Increased Military Spending During the Cold War Brought...

The increase in military spending is another argument that caused stagnation in the Soviet Union during the period. Brezhnev spent huge amount of money in the defense sector and according to Blanchard Froot et al. (1994) the share of defense spending in GNP was 12% in 1960-70, and increased by 4% in 1975-80 to 16%, even though the country was is deep economic crisis. Brezhnev increased military spending each year; even as the country needed the spending in other â€Å"important† sectors, to boots the growth of the country, and caused low-level of economic development. Brezhnev increased the spending specifically on nuclear materials production plants, compared to weapons. During this time in history both the superpower, USA and Soviet Union†¦show more content†¦The doctrine made it possible for the country to intervene in another socialist state (any Eastern Bloc nation), internal affairs when the state social system and the states common interests were threatened. I n early 1968 began the Czechoslovak Communist Party under the leadership of Alexander DubÄ ek to introduce a series of reforms, including the abolition of censorship (Fordham.edu, 2014). In response to these efforts, the Soviet Union launched a policy to combat anti-socialist forces (Wilde, 2014). The doctrine was first used in 1968 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to end the â€Å"Prague Spring â€Å"(Fordham, 2014). The outcome of the invasion by the Soviet Union made Czechoslovakia go back to communist control, â€Å"even if it meant a third world war† (BBC, 2014). Mikhail Gorbachevs government denounced the Brezhnev doctrine in the late of Soviet Union’s life. Policy change does not necessarily come with leadership change. Russia is a fundamentally different society than the Soviet Union. Communism is replaced by capitalism, Russians can travel abroad and Internet revolution has long since reached the country. Russia connoisseurs are comparing just the Putin-controlled period, which the country is in now, with 18 years under Leonid Brezhnev from 1964 to 1982. Prime Minister Medvedev has talked a lot about modernization, but stagnation is the word that recurs when talkingShow MoreRelatedCauses Of The Cold War1716 Words   |  7 PagesThe Cold War, a conflict between the United States and Soviet Union, the two global superpowers at the time. Given the name â€Å"Cold War† only for the fact that neither the Soviet Union nor the United States fought directly with one another, instead the war was waged through allies in the form of proxy wars and through increased use of intensive espionage, a never-ending arms race, immense technologic al competition and on a political forefront as both sides tried to gain the upper hand. 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