Alternate collapses of the USSR

From the perspective of 1985, the OTL collapse of the Soviet Bloc and the USSR would be laughed at as ASB.

From the perspective of early 1991, the USSR's disintegration also required lots and lots of handwaving.

So with a post-Stalin POD, what were some other ways in which the USSR could have collapsed in a non-Vlad Tepes fashion?
 

MSZ

Banned
In 1985, many people east of the curtain predicted that the mess the USSR was would collapse with even a small kick, if given. Can't butterfly away national sentiment calling for independence, unless you are OK with ethnic cleansing beyond Stalin-grade.

Anyway, one obvious solution for the USSR to coolapsing differently is for the results of the independence referenda to be recognized as they were, despite being rigged. This would mean the Baltic States, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia leaving, the rest becoming the Union of Sovereign States.

Yet another way would be for Yeltsin to get couped sometime early after the official dissolution and the CIS becoming a confederation rather than international organization. You could end up with a "Russian Commonwealth" being a USSR-bis, only without the Baltic States.
 
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