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BRIAND, ARISTIDE
KONSTANTIN CHERNENKO.
But the Soviet Union, which he led longer than any other postwar Communist leader, proved every bit as ossified and dysfunctional as himself. It sputtered on until its final collapse under MIKHAIL GORBACHEV in 1991, a grim testimony to the folly of communism. Further Reading Anderson, Richard. Public Politics in an Authoritarian State: Making Foreign Policy during the Brezhnev Years. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. Bacon, Edwin, and Mark Sandle. Brezhnev Reconsidered. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Brezhnev, Leonid. Memoirs. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press, 1982. Brezhnev, Luba. The World I Left Behind: Pieces of the Past. New York: Random House, 1995. Dallin, Alexander. The Khrushchev and Brezhnev Years. New York: Garland, 1992. Grogin, Robert C. Natural Enemies: The United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, 1917–1991. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2001. Loth, Wilfried. Overcoming the Cold War: A History of Detente, 1950–1991. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Ouimet, Matthew J. The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Briand, Aristide (1862–1932) prime minister of France Aristide Pierre Henri Briand was born in Nantes, France, on March 28, 1862, into a family of small shop owners. He studied law in Paris but was drawn to politics and union activism. Early in his life Briand was associated with radical socialism of one sort or another, pairing it with strict anticlericalism, but by the end of the century he moderated his militancy and joined the mainstream French Socialist Party. After repeated attempts Briand finally gained election to the House of Deputies in 1905, where he distinguished himself with fine oratory and a grasp of complicated issues. In 1906 he demonstrated his skill by finessing a bill mandating the separation of church and state, winning surprising support from both anticlericals and the Catholic Church. In 1908 Briand’s fame was such that he gained appointment as minister of justice in the administration of GEORGES CLEMENCEAU. By this time he had also broken with the socialists and
served more or less as a conservative legislator. In 1909 he rose to become prime minister, the first of 11 times. He clearly demonstrated how far he had drifted from leftist politics by using military force to suppress striking railway workers in 1910. Briand also made it clear that even greater violence would be in the offing, for he deemed railroads essential to the well-being of France. Such posturing cost him what little socialist support remained in the Chamber of Deputies, and when the socialists withdrew from the coalition, he resigned from office, in February 1911. He returned briefly to power in 1913 and, true to his newfound conservative beliefs, extended military service from two to three years. The onset of World War I brought Briand back into the headlines with more controversy. In October 1915 he again became prime minister and railed against the senior Allied leadership’s obsession with the western front. Instead, he advocated a diversionary campaign into the Balkans to support Greece and Serbia, which was eventually done. Briand also extended peace feelers to Germany and Austria in an attempt to find a negotiated settlement, but these efforts failed. Moreover, he ran afoul of the formidable war leader Clemenceau over the issue of army performance, and in November 1917 he was forced from office a second time. His political eclipse was such that he played no role in the ensuing Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and the treaty that followed. For the next two years Briand ably plotted backroom machinations through which he maneuvered himself back into power. He enjoyed a brief stint as premier again in 1921, only to be ousted again the following year, but in 1924 Briand assumed the office that was to bring him renown, that of foreign minister. Unlike many postwar contemporaries, Briand harbored little ill will toward Germany and realized that the harsh provisions in the Treaty of Versailles militated against long-term rapprochement. Therefore, in 1924 he entered into negotiations with German foreign secretary GUSTAV STRESEMANN for some much-needed diplomatic readjustments. The ensuing Locarno Pact, signed on October 16, 1925, was significant for reaffirming Germany’s pledge to repay wartime reparations in exchange for membership in the newly organized League of Nations. In fact, Briand thought it essential that both nations strive for closer economic and political relations to rule out the possibility of a future war. For their diligent efforts, Briand and Stresemann shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize.