ABSTRACT
In 1966, Leonid Brezhnev left his position as first secretary to assume his new post as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Central Committee. In 1978, he added the post of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to his list of accomplishments. None of the regional party secretaries or leaders of national republics displayed any political initiative in the Brezhnev era. They never even tried to create any sort of informal organization or pressure the general secretary in any way, even though they formed the largest, most professional group in the Central Committee. In the first few years of his regime, Brezhnev apparently wanted to introduce some economic reforms that would improve the efficiency of the Soviet economy. To this end, the so-called Kosygin reform was endorsed in September 1964 in a Plenary Meeting of the CPSU Central Committee.
