I would say that, in the Russian popular mind, painting with an extremely broad brush and making allowances for huge differences correlated with age, education, varying personal experience, etc., Soviet leaders are thought of in the following ways:
Brezhnev: Kind of like an old, slightly senile but basically lovable grandad.
Andropov: He really wanted to make the country work; he was probably killed by apparatchiks because of his anti-corruption campaign.
Khrushchev: Liked for de-Stalinization, but basically a big, warm-hearted goofy clownwho wanted to plant corn in Siberia and do other addle-brained things. He's thought of fondly, but usually with a chuckle.
Stalin: Adored and hated, often both at the same time. I don't want to get into this again.
Gorbachev: Well-meaning but weak weak weak, unable to make a decision, retiring to his dacha and putting his head in the sand whenever there was a crisis.
Lenin: He's practically a fictional character, so many myths positive and negative have been woven around him.
Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: How is Brezhnev seen in Russia today? Was it the Golden Age of the Soviet working class?
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