Misplaced Pages

#530469

106-711: The idea of the institution of a State Council in the Soviet Union first appeared in the early 1970s, during the early days of Leonid Brezhnev 's rule. As head of the CPSU, Brezhnev was the de facto leader of the Soviet Union, but was only ranked third in diplomatic protocol, eclipsed by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Nikolai Podgorny (head of state; first in protocol) and

212-532: A 1963 plot to remove him from power, possibly playing a leading role. Also in 1963, Brezhnev succeeded Frol Kozlov , another Khrushchev protégé, as Secretary of the Central Committee , positioning him as Khrushchev's likely successor. Khrushchev made him Second Secretary , or deputy party leader, in 1964. After returning from Scandinavia and Czechoslovakia in October 1964, Khrushchev, unaware of

318-867: A campaign to liberalise the Soviet Union. Notwithstanding the backlash to his regime's policies in the mid-1980s, Brezhnev's rule has received consistently high approval ratings in public polls conducted in post-Soviet Russia. Brezhnev was born on 19 December 1906 in Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine ) within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire , to metalworker Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev (1874–1934) and his wife, Natalia Denisovna Mazalova (1886–1975). His parents lived in Brezhnevo ( Kursky District, Kursk Oblast , Russia) before moving to Kamenskoye. Brezhnev's ethnicity

424-464: A decline in productivity and labor discipline. While Brezhnev, albeit "sporadically", through Alexei Kosygin , attempted to reform the economy in the late 1960s and 1970s, he failed to produce any positive results. One of these reforms was the economic reform of 1965 , initiated by Kosygin, though its origins are often traced back to the Khrushchev Era. The reform was ultimately cancelled by

530-701: A deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , the Soviet Union's highest legislative body. In July that year he was sent to the Moldavian SSR and appointed Party First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldova , where he was responsible for completing the introduction of collective agriculture. Konstantin Chernenko , a loyal addition to the "mafia", was working in Moldova as head of

636-655: A four-man committee, led by Russian SFSR Premier Ivan Silayev , that included Grigory Yavlinsky , Arkadi Volsky , and Yuri Luzhkov , to elect a new Cabinet of Ministers . This committee was later transformed into the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy (COMSE), also chaired by Silayev, to manage the Soviet economy . On 28 August 1991 the Supreme Soviet temporarily gave

742-462: A full member of the Politburo by 1957. In 1964, he consolidated enough power to replace Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the CPSU , the most powerful position in the country. During his tenure, Brezhnev's governance improved the Soviet Union's international standing while stabilizing the position of its ruling party at home. Whereas Khrushchev regularly enacted policies without consulting

848-518: A hectare. These measures removed important obstacles for the expansion of agricultural output but did not solve the problem. Under Brezhnev, private plots yielded 30% of the national agricultural production when they cultivated only 4% of the land . This was seen by some as proof that de-collectivization was necessary to prevent Soviet agriculture from collapsing, but leading Soviet politicians shrank from supporting such drastic measures due to ideological and political interests. The underlying problems were

954-890: A minor one, in public support. The standard of living in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) had fallen behind that of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (GSSR) and the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR) under Brezhnev; this led many Russians to believe that the policies of the Soviet Government were hurting the Russian population . The state usually moved workers from one job to another, which ultimately became an ineradicable feature in

1060-505: A rapid shift of investment to satisfy Soviet consumers and lead to an even higher standard of living. This did not happen. During 1928–1973, the Soviet Union was growing economically at a faster pace than the United States and Western Europe. However, objective comparisons are difficult. The USSR was hampered by the effects of World War II, which had left most of the western USSR in ruins; however, Western aid and Soviet espionage in

1166-425: A shortage of skilled workers, a ruined rural culture, and inappropriate farm machinery for small collective farms. A significant reform was necessary, but it was not supported due to ideological and political considerations. Brezhnev's agricultural policy reinforced the conventional methods for organizing the collective farms . Output quotas continued to be imposed centrally. Khrushchev's policy of amalgamating farms

SECTION 10

#1732787607531

1272-503: A tank factory. During Stalin's Great Purge , Brezhnev was one of many apparatchiks who exploited the resulting openings in the government and the party to advance rapidly in the regime's ranks. In 1936, he became director of the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum (a technical college) and was transferred to the regional center of Dnipropetrovsk . In May 1937, he became deputy chairman of

1378-605: The Central Committee , though the Committee admitted that economic problems did exist. After becoming leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev would characterize the economy under Brezhnev's rule as "the lowest stage of socialism". Based on its surveillance, the CIA reported that the Soviet economy peaked in the 1970s upon reaching 57% of American GNP. However, beginning around 1975, economic growth began to decline at least in part due to

1484-672: The Kazakh SSR , and was promoted to General Secretary in May, following Khrushchev's victory over Malenkov. On the surface his brief was simple: to make the new lands agriculturally productive. In reality, Brezhnev became involved in the development of the Soviet missile and nuclear arms programs, including the Baykonur Cosmodrome . The initially successful Virgin Lands Campaign soon became unproductive and failed to solve

1590-797: The October Revolution , the job of the party secretary was largely that of a bureaucrat. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Office of the Responsible Secretary was established in 1919 to perform administrative work. After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War , the Office of General Secretary was created by Vladimir Lenin in 1922 with the intention that it serve a purely administrative and disciplinary purpose. Its primary task would be to determine

1696-504: The Prague Spring (whose sharp departure from the Soviet model led to its armed suppression in 1968), the reforms provoked a backlash among the party's old guard who proceeded to flock to Brezhnev and strengthened his position within the Soviet leadership. In 1969, Brezhnev further expanded his authority following a clash with Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov and other party officials who thereafter never challenged his supremacy within

1802-864: The Southern Front , with the rank of Brigade-Commissar (Colonel). When the Germans occupied Ukraine in 1942, Brezhnev was sent to the Caucasus as deputy head of political administration of the Transcaucasian Front . In April 1943 he became head of the Political Department of the 18th Army. Later that year, the 18th Army became part of the 1st Ukrainian Front , as the Red Army regained the initiative and advanced westward through Ukraine. The Front's senior political commissar

1908-601: The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 in response to Alexander Dubček 's reforms. Under Brezhnev, the Politburo abandoned Khrushchev's decentralization experiments. By 1966, two years after taking power, Brezhnev abolished the Regional Economic Councils , which were organized to manage the regional economies of the Soviet Union. The Ninth Five-Year Plan delivered a change: for

2014-671: The agitprop department, and one of the officials Brezhnev brought with him from Dnipropetrovsk was the future USSR Minister of the Interior, Nikolai Shchelokov . In 1952, Brezhnev met with Stalin who subsequently promoted him to the Communist Party's Central Committee as a candidate member of the Presidium (formerly the Politburo ) and made him a member of the Secretariat . Following Stalin's death in March 1953, Brezhnev

2120-555: The liberalizing reforms of Khrushchev, and clamping down on cultural freedom. During the Khrushchev years, Brezhnev had supported the leader's denunciations of Stalin's arbitrary rule, the rehabilitation of many of the victims of Stalin's purges, and the cautious liberalization of Soviet intellectual and cultural policy. However, as soon as he became leader of the Soviet Union, he began to reverse this process, and developed an increasingly authoritarian and conservative attitude. By

2226-432: The " Dnipropetrovsk Mafia " that would greatly aid his rise to power. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Brezhnev was, like most middle-ranking Party officials, immediately drafted. He worked to evacuate Dnipropetrovsk's industries before the city fell to the Germans on 26 August, and then was assigned as a political commissar . In October, Brezhnev was made deputy of political administration for

SECTION 20

#1732787607531

2332-421: The 1930s and 1940s, a common labourer could expect promotion to a white-collar job if he studied and obeyed Soviet authorities. In Brezhnev's Soviet Union this was not the case. Holders of attractive positions clung to them as long as possible; mere incompetence was not seen as a good reason to dismiss anyone. In this way, too, the Soviet society Brezhnev passed on had become static. General Secretary of

2438-405: The 1970s from the level held in the 1950s and 1960s, they likewise began to lag behind that of Western Europe and the United States. Eventually, the stagnation reached a point that the United States began growing an average of 1% per year above the growth rate of the Soviet Union. The stagnation of the Soviet economy was fueled even further by the Soviet Union's ever-widening technological gap with

2544-512: The Brezhnev era, the majority of civilian services deteriorated and living conditions for Soviet citizens fell rapidly. Diseases were on the rise because of the decaying healthcare system. The living space remained rather small by First World standards, with the average Soviet person living on 13.4 square metres. Thousands of Moscow inhabitants became homeless, most of them living in shacks, doorways and parked trams. Nutrition ceased to improve in

2650-798: The COMSE the same authority as the Cabinet of Ministers, and Silayev became the Soviet Union's de facto Prime Minister . Yet, COMSE was quickly surpassed in authority by the Inter-republican Economic Committee of the Soviet Union ( IEC ), also led by Silayev. Its function was to coordinate economic policy across the Soviet Union. As Chairman of both COMSE and the IEC, Silayev presided over a quickly disintegrating Soviet Union. When he first took office, Silayev wanted to reduce

2756-580: The Central Committee wanted him to undergo punishment of some kind, but Brezhnev, who had already been assured the office of the General Secretary, saw little reason to punish Khrushchev further. Brezhnev was appointed First Secretary on the same day, but at the time was believed to be a transitional leader, who would only "keep the shop" until another leader was appointed. Alexei Kosygin was appointed head of government , and Mikoyan

2862-661: The Chairman of the Council of Ministers Alexei Kosygin (head of government; second in protocol). Brezhnev's supporters conceived the idea of establishing a State Council, similar to those of East Germany , Bulgaria , and Romania , to replace the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet as the highest organ of state; the State Council's chairmanship would be assumed by Brezhnev himself, allowing him to replace Podgorny as

2968-686: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). From 1924 until the country's dissolution in 1991, the officeholder was the recognized leader of the Soviet Union . Prior to Joseph Stalin 's accession, the position was not viewed as an important role in Vladimir Lenin's government and previous occupants had been responsible for technical rather than political decisions. Officially,

3074-414: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the Central Committee plenum on 14 September that same year. Khrushchev subsequently outmanoeuvred his rivals, who sought to challenge his political reforms . He was able to comprehensively remove Malenkov, Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich (one of Stalin's oldest and closest associates) from power in 1957 , an achievement which also helped to reinforce the supremacy of

3180-500: The General Secretary solely controlled the Communist Party directly. However, since the party had a monopoly on political power , the General Secretary de facto had executive control of the Soviet government . Because of the office's ability to direct both the foreign and domestic policies of the state and preeminence over the Soviet Communist Party, it was the de facto highest office of the Soviet Union. Before

3286-563: The IBM/360. However, following the adoption of the IBM/360 system, the Soviet Union was never able to build enough platforms, let alone improve on its design. As its technology continued to fall behind the West, the Soviet Union increasingly resorted to pirating Western designs. The last significant reform undertaken by the Kosygin government , and some believe in the pre- perestroika era,

State Council of the Soviet Union - Misplaced Pages Continue

3392-601: The Kamenskoye Metallurgical Technicum in 1935 and became a metallurgical engineer in the iron and steel industries of eastern Ukraine. Brezhnev joined the Communist Party youth division, the Komsomol , in 1923, and the Party itself in 1929. From 1935 to 1936 he completed the compulsory term of military service. After taking courses at a tank school, he served as a political commissar in

3498-586: The Kamenskoye city soviet. In May 1938, after Nikita Khrushchev had taken control of the Ukrainian communist party, he was appointed head of the propaganda department of the Dnipropetrovsk regional communist party, and later, in 1939, a regional Party Secretary, in charge of the city's defense industries. Here, he took the first steps toward building a network of supporters which came to be known as

3604-553: The Middle East and Africa. By the mid-1970s, numerous observers argued the Soviet Union had surpassed the United States to become the world's strongest military power. Conversely, Brezhnev's disregard for political reform ushered in an era of socioeconomic decline referred to as the Era of Stagnation . In addition to pervasive corruption and falling economic growth, this period was characterized by an increasing technological gap between

3710-535: The Politburo became aggressively anti-reformist , Kosygin was able to convince both Brezhnev and the politburo to leave the reformist communist leader János Kádár of the Hungarian People's Republic alone because of an economic reform entitled New Economic Mechanism (NEM), which granted limited permission for the establishment of retail markets. In the Polish People's Republic , another approach

3816-574: The Politburo issued a resolution titled, "On the Further Development of Specialisation and Concentration of Agricultural Production on the Basis of Inter-Farm Co-operation and Agro-Industrial Integration". The resolution ordered kolkhozes close to each other to collaborate in their efforts to increase production. In the meantime, the state's subsidies to the food-and-agriculture sector did not prevent bankrupt farms from operating and rises in

3922-613: The Politburo, Brezhnev was careful to minimize dissent among the party elite by reaching decisions through consensus thereby restoring the semblance of collective leadership . Additionally, while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and strengthened Moscow's dominion over Central and Eastern Europe . Furthermore, the massive arms buildup and widespread military interventionism under Brezhnev's leadership substantially expanded Soviet influence abroad, particularly in

4028-435: The Politburo. Brezhnev was adept at politics within the Soviet power structure. He was a team player and never acted rashly or hastily. Unlike Khrushchev, he did not make decisions without substantial consultation from his colleagues, and was always willing to hear their opinions. During the early 1970s, Brezhnev consolidated his domestic position. In 1977, he forced the retirement of Podgorny and became once again Chairman of

4134-548: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , making this position equivalent to that of an executive president. While Kosygin remained Premier until shortly before his death in 1980 (replaced by Nikolai Tikhonov as Premier), Brezhnev was the dominant figure in the Soviet Union from the mid-1970s until his death in 1982. Brezhnev has defined the iconic "Developed Socialism" as the Soviet-style socialism , which he believed had successfully constructed socialism in

4240-407: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1977 to 1982. His 18-year term as General Secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin 's in duration. Brezhnev was born to a working-class family in Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine ) within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire . After the results of the October Revolution were finalized with

4346-547: The Russian SFSR Council of Ministers and managed to oust him on 26 September 1991; Lobov succeeded Silayev as acting Premier of the Russian SFSR. Silayev, as overseer of the economy, was given the task of initiating economic reforms in the Soviet Union in a way that suited both the central government and the Soviet republics. Silayev tried to maintain an integrated economy while initiating the marketisation of

State Council of the Soviet Union - Misplaced Pages Continue

4452-514: The Secretariat, which also included Nikita Khrushchev , among others. Under a short-lived troika consisting of Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov , Malenkov became Chairman of the Council of Ministers , but was forced to resign from the Secretariat nine days later on 14 March. This effectively left Khrushchev in control of the government, and he was elected to the new office of First Secretary of

4558-779: The Soviet Army with the rank of major general in August 1946. In May 1946, he was appointed the first secretary of the Zaporizhzhia regional party committee, where his deputy was Andrei Kirilenko , one of the most important members of the Dnipropetrovsk Mafia . After working on reconstruction projects in Ukraine, he returned to Dnipropetrovsk in January 1948 as regional first party secretary. In 1950 Brezhnev became

4664-483: The Soviet Union . Trotsky attributed his appointment to the initial recommendation of Grigory Zinoviev . This view has been supported by several historians. According to Russian historian, Vadim Rogovin , Stalin's election to the position occurred after the Eleventh Party Congress (March–April 1922), in which Lenin, due to his poor health, participated only sporadically, and only attended four of

4770-462: The Soviet Union and reached Vladimir Lenin 's transition stage from socialism to communism. Brezhnev emphasized the advanced technological developments in the USSR with full electrification of the country, the use of nuclear power in production, computer planning, as well as a highly mechanized agriculture. He believed that all social strata within the USSR were closer to each other than ever before due to

4876-416: The Soviet Union and the United States. After 1975, Brezhnev's health rapidly deteriorated and he increasingly withdrew from international affairs despite maintaining his hold on power. He died on 10 November 1982 and was succeeded as general secretary by Yuri Andropov . Upon coming to power in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev denounced Brezhnev's government for its inefficiency and inflexibility before launching

4982-488: The Soviet Union as General Secretary until 1990, when the Communist Party lost its monopoly of power over the political system. The office of President of the Soviet Union was established so that Gorbachev could still retain his role as leader of the Soviet Union. Following the failed August coup of 1991 , Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary. He was succeeded by his deputy, Vladimir Ivashko , who only served for five days as Acting General Secretary before Boris Yeltsin ,

5088-400: The Soviet Union fell further and further behind in computer technology, which proved decisive for the Western economies. By 1973 the Era of Stagnation was apparent. The Era of Stagnation , a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev , was attributed to a compilation of factors, including the ongoing "arms race" ; the Soviet Union's decision to participate in international trade (thus abandoning

5194-421: The Soviet Union. However, he was initially forced to govern as part of an unofficial Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name Troika ) alongside the country's Premier , Alexei Kosygin , and Nikolai Podgorny , a Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and later Chairman of the Presidium . Due to Khrushchev's disregard for the rest of the Politburo upon combining his leadership of the party with that of

5300-402: The Soviet collective leadership to remove him from the Party-State Control Committee before having the body dissolved altogether on 6 December 1965. By the end of 1965, Brezhnev had Podgorny removed from the Secretariat, thereby significantly curtailing the latter's ability to build support within the party apparatus. In the ensuing years, Podgorny's network of supporters was steadily eroded as

5406-420: The Soviet economy was expanding at a faster rate than that of the American economy (albeit by a very small margin). The USSR also kept a steady pace with the economies of Western Europe. Between 1964 and 1973, the Soviet economy stood at roughly half the output per head of Western Europe and a little more than one third that of the U.S. In 1973, the process of catching up with the rest of the West came to an end as

SECTION 50

#1732787607531

5512-425: The Soviet government, a plenum of the Central Committee in October 1964 forbade any single individual from holding both the offices of General Secretary and Premier . This arrangement would persist until the late 1970s when Brezhnev firmly secured his position as the most powerful figure in the Soviet Union. During his consolidation of power, Brezhnev first had to contend with the ambitions of Alexander Shelepin ,

5618-463: The Soviet industry. Government industries such as factories, mines and offices were staffed by undisciplined personnel who put a great effort into not doing their jobs; this ultimately led, according to Robert Service, to a "work-shy workforce". The Soviet Government had no effective counter-measure; it was extremely difficult, if not impossible to replace ineffective workers because of the country's lack of unemployment. While some areas improved during

5724-404: The United States, he went elsewhere, such as to Argentina . Trade was necessary because the Soviet Union's domestic production of fodder crops was severely deficient. Another sector that was hitting the wall was the sugar beet harvest, which had declined by 2% in the 1970s. Brezhnev's way of resolving these issues was to increase state investment. Politburo member Gennady Voronov advocated for

5830-449: The West. Due to the cumbersome procedures of the centralized planning system, Soviet industries were incapable of the innovation needed to meet public demand. This was especially notable in the field of computers. In response to the lack of uniform standards for peripherals and digital capacity in the Soviet computer industry, Brezhnev's regime ordered an end to all independent computer development and required all future models to be based on

5936-415: The charter also being signed by nine of the twelve remaining republics. On 19 December COMSE was dissolved by a presidential Russian SFSR decree. Оn 25 December Gorbachev announced his resignation from the post of President of the USSR in connection with the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States . Accordingly, the union government ceased to exist. The next day, 26 December 1991 the Soviet Union

6042-488: The composition of party membership and to assign positions within the party. The General Secretary also oversaw the recording of party events, and was entrusted with keeping party leaders and members informed about party activities. When assembling his cabinet, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin to be General Secretary. Over the next few years, Stalin was able to use the principles of democratic centralism to transform his office into that of party leader, and eventually leader of

6148-424: The creation of the Soviet Union, Brezhnev joined the Communist party's youth league in 1923 before becoming an official party member in 1929. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 , he joined the Red Army as a commissar and rose rapidly through the ranks to become a major general during World War II. Following the war's end, Brezhnev was promoted to the party's Central Committee in 1952 and became

6254-403: The division of each farm's workforce into what he called "links". These "links" would be entrusted with specific functions, such as to run a farm's dairy unit. His argument was that the larger the work force, the less responsible they felt. This program had been proposed to Joseph Stalin by Andrey Andreyev in the 1940s and had been opposed by Khrushchev before and after Stalin's death. Voronov

6360-404: The dominant leader of Soviet foreign policy in the Politburo. Within the same timeframe, Kosygin was also in charge of economic administration in his role as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. However, his position was weakened following his enactment of several economic reforms in 1965 that collectively came to be known within the Party as the " Kosygin reforms ". Due largely to coinciding with

6466-416: The economy. Further disintegration of the USSR led to the transformation of the IEC into the Interstate Economic Committee of the Economic Community (coordinating relations between the union republics and republics, declaring their secession from the USSR). The IEC showed its international intent by signing the European Energy Charter on 16/17 December 1991 with 35 other countries, but this was undermined by

SECTION 60

#1732787607531

6572-641: The eighteen years that Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union, average income per head increased by half; three-quarters of this growth came in the 1960s and early 1970s. During the second half of Brezhnev's premiership, the average income per head grew by one-quarter. In the first half of the Brezhnev period, income per head increased by 3.5% per annum; slightly less growth than what it had been the previous years. This can be explained by Brezhnev's reversal of most of Khrushchev's policies. Consumption per head rose by an estimated 70% under Brezhnev, but with three-quarters of this growth happening before 1973 and only one-quarter in

6678-482: The ending of schemes. When Khrushchev left the public spotlight, there was no popular commotion, as most Soviet citizens, including the intelligentsia , anticipated a period of stabilization , steady development of Soviet society and continuing economic growth in the years ahead. Political scientist George W. Breslauer has compared Khrushchev and Brezhnev as leaders. He argues they took different routes to build legitimate authority, depending on their personalities and

6784-542: The first time industrial consumer products out-produced industrial capital goods. Consumer goods such as watches, furniture and radios were produced in abundance. The plan still left the bulk of the state's investment in industrial capital-goods production. This outcome was not seen as a positive sign for the future of the Soviet state by the majority of top party functionaries within the government; by 1975 consumer goods were expanding 9% slower than industrial capital-goods. The policy continued despite Brezhnev's commitment to make

6890-430: The former chairman of the KGB and current head of the Party-State Control Committee . In early 1965, Shelepin began calling for the restoration of "obedience and order" within the Soviet Union as part of his own bid to seize power. Towards this end, he exploited his control over both state and party organs to leverage support within the regime. Recognizing Shelepin as an imminent threat to his position, Brezhnev mobilized

6996-471: The growing Soviet food crisis. Brezhnev was recalled to Moscow in 1956. The harvest in the years following the Virgin Lands Campaign was disappointing, which would have hurt his political career had he remained in Kazakhstan. In February 1956 Brezhnev returned to Moscow and was made candidate member of the Politburo assigned in control of the defence industry, the space program including the Baykonur Cosmodrome , heavy industry , and capital construction. He

7102-399: The growing shortage of skilled workers, a wrecked rural culture, the payment of workers in proportion to the quantity rather than the quality of their work, and too large farm machinery for the small collective farms and the roadless countryside. In the face of this, Brezhnev's only options were schemes such as large land reclamation and irrigation projects, or of course, radical reform. Over

7208-401: The head of state and first-ranked person in diplomatic protocol. These plans did not come to fruition: under the Brezhnev Constitution of 1977, the collegial Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was retained as the highest body of power in the country, rather than being replaced by a Council of State. With the central government's authority greatly weakened by the failed coup, Gorbachev established

7314-413: The highly developed productive force in the country. Therefore, the dictatorship of the proletariat has, according to Brezhnev, moved towards a people's government. Brezhnev believed that all socialist countries would go through the same socialist development and social transformation of the Soviet model regardless of their national and material conditions. Brezhnev's stabilization policy included ending

7420-450: The idea of economic isolation) while ignoring changes occurring in Western societies; increased authoritarianism in Soviet society; the invasion of Afghanistan ; the bureaucracy's transformation into an undynamic gerontocracy ; lack of economic reform; pervasive political corruption, and other structural problems within the country. Domestically, social stagnation was stimulated by the growing demands of unskilled workers, labor shortages and

7526-399: The late 1970s, while rationing of staple food products returned to Sverdlovsk for instance. The state provided recreation facilities and annual holidays for hard-working citizens. Soviet trade unions rewarded hard-working members and their families with beach vacations in Crimea and Georgia . Social rigidification became a common feature of Soviet society. During the Stalin era in

7632-482: The mid-1970s, there were an estimated 5,000 political and religious prisoners across the Soviet Union, living in grievous conditions and suffering from malnutrition. Many of these prisoners were considered by the Soviet state to be mentally unfit and were hospitalized in mental asylums across the Soviet Union. Under Brezhnev's rule, the KGB infiltrated most, if not all, anti-government organisations, which ensured that there

7738-411: The ministries. With Kosygin's death in 1980, and due to his successor Nikolai Tikhonov 's conservative approach to economics, very little of the reform was actually carried out. The Eleventh Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union delivered a disappointing result: a change in growth from 5 to 4%. During the earlier Tenth Five-Year Plan , there had been target of 6.1% growth, but this was not met. Brezhnev

7844-527: The office of First Secretary but retain him as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers , the majority, headed by Brezhnev, wanted to remove him from active politics altogether. Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny appealed to the Central Committee, blaming Khrushchev for economic failures, and accusing him of voluntarism and immodest behavior. Influenced by Brezhnev's allies, Politburo members voted on 14 October to remove Khrushchev from office. Some members of

7950-435: The opinion of several Central Committee members. After some false starts, fellow conspirator Mikhail Suslov phoned Khrushchev on 12 October and requested that he return to Moscow to discuss the state of Soviet agriculture . Finally, Khrushchev understood what was happening, and said to Mikoyan, "If it's me who is the question, I will not make a fight of it." While a minority headed by Mikoyan wanted to remove Khrushchev from

8056-411: The party secretariat due to his age, was rejected by the party congress, as delegates were unsure about Stalin's intentions. In the end, the congress formally abolished Stalin's office of General Secretary, although Stalin remained the highest-ranked party secretary and maintained ultimate control of the party. When Stalin died on 5 March 1953, Malenkov was considered to be the most important member of

8162-573: The period 1941–1945 (culminating in cash, material and equipment deliveries for military and industrial purposes) had allowed the Russians to leapfrog many Western economies in the development of advanced technologies, particularly in the fields of nuclear technology, radio communications, agriculture and heavy manufacturing. By the early 1970s, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest industrial capacity, and produced more steel, oil, pig-iron , cement and tractors than any other country. Before 1973,

8268-656: The plot, went on holiday in Pitsunda resort on the Black Sea . Upon his return, his Presidium officers congratulated him for his work in office. Anastas Mikoyan visited Khrushchev, hinting that he should not be too complacent about his present situation. Vladimir Semichastny , head of the KGB , was a crucial part of the conspiracy, as it was his duty to inform Khrushchev if anyone was plotting against his leadership. Nikolay Ignatov , whom Khrushchev had sacked, discreetly requested

8374-523: The position of First Secretary. In 1964, opposition within the Politburo and the Central Committee, which had been increasing since the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis , led to Khrushchev's removal from office. Leonid Brezhnev succeeded Khrushchev as First Secretary, but was initially obliged to govern as part of a collective leadership , forming another troika with Premier Alexei Kosygin and Chairman Nikolai Podgorny . The office

8480-488: The powers it had enjoyed under Stalin, although there was no return to the purges of the 1930s and 1940s, and Stalin's legacy remained largely discredited among the Soviet intelligentsia . Between 1960 and 1970, Soviet agriculture output increased by 3% annually. Industry also improved: during the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1966–1970), the output of factories and mines increased by 138% compared to 1960. While

8586-535: The powers of the central government and give more powers to the Soviet Republics . This view changed; he demanded that Yeltsin give back much of the authority of the central government which he had usurped following the August Coup. In this he failed, and his position as Russian SFSR Premier was severely weakened as a result. Oleg Lobov , Silayev's First Deputy Premier , led the anti-Silayev faction in

8692-403: The price of produce were offset by rises in the cost of oil and other resources. By 1977, oil cost 84% more than it did in the late 1960s. The cost of other resources had also climbed by the late 1970s. Brezhnev's answer to these problems was to issue two decrees, one in 1977 and one in 1981, which called for an increase in the maximum size of privately owned plots within the Soviet Union to half

8798-474: The protégés he cultivated in his rise to power were removed from the Central Committee. By 1977, Brezhnev was secure enough in his position to replace Podgorny as head of state and remove him from the Politburo. After sidelining Shelepin and Podgorny as threats to his leadership in 1965, Brezhnev directed his attentions to his remaining political rival, Alexei Kosygin. In the 1960s, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger initially perceived Kosygin to be

8904-450: The real power resided with Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and Premier. Khrushchev's position as Party leader was secure until about 1962, but as he aged, he grew more erratic and his performance undermined the confidence of his fellow leaders. The Soviet Union's mounting economic problems also increased the pressure on Khrushchev's leadership. Brezhnev remained outwardly loyal to Khrushchev, but became involved in

9010-480: The regime's sustained prioritization of heavy industry and military spending over consumer goods . Additionally, Soviet agriculture was unable to feed the urban population, let alone provide for a rising standard of living which the government promised as the fruits of "mature socialism" and on which industrial productivity depended. Ultimately, the GNP growth rate slowed to 1% to 2% per year. As GNP growth rates decreased in

9116-408: The scandal and remained in his post. After Lenin's death, Stalin began to consolidate his power by using the office of General Secretary. By 1928, he had unquestionably become the de facto leader of the USSR, while the position of General Secretary became the highest office in the nation. In 1934, the 17th Party Congress refrained from formally re-electing Stalin as General Secretary. However, Stalin

9222-479: The second half of his rule. Most of the increase in consumer production in the early Brezhnev era can be attributed to the Kosygin reform . When the USSR's economic growth stalled in the 1970s, the standard of living and housing quality improved significantly. Instead of paying more attention to the economy, the Soviet leadership under Brezhnev tried to improve the living standard in the Soviet Union by extending social benefits . This led to an increase, though

9328-403: The state of public opinion. Khrushchev worked to decentralize the government system and empower local leadership, which had been wholly subservient; Brezhnev sought to centralize authority, going so far as to weaken the roles of the other members of the Central Committee and the Politburo. Upon replacing Khrushchev as the party's First Secretary, Brezhnev became the de jure supreme authority of

9434-545: The twelve sessions of the Congress. Some historians have regarded the premature death of prominent Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov to have been a key factor in facilitating the elevation of Joseph Stalin to the position of leadership in the Soviet Union. In part, because Sverdlov served as the original chairman of the party secretariat and was considered a natural candidate for the position of General Secretary. Prior to Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin's tenure as General Secretary

9540-526: Was Nikita Khrushchev , who had supported Brezhnev's career since the prewar years. Brezhnev had met Khrushchev in 1931, shortly after joining the Party, and as he continued his rise through the ranks, he became Khrushchev's protégé. At the end of the war in Europe, Brezhnev was chief political commissar of the 4th Ukrainian Front , which entered Prague in May 1945, after the German surrender . Brezhnev left

9646-432: Was a joint decision of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers named "Improving planning and reinforcing the effects of the economic mechanism on raising the effectiveness in production and improving the quality of work", more commonly known as the 1979 reform . The reform, in contrast to the 1965 reform, sought to increase the central government's economic involvement by enhancing the duties and responsibilities of

9752-489: Was a record-high state investment in farming during the 1970s, the evaluation of agricultural output continued to focus on the grain harvest. Despite some improvement, there were still problems such as insufficient domestic production of fodder crops and a declining sugar beet harvest. Brezhnev attempted to address these issues by increasing state investment and allowing privately owned plots to be larger. However, these actions were not effective in solving fundamental problems like

9858-602: Was able to defer economic collapse by trading with Western Europe and the Arab World . The Soviet Union still outproduced the United States in the heavy industry sector during the Brezhnev era. Another dramatic result of Brezhnev's rule was that certain Eastern Bloc countries became more economically advanced than the Soviet Union. Brezhnev's agricultural policy reinforced traditional ways of organizing collective farms and enforced output quotas centrally. Although there

9964-418: Was already being criticized. In Lenin's final months, he authored a pamphlet that called for Stalin's removal on the grounds that Stalin was becoming authoritarian and abusing his power. The pamphlet triggered a political crisis which endangered Stalin's position as General Secretary, and a vote was held to remove him from office. With the help of Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev , Stalin was able to survive

10070-566: Was also unsuccessful; Brezhnev turned him down, and in 1973 he was removed from the Politburo. Experimentation with "links" was not disallowed on a local basis, with Mikhail Gorbachev , the then First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, experimenting with links in his region. In the meantime, the Soviet government's involvement in agriculture was, according to Robert Service, otherwise "unimaginative" and "incompetent". Facing mounting problems with agriculture,

10176-405: Was continued by Brezhnev, because he shared Khrushchev's belief that bigger kolkhozes would increase productivity. Brezhnev pushed for an increase in state investments in farming, which amounted to an all-time high in the 1970s of 27% of all state investment – this figure did not include investments in farm equipment. In 1981 alone, 33 billion U.S. dollars (by contemporary exchange rate)

10282-464: Was demoted to first deputy head of the political directorate of the Army and Navy. Brezhnev's patron Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as General Secretary, while Khrushchev's rival Georgy Malenkov succeeded Stalin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers . Brezhnev sided with Khrushchev against Malenkov, but only for several years. In February 1954, he was appointed second secretary of the Communist Party of

10388-442: Was formally dissolved by the Council of Republics . Leonid Brezhnev First , then General Secretary of the CPSU 1964–1982 Brezhnev Era Foreign policy [REDACTED] Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 1906 – 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982, and Chairman of

10494-565: Was given as Ukrainian in some documents, including his passport, and Russian in others. A statement confirming that he regarded himself as a Russian can be found in his book Memories (1979), where he wrote: "And so, according to nationality, I am Russian, I am a proletarian, a hereditary metallurgist." Like many youths in the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 , he received a technical education , at first in land management and then in metallurgy . He graduated from

10600-493: Was invested into agriculture. Agricultural output in 1980 was 21% higher than the average production rate between 1966 and 1970. Cereal crop output increased by 18%. These improved results were not encouraging. In the Soviet Union the criterion for assessing agricultural output was the grain harvest. The import of cereal, which began under Khrushchev, had in fact become a normal phenomenon by Soviet standards. When Brezhnev had difficulties sealing commercial trade agreements with

10706-409: Was little to no opposition against him or his power base. However, Brezhnev refrained from the all-out violence seen under Stalin's rule. The trial of the writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky in 1966, the first such public trials since Stalin's reign, marked the reversion to a repressive cultural policy. Under Yuri Andropov the state security service (in the form of the KGB ) regained some of

10812-535: Was now a senior member of Khrushchev's entourage, and in June 1957 he backed Khrushchev in his struggle with Malenkov's Stalinist old guard in the Party leadership, the so-called " Anti-Party Group ". Following the Stalinists' defeat, Brezhnev became a full member of the Politburo. In May 1960, he was promoted to the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet , making him the nominal head of state, although

10918-453: Was re-elected to all the other positions he held, and remained leader of the party without diminution. In the 1950s, Stalin increasingly withdrew from Secretariat business, leaving the supervision of the body to Georgy Malenkov , possibly to test his abilities as a potential successor. In October 1952, at the 19th Party Congress , Stalin restructured the party's leadership. His request, voiced through Malenkov, to be relieved of his duties in

11024-481: Was renamed to General Secretary in 1966. The collective leadership was able to limit the powers of the General Secretary during the Brezhnev Era . Brezhnev's influence grew throughout the 1970s as he was able to retain support by avoiding any radical reforms. After Brezhnev's death, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko were able to rule the country in the same way as Brezhnev had. Mikhail Gorbachev ruled

11130-552: Was retained as head of state . Brezhnev and his companions supported the general party line taken after Stalin's death but felt that Khrushchev's reforms had removed much of the Soviet Union's stability. One reason for Khrushchev's ouster was that he continually overruled other party members, and was, according to the plotters, "in contempt of the party's collective ideals". The Soviet newspaper Pravda wrote of new enduring themes such as collective leadership , scientific planning, consultation with experts, organisational regularity and

11236-416: Was taken in 1970 under the leadership of Edward Gierek ; he believed that the government needed Western loans to facilitate the rapid growth of heavy industry. The Soviet leadership gave its approval for this, as the Soviet Union could not afford to maintain its massive subsidy for the Eastern Bloc in the form of cheap oil and gas exports. The Soviet Union did not accept all kinds of reforms, an example being

#530469