Talk:Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev

More information Article milestones, Date ...

Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev has been listed as one of the History good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
February 2, 2011	Good article nominee	Listed

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on February 14, 2011.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that because Leonid Brezhnev (pictured) had more than 200 decorations, it was decided to break the Soviet custom of featuring only one decoration on cushions during his funeral?

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Death Mid‑importance

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This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Good article review

More information February 2011 ...

February 2011

==GA Review==

This review is transcluded from Talk:Death and funeral of Leonid Brezhnev/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Arsenikk ^(talk) 12:05, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Comments

OK: Avoid boldfacing links. If there is nothing appropriate to boldface, an article can be left with none without any problem.
OK: Normally, numbers are spelled when smaller than ten or twelve, also for ordinal numbers.
OK: Titles are not capitalized unless in full (i.e. "General Secretary of the Communist Party [of the Soviet Union]" should be capitalized, but just "general secretary" or "chairman" is not).
OK: [A bit beyond the GA criteria, but] avoid starting sentences with digits, so I restructured the sentence.
OK: Any particular government is a proper noun, and thus capitalized.
Although fully permitted, don't feel obliged to use the 12-hour clock principal. I am uncertain about Russia, but in my experience, most of Eastern Europe uses the 24-hour clock, so such a denotation of time is preferred (just like in Norway).
OK: 'Moscow Time' is a proper noun, thus capitalized and should be linked so people can figure out what it is.
Explained: Any mention in the sources of the time of the announcement?
- Well, I don't know what you mean, the article both mentions date and time of the announcement. --TIAYN (talk) 15:39, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
OK: Tweaked the first sentence of "funeral service" to avoid it sounding like the funeral was on 11 November.
OK: Emdashes (—) are unspaced.
OK: Relations, such as "Soviet–US relations", should use an endash (–), not a hyphen (-).
OK: For quotations, there needs to be a inline citation right after the quote (or at least the sentence the quote is in); accumulating one at the end of the paragraph is not sufficient for quotes (although fine for pretty much all other information).
Thanks: I am accepting the fair use rationale, as it cannot be reproduced, is of an important historical event and is vital for understanding the article.

Done I've fixed pretty much everything, but I am still a little confused as to when the funeral took place. This should be specified both in the lead and in the body. Once fixed, I'll be more than happy to pass the article. Arsenikk ^(talk) 12:05, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

his funeral was on the 15th http://visualrian.com/images/item/418745 but a better source should be available somewhere :) --DeVerm (talk) 19:44, 1 February 2011 (UTC).

The end date of the funeral needs to be stated in the body and referenced (all information in the lead needs to be in the body as well). Also, what date did the speeches and main ceremony take place. Although I understand that things happened in the course of four days, there is surely some sort of climax, which needs to be dated (and even better, a time given, if available). Also, at what time was the death announced? There is a time for the "hints", but how long afterwards was the announcement made? Are we talking minutes, or was it later in the day. The text needs to be a bit more specific. Arsenikk ^(talk) 10:02, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Was announced by Igor Kirillov at 11 a.m. Moscow Time on Soviet television, and the funeral took place on 15 November. --TIAYN (talk) 14:08, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Good. Congratulations with a good article. Arsenikk ^(talk) 14:46, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

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Era of Magnificent Funerals

i'm fixin to remove this line: Brezhnev's funeral started the so-called [[Era of Magnificent Funerals]], when top Soviet statesmen died one after another. this is unsourced, but going back to the first draft of this article reveals this cite which does not make this claim. the cite instead says this funeral deserves "special attention" due to the number of medals he was buried with, and the measures that were taken during the procession, and also detailing the elaborate funerals of others before (and since) the death of Brezhnev. -badmachine 18:33, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

1977 CPA 4774(Cutted).jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:07, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

Dubious value of Vasilieva source

The claims made in Kremlin Wives are of dubious value, and I'd like other editor's feedback prior to removal. The four made by Vasilieva are:

Galina Brezhnev (GB) followed by "burly" men
GB "not seen in public" during Andropov's tenure
Andrei Kirilenko crying while "confronting" Viktoria Brezhnev
GB shunned by Andropov, turning his back on her at the funeral

The first 3 above are not surprising when considering the "tell all" nature of Kremlin Wives, comparable to Kitty Kelly's tell all books here in the USA—bestsellers containing much gossip and little verification—which is problematic for historians. Those 3 seem out of place here in the article.

Number 4 is the most problematic. Both Time Magazine and The New York Times contradict that claim. On YouTube, there is footage from Breznev's funeral clearly showing Vasilieva's claim is false. I think it would be best to omit all 4 from the article. What do others think? Please feel free to comment below. Spintendo 01:03, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

Additional issues identified with the Vasilieva source

"At Brezhnev's funeral, two burly guards were constantly by her side."^[1]^: 211 This would not be out of the ordinary, as Galina was at that time a family member of the leader, and would normally have had guards accompanying her. Furthermore, "by her side"—which is how Vasilieva phrases it in her book—is distinctly different from saying she "was constantly followed", which is how the Wikipedia article phrases it.
Saying Galina was "not seen in public"^[1]^: 211 is belied by the fact that she appears, in public, at the funeral.
The claim that Andropov "turned his back to her"^[1]^: 211 is patently shown to be false when the video record of Andropov kissing Galina on the cheek is observed.
One anecdote^[a] in Kremlin Wives involves Galina's supposed quest to take possession of a diadem once worn by Queen Tamara. According to Vasilieva, this diadem is on display at a museum in Zugdidi.^[1]^: 210 However, the Dadiani Palace in Zugdidi has never had such a diadem on display.

As far as Galina being some sort of criminal, she may have had others around her who were arrested, but she herself was never convicted of any crime. The one husband who was jailed for criminal exploits was eventually rehabilitated, with Galina being granted access to his once previously-apprehended finances, allowing her to live the rest of her life in financial comfort.

Vasilieva herself admits her information is based on gossip, saying of Galina "Perestroika turns rumors into half facts. Many of these are filled with inaccuracies, and details were invented to allow the new political figures to rail at the old. But where there is smoke, there is usually fire."^[1]^: 210 The Wikipedia article should not use this smoke to imply fire. For these reasons, I'm removing the claims made by Vasilieva's book. Spintendo 04:24, 12 October 2021 (UTC)

Notes

[a]
In Vasilieva's book, these anecdotes concerning Galina are called "Diamond legends".^[1]^: 210

References

[1]
Vasilieva, Larissa (1993). Kremlin Wives. Translated by Porter, Cathy. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62872-638-1.

Gazeta 2.0 is not a reliable source

Move discussion in progress

Re: Television lineup changes on Nov. 10

Gandhi quote

The Ghandi quote given by the Blake source is simple: "He stood by us in our moment of need". WP:INTEGRITY states that sources, when cited, must be placed at the exact location in the text that the source confirms. This edit contravenes integrity by moving the Blake source after comments which Blake does not state.
The source for the Qadaffi quote is likely spurious. My research into quotes offered by the Libyan leader after Brezhnev's death have not turned up anything like what is said here.^[a] Qadaffi gave many statements about Brezhnev and his life in the years after Brezhnev's death, statements discussing Brezhnev's character.^[b] But none of these were given immediately at the time of his death, and they certainly weren't condolences -- which is the subject of the section in question.

Notes

[a]
Others have mistakenly attributed actions, as well as words, to Qadaffi during this time frame. Weinstein, in particular, specifically stated in his autobiography that he personally saw Qadaffi present at the funeral, when in fact, Qadaffi was not even in the Soviet Union at the time. The Soviet Foreign Ministry confirmed that Qadaffi did not attend the funeral.
[b]
If there is one thing Qadaffi loved, it was making long, interminable speeches.

Spintendo 10:57, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

The problematic text is "whose government had received Soviet military equipments via the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation". There is no need to speculate motives and treat it as fact. It is WP:UNDUE and should be removed.

Gaddafi's quote is authentic. You can verify it here: Capitals00 (talk) 11:16, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

The text that you've provided does not indicate that it comes from a quote, nor does it state who made the quote (if it is a quote). If you're able to access the entire page, then I suggest you archive it, or at least provide the full text here on the talk page, taking care to copy where Gaddafi's name is mentioned, so that it may be verified. Information which would be useful here would answer the questions of where was the quote given and to whom was it spoken. Till then, I'm adding a disputed inline template. Spintendo 18:11, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Additional issues identified with the Vasilieva source

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