The World - News from July 22, 1988

Relatives of former Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev have been stripped of unmerited privileges and will receive only the retirement benefits they earned by their own labor, the Communist Party daily Pravda said. The decision was a further blow to the legacy of Brezhnev, who died in 1982 and whose name is now virtually synonymous with corruption and stagnation. His reign is blamed for many of the problems that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev is combatting. The report did not specify what benefits the members of the Brezhnev clan would retain. It was a harsh decision by Soviet standards, under which the survivors of high state or party officials often retain access to private country homes, lavish Moscow apartments and other perks.