he also caused unrest within the Russian Elite. Nobody liked him and the many reforms he implemented undermined the stability of the communist system as far as the Soviet elites were concerned. Eventually, Brezhnev took over from Khrushchev and whilst initially, the impression was of a more stable, wiser man, unrest grew in the empire. Since 1957, Novotny, the leader of the communist party in Czechoslovakia had been very unpopular. He was a hard line communist who hadn't introduced any reforms to improve the life of the Czech people and of particular frustration to people was how slow he was to release political prisoners following the Second World War. His unpopularity grew when the economy, which was initially very good, started to decline.
