Era of Stagnation
Some commentators regard the start of social stagnation as being the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1966, in which two writers were convicted of anti-Soviet agitation and which marked the end of the Khrushchev Thaw.
[10] Historians, scholars, and specialists are uncertain what caused the stagnation, with some arguing that the command economy suffered from systemic flaws that inhibited growth.
[13] Under Gorbachev's leadership the Communist Party began efforts to accelerate economic development in 1985 through massive injections of finance into heavy industry (Uskoreniye).
When these failed, the Communist Party restructured (perestroika) the Soviet economy and government by introducing quasi-capitalist (Khozraschyot) and democratic (demokratizatsiya) reforms.
Robert Service, author of the History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century, claims that with mounting economic problems worker discipline decreased,[14] which the government could not counter effectively because of the full employment policy.
According to Service, this policy led to government industries, such as factories, mines and offices, being staffed by undisciplined and unproductive personnel ultimately leading to a "work-shy workforce" among Soviet workers and administrators.
[17] In short, Service considers the Soviet economy to have become "static" during this time period,[18] and Brezhnev's policy of stability was a "recipe for political disaster".
[19] Richard Sakwa, author of the book The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917–1991, takes a dimmer view of the Brezhnev era by claiming that growth rates fell "inexorably" from the 1950s until they stopped completely in the 1980s.
During the international oil crisis, growth in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc halted abruptly and stalled for a longer period than in the West[23] causing the economy to begin stagnating.
[28] Archie Brown, author of The Rise and Fall of Communism, claims in his book that the term Era of Stagnation "was in many ways a fitting description, for this was a period of declining growth", but noted it could be misleading in non-economic spheres.
The link between these growth rates and the Kosygin reform is, according to Brown, "tenuous",[30] but says that "From the point of view of communist rulers, the Brezhnev era was in many ways successful".
[31] The Soviet Union's natural resources provided a strong economic foundation, which bore fruit during the 1973 oil crisis and "turned out to be an energy bonanza".
[31] Philip Hanson, author of The Rise and Fall of the Soviet economy: an Economic History of the USSR from 1945, claims that the label stagnation is not "entirely unfair".
[35] Robert Vincent Daniels in his book, Russia's Transformation: Snapshots of a Crumbling System, claimed that the hallmark of the Brezhnev era was the status quo, which in turn led to the development of a great paradox; "the contradictions of what it was and what it could be became obvious".
[41] Andrei Sakharov, the veteran dissident, claimed in a 1980 letter to Brezhnev that the increasing expenditure on the armed forces was stalling economic growth.
According to authors like Harpal Brar, Khrushchev's de-Stalinization program was also used to implement economic reforms that would move the USSR away from central planning and towards market socialism.
[3] Ultimately, as a result of his failure to deliver on his promises and the problems engendered, Khrushchev was dismissed in October 1964[55] by a collective leadership led by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin.
[56] Khrushchev's dismissal led to the establishment of a more conservative Politburo; Kosygin, Nikolai Podgorny and Andrei Kirilenko were the most liberal members, Brezhnev and Arvīds Pelše belonged to the moderate faction while Mikhail Suslov retained his leadership of the party's hardliners.
[64] A number of suspected dissidents had their homes and property searched[65] and a group of Moscow lawyers specialised in defending people charged with anti-Soviet activity.
[68] Throughout the Brezhnev Era, artists producing work in accordance with "Soviet values" within the framework of socialist realism constituted a well-paid, elite group that enjoyed an easy life and high social status.
When details of the Brezhnev government's efforts to suppress the speech of political dissidents came to light via the glasnost policies of the Gorbachev Era, many writers claimed to have been unaware of its widespread use.
Examples include writers Viktor Astafyev and Oles Honchar, playwright Grigory Gorin, and directors Eldar Ryazanov and Mark Zakharov.
