Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev

Brezhnev's death and state funeral

Body of Leonid Brezhnev, lying in state at the Column Hall of the House of the Unions.
Date	10–15 November 1982
Location	Red Square, Moscow, Soviet Union
Participants	Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, Nikolai Tikhonov, Dmitriy Ustinov, Mikhail Gorbachev, other Soviet and foreign dignitaries

On 10 November 1982, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the third General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the fifth leader of the Soviet Union, died aged 75 after suffering a heart attack following years of serious ailments. His death was officially acknowledged on 11 November simultaneously by Soviet radio and television. After five days of national mourning, Brezhnev was given a state funeral and then buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Yuri Andropov, Brezhnev's eventual successor as general secretary, was chairman of the committee in charge of managing Brezhnev's funeral, held on 15 November 1982, five days after his death.

The funeral was attended by 32 heads of state, 15 heads of government, 14 foreign ministers and four princes; US President Ronald Reagan sent George H. W. Bush, the Vice President of the United States. Eulogies were delivered by Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov, Anatoly Alexandrov and a factory worker.

Brezhnev had struggled with several ailments since 1974, most notably heart disease, leukemia, jaw cancer, emphysema and circulatory disease, all of which had been exacerbated by his heavy smoking and obesity. There had been rumours of Brezhnev's death ever since the mid-1970s; he had been absent from important meetings demanded by and it was rumoured that his health was in decline. Brezhnev had rarely appeared in public for most of 1982 and was usually surrounded by doctors, although the Soviet Government insisted that he was not ill. He suffered a severe stroke in May 1982, but refused to relinquish office until he died on 10 November 1982 after suffering a heart attack. He was honoured with a state funeral in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on the Red Square after a five-day period of nationwide mourning.