Viktoria Brezhneva

Viktoria Petrovna Brezhneva (Russian: Викто́рия Петро́вна Бре́жнева; 11 December 1908 – 5 July 1995) was the wife of Soviet politician and longtime General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. She was the mother of Yuri Brezhnev and Galina Brezhneva.

Biography

She was born in Kursk in 1908 as Viktoria Denisova (Дени́сова). It is claimed by historian Robert Service that she was of Jewish origins, this is disputed however. She met Leonid Brezhnev for the first time in 1925. It took some time, but after three years of dating, Brezhnev and Viktoria got married in 1928. The following year Viktoria gave birth to their first child, Galina. Four years later, their second child was born, Yuri. Victoria's relationship with Brezhnev was described as "old fashioned" and "without exaggeration be called gentle".

According to the memoirs of Brezhnev's relatives, it was Viktoria who gradually infected Brezhnev's love of material things. During Brezhnev's General Secretaryship Viktoria remained at the sidelines; she did not like attracting public attention. Her last appearance in public was at Brezhnev's state funeral in 1982. Following the death of Brezhnev Viktoria lived on for another 13 years, dying after struggling for several years with diabetes in 1995. She lived in Brezhnev's old apartment for the remainder of her life. Her own daughter, Galina, did not show up for the funeral; the rest of the family did, however.