Pravda Blames Brezhnev for Soviets’ Economic Ills

Pravda today blamed former Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev for many of the Soviet Union’s economic ills and accused him of exaggerating accomplishments during his nearly two decades in power.

In a rare personal attack on a past Soviet leader, the Communist Party daily said Brezhnev’s rule was characterized by “a lack of consistent democratism and broad openness.”

Brezhnev led the Soviet nation from 1964 until his death in 1982.

An editorial marking the 80th anniversary of Brezhnev’s birth was openly hostile to his style of governing, saying he was responsible for the growth of “negative phenomena” within Soviet society.

The article followed two days of riots in the city of Alma Ata in the Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, apparently triggered by the firing of local party boss Dinmukhamed A. Kunaev, a Brezhnev appointee whom Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev has criticized as corrupt.

Observers said the Pravda attack on Brezhnev could be meant to support the Kremlin’s sacking of Kunaev and his replacement with Gennady V. Kolbin, who has close ties to Gorbachev, by portraying any remnants of the Brezhnev era as being out of touch with new policies.

The editorial also criticized Brezhnev’s staff choices, another possible jab at Kunaev.

The official press has carried several implied attacks on the Brezhnev era, but only rarely has he been singled out by name and made responsible for the failings of the Soviet system.