"If there is something good at the top, it will be prosperous at the bottom." During this period, many secretaries of the SG, secretaries of the state party committees, secretaries of the regional party committees, and members of the headquarters were involved in dirty business. On the eve of the holiday, the confidential communications department was busy, distributing "boxes" sent from various regions to the General ~Book~ and members of the Politburo. Many localities and departments have long since not selected and appointed cadres on the basis of their ability and contributions, but have instead appointed people on the basis of cronyism and formed gangs.

Therefore, if you want to be an official or promoted, you must curry favor with or bribe the relevant leaders, and the position has a price. In 1969, the first secretary of a district party committee in Azerbaijan was "worth" 200,000 rubles, and the second secretary was 100,000 rubles. These officials, who have come to the post by sloppy and bribery, have no political ideals, and they are appointed officials entirely for their own personal interests and to safeguard their vested interests, and they oppose any reform that involves their own privileges, still less can they take the initiative to curb corruption that spreads throughout the party and the whole society.

On Brezhnev's 70th birthday in 1976, there was a high ~ tide of gifts for him. Among them, the Yakuts presented a cup of Qiaolun for drinking mare's milk. This is not an ordinary cup, but a valuable work of art rich in national characteristics. They grind a cup from rare extra-large ivory, set with various diamonds and treasures with silver holders. Due to the complexity of the workmanship, the inlay and decoration work was carried out by the Moscow Jewellery Factory. The gift, which took a lot of manpower and material resources and a huge cost, took several months to complete, and was personally delivered to Brezhnev by the local leader.

At that time, the military-industrial complex sent pistols with his name inscribed on them, and the Caucasus sent swords with embossing. The Polar Bear Aerospace Research Center gave Brezhnev a delicate cigarette case with several nuclear warheads engraved on the lid as a birthday gift in 1973. Brezhnev's wife, Victoria, built a house in Moscow for the gifts her husband received on various occasions. In her spare time, her biggest hobby is to go there to admire the wide collection and bring new gifts with her.

This trend even spread abroad, and when foreigners learned that Brezhnev loved luxury cars, they sent them to their door one after another: Mercedes in Germany, Rolls-Royce in England, Citroen in France, Lincoln in the United States, and so on.

Before Saddam Hussein, the former leader of Iraq, became president, he gave Brezhnev a saber plated with a layer of gold on its scabbard and gemstones.

Even Vinovsky, who was known for his reforms, was promoted through the leadership of the bastard. At the beginning, Venovsky was the secretary of the Stavropol Territory Party Committee, where there were many state-level sanatoriums, and senior leaders such as Suslov and Andropov often went there for vacations.

The upward and downward effects reached an uncontrollable level of hospitality and gift-giving, and this trend was still very serious during the reign of Vinovsky. Many foreigners sent Venovsky souvenirs, family heirlooms, money or valuables. In order to pay tribute to his reforms, countries produced gold, silver and platinum medals and commemorative coins. On one occasion, when Vinovsky returned from South Korea, he took out an envelope containing $100,000 from his purse, which had been given to him by South Korean President Roh Tae-woo.

Rest on your laurels: the ability to self-correct is completely lost!

The lifelong system of leading cadres coupled with nepotism had already produced a series of serious consequences in the later period of Brezhnev's reign. The bloated institutions, the bureaucratic style, and the rigidity of thinking have all reached the point of no return.

At the end of the 70s, the Polar Bear Ministry ~ Chairman of the Council of Ministers ~ Sikosygin and his assistants drafted a report on economic reforms, which caused discontent and resistance from some of the privileged layers of the bureaucracy. Brezhnev spoke coldly about reforms: "What to change, just do the work well." As a result, Kosygin's assistant was removed. The SG's ability to self-renew and self-correct within itself has been almost completely lost.

By the beginning of the 80s, there were 6~4 ministries, more than 20 national committees and some other directly subordinate organs under the Polar Bear Ministry~Ministerial Council. There are more than 800 cadres at the chief and deputy ~ director level of these ministries and commissions. The Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy Industry has one ~ director, three first deputy ~ chiefs, 15 deputy ~ chiefs, and 19 deputy ~ chiefs. Bureaucracy, clericalism, and formalism in leading organs at all levels have developed greatly, and the number of party and government organs and personnel has been greatly increased. According to the Russian Institute of Sociology, at that time, less than a tenth of the decisions made by the Polar Bear's party leadership were implemented.

Before doing anything, the privileged class does not think about the development plan of the country, but the interests of their own class and themselves, they only care about what is beneficial to themselves, and other things are either perfunctory, or hanging high, or prevaricating, "indifferent to anything, what they pursue, in their jargon, is to push the problem away as soon as possible, to make the big thing small, to make the small thing, to kick the complainant away like a ball." ”

From corruption to suicide, the cause of the polar bear's demise!

If corruption exists everywhere in the world, what exactly is the connection between the fall of SG and corruption? Afanasiyah, editor-in-chief of the SG Pravda, wrote in the book "The Ups and Downs of the Editor-in-Chief of Pravda": The manner, method and order in which the report of the SG headquarters to the congress was drafted have long been finalized, and the beginning is always "the general crisis of capitalism"; The second part, the domestic situation, is always "great achievements" and "individual shortcomings".

He also recalled: the drafting of a document for Brezhnev did not require any "new ideas", let alone any "original ideas". As long as you are good at changing those ideas that have long been old and no one is interested in them into new forms, and finding new ways of expression, it should be said that you have already embodied a very excellent "creativity". "We just write, concoct, and develop MLISM day by day, week by week, month by month."

It is precisely because the polar bear's initial legitimacy came from MLISM that SG is more likely to lose hearts and minds than any other regime when it deviates from these principles that underpin its existence. On the one hand, when the people see corruption and bribery in the officialdom and the corruption of officials' lives, while the news is talking about some unrealistic clichés every day, a sense of disappointment arises. On the other hand, the self-isolation of the privileged class has made it impossible for the talents at the bottom to rise, and a large number of elites have been ruthlessly blocked from the political class, making it difficult for them to stand out.

At the same time, the closure of the ruling class will inevitably lead to inbreeding, and more and more children of cadres will enter the core of power, and they will not be able to hold those important posts in terms of ability, so that the upper stratum of the SG has become a stratum that has gradually declined physically and intellectually, which has directly led to the continuous decline of the SG's ability to govern and the ruling base. Worse still, those who have achieved high positions through nepotism have completely lost their faith, are detached from the masses, self-isolated, ideologically rigid, bureaucratic......

By the time of Winowsky, when these people found that there was a better way to maximize their personal interests, they abandoned their own political power, changed course, completely abandoned socialism that had been hung on words, openly appropriated the wealth of the country for themselves, and embarked on the road of capitalism. As the head of a group in the United States dedicated to Russia, Frank? As Chiford put it, "The Polar Bear GC Party is the only party that has gotten rich at its own funeral. ”