In this film Dr Edwin Bacon looks back at Brezhnev’s 18 years and how is has been described as an era of stagnation, producing an appetite for change from younger leaders such as Mikail Gorbachev.

Dr Bacon reflects that this was a period of relative peace, stability and predictability which was much desired after the turmoil of Khruschev and the purges of Stalin. Brezhnev’s era may have been one of authoritarianism, involving both the Prague Spring and the invasion of Afghanistan, but it was also the high point of Soviet soft power (Soviet culture, athletes and the space race). Opinion polls showed time and again that, when asked what was the best period in the 20th century many Russians would say: The Brezhnev years.