Brezhnev Era

Détente

Some historians like to characterise détente as an ending of the Cold War before the Second Cold War at the start of the 1980s. However, to do so would be losing sight of the reality of the situation. Ultimately, it suited both nations to de-escalate nuclear tensions and be more careful with their military involvement. It is clear that Brezhnev would remain uncompromising in his principles, refusing to allow the political transparency that the Helsinki Accords requested.

Fig. 1 - Richard Nixon (left) and Leonid Brezhnev (right) sign SALT I in 1972

Moreover, it may have benefitted the Soviet Union to be more open economically, but as soon as communism and national security were under threat, Brezhnev invoked his Doctrine and intervened with force in Afghanistan.

Brezhnev Era The Style of Leadership

Within the gallery of Soviet leaders, Leonid Brezhnev certainly falls into the inflexible category. After Khrushchev's policies of De-Stalinisation allowed for freedom of speech, he drew criticism for diverting from the goal of the communist party by allowing the possibility of opposition to develop.

With Khrushchev beginning to lose popularity after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Brezhnev and hardline conservative allies, Kosygin and Podgorny, seized power in 1964. Brezhnev would become the dominant leader in the next couple of years.

Key Features of the Brezhnev Era

Stagnation is a common word to describe Brezhnev's Era, but how? It was the following aspects that caused the powerful Soviet Union to STALL:

Stalinist-style repression returned with censorship of news, art and literature. Domestically, Brezhnev captured and imprisoned political prisoners. Abroad, the uncompromising Brezhnev Doctrine struck fear into the Soviet sphere of influence in Central and Eastern Europe.

Treaties and agreements with the United States served to de-escalate the Arms Race. A period of "détente" or "relaxation of tensions" during the 1970s was short-lived but yielded the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) in 1972 and a working relationship with United States President Richard Nixon. However, both sides continued to build a huge number of nuclear weapons during this period.

Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion of the Asian country in 1979 destroyed the progress made during the détente period. It stopped the United States from ratifying the SALT II Treaty into law and caused them to boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980. The war would be long, expensive and ultimately fruitless.

Lack of economic growth plagued the Soviet Union from the 1970s onwards. Brezhnev was a conservative and his lack of reforms or attempts to diversify held back Soviet growth. Much of the resources funnelled straight to military campaigns, the Arms Race and the Space Race.

The Loss of a Soviet relationship with communist China gave the United States the opportunity to establish a relationship with Chairman Mao. Soviet and Chinese soldiers clashed on the border in 1968 and in 1972, Nixon visited Beijing, demonstrating the value of diplomacy to Brezhnev, who followed suit with the United States.

Fig. 2 - Brezhnev plaque in Dneprodzerzhinsk

Brezhnev Doctrine

Four years into his premiership, the first concrete threat to Soviet-style socialism was underway in 1968. How would Brezhnev deal with it? It would set the tone for the military action and hardline stance that became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Czechoslovakia

The 1968 "Prague Spring" seemed to signal the winds of change in Czechoslovakia. The leader Alexander Dubček gave into mass protests and promised the release of political prisoners, freedom of press and expression, along with Slovak autonomy and a comprehensive list of civil rights. Dubček went his own way, despite the cries of discontent from the Soviet Union and the other members of the Warsaw Pact.

On August 20th, the Soviet army swept through Prague and removed the leader, replacing him with staunch communists. Brezhnev was careful to control the narrative, showing footage of Soviet soldiers talking to Czech civilians, the reality was that blood spilt as the tanks rolled through Prague. This was the blueprint for the Brezhnev Doctrine: wherever socialism was under threat, there should be military intervention.

Poland

The other prominent voices of dissent during Brezhnev's era were in Poland in the form of the Solidarity movement, which was established in a Gdansk shipyard in 1980 by Lech Welesa and other discontented workers. They wanted greater freedoms and working conditions. The trade union snowballed in popularity and by the following year had 10 million members, a large chunk of the Polish workforce in all sectors.

By 1981, the Soviet Union had already invaded Afghanistan and their economy was really stalling due to the system screaming out for reforms. It was thus in their interest to delegate and encourage Polish President Wojciech Jaruzelski to declare martial law, which would last two years. The leaders of Solidarity were arrested and the group was outlawed. Brezhnev had maintained control without requiring military spending.

As such, the chance that socialism was under threat had to be taken as a matter of national security. It went in line with the notion that they were maintaining the status quo, a key tenet of the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Fig. 3 - Jimmy Carter

However, it infuriated President Jimmy Carter, who described it as "

The war would be a costly mission, lasting almost ten years, 15,000 Soviet lives and creating an Afghan Civil War after their departure.

Brezhnev Era of Stagnation

Unfortunately for Brezhnev, though being a hardline conservative preserved the Soviet system, it proved to create a crumbling economy, as the jobs were filled up and the nation's natural resources were dwindling. Brezhnev's inflexibility would be his downfall in this regard and his successors Andropov and Chernenko would be no different. Only when Gorbachev rose to power in 1985 with the background of an economic crisis did some changes occur. The economic historian Robert C. Allen highlights the crux of the problem:

Ultimately, the five-year plans of Stalin in the 1930s could no longer work, but as a conservative who was unwilling to change, Breznhev limped on and left his country on the brink of an abyss.

Political Repression

Coupled with the economic stagnation, Brezhnev also reversed much of the transparency allowed by his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev. It was a reign marked by a return to censorship and he employed the same brutality of his foreign policy towards his own people.

Writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn exemplifies the censorship that took place during the Brezhnev Era. In 1962, with Khrushchev at the helm, he published "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", detailing the harsh realities of life in a Stalinist Gulag. With Brezhnev, there was a clear change of tact. Solzhenitsyn suffered persecution and was expelled from the Soviet Writer's Union in 1967.

Fig. 4 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

However, there was praise for his work abroad and he won the Nobel Prize in 1970. Continuing to write, he published his seminal work "The Gulag Archipelago" in Paris in 1973. Within two months of a return to the Soviet Union, he was arrested and deported in 1974, wearing his clothes from the Gulag in a final show of defiance. Brezhnev's silence was deafening.