G’day JRH,
I’d have to say if Stalin died in ’41 or was allowed to “retire due to illness” at his Dacha after the start of Barbarossa a group leadership would be the initial result rather than one individual.
And no, I don’t see them making a peace offer although Stalin made several.
Eh, what are you gonna do? This is just one of those same ol' things that gets dredged up every so often because folk either don't want to or know how to use the search barI think we had a similar thread to this not too long ago.
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Eh, what are you gonna do? This is just one of those same ol' things that gets dredged up every so often because folk either don't want to or know how to use the search bar![]()
Whoa, what? Zhdanov? Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov? You mean the guy who could barely go a month without getting sick? The guy whose only major duties prior to the War was being the Leningrad Party boss and serving in the completely honorary role as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia (not, note, of the USSR, but just Russia)?Zhdanov would be the most likely head of collective leadership, with Molotov being number 2 and Beria number 3, sort of CEO of USSR, Inc.
Exactly. And even if Stalin's successors offer a peace (they won't, since the first one to propose that will be shot), it won't be accepted.There's no way in hell the Soviets are going to ask for a peace deal from the Nazis. The Nazis' idea of peace was to kill all of the Russsians so they'd have no one to fight. Even if they asked for Brest-Livotsk-type terms, Hitler still wouldn't agree to it. He had based his entire political philosophy on killing Bolsheviks, no way he was going to stop at the height of his conquests. The moment the Nazis crossed the border, it became a battle for survival. There was no other option in either country's mind other than total victory or complete destruction.
Politburo Vulture, not Junta.
What generals? A junta would just not be Molotov's style. Nor would he need generals; pretty much every one of the Soviet potentates was okay with the guy, and he was pretty fair to them. Molotov only turned on other Politburo members when Stalin told him to.Well, if Molotov's at the head, it might end up being junta-ish if he's able to pack the Politburo with his generals.
No, no. Molotov was literally the embodiment of an apparatchik. No generals on his Politburo, and that'll be for damned sure.
As said above, Kaganovich would probably be no.2 to Molotov. Molotov would be the successor because he would be the obvious consensus choice, and the party would need to annoint someone quickly to replace Stalin.
No-one ever remembers Stalin's gentler side.
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Yup! Though I'm not sure if Molotov would have as extensive a cult of personality as post-War Stalin or the Kims did; he never really liked being in the spotlight, and there's a good chance that he'll shift a lot of praise from himself to the Party, like "Thank goodness the Party and Comrade Molotov led us to victory over the fascists!"woha, i just did some research, and I found out that Molotov died in 1986!
Had he taken over in 1941 (let's say Stalin kills himself in his shock over Barbarossa, or gets thrown out by the generals or the politburo) and Molotov rules until his death, that's 45 years. For comparison, that's only 1 year less than Kim Il-Sung ruled North Korea. Given that Molotov remained an unrepentant Stalinist until his death, I can only imagine that he would have established the same weird, creepy paternalistic personality cult that Stalin and the Kims did. Imagine Soviet schoolchildren in the 80s being taught that Kind Grandfather Molotov had delivered their nation from the fascist invaders in its hour of greatest need and continued to watch over them even to that very day.
Oh yeah. Without the Khrushchev Thaw and especially if the Stalinists stay in power, violent and nasty purges are still going to be the norm, though I very much doubt they'll ever reach the Terror levels of '36-'39.Futhermore, this likely means that two more generations of dissidents will be killed outright rather than merely harassed and imprisoned like they were in Brezhnev's time.