History of the Soviet Union (1964–82) Soviet Union "would result in a crushing retaliatory blow". Though Brezhnev's time in office would later be characterized as one of stability, early on, Brezhnev oversaw the replacement of half of the regional leaders and Politburo members. This was a typical move for a Soviet leader trying to strengthen his power base. Examples of Politburo members who lost their membership during the Brezhnev Era are Gennady Voronov, Dmitry Polyansky, Alexander Shelepin, Petro Shelest and Podgorny. Polyansky and Voronov lost their membership in the Politburo because they were considered to be members of the "Kosygin faction." In their place came Andrei
Predictions of the dissolution of the Soviet Union Predictions of the dissolution of the Soviet Union There were people and organizations who predicted that the USSR would fall before the eventual dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Authors often credited with having predicted the dissolution of the Soviet Union include Andrei Amalrik in "Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?" (1970), French academic Emmanuel Todd in "La chute finale: Essais sur la décomposition de la sphère Soviétique (The Final Fall: An essay on the decomposition of the Soviet sphere)" (1976), economist Ravi Batra in his 1978 book "The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism" and French historian Hélène Carrère