Activities of local councils to resolving social issues in the 1960-1970s

In the Soviet state, local Councils of Workers' Deputies (since 1977 - local Councils of People's Deputies) were assigned a fairly wide range of tasks, among which social issues occupied the most important place. The article examines the specifics of the implementation of these issues by local Councils during the years of the so-called "stagnation", which is usually dated from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, which coincides with the period of L.I. Brezhnev's tenure as General Secretary of the CPSU and the de facto leader of the Soviet state. The author examined the constitutions of the union and republican levels and other acts regulating the powers of local Soviets in the considered sphere of public relations, statistical data, as well as published scientific works on the stated topic. It is noted that local Soviets in their practical activities were guided by the decisions of the party structures of the CPSU, taking into account that the CPSU, in accordance with both the "Stalin" Constitution of 1936 and the "Brezhnev" Constitution of the USSR of 1977, was "the leading and guiding force of Soviet society, the core of its political system, state and public organizations." This approach, however, ultimately proved ineffective, and after certain achievements in the development of housing construction, school education, health care, etc., the country entered a period of socio-economic crisis, which later led to the famous Gorbachev "perestroika", which ended with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.