DBWI: No Russo-Japanese Soviet Union

OOC: I think I once tried to do this in WI form but I couldn't get any attention. I think it's an aweasomely quirky idea, so it's perfect for a DBWI.

IC:

As we all know, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was born out of the Twin Struggles of the nations of Russia and Japan. By the late 1910s, socialist revolutionary movements were spreading all throughout the world. However, only in these two cases were they successful.

Without wanting to ignore all the other Soviet republics, I'm well aware that the Union stretches from Finland to Formosa, it was allways Russian and Japan that headed the worker's state in a kind of bicephalous leadership.

But what if that hadn't been the case? What if the revolution had succeeded only in one of these two countries? What would a fully Russian-dominated or fully Japanese-dominated Soviet Union look like?

Of the top of my head, I'd say that a Russian SU would probably encompass all of the central Asian republics, as well as the Finnish, Ukrainian, Moldovan and Byelorussian SSRs. If WWII still happens and they still find themselves at war with Axis China, they can probably take Xianjing as well, as our Soviet Union did.

A Japanese USSR would likely be composed of the Japanese, Korean, Manchurian and Formosan SSRs, and I wonder what they could achieve in a war against China...

One thing that is certain, though, is that both of these smaller Soviet Unions would be much less of a world power than the USSR that we know. Maybe it would collapse during the 20th century, leading to a world of absolute American hegemony.

Now that the tense atmosphere of the Cold War is finally easing, with the governments of both countries joining together in a common front to fight terrorism, and with Soviet animation and other kinds of pop-culture becoming surprisingly popular in the west, it is certainly an interesting time to be asking these questions.
 
A Soviet Union without Japan would almost certainly be heavy on the entno-cultural Russian nationalism, freed as they would be from the need to accomadate East Asian cultural and policial influences. It would be All Russia All The Time, and I doubt they would so much as allow even a Georgian to become Secretary-General.
 
A Soviet Union without Japan would almost certainly be heavy on the entno-cultural Russian nationalism, freed as they would be from the need to accomadate East Asian cultural and policial influences. It would be All Russia All The Time, and I doubt they would so much as allow even a Georgian to become Secretary-General.

Hum... that's an interesting thought. I could certainly see it turning out that way, althought there were a few prominent Georgians, as well as members of other non-russian nationalities, among Russia's bolsheviks at the time. Anastas Mikoyan and Iosef Dsugashvilli are two names that come to mind. They were both relavitely unknown figures IOTL, but maybe they could have achieved something without having to compete with Japanese and other east asian revolutionaries.

Also, I wonder how a fully Russian would industrialize. Japan was a lot more indistrialized than Russia at the time of the revolution, and their pre-existing industrial capacity did much to jumpstart the industrialization of the entire union.
 
I think you’d avoid the decentralization and federalization of the USSR without two fully-formed countries joining together. Presumably this smaller USSR would be totally Russia-dominated and with local republics having little power.
 
althought there were a few prominent Georgians, as well as members of other non-russian nationalities, among Russia's bolsheviks at the time. Anastas Mikoyan and Iosef Dsugashvilli are two names that come to mind. They were both relavitely unknown figures IOTL, but maybe they could have achieved something without having to compete with Japanese and other east asian revolutionaries.

Dsugashvilli? Wasn't he the seminary dropout who got his start robbing stagecoaches? Even minus the civilizing influence of East Asian social propriety, I can't see the Russians allowing a semi-educated gangster to get into a postion of power. Given any degree of control over the police and weaponry, he'd be murdering people all over the place.
 
So, in a fully-Russian Alt-USSR, which city would take the place of Pyongyang to become Union capital? I'm guessing either Moscow or Leningrad, but in that case what would be the capital of the Russian FSSR?
 
Top