Brezhnev's rule in Soviet history does not cause such heated debate and diametrically opposed assessments as the Stalin era or Gorbachev's perestroika, but this period also had its positive and negative moments.
The end of totalitarianism
Brezhnev's reign even began unusually for the Soviet state of that era. The charisma and unquestioning leadership of Lenin's party, and later the totalitarian system of Stalin, predetermined that these leaders remained at the helm of the state until their death. Moreover, there was not and could not be any significant fear of a change of power (with the exception of the very first months after the death of Lenin,
when Trotsky and Zinoviev were considered real heirs). A struggle arose in 1953, when Iosif Dzhugashvili died. However, Nikita Khrushchev, who came to power, abruptly changed the course of the internal policy of the party. The XX Congress of the CPSU put an end to the totalitarian method of government: the atmosphere of fear, denunciations, constant expectation of counter-revolution, and so on. Largely because of this step, he became the first ruler to be eliminated bloodlessly and not as a result of death. Brezhnev's reign began in 1964 with the decision of the plenumThe Central Committee of the CPSU release Khrushchev from the post of general secretary.
Stagnation or golden age?
The new era, later called the time of stagnation, began with vigorous economic reforms designed to revive the economy. Alexei Kosygin's reforms started in 1965
were to some extent aimed at transferring the economy to a market track. Thus, the economic independence of large state-owned enterprises was significantly expanded, and instruments of material incentives for the involved workers were introduced. And the reform really began to justify hopes. Already the first period of Brezhnev's rule was marked by the most successful five-year plan in the history of the country.
However, the reformers did not go all the way. The positive developments brought about by the weakening of state control were not complemented by the necessary freedom in other areas of economic life. The reform began to reveal its negative results, such as a tendency to increase prices for goods. In addition, in the early 1970s, oil fields were discovered in Siberia, which led to the final loss of interest of the Soviet leadership in reformist activities. Approximately from the 1970s, a slight slowdown in the development of the domestic economy began to appear. Production becomes less profitable. The armament and space program are increasingly lagging behind the main competitor - the United States (the last resounding success of the Soviet space program was the Mars-2 apparatus, which was the first to safely reach the red planet). In addition, it is foundlagging behind in knowledge-intensive industries.
These negative trends to a large extent became the reasons for the subsequent perestroika and how it all ended - the collapse of the Soviet state. Increasingly resource-demanding mechanical engineering and others
strategically important industries could not but affect the slowdown in the development of light industry, which had a rather painful effect on the country's population. The shortage of food and essential goods is perhaps the first thing that the broad masses generally associate with this era. At the same time, during Brezhnev's rule, the so-called stagnation was such only in comparison with the previous, incredibly high rates of development of heavy and light industry in the country. At the same time, for millions of our compatriots, it is remembered as a golden era. First of all, for those who fully felt the fall in economic indicators and living standards in the 1990s. At the same time, Brezhnev's rule was marked by other significant moments: the war in Afghanistan, a new round of the Cold War, and the complication of relations with China as a result of the conflicts on Damansky Island.
