Leonid Brezhnev, whose years of government fell on the so-called era of stagnation, does not cause such heated debates among compatriots as Stalin or even Khrushchev. However, this personality provokes very contradictory assessments, and the corresponding period left very different impressions in the public consciousness.
Leonid Brezhnev. The years of Soviet rule
Today this period is associated, first of all, with the commodity deficit in light industry and the growing backwardness of the Union from the main western competitor in Heavy. Leonid Brezhnev, whose years of government fell on 1964-1982, even in power was unusual for those times the way. In the previous forty years of the existence of the Soviet state, it was difficult to imagine that his leader could be removed from office by means of bureaucratic mechanisms. Both Lenin and Stalin, despite the contradictory assessments of their activities, were figures of such magnitude that a change of power could be realized and realized only after their death. The end of totalitarianism in the state, and including party purges, was laid by Nikita Khrushchev. A lot of this contributed to the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956. The state has never had such a large-scale and sole leader. As a result, Khrushchev was dismissed by the party decision in 1964. His successor was Leonid Brezhnev, whose reign began with the decision of the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. This period became the apogee 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 called stagnation, recalling the shortage of essential goods and the stagnation of the economy. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that among the first political decisions of Leonid Ilyich, the deployment of economic reforms began. The activity of Alexei Kosygin, started in 1965, was aimed at transferring the planned economy partly to the market track. The independence of the major economic enterprises of the state was substantially expanded, tools were introduced to ensure material Stimulation of workers. And indeed, the reform began to yield brilliant results. The first five-year period of the Brezhnev period became the most successful in the history of the country. However, the reformers did not finish their endeavors to the end. The reform, which provided for economic liberalization, which provided obvious results, was not supported by public and political liberalization. The introduction of market mechanisms at large economic facilities has not been complemented by the liberalization of the market relations in the country. Actually, the half-hearted reforms determined a slowdown in the pace of development already in the early 1970s. In addition, at this time in Siberia are discovered oil deposits, promising easy returns to the treasury, after which state leaders finally lose interest in reforming economic and social life. In the future, the well-known tendencies of "twisting nuts" (mass executions never happened again, but the houses of the mentally ill have become a talk in the city) are growing in the future , the profitability of production has declined, when the industry demanded more and more investment, but gave less and less results. The imbalance in the state economy is becoming more and more evident. The need to invest resources in heavy industry negatively affects the easy, pouring out into the infamous commodity shortage.
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 obvious. If in the Khrushchev era, despite all its ridiculous epics, the USSR on an equal footing talked with the US during the Caribbean crisis and was the first in space exploration, then in 1969 the Americans for the first time outstripped the Union in landing on the moon. The last successful success of the Russian space program was the first successful landing of a spacecraft on Mars. The ferment is also intensifying in the friendly republics of the socialist camp. The period of stagnation to a large extent laid the problems that were frankly manifested during perestroika and pushed the state to the final collapse.