Stalin was said to have been in shock and very depressed after hearing about the invasion, what if he went so far as to kill himself the next day?
I think stalin was too egotistical and narcissistic to kill himself, but then again stalin's psychological makeup isn't one of my specialties.
And yes, he was too cowardly to kill himself.
You can accuse Stalin of genocide, incompetence, and treason, but you cannot accuse him of cowardice. This was the man who stayed in Moscow when the Wehrmacht was within sight of the Kremlin.And yes, he was too cowardly to kill himself.
Molotov was less bloody than Stalin or at least less paranoid but he lived until 1985 that’s 40+ years at the top if he stays in power, and it must be said from all accounts he kept his mental faculties and was spry in his old age.The Soviet hierarchy would have covered it up and continued the war. Molotov would probably have replaced him, having served as premier until only a few years before the war.
Eventually the would have thought of some cock-and-bull story about how he had a heart attack at his desk while working or something like that. Stalin would be remembered as a minor tyrant, whereas Molotov (who lived until 88) would probably have been regarded instead as the Soviet dictator.
So long as Stalin isn't killed/captured by the Germans, the Soviets would have had enough morale to continue the war.
Stalin was far more likely to be arrested and purged by his "comrades" in the Politburo than commit suicide. In fact, when the Politburo came to see him at his dacha, he was initially convinced they had come to arrest him...Unfortunately, they only came to urge him to return to the Kremlin and resume command, which he did. What if he wasn't up to it?
POD: 1941
1941, late June: Following the German invasion of the USSR, Stalin suffers a nervous breakdown and is arrested at his dacha outside Moscow by the Politburo when he proves incapable of command. He is quickly tried and executed in secret. His death is then blamed on a fictitious attack by German paratroopers on a suicide mission, in order to stir up popular anger against the invaders.
1941-1945: General Georgi Zhukov, Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrentii Beria, and Georgi Malenkov emerge as the de facto rulers of the USSR, representing, respectively, the military, the party, the secret police, and the government.
Without one supreme leader, disagreements and frictions reduce the effectiveness of the new Soviet collegial leadership in the early stages of Barbarossa. The Germans make better progress due to weaker Soviet command and control.
The German capture of Moscow in late 1941 fatally weakens the prestige and power of the CPSU, the government, and the NKVD, leaving the military as the last national institution supported by the people.
Zhukov emerges as the most authoritative military commander and slowly becomes first among equals, especially following the liberation of Moscow and the drive west from 1943 onwards.
The inevitable postwar political struggle ends with the triumph of the Zhukov-Khrushchev alliance over the “anti-state” group of Beria, Malenkov, Kaganovich, Molotov, and others, followed by Zhukov’s exposure of the true story of Stalin’s death, denunciation of Khrushchev, Beria, the CPSU and the KGB, and de facto military takeover of the USSR. By 1950, Zhukov is Minister of Defense, Chair of the Council of Ministers, and General Secretary of the Motherland Movement, which replaces the CPSU en masse and promotes military-patriotic Soviet nationalism. The USSR is renamed the Commonwealth of Allied Sovereign Republics (SSSR in the Russian), but with the Russian military still in control of the 15 republics and the Motherland party.
Zhukov promotes a technocratic meritocracy that allows the rise of Kosygin, Voznesensky, Kuznetsov and other economic reformers purged or sidelined IOTL. As a result, the USSR slowly reforms its economy along social democratic/European welfarist lines between 1950-1970, and opens its economy gradually to international trade. Rising incomes and standards of living and decreasing repression increase popular support for Zhukov’s regime. In the 1970s, the first competitive elections are allowed and a multiparty system emerges, dominated at first by the Motherland Party, now recast as a social-patriotic movement.
Zhukov dies in 1974 but his successors maintain his pro-military/technocratic/pragmatic policies.
Foreign Policy: Zhukov agrees to unification of a permanently neutral and demilitarized Germany and Austria in 1955, after which Soviet and Allied troops leave both. The remaining Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe, imposed after the initial Soviet conquest of the area, fall in 1956 after Zhukov renounces the use of force; Polish, Hungarian, and Czech uprisings sweep Stalinists from power that year. Romania and Bulgaria follow soon afterwards. Reduced Cold War tensions with the West lead to earlier and fuller East/West détente from 1960 onwards, allowing for a smaller arms race.
As a result, the CSSR enters the 21st century as a truly federal state enjoying good relations with Western Europe and the United States and a healthy public/private economy with mixed forms of ownership. Robust Russian/CSSR space exploration efforts – which include a Moon landing in 1970, a permanent space station by the 1980s, and a mission to Mars in the late 1990s - lead to the CASR becoming a founding member of the UN Extraterrestrial Development Authority (UNEDA).
I think stalin was too egotistical and narcissistic to kill himself, but then again stalin's psychological makeup isn't one of my specialties.
Way to good to be anything but pure ASB, but it would be one hell of a sweet timeline.
Hardly, at least the stuff happening during and soon after the war.
If Stalin is outed, it is quite likely that there will be a power struggle until a definite replacement comes to the top. Zhukov is someone who could pull that off. He had the intelligence, the know how, and the guts to do things.
I would say that without Stalin sitting at the top keeping an eye on everyone else, Zhukov would probably have Beria removed, either politically forcing him into retirement, or having him executed.