Brezhnev's Widow: Fall From A Pinnacle -- Wealth And Privilege Gone, She Is Isolated, Ill And Bitter

MOSCOW - For many years she was the most privileged woman in the nation.

But today she is just another bitter pensioner, nearly blind, neglected by her children, rarely leaving home except to go to the hospital.

Twelve years after the death of Leonid Brezhnev, who ruled the Soviet Union for almost two decades, his 86-year-old wife, Viktoria, hangs on like just more rubble from the collapse of communism - humiliated by both her country and her kinfolk, sometimes even barred from visiting his grave.

"Such a fall!" said her neighbor, Vladimir Karpov, one of the few people for whom she opens her door these days. "She was the first lady of the state. Her husband was one of the most powerful men in the world. To see her like this, it's just very sad."

No doubt, many Russians take a less sympathetic view. As the wife of the Soviet Union's longtime Communist Party boss, she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle at a time when the country's economy was being bludgeoned to its knees.

Afflicted by boredom, betrayal and diabetes

Still, there is a poignancy to her fate, wasting away in the faded luxury of her five-room flat, complaining of boredom and betrayal, afflicted with debilitating diabetes.

For Viktoria Brezhnev, the one-time midwife who presided over Kremlin society and was treated like a queen on trips abroad, life began to sour on that gloomy November morning in 1982 when she rose and sat down to breakfast, happy that her husband was sleeping late, not realizing he was dying - or even already dead.

When a nurse arrived to give the ailing Soviet president his daily medicine, she alerted Brezhnev's guards and doctors were summoned.

By 1988, Viktoria Brezhnev was evicted from the posh, state-owned country home just outside Moscow. At first, she was given access to a smaller cottage, but soon the government removed her servants and then forced her out of the second "dacha."

Officials searched her flat and walked away with all her husband's medals and awards, plus any household items supplied by the state and gifts received from foreign leaders.

Today, the Brezhnev era is popularly derided as the "period of stagnation," although the rigors of life under Boris Yeltsin are causing more and more Russians to look back on those days with a blind nostalgia.

When Karpov tried to publish a series of articles based on his interviews with Viktoria Brezhnev, no major newspaper was interested.

In most other countries, publications would have fought for the rights to the recollections of the widow of one of the towering figures of the 20th century. But Karpov's articles eventually appeared in an obscure newspaper published for railroad workers.

The 10 segments provide a fascinating peek into the private lives of the former First Family - and confirm many of the seedy rumors that whirled about the Brezhnevs.

For all his power and prestige, "Brezhnev lacked the authority to maintain order in his own family," Karpov said. "His children turned out to be family tragedies."

Both daughter, Galina, and son, Yuri, became pathetic alcoholics.

"She was always a willful girl," her mother recalled of Galina. "She didn't like the way we were bringing her up," and dropped out of college at 19 to elope with a circus performer.

Escapades, gossip and smuggling

Their escapades, including nasty public scenes, soon became legend in gossip-loving Moscow. Eventually, Galina's husband, Buryatse, died in prison, accused of corruption by the Andropov regime.

Galina also became involved with a diamond-smuggling ring that spirited the jewels out of the country inside equipment used by the traveling Moscow circus.

For all the heartbreaks their children caused them, the Brezhnevs themselves enjoyed a loving relationship, according to the widow.

They met as college students in the Ukrainian city of Kursk. She fell in love with him almost immediately.

"He had thick, charcoal black eyebrows," Viktoria Brezhnev recalled. "I could recognize him from far away by his eyebrows."

During his years in power, Brezhnev had a reputation as a prolific womanizer. But his widow said he was always kind and attentive to her.

He never drank "more than two shots of vodka a day," the widow maintained - unless he was very upset about something.

Today, she said, she rarely is visited by her children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

"I have no gifts left for them," she complained. "These kids just take what they want. They took everything I had."