AH Challenge... Lenin lives to his 80s

In this challenge you must create a TL in which Lenin lives till his 80s...
History goes as per OTL till 1924 with the sole exception that Fanny Kaplan never attempts to assassinate Lenin thus not hastenining his health problems.
How would Soviet Union and History be affected if Lenin lived till 1950s ?
Would Stalin assume power? How would Lenin handle WWII? Who would succeed him after his death from old age?
 
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Had Lenin lived longer who would be his eventual successor if Stalin and Trotsky are banished?

The butterflies mean it could be someone we've never heard of, particularly if Lenin wants a younger man to succeed him once he dies in the 1950s.
 
If he lives to his 80s the USSR will resemble strongly that of Stalin. In fact Lenin may wind up accidentally ensuring that Stalin becomes his right-hand man by virtue of his proposals to say, enhance the General Committee which favors Stalin, and by his complete alienation from other Bolshevik leaders. Lenin actually got along very well with Stalin, his grudge-match with Trotsky went back years before Trotsky jumped ship at the last minute, and Lenin favored the NEP only in the short term. In fact Stalin may become for Lenin a combination of Bormann, Himmler, and Heydrich and until Stalin himself dies you'd see a sort of Soviet diarchy instead of a single dictator, Lenin using Stalin as his hatchet man to avoid tarnishing his own image (and because Stalin's quite good at that kind of thing).
 
In his testament Lenin criticized pretty much all Bolshevik leaders for concerning themselves to much with the administrative side of leadership.
We could see him unleash some sort of Cultural Revolution against party bureaucrats.
 
If he lives to his 80s the USSR will resemble strongly that of Stalin. In fact Lenin may wind up accidentally ensuring that Stalin becomes his right-hand man by virtue of his proposals to say, enhance the General Committee which favors Stalin, and by his complete alienation from other Bolshevik leaders. Lenin actually got along very well with Stalin, his grudge-match with Trotsky went back years before Trotsky jumped ship at the last minute, and Lenin favored the NEP only in the short term. In fact Stalin may become for Lenin a combination of Bormann, Himmler, and Heydrich and until Stalin himself dies you'd see a sort of Soviet diarchy instead of a single dictator, Lenin using Stalin as his hatchet man to avoid tarnishing his own image (and because Stalin's quite good at that kind of thing).

I see... But if Stalin assumes too much power and becomes number 2 behind Lenin would Lenin be able to control him or Stalin would be the actual ruler of USSR especially during WWII when Lenin would be in his 70s? Plus i dont think that the old guard of revolutionaries would have let Lenin fall into Stalin's grasp...
 
I see... But if Stalin assumes too much power and becomes number 2 behind Lenin would Lenin be able to control him or Stalin would be the actual ruler of USSR especially during WWII when Lenin would be in his 70s? Plus i dont think that the old guard of revolutionaries would have let Lenin fall into Stalin's grasp...

Stalin hero-worshiped Lenin and I think Lenin's about the only man who could really contain Stalin. This is as much to do with both men agreeing on a singular blend of true-believerism with the ability to ensure literally everything and anything favors the Revolution. That Old Guard you mention would have a minor problem given that it was Lenin who ensured Stalin had gained all his power in the first place and helped foster his rise. One of the few, true, great benefits of this kind of diarchy would be that Lenin-Stalinism would see much more continuity and would be about the only possible way for the USSR to secure the gains of Stalinism without the self-inflicted hobbling of its political and military leadership.

What I'm describing is more of a perpetuation of the OTL historical myth in ATL politics: Lenin's the architect of these ideas, but Stalin's the one that carries them out, ultimately taking over the USSR full-time during any ATL WWII (a longer-living Lenin butterflies away ATL geopolitics so it won't quite resemble the OTL one). The USSR will still industrialize under the one Bolshevik willing to do tedious, everyday politics and bloody his hands, but there's no jarring leadership crises, less of an ideological crisis, and thus a more balanced/stable state system. Which is good....for those that benefit from that system and the high command of the Soviet army. It's bad for those in the path of what ultimately would be Soviet expansionism.
 
It seems to me that if you have Lenin live for that long, you could well end up with a "Dear Leader" situation. Many (not sure if most) will not know life without him, or a Russia without him.
 
It seems to me that if you have Lenin live for that long, you could well end up with a "Dear Leader" situation. Many (not sure if most) will not know life without him, or a Russia without him.

So ATL Lenin would end up like OTL Stalin? A "Dear Leader" with a personality cult?
 
So no purges etc. but could Lenin had avoided the personality cult? Or its unevitable?

Lenin may avoid a personality cult because he's opposed to the concept of one, however he'd be more than smart enough to use old Joe Stalin as his hatchet man in a classic Russian "blame the lackey, not the Tsar" pattern. Given what an epic asshole Stalin was, it's a really easy and obvious way for Lenin to get everything he'd want from Stalin while containing him.
 
The butterflies mean it could be someone we've never heard of, particularly if Lenin wants a younger man to succeed him once he dies in the 1950s.

That's what I was thinking. Didn't Lenin express somewhat of a distrust for Stalin? If so, history moves in a very different direction.

This scenario leaves Lenin in charge during WWII. Could the Russians have problems with his age?
 
It's ASB. Even without Kaplan, the strain of revolution and war will kill Lenin.

I dunno, if you butterfly the injuries he received from the August assassination attempt (gun jams, maybe?), he could possibly live to see *WWII, especially if he can put enough trust in his ministers to handle a portion of his affairs so he can rest a little more and tend to his health. His mother was 81 when she passed, although his father was 54.
 
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