ABSTRACT
The period of 28 months from the death of Brezhnev to Gorbachev's arrival in power does not lend itself to an extended treatment of economic developments and economic policies. The period is nonetheless an interesting interlude in Soviet economic history. Public debate, and apparently internal policy discussion as well, loosened up. Policies were all over the place. There were some moves to tighten social discipline. There were also very tentative reform moves, and certainly far more discussion of economic decentralisation. The Brezhnevian deliberate slowing of investment was questioned, and for a time reversed.
