ABSTRACT
A collective leadership took over from the wilful Khrushchev. However, the rules of the Soviet game meant that someone would try to become dominant. In order to ensure that no leader wielded as much destructive power as Khrushchev, it was agreed that the posts of Party leader and Prime Minister would always be held by different comrades. This meant that Brezhnev, the Party leader, and Kosygin, the head of government, were equal. This was not a natural state of affairs. Brezhnev attempted, and succeeded, in securing dominance. Urbanisation transformed the Soviet Union. It produced a new type of society. In the 1930s, millions had moved from the countryside to the towns. In many ways, they ruralised the cities. The Soviet Union became a semi-urban society in the 1960s when the majority of citizens in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the Baltic States lived in towns and cities. Until 1958, each republic had its own definition of a town.
