DBHC: Destroy the Soviet Union (after 1945)

I might be treading similar ground with this thread, but the question of if it is possible to 'destroy' the Soviet Union has been on my mind a lot recently. The USSR has been around for almost a hundred years now, and though there have been ample opportunities to prevent its formation and rise to the point in which its almost a cliche (the Whites winning the Civil War, Nazi Germany defeating them, etc.), the Soviet Union nevertheless lives on.

Now, I know from other threads how unlikely people view the dissolution of the USSR, however, I think with the right POD it might be possible to see the union at least break apart (Article 72 of their constitution even provides the constituent republics a means to secede). However, to make the challenge a little more difficult, you can't use a POD before 1945 (so no Nazi victories folks); you have to find the right POD after the USSR's rise to power.
 
After 1945, huh? Well, we could start with Stalin then -- since he died OTL in March 1953 during the Korean War, maybe we could have him live another five years or something; alternatively, maybe his successor isn't Kruschev, meaning no De-Stalinization starting in 1956, so the the Soviets remain addicted to a cult of personality, like North Korea or Romania. Or maybe Kruschev isn't tossed from power in 1964?

OOC: Figured I'd delay the PoD for this TL a couple decades.
 
Maybe having the USSR not adopt large-scale economic reforms in the 1970s under a diarchy of Kosygin and Andropov? This probably prevented the USSR from going the way of Maoist China.
 
You could ossify ideological debate Post-Stalin by having some kind of major purge in the interests of nomenklatura stability. Without the cycle of criticism from below violently introduced in the late 1920s and 1930s by new party member nomenklatura you could instead see a gerontocratic structure like the US presidency leading to ossification and inability to respond dynamically to challenges.

While there were many flaws with the Stalin cliques, dynamic line changes in response to material failure was not one.

Admittedly this is not with a bang but with a whimper.

If you want a bang have Ike not warn the us elite about the military industrial complex and some elite idiot whose dad bought him the presidency could have killed us all.

Yours,
Sam R.
 
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Why not have the post-Stalin death be an assassination by Beria and have it devolve into a full-fledged fight to take power, let Beria unleash his secret police and allies, Zhukov rallies the Army, the Party splits into sides afraid of Beria and loyal to a "true" successor, it should be rather bloody and quickly lead to a meltdown if open warfare erupts between Army and "KGB", perhaps here the Army goes full bore reform as it gets the upper hand, the thing the Party feared so let it happen in fact. Recall that crowds crushed themselves to death to mourn Stalin so the "people" might not so easily be set free, the Party still has some levers to drag out the battle but the Soviet Union should be quite wrecked.
 
Why not have the post-Stalin death be an assassination by Beria and have it devolve into a full-fledged fight to take power, let Beria unleash his secret police and allies, Zhukov rallies the Army, the Party splits into sides afraid of Beria and loyal to a "true" successor, it should be rather bloody and quickly lead to a meltdown if open warfare erupts between Army and "KGB", perhaps here the Army goes full bore reform as it gets the upper hand, the thing the Party feared so let it happen in fact. Recall that crowds crushed themselves to death to mourn Stalin so the "people" might not so easily be set free, the Party still has some levers to drag out the battle but the Soviet Union should be quite wrecked.

Problem is that Beria hadn't any ally doing that. In OTL he failed on his ambitions because he was hated by almost all of major politicians and generals/marshalls.
 
Why not have the post-Stalin death be an assassination by Beria and have it devolve into a full-fledged fight to take power, let Beria unleash his secret police and allies, Zhukov rallies the Army, the Party splits into sides afraid of Beria and loyal to a "true" successor, it should be rather bloody and quickly lead to a meltdown if open warfare erupts between Army and "KGB", perhaps here the Army goes full bore reform as it gets the upper hand, the thing the Party feared so let it happen in fact. Recall that crowds crushed themselves to death to mourn Stalin so the "people" might not so easily be set free, the Party still has some levers to drag out the battle but the Soviet Union should be quite wrecked.
From what I've read of Zhukov in the PC [otl] this is very unlikely.
 
Maybe having the USSR not adopt large-scale economic reforms in the 1970s under a diarchy of Kosygin and Andropov? This probably prevented the USSR from going the way of Maoist China.

Well... Mao did kind of shoot himself in the foot on that front when he signed onto the Sino-Soviet Bratstvo treaty of "Unity between the Peasant and Worker" (Or however that monstrosity of the phrase they use in the actual text is meant to be translated). Pledging China to a quota of Soviet industrial goods and agreeing to the removal of trade barriers in perpetuity shot the infant industry of Manchuria and the rest of the country through the heart, to say nothing of guaranteeing a massive captive 'market' that allowed Soviet manufacturing to get through its high-cost transition period. Maybe the POD can come with China choosing to go along a more self-strengthening path, or at least have Beijing and Moscow have a falling out at some point? But that would require creating a situation where the U.S and their allies (Ok... clients at the time, but they've reformed.) in South-East and Eastern Asia were constantly breathing down their neck.
 
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