Brezhnev had been Khrushchev's choice as a successor, and, as with the death of Stalin, there was considerably vying for power behind the scenes following Khrushchev's forced retirement. Born in 1906, he was already in his late 50s when he came to power, and his nearly 20 years of reign were marked by considerable corruption, particularly by members of his immediate family (both of his daughters were later indicted on charges). Brezhnev's own lifestyle was sumptuous enough that his mother, upon seeing his collection of automobiles, remarked "That is fine, my dear son, but what if the Bolsheviks return?" The problem for many Soviets through Brezhnev's regime was not that the Communists were in power, but rather than they were living like capitalists. Brezhnev came to power as the Vietnam War was beginning to heat up, and the Soviets remained committed to the spread of communism throughout the world. Brezhnev is probably most well known for the policy of detente, during which the United States and the Soviet Union attained similar levels in terms of military preparedness. The Soviets demonstrated their military prowess with their crushing of the Czech uprising (the "Prague Spring") in 1968 and the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. (Point of trivia for all of you hockey fans: Jaromir Jagr of the Washington Capitals wears #68 to honor the heroes of the Czech uprising). However, many historians refer to the Brezhnev years as "The Freeze", in contrast to the "thaw" of Khrushchev's regime. Society in many ways became stagnant, with most of the economy spent on military expenses. The average Russian lived in poorly built housing with few choices when it came to consumer goods. Brezhnev's death in 1982 was mourned by very few.

Andropov and Chernenko

Following Brezhnev's death, the question of who would succeed him became paramount. The problem was that virtually everyone in the Politburo was Brezhnev's age or just slightly younger. Eventually, the former KGB director, Yuri Andropov, was chosen. Andropov was an interesting choice; he was slightly younger (68 in 1982), had been linked with the brutal suppression of the revolt in Hungary that had occurred in 1956, and yet was generally regarded as extraordinarily intelligent. Unfortunately, it also became rapidly apparent that he was suffering from kidney disease, and his term of service ended up being only 15 months. During that time, however, he began reforms within the government which would lay the groundwork for his protege, Mikhail Gorbachev. However, the party was hesitant to choose Gorbachev in 1984, fearing that he was too young (he was 53) and too radical. They instead chose Constantine Chernenko, who had been Brezhnev's choice to succeed him. Chernenko's tenure last barely a year, and his illness through most of his regime made him essentially a footnote in history. When he died, in March 1985, Gorbachev was chosen as the new leader of the party.

Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of the Soviet Union

Gorbachev is, in some ways, the most important of the Communist leaders, as it was he who is responsible for overseeing the destruction of the Soviet Union and the death of communism as the political system in that country.
When Gorbachev came to power in March of 1985, it was clear that changes would have to be made; however, there were also issues to be dealt with immediately. In April of that same year, the Warsaw Pact treaty was renewed for another 20 years. Alcoholism, which had been a major issue in the Soviet Union for years, was addressed in one of Gorbachev's speeches later that year, as was absenteeism (one of the most obvious manifestations of alcoholism).
However, Gorbachev's most important policies were the bookends of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Both of these ideas were radical in their context; glasnost meant the opening of society, which Gorbachev believed would strengthen communism. Perestroika was designed to correct some of the worst abuses of the Brezhnev era. Both were intended to keep the communists firmly in power. Gorbachev also continued the process of de-Stalinization, which had largely been ended under the Brezhnev era, although Lenin continued to be glorified. Unfortunately for Gorbachev, very few of his plans worked; the war in Afghanistan continued to drain resources, and the economy, rather than recovering, continued to plunge. In April, 1986, one of the nuclear reactors at Chernobyl, in Ukraine, exploded; initially the Soviets did not want to ask for assistance, but when it became clear that they could not deal with the catastrophe (and that the toxic air was spreading to Western Europe), Gorbachev finally asked for assistance. The explosion, and the subsequent problems, glaringly illustrated many of the problems in the Soviet Union, and exposed those problems in detail to the West.
In addition, glasnost had led to increased questioning of what the government was doing, not only within the Soviet Union but also in the satellite nations. Independence movements, and anti-communist movements, had become increasingly powerful throughout Eastern Europe (Solidarity, in Poland, led by Lech Walesa, is probably the most famous). In November, 1989, the Berlin Wall, which had been erected during Khrushchev's regime, was torn down by Germans on both sides of the wall. Communism collapsed in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany. Within the Soviet Union itself, many of the republics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, for example) had a long tradition and history that had nothing to do with the Soviets, and as glasnost spread, they began to demand greater freedoms and recognition. In March 1990, Lithuania declared itself independent of the Soviet Union, following six months of declarations (including allowing the use of the Lithuanian language, etc) that the rest of the Soviet Union had followed with great interest. Later that year, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he viewed as a somewhat dubious honor, given that the Soviet Union's power was diminishing at an increasingly fast rate. By March 1991, all three of the Baltic republics had voted for independence, with Georgia following suit in April that same year. Natural disasters, including a devestating earthquake in Armenia, coupled with the discovery of several mass graves of Stalin's victims (nearly a million bodies were discovered, buried outside of Minsk, Kiev, and Sverdlovsk), increased dissatisfaction with the Gorbachev government. In August, 1991, a group of hardline communists attempted a coup while Gorbachev was on vacation; while the coup was eventually put down, due in large part to the actions of Boris Yeltsin, who had been elected president of the Russian republic in June 1991, it was clear that Gorbachev was no longer in a position of power, and on December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned. With that resignation, all of the republics declared their independence (if they had not already) and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist. Most of them declared an interest in the formation of a commonwealth of some form, which would initially be called the NIS (Newly Independent States) and then the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).