What would a Zhukov lead USSR look like?

Lets say that Zhukov plays a coup d'etat and deposes Stalin in 1946,followed by sone infighiting between he and Stalin dogs
What would Zhukov had make different?
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
If Stalin starts screwing up the war effort against Germany, Zhukov could attempt to pull of a coup. I don't see him trying to do so after the war though.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
Lets say that Zhukov plays a coup d'etat and deposes Stalin in 1946,followed by sone infighiting between he and Stalin dogs
What would Zhukov had make different?
Not happening; after all, Zhukov wouldn't want to risk being hanged if his attempted coup fails (which is probably likely due to the vast terror that Stalin inflicted upon the hearts of everyone).
 
Lets say that Zhukov plays a coup d'etat and deposes Stalin in 1946,followed by sone infighiting between he and Stalin dogs
What would Zhukov had make different?

So how does Zhukov--even if he wanted to stage a coup, of which there is not the slightest evidence--manage to do so from Berlin in 1945-6 (where he is of course being closely monitored by the Soviet security police)? And when Stalin recalled him to the USSR in 1946 he was not only demoted but "was assigned command of the Odessa Military District, far from Moscow and lacking in strategic significance and troops..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Zhukov

Does the very fact of the demotion indicate that Stalin really had something to fear from Zhukov? I doubt it. As I said in another post:

***

Stalin's demotion of Zhukov in 1946 is easily explainable without positing any such likelihood:

"Why did Stalin decide to use Novikov’s accusations to remove Zhukov from a post to which he had so recently appointed him? One possibility is that Stalin had his own sources of information on Zhukov that confirmed some of Novikov’s claims. At this time it was common for Soviet military and political leaders to be kept under close security surveillance, including bugging of their apartments and dachas. While it is hard to believe that Zhukov would have disparaged Stalin even in private, it is not difficult to imagine him making exaggerated claims of credit for wartime victories. Demoting Zhukov might seem an extreme response relative to the sin of boastfulness – a common trait of generals, after all – but Stalin was in a brittle mood after the war. An old man of nearly seventy by then, the war had taken its physical and emotional toll on the dictator. He was tetchy and disposed to upbraid or censure the members of his inner circle for even minor perceived transgression. Zhukov was only one of many to suffer such a fate in the 1940s...Stalin was also determined to bring the Soviet military to heel and to prevent the overlauding of its war record. Stalin’s demotion of Zhukov showed the Red Army he was still the boss and warned other generals that he would not tolerate any sign of disloyalty." https://books.google.com/books?id=OOxRrfalHJcC&pg=PT244

Stalin was indeed determined to cut the Soviet military leadership and especially Zhukov down to size, but that is part of a pattern of his of overreacting to any potential danger, however remote, rather than an indication that there was any real possibility of a coup in 1945. If Stalin had thought there had been any real and immediate danger, Zhukov would have suffered something considerably worse than demotion...
 
Even though the POD is probably Zhukov being selected as some sort of compromise candidate between the various factions of the CPSU after Stalin dying in 1949 instead of 1953, Qilai! Qilai! probably would be a good representation of what a Zhukov-led USSR would look like.
 
Even though the POD is probably Zhukov being selected as some sort of compromise candidate between the various factions of the CPSU after Stalin dying in 1949 instead of 1953, Qilai! Qilai! probably would be a good representation of what a Zhukov-led USSR would look like.

The leaders of the CPSU had a mortal fear of "Bonapartism"--yet they are going to choose as head of the Party someone who had never ranked as more than a Candidate (i.e., non-voting) member of the Central Committee, had been excluded even from that by Stalin in 1947, had been censured in 1948 over war booty from Germany, was head of the not-terribly-important Urals Military District--oh yes, and he had had a heart attack in 1948. A more unlikely choice for leading secretary of the CPSU in 1949 could hardly be imagined...
 
The leaders of the CPSU had a mortal fear of "Bonapartism"--yet they are going to choose as head of the Party someone who had never ranked as more than a Candidate (i.e., non-voting) member of the Central Committee, had been excluded even from that by Stalin in 1947, had been censured in 1948 over war booty from Germany, was head of the not-terribly-important Urals Military District--oh yes, and he had had a heart attack in 1948. A more unlikely choice for leading secretary of the CPSU in 1949 could hardly be imagined...
All of which makes the challenge of getting him appointed to the post all the more fun.
 
Lets say that Zhukov plays a coup d'etat and deposes Stalin in 1946,followed by sone infighiting between he and Stalin dogs
What would Zhukov had make different?

There is no way for Zhukov to gain power this way. He was too loyal and the Soviet system too well buttressed against coups.

The only way Zhukov can gain power (and it is very, very unlikely) is for him to be pushed into the hot-seat during the power struggle after Stalin dies to strengthen a collective leadership, and then for the stronger personalities in the collective leadership to annihilate each-other or die too early (so for example, Stalin dies early, Zhdanov becomes an early front-runner in the succession and brings Zhukov into his team to strengthen his position against Beria - similar to how the anti-Beria faction turned to Zhukov in OTL - and then Zhdanov dies of alcoholism as per OTL, leaving Zhukov in charge - I actually considered doing a TL about this, but was put off by the unlikelihood of Zhukov being allowed any real power and the wankishness that resulted if he did get power).

fasquardon
 
Short of the necessity of the military taking control after the decapitation of the civilian government (nuclear strike, perhaps?), I really don't see Zhukav wanting political power, never mind actually gaining such power.
 
What about temporarily as part of an emergency before stepping down after the crisis and allowing a return to civillian government. Sort of a Soviet Cincinnatus.
 
What about temporarily as part of an emergency before stepping down after the crisis and allowing a return to civillian government. Sort of a Soviet Cincinnatus.

Could work. Stalin dies early, and infighting is so bad trying to figure out a successor a second civil war seems to threaten. The military steps in. And, yes, Zhukov was (to quote David T):
someone who had never ranked as more than a Candidate (i.e., non-voting) member of the Central Committee, had been excluded even from that by Stalin in 1947, had been censured in 1948 over war booty from Germany, was head of the not-terribly-important Urals Military District

These very qualifications make him a viable candidate, when you add on his war hero status. He's politically acceptable enough by being a member, not so senior as to be tainted, popular, but not so powerful in his current situation that he could launch a coup on his own from the forces in his existing military district, and whom others look up to but would not necessarily swear personal loyalty to.
 
Could work. Stalin dies early, and infighting is so bad trying to figure out a successor a second civil war seems to threaten. The military steps in. And, yes, Zhukov was (to quote David T):


These very qualifications make him a viable candidate, when you add on his war hero status. He's politically acceptable enough by being a member, not so senior as to be tainted, popular, but not so powerful in his current situation that he could launch a coup on his own from the forces in his existing military district, and whom others look up to but would not necessarily swear personal loyalty to.

Thinking outside the box is not how one becomes a Politburo member. Zhukov would not even be considered for a moment, any more than he was in 1953.
 
If Stalin starts screwing up the war effort...
Well Stalin did screw it up a lot, right? He purged the officers and didn't go on alert despite warnings and kept ordering ill-led troops into counterattacks and not allowing retreats when encirclement was threatened.

Zhukov was a better supreme commander than Stalin.

But Zhukov wasn't as steeped in politics as Stalin.

I just don't see how Zhukov could've out-rolodexed Stalin. Even though Zhukov was in the party, he didn't seem to dwell on poloitics like Stalin.
 
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