1. The Brezhnev Era

2. Domestic Problems  Economic stagnation – standard of living began to decline beginning in 1970  Crop failures in 1972 lead to food shortages  From 1964-1982 over 25% of the Soviet GNP was spent on military growth to compete with the US  Socialist centralized economic planning (command economy) was NOT meeting the needs of ordinary citizens (guns vs. butter)

3. Brezhnev’s Reforms  Incentives to farmers working on state-owned plots – keep or sell surplus!  Promoted the use of market forces to determine production  Reforms were blocked by Soviet hard-liners who feared a shift to capitalism

4. Things Get Worse  Consumer goods are only readily available on the black market (except for those with the right connections)  Morale and productivity decline – high rates of absenteeism and alcoholism  1975 – another bad grain harvest  USSR has to import food - from the US!

5. Political Stagnation  Same organization and hierarchy as the days of Stalin  Leadership was ageing and out of touch with new generation of Soviet youth (gerontocracy – form of rule in which the leadership is significantly older than the adult population. Politburo average age – 73!)  Party elites (nomenklatura) and military leaders were often corrupt and benefited from their position at ordinary citizens’ expense

6. Foreign Problems  Nationalist movements behind the Iron Curtain  1968 – The Prague Spring: socialism with a human face!  The Brezhnev Doctrine – “..every Communist party is responsible not only to its own people, but also to all the socialist countries and the entire Communist movement….”  In Poland the Solidarity workers’ union begins staging strikes and protest marches

7. The Cold War Arms Race  The missile race, the space race, the technology race, conventional arms race, etc. etc. – very expensive  Détente – Soviets motivated by economic as well as geo-political pressures

8. Afghanistan  Invoking the Brezhnev Doctrine the Soviets invaded in 1979 to prop up the leftist regime on their southern border  By 1982 it was a lost cause – and increasingly expensive in both economic and political terms

9. The End of an Era  1982 – Brezhnev dies and Andropov (age 68) takes over  1984 – Andropov dies and Chernenko takes over  Early 1985 – Chernenko dies  March 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev, a spritely 54, becomes General Secretary