Well, seeing as how Beria was arguably more totalitarian and stubborn than Stalin as head of the Russian secret police, I don't think he would be more open to talks with the western allies, if you get my drift.
The Cold War won't be butterflied as long as authoritarian Socialist states exist alongside Capitalist, right-wing states. Which in 1945 was most certainty the case.
Glad I could help.![]()
Well, seeing as how Beria was arguably more totalitarian and stubborn than Stalin as head of the Russian secret police, I don't think he would be more open to talks with the western allies, if you get my drift.
The Cold War won't be butterflied as long as authoritarian Socialist states exist alongside Capitalist, right-wing states. Which in 1945 was most certainty the case.
Glad I could help.![]()
That being said, Beria is the least ideologically committed to Communism. If you have Beria take charge and purge his rivals, he would be much more amenable to compromise than Stalin, at least on the international stage. If he can credibly promise to not try to export the revolution everywhere, and is willing to make Poland into a demilitarized neutral along with a united, neutral, jointly occupied Germany, you may have just butterflied away the worst of the Cold War. With Beria in charge and reforming the economy, the USSR could be an extremely powerful state with a real, working economy. This might also, paradoxically, lead to more socialism in Europe, as the Eurocommunists will be able to contrast themselves with Beria's hellhole more easily.
Please bother to do some research, it saves us all a lot of trouble.Well, seeing as how Beria was arguably more totalitarian and stubborn than Stalin as head of the Russian secret police, I don't think he would be more open to talks with the western allies, if you get my drift.
There's the, relatively, happier picture I was looking for.
Please bother to do some research, it saves us all a lot of trouble.
Beria was the one most open to cooperating with the West (he wanted in on the Marshall Plan) and the least eager to launch yet another nasty big Purge (Malenkov was way more gung-ho on it).
But this is all assuming Beria would take over, which he would not. Molotov would; he is the anointed successor until '48-'49, after which Stalin started looking for some younger blood (Khrushchyov and Malenkov). If there was one thing that could united the Politburo besides Stalin, it was opposition to a Beria dictatorship.