AHC: Permanent alliance between Soviet Union and United States of America

Deleted member 97083

With a POD no earlier than December 8th, 1941, have the Soviet Union and United States become close allies from 1945 to at least 1991. No Cold War happens, or if it does, not between the Soviets and the US.
 
Stalin kicks the bucket earlier, about late 1945-1946. Beria takes the power. Roosevelt otoh lives a bit longer and manages to pull through his idea of stronger UN. USSR democratizes earlier under Beria* and does not cling to occupation of Eastern Europe. While USSR stays communist, it is less hard-line and, most important, more successful economically.
China at the same time either go full way nationalist (CalBear AANW style) or Mao turns it into North Korea and keep it that way to provide a strong long-term threat to both US and USSR for them to keep together.

* I know it is a long stretch, but Beria despite not being a good man, was pragmatic enough and there are indications he at least at the start intended to go "liberal" - in Sovet if not Western meaning.
 
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Deleted member 97083

Stalin kicks the bucket earlier, about late 1945-1946. Beria takes the power. Roosevelt otoh lives a bit longer and manages to pull through his idea of stronger UN. USSR democratizes earlier under Beria* and did not cling to occupation of Eastern Europe. While USSR stays communist, it is less hard-line and, most important, more successful economically.
China at the same time either go full way nationalist (CalBear AANW style) or Mao turns it into North Korea and keep it that way to provide a strong long-term threat to both US and USSR for them to keep together.

* I know it is a long stretch, but Beria despite not being a good man, was pragmatic enough and there are indications he at least at the start intended to go "liberal" - in Sovet if not Western meaning.
What indications are there that Beria started to go liberal in Soviet terms?
 
What indications are there that Beria started to go liberal in Soviet terms?
In brief period between the death of Stalin and his arrest he stopped persecutions under "Doctor's Plot", some other minor purges/deportations which started under late Stalin. He gave amnesty to some 1 mil gulag prisoners (not political though) and stared rehabilitation process for some political ones. He specifically forbid using torture on prisoners.
He also seemed to want to make changes in USSR international politics especially in Germany and at least to slow down full-scale stalinist course in East Germany and start talks with US.

I don't have reliable sources, only Wikipedia, and it could be just my imagination though :)
 
What indications are there that Beria started to go liberal in Soviet terms?
Beria proposed several very liberal reforms after Stalin's death, including letting East Germany go so as to end the Cold War and giving the Baltic States autonomy.

The biggest problem with getting Beria into power is that everybody hated him. They feared him due to his career as secret police chief, and figured he would purge them the first chance he got (keep in mind that Beria may have even killed Stalin). There's a reason that he's the only one of Stalin's inner circle to end up being executed in the post-Stalin era.
 

Deleted member 97083

In brief period between the death of Stalin and his arrest he stopped persecutions under "Doctor's Plot", some other minor purges/deportations which started under late Stalin. He gave amnesty to some 1 mil gulag prisoners (not political though) and stared rehabilitation process for some political ones. He specifically forbid using torture on prisoners.
He also seemed to want to make changes in USSR international politics especially in Germany and at least to slow down full-scale stalinist course in East Germany and start talks with US.

I don't have reliable sources, only Wikipedia, and it could be just my imagination though :)

Do you know anything more about the amnesty to gulag prisoners--not specifically under Beria, just in general in the post-Stalin period? How many people ended up being released from gulags in the Krushchev era?

Beria proposed several very liberal reforms after Stalin's death, including letting East Germany go so as to end the Cold War and giving the Baltic States autonomy.

The biggest problem with getting Beria into power is that everybody hated him. They feared him due to his career as secret police chief, and figured he would purge them the first chance he got (keep in mind that Beria may have even killed Stalin). There's a reason that he's the only one of Stalin's inner circle to end up being executed in the post-Stalin era.
Well Stalin himself did propose letting East Germany go and creating a reunited neutral Germany in the Stalin Note. This probably wasn't a bluff, since East Germany was 1/3 of Germany's territory while West Germany was 2/3 of Germany, meaning the West would have to give up more territory in such an event.

Giving the Baltic States autonomy would be pretty significant, the West would probably look upon that favorably.
 
Do you know anything more about the amnesty to gulag prisoners--not specifically under Beria, just in general in the post-Stalin period? How many people ended up being released from gulags in the Krushchev era?
If one can believe the numbers in Beria's report to Supreme Council in 1953 where he proposed the amnesty, the total number of prisoners was 2526402. That should have included both criminal and political prisoners. The amnesty included 1.2 million of them, mostly low-level criminals, women and infirm.
When Khruschev initiated his rehabilitation in 1956 his commission reviewed 176326 prisoners, among them 81027 political. 100139 were freed. Freed political prisoners were 50944. Very few of them were actually rehabiltated, most just released. But at the time vast majority of political prisoners of 1937-38 (which were probably in millions) were already dead or served their terms. A lot of them lived in special settlements - not gulags, but hardly freedom. They were not freed. There are also other "settlers" - from deported nations to kulaks. Total number of rehabilitation in Khruschev time - from 1956 till 1964 is approximately 2000000, but I can't find how many of them were actually alive.
 
I really struggle to see it. Whilst people will talk about Communism and Capitalism, the fact was after 1945 the US and Soviet Union were the two superpowers. Butting heads seems likely, and even if that can be avoided the best you will get is some sort of friendly understanding and not an alliance like you want.

The best way would be to somehow nerf either the USA or the Soviets, such that after World War II finished the two stay allied because of a third power that they can have a Cold War with. So any of the following highly implausible situations needs to occur:

1. Germany somehow manages to whack the Soviets in 1942 (really can't see how if the US is Allied) such that a rump Soviet Union stays allied with the US throughout the alternative Cold War with the Nazis.
2. Japan manages to defeat the US and conquer it all the way to Washington, such that the rump USA stays allied with the Soviet Union after it defeats the Germans and engages in the Cold War with Japan.
3. The war is won by the Allies, but somehow it is the UK who comes out victorious, conquering and puppeting most of Europe (without US help) all the way to the Soviets 1938 borders, which then proceeds to sabre rattle for the next fourty years against both the US and USSR, both of which are weakened (Soviets only to 1938 borders, USA who, whilst winning, gets really badly roughed up by Japan throughout the war).

They're all implausible and so close to ASB as to nearly belong there.
 
I'm not sure who the figures would be, but what if you had two military figures- one Soviet, one American- emerge as dear and true friends through the course of the war? Add in an early Stalin death and in the churn of the war the Soviet figure is elevated to the supreme position of power before the war is out. On the American side, we know how willing the citizens were to elect a military leader as president and don't see why we couldn't bump that impulse to 1948 and elect our American figure. It's also not unreasonable to tweak the timeline of the 22nd Amendment, and the two remain in power, pushing their countries into a sometimes uncomfortable but never seriously questioned alliance as they remain in power well into the 1960s. After that you can take the trajectory either way: either the two societies have evolved in ways both find acceptable and continue that trajectory, or they were only ever really aligned through personal relationships. As these relationships begin to fizzle through the 1970s and 80s, the countries drift apart, remaining allies on paper but heading towards a real breach towards the end of the century.
 
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