After Brezhnev died in 1982, his fellow member of the Soviet Politburo of his (The WWII) generation still wanted one of their own as the leader. Thus you had a series of very old men of the Politburo becoming the head of the Soviet Union.
The first of these was Yuri Andropov, the head of the KGB. Andropov had been the one to tell Khrushchev he was replaced by Brezhnev in 1964, do to the fact both Khrushchev and Andropov were of the reform wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while Brezhnev was of the Military-Industrial Complex of the Soviet Union. As in the US the Military Industrial Complex worried more about what it was getting then how that was harming the rest of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev and Andropov (and even Stalin when he was alive) knew you could NOT keep adding to the Military industrial complex without harming the underlying economy that supported that complex.
The Soviet Union Military Industrial Complex started under the Czar, but was given new life under Stalin. Stalin never really trusted the Military Industrial complex for it had supported the Czars and later Trotsky, At the same time Stalin expanded it do to the fear of invasion (not entirely without basis, look at Hitler's attack). Thus Stalin kept the Military Industrial complex under a tight leash (this was facilitated by Stalin's attention to details, he knew as much about what was being designed and built and the good and bad points of various options than anyone else, he was known to read all types of technical material on various subjects, thus if a designer was lying to him, he knew it). He knew when they were spending to much on a supposed improvement. This can be seen in two weapons, first the MIG-15.
Stalin preferred the MIG-15 over its the more expensive and more like the American F-86 Sukhoi option. The Sukhoi option so enraged Stalin do to its excess cost he decided to dissolve Sukhoi design bureau. This decision was reversed under the Collective leadership that ruled the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, but before Khrushchev was able to get full control, thus it is the premier Russian fighter design group (MIG tend to built lighter, cheaper and shorter range fighters). Stalin was able to take on the Soviet Military Industrial Complex, when Khrushchev tried to do the same after the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was over thrown.
Khrushchev was NEVER as strong as Stalin had been, he had to rule as a member of the Politburo till Beria was arrested, tried and Executed (or maybe Executed, tried, and arrested, the timing is a little hazy). Beria had introduced reforms, more to gain allies then anything else. This forced Khrushchev to form an alliance with the Military Industrial Complex (Brezhnev was the leader of the group by the early 1950s), which over threw Beria. Thus Khrushchev then appointed an ally to head the NKVD (renamed after as the Committee on State Security or by it Russian initials the KGB). That ally, Vladimir Semichastny. seeing the writing on the wall, agree to replace Khrushchev in October 1964. Andropov was sent by Vladimir Semichastny to inform Khrushchev. Andropov and Khrushchev had been allies since the Hungary revolt of 1956. At that time Andropov had been ambassador to Hungary and was shocked at how fast the revolt took place and convinced Khrushchev only arm force could put it down (Something Khrushchev did NOT want to do). While Andropov would suppress any violent revolt, he was an advocate of a more open society as was Khrushchev, Thus the time period where the Soviet Union had its greatest level of freedom was under Khrushchev and Andropov. On the other hand, both had to deal with the Soviet Military-Industrial complex, that opposed reform. Neither was strong enough to take on the Soviet Military-Industrial complex, nor control it like Stalin had, thus it grew bigger and bigger (at the time of the Fall of the Soviet Union it was 40% of the Soviet economy, 10% is considered so excessive that it can kill an economy if left at that level for any length of time, the US spends about 5% of its GNP on defense for comparison).
The Soviet Union Collapsed when it could NOT support its Soviet Military-Industrial complex and the various reforms under Gorbachev were to little to late. Had Khrushchev stayed in power a few more years, Andropov lived a few more months, the needed reforms could have been done and the Soviet Union saved, but the Soviet Military-Industrial complex so opposed reform (more in cutting the Soviet Military-Industrial complex severely which is what happened under Yeltsin). Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian army is using tanks, planes and guns made and put into service in Soviet days. It is rare to see something post 1990 in actual Russian use (The big exception is Aircraft, but then only in fighters, the transport, attack planes, bombers are all ex-soviet planes).
Examples of how things have changed in Russian in its Military-Industrial complex can be seen in the following situations:
In 1994 the Soviet Union adopted a new Rifle (the AN-94) to replace the AK-74. It has been over 15 years and very few AN-94s are in actual Russian use, most Soldier still carry the AK-74s (for comparison, the AK-74 was adopted in 1974 to replace the AK-47, by the time of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 the AK-74 was in the hands of most of the front line soldiers involved in the invasion and had replaced most AK-47 in the hands of most soldiers stationed in the Warsaw Pact).
A similar situation can be seen in the Soviet/Russian Mechanized Infantry fighting Vehicles. the BMP2 (Adopted 1972) had replaced the BMP1 (Adopted 1964) while before 1980, but the BMP3 (Adopted about 1994) has not been used in any numbers in the Russian army of today, they retain use of the BMP-2.
Now Stalin had preferred to keep the Soviet Military-Industrial complex large, but controlled. Thus Stalin liked the SKS with its FIXED magazine over the AK-47 with its removal magazine, for the SKS was not only cheaper to make, its used a fixed magazine meant a huge savings in buying replacement magazine for the AK-47. I mentioned how Stalin treated the Sukhoi aircraft design bureau, but it was another way he controlled costs that the Soviet Military-Industrial complex wanted to incur. During much of the 1950s and 1960s Stalin's legacy held on in the Soviet Union, not his tendency to kill people, but his tendency to want a cheap solution to a more expensive solution. Thus the Soviet Union kept the T-54/T-55 tank in production till the 1980s. On the other hand the tendency to more expensive solution, and more profits, grew even in the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, thus the development of the T-62, T-64 and T-72 tanks with their auto-loading main guns and increased performance. Such developments had been attempted in the 1930s, but Stalin had killed them off when it became clear what was need was a simple tank, thus was born the T-34 (Which in turn was only replaced by the T-54 do to need to mount a gun with the same power as the German 88s on German Tiger tanks. the T-34 could not do that, but the T-54 could).
The problem with Khrushchev and later Andropov was they could NOT take on the Soviet Military-Industrial complex, when Khrushchev tried he lost his job. Thus under Andropov you saw increase freedom speech (Censorship almost died out in the Soviet Union under Andropov) and other increase freedoms, but the no rear efforts to control the Soviet Military-Industrial complex. During his 15 months of rule (ending with his death of old age at 70) it was called the "Andropov summer" do to his move to free up the restrictions of the Soviet Union. He groomed Gorbachev to be his successor, but died before that could be secured (Thus you had Konstantin Chernenko in between as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the real leadership position of the Soviet Union from Stalin to Gorbachev).
More on Andropov:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Andropov
Anyway, by the time Gorbachev was in charge of the Soviet Union, it was clear he had to take on the Soviet Military-Industrial complex. For this, the Soviet Military-Industrial complex tried to overthrow him. During that attempted revolution Yeltsin was able to take charge of the Russian Government while the Soviet Government was divided, Gorbachev was in the Crimea on vacation (Which was known to the plotters thus the timing of the attempted coup), but the Central Committee could NOT find any special forces troops willing to take over the Russian White House (The Capital building of Russia) where Yeltsin was holding out. Thus the Coup failed, but with its failure the Soviet Military-Industrial complex died along with the Soviet Union. The massive hardship of the 1990s in Russia is the result of this quick death. No one had planned for it, and Yeltsin embracing of "Market Reforms" made it worse. Thus when it finally bottom out Yeltsin was replaced by Putin, who himself had been a KGB agent in his youth. The "boom" in Russia since 2000 has more to do with Russia NO longer having to support a bloated Military-Industrial complex then any other single factor.
As you can see, most "Reforms" under the Soviet Union occurred when the KGB was in Control (Khrushchev, Andropov and finally Gorbachev) and the Soviet Military-Industrial complex was to weak to oppose whoever was in Control (Stalin and the early years of Khrushchev). Stricter rules kicked in as Soviet Military-Industrial complex took over more and more of the economy. except for the brief gaps when the KGB was in control. At the same time the KGB would put down any attempt at any violent revolt, thus had an uneasy relationship with the Soviet Military-Industrial complex.
Given this history it is not a new finding that the KGB (or its successor, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation or FSB) is the source for some freedoms in Russia. Except under Stalin, it always wanted to free up the Soviet Union. Mostly because it had seen such freedom in operation in the West and preferred the gain of such freedoms over the fears of losses due to such freedoms. On the other hand the Soviet Military-Industrial Complex always feared such freedoms for it would bring uncontrolled changes, changes that could weaken how much of the economy the Complex would get. From Stalin to Gorbachev these two groups interacted with each other till under Gorbachev and later Yeltsin the Soviet Military Indistrial Complex was destroyed due to massive cut backs in defense spending (No new planes, tanks, vehicles, ships etc). The remains of the KGB survived that cut back, but its tendency to be more progressive remains.
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