Era of Stagnation - Art and Science

Art and Science

During the introduction of glasnost, many writers claimed that they did not know about the repression of citizens who did not support the Brezhnev stagnation. From the other side, artists propagating "Soviet values" formed a well paid, elite group that enjoyed an easy life and high social status. The requirements for art (generalized under the name of Socialist realism) were not as rude and straightforward as during Stalinism.

Scientific fields such as genetics and computer science that were officially forbidden during Stalinism were no longer repressed. Most of the remaining pressure concentrated on the historical and social sciences. However, history and social science material was usually written in a theme that was in tune with Soviet ideology. In particular, the departments of Scientific Communism and Scientific Atheism were mandatory in many universities.

The overall level of science varied but in some cases was at the same level with the rest of the world. For instance, Dubnium was discovered by Soviet scientists at the Dubna research center. However, the science level was not balanced between disciplines, with some topics, such as advanced electronics, being researched much less than others, such as nuclear physics.

Despite certain stagnation in economy and social life the Soviet Arts and the Soviet sports were both flourishing during the Brezhnev's era. The Soviet school of ballet was considered as one of the best in the world. The Soviet Olympic teams frequently won 1st ranks at the Olympics and lots of the films now regarded as the "Soviet classics" were made in the "stagnation" period.

The stagnation effectively continued under Brezhnev's successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, until perestroika was initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, where the state of the Soviet economy went from stagnation to deterioration, which ultimately culminated in the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.