In Russian history, and specifically in the USSR period, the regime that followed Khrushchev took a much more conservative approach to most issues. We are now talking about the USSR: The Brezhnev era (1964-1982).
After Khrushchev, Stalinism did not return, but there was less freedom for individual expression. The foreign relations continued on a roller coasterwith the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 constituting a major setback for relations with the West. The Soviet economy continued to falterreaping no apparent benefit from the end of Khrushchev’s economic experimentation.
Brezhnev Domestic Policy
After removing Khrushchev from power, the Politburo leaders (which is how the Presidium was renamed in 1966 by the XXII Party Congress) and the Secretariat again established a collective leadership. As was the case after Stalin’s death, a number of individuals, including Aleksey Kosygin, Nikolay Podgornyy and Leonid Brezhnev, fought for power behind a facade of unity. Kosygin accepted the post of prime minister, which he held until his retirement in 1980. Brezhnev, for his part, assumed the position of first secretary.
Born into a family of Russian workers in 1906, Brezhnev became a protégé of Khrushchev early in his career and through the influence of his patron he became a member of the Presidium. As his own power grew, Brezhnev built up a clique of followers whom he, as First Secretary, gradually maneuvered into powerful positions. At the same time, Brezhnev slowly demoted or isolated potential candidates for his job. For example, in December 1965 he succeeded in elevating Podgorny to the ceremonial position of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative organization in the government, thus eliminating him as a rival. But Brezhnev’s rise was very gradual and after several more personnel changes, Brezhnev assumed the chairmanship of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1977, confirming his primacy both in the party and in the state.
The post-Khrushchev years were notable for the stability of cadres, groups of activists in responsible and influential positions in the party and state apparatus. Introducing the slogan “Confidence in the cadres” in 1965, Brezhnev won the support of many bureaucrats wary of the constant reorganizations of the Khrushchev era., who were anxious about security in established hierarchies. This led to a period stability which occurred due to the fact that nearly half of the members of the Central Committee in 1981 were remnants of fifteen years earlier. The corollary of this stability was the aging of the leaders Soviets; the average age of Politburo members increased from fifty-five in 1966 to sixty-eight in 1982. Soviet leadership (or the “gerontocracy” as it was called in the West) it became increasingly conservative and ossified.
conservative politics
The Conservative policies characterized the regime’s agenda in the years after Khrushchev. Upon assuming power, collective leadership with the visible face of Brezhnev not only reversed Khrushchev’s policies the bifurcation of the party, but also stopped the de-Stalinization. In fact, they began to appear favorable references to the dead dictator. The soviet Constitution Of 1977, though differed in certain respects from Stalin’s 1936 document, it retained the general thrust from the last batch. In contrast to the relative freedom cultural permitted during the early years of Khrushchev, Brezhnev and his colleagues continued the more restrictive line of the later Khrushchev era. The leadership was unwilling or unable to employ Stalinist means to control Soviet society; instead he chose to use repressive tactics against political dissidents even after the Soviet Union signed the 1975 Helsinki Accords, that forced the signatory nations to comply with higher standards of observance of human rights. The dissidents persecuted during this time included writers and activists who were accused of illegal religious, nationalist and human rights movements. In the latter part of the Brezhnev era, the regime tolerated popular expressions of anti-Semitism. Under the conditions of “developed socialism” (the historical stage reached by the Soviet Union in 1977, according to the CPSU), the precepts of Marxism-Leninism were taught and they enforced it as a means of reinforcing the regime’s authority and not as a tool for revolutionary action.
The economy under Brezhnev
Despite Khrushchev’s adjustments to economic planning, the economic system continued to depend on central plans drawn up without reference to market mechanisms. The reformers, of whom the economist Yevsey Liberman was most notable, advocated a greater freedom for individual companies of external controls and tried to convert the economic objectives of the companies into making a profit. Prime Minister Kosygin defended Liberman’s proposals and managed to incorporate them into a general program of economic reform approved in September 1965. This reform included the scrapping of Khrushchev’s regional economic councils in favor of revival of central industrial ministries of the Stalin era. However, he was met with opposition from party conservatives and cautious managers.
After Kosygin’s brief attempt to modernize the economic system, planners returned to drafting comprehensive centralized plans of the type first developed under Stalin. In industry, the plans emphasized heavy and defense-related branches, neglecting the light branches of consumer goods. As a developed industrial country, the Soviet Union in the 1970s found increasingly difficult to maintain high growth rates in the industrial sector that he had enjoyed in previous years. Larger investments and manpower were needed for growth, but these inputs were increasingly difficult to obtain. Although the goals of the five-year plans of the 1970s had been scaled back from earlier plans, the goals remained largely unsatisfied. Industrial deficiencies were felt most acutely in the sphere of consumer goods, where the public constantly demanded better quality and greater quantity. Agricultural development continued to lag in the Brezhnev years. Despite ever-increasing investments in agriculture, growth under Brezhnev fell short of that achieved under Khrushchev. The droughts that occurred intermittently during the 1970s forced the Soviet Union to import large amounts of grain from western countries, including the United States. In the countryside, Brezhnev continued the trend towards the conversion of collective farms into state farms and increased the income of all farm workers. Despite wage increases, peasants still devoted much time and effort to their private plots, providing the Soviet Union with a disproportionate share of its agricultural produce.
The standard of living in the Soviet Union presented Brezhnev leaders with a problem after growth in the late 1960s stalled at a level well below that of most Western industrial countries (and some in Eastern Europe). East). Although certain appliances and other goods became more accessible during the 1960s and 1970simprovements in housing and food supply were slight. The scarcity of consumer goods encouraged theft of government property and the growth of the black market. However, vodka remained readily available, and Alcoholism was an important factor in both the decrease in life expectancy as in the increase in the infant mortality rate that the Soviet Union experienced in the last years of Brezhnev.
Foreign Policy Brezhnev
One of the main concerns of Khrushchev’s successors was re-establish Soviet primacy in the community of communist states by undermining China’s influence. Although the new leaders originally approached China without hostility, Mao’s condemnation of Soviet foreign policy as “revisionist” and his competition for influence in the Third World soon led to a worsening relations between the two countries. The Sino-Soviet relationship reached a low point in 1969 when clashes along the disputed border of the Ussuri River in the Far East. Later, the Chinese, intimidated by Soviet military force, agreed not to patrol the border area claimed by the Soviet Union; but strained relations between the two countries continued into the early 1980s.
Brezhnev Doctrine
Under collective leadership, the Soviet Union again used force in Eastern Europe, this time in Czechoslovakia. In 1968, reformist elements in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia quickly began to liberalize their government, loosen censorship, and strengthen Western ties. In response, Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia and installed a new regime. of these events the so-called Brezhnev Doctrine emerged who warned that the Soviet Union would act to maintain its hegemony in Eastern Europe. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement reduced flagrant gestures of defiance on the part of Romania and served as a threatening example for the Polish Solidarity trade union movement in 1980.
Relations with the East
The Soviet influence in the developing world expanded little during the 1970s. New communist or leftist governments that had close relations with the Soviet Union took power in several countries, including Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Nicaragua. In the Middle East, the Soviet Union competed for influence by backing the Arabs in their dispute with Israel. After the June 1967 war in the Middle East, the Soviet Union rebuilt the defeated Syrian and Egyptian armiesbut suffered a setback when Egypt expelled Soviet advisers from the country in 1972 and subsequently entered into a closer relationship with the United States. The Soviet Union maintained ties with Syria and supported Palestinian claims to an independent state. But Soviet prestige among moderate Muslim states suffered in the 1980s as a result of Soviet military activities in Afghanistan. Trying to prop up a communist government in that country, Brezhnev sent Soviet armed forces in December 1979, but a large part of the Afghan population resisted both the occupiers and the Afghan Marxist regime. The resulting war in Afghanistan remained an unsolved problem for the Union…