Virtually since it ended the Brezhnev era has been dismissed as an era of stagnation and corruption when not a great deal happened. Bill Tompson argues that historians can't simply dismiss twenty odd years of history of one of the world's leading powers. During this period the Soviet Union did undergo major social and economic changes and this account covers them in detail. The approach is thematic rather than chronological, with sections examining politics and policy under Brezhnev, including chapters on leadership politics, domestic policy, and foreign policy. Additional sections examine economy and society, with chapters on economic performance, demographic and social change, and culture.
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The Soviet Union Under Brezhnev
provides an accessible post-Soviet perspective on the history of the USSR from the mid-1960¿s to the mid-1980¿s. It challenges both the ¿evil empire¿ image of the USSR that was widespread in the early 1980¿s and the ¿stagnation¿ label attached to the period by Soviet reformers under Gorbachev.
The book makes use of a range of memoirs, interviews, archival documents and other sources not available before 1990 to place Brezhnev and his epoch in a broader historical context. The author:
- examines high politics, foreign policy and policy making
- explores broader social, cultural and demographic trends
- presents a picture of Soviet society in the crucial decades prior to the upheavals and crises of the late 1980¿s
While stopping well short of a full-scale rehabilitation of Brezhnev, Tompson rejects the prevailing image of the Soviet leader as a colourless non-entity, drawing attention to Brezhnev¿s real political skills, as well as his faults, and to the systemic roots of many of the problems he faced.
William Tompson is Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London.
About the Author
William Tompson teaches in the Politics Department at Birkbeck College, University of London.
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