What if Nikita Khrushchev hadn't been barred from visiting Disneyland because of security issues?
What If Kruschev goes to Disneyland?
- Thread starter GeneralInTheShell
- Start date
Kruschev returns home and orders construction of Rodinaland, to outdo the Americans.
Instead of a feudalist castle, it centers around a (mostly hollow, 1/4 scale) Palace of the Soviets.
The Sputnik ride is especially popular.
Instead of a feudalist castle, it centers around a (mostly hollow, 1/4 scale) Palace of the Soviets.
The Sputnik ride is especially popular.
Stolengood
Banned
Disney gets to export his "Happiest Place on Earth" to the "Happiest Proletariat on Face of Planet". 
Geon
Donor
Disney and Kruschev
The "security issues" are resolved before Kruschev visits. As a personal favor to Eisenhower, virulent anti-communist, Walt Disney agrees to close the park for one day to allow Kruschev to visit and have free run of the park. Kruschev is absolutely delghted! During the visit he rides the monorail and several of the rides and watches a special live action show put on by park entertainers especially for him and his entourage. After the visit Kruschev remarks to Eisenhower that he wishes such a place existed in the Soviet Union.
The visit to Disneyland starts a subtle change in the Soviet leader that will not fully manifest itself for a decade or so. Soon after he returns to the Soviet Union he calls a meeting of the Politburo where he states, "We cannot win against the Americans, comrades, we can only survive." Kruschev realizes that American productivity and ingenuity will allow them to keep well ahead of the Soviets for years to come. He decides to begin a campaign which will lower tensions with the West and to revamp the Soviet economic system.
As a result Perestroika and Glasnost debut a decade earlier then they did in our timeline. Brezhnev does not come to power but a Kruschev protege' (anyone knowing Soviet history better may be able to give me a name here). That protege develops a system that gradually phases out central planning in the economy in favor of limited free market reforms. In addition the U.S.S.R. starts spending less on military spending and more on domestic in order to try to bring up the Soviet standard of living.
In 1972 Kruschev's protege visits the U.S. and like his predecessor visits Disneyland. He also meets with the current director/owner (again I need a reference) and asks him if he would consider opening a Disney-themed park in Russia. The Disney corporation decides this is a golden opportunity. The project takes ten years to develop but in 1980 a theme-park combining the best of Disney fantasy and Russian legends opens near Moscow. It is called simply Pax.
Geon
The "security issues" are resolved before Kruschev visits. As a personal favor to Eisenhower, virulent anti-communist, Walt Disney agrees to close the park for one day to allow Kruschev to visit and have free run of the park. Kruschev is absolutely delghted! During the visit he rides the monorail and several of the rides and watches a special live action show put on by park entertainers especially for him and his entourage. After the visit Kruschev remarks to Eisenhower that he wishes such a place existed in the Soviet Union.
The visit to Disneyland starts a subtle change in the Soviet leader that will not fully manifest itself for a decade or so. Soon after he returns to the Soviet Union he calls a meeting of the Politburo where he states, "We cannot win against the Americans, comrades, we can only survive." Kruschev realizes that American productivity and ingenuity will allow them to keep well ahead of the Soviets for years to come. He decides to begin a campaign which will lower tensions with the West and to revamp the Soviet economic system.
As a result Perestroika and Glasnost debut a decade earlier then they did in our timeline. Brezhnev does not come to power but a Kruschev protege' (anyone knowing Soviet history better may be able to give me a name here). That protege develops a system that gradually phases out central planning in the economy in favor of limited free market reforms. In addition the U.S.S.R. starts spending less on military spending and more on domestic in order to try to bring up the Soviet standard of living.
In 1972 Kruschev's protege visits the U.S. and like his predecessor visits Disneyland. He also meets with the current director/owner (again I need a reference) and asks him if he would consider opening a Disney-themed park in Russia. The Disney corporation decides this is a golden opportunity. The project takes ten years to develop but in 1980 a theme-park combining the best of Disney fantasy and Russian legends opens near Moscow. It is called simply Pax.
Geon
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How many people has that happened to? I swear I've heard it happened to my one grandmother.
I don't know how many times it has happened but it is a big fear of mine. I hate to walk by the ride.
The "It's a Small World" ride would refer to malnutrition.
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
IOTL, there is an amusement park in Lithuania called "Stalinworld". But the only attractions there are museums.
And they don't use robots,unless you count the original definition.
Geon
Donor
Showman
Kruschev always struck me as a bit of a showman himself. Consider his antics during the Cold War, loudly proclaiming "We will bury you," detonating the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba (which was just a glorified publicity stunt since there was no way such a monster could even be delivered), and even the Soviet Space Race were all meant to show off Soviet supremacy. Yet here he would be confronted with a symbol of America. I think the showman would feel he has been upstaged-by a mouse of all things!
Geon
Nukes don't freak him out but Disneyland sure as hell will.
Kruschev always struck me as a bit of a showman himself. Consider his antics during the Cold War, loudly proclaiming "We will bury you," detonating the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba (which was just a glorified publicity stunt since there was no way such a monster could even be delivered), and even the Soviet Space Race were all meant to show off Soviet supremacy. Yet here he would be confronted with a symbol of America. I think the showman would feel he has been upstaged-by a mouse of all things!
Geon
You do not want to know about how Pol Pot and Mao make their own amusement parks in such a timeline. I on the other hand do so, though am unamused by the skulls of one fourth of the population of a southeast Asian country.