The Brezhnev Era Stagnation in the USSR

1. The Brezhnev EraStagnation in the USSR

2. Khrushchevremoved • Failure of economic reforms – especially the agricultural reforms Production of consumer products couldn´t match the demand. • Khrushchev attempts to reform and reorganise the party and the administration met resistance from conservatives. He was accused of power concentration and for not adopting collective leadership. References to his age were made; he wouldn’t be able to correct his mistakes. • At a Central Committee meeting in Oct 1964 Khrushchev was blamed for failing to consult the CC, setting his comrades against each other and for “wild” initiatives and “hare-brained schemes”.

3. The new leadership Leonid Brezhnev Alexei Kosygin

4. Chilloutwith Leonid!

5. Economic and social problems • Key problems in the plannedeconomyof USSR: • Waste, Lack ofskills and incentives • Problems in coordination • Constant lack ofdemandedconsumergoods • Qualitycouldrarely match the standard of Western products • Still not sufficienthousingfacilities, the typicalexamplewas the muchhatedKommunalka.

6. The Kosygin Reforms • Aimed at improving productivity and reducing waste . The reforms included raised procurement prices and a focus on improved mechanisation of the agricultural production, better fertilizer and storage. More power to factory managers (decentralization) – allowed the right to make decisions in areas such as hiring, wages, and the mix of goods the factory produced. A manager would be judged by the profitability (profit indicator) of his factory. • New techniquesshould be introduced and science production associations werecreated. • New targetswerealso set for consumergoods and quality • The reforms met a deep running problem in an over-dimensioned bureaucracy. • Notable was also an emphasized car building programme in the late 1960s and continued house building. Russian suburbs still consist of huge housing complexes from the Brezhnev period.

7. Suburbsof S:t Petersburg Typical house from the Brezhnev era Sovietcar nr 1: VAZ-LADA For the party elite: Volga

8. 1970:s - Stagnation • A numberofcropfailures, primarilybecauseofweatherconditionsled tofoodshortages and the USSR was from the mid 1970:s dependent on agricultural import fom the West. • A fifth of the grain crop, a quarter of the sugar beets and one third of the potatoes were spoiled before they reached the consumer. • Militaryspendingsincreased, new hightechnologicalmissilesconstantlypressured the economy. • COMECON price-setting as well as economic support tosattelitestates, prevented an increase in national income.

9. Opposition • Evenif opposition remainedlimited(mostSovietcitizensdidn´tbother) the door opened by Khrushchevwashadtoclose. • Samizdatsand Tamizdatscirkulated, mainly in largercities. • The regime used the law against opponents – trials arranged, authors accused of making a mockery of the Soviet union. • Among the cultural intelligentsia criticism of the invasion of CZ was common. • The Solzhenitsyn affair – exiled 1974 • 1975 – Helsinki Accords – USSR signed a declaration of respecting the human rights. • Sakharov and the “Human Rights Committee” S. led the scientific work on the H-bomb, but became peace activist in the late 1960s. Internal exile in Gorky. Most famous dissident

10. Andrei Sakharov

11. Foreign policy • As a part of the Kosygin reforms the USSR cut back on subsidies to the Satellites – forced the East Europeans to reform or brought them economic problems. • BrezhnevDoctrine 1968 • Détente and SALT II 1972 • Relations with the West deterioratedafter 1977. • 1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan