August 1991 Communist Coup in Russia

Robert

Banned
In August of 1991 a group of hardline Communist attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev, and prevent the break up of the Soviet Union. It failed. But what would have happened if it had succeeded?

Could they have kept the Soviet Union intact?

Would they have attempted to prevent the break up of the Warsaw Pact?

How would this have effected the U.S. Presidential Election in 1992?
 
In August of 1991 a group of hardline Communist attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev, and prevent the break up of the Soviet Union. It failed. But what would have happened if it had succeeded?

Could they have kept the Soviet Union intact?

Would they have attempted to prevent the break up of the Warsaw Pact?

How would this have effected the U.S. Presidential Election in 1992?

Potentially second Russian civil war.

Yes, but probably not successfully.

I don't really know how much of a hardline stance Clinton would have taken against communism.
 

katchen

Banned
A qualified yes. If the coup leaders had realized that their position was weak enough that they required a lot of outside assistance from China and they had made and implemented concrete plans to get that help.

Yes, the tanks and armored vehicles could have taken Moscow--if there had been PLA and People's Armed Police soldiers and militia backed by Guominbao police who had been flown in on Aeroflot and Chinese military transports manning those tanks. Possibly wearing USSR uniformsso that they would appear to be soldiers from the Asiatic Republics, at least until they opened their mouths. Detail some PAP to keep the real Soviet toops in their barracks in skivvies under guard away from weapons. Sever communications.

Yes. With the help of the people who brought us Tienamen Square two years earlier, yes, it coud be done.
The USSR would be saved. Not a damn thing the US could do about it.
No more speculation. Too many spoi8lers. Too good a TL for spoilers.
 
Why in the world would the Soviet hardliners reach out to China? And why would China agree? The whole scenario is bafflingly bizzare.
 
USSR was doomed either way no matter what happened in 1991. the problem was the USSR made too many mistakes throught the cold war both domestically and internationally
 
Even the hardliners won't do something impossible as to ask their rival next door to help suppress them. In fact, that would have been a fatal mistake for the CPSU hardliners, bringing in a much bloodier collapse of the Soviet Union. We may even have a situation similar to the Zhirinovsky TL where someone on a similar vein to Vladimir Zhirinovsky (but saner and harsher at the same time) rises in place of Yeltsin.

The thing is, the hardliners could have crippled the pro-democratic factions by actually arresting Yeltsin. Yeltsin not getting arrested actually helped his political career in the long run.
 

Robert

Banned
I think they might have taken their clue from the Chinese and crushed the Democracy movement.

The recent Gulf War did have the positive effect of showing them just how vulnerable their tanks were against U.S. M-1s, and the effectiveness of the U.S. Air-Land Battle Doctrine.
 
The conspirators stopped broadcasting all Mexican soap operas on television. Continuously broadcast the opera "Swan Lake", that brutalized the people on the street and push my way.
But it was enough to look at the press conference of the coup, to realize complete idiots.
 
If the coup plotters had back-bone they might have been able to take power, and hold the Union together. But it would be in bad shape.

A better POD for avoiding the OTL fall of the U.S.S.R, is no Gorbachev.
 
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