well, if the liberal communist faction were to come into power, that could always lead to more mixed market economic policies, similar to the Chinese economy, not to mention a de-nuclearization deal between the USSR and US under carter or even ford. with a larger budget, less tensions, and an economy that was becoming more mixed, plus the fact that the Soviet Union would choose not to involve themselves in Afghanistan, it would seem that probably a few years into Gorbachev's time some of his reforms would not devastate the USSR and the USSR would be making a comeback.With no PoDs prior to December of 1968, how can the "Liberal" Communist faction in the Soviet Union (men like Kosygin and Podgorny) have as much influence as possible, at the expense of "Hardline" Communists like Brezhnev? (Note that having Brezhnev killed in January 1969 would be an acceptable PoD here.) More generally, how can the Soviets put their economy and political system on as secure a footing as possible by 1980, given the realm of political reality at the time? And what would be the effect of these changes?