Patronage Networks and Coalition Building in the Brezhnev Era

Leadership change, at any level of political authority, brings with it the potential for policy change. This chapter about the all-union elite politics analyzes and examines the patronage networks and coalitions which flourished within the national political elite during the Brezhnev period. Politicians identified as ‘proteges’ of General Secretary Brezhnev are individuals who served with him and experienced mobility under him prior to his 1964 succession. The chapter encompasses a range of politicians who had worked with Brezhnev in the pre-1964 period, whose careers had flourished under Brezhnev, and who had the political influence to cultivate their own patronage factions. Brezhnev’s institutional powers as General Secretary were extensive and conferred at least a primus inter pares role within the decision-making process. His powers as the head of a large patronage network, however, permitted him to expand his power base into a wider range of political institutions.