THE REGIONS OF THE UPPER VOLGA IN THE CONTEXT OF ALL-UNION TRENDS: CONTRADICTION OF INTERACTION BETWEEN LOCAL ELITES AND THE CENTRE IN THE USSR (SECOND HALF OF THE 1960S TO THE 1980S)

Abstract

The article is a continuation of a study on the relationship between regions and the centre during the period of Nikita Khrushchev. Based on materials from the Upper Volga regions, the historical context of the interaction of regional and central authorities in the USSR in the era of Leonid Brezhnev (second half of the 1960s to 1980s). On the basis of archival materials, memoirs, oral history data, historiography, the regional and central authorities and the political situation in the USSR of the era of «developed socialism» are characterised. There is an increase in attention from the leadership of the USSR and regional elites to the issues of supplying the population with consumer goods. The tendency of a slow increase in living standards in the capitals and at the regional level is noted. The reasons for the long stay in power of representatives of the regional nomenclature are analysed. The article concludes that at the domestic political level, the interaction of the power elites of the Upper Volga regions and the Union-Republican centre in the 1970s-1980s refl ected the all-Union trends in regional policy of Leonid Brezhnev – trust in personnel, compromises and collegiality. It is argued that at the socioeconomic level, there was an increase in negative trends for the non-Chernozemic RSFSR – excessive bureaucratisation, dependence of the province on ill-conceived projects of the centre, impoverishment of human potential, slow implementation of the achievements of the scientifi c and technological revolution