Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, whose years of rule fell on the so-called era of stagnation, does not cause such heated debates among compatriots as Stalin or even Khrushchev. However, this person also causes very conflicting assessments, and the corresponding period left the most varied impressions in the public mind.
Leonid Brezhnev. The years of the reign of the USSR
Today, this period is associated primarily with the shortage of goods in light industry and the growing lag of the Union from its main western competitor
heavy. Leonid Brezhnev, whose reign was in 1964-1982, even in power turned out to be an unusual way for those times. In the previous forty years of the existence of the Soviet state, it was difficult to imagine that its leader could be removed from office through bureaucratic mechanisms. Both Lenin and Stalin, despite the inconsistency in their assessments of their activities, were figures of such proportions that a change of power could take place and took place only after their death. The end to totalitarianism in the state, including party purges, was put by Nikita Khrushchev. The XX Congress of the CPSU in 1956 contributed a lot to this. The state never again had such a large-scale and sole leader. As a result, Khrushchev was ousted by party decision in 1964. Its successor was Leonid Brezhnev, whose reign began with the decision of the plenum of the
CPSU Central Committee. This period was the climax of the development of the Soviet country and at the same time the beginning of its collapse.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. Years of government and trends in domestic politics
Today, this page of Russian history is commonly called stagnation, recalling the shortage of essential goods and the stagnation of the economy. In fairness, it is worth noting that among the first political decisions of Leonid Ilyich on the post was the deployment of economic reforms. The activities of Alexei Kosygin, begun in 1965, was aimed at translating the planned economy partially into the market rut. The independence of large state-owned enterprises was significantly expanded, tools were introduced to ensure material
employee incentives. And indeed, the reform began to give brilliant results.
The first five-year plan of the Brezhnev period was the most successful in the history of the country. However, the reformers did not complete their undertakings. The reform, which provided for economic liberalization, which provided obvious results, was not supported by social and political liberalization. The introduction of market mechanisms at large economic facilities was not supplemented by the liberalization of market relations in the country. Actually, the half-heartedness of reforms determined a slowdown in the pace of development in the early 1970s. In addition, oil deposits were discovered in Siberia at that time, promising easy revenues for the treasury, after which state leaders finally lost interest in reforming economic and social life. In the future, the well-known tendencies of “tightening the screws” are growing more and more (mass executions have never been repeated, however, the homes of the insane have become a byword), lowering the profitability of production, when the industry demanded more and more investments, but gave less and less results. The imbalance in the state economy is becoming increasingly apparent. The need to invest resources in
heavy industry negatively affects light
industry , resulting in a notorious shortage of goods.
L.I. Brezhnev. Years of government and trends in foreign policy
In addition to internal problems, despite all efforts, blunders in the international arena are becoming increasingly apparent. If in the Khrushchev era, despite all its ridiculous epics, the USSR spoke on equal terms with the United States during the Caribbean crisis and was the first in space exploration, then in 1969 the Americans first surpassed the Union in landing on the moon. The last high-profile success of the domestic space program was the first successful landing of a spacecraft on Mars. Fermentation begins in the friendly republics of the socialist camp as well. The stagnation period to a large extent laid down the problems that openly manifested during the perestroika period and pushed the state to a final collapse.