AHC - A more equal union : No SSRs along national lines within the USSR.

[CaliGuy]

Or it could have the opposite effect--*all* the autonomous republics declare independence, not just those which were Union Republics in OTL.

Would there be that widespread of a demand for secession, though?

Indeed, would all of the autonomous republics actually be viable states?

 

[ObssesedNuker]

I wouldn't specify that Yugoslavia is proof it can work... considering what happened to Yugoslavia.

Everything manages to work up until it doesn't...

 

[DrakonFin]

Or it could have the opposite effect--*all* the autonomous republics declare independence, not just those which were Union Republics in OTL.

With all the discussion here and elsewhere about how much Russia and the other former Soviet states have suffered from the breakup of the USSR, we need to also remember that the OTL breakup also was in fact quite painless in terms of strife and inter-ethnic violence, compared to what might have been if things would have really gone south. Had the internal division of the USSR been different, the relations between the various ethnic groups different, and/or the rules and conditions affecting secession movements different, in a worse case scenario the USSR could have turned into something like OTL Yugoslavia writ large. And that would not even come close to the worst case scenario - a nuclear civil war.

 

[Gwachiko]

Expect a lot more conflicts in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapses as there are no clearly defined ethnic borders.

 

[Ritos]

With all the discussion here and elsewhere about how much Russia and the other former Soviet states have suffered from the breakup of the USSR, we need to also remember that the OTL breakup also was in fact quite painless in terms of strife and inter-ethnic violence, compared to what might have been if things would have really gone south. Had the internal division of the USSR been different, the relations between the various ethnic groups different, and/or the rules and conditions affecting secession movements different, in a worse case scenario the USSR could have turned into something like OTL Yugoslavia writ large. And that would not even come close to the worst case scenario - a nuclear civil war.

That's because most of the pain and strife of ethic and national septation was committed by Stalin decades before.