WI the USSR adopted Chinese ideology in the 1980s

I often see people speak of the USSR taking a "Chinese path" to reform when discussing late Soviet WIs. What is almost never spoken of is what this would happen if the Soviets adopted any Chinese ideology in the process of reforming their economy to be more like modern Chinese state capitalism.

So WI the Soviets start to give real respect to some or all of the thinkers who contributed to the Chinese strand of Communist thought during an alternate 1980s (so no Gorbachev, rather the USSR gets a reformist General Secretary who is a Communist true believer)? What implications would it have culturally and politically?

My reading of events in OTL is that the Soviets were more open to Western (Capitalist) thinking than they were to Eastern (fellow Communist) thinking. Indeed, I wonder if adopting sections of Mao's or Deng Xiaoping's writings, or even adopting ideas from the Communist thinkers in their Western neighbours in Yugoslavia, Hungary or Poland, would be more of a threat to the intellectual justifications for Soviet rule than adopting American ideas was. The Soviets seem to have felt threatened by the idea of Russian thinkers not being the leading theoreticians behind world Communism. As such, I could see this causing a real storm in a teacup. But on the other hand, would ordinary citizens of the Soviet Union care if the General Secretary quoted Tito or Deng Xiaoping during a Party powwow?

fasquardon
 
The Chinese and Russians had a fairly...frosty relationship at this point.

This being said, Russia does not have huge reserves of labor-power in the countryside to funnel into development and maquiladoras at this point. The costs of labor are too high.
 
Quoting Tito or Deng may result in treason. Calling someone a Titoist, remember, was as bad as calling someone a Trotskyist during that time.
The Chinese only saw great impact of opening up since the late 80s and early 90s, so it's hard for the Soviets to find anything particularly of interest.
My suggestion is to have the Soviets follow Hungary's "goulash economics", although such would not sit well with the hardliners.
 
The Chinese and Russians had a fairly...frosty relationship at this point.

Yes. One of the reasons for that was the ideological problem (the Chinese rather objected to being treated like children who had to always follow the Russian line and couldn't contribute to the intellectual development of Communism as equal partners). Which is one of the reasons why it would be interesting to see what would happen if the Soviet Party started taking Chinese thought seriously - it could substantially change relations between the two.

Quoting Tito or Deng may result in treason. Calling someone a Titoist, remember, was as bad as calling someone a Trotskyist during that time.

Yeah, that was my instinct as well. Even so, watching the Soviet Union melt down due to opening up to Communists would be hilarious (in a dark sort of way).

The Chinese only saw great impact of opening up since the late 80s and early 90s, so it's hard for the Soviets to find anything particularly of interest.
My suggestion is to have the Soviets follow Hungary's "goulash economics", although such would not sit well with the hardliners.

Hm. I would say that the Chinese saw substantial impacts due to opening up from around 1977 on... Not that these impacts would look notable or useful to the Soviets during the 80s (the problems and opportunities of the two countries were, after all, very different).

fasquardon
 
Hm. I would say that the Chinese saw substantial impacts due to opening up from around 1977 on... Not that these impacts would look notable or useful to the Soviets during the 80s (the problems and opportunities of the two countries were, after all, very different).

fasquardon

Exactly. The Soviets would be just as concerned of their global power as of domestic problems. The Chinese have foreign policy as much less of a concern. One of the wiser choices would be to not have an escalation of tensions and the Cold War at all, but that's out of the question.
 
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