were exacerbated by his heavy smoking, obesity, and dependence on tranquilizers and sleeping medication.
Brezhnev previously broached the subject of his retirement with Yuri Andropov and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in 1979. With no precedent or procedures existing for the voluntary retirement of a general secretary, a majority of the Politburo instead preferred the stability provided by keeping the status quo and eschewing changes to the leadership despite a minority view of the need for "a breath of fresh air". With the Politburo's request that he remain, Brezhnev did not demur: "If you are all of this opinion, then I will keep working a little longer."
The Politburo was nominally successful in keeping many of Brezhnev's ailments secret. However, the decision to forgo retirement meant that by the beginning of 1982, a number of events increasingly began to more publicly illustrate the decline of Brezhnev's health, during what would be, his final year in office.
JanuaryApril, 1982
At Mikhail Suslov's funeral on 25 January 1982, Brezhnev "seemed confused" by elements of the ceremony, showing uncertainty over when to salute passing troops. While other Politburo members remained standing, Brezhnev was twice seen to move behind the Lenin Mausoleum parapet to sit in a chair and drink liquid from a mug. Three weeks later, while attending the funeral of fellow Central Committee member Konstantin Grushevoi, Brezhnev was seen weeping profusely while offering sympathies to Grushevoi's widowa scene which was broadcast uncensoredthe first time Brezhnev being shown overcome with emotion on Soviet television.
On 6 March 1982, while at Vnukovo airport to meet visiting Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski, Brezhnev's gait was shuffled and he appeared to be laboring for breath. Four days later, on 10 March, Brezhnev met with President Mauno Koivisto of Finland. At those meetings, as well as two days later while at an International Women's Day gala at the Bolshoi Theatre, Brezhnev's health had noticeably improved. Brezhnev's visit to the Bolshoi was his fourth public appearance in five days.