In this film Dr Edwin Bacon blanks about the modernisation of the soviet union in the 1960s and 70s under Brezhnev, with some scholars predicting that as the East and West evolved, they would eventually converge as modern developed industrialised societies. The problem with convergence theory is that it didn’t seem to reflect reality. Dr Bacon examines how and why the Soviet ‘planned economy’ slowed down and stagnated as the economies of the West seemed to keep growing.

Dr Bacon also looks at Brezhnev’s foreign policy, his desire (after Khruschev) for international stability and his relatively successful policy of détente with the West.