Soviet Union civil war in the mid-1980s.

What would happen if the Soviet Union had a large civil war in the 1980s? What course would the war likely take, and what would its repercussions be?

Let's say the cause is popular dissatisfaction with the Soviet government and rapidly declining living conditions. The rebels, whoever they may be, do not necessarily have to be anti-communist or anti-Soviet Union.

Local separatism may also play a part.
 
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shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Forecast: If it get's bad enough to descend into a Civil War, then we'll see a toss up of Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire, the Chechnya Conflicts, and the Yugoslav Wars on Steroids. Mass ethnic cleansing among ethnic groups over what they see as theirs and resources, borders changing every other day, and the Russian central power becoming more and more authoritarian and desperate as their powers wane. Nuclear Weapons may be used by the factions, and the UN will step in and get bogged down in this swamp.
 
If it goes nuclear then either it's like Kaisermuffin's Throne of Bayonets where an end is brought to those who launched very quickly, or it goes nuclear to the point where the USSR (and probably the rest of the world) is in varying states of devastation.
 
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89-92 is much more probable. You're not going to get a civil war in the mid 80s as the military, MVD, and KGM are too powerful.

I havent read it but William Odom wrote a book focusing on how the decline of the Soviet military contributed to the collapse of the USSR. The cuts in the military didnt begin until after Gorbachev was firmly entrenched as GenSec.
 
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