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.
Wasn't December 1941 already too late for the Germans to defeat the Soviets?Fatherland sans Nazi Britain.
You realize that this is going to start a 300 page argument, right?Wasn't December 1941 already too late for the Germans to defeat the Soviets?
At least I didn't ask a question about whether the Ottoman Empire is Roman, or say anything about Mozarabic in al-Andalus. Then it would become a 900 page argument.You realize that this is going to start a 300 page argument, right?
What indications are there that Beria started to go liberal in Soviet terms?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.
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.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.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![]()
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.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.
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.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?