AHC: Boris Yeltsin, General Secretary of the Soviet Union

I've seen a few TLs actually do this, and that got me thinking. With a POD no earlier than 1980, figure out a way for Boris Yeltsin, instead of becoming the figure responsible for the Soviet Union's dissolution, becomes it's leader in 1991 and leads it to the 21st Century.

I would assume that one change that might have to be made is to prevent the Gorbachev-Yeltsin split in 1987. In OTL repeated clashes with more conservative Politburo members such as Ligachev, Yeltsin chose to resign from his post in the Politburo. Gorbachev and others subjected Yeltsin to absolutely brutal humiliation, which drove Yeltsin to attempt suicide. When he survived, Yeltsin was summoned to a CPSU meeting to receive further humiliation from Gorbachev. This drove Yeltsin to regard Gorbachev as a personal and political enemy, and his grudge against Gorbachev is believed to have played a part in his decision to dissolve the Union.

Another thing that would have to be changed is his view of the Soviet Union as a whole. I can't remember where, but I recall reading that Yeltsin considered the USSR to be a burden on Russia, as it had to support the other SSRs. From this viewpoint, the dissolution of the Union was seen as be a boon to Russia, as it would no longer be burdened by supporting other ethnicities and could flourish as an economic power. If this view was truly held by Yeltsin, he would have to be convinced that preserving the USSR would be positive for Russia.

On a final note: what do you think that the Soviet Union would be like under the rule of a General Secretary Yeltsin? I doubt it would be much more democratic than usual, as Yeltsin evidently held democracy in poor regard and made liberal usage of the military and state security services to eliminate dissent (see Black October '93, the evident assassination of Lev Rokhlin, Chechnya, etc.). I would assume that he would attempt to implement his economic reforms (to about the same degree of success), though with alternate circumstances it's hard to say. On foreign relations, I would think that we would probably see the increasing ties with China that we saw OTL under Yeltsin's rule of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin might be compelled to act more forcefully in Yugoslavia to protect Serbia from NATO, seeing that he has more of a military to work with as Premier of the USSR than President of Russia. Relations with the U.S. would probably be similar to OTL; there would be clashes over issues such as Soviet support for Serbia, arms sales to Iran, etc., but overall the U.S. would probably back Yeltsin to keep the more conservative wings of the CPSU and Soviet military from regaining power in the USSR.

Thoughts?
 
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