Era of Stagnation

The Era of Stagnation (also called the Period of Stagnation, Stagnation Period, Stagnation Era, the Brezhnevian Stagnation, or the Brezhnev Stagnation) was a period of economic, political, and social stagnation in the Soviet Union, which began during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982) and continued under Yuri Andropov (1982-1984) and Konstantin Chernenko (1984-1985). This period ended when Mikhail Gorbachev, who succeeded Chernenko, introduced his policies of glasnost, perestroika, uskoreniye, and demokratizatsiya, leading to the fall of communism in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Historians, scholars, and specialists are uncertain what caused the stagnation, with some arguing that the planned economy was doomed to failure from the very beginning. Others have argued that the lack of reform, or the high expenditures on defence, led to stagnation. The majority of scholars set the starting year for economic stagnation either at 1973 or 1975, although some claim that it began as early as the 1960s. Social stagnation began much earlier, with Brezhnev's rise to power, his revoking of several of the relatively liberal reforms of his predecessor, Nikita Khrushchev, and partial rehabilitation of Stalinist policies. The social stagnation can therefore be traced to the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965. Politically, the stagnation began with the establishment of a gerontocracy, which came into being as part of the policy of stability.

Brezhnev has been criticised posthumously for doing too little to improve the economic situation. Throughout his rule, no major reforms were initiated and the few proposed reforms were either very modest or opposed by the majority of the Soviet leadership. The reform-minded Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Government), Alexei Kosygin, introduced two modest reforms in the 1970s after the failure of his more radical 1965 reform, and attempted to reverse the trend of declining growth. By the 1970s, Brezhnev had consolidated enough power to stop any "radical" reform-minded attempts by Kosygin.

When Brezhnev died in November 1982, the Soviet Union he handed over to his successor, Andropov, was much less dynamic than when he assumed power. During his short rule, Andropov introduced modest reforms; he died little more than a year later in February 1984. Chernenko, his successor, continued much of Andropov's policies; whether those policies improved the economic situation in the country is still debated amongst scholars.