HIST 236 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: 20Th Congress Of The Communist Party Of The Soviet Union, Political Commissar, Nikita Khrushchev
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The Long Reign of Leonid Brezhnev
Brezhnev was of Ukrainian and working class heritage was the person
who moved up in the 1930s
He worked as a mid-level Party functionary then as political
commissar
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He was appointed to the Central Committee by Stalin in 1952
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He played a key role in the plot to remove Khrushchev in 1964
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He was leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982
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If Stalin kept his colleagues and the population in fear, and
Khrushchev had sought to shake things up, Brezhnev sought to
ensure stability
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At the time, a lot of people made fun of his eyebrows and his WWII
medals because he never was involved in combat
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Ranked number one in 20th century Russian history
People like him because it was during his reign that life became
"normal"
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His appeal was that you could have a normal, stable life
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Economic Reforms
The Brezhnev government rolled back Khrushchev's more disruptive
economic reforms but recognized some changes were necessary
Cybernetics was seen as a solution to the problem of how to
rationally plan a socialist economy
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Mathematically-minded economists' ideas about profitability
and optimization gained in popularity
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Alexi Kosgyin devised a reform agenda along these lines in 1965
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Consumption
Brezhnev kept Khrushchev's 20th party congress promise to more
fully meet the population's growing materials needs
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He promised that good would be more available and prices would
remain stable or drop
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Chronic shortages persisted
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The second economy expanded
James R. Millar: in exchange for their support for the status
quo, the Brezhnev government offered the population the
"Little Deal" which looked the other way while private trade
and market relations proliferated
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Before the war, there was no talk about homes, but after the war
people started talking about their home and living standards
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Social Welfare Guarantees
The government expanded its social welfare guarantees in the realm
of wages, pensions, health care, etc.
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The 1977 constitution affirmed that the socialist system ensures the
continuous improvement of living standards
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Citizens were also granted a shorter workweek and the right rest (go
on state-subsidized holidays)
These benefits were portrayed as important steps towards
communism
○
People started going abroad as well, they weren't allowed to go
to the US because it was too complicated but they may have
been able to go to Prague or Warsaw
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Economic Slowdown
The Soviet Union used oil revenue to plug holes in the budget
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Economic growth was slowing
The mobilization model of growth had hit is limits
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The Soviet Union proved incapable of shifting from extensive to
intensive growth
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Factories were unproductive and inefficient
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The countryside was no longer squeezed to fund industrialization and
the agricultural sector became a grain on resources
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Not good at improving their per worker efficiency
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There is no threat of unemployment, you can't just shut down a
factory
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Cynicism and Pessimism
The Soviet government and society remained formally committed to
communism and the Leninist path
But many felt that they were just paying lip service to slogans
and remarked on the discrepancy between principles and
practice
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People grew more sceptical about socialism as a political and
economic system
John Bushnell: by 1975, the New Soviet Man had become a
pessimist, no longer convinced of the superiority of the Soviet
system
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Dissidence
The government was worried that the Thaw had unleashed
dangerous anti-Soviet ideas in society
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The government clamped down on the intelligentsia, especially ones
who published work abroad
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Many activists called on the government to live up to its socialist
principles and international obligations by respecting human rights
and free speech
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They were arrested, imprisoned (sometimes in psychiatric hospitals)
or exiled in an effort to silence them
These actions garnered a lot of negative attention in the West
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Some petitioned to be able to emigrate from the Soviet Union,
especially to Israel
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Soviet Jews wanted to emigrate
You have the right to claim Israeli citizenship if you have a
substantial connection
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There were quotas on how many people could emigrate which led to
the "refuseness"
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The Resurgence of Russian Nationalism
The Brezhnev years saw the resurgence of Russian nationalism
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Some of this started as a response to the government's renewed
attacks on the church in the Khrushchev years
Movements to protect Russia's cultural heritage and
environment portrayed themselves as apolitical
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Village prose writers lamented what was lost in the name of
modernity and progress
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Russian nationalists like Viktor Chalmaev began to openly discuss and
praise Russia's pre-revolutionary past, seeing the roots of Soviet
achievements in it
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Societies emerge around the principle of historic preservation of the
past
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Lecture 25 -Stagnation
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
11:27 AM
Document Summary
Brezhnev was of ukrainian and working class heritage was the person who moved up in the 1930s. He worked as a mid-level party functionary then as political commissar. He was appointed to the central committee by stalin in 1952. He played a key role in the plot to remove khrushchev in 1964. He was leader of the soviet union from 1964 until his death in 1982. If stalin kept his colleagues and the population in fear, and. Khrushchev had sought to shake things up, brezhnev sought to ensure stability. At the time, a lot of people made fun of his eyebrows and his wwii medals because he never was involved in combat. Ranked number one in 20th century russian history. People like him because it was during his reign that life became. His appeal was that you could have a normal, stable life. The brezhnev government rolled back khrushchev"s more disruptive economic reforms but recognized some changes were necessary.
