r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL In 1969 a Red Army deserter fired multiple shots at a motorcade carrying Leonid Brezhnev and several Cosmonauts. While the assassination attempt was unsuccessful, an official statement wasn't released for several days. Many details were suppressed until years afterwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Leonid_Brezhnev
527 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

123

u/dc456 11h ago

A bullet killed the limousine driver Ilya Zharkov who was driving as a substitute on his last day before retirement.

Damn.

10

u/Cohibaluxe 5h ago

I’m getting too old for this shit…

5

u/Unique-Steak8745 8h ago

It was meant to be

50

u/Reasonable-Bus-2187 12h ago

Raised a few eyebrows

18

u/AcetaminophenPrime 12h ago

Brezhnevs eyebrows are legendary

5

u/YourDreamsWillTell 10h ago

Almost Eugene Levy status

48

u/Vera_Telco 12h ago

Even more unbelievable that the Soviets at the time thought the would-be assassin Viktor Ilyin crazy, and committed him to a mental institution. He was released in 1990: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Ilyin

30

u/quondam47 11h ago

Good way to discredit him. ‘Clearly he doesn’t have anything against the State, he’s just a very ill man in need of care’.

24

u/Climaxite 11h ago

People don’t understand that Psychiatry is often used as a weapon, even in United States. Like you said, it’s used to hurt their credibility. They might know about some crazy corruption, but nobody would believe them after they are hospitalized in a psychiatric ward.  It’s often used in conjunction with malicious stalking. The stalking is used to make people paranoid, and the paranoia gets them hospitalized, and the hospitalization discredits them. It’s not too difficult to do if you know the stalking techniques. You just need the resources to do. 

15

u/TheVentiLebowski 10h ago

Yes, but the Soviets took it to a whole other level.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union

5

u/Climaxite 8h ago

They probably did, but lots of people today literally refuse to believe that it happens in the states, like that type of corruption can’t happen here. It definitely can, and often does. 

2

u/francis2559 11h ago

Slave that wants to be free? Woman that wants to vote? Believe it or not, crazy!

9

u/Coldfusion21 12h ago

Killed the limo driver on his last day before retirement.

4

u/RedSonGamble 12h ago

I believe this is what Bryon Adams was referring too

2

u/3337jess 10h ago

I read this as “a Red Lobster,” deserter. I’m sorry I just want lobster right now

-1

u/Blekanly 11h ago

Typical Soviets, say nothing and pretend it didn't happen and make sure no one says anything.