Images from the Brezhnev Era

Ria Novosti has an interesting photo essay online entitled “Leonid Brezhnev’s Russia– Détente and Stagnation (1964-1982).” (hat tip ZheZhe). The Soviet leaders were criticized for the Afghan war not only in the West, but also at home. In December 1979-January 1980, outstanding physicist and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov made several statements against the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Subsequently, he was deprived of all awards, and exiled to Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) without a trial, where he was put under home arrest. On the photo: Andrei Sakharov, member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. 1972.