The collapse of the Soviet Union was an important geopolitical event of the twentieth century, and many people regarded Gorbachev and Yeltsin as important figures in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the "big ship" of the Soviet Union was Caused by Gorbachev to capsize. But the collapse of the Soviet Union was a process from quantitative to qualitative change, a cumulative effect. Even if Gorbachev did not allow the Soviet Union to disintegrate, there would be people who would come after him, but for a short time.
Historical background
In 1953, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin, died of a sudden illness, and there are many comments about this death. The cause of Stalin's death will not be discussed here, but after his death, it caused chaos in the Soviet Union. Because he did not establish a formal successor during his lifetime, the Soviet Union ushered in a brief era of "collective leadership" after the death of the Fuehrer, when the most powerful people were Beria and Malenkov. Although Khrushchev was in the leadership, he had no real power.
Khrushchev was a very intelligent man, and he was not willing to be without power. Therefore, under Khrushchev's meticulous layout, he united with Malenkov, overthrew Beria, and suppressed Malenkov, and Khrushchev took control of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev did not have much culture and could not see the situation clearly, so in order to consolidate his power, Khrushchev threw out a "secret report" at the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Union, which denied his predecessor, immediately caused confusion among the people, and caused irreversible results. It should be said that Khrushchev's "secret report" opened the way to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Some people say that Khrushchev's starting point is good, and who can live a life without fault. However, excessive denial of the mistakes of the predecessors has deprived the country of its inheritance and continuity. Although it conformed to some public opinions, it also allowed Western countries to grasp the "key points" of subverting the Soviet Union. Since then, the Soviet Union has constantly made remarks slandering the soviet leadership, scattering and destroying people's hearts.
Nor did Khrushchev receive a good death. In 1964, under Brezhnev's planning, Khrushchev was ordered to "take early retirement", in effect, a coup d'état was removed from power. Thus the Soviet Union ushered in the Brezhnev era. Before Brezhnev took office, the Soviet people did not think highly of him, believing that this person did not have much ability, and that his coming to power was a short transition, but he did not expect this transition to be nearly twenty years. It cannot be denied that there was a great development in the Soviet Union during brezhnev's administration, but at that time it was an accumulation of the early development of the Soviet Union. Brezhnev also continued to deny his predecessors, and during his reign, Soviet cadres were aging, corrupt and, most importantly, internal struggles. In 1969, Brezhnev underwent an assassination and was nearly killed.
After the assassination, Brezhnev believed that there was opposition within the Soviet Union against him, so Brezhnev began to purge the Soviet Union. This movement led to the stagnation of Soviet development.
Assassinations
January 22, 1969, was a very ordinary day in the world, but it was an important and celebratory day for the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union successfully conducted a manned space launch in January, after the astronauts returned to the ground, as a capital to show off to the world, the Soviet leaders personally awarded the astronauts.
On January 22, according to the predetermined plan, Brezhnev led the Soviet leadership such as Kosygin and Podgorny to the airport by car to meet the astronauts. Brezhnev held a grand celebration at the airport, and when the event was over, the Soviet leader drove to the Kremlin, and when Brezhnev's convoy entered the Kremlin from the kremlin side door, the astronaut's car was suddenly shot by a police officer on duty at the gate.
The assassination took the car in which the astronauts and astronauts were seated as Brezhnev's. After the incident, Tselezhnev, who was riding in the third car of the convoy, was injured in the corner of his eye and immediately changed to the fifth car and quickly left. After this incident, soviet television broadcasts were interrupted for a time, and later even the news of Brezhnev's death was reported.
The assassination came so suddenly that, although the KGB had mastered it in advance, it still failed to prevent the assassination. Brezhnev was furious at the assassination and ordered the KGB to investigate the incident.
In Brezhnev's view, this incident was the soviet opposition to him to kill him, and he strictly ordered the KGB to investigate the matter. After an investigation by the KGB, the result was made by a young man who was dissatisfied with the treatment. He stole a gun and stole his uncle's police uniform to carry out the assassination plan.
Brezhnev was clearly dissatisfied with the KGB report. Brezhnev thought that the KGB did not investigate clearly, and later investigated further, and it turned out that his brother-in-law Tsvegon suppressed the news and informed Andropov, then head of the KGB, in an emergency. Andropov's immediate disposition enabled Brezhnev to escape the attack. In the end Brezhnev ruled out the KGB's actions. But Brezhnev still suspected that there was a "black hand" behind the incident, so he aimed the finger at the Soviet Union.
Rectify the blood exchange
Although Brezhnev was afraid of brezhnev's assassination, he did not have enough prestige and ability to kill him. Because after the death of Szczes, neither Khrushchev nor Brezhnev's prestige was achieved. Since he could not be killed, Brezhnev could "exchange blood". Therefore, Brezhnev began to readjust the cadres in large quantities.
Start with the Soviet leadership. Brezhnev believes that Kosygin, Shelepin, Chereste, and Podgorny are the most suspicious and pose a certain threat to him. However, since Kosygin was an expert in economics and was not very ambitious, Brezhnev still did not trust him, so he sent five cronies to work next to Kosygin.
But there was no such good treatment for Serepin, and Brezhnev transferred Serepin to the deputy post in charge of education, and the young and promising Serepin lost power.
Podgorny and Chereste, on the other hand, exercised power mainly in Ukraine, and although they had no army under them, they had administrative power over Ukraine. Ukraine is brezhnev's homeland, brezhnev is very experienced, he gave Cherest a promotion, actually removed his leadership, and then completely reorganized the leadership, so that his cronies took power in Ukraine. Henceforth, Cherest no longer had the right to confront Brezhnev. Podgorny was chairman of the Soviets, and the chairman of the Soviets at this time had no real power, but Brezhnev was still not at ease, and a meeting was held, and he took up this position.
After the internal power rectification, all important posts were basically Brezhnev's cronies, and he could sit back and relax.
Bring bad consequences
Brezhnev used the obedient cadres by reorganizing the cadres, and as long as he was loyal to him, he used them. This forms a circle of relatives and friends. At that time, Brezhnev's classmates, comrades-in-arms, relatives, friends, etc., all the cadres who knew Brezhnev and could touch it were used.
Brezhnev's men were of average ability. Some people are even only at the primary school level, and some cadres are even social scum. In particular, the "donkey horse" chosen by Brezhnev for his daughter was actually a policeman with only primary school education, but because he was handsome, he was favored by his daughter and quickly became the deputy minister of internal affairs with the help of Brezhnev's connections.
According to the data, Brezhnev's son-in-law was incompetent but greedy, taking advantage of his position to be corrupt. At that time, leaders at all levels would be commended as long as they sent money to Brezhnev or fooled Brezhnev. And where does the money come from? Of course, it comes with corruption in the use of power. The Soviet Ministry of Control wanted to investigate, and Brezhnev reprimanded him as "nosy." Brezhnev's nepotism caused great damage to the Soviet Union. During Brezhnev's administration, the cadres were rigid and basically non-mobile, and even if some cadres reached the retirement age, they still did not retire, which made the Soviet cadres lose their vitality. It makes many cadres resentful, which in turn turns into hatred.
Although Khrushchev was of average ability, he once said: "We must not take advantage of the trust of the people endlessly." Brezhnev did not know the meaning of this sentence. Because his ability was even worse than Khrushchev's.
Brezhnev's cadre policy made the Soviet Union miss the opportunity to train excellent cadres, brought social instability, and many opportunists were used, including Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who dug a "grave" for the Soviet Union.