Communism in Crisis — USSR, Brezhnev, Gorbachev
Contents:
1. USSR under Brezhnev
a. Political stagnation
b. Economic stagnation
c. Foreign policy
d. Afghanistan
2. USSR under Gorbachev
a. Economic
b. Political
c. Eastern Europe: Solidarity
d. Eastern Europe: Czechoslovakia and the Velvet Revolution
e. Rise of nationalism in USSR and Soviet Satellites
f. Fall of Berlin Wall
g. Role of Reagan administration
COMMUNISM IN CRISIS: BREZHNEV (1976-82)
Event Significance Historiography / Statistics
Political ‘Partocracy’ Party membership increased
Stagnation - Brezhnev = archetypal apparatchik (party bureaucrat). Intent on ensuring political from 14.4m (1971) to 17.4m
stability and on upholding the power + privileges of Party officials (1981)
- 1977 Constitution states that USSR achieved a state of “mature socialist social relations”
, - Essentially excuse for B to not reform and preserve status quo. Wording of Average age of Politburo
constitution also sounded more democratic members increased from 55
‘Gerontocracy’ (increasingly elderly leadership of USSR during Brezhnev years) to 68
- B wanted ‘stability of the cadres’ - officials stayed in post until they retired or died
- Result: Party bureaucracy aged ~10% adult population were
Official corruption Party members
- Nomenklatura (party and state officials and managers) enjoyed luxuries (e.g. B’s
limousines) due to corruption Bartlett: dissenting voices
Growing cynicism about Communist rule became louder, but had
- Many were cynical about growing corruption + stagnation of Communist Party’s rule more resonance abroad
Growth of dissent than at home, and were
- Many USSR citizens did not dissent (nor actively support) as: easily contained by police
- Moderate rise in living standards methods
- Sheer size of KGB. Remained a powerful force
- State/party’s control over media Ascher: ~500 intellectuals
- ~10% of adult population were Party members → benefited from the privileges of admitted to psychiatric
membership hospitals 1962-83
- 1965-66 Soviet leadership took increasingly tough line against dissent intellectuals e.g.
Andrei Sinyavsky sentenced to 7 years hard labour for criticising the CP abroad Reynolds: “urbanisation
- Brezhnev era: authorities regularly committed dissidents to psychiatric hospitals and education were
Human Rights activists / critics of CP’s authoritarian control: powerful solvents of the old
- Growing numbers of samizdat (self-published works) distributed illegally - estimated order”
4000 works in 1979
- Alternative to Samizdat = magnitizdat (‘magnetic tape publishing’) - literature and music
were tape recorded and distributed
- Andrei Sakharov: set up Human Rights Committee 1970 to record HR violations
Growing national unrest:
- Particularly significant in Baltic republics and among Muslims in the southern republics
- Fall in birth rate among Slavic groups in USSR but rising birth rate among non-Slavic
groups (population grew ~⅓ in Central Asia in the 70s)
- Jewish ‘refuseniks’ campaigned to leave USSR 1970s but were not permitted to do so -
became point of contention in East-West relations early 70s
Contents:
1. USSR under Brezhnev
a. Political stagnation
b. Economic stagnation
c. Foreign policy
d. Afghanistan
2. USSR under Gorbachev
a. Economic
b. Political
c. Eastern Europe: Solidarity
d. Eastern Europe: Czechoslovakia and the Velvet Revolution
e. Rise of nationalism in USSR and Soviet Satellites
f. Fall of Berlin Wall
g. Role of Reagan administration
COMMUNISM IN CRISIS: BREZHNEV (1976-82)
Event Significance Historiography / Statistics
Political ‘Partocracy’ Party membership increased
Stagnation - Brezhnev = archetypal apparatchik (party bureaucrat). Intent on ensuring political from 14.4m (1971) to 17.4m
stability and on upholding the power + privileges of Party officials (1981)
- 1977 Constitution states that USSR achieved a state of “mature socialist social relations”
, - Essentially excuse for B to not reform and preserve status quo. Wording of Average age of Politburo
constitution also sounded more democratic members increased from 55
‘Gerontocracy’ (increasingly elderly leadership of USSR during Brezhnev years) to 68
- B wanted ‘stability of the cadres’ - officials stayed in post until they retired or died
- Result: Party bureaucracy aged ~10% adult population were
Official corruption Party members
- Nomenklatura (party and state officials and managers) enjoyed luxuries (e.g. B’s
limousines) due to corruption Bartlett: dissenting voices
Growing cynicism about Communist rule became louder, but had
- Many were cynical about growing corruption + stagnation of Communist Party’s rule more resonance abroad
Growth of dissent than at home, and were
- Many USSR citizens did not dissent (nor actively support) as: easily contained by police
- Moderate rise in living standards methods
- Sheer size of KGB. Remained a powerful force
- State/party’s control over media Ascher: ~500 intellectuals
- ~10% of adult population were Party members → benefited from the privileges of admitted to psychiatric
membership hospitals 1962-83
- 1965-66 Soviet leadership took increasingly tough line against dissent intellectuals e.g.
Andrei Sinyavsky sentenced to 7 years hard labour for criticising the CP abroad Reynolds: “urbanisation
- Brezhnev era: authorities regularly committed dissidents to psychiatric hospitals and education were
Human Rights activists / critics of CP’s authoritarian control: powerful solvents of the old
- Growing numbers of samizdat (self-published works) distributed illegally - estimated order”
4000 works in 1979
- Alternative to Samizdat = magnitizdat (‘magnetic tape publishing’) - literature and music
were tape recorded and distributed
- Andrei Sakharov: set up Human Rights Committee 1970 to record HR violations
Growing national unrest:
- Particularly significant in Baltic republics and among Muslims in the southern republics
- Fall in birth rate among Slavic groups in USSR but rising birth rate among non-Slavic
groups (population grew ~⅓ in Central Asia in the 70s)
- Jewish ‘refuseniks’ campaigned to leave USSR 1970s but were not permitted to do so -
became point of contention in East-West relations early 70s
