A Religious/Spiritual Soviet Union & Nuclear War

Well this post is mainly based on various interviews I had with various U.S. Senior Citizens. So basically every single one I talked to say a Nuclear War wouldn't happen/ or the U.S. would win because it would be "God's Will." I've also read(but forgot the source...maybe Newsweek or the N.Y. Times?) that the Soviet Union was even moe Paranoid about Nuclear War then the U.S.

That led me to this question. Would Nuclear War between the United States and the Soviet Union be more likely if the Soviet Union(Or at least its leaders) were religious/Spiritual? Any thoughts?
 
Well this post is mainly based on various interviews I had with various U.S. Senior Citizens. So basically every single one I talked to say a Nuclear War wouldn't happen/ or the U.S. would win because it would be "God's Will." I've also read(but forgot the source...maybe Newsweek or the N.Y. Times?) that the Soviet Union was even moe Paranoid about Nuclear War then the U.S.

That led me to this question. Would Nuclear War between the United States and the Soviet Union be more likely if the Soviet Union(Or at least its leaders) were religious/Spiritual? Any thoughts?

Hard to say, as Communism was explicitly secular. One could argue that Communism/Marxism (particularly under Stalin and to a point Brezhnev) as practiced by the Soviet Union was a religion, which gets us back where we started. The Soviets only tolerated the Russian Orthodox Church because the KGB had infiltrated and compromised the priesthood. The confessional was a great way to locate dissidents. :p

Prior to the 1917 Revolution, the USA and Russia were on fairly friendly terms, and had no outstanding international issues, so a timeline in which the Tsar still sits on the throne into the late 20th century really doesn't pose the threat of a standoff between the two countries.

Moreover, Russia at the popular level has historically been a very religious country--at least as much (if not moreso) than the United States. There is a very large Russian immigrant population in the United States starting in the late 19th century, which further complicates matters. And both nations are majority Christian (albeit different sects) so in order for theological differences to fuel a major war between the two there should probably be another more compelling international issue to motivate the fight. What would there be for the USA and the USSR/Russian Empire/whatever we decide to call it to fight about absent the Cold War? Support of breakaway provinces*, but the logistics of a conventional war would be a nightmare and the cause isn't sufficient to break out the nukes.

In order for a religiously-motivated war to break out between the two nations, it would make sense in this case for one of them to be of an incompatible religion.** A Moslem Russia isn't out of the question, if the Caliphate pushes north, but the POD for that is almost 1000 years ago. But then Russia as a nation wouldn't exist as we know it in OTL, so the question is moot.

*The Russian Empire was the Union's sole European ally in the Civil War, with the Tsar contributing ships of his former Black Sea Fleet to help shore up the Union blockade. The main motivating factor for Russia to intervene was to discourage its own secessionist movements.

**Not that that's an absolute requirement, as Britain and France proved repeatedly throughout the Middle Ages despite having the exact same religion!
 
Communism is a religion in some ways. Putting their dead leader in a glas box so everybody can se it is kind of like what the catolics might do for example. More important, their history theory say the proleteriat will rise in a revolution and the communist society will appear. This is a faith of sorts and Marx are their prophet.

This doesn't make them want to shoot their nukes, quite the opposite. They just hold out and win at the end. Not that one should trust communists with nukes or anythng sharper then a apple because it would be a revolution if they could force the rest of the world and if one look at the history of the Soviet Union, they struck when there was little opposition (Prag for example) and not when the opposition was strong (against NATO for example).

So back to the question, better or worse if they had a religion? It depends on their outlook of course. If they where whaiting for the second cumming of Marx, things would be the same.

If they where beliving in an uppcomming apocalyps, the risks increases. Then they would be even more paranoid. And if they belived they should start said apocalyps, boom.
 
Well...

Honestly any religion could work...the Soviet Union could even be run by Satan-Worshippers for this Scenario.

Still, what I was talking about was that in the OTL American leaders were less afriad of Nuclear War because of their Belief in God/Afterlife/whatever. Now the Soviet leaders wanted to live as long as they could since they thought that Death was the Absolute End. So I thought that if the Soviet Leaders believed in an afterlife, then they would be less afraid of Nuclear War.

So in the OTL, it was the Soviet Union's Atheism that help prevent Nuclear War. (That's my Theory anyway.;) Thoughts?)
 
I think it would depent on some elements within said religion, as mentioned before. What they belive about the end of the world and such things are a major factor. Compare to the speculations on the Iranian president and his (supposed) urge to bring about the end of the world.

And if religion reduce the fear of a nuklear war, why didn't the US leadership start a war?
 
I think it would depent on some elements within said religion, as mentioned before. What they belive about the end of the world and such things are a major factor. Compare to the speculations on the Iranian president and his (supposed) urge to bring about the end of the world.

And if religion reduce the fear of a nuklear war, why didn't the US leadership start a war?


Well, I just think it only reduced the fear of it...not eradicate that fear. Honestly, I just Think our Timeline got lucky with the religious part by having leaders who wouldn't launch ICMs unless they Knew that the communists were going to/already did.
 
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The big problem with this is that any human society will develop very powerful self-preservation mechanisms, no matter what it professes to believe. Nobody who ends up ruling a country as big, powerful and static as the USSR is going to actually be a millenarian nutcase. The socialisation of rulers makes sure of that.

As to 'God's will', I think that's hindsight. I wasn't around for most of the Cold War (and barely recall the tail end I did see), but everything I've read and heard suggests that people were *terrified* of the idea of nuclear war. Nobody was sanguine about the possibility, and only a very few people thought that it was in any meaningful sense 'winnable'.

This, BTW, I think presents the biggest threat: rulers, especially those in a solipsistic and insulated system like the Soviet one, could consider the inevitable losses of a nuclear war aceptable if they inflict greater ones on the other side. No US president would get votes with the idea of exchanging 100 million Americans for 180 million Soviets.
 
No US president would get votes with the idea of exchanging 100 million Americans for 180 million Soviets.


parrticullary if, doing your math, you realize that 100 million over circa 250 million is not a such a victory against 180 million over circa 300 million....
 
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