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The ideas of the reforms were sound, the party leadership wanted
not only to improve the situation in the field of agriculture, but also
to strengthen control over it by the Ministries. As a result, it turned out
a little different from what Brezhnev originally said. Ultimately,
the problems in agriculture were due to the fact that the people who were
responsible for spending money were not competent. The government
allocated huge sums from the budget to stimulate agriculture but in fact
money was allocated for the purchase of expensive, often unnecessary,
equipment. Brezhnev's reforms also affected the pay of collective farm
workers. Now they were paid a fixed, very low wage. Despite
the tremendous efforts made by the state to stabilize agriculture, during
the Brezhnev’s period the area of fields was reduced by 22 million
hectares and the total yield losses reached 40%.
In September 1965 Brezhnev's reforms in the field of industry began.
For the first time, the issue of the quality of the products was raised with
high volumes of production. The state began to leave to the enterprises
part of the earned funds, which they could spend as material incentives
to employees. Initially, it was said that to give enterprises more
independence, but in fact the power of the Ministries was strengthened.
At the initial stage these reforms gave immediate results. In the period
1966–1970 the total production in the country increased by 50%. Then
there was regression. All economic indicators crawled down.
An increase of the purchase price, an additional fee for overfulfilment
of the plan and long-term guarantees for the purchase was what
the collective farms needed. The fact is that all state farms and collective
farms were unprofitable, every farm had debts. It was no chance that both
Khrushchev's reforms and Brezhnev's reforms put emphasis on the fact
that debts from collective farms should be written off. The main reason
of debts was that for many years the state actually robbed the peasants,
buying their products for a pittance. Since 1965 this trend had been
broken down.
There was what led to the “stagnation” – a fixed payment
to the collective farmers. Earlier the collective farmer received money
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for workdays, and also had surcharges for the fulfillment of the production
plan. For example, a person needed to work 20 days, collect 250 kilograms
of potatoes, and the state paid 50 rubles for it. Now a man received 50 rubles
regardless of how much he will collect potatoes for 20 days of work. Even if
he collects not 250 kilograms in any case he will receive 50 rubles.
On the one hand, this provided guarantees and social security for the
collective farmers, but on the other hand it completely killed the motivation
to work and achieve results.
The country's leadership in the economic development of agriculture
made the main contribution to the full provision of the country with grain
and food products. But this could not be done and the other indicators
were “impressionable”:
1. The profitability of the agricultural sector was determined.
For state farms, it became – 22%, and for collective farms – 34%.
2. Reduction of agricultural lands. Since 1965 and about the collapse
of the USSR agricultural lands had declined by 22 million hectares.
3. The economy was extremely inefficient. In some areas the loss
of production was up to 40%. The minimum threshold was 20%. So, 1/5
of the total output simply disappeared.
4. Mistakes of the leadership had led to an exacerbation
of environmental problems within the country.
As a result, the USSR, which had the largest number of agricultural
lands among all countries in the world, began to buy grain and food
products abroad. These elements began under Khrushchev, and under
Brezhnev this negative trend could not be reversed.
Previous generations of Communists have always chosen one
of the spirit of directions for reform: improvement of production,
stimulation of employees.
The government of Brezhnev decided to act differently, choosing not
one of the items, but both. The reform of industry in the USSR began
in 1965 and was due to the fact that Khrushchev and this branch
of the economy brought to a deplorable state. The economic reform
of 1965 in the sphere of industry had much more positive results than the
reform of agriculture.
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1. Encouraging enterprises. To this end, part of the profit was left
to the development of the enterprise itself. At the same time, money was
divided into 3 funds: material incentives (payment of bonuses), social and
cultural development (workers' permits, tickets, etc.) and household
development (housing construction, leisure facilities).
2. Sovnarkhozy were replaced by the Ministries again. Decisions
in the economy were to be made by line ministries. They created plans
that enterprises could adjust to their capabilities.
3. Change of the production planning system. Firstly, the number
of planned targets were significantly reduced. Secondly, the result
of the work was now measured not in the produced products, but
in the realized products. The quantity was replaced by quality.
4. Enterprises were endowed with elements of independence. Apart
from the fact that they were left with a part of their incomes, enterprises
obtained the right to make self-financing among themselves.
5. Increasing of employee’ bonuses. Enterprises financially motivated
employees to increase their results.
These were the key aspects of the reform. It was obvious that
the economic reform of 1965 was rather limited. Nevertheless, it gave
a positive result soon. Already by 1970 the level of industrial production
grew by 50%, about 1,900 new enterprises were built. But at the same
time, it became obvious that the USSR could not improve further these
indicators.
Why did the economic reforms of 1965 fail?
There is a whole complex of reasons, because of which it happened:
1. Economic fundamentals have not been changed. Brezhnev tried
to solve the global problems with superficial changes, but this was
impossible.
2. Contradictions in the party. To solve global problems there
must be unity, but it was not and everyone pulled the blanket in from
all directions.
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3. The economy for the CPSU Central Committee was less important
than ideology. Even when it became obvious that the USSR economy was
in a very deplorable situation, it was still something like this – somehow,
we will live, the main thing is not to touch the postulates of socialism and
party hegemony.
4. Contradictions. The enterprises endowed elements of independence,
but often their independent decisions went in contradiction with
the opinion of the Ministries.
The standard of living in the Soviet Union presented a problem
to the Brezhnev leadership after the growth of the late 1960s stalled
at a level well below that of most Western and some East European
countries. Although certain appliances and other goods became more
accessible during the 1960s and 1970s, improvements in housing and
food supply were slight. Shortages of consumer goods encouraged
pilferage of government property and the growth of the black market.
Dissident movement in the USSR fell on the 1960–1980 of the XXth
century. A dissident is a person with a different point of view, different
from the accepted norms of ideology that dominates in the country.
The essence of the dissident movement was the struggle for human rights.
Their representatives never said that the USSR was a bad country or
it was necessary to hold a revolution against the current government.
The point was only that the existing system of governance within
the country hinders effective development. Dissidents were a small group
of people (no more than 100,000 people throughout the country), they
saw the shortcomings of their country and suggested these
shortcomings to decide that people have real rights and the country itself
began to develop effectively in all directions.
The right-wing direction of the dissident movement was born
on December 5, 1965. On this day a small demonstration took place
on Pushkin Square in Moscow, the key slogans of which were
the protection of the human rights and interests of the population. This
demonstration was described very little, it was small and short. In fact,
a few minutes after beginning it was overclocked by the police.
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In the future activists began to publish the newspaper Chronicle
of Current Events, which described all cases of human rights violations
in the USSR. At the same time this group of dissidents worked not only
in Moscow, but also in all major cities of the country. there was a struggle
against human rights defenders under the 5th department of the KGB.
The majority of these activists who had an active position and participated
in the life of dissidents fell into camps, psychiatric hospitals or were
deported from the country.
In the 1970s Brezhnev tried to normalize relations between West
Germany and the Warsaw Pact and to weaken tension with the United
States with the help of the policy known as “détente”. The United States
was involved in the war in Vietnam. After 1968 the negotiations between
the USA and the USSR started on the subject of nuclear weapon.
The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (commonly
known as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) went into effect in 1970.
The Soviet Union and the United States began the Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks (SALT) the following year. In May 1972 at the Moscow
summit Brezhnev and President Richard Nixon signed the Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) Treaty and the Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic
Offensive Arms. These agreements limited the two countries' existing
stockpiles of strategic defensive and offensive arms. A period of détente
between the two superpowers with a further agreement concluded
to establish the number of offensive weapons on both sides in 1974.
The great achievement of the period of détente was the writing down
the Helsinki Accords in 1975. It ratified the status quo in Europe after
the Second World War and bound the countries according to basic
principles of human rights. In the years that followed, the Soviet Union
was found to be in substantial violation of the accords' human rights
provisions. Under Brezhnev the USSR achieved parity with the USA
in strategic nuclear weapons. The space program of the Soviet Union
exceeded the American one. In 1979 Brezhnev reached agreement with
U.S. President Carter on a new bilateral strategic arms limitation
treaty (SALT II). But the U.S. Senate renounced to ratify this treaty.
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During the entire period Brezhnev's foreign policy did not undergo
significant changes. On December 25, 1979 the USSR invaded
to Afghanistan. This war brought nothing to the Soviet state politically,
but the cost of living was 14,000 dead Soviet soldiers, more than 300000
were listed as lost. The USSR took part in the war in Afghanistan till
the Brezhnev's death. In response to the participation of the Soviet Union
in the Afghanistan’s war the United States imposed an embargo on grain
on the USSR and boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympic Games
in 1980. Tension between the USA and the Soviet Union continued up
to Brezhnev's death.
Foreign policy paid much attention to relations with other socialist
countries. Brezhnev developed a concept known as the Brezhnev’s
Doctrine, which introduced the right of Soviet intervention in cases where
“the essential common interests of other socialist countries are threatened
by one of their number” [5] and hegemony of the USSR in Eastern
Europe. This doctrine justified the invasion to Czechoslovakia by
the Soviet army in 1968. Brezhnev’s government also helped General
Voizech Jaruzelsky’s to suppress Poland’s Solidarity union in December
1981. But it also helped disillusion communist parties in Western Europe
to the extent that by 1977 most of the leading parties embraced
Eurocommunism, a pragmatic approach to ideology that freed them
to pursue political programs independent of Soviet dictates.
In 1976 Brezhnev became marshal of the Soviet Union, he was
the only after Stalin who hold the same highest military rank.
The system of collective governance ended with his resignation
of Podgorny as a chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council
in May 1977 and Brezhnev’s election to that post the following month.
The USSR paid a high cost for the constancy of the Brezhnev’s era.
The Brezhnev’s government tried to avoid necessary political and
economic changes, ensured the economic and political decline that
the country experienced during the 1980s. This power impairment and
prestige stood in contrast to the dynamism that had marked the Soviet
Union's revolutionary beginning. Brezhnev had been a ruler of the Soviet
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Union till the end of his life despite of his frail health and growing
feebleness. After the death he was condemned for a gradual decline
of living standards, the increasing of corruption among the Soviet
bureaucracy, and the generally stagnant and depressing character
of Soviet life at the end of 1970s and beginning of ’80s.
Task 1. Answer the questions:
1. Islamic fighters, opponents of the pro-Soviet government.
A. Mujahideen.
B. Dissident.
C. “Prague Spring”.
D. SALT.
2. Brezhnev orders 20,000 troops supported by the Warsaw Pact
forces, to invade Czechoslovakia and crush this 'counter-revolutionary'
uprising.
A. By 1970s.
B. Early 1968.
C. Summer 1968.
D. December 1979.
3. Book written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1973, he was expelled
from the country after having been released by Khrushchev in the 1950s.
A. “The Gulag Archipelago”.
B. The future of the economy?
C. What is the Lieberman Plan?
D. Reason for the Afghan War.
4. Brezhnev decides to intervene in Afghanistan:
A. Early 1968.
B. December 1979.
C. By 1970s.
D. Summer 1968.
5. Yuri Andropov:
A. Dissident.
B. Head of KGB 1964–1982.
C. Mujahideen.
D. SALT.
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Task 2. Write more information about …
1. Reason for the Afghan War:
А. Threat of the collapse of the
Marxist government in Afghan that
was the ally of the Soviet
regime; – fear of the spread
of Muslim / Islamic influence into
various Soviet Republics.
2. What is the Lieberman Plan?
В. Reject reforms and continue
with “Stalinist” political model, i.e.,
centralized and bureaucratic;
– adopt economic reforms, with
a decentralized more streamlined
political structure.
1. Prague in Czechoslovakia ________________________________.
2. Major unrest in Hungary _________________________________.
3. Brezhnev orders 20,000 troops supported by the Warsaw Pact
forces, to invade Czechoslovakia and crush this 'counter-revolutionary'
uprising.
4. Yuri Andropov ________________________________________.
5. By early 1974, global x4 of oil prices _______________________.
6. The JS boycotted the Moscow Olympic Games in protest
of invasion. Start of 'Second Cold War'.
7. Reject reforms and continue with “Stalinist” political model, i.e.,
centralized and bureaucratic;
– adopt economic reforms, with a decentralized more streamlined
political structure.
8. It further re-enforced the government's prioritization of spending
on defense and military commitments, in order for it to police and control
the “satellite states”;
– this type and scale of expenditure negatively impacted on
the domestic conditions and living standards.
9. Brezhnev decides to intervene in Afghanistan ________________.
Task 3. Match terms and definitions:
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3. What was the focus of this
Constitution:
С. It is aimed at removing some
of the bureaucratic complexities
and regulations from the Soviet
Union's heavily centralized system
of economic planning.
4. Impact of the B doctrine:
D. It further re-enforced the
government's prioritization of
spending on defense and military
commitments, in order for it
to police and control the 'satellite
states' – this type and scale
of expenditure negatively impacted
on the domestic conditions and
living standards.
5. The future of the economy?
E. “The Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics is a socialist state of
the whole people, expressing the
will and interests of the workers,
peasants, and intelligentsia, the
working people of all the nations
and nationalities of the country.”
(Opening article)
6. Dissident
F. Book written by Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn in 1973, he was
expelled from the country after
having been released by
Khrushchev in the 1950s.
7. The Russians found themselves
in a 'Guerilla War'
G. Opponents of the regime.
Dissident activity in the SU: Soviet
radicals demanded the same kind
of freedoms and liberties than the
West enjoyed.
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8. “The Gulag Archipelago”
H. The Soviet troops were against
fighters who were more familiar
with the local terrain and who could
surprise them with ambush attacks
and sniper fire.
9. SALT
I. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
from 1960s onwards, focus on
reducing the number of nuclear
missiles owned by each superpower.
10. Helsinki Accords created
J. The 'détente' (relaxation period)
11. New Constitution by Brezhnev
K. 1965
12. Yom Kippur War
L. 1977 at the 60th anniversary
of the Russian Revolution.
13. Yom Kippur War consequence:
M. By early 1974, global x4 of oil
prices.
14. Lieberman Plan in
N. 1973, between Israel and
surrounding Arab states. In protest
at perceived western support for
Israel, the oil-producing Arab
members of OPEC placed
an embargo on the supply of oil
to various nations, which restricted
its flow and raised the prices of oil
supplies.
Task 4. Check what statements are true and what are false (T/F):
1. “When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn
the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes
not only a problem for the country concerned, but a common problem and
concern of all socialist countries”;
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