THE BREZHNEV ERA

GERONTOCRACY  Reaction to de-Stalinization & Khrushchev’s missteps  Replaced by conservative colleagues led by LEONID BREZHNEV Aleksei Kosygin & Nikolai Podgornii Brezhnev

THE BREZHNEV ERA GERONTOCRACY  Re-imposed Stalinist system, but without terror  Party control over all aspects of Soviet life  Command economy  Political dictatorship  Propaganda & manipulation of media  Suspicious & confrontational attitude towards outside world

THE BREZHNEV ERA CRACKS IN THE BLOC  The Prague Spring  ALEXANDER DUBCEK: “Socialism with a Human Face”  Late arrival of de- Stalinization in Czechoslovakia  Warsaw Pact invasion  Adoption of “Brezhnev Doctrine”

THE BREZHNEV ERA ECONOMIC STAGNATION & DELCINE  Overemployment  Declining food supply  Low productivity  Inadequate infrastructure

THE BREZHNEV ERA ECONOMIC STAGNATION & DELCINE  Environmental damage  Depletion of natural & human resources  Inherent flaws of “command- administrative” system Shrinking Aral Sea

THE BREZHNEV ERA CORRUPTION  Bribery, stealing & cheating commonplace  Nomenklatura system thrived  Black market  “Mafiazation” of police, factory managers, party Party member shopping at Beriozhka