OOC: In case you missed the title (which most of you don't but I have encountered a few people over the course of my time here who have), this is a DBWI, also known as a Double-Blind What If. If you don't know what that is, this article explains it far better than I ever could.
Okay, so, while the Soviet Union is currently a mostly-functional and fully democratic nation with a rather cordial relationship with the United States (although it does have its... difficulties at times), most of you know that Soviet democracy and the co-operation between the East and West is a fairly recent development.
Namely, both occurred rather rapidly when the Soviet Union was under the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, who retired in the mid-'90s, and is often considered by both Russians and Americans alike to be one of the greatest world leaders of the 20th century (although many Americans would argue that Ronald Reagan played an equal part in ending the Cold War and beginning Soviet-American friendship).
However, what few Westerners (and surprisingly few of the younger generation of Easterners) realize is that Gorbachev's reforms faced a lot of difficulties, and very often almost failed, especially the early reforms. I won't even propose a more specific POD because there are so many ways that any one of his reforms could have gone wrong.
At the time, Russia's life expectancy was in steep decline, while poverty and alcoholism were soaring, among other such ills. Although this has mostly turned around, the Soviet Union still has a long way to go to reach a full recovery, but I suspect if Gorbachev had failed, it would have only gotten worse, and not only Russia but the entire world would be worse off for it. So, what do you guys think? What would happen if Gorbachev failed?