You heard!
Sometimes proposed as a way for the Soviet Union to survive: instead of politically liberalising - and then collapsing - it 'does a China', and economically liberalises,while keeping politics much the same. This appears to have worked OK in OTL China, hence the 'doing a China.'
I realise this is being covered in LacheyS's 'Gorbachev mk. 2', but I would like to see other, shorter suggestions...
What does it take for the Soviet leadership, at some point, to decide that the economic system they have in place simply isn't right for the country, and must be shifted to some kind of mixed economy? The only limit I will place on this is that it should be at least a few years after the NEP has been abandoned - shall we say 1935 at the very earliest? We can have a POD before that point, it's just that liberalisation should not be adopted before '35 or so. Other than that, there are no real limits - I want to hear your suggestions, people!
- what could the reasoning be to do this?
- who might need to be in charge?
- does the general world situation need to be different - no, or reduced, Great Depression?