Hammer and Fickle: An Alternate USSR 1985 TL

GI Jim

Banned
January 14, 11.17AM 1985 - Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow.

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Valery Rhykov (Private Secretary to General Secretary Chernenko)

"What do you mean the same hospital? Why are you bringing him here?! Chernenko will have a fit! He doesn't need to see this in his condition, let a sick man have some peace!"

It was just after 7 in the morning, when Mikhail Sergeyvich Gorbachev was walking his dog a short distance away from his dacha in Crimea, that he encountered a troubled former soldier, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Only two shots of the four Zhirinovsky fired managed to hit "Gorby", as he was affectionately known to some, but that was all that was needed. The first bullet passed innocently enough through the left shoulder, coming out clean the other side. The second however, entered the lower abdomen, perforating the appendix and leading to serious loss of blood and bodily infection.

Zhirinovsky was also shot twice by protection agents of Mikhail Sergeyevich, but neither bullet caused a life threatening injury and he was taken alive into KGB custody. His motives were later said to be part of a familiar Soviet conspiracy, but were in fact simply the actions of a lone madman. Not that this fact mattered within the USSR's hierarchy. It never seemed to.

Konstantin Chernenko (General Secretary of the CPSU) January 14, 1.17PM 1985

"Mikhail. Mikhail. Why Mikhail I don't understand. *Cough*. We must relay this to Brehznev at once"

Chernenko was suffering from one of his bad days in terms of lucid thought during his stay at the hospital. Since the year had started, he tended to have more bad days than good. Brehznev of course had been dead for three years, and the chain smoking Chernenko attended his funeral. It had been a stressful day for the aged premier though, and perhaps his confusion was understandable. But then again, perhaps not.

Gorbachev died officially at 6PM on January the 15th, 1985. In reality however he was dead upon arrival at the hospital at around 11 am the previous day. The death of "Gorby" made the succession to the ailing Chernenko a increasingly hot topic in whispered conversations around the Politburo. First to officially speak on the topic was Gorbachev's sometime rival and hardliner, Viktor Grishin. At an emergency plenum of the Soviet Politburo, Grishin called for a rigorous investigation into the perpetrators of the attack, accusing foreign interests of "attempting to de-stabilize the utopian ideals of this, our perfect and unbending Soviet Motherland". It was clear Grishin was associating the death of Gorbachev with the Americans, and in the atmosphere of the Politburo one could not disagree, even though many doubted his claims.

The coming months, indeed the last of Chernenko's reign, would be of cataclysmic importance in both Soviet, and World history.


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Hello all! This is my first admittedly little project I have begun on the forums, so please take it as a first shot! It won't be perfect but I hope at least one person at least doesnt hate it!

Many thanks.
 

GI Jim

Banned
March 10, 9AM 1985

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*Soviet National Anthem Plays*

"Comrades, it with uncomparable sadness and despair that we must announce that at 7.42AM this morning, a leading light of the revolution and a defender of the Communist ideal, General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko breathed his last in service to us all. He leaves behind a distraught nation, aghast at the loss of its embodiment of socialism's success, but also a proud legacy of accomplishment in his tenure"

The death of Chernenko, as everybody in the Politburo, and perhaps everybody in Moscow knew, was a long time coming. It merely formalized the state of affairs that had existed since Chernenko had taken office; constant jockying for influence on the way to the top of the Soviet Power-Structure. The Funeral of Chernenko was a who's who of contenders for the leadership, with the State regalia providing ample backdrop for the individuals concerned. Those present at the funeral who considered themselves up to the task were as follows:-

Viktor Grishin: The frontrunner after the death of Gorbachev. A man of rigid ideological purity and a steadfast "hardliner" within the Politburo. Whispers surrounded the bars and even streets of Moscow that he was involved in Mikhail Sergeyevich's passing, although official KGB reports not available to the public ruled that possibility out.

Grigory Romanov:
An ambitious man who was Yuri Andropov's protege, Romanov occupies another of the traditionalist positions in the race for the power seat. Having lost some ground between 83 and 85 in terms of influence, he still remains an important and senior member of the politburo. He is known in the west as a fierce Cold Warrior.

Yegor Ligachev:
Heading what remains of the Gorbachev bloc, Ligachev is a weakened figure since the death of his mentor. He does however have the advantage of the atmosphere in the Soviet Union and indeed the world in favour of some sort of reform. Whether he can overcome the conservatives around him however is an open question.

Andrei Gromyko:
The last of the "big beasts" that collectively administered the nation under the deteriorating Brehznev in the early 80s, Gromyko is the most respected politican in the USSR without question. While not officially in the running for the top post, his influence is unparallelled and some within the Politburo have suggested him as a compromise candidate.

The opening gambit to succeed Chernenko consisted of shifting alliances and fealties surrounding the top of the Soviet Leadership. Gromyko was opposed chiefly by the Grishin faction, as it considered him to be the main bloc preventing a true "pure" leader emerging. The two men had an acrimonious relationship that had gotten worse since Gorbachev's death. Grishin's call for a "rigorous" investigation had riled Gromyko who took it to mean that the party had been infiltrated, and this directly linked to him. Neither could move directly against the other, but rumours circulated prior to the funeral surrounding Gromkyo's "luxury life" intensified with each hour Chernenko's body was cold.

The fact that no leader had been annointed by the time of Chernenko's passing made it different to most leadership transfers in the USSR's history. The unusual nature of the leadership race in 1985 was not lost on the Politburo, and by the time a session was called into being on the 15th of March it had been 4 days the General Secretary position had lay open. It was in this session that Andrei Gromyko was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers, with Grishin assuming the General Secretary role. This dual power sharing agreement was nothing new, but was widely assumed to be temporary and to present a face of unity to the external world.

It was Viktor Grishin's hushed words with Sergei Sokolov at the funeral however, that would raise most concern amongst attendees and the wider world.
 
Interesting. Hope Grishin realizes in time that hard-line politics won't help him. Gromyko can knock some sence into him. Who takes over as foreign minister from Andre?
 

GI Jim

Banned
Interesting. Hope Grishin realizes in time that hard-line politics won't help him. Gromyko can knock some sence into him. Who takes over as foreign minister from Andre?

I'll do a mini-update with a full cabinet in a short while to answer that!
 

GI Jim

Banned
Pravda: March 16 1985

General Secretary: Viktor Grishin
Chairman of the Council of Ministers: Andrei Gromyko
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Viktor Chebrikov
Minister of Defence: Sergey Sokolov
Head of the KGB: Vitaly Fedorchuk
Minister of Interior Affairs: Grigory Romanov
Head of Pravda: Dmitri Shepilov
Minister without Portfolio: Vyacheslav Molotov

*End Communication More to Follow*
 

GI Jim

Banned
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The initial months of the Gromyko-Grishin partnership were outwardly positive and unifying. They attended the 1985 victory parade together, hand in hand at times. The parade was the largest show of Soviet military force for at least a decade, and Grishin felt especially comfortable at these sort of events. Even there though, tensions constantly threatened to boil to the surface. Where Sergei Sokolov, chief of the armed forces would stand during the parade created quite the argument amongst the staffers of the two Soviet premiers. Each saw it as an important status symbol to have the Marshall stand beside them, and in the machiavellian world of Soviet politics, they had to be careful. It was eventually decided that Sokolov would stand far from either of them as a compromise, but everyone on the balcony knew that this couldn't go on forever.

By June of 1985 the stage was set for a showdown between Gromyko and Grishin, as tensions had begun to spill over into the wider party. Grishin's acolytes had been sniping at Gromyko friendly members of the Politburo for some time, and this came to a head on the 12th of the month, 1985. A debate between Grigory Romanov, who had become something of a deputy of Grishin's, and Georgy Korniyenko a diplomat firmly in Gromyko' camp. The topic of concern had been the elevation of the former head of the KGB to the position of foreign minister, a decision which had been a red line of Grishins. This decision had not just caused consternation in western capitals, but had significantly shocked many career diplomats and polticians within the USSR itself.

Grishin's reaction was to use his influence with Chebrikov, and thus the KGB itself, to have Korniyenko arrested on charges of embezzlement and corruption. This was the spark that set fire to the months of passive agressiveness since Chernenko's death, and Gromyko was determined to act. A session of the politburo was to be heard in the next month, and at it Gromyko would launch his denunciation of Grishin and have him removed. With the backing of large parts of the state, Gromyko felt that using his influence he could achieve the defeat of Grishin.

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Gromyko sits in on a committee meeting circa may 1985

New York Times: June 15th, 1985

Soviet Leadership Mauled, Key Figures Arrested: USSR Now A KGB State?

We know precious little about what is happening in Moscow tonight, but from our correspondent based in the USSR we have this. In the early hours of this morning, several top Soviet politicans were arrested on charges of foreign espionage, money laundering, and a litany of other minor charges. Yegor Ligachev, Andrei Gromyko, Eduard Shevardnadze and a host of other senior figures are spending tonight in jail, or perhaps somewhere worse.

Speaking on national television, the Soviet Foreign Affairs Minister and General Secretary of the Communist Party stated in no uncertain terms their reasoning for this act "A plot at the very top of our Soviet Motherland has been discovered. We will give no detail further at the moment than if this disgusting menace had been allowed to succeed, decades of progress towards our communist ideal would have been thrown to dirt".

PRAVDA, the communists official mouthpiece contained that short statement in print and nothing else in its latest edition. We will bring you more detail as we hear it.

End transmission.
 
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