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Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khruschev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War, he became Premier of the Soviet Union after Stalin's death in 1953 and in 1956 he started a process called "de-Stalinization". He was in power until 1964. -
Leonid Brezhnev
He became the leader after removing Khrushchev from power, from 1964 until his death in 1982. His tenure as leader was marked by the beginning of an era of economic and social stagnation in the Soviet Union. -
Important events - The background to the Brezhnev Era
-Nikita was never as powerful as Stalin.
-His regime was plagued with the domestic problems.
-In 1964, Nikita was removed from power.
-In 1964, Leonid Brezhnev became the leader. -
Main problems faced by Brezhnev - Domestic problems
The Era of Stagnation was a period in which the economy stopped growing, which lead to Soviet dissidents to disagree with certain features in the embodiment of Soviet ideology.
As a result, his political career began to fall and stagnate. -
The Brezhnev Doctrine
The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy which called for the use of Warsaw Pact troops to intervene in any Eastern Bloc nation which was seen to compromise communist rule and Soviet domination. -
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in political situation.The term originates in the time of the Triple Entente and Entente cordiale in reference to an easing of tensions between England and France who, subsequent to being commingled polities under Norman rule, were warring rivals for the better part of a millennium but pursuant to a policy of détente became enduring allies.
USA and USSR agreed to limit the number of anti-ballistic missiles they would produce in the future -
Revolution and dissent
The USSR was taking an active role in Africa. There were Marxist groups in Angola (MPLA) and Mozambique (Frelimo) which seemed to confirm Soviet commitment to Marxist Revolution.
As this happened, the solidarity movement rose in Poland to create labor and political unions. -
Afghanistan
In 1978 the Afghan army seized power and executed the president and prime minister, so the Marxist PDPA was put in power under the governance of Nur Muhhammad Taraki (President of DRA). Rebel forces called Mujahideen (that were the largest group consisted of pro-religious force and was a loosely-organized coalition of popple who opposed the restrictiven, socialist nature of the regime) began to oppose the marxist PDPA. -
Entr'acte: Andropov and Chernenko
Brezhnev died in November 1982 and Andropov replaced him. Andropov tried to remove Brezhnev’s followers and replace them with a new group of nomenklatura loyal to Andropov and more likely to promote changes needed in the stagnant Soviet System. After Andropov's death in 1984, Chernenko, his greatest rival, was elected General Secretary. Chernenko represented a return to the policies of the late Brezhnev Era. -
Gorbachev
After Cherneko's death, Gorbachev was appointed General Secretary and head of the Soviet Union.
His efforts to democratize his country’s political system and decentralize it's economy led to the downfall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. -
Glasnost
Glasnost was a policy introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. -
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s until 1991 widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is “restructuring”, referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. -
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear accident. It occurred on 26 April 1986 in the No.4 light water graphite moderated reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, in what was then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). -
Demokratiztsiya
Demokratizatsiya was a slogan introduced by Gorbachev in January 1987 calling for the infusion of "democratic" elements into the Soviet Union's single-party government. -
Foreign policies
USSR engaged in a policy of non-intervention in the Warsaw Pact countries, made the decision to whitdraw from Afghanistan, improved their relationship with the USA, and agreed to reduce their stockpile of nuclear arms.
