WI: No Soviet Coup Attempt in 1991?

So in 1991 Communist hardliners attempted to overthrow Gorbachev, opposed to his reforms and the new union treaty which was to have decentralized the USSR. The attempt failed after a few days. However, it had a huge ramification on the USSR and is said to have caused the Soviet Union to finally totally collapse rather than continue on with reform and decentralization (fun fact, the Soviets would have renamed their country the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics).

So what if this coup attempt had been aborted and never came to pass?
 
The USSR is around today as a loose federation, probably a more centralized version of the EU. The Baltic states and possibly Armenia and Azerbaijan would be gone, but the 'stans, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and of course the Russian SFSR would still be around as a Soviet successor.

I can see them adopting a Scandinavian style mixed economy.
 
Well, the new union treaty would likely have been ratified my most Soviet republics. Only the Baltic states, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia would probably have voted for leaving the USSR.

This new capitalist USSR (Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics) is stronger militarily though still has to accept second place vis-a-vis the US and has to accept a demotion to great power status instead of superpower.

Economic reform, however - and not the 'economic electroshock therapy' bungling by Yeltsin but moderate market and consumer oriented reform - could lead to a quicker recovery than IOTL after the end of communism. All the member states' nominal GDPs add up to about 2 trillion. With better economic policies in the early 90s, I could see it at several times that in 2011 ITTL. The USSR could easily become the world's second or third economy just ahead of or just behind China with armed forces to fit with this number.

The implications for Afghanistan would also be interesting. While the Soviet Army is out, the Afghan army fought better without them. With Soviet air support and perhaps an artillery strike here and there, I could see the communist regime holding out several years longer than it did even if much of the southern part of the country escapes from their control.
 
Would the USSR really be demoted from its superpower status? I mean, the definition of a superpower is a state which has the power to exert significant influence globally in the realms of military, politics economy, etc. Would the Soviets really lose this?
 
Would the USSR really be demoted from its superpower status? I mean, the definition of a superpower is a state which has the power to exert significant influence globally in the realms of military, politics economy, etc. Would the Soviets really lose this?
The Soviets already had lost it really when Gorbachev realized the Soviets could have a good standard of living or be a superpower. For the past forty years they had chosen the latter.
 
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