AH Challenge:Soviet advantage in Cold War
- Thread starter BlackWave
- Start date
I think the SU did have a larger nuke stockpile. Their problem was economic, and on a related note, having a relatively less advanced electronics industry.
During the 1980s there was a best selling Japanese book (I believe it was "Japan Can Say No") that called for Japan to become neutral and support the Soviet Union with advanced technology so as to play the SU and US against each other.
During the 1980s there was a best selling Japanese book (I believe it was "Japan Can Say No") that called for Japan to become neutral and support the Soviet Union with advanced technology so as to play the SU and US against each other.
You need to avoid the Breznev stagnation that took place during the 70’s, the US was also at a low ebb during that time so the USSR could have made some permanent progress under better leadership.
Maybe have Andropov come to power instead of Breznev, he had some prudent reforms in mind and wasn’t a wide-eyed idealist sucker like Gorby. So any would-be Yeltsin’s would get short shrift.
Japan was a strong US ally, but on the other hand they could trade tech to the USSR as Japanese-US relations could get rocky at times however if Japan went natural they’d need a bigger military than the OTL JDF. Also the Soviets would need to hand back the Kuril Islands at least.
Or maybe the USSR can cut an under the table deal with Japanese corporations and deal with them directly, in order to gain tech...
Maybe have Andropov come to power instead of Breznev, he had some prudent reforms in mind and wasn’t a wide-eyed idealist sucker like Gorby. So any would-be Yeltsin’s would get short shrift.
Japan was a strong US ally, but on the other hand they could trade tech to the USSR as Japanese-US relations could get rocky at times however if Japan went natural they’d need a bigger military than the OTL JDF. Also the Soviets would need to hand back the Kuril Islands at least.
Or maybe the USSR can cut an under the table deal with Japanese corporations and deal with them directly, in order to gain tech...
Neroon
Banned
Western or Japanese technology for that matter wont do the Soviets any good without Western or Japanese quality control. The KGB was quite good at aquiring western technology, but the Soviets still were not able to replicate a lot of it.
The fundamental flaw of the Soviet Union was that it promised a workers paradise, but couldn't deliver. Once the local realized that lower-class people living in the Capitalist world still were better of than they were the USSR was doomed to fall or become a DPRK-style Gulag.
The fundamental flaw of the Soviet Union was that it promised a workers paradise, but couldn't deliver. Once the local realized that lower-class people living in the Capitalist world still were better of than they were the USSR was doomed to fall or become a DPRK-style Gulag.
Question: How much fun can we have with the Trotskyite "Global Revolution" idea?
Give the Soviets a victory over Poland in 1920; follow up with a Communist Germany allied with the Reds, and throw in Chiang in China becoming the third player of the communist bloc.
This could get REALLY bad.
Can a Soviet-German alliance attempt a successful Sealion? I won't call it ASB. If Germany went Red instead of Nazi, and the Western Allies didn't quickly cut it down, the Iron Curtain might be on the channel or even in the Faroes!
The world is in bad shape if Germany goes red...
Give the Soviets a victory over Poland in 1920; follow up with a Communist Germany allied with the Reds, and throw in Chiang in China becoming the third player of the communist bloc.
This could get REALLY bad.
Can a Soviet-German alliance attempt a successful Sealion? I won't call it ASB. If Germany went Red instead of Nazi, and the Western Allies didn't quickly cut it down, the Iron Curtain might be on the channel or even in the Faroes!
The world is in bad shape if Germany goes red...
Have the USSR keep to the New economic policy, avoid Stalin's purges (and Stalin for that matter), Re-formed soviet military pre WW2, US stays out of the war, Hitler assumes greater control and overstretches himself much quicker making several military blunders and not have Europe so badly devistated (No Russian 'scorched earth' and no servire bombing campaigns maybe by slowing Aircraft developement and have WW2 airwarfare similar to how it was during the OTL Spanish civil war) which leads to total European and later Asian domination of the Soviets with little need to repair the infustructure and a rising bourgeoise elite who help Fund a not as heavy industry based economy in the Pseudo Communist state
They could in fact replicate most/all of it mass-productions is the main issue since you need new productions lines, or re-fit old ones, quality control for the USSR was variable depending on the industry. (and the individual factory)
Meh goverments always promise to be the hottiest thing since sliced bread. It also must be said the USSR started out with much lower living standards than the west and everyone knew it, Russia was always poor but having lower living standards than the west wont imperial the regime so long as things are steadily improving (look at Vlad Putin's popularity for example). The USSR will also never become like the DPRK not after Stalin...
Your argument akin to saying the US goverment will just fall apart because not everyone will get rich and live the ''American dream''.
At the time a lot of Japanese were resentful of the US-Japan relationship because US was threatening trade restrictions to reduce the trade imbalance. The Japanese were forced to cut back exports and invest their money in the US, which they never got back. And of course a major irritant in the relationship was US military presence in Japan.
Right wing Japanese wanted to become independent of American control. I'm sure they would get the Kurils back if they gave enough technological assistance to the Soviets and declared neutrality. One of the reasons the Russians continue to resist returning the territory is due to the US-Japan alliance which handicaps Russian access to the Pacific.
I don't know what kind of POD it would take for Japan to take such a step. The US-Japan relationship would have to be much worse for a Japan-USSR rapproachement to gain popular support.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Japan_That_Can_Say_No
Neroon
Banned
Unless we are talking highly specialized tools required only in limited numbers, then only the ability to mass-produce is de-facto the ability to replicate.
You are right there. But they didn't. Having to stand in line for the most basic neccessities (the famous (at least in Germany) queues in front of bakeries for example) in the age of industrialized farming isn't fooling anyone.
It's not like they didn't have quite a few decades of a grace period after Stalin and WW2.
They could do it the KGB did steal a lot of tech, reverse engineering is time consuming since you need to adapt things to local circumstances.
The USSR was also good, at tech in certain areas.
True, but the USSR was wreaked by WW2 to much much higher degree than most other nations, it had to rebuild on it’s own and fight the Cold War. In my option the Soviet Union never fully recovered from WW2 and was perhaps crippled by it.
Still if they'd reformed agriculture the food supply would’ve improved, but then you’d have transport & storage issues.
I think that you need the USSR to have no Brezhnev stagnation, more international economic partners, a more detente-like foreign policy, less military spending, and for the USA to keep failing at containment so that they waste tons of resources trying to win over small countries and thus wreck their own economy.
not entirely. Some of those things (towards the end particularly) are unlikely, but I don't see why they're impossible.You mean a flock of ASBs?