Part 4/11:
As Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, fades from the public eye and eventually dies, a sense of stagnation permeates the leadership. The arrival of Yuri Andropov and later Konstantin Chernenko does little to inspire hope as both leaders are effectively geriatric placeholders who succumb to quick deaths in a short period. By 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev steps in, and with him comes a glimmer of reform that people dare to hope will rejuvenate the ailing state structure.