Cold War with a Soviet Deng Xiaoping?

We have occasionally discussed scenarios in which the Soviet Union economically liberalizes while staying authoritarian - essentially doing what China managed to do. It has produced some interesting discussions, but here is what I’m particularly interested in:

Assume that the Soviets pull this off and transition to a mostly market economy while still retaining the full borders of the USSR, and maintaining an officially communist ideology, even if its no more believed by anyome than that the PRC really are still commies. We’ll assume that this happens more or less on the same time frame as China OTL: very late 70s onward, and they start trading heavily with all the west in the 90s. They’ll still hrow heir weight around here and here, but they can’t really export communism and don’t want to screw up globsl trade any more than the capitalists do.

How does the change the dynamics of the Cold War? The soviets have basically abandoned communism even if they won't admit it, they’re trading heavily with the Americans and getting rich, and war is mostly unthinkable since it would ruin their economy...

Does the world still think the Cold War is going on? Or does the US shrug and decide “Eh, close enough?”
 
Does the world still think the Cold War is going on? Or does the US shrug and decide “Eh, close enough?”
I think it depends on the country: most of Western Europe would probably accept the new Status Quo both for economical reasons(if the URSS liberalises, most markets of Eastern Europe will be open to foreign investments) and for strategical ones(nobody wants to anger the neightbor with the nukes), while the relationship with China would stay the same(i can easily see the two country compete with each other regarding their rispective influence in Asia).
Their relationship with the USA probably isn't that different from OTL unfortunately: while they may have dropped the ideological part of the Cold War,they still two superpowers competing with each other economically and costantly trying to expand their sphere of influence.
Best case scenario is that the US consider them some kind of frenemies like with OTL China.
 
The fundamental problem with a Soviet Deng is that Deng inherited a dirt poor Third World economy - which was interesting to overseas investors because they could produce goods while paying workers very little. The Soviet Union was not a dirt poor Third World economy. Its population had certain socio-economic expectations, and were not about to work for a pittance a day to attract foreign investors.
 
I’ve always wondered if there was a POD that would allow the soviets (and/or other WP countries) to have a developped electronics industry that could be exported internationally at a lower cost than Japanese one, replacing the role Taiwan and Korea first had irl in the 90s and after (and eventually China). That seems unlikely with a 80s pod as they were too far behind and the USA would have no interest in buying Soviet electronics but maybe with an earlier pod... if they can pull it off it would allow the Soviet industry to diversify and handle a liberalisation and de industrialisation long term
 
How does the change the dynamics of the Cold War? The soviets have basically abandoned communism even if they won't admit it, they’re trading heavily with the Americans and getting rich, and war is mostly unthinkable since it would ruin their economy... Does the world still think the Cold War is going on? Or does the US shrug and decide “Eh, close enough?”

The world thought that in 1932.

yours from a piece wage new plant just off the farm,
Sam R.
 
Does the world still think the Cold War is going on? Or does the US shrug and decide “Eh, close enough?”
A big part of the answer to that question, the major one IMHO depends on: What happened to Eastern Europe in this scenario?
OTLs PRC wasn't sitting on the worlds last colonial empire when Deng took over. In TTL did Eastern Europe (Note that with Eastern Europe I mean the Warsaw Pact States, not the Baltics, Ukraine, etc):
1. Follow a course similar to OTL expect for perhaps a little slower.
2. USSR pulls out of them under after negotiating a Finlandization-style agreement, which also sees them become Capitalist Democracies like OTL, but without NATO and EU membership and committed to staying neutral in perpetuity.
3. Making Deng-style market reforms only, but still "Communist" One-Party-States maintained through Soviet Garrisons and the threat of force to keep them in power.

Under Scenarios 1&2 I can see the Cold War fizzling out, but not under 3. China in OTL is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. The USSR in TTL is ruled by the Russian/Soviet Communist Party. The Warsaw Pact Nations in Scenario 3 are ruled by what everyone but the Western Loony Left knows are Russian Viceroys. They could never achieve the kind of legitimacy that OTLs Chinese Cummunist Party has.
 
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