Khrushchev doesn't get his chance

Say hello to Malenkov at best. Or Molotov at worst. Or Kuznetsov if he is not purged in the late forties. Zhdanov is too sick to make it and Beria is doomed at the second Stalin dies (to be honest, he's also dommed if Stalin lives a few months longer).
 
Bulganin. Malenkov will still be a 2-year placeholder while everyone figures out a way forward and wanders around in numb shock, but plenty of the Central Committee wanted a more liberal way forward; the vote in 1957 proves that well enough. Bulganin is probably the best choice the liberals have (since Andrei Vyshinsky is in New York City. If Bulganin is smart he'll bring Vyshinsky home and send, say, Molotov to the UN).

If he doesn't get rid of Molotov, there's still going to be a showdown in '57. I think Bulganin can pull it out simply because he knows that losing the election to Molotov is going to be fatal. It's also possible that if Molotov wins by a narrow margin, the USSR can become a bloody shambles - there will be members of the Central Committee calling the election illegitimate.
 
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