After Leonid Brezhnev assumed power in 1964 , much of Khrushchev 's reforms were reversed . The Brezhnev era began a new state of stagnation , and saw a decline in both the quality and quantity of products in the Soviet Union . Armenia was severely affected by these policies , as was to be demonstrated several years later in the catastrophic earthquake that hit Spitak . Material allocated to the building of new homes , such as cement and concrete , was diverted for other uses . Bribery and a lack of oversight saw the construction of shoddily built and weakly supported apartment buildings . When the earthquake hit on the morning of December 7 , 1988 , the houses and apartments least able to resist collapse were those built during the Brezhnev years . Ironically , the older the dwellings , the better they withstood the quake
earthquake that hit Spitak
1988 Armenian earthquake
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic