This collection brings together an interdisciplinary array of scholars of late socialism in the USSR and challenges the dominant narrative of stagnation during the Brezhnev era. It demonstrates that the political and intellectual class remained ideologically committed, recognized systemic challenges, and embarked on a creative search for solutions.

Introduction: Stagnation and its Discontents, Artemy M. Kalinovsky and Dina Fainberg Part I: Ideology between Public and Private Spheres Chapter 1: Consumers as Citizens: Revisiting the Question of Public Disengagement in the Brezhnev era, Natalya Chernyshova Chapter 2: The Life and Death of Brezhnev’s Thaw: Changing Values in Soviet Journalism after Khrushchev, 1964–1968, Simon Huxtable Chapter 3: People on the Move during the “Era of Stagnation”: The Rural Exodus in the RSFSR during the 1960s–80s, Lewis H. Siegelbaum Chapter 4: Brezhnev’s “Little Freedoms”: Tourism, Individuality, and Mobility in the Late Soviet Period, Christian Noack Chapter 5: Everything Was over before It Was No More: Decaying Civilization in Late Stagnation Cinema, Andrey Shcherbenok Part II: The Soviet Union and the West: Exchange, Imagination, and Competition Chapter 6: Stagnation or Not? The Brezhnev leadership and the East-West Interaction, Sari Autio-Sarasmo Chapter 7: Stagnant Science? The Planning and Coordination of Biomedical Research in the Brezhnev Era, Anna Geltzer Chapter 8: If You're Going to Moscow, Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair (and Bring a Bottle of Port Wine in Your Pocket) the Soviet Hippie "Sistema" and Its Life in, despite and With "Stagnation," Juliane Fürst Chapter 9: Norton Dodge in Lianozovo: Transnational Collaboration and the Making of the Unofficial Soviet Artist, Courtney Doucette Chapter 10: Changing Dynamics: From International Exchanges to Transnational Musical Networks, Simo Mikkonen

This is a welcome addition to the body of literature reexamining the Brezhnev era. It portrays an engaged citizenry in dialog with public institutions and a state still capable of innovation from science to foreign affairs.