ABSTRACT
Though often stereotyped as a period of stagnation and decay, the years of the Brezhnev administration represented perhaps the most successful period of the USSR in terms of the consolidation of military and economic power. The dual leadership of Brezhnev and Kosygin embarked on an ambitious agricultural reform that sought to provide incentives for collective farmers and to reduce significantly the various impediments to production on collective farms. The regime increased the number of livestock that could be raised on private plots, and abolished the antiquated labor-day system, replacing it with a guaranteed monthly wage. Bonuses were to be paid for exceeding work targets, and collective farmers received the same benefits as urban workers – the right to a passport, a pension, and social insurance. The government also raised investment in the agricultural sector, and almost immediately saw a sharp rise in agricultural output. Unfortunately, the improvement was somewhat cosmetic and could not offset the damage inflicted on valuable agricultural land by the kolkhoz experiments of the past. In the mid-1970s there was a further effort to improve the situation by building roads in the villages and developing non-black-earth regions of the country.
