ABSTRACT
By the mid 1960s the Soviet Union was nearing the peak of its power and influence. The economy was growing, consumer products were increasingly plentiful, and the Soviet armed forces were well on their way towards nuclear parity with the United States. A Soviet citizen, Yuri Gagarin, had been the first man to reach orbit in 1961, and the USSRwas projecting its image as a force for progress, an alternative and entirely credible route to modernity.
