WHEN Leonid Brezhnev replaced Nikita Khrushchev in Russia's top job eight years ago, Kremlinologists tended to agree that the obscure new First Secretary of the Communist Party was just another faceless nullity in the gray mass of Soviet bureaucrats. They were wrong, of course. At 65 the Soviet leader has emerged as a shrewd, robust, forceful and even dashing personality, with a love of fast cars and a zest for life. On the same stage with him, other Politburo members almost seem like part of the furniture.
Different as they are, Brezhnev and Nixon...