Era of Stagnation

The Era of Stagnation (Russian: Период застоя, Stagnation Period, also called the Brezhnevian Stagnation) was a period of negative economic, political, and social effects in the Soviet Union, dubbed by a generic term "stagnation", 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 introduced his policies of glasnost, perestroika, uskoreniye, and demokratizatsiya. However the efforts of Gorbachev failed and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

On the other hand, Brezhnev introduced a neologism "developed socialsim" and declared its period (Russian: период развитого социализма) to start in 1971. The term stems from Khrushchev's promise of reaching communism in 20 years.

The 1964–82 period in the Soviet Union began hopefully but devolved into disillusionment. Historians, scholars, and specialists are uncertain what caused the stagnation, with some arguing that the planned economy suffered from systemic flaws which inhibited growth. Others have argued that the lack of reform, or the high expenditures on defense, led to stagnation. The majority of scholars set the starting year for economic stagnation at 1975, although some claim that it began as early as the 1960s.