Galina Brezhneva

Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva (; 18 April 1929 – 30 June 1998) was the daughter of Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and his wife, Viktoria Brezhneva.

Life and death Galina Brezhneva was born on 18 April 1929 in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, the first child of Leonid Brezhnev and Viktoriya Petrovna Denisova. Within the family she was called "Galya". and began studying literature and philosophy, ultimately earning her degree.

Her time there was not a positive experience, however, as everybody knew whose daughter she was. Consequently, none of her classmates dared even speak to her. Bored, she made her own company, and they drank frequently. Once she and her friends took a taxi to a secret military base in Chișinău, but as soon as the guards there recognized her as Brezhnev's daughter, they turned a blind eye out of fear of provoking trouble.

Milaev had twin children, Alexander "Sasha" and Natalya "Natasha" (born 1948) from his first marriage to Natalya Yurchenko who died from blood poisoning during childbirth. They had one daughter, Viktoria Yevgenyevna Milaeva (1952–2018). After her divorce, Galina lived in the same house as her parents on Kutuzovskiy prospekt. By 1971, her father had become displeased with the way things were going in her life. He wanted to arrange a marriage for her after having her second marriage annulled. And she ended up selecting Yuri Churbanov from a number of suitors. Churbanov was chosen even though he was already married and had children. By the end of her father's life, Galina was much less visible. And while Yuri Andropov was in office, she disappeared from the public eye altogether. She nonetheless made a public comeback during Konstantin Chernenko's short rule and appeared in a conference commemorating International Women's Day. At the conference, she wore just one piece of jewelry, the Order of Lenin that she had been awarded by Andrei Gromyko in 1978 for her fiftieth birthday. In her later life, Brezhneva gradually became a heavy drinker, and her daughter placed her in a psychiatric hospital where she died on 30 June 1998, aged 69.

Personal life and rumors Historian Larisa Vasil'eva wrote in her book that "Galina Brezhneva was an all-too-typical product of what came to be known as the Era of Stagnation". Brezhneva was a heavy drinker and was known to be heavy-tempered. She was promiscuous and had little self-discipline, and had a seemingly natural tendency toward self-gratification. She was known for her passion for jewellery and diamonds. Why and how Brezhneva received her diamonds was unknown to the majority at the time, though according to a former director of Yuvelirtorg, the state-run jewellery company in the USSR, all jewelry and valuables seized from criminals were given to members of the nomenklatura. Many rumors circulated in Soviet society about Brezhneva, most notably during Leonid Brezhnev's tenure as General Secretary; these rumors have been colloquially termed "diamond legends".

Stories such as these greatly affected Leonid Brezhnev. He said once to a party colleague that "The world respects you, but your own family causes you pain".

Embezzlement In January 1982, as part of Andropov's anti-corruption campaign while Leonid Brezhnev was still alive, several prominent jewellery smugglers who all had links with Brezhneva were arrested, some of them even receiving the death sentence. It was later proven that Brezhneva was smuggling jewellery out of the Soviet Union on such a scale as to threaten the business of De Beers Consolidated Mines. When Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary, the criminal investigations against Brezhneva and her brother, Yuri Brezhnev, were resumed. Her brother, a former First Deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and her husband, Yuri Churbanov, were both arrested on charges of corruption. However, investigators were never able to produce any solid charges against Brezhneva for her post-1982 criminal activities. In her later life, Brezhneva had become an alcoholic and usually signed statements without reading them properly.