Non-ideological Cold War: USA versus Kerenskyite Russia

Thande

Donor
The place of ideology in the Cold War has always fascinated me: how much of the brinksmanship, the competition in areas like the space race, was dominated by the idea of "we can't let those damn dirty commies/imperialist Yankee scum beat us to the moon" and how much was plain and simple nationalist bickering of the sort that could just as easily have been between two rival democratic, capitalist countries? (I don't think it's comparable to say the same between two communist countries, as like all coherent ideologies, communism is very prone to rabid division over relatively minor issues, witness the Sino-Soviet split).

So this is more a scenario than a WI; I'm going to keep it vague. Let's say that in WW1 and its aftermath, Russia ends up being run by republicans in the mould of the Kerensky government in OTL: a regime that is somewhat fractious and unstable thanks to the very different strands of political thought represented therein, but which manages to crush attempts by militant Bolsheviks or ultra-tsarists to topple it. By the late 1920s, the Russian Republic has stabilised and has authority over its former imperial territory.

This point gets difficult because this scenario requires a broad analogy to WW2 and the question arises whether a democratic Russia could have industrialised rapidly enough without Stalin's drive and ruthlessness. Let's just assume that that can and does happen for the sake of argument. Anyway, WW2-analogue takes place, Germany is divided, and with Britain and France weakened by war and allied to the United States, the world is dominated by two superpowers: the United States and the Russian Republic.

This is what I want to look at, which is why I have kept the leadup vague. Let's just picture a situation very similar to the 1950s in OTL (we'll assume for the sake of argument that this Russian Republic has the same outwardly anti-colonialist attitude as the USSR in OTL to avoid that conflict). We have the USA and the Russians confronting each other as Top Nations, yet there is little if any ideological clash between the two. The Russians are probably slightly more authoritarian, paternalist and economically left-wing than the Americans, and a bit less pluralist in some respects, but overall the two sides have very similar ideas of what constitutes an acceptable, democratic mode of government.

So what happens? Is cold war as bitter as in OTL? Will it be a far milder rivalry rhetoric-wise? Or will there be cold war at all?
 
The 20th Century [still feels weird to talk of the 20th century as past] was dominated by the 80~90 Year long Tech War, in which GW 1&2 and the Cold War were but phases.
 
Although I see your point of needing to keep the past vague what happens in WW2 is a big issue.

Do the Russians do as horribly as the Soviets or do they manage to defeat the Germans earlier with less cost?

Still the Cold War is likely to be much lighter however it will still remain. It will probably resemble todays situation with Russia in a much better position 9I'm presuming they did significantly better in WW2)
 
The US fear of the Soviets where a fear for Soviet expansion. Everything from grabbing Eastern Europe, Korea, Vietnam to the fears of McCarthyists where fear of expansionism.

Now, will this democratic Russia try put Eastern Europe under it's rule?
 
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