Stalin in the 60's

I know this wont be the only thread like this, but it's worth another go.;)


The premise of this topic is simple what if Joseph Stalin survived to reach the age of 90 or 80’s whilst retaining enough mental faculties and physical fitness to stay in office? (This is not impossible many old men maintain their vigour, and I doubt anyone in the CPSU would have the stones or the skill to oust him:p)

This could be accomplished if Stalin say cut-down on his smoking and late-night binges or watered down his drinks maybe a better diet would help too.

Stalin was paranoid about doctors but he was capable of listening to medical advice. This could reduce his heart problems/blood pressure and allow him to avoid a major stroke (I think he had more strokes than one that killed him)

What effect would a 60's Stalin have? His rule would last beyond the 40 year mark for one thing extending well into the life of another generation dissident groups would be ruthlessly destroyed rather than just jailed or harassed like they were in Brezhnev’s time (Look at Russia today when thinking about the Brezhnev’s era it wasn’t the Stalinist hell propaganda made it out to be). We can assume Eastern Europe would remain Stalinist, and be kept under much much tighter control uprisings against the Stalinist governments with Stalin still alive would be crazy thing to do the Yugoslav situation would be rather tense to say the least through.

De Stalinization would likely be much harder if it can even take place at all, because at this much later time. It'd cause much more harm than good to the Soviet goverment, and hardlines would be very much in charge in any event....Hell by 1970 the U.S.S.R may look like North Korea.:eek:
 
Hmm, surely taking away his mental instability, the stroke, the extreme paranoia etc. would affect his style of leadership before the POD? I'm thinking during the war, in particular, and the purges.
 
Seeing the title, I imagined Stalin inspired hippies.

Nah, those freaks who found their political inspiration in the communist regimes (and they were probably only a minority of the political counterculture, let alone the entire counterculture) were always going to go with either Mao or Che, or some other thirdworld figure.

Stalin had once been tolerated, or even thought of highly, by many of their parents. Sucker was no better than The Man!
 
Yeah. When I read the title of this thread, my immediate thought was "Stalin pushes the button." :eek:
The interesting thing is that, depending on when he pushes the button, the effects are likely to be catastrophic for the Soviet Union, but only devastation for the United States.

Do we have data on the numbers of nuclear weapons the Soviet Union possessed throughout the fifties and up into 1962? How much devastation are we actually looking at, feasibly?
 
Do we have data on the numbers of nuclear weapons the Soviet Union possessed throughout the fifties and up into 1962? How much devastation are we actually looking at, feasibly?

for who?, for the USSR, full out war would end them, for the USA? hard to say, the USSR used Nuclear subs before ICBMs the USA used plaines in a holding patter on the borders of the USSR, also the USA had far more ICBMs in 1962 then the USSR, if uncle Joe doesn't put Nuclear weapons in Cuba, Castro and Che were a lot of things Stalinists weren't one of them. China may get more power in the 3rd world Mao is less scary then Joe
 
Nixon will probably will the 1960 election because he seems like he could stand up to Stalin.

Also, in this time line, China and the Soviet Union remain buddies, since Mao liked Uncle Joe.
 
Also, in this time line, China and the Soviet Union remain buddies, since Mao liked Uncle Joe.

Mao respected Uncle Joe, he saw him as Communism's senior statesman, the USSR PRC brake had to do in part with the fact that Mao thought he'd be "first among equals" when Joe died. Nikita didn't see it that way
 
Hmm, surely taking away his mental instability, the stroke, the extreme paranoia etc. would affect his style of leadership before the POD? I'm thinking during the war, in particular, and the purges.

Eh? Stalin suffered a stroke in the latter days of WW2 not in the 30's his extreme paranoia etc was already present but post-war was supposedly much worse due to his suffering a stroke and other ailments.


the scary thing is Uncle Joe is the only person i know of who thought he could win a nuclear war

Nah, Stalin wasnt crazy he had nukes by 1950 but never used em during the Korean war, he wouldnt have cared about human losses but at the same time he wouldnt want to see the Soviet Union get devastated by nukes.


Mao respected Uncle Joe, he saw him as Communism's senior statesman, the USSR PRC brake had to do in part with the fact that Mao thought he'd be "first among equals" when Joe died. Nikita didn't see it that way

There were other factors in play in the Sino-Soviet split, but Nikita K's de-Stalinization and ''revisionism'' pushed things over the edge.

I'm more intrested in what happens to Tito.:eek:
 
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