Autographed photo of the politician Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev was a Soviet statesman and party leader who held the highest leadership position in the CPSU for 18 years, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, and a participant in the Victory Day Parade on Red Square on June 24, 1945.

Brezhnev didn't have many passions. One of them is good cars. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recalled one of his trips to Moscow: "One day in Zavidovo, Brezhnev led me to a black Cadillac that Nixon had given him a year ago. Brezhnev got behind the wheel, I sat next to him, and we sped at high speed along very narrow and winding roads. One could only pray that a policeman would appear at the nearest intersection and put an end to this crazy race. But who would dare to stop the car of the general secretary of the party...".

Foreign leaders knew about Brezhnev's love of cars and willingly gave him expensive copies. Once, after receiving a gift from the German leadership in the form of a sports Mercedes, the Secretary General complained that it was not painted in proletarian red. I had to give them a new one.