The 1991 soviet August Coup succeeds

[Nephi]

Well, I was six at the time. I was four when the Berlin Wall came down, and was vaguely aware something BIG was happening.

My parents never had a "plan" for how to deal with it going hot (IE, telling my younger sister and I) outside of hoping that either whatever hit Portland was too small... or big enough. My father was fond of saying he would realize he could die at any minute, then he'd go back to whatever he was doing. Mom refused to consider the idea because she didn't think it would happen, and that was that for her.

That is a crazy good memory you have. I can't recall being 4 in any serious way.

 

[Pedersen]

Would it? Russia suffered a massive economic collapse in the 1990s and part of its recovery post 2000s was due the rise of oil prices, which aren't affected by Russia's domestic economy. If a continued communist economy avoids the fall of the 1990s (or at least, doesn't suffer as much) and then benefits from increased oil prices, how would such a country be in a worse shape than OTL Russia?

Soviet oil production declined by 30% from 1988 to 1992 due to poor technology and mismanagement. A continued Soviet blocking the influx of western extraction tech and continuing the malpractices of the era (e.g. Gazprom flaring oil from their fields, because they are only measured on gas, and Rosneft doing the same with gas) would likely see Russian oil production dropping even below 6 mtoe mark at which the Russian federation eventually stabilized at, down from the Soviet era high of 11 mtoe.

Also, a continuation of inefficient factories would mean less oil for exports.

As for instance, Reynolds, 1998, argued, the fall was coming, and while the liberalization didn't stop it, then a lack of it, would have made it much worse.