WI Gromyko becomes General Secretary?

What if, after Chernenko died, Gromyko became General Secretary? He was significantly more conservative than Gorbachev, and he would have tried to preserve the system. He died in 1989, though that might be subject to butterflies - better health-care as General Secretary, yet more stress as General Secretary.

I'm actually considering a TL on this.

What would've happened?
 
There'd still be a struggle to maintain the current system. Shortages did exist, and would have to be dealt with.
 

Thande

Donor
Without glasnost though, would the Soviet and Soviet-aligned peoples be as aware of the shortages (and the contrast to the West's plenty) that stoked their anger in OTL?
 
Gromyko was only as conservative as Ligachev was conservative, but they both wanted to reform the system and strip out all the corruption and imbalance in the economy. So perestroika would have still been around in some form.

Gromyko would have needed a different job other than Foreign Minister for a while in order to build his power base. You would also need to find a way to break the relationship between Andropov and Gorbachev, so that Gorbachev is not the inheritor of his mantle, and break the alliance between Gorbachev and Gromyko. Gromyko supported Gorbachev's ideas and was the person who nominated him to run the funeral of Chernenko over Grishin, who was the real conservative.

As to glasnost, Gromyko was open to specific, limited proposals, but was not in favour of it as an overall policy. He was the originator of detente, as so would also have pursued peace with the United States.
 
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