Goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation?

Perspektiven auf die sowjetische Ordnung der Breznev-Ara

edited by Boris Belge and Martin Deuerlein

Book cover: Goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation?

Extent: 339 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Twentieth- & Twenty-First- Century History

Series: Bedrohte Ordnungen

Series volume number: 2

Language: German

Hardback (Published)

(September 2014)

ISBN: 9783161529962

9.25 x 6.38 inches

Price: $37.00

Out of stock

~ENG~The rule of Leonid I. Brezhnev is characterized by a central paradox: In an intentional departure from Nikita Khrushchev, the political leadership was striving to establish a new era of stability and predictability. This volume approaches the “”hyperstability”” characteristic of the Brezhnev era by several case studies on large-scale projects, urban planning, dissidents, artists, and foreign policy experts.


English summary: Leonid I. Brezhnev’s period of office was characterized by a contradiction: on the one hand, the political leadership wanted to establish a new phase of stability in order to distinguish itself from the Khrushchev era. Many contemporaries therefore remember the Brezhnev era as a “golden age” of rising living standards. On the other hand, Soviet society was also experiencing an acceleration of social change where patterns of legitimization and economic and political control constantly failed. During the late 1970s people therefore began to converse about the shortcomings of the Soviet system. This anthology explores the ‘hyperstability’ that characterized this period by means of case studies of large-scale projects, urban planning concepts, dissidents, artists and foreign policy experts. German description: Die Amtsjahre Leonid I. Breznevs pragte ein Widerspruch: Auf der einen Seite wollte die politische Fuhrung in Abgrenzung von Nikita Chruscev eine neue Phase der Stabilitat einlauten. In der Erinnerung vieler Zeitgenossen gilt die Breznev-Ara darum als “Goldenes Zeitalter” steigender Lebensstandards. Auf der anderen Seite fand sich die sowjetische Gesellschaft in einer Phase beschleunigten sozialen Wandels wieder, in der Legitimationsmuster, okonomische und politische Steuerung versagten. Ende der 1970er Jahre etablierte sich daher eine Kommunikation uber die Defizite der sowjetischen Ordnung. Der Sammelband thematisiert die fur diese Zeit pragende “Hyperstabilitat”in Fallbeispielen zu Grossprojekten, stadtplanerischen Konzepten, Dissidenten, Kunstlern und aussenpolitischen Experten.

  • Edited by Boris Belge
  • Edited by Martin Deuerlein