[7] With no precedent or procedures existing for the voluntary retirement of a general secretary,[8][b] a majority of the Politburo instead preferred the stability provided by keeping the status quo and eschewing changes to the leadership[11] despite a minority view of the need for "a breath of fresh air".

[13] However, the decision to forgo retirement meant that by the beginning of 1982, a number of events began to more publicly illustrate the decline of Brezhnev's health, during what would be, his final year in office.

[15] On 6 March 1982, while at Vnukovo airport to greet visiting Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski, Brezhnev's gait was shuffled and he appeared to be laboring for breath.

[21][22] The lack of footage was an unusual breach of protocol on the part of the Soviet press, who invariably documented the top leadership arrivals after important functions abroad.

[23] Upon landing at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, Brezhnev was removed from his Ilyushin Il-62 aircraft by stretcher and taken to the Kremlin Polyclinic[24] where, according to Western reports, he remained unconscious in a coma in critical condition for several days.

[27] Most of the engagements on Brezhnev's calendar, including a state visit by South Yemeni President Ali Nasser Mohammed, were cancelled in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

[31] In a further bid to project normalcy, on 16 April Defence Minister Ustinov gave the first public comments by a Politburo member since the accident when he presented an award to the city of Sochi while extolling Brezhnev's wartime record in a speech.

When Brezhnev attempted to climb a riser to another part of the stage, "he almost fell and the guard had to literally drag him" to his seat, where he sat for the rest of the meeting with a blank stare, in a condition likened to that of a "living mummy".

Western experts said that the reports of the impending resignation were possibly part of a campaign by Politburo members to either try to push Brezhnev out of office or to undercut the chances of Chernenko in any succession.

[53][54] On 30 October 1982, Brezhnev exchanged his final correspondence with President Reagan, who had written ten days earlier regarding the condition of Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky.

Wearing tinted spectacles to guard against the sunlight and showing little animation, Brezhnev stood on the balcony of Lenin's Mausoleum along with other members of the Politburo for two hours in subfreezing temperatures as military regiments of troops and armored vehicles filed past.

[60] On Tuesday 9 November, Brezhnev spent what was to be his last morning at his office in the Kremlin meeting with Andropov, working on documents, and speaking by telephone with Internal Affairs minister Nikolai Shchelokov.

[60] A brief effort was made to resuscitate him until the cardiologist Chazov, whom Medvedev had summoned from the Kremlin Polyclinic, quickly determined that he had already been dead for several hours[63] after suffering heart failure.

[64] The first hint to the Soviet people that a death had occurred within the top leadership came Wednesday evening at 19:15 MSK on Channel 1, when a television program in honor of the "Day of the Militia Men" was replaced by a documentary on Vladimir Lenin.

An unscheduled program of war reminiscences aired after the newscast, while on Channel 2, an ice hockey game was replaced with a concert featuring Tchaikovsky's Pathétique symphony.

[73] Pope John Paul II promised "a particular thought for the memory of the illustrious departed one", while former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt said Brezhnev's death would "be painfully felt".

The government of the People's Republic of China expressed "deep condolences", while Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said "he [Brezhnev] stood by us in our moment of need.

"[66] In Tokyo, chief cabinet secretary Kiichi Miyazawa issued Japan's official statement describing Brezhnev's death as "a truly regretful event for the development of friendly relations", and offered condolences to "the bereft family and people of the Soviet Union".

"[77] Speaking at a Veterans Day ceremony, American President Ronald Reagan called Brezhnev "one of the world's most important figures for nearly two decades" while expressing his hope for an improvement in Soviet–US relations.

[81] The twenty-four hour delay in declaring the death of Brezhnev was later seen by First World commentators as proof of an ongoing power struggle in the Soviet leadership over who would succeed as general secretary.

Pimen, who supported Soviet policies at home and abroad while keeping his ecclesiastical work "well within the bounds established by the state", also offered his condolences to Brezhnev's widow and daughter during his visit.

[92] Once the funeral procession arrived at Red Square, eulogies were given from the Lenin Mausoleum balcony by Andropov, defence minister Dmitry Ustinov, and by three representatives of the 'people': President of the Academy of Sciences Anatoly Alexandrov; factory worker of the Moscow Plant of Calculating and Analytical Machines, Viktor Viktorovich Pushkarev; and Alexei Fedorovich Gordienko, the first secretary of the Dneprodzerzhinsk City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine,[93] the city where Brezhnev began his party work in 1937.

[97] Pushkarev's eulogy commended Brezhnev for "how close to his heart he took the needs of the people, the instructions of the electors", while acknowledging "with what great warmth he treated every person with whom he had to meet".

2 as pallbearers led by Andropov and Nikolai Tikhonov carried the coffin to a grave site located just to the left of Yakov Sverdlov, an aide to Lenin, and to the right of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the secret police.

[99] While gravediggers began to shovel the dirt, Brezhnev's family and colleagues immediately surrounding the grave carefully tossed in their own handfuls,[100] in accordance with Soviet funeral traditions.

Thatcher, whose relations with Pym were "frosty", had remained "skeptical of the idea that summit talks between the leaders of the two superpowers could do any good", and thus was "wary of closer contact with the Communist world".

As an orchestra inside the Pillar Hall played Åse's Death from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt, the five Americans made their way in procession towards the foot of Brezhnev's bier where they paid their respects by bowing their heads.

[119] Actor Chuck Connors contacted White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes shortly after Brezhnev's death announcement, asking to be included with the American government's delegation travelling to Moscow.

[128] Bush went on to describe aspects of the funeral which drew his interest, such as "the young men who had marched in the parade at the ceremony today", a display which reminded him fondly of his own four sons (who were of similar age).

[131] Bush was then taken to the airport where, after a brief stopover in Frankfurt to pick up his waiting aides and staff, he resumed his African tour by flying to Harare for a state visit of Zimbabwe.