Brezhnev's Government & Party

Question 1

Aims

Answer 1

Stability & Restoration.
Resulted in stagnation + corruption.

Question 2

Restoration

Answer 2

1964-65, new leadership based on informal pact between Brezhnev & Kosygin who had majority support in Politburo & Central Committee.
Pact designed to ensure government stability.
Ensured two top jobs in government weren’t equipped by same person to stop emergence of personal rule.
Done to stop emergence of an all-powerful leader.
Brezhnev led the Party as General-Secretary; Kosygin was Premier.
Key posts in government equally split between supporters of Brezhnev and Kosygin.
Ensured Party and state officials kept jobs for long periods to limit patronage.
Pact held 1964-1970 before Kosygin lost his job as Premier and Brezhnev emerged as the all-powerful leader.

Question 3

Stability

Answer 3

Reverse Khrushchev’s most unpopular Party reforms.
Reversed aspects of De-Stalinization.
Under Brezhnev, the revolutionary aspects of Soviet society became less obvious.
Believed revolutionary transformation achieved from 1917-30. Party became the defenders of the status quo rather than a revolutionary force for change.

Question 4

Stability of Cadres

Answer 4

Part of Brezhnev-Kosygin pact
Policy discouraged promotions/demotions in government.
Ensured there would be few battles over patronage.
Replaced Khrushchev’s policy of fixed terms.
Very unpopular with Party.
Support from government officials = job security.

Question 5

Restoration of Party

Answer 5

Khrushchev tried break up central ministries & decentralize government by giving power to republics.
Brezhnev reversed and re-established all-union ministries that had been abolished.
Ended split between industrial and agricultural wings of Party.
Article 6 of the new 1977 Soviet Constitution showed the superiority of the Party over the state.

Question 6

Political Stagnation

Answer 6

1970-85.
Brezhnev’s government reforms led to stagnation at the top of government.
Policies = slow/non-existent change in government.

Question 7

Gerontocracy

Answer 7

Stability of Cadres = static government, little change.
No opportunities for promotion, dead-end jobs = no incentive to work hard.
1964-71, 2 people promoted in Politburo.
1966-71, 90% of Central Committee members retained their jobs.
Between 1964 and 1971, only two people were promoted to the Politburo.
Aging government.
Politburo, average age rose from 50 (1966) to 75 (1982).
Created generation gap between government and society, becoming less effective.
Senior officials became more ill and unable to do their jobs.

Question 8

Style of Leadership

Answer 8

Consulted Politburo frequently.
Preferred to leave day-to-day running of government to others, a man with moderate ability.
Willing to trust his comrades to get on with their jobs. Settled disputes between party leaders by using charm and personality.
Party leadership became self-serving oligarchy, governed in their own interests.
Promoted many of his old colleagues from his time as Party boss in Ukraine. Referred to this as the development of the ‘Dnepropetrovsk mafia’ a group of Brezhnev’s old cronies.

Question 9

Corruption

Answer 9

Sackings/promotions were rare = corruption.
Senior officers grew rich through their position, not hard work and promotion.
Unlikely to be disciplined.
Sold goods on the black market.
Yury Sokolov, director of a major Moscow food store, took bribes from rich customers for passing on luxury food.
Brezhnev implicated in corruption.
His daughter, Galina Brezhnev was able to get access to diamonds. One of her lovers smuggled lots of diamonds out of the USSR - prosecuted after Brezhnev’s death.