Plausibility check: make the Soviet Union collapse in the aftermath of WII

The constant purges, the massive political repression and the inefficient economic model imposed by brute force did much to weaken the Soviet Union and its leadership, most of which was composed of sycophants of Stalin.

That along with the massive structural damage done by the Nazi invasion, the destruction and millions of citizens dead, the Soviet Union was in a dire state in the late 1940s.

So, what could lead to its collapse?
 
The problem is the Second World War was a GIGANTIC success for the USSR gained more land, it gained communist client states, it gained machinery from Germany, if the soviets take Berlin they can not fail, you would need to make the western allies liberate most of Europe before the soviets to even come close to a soviet collapse
 
The only remotely plausible scenario for a postwar collapse of the USSR I can think of is if Stalin bites the dust earlier than OTL and the country somehow descends into civil war during an ensuing power struggle. How to get that scenario I can't say.
 

Deleted member 1487

Soviets screw up the early part of the war even worse somehow. Lose Moscow, Leningrad, or both somehow but still manage to come back fighting only to collapse from the damage afterwards.
Or maybe the Germans don't make as many obvious mistakes like Stalingrad or Tunisia. They take longer to beak in the East and wear down the Soviets more and delay the liberation of farmland in the Ukraine, perhaps scorching the earth more successfully in the process.
 
Germany does slightly better in the east, Stalin has an "accident". Germany still over extends itself and the USSR is able to counter and begin driving the Germans back.
Hitler is assassinated and Görring decides to proclaim independant Baltics and Ukraine and withdraws hoping that will buy some time. With the Germans not on the doorstep a power struggle in Russia begins which gives the Baltics and Ukraine time to organize and build armies. Georgia, Armenia, etc. take advantage of the confusion to break away. Eventually whoever establishes power only rules a broken Russia and must concentrate on consolidating power rather than try to take back the breakaway republics.
 
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