5 replies to this topic

[10 year march]

part 1

 

The year is 1985 the Soviet Union is in Recession, Japan now has a bigger economy then the USSR and West Germany is less then 200 billion nominal GDP away from surpassing the USSRs economy. 

 

2 presidents of the USSR have died in 2 years and a third president is ill and will die

 

The soviet army is in Afghanistan and struggling to take control of the region, Afghanistan is a pro soviet country flooded by US backed Islamic ter88ists. The US seeks to make Afghanistan a pro US state that floods Islamic ter88sts into the neighbouring USSR.

 

there are still a fair amount of pro soviet countries scattered around the world and the eastern block remains but the Soviet union is in decline as a world power

 

Soviet military strong

 

China has been restoring capitalism for 5-6 years and reformists in the CCP have taken power from conservative Maoists China began supporting the USA over the USSR in the later years of Mao and has territorial disputes with the USSR. it looks like China is betraying Marxism and will become a out right enemy of the USSR.

 

Capitalism is entering a bright period due to the new access of Chinas massive Labor force

 

Americans are voting in Conservatives that want to end the cold war by finishing off the weakening USSR Ronald Regan is in power

 

 

 

Alternate History

 

Romanov decided not to go to his residence during Chernenko sickness so Andrei Gromyko decided to not back Gorbachev and Victor Grishin decided to not put his hand up for leader so Romanov won by a small margin

 

Grigory Romanov was a moderate Stalinist and would probably mostly keep Brezhnevite (conservative faction) policy's but moving back  towards Stalinism (Marxism Leninism)

 

this is very realistic Romanov probably would have won the leadership if he wasn't out of Moscow at his residence its odd that such a big reformer (Gorbachev) took power

 

[10 year march]

part 2

 

1985 - 1990

 

Romanov declares that the Soviet Union is in bad situation due to reforms made by revisionists such as Lieberman's reform https://en.wikipedia...economic_reform which caused the state apparatus to be somewhat more decentralised into state owned enterprises via making profitability part of economic planning and over bureaucratic measures made by conservatives/Brezhnevites claiming the State economic plan has also been harmed by conservatives that allow small elements of self management in industry's such as workers councils encouraging rationalization of production.

 

The USSR pays off its national debt using gold reserves leaving 525 billion dollars worth gold left in order to get rid of a permanent budget drain

 

This period sees the USSR just protect pro soviet countries without expanding there influence this along side paying off the national debt and giving false praise to the adoption of capitalism allowed the soviets to have almost full control over Afghanistan by 1990 without to much more pressure from the west

 

Romanov puts a big emphasis on science particularly space science and gradual automation.

 

a net work of spy satellites that can detect nuclear weapons immediately after launch which also help the USSR's intelligence later in this period radioactive stations that can help detect nuclear weapons even if the USSR loses connection with satellites are built

 

Mass introduction of information and computer centres as well as development of fibre optic and wireless communication occurs

 

Economic growth during this period 2% a year partially due to the oil crisis

 

(might edit this later I got to go)

[PhoenixRu]

I'm afraid it was too late to save USSR in 1985, the overall crisis and rotting of the system have gone too far to be reversed. The last chance IMHO was sometime in 1960-s, and not in the direction of "market reforms" but quite the opposite: the further development of socialist productive forces (investments in industry, science, education), the social relations (real and not formal self-government of workers). This trend actually existed, but eventually the Soviet history went a different way: bureaucratic castration and fossilization of the party, economic and cultural stagnation, mass disappointment and cynicism and, eventually, the logical outcome. It would, perhaps, require a genius of Lenin's scale to deal with such a deep crisis. But lenins aren't born often.

 

And Romanov instead of Gorbachev would likely lead to roughly the same (in general, not in details) result. Though it would be a good joke of history: from the fall of Romanov it started, and with fall of another Romanov it ended.

[joe00uk]

There was a brief glimmer of hope with Andropov in 1983 but he died after fifteen months in office and his successor, Chernenko, didn't continue his work. I forget the name, but there was a source in the CIA who said that if Andropov had lived another fifteen years, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc would still be with us today. Andropov saw the need for reform, but what he pursued was a strengthening of socialism with more investment in technology and tackling corruption and much else. For the first two years of Gorbachev's premiership, there were signs that he might renew Andropov's course but by 1987, he took a decisively liberal and pro-market direction which became progressively more and more unrestrained and ended up very quickly in disaster.

[PhoenixRu]

There was a brief glimmer of hope with Andropov in 1983 but he died after fifteen months in office and his successor, Chernenko, didn't continue his work. I forget the name, but there was a source in the CIA who said that if Andropov had lived another fifteen years, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc would still be with us today. Andropov saw the need for reform, but what he pursued was a strengthening of socialism with more investment in technology and tackling corruption and much else. For the first two years of Gorbachev's premiership, there were signs that he might renew Andropov's course but by 1987, he took a decisively liberal and pro-market direction which became progressively more and more unrestrained and ended up very quickly in disaster.

 

I don't know... it seems Andropov's reforms would be aimed to maintain the status-quo to win time. His success would, perhaps, give the Soviet Union these same 15 extra years.

 

Also, Andropov is known for his honest confession "we do not understand the society we live in" reflecting the widening gap between official ideology of "advanced socialism" and social reality.

[Yuli Ban]

I'm afraid it was too late to save USSR in 1985, the overall crisis and rotting of the system have gone too far to be reversed. The last chance IMHO was sometime in 1960-s, and not in the direction of "market reforms" but quite the opposite: the further development of socialist productive forces (investments in industry, science, education),

I don't know... Thinking about it, I'm aware that there was a 3.8-million-square-mile stumbling block for socialism in the 20th century, but I'm still very far from sold on the ability of socialism to function properly without the existence of autonomous productivity. It was one of the big driving forces for Allende and the whole Cybersyn system, which itself was supposed to eventually become far more autonomous as technology improved.