Rare photographs of the times of the USSR: How Soviet people lived in the 1970s and 80s

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The decade of the 1970s-80s in the USSR was the time of the Brezhnese stagnation and the time of radical Gorbachev's changes. Today, you can treat him in different ways. But this is a huge layer of the history of a huge country, for which this period was the beginning of the end.

1. Long journey

At the October Plenum of the Central Committee in 1964, Brezhnev was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, Kosygin, proposed measures for economic transformation, based on new planning methods and new principles of economic incentives.

2. At the hairdresser

The economic reform was developed by a group of economists led by Lieberman. The intensification and introduction of cost accounting elements at enterprises was to give impetus to the further development of production. Pressure on enterprises from above was stopped, the enterprises had a share of profits at their disposal, material incentive funds were created, loans were issued to finance industrial construction, changes in plans were not allowed without agreement with the enterprise.

3. Soviet kvass

At the first stage, significant results were achieved. The Eighth Five-Year Plan was the most successful in the post-war years. The volume of production increased 1.5 times, 1900 large enterprises were built. In 1972, the main funds from the light industry began to be directed to the development of the defense complex. Attempts were made to introduce new methods of work, imported equipment was purchased.

4. Fight with bags on a log

New approaches were required for the successful continuation of the reforms. At the same time, most of the leaders of the economy could not abandon their usual management methods, which led to the curtailment of transformations. The system rejected all initiatives to revive the economy. Many business executives did not care about multiplying the national wealth, but about how to invest maximum labor and materials in the product and sell it to the state at a higher price.

5. Soviet childhood

The existing management mechanism opposed the introduction of the achievements of science and technology into production. The term for mastering new products stretched for decades. The state budget deficit and external financial dollars have grown. Affected by the inconsistency in the reform process.

6. Dairy department

In the 1970s, the inflow of petrodollars smoothed out failures in economic development. This made it possible to leave the system of directive management intact. Subsequently, the fall in demand for natural fuel led to a drop in oil and gas prices, which hit the Soviet economy. Growth rates dropped by 3 times; by the beginning of the 80s, the country's economy was in a critical state.

7. Lecture at the university

The country's leadership made efforts to stabilize the situation in agriculture. The national income was redistributed in favor of the countryside, debts were written off, purchase prices increased, comprehensive mechanization, chemicalization and land reclamation were carried out.

8. Children

In the 70s, a stake was made on agro-industrial integration - the cooperation of collective and state farms in Agro-industrial associations with services to them by industries. For this purpose, Gosagroprom was created in 1985. Despite all efforts, agriculture remained the weakest sector of the economy. Production losses were up to 40%. The rural economic crisis was aggravated by the unfair exchange between town and country. Rigid bureaucratic control extinguished the initiative of the peasants.

9. Archery

The process of changing the standard of living of the people during this period was contradictory. On the one hand, significant progress has been made in solving the housing problem. By the beginning of the 1980s, 80% of families had separate apartments, on the other hand, investment in the social sphere had sharply decreased. Health care costs have been cut significantly. A huge amount of money was released, not confirmed by quality goods. As a result, there was a shortage of goods.