Remember the unforgettable? “The more I get to know people, the more I like dogs.” (Dear) That’s roughly how it was with the era of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev: The further we get away from it in time, the less nightmare it seems. In comparison, everything is known. And I thought again. What used to be called “stagnation” now appears to be peaceful stability. For those who remember. Brezhnev has a birthday today – it was celebrated exactly on December 19 (now they do not even remember this on the calendars). That day, when he was already old and obsolete, they definitely gave him the next “breast”. In his old age, he was very fond of all kinds of rewards.
Had he retired somewhere in the late ’70s (they say he wanted it), he would have gone down in history not as the author and perpetrator of the “stagnation”, but as perhaps the most successful Soviet leader of the twentieth century. century. If we talk about peacetime, of course. It is necessary to go on time, this is one of the important characteristics of a politician. But the Soviet general secretaries did not know how.
The most successful was the first “Brezhnev five-year plan” of 1966-1970 (in total – the eighth in a row). Then the annual GDP growth rate reached 8%. Production volume increased by 50%, around 2,000 new businesses were established, hapless agriculture appeared to have emerged from a long-term crisis and recession after collectivisation, and increased by more than 20% in five years. And only the purchase prices of agricultural products were increased.
At the end of the 60s, after the chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Alexei Kosygin, a rather bold attempt at reform by Soviet standards was made, called the “Kosygin reforms”. Although he had no author, he listened only to the opinions of what would now be called “sislib”. The main idea was to increase the material interest of workers in the results of labor: for this, they were allowed to create financial incentive funds at enterprises and dispose of them relatively freely. The so-called cost accounting (self-financing) was introduced, reporting was simplified. But the Soviet leaders themselves were afraid of such successes. There was a fear that increased productivity in production would lead to unemployment. And what to do with the “unnecessary people” whose presence in the indoctrinated Soviet minds has always been associated with capitalism? Ideological objections/concerns outweighed sound economic calculations. The reforms were cancelled. This was facilitated by the discovery of new oil deposits in Siberia and the Arab “oil embargo” against the West, which extolled oil prices.
The USSR firmly sat on the oil needle. Why did he need reforms now? At that time, it seems, the point of no return for the Soviet economy was passed, which would have ended in the 80s with empty store shelves and total famines.
Obsolete, the Soviet leadership was more and more like old people who, by the will of fate, had to live with the young: they wanted “repair”, renewal. Roughly speaking, re-paste the wallpaper, scrape the shabby places, whitewash the ceiling, buy new furniture.
And the elders spoke to them: make your repairs when we die, but nothing need be touched in our presence. The conditional youth passed to wait for the natural death of the “elderly”. And the systems they created. But then I had to do a complete remodel, including tearing down the walls, everything was so rotten.
The inertia of the comprehensive Soviet economy was enough for almost the entire 70s. Never before or since had so much been built in the country. Infrastructure created in the 1970s and 1980s is still largely used today. The Druzhba pipeline still pumps oil into Europe. And the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline.
Under Brezhnev, Khrushchev’s public housing program not only continued, but expanded: under him, more than 160 million people bought new apartments. The vast majority – free (minus the so-called cooperative housing, whose prices are also ridiculous in modern times). In terms of welfare, the USSR finally began to catch up with even America, but never caught up, stopping at 60-65%. The mass distribution (free!) of garden plots (the famous six acres) was also continued and expanded. There were stupid restrictions on the construction of “summer houses” and much more. But this was, by Soviet standards, a huge “personal space” of the laity, in fact his “private property.” And it’s like Brezhnev Bukharin’s “Be rich!” Kind of a right-wing deviant.
Ideology, of course, was littered with ash and carrion. He can’t, he can’t. And at the same time – jokes in the kitchens, where they left cultivation. And at the same time – the real flowering of Soviet cinema, which until now has created unique masterpieces for all times (our time, of course: many facts were completely incomprehensible to anyone outside the USSR).
Opponents were severely persecuted to the point of being sent to psychiatric hospitals. But such “dissidents” were much less than there are now “foreign agents”. They exiled Sakharov, expelled Solzhenitsyn and a dozen or two brilliant “dissidents” from the country. But the overwhelming majority of Soviet residents did not care about them and their opinion. The townspeople were delighted that it was finally possible to buy (or buy) a TV, refrigerator, furniture, and even, luckily, individual imported clothing items almost freely. In general, a lot of time and effort went into “getting” and building the “blat”. For someone – tickets to a fashionable performance – to look at the “fig in your pocket”, for someone – for an ABBA disc or a fortune-telling balyk. And waiting in line for anything that hit was also taking up most of the free time.
Eight people came to Red Square to protest the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia. Some protested in the kitchens. The rest (if not all) didn’t care about “our and your freedom”.
The musty and even archaic nature of the ideological atmosphere certainly offended many. And compared to the old days (the war ended only a quarter of a century ago, and millions of people who were oppressed before were still alive), they entered a horribly miserable petty-bourgeois lifestyle. Paradise. Almost, if you don’t know anything about the “harmful West” and don’t interfere and listen to the “voices of the enemy”. Culinary jokes, guitar songs, garden plots – a beautiful, almost “petty-bourgeois” lifestyle. Yes, what a life there! In the numerous scientific research institutes, it was possible for the public to satisfy their own scientific curiosity on almost any subject for public money. Almost everyone was given money for everything and almost as much as you wanted. Efficiency, however, was it. But what tea parties by the whole department! How exciting was the distribution of orders for buckwheat and Finnish boots! And rent! Never had a payment issue as he didn’t pay more than 3-5% of the salary. Guaranteed, watch out. And free health! Vaccines, health screening. Every school has a nurse. Practically free children’s circles, episodes and other amateur performances.
Intellectuals lamented that they were not allowed to go abroad. Even though they had just begun to let them in, a huge amount was associated with bureaucratic and ideological hemorrhoids. So you did not pass the “regional committee commission” to go to East Germany. And your obedient servant – unfortunately. The whole “registration” process took weeks. And he printed his testimony in ten copies for himself. But at that time there were no printers and copiers were under the strict control of the KGB.
The unprecedented political cynicism of the Soviet people was also a form of defense. Double thinking has become the norm. They clearly knew the difference between “how to respond” and “how to actually”. These skills, instilled at the genetic level, have not disappeared. This is a note for those who literally believe the current opinion polls.
But life was completely predictable. Every Soviet citizen was confident that if he played by all known rules, he would get this and that after all these years. And even if he wasn’t dreaming, he knew what he would never have. If you push yourself, you can go “lines of the party or union”. And there in general – almost Olympus: you can solemnly sit on the High Council twice a year. In the USSR there were career ladders. People climbed on them, including from the very bottom.
In the end, of course, it was all rotten. Leonid Ilyich seemed to be constantly close to death in recent years. And those who were impatient to look beyond the horizon of history dreamed to themselves guiltily – “well, when will it finally happen.” The future was linked only to the physical death of the “present”. Such is the fate of almost all changes in Russia from time immemorial.
And Brezhnev came to power (by the way, many saw him as a passing figure) almost a joker and generally a good-natured person. He is not belligerent, not vengeful, not vengeful. There was a barely perceptible “Little Russian” in this one. It’s like a friction “g”. It is surprising, meanwhile, that the three most prominent Soviet General Secretaries (each in his own way) assimilated precisely this “Little Russian” relative “relaxation”. Khrushchev and Brezhnev, who worked in Ukraine for a long time. Gorbachev, a native of Stavropol. In terms of lifestyle, this is not at all the “great Georgian” as Lenin called the young Stalin.
Brezhnev quite willingly entered into a deal with West – almost as easily as he drove at overdrive and rolled Nixon in one of the cars offered to him. True, by signing the Helsinki Law, he underestimated that the “fifth basket” (human affairs) would be the most insidious for the USSR. For the Soviet partocrats, all these exchanges of ideas and people meant real heresy. Clearly they closed the country excessively without feeling the passage of time.
On the other hand, when you look around now, you may sometimes think: maybe if Kremlin elders like Gorbachev opened the borders, then maybe our European neighbors would immediately start building barrier walls in haste, that’s what they’re doing now? At that time, Brezhnev did not know that the highest and strongest walls were not built on the ground, but in people’s heads. He’s just behind his time. But in the end, like all politicians, he wanted the best.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.