Galina Brezhneva - Life and Death

Life and Death

Brezhneva was born on 18 April 1929 in Sverdlovsk. As a child she refused to become a member of the Komsomol, and later, refused to study for an academic degree. Brezhneva was married briefly to Igor Kio, a union which lasted only 9 days. By 1971, her father, Leonid Brezhnev had become displeased with the way things were going in Brezhneva's life. Brezhnev wanted to arrange a marriage for Brezhneva, after having Brezhneva's second marriage annulled, and from a number of suitors Yuri Churbanov was selected by Brezhneva. Churbanov was chosen even though he was already married and had children. By the end of Brezhnev's life, Brezhneva was much-less visible, and under the reign of Yuri Andropov, she disappeared from the public eye altogether. Brezhneva made a public comeback during Konstantin Chernenko's short rule, and she appeared in a conference commemorating International Women's Day. At the conference Brezhneva wore only one piece of jewelry, the Order of Lenin she had been awarded by Andrei Gromyko in 1978 for her fiftieth birthday.

Later, after Churbanov had been arrested on charges of corruption, Brezhneva divorced him. Brezhneva married for a fourth, and last time, at the age of 65 to a 29 year old man. Before her death Brezhneva had been a guest on British television to talk about life in the Soviet Union. Brezhneva, in her later life, gradually became an alcoholic, and her own daughter placed her in a psychiatric hospital where she died on June 30th,1998.