19:01 minutes (5.44 MB)
Leonid Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and de facto ruler of the USSR from 1964 to his death in 1982. He served in that position longer than anyone other than Joseph Stalin. Brezhnev held the lid on underground religion and was a central figure in the Cold War conflict of power and values between East and West. Then Vice President George H.W. Bush represented the United States at the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev. Bush recalls being deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. Viktoria stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed.
