Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (; ; , 19 December 1906
(O.S. 6 December) – 10 November 1982) was the
General Secretary of the
Central Committee (CC) of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of
Joseph Stalin in duration. During
Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time. His tenure as leader was marked by the beginning of an era of economic and social stagnation in the Soviet Union.