A period of political and economic stagnation. How valid is this assessment of the Brezhnev years?

The Era of Stagnation was a period of economic, political and social stagnation in the Soviet Union, which began during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev. It is quite clear that the lack of reform, and the high expenditure on defence, led to economic stagnation. A common lack of motivation in a very corrupted society only worsened the situation the Soviet Union was in during Brezhnev.   Brezhnev’s main aim was to bring about stability in Soviet politics. He believed that the cadres in state organisations should be permanent appointments. To achieve this, he appointed his own supporters to leading position in the government. Some examples include Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB, Marshal Andrei Grechko, the Defence minister and the foreign minister, Andrei Grechko. Even though it was a policy that, on paper, could possibly work, His policy of permanent cadres also meant that corruption was very common. By 1971 the politburo was controlled by his supporters. There was some rehabilitation of Stalin, and he encouraged a cult of personality centered on his own person. These backward reforms clearly show that the Brezhnev era was one of political stagnation.   Brezhnev adopted a very backward approach in responding to problems with writers and artists.  The threat to cultural freedom led to dissent as writers and scholars defied the limitation imposed upon them and continued to express their views freely. Many were expelled from the Union of Writers and with it impossible for them to get their works published, they resorted to either having their works copied and circulated secretly, samizdat, or sending their works abroad for publication, tamizda. The regime’s reaction and way to deal with those that persisted, the so-called dissidents, by arresting and imprisoning them. Some were placed in mental institutions. Psychiatric wards contained men and women said to be emotionally unstable, politically immature or distanced from reality. Such repression on the freedom of speech the Soviet citizens were entitled to clearly shows a Stalin-like reaction and the stagnation the Soviet Union was in during the Brezhnev era.   Brezhnev’s only main policy was his constitution of 1977, which replaced Stalin’s constitution of 1936. Expanding in over a hundred articles and sub-sections, it roughly followed the same lines of Stalin’s constitution but there were significant differences in content. It formally acknowledged the right of the people to cultivate their own private plots and hints at guaranteed freedoms of speech, assembly, the press and consci...