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In Stephen Kotkin's biography of Stalin he talks about a letter that Felix Dzerzhynski, then head of the OGPU (formerly the Cheka, later to be reorganized into the NKVD), sent to Stalin in October of 1925, describing a plot against him by, among others, Zinoviev and Kamenev to remove him (Kotkin speculates that Lenin's widow Nadezhda Krupskaia was involved as well). In the letter Dzershynski said that he himself had been involved in the plot, but then left it, saying in the letter "I do not wish to be a participant in a schism, which brings death to the party."

What if Dzerzhynski had continued on in the plot, and this "Gang of Four" if you will (Dzherzhynski, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Krupskaia) had been able to remove Stalin from power? How would this affect the Soviet Union for the rest of the 20s and beyond?
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