WI: Podgorny succeeds Khrushchev

fasquardon

According to his wikipedia page, Nikolai Podgorny was Khrushchev's chosen successor. Of course, in OTL, Brezhnev successfully conspired to eject Khrushchev and Podgorny's career went down a different path.

But what if Podgorny somehow manages to succeed his patron, and there is no Brezhnev period. Maybe Khrushchev isn't abroad so much in 1964 and catches wind of Brezhnev's conspiracy in time to quash it. Maybe Khrushchev doesn't alienate Mikhail Suslov by claiming that the Soviet Union has achieved "communism". Or maybe Khrushchev retires early and Podgorny succeeds his boss before Khrushchev has outstayed his welcome.

What sort of leader would Podgorny be? His wikipedia page is the most complete biography I've yet found of the man. Even so, while it describes him as a "liberal", it does not say what sort of liberal, or what policies he supported in his life.

fasquardon
 

Seandineen

He was an Andropov style reformer. He understood there needed to be less inefficiency, and a larger nomenklatura. But he wanted the system to remain intact. One thing he would not have done was peruse brenshev style involvement in the developing world. He felt improving life within the Union and the Warsaw Pact was vital.
 

fasquardon

Seandineen said:
One thing he would not have done was peruse brenshev style involvement in the developing world. He felt improving life within the Union and the Warsaw Pact was vital.
Click to expand...

Does that mean less Soviet support for North Vietnam? (I am guessing not.)

Do you have any sources to recommend on Podgorny?

fasquardon
 

Dunning Kruger

Arbatov speaks poorly of him. Even if these sources dont have much on Podgorny, they will probably lead you to ones that do. The Wiki article on him is not consistent with anything else I have read so I am pretty skeptical of it.

Arbatov, Georgi. The System: An Insider’s Life in Soviet Politics. Random House, New York 1993.

· Ligachev, Yegor Inside Gorbachev’s Kremlin: The Memoirs of Yegor Ligachev New York: Pantheon Books 1993

· Roeder, Philip G. “Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics”, Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ. 1993

Coleman, Fred, The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire; Forty Years That Shook the World, From Stalin to Yeltsin. New York: St. Martin’s Press 1996
 
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