Brezhnev in Soviet history does not cause such heated debate and diametrically opposed assessments of how the Stalinist era and Gorbachev's perestroika, but this period also had its positive and negative aspects.
end of totalitarianism
Brezhnev began even unusual for the era of the Soviet state.Charisma and unquestioned leadership in the party of Lenin, and later Stalin's totalitarian system predetermined the fact that these leaders were at the helm of state until his death.Moreover, it was not and could not have any significant concerns the change of power (with the exception of the very first months after the death of Lenin, when the real heirs of Trotsky and Zinoviev were considered).There was a struggle, and in 1953, when he died, Joseph Dzhugashvili.However, once in power, Nikita Khrushchev abruptly changed course of domestic policy of the party.XX Congress of the CPSU put an end to the totalitarian control method: a climate of fear, denunciations, constant expectation of the counter-revolution, and so on.Largely because of this step, he became the first ruler eliminated bloodless and does not result in death.Brezhnev began in 1964 with the decision of the CPSU Central Committee plenum Khrushchev release from the post of general secretary.
Stagnation or a golden era?
new era, the name of the latest time of stagnation began with active economic reforms to revive the economy.Alexei Kosygin reforms, begun in 1965, were in some measure aimed at putting the economy into a market gauge.So was greatly expanded economic independence of large state-owned enterprises, introduced the tools of material incentives of workers involved.And reform really began to meet expectations.Already the first period of Brezhnev's rule was marked by the most successful five-year period in the history of the country.
However, the reformers did not go through.Positive changes resulting from the weakening of state control, were not supplemented by the necessary freedom in other areas of economic life.Reform began stripping and negative results, like the uptrend in prices for goods.In addition, in the early 70-ies in the Siberian oil fields have been discovered, resulting in a permanent loss of interest in the Soviet leadership to the reform efforts.Around the 70s are beginning to discover some slowdown of the domestic economy.Production is becoming less profitable.Weapons and space program is more behind the main competitor - the United States (the last resounding success of the Soviet space program became a vehicle "Mars-2", the first made it safely to the red planet).In addition, it is found the gap in knowledge-intensive industries.
These negative trends to a large extent become the cause of subsequent restructuring and what it ended - the collapse of the Soviet state.Requires more resources engineering and other strategic industries could not affect the slowing of light industry that quite painful impact on the country's population.Food shortages and essential commodities - the first, perhaps, that in general is associated with the broad masses of the era.However, the rule of Brezhnev, the so-called stagnation, was such only in comparison with previous, incredibly high rates of heavy and light industry in the country.At the same time millions of our countrymen, he is remembered as a golden age.First of all, for those who are fully felt the drop in economic performance and living standards in the 1990s.At the same time, Brezhnev was marked by other significant moments: this is the war in Afghanistan, and a new round of the Cold War, and the complication of relations with China as a result of conflicts in the Sino-Soviet.
