AHC/WI: USSR stays Stalinist?

If you somehow arrange circumstances so Molotov is Stalin's successor the USSR will remain Stalinist for some time as he did not die until 1986. Though really, if you avoid Kruschev and his secret speech, The USSR might remain Stalinist longer than it did, depending on who takes Kruschev's place.
 
It falls apart far sooner than it would have ITTL. Stalinism is exactly as poor a system of running a government as everyone makes it out to be and it gives all other forms of socialism a bad name by existing.
 
If you somehow arrange circumstances so Molotov is Stalin's successor the USSR will remain Stalinist for some time as he did not die until 1986. Though really, if you avoid Kruschev and his secret speech, The USSR might remain Stalinist longer than it did, depending on who takes Kruschev's place.

You really don't even have to do that much arranging, and Molotov doesn't really need to be a part of it either. Georgy Malenkov could either stay premier, or oust Khruschev somehow. This becomes a Stalinist Russia that is even scarier than Stalin's Stalinism (what a sentence that was!). Malenkov had a cooler head than Stalin, was involved in Russia nuclear missile program, and was generally regarded as more intelligent than Khruschev. Depending on the circumstances of his rise to power we could end up with WW3 very quickly.
 
I mentioned Molotov because of how long he managed to live historically which might translate into a long period of control should he have somehow come to power which by default means the USSR stays the same for a considerable length of time.. I agree that the key is blocking Khruschev from coming to power. Once he gives his secret speech, I have my doubts whether you can have the USSR be any closer to Stalinism than it was under Brezhnev historically. Though I admit I could be wrong about the consequences of an earlier removal, say in 1957. The question is how could Khrushchev be blocked?
 
It falls apart far sooner than it would have ITTL. Stalinism is exactly as poor a system of running a government as everyone makes it out to be and it gives all other forms of socialism a bad name by existing.

Did the Soviet Union really reform that much under Nikita Khrushchev? I was under the impression that all Nikita really did was denounce Stalin, but kept pretty much the same economic and political system.

Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin, but he was no Deng Xiaoping.
 
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