It's a quarter of century since Leonid Brezhnev died. He led the Soviet Union for 18 years between 1964 and 1982, and would have celebrated his hundreth birthday this year.
Brezhnev's rule will be remembered for the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. His period in office also coincided with economic stagnation and decline. Towards the end of his life he fell ill, suffering two heart attacks. The illnesses remained secret until Mikhail Gorbachev's period of Glasnost. Many older Russians feel nostalgic for the Brezhnev era, remembering it as a time of stability and security.