"What If Stalin Had Not Died?" Topic

It is likely that Stalin died of poisoning when he finally went South to get some much needed warmth.

At the time of his death, he was making noises about closing off Soviet Union from all outside influences and even declared that perhaps a war was what was needed.

Assuming he did not die at that time. What would have been the outcome on the cold war and history?

He would have died a few years later.
Valar Morghulis.

Died in 1953. At the time of his death, he appeared to be gearing up for a new round of purges, starting with the Doctors' Plot. There might have been some serious resistance to another Terror; Stalin and his gang might have been overthrown by ordinary Russians.

I see some signs that the tough, bitter survivors of the generation that had endured the purges, then fought and won the world war, were fed up with the cognitive dissonance, were not willing to submit to another Terror, were resisting in ways that had not happened in the 1930s.

In fact, one or more of them may have secretly assassinated the monster.

the radiation would be at safe levels by now. Kinda.

But Thanksgiving dinner might be a bit of a challenge.

cheers

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."

Yes its a good job hes gone and Russia is now such a responsible and peace loving global citizen!

Please, Sparker. Russia today is a regional power that plays hardball in pursuit of its interests. Putin may be personally corrupt and anti-democratic. At its worst, modern Russia is far from the horrors of the collectivization famine and the purges.

From what I understand is that Stalin saw the presence of troops in Europe as a sign that NATO was planning some kind of attack. Indeed the idea that NATO was staging their own version of Barbarossa kept many Soviet leaders awake at night until nearly the end of the Soviet Union. It's not clear if Stalin would initiate some kind of pre-emptive strike if he fears the West enough.

Stalin's health wasn't that good, he'd already gone through a heart attack and stroke. If his mental state starts to deteriorate or his body starts to give out, the Politburo might decide to purge him before he gets to another round of purges, maybe "retire" him to his Dacha and make sure he goes quietly, while Beria or others take over.

Could be interesting if he purges Beria, Molotov or Krustchev before that.

He would be 135 years old!

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE JOE!!!!"

Eventually, the Politburo would have moved against him, whether in a clandestine manner or through simple political processes as had happened with Kruschev later.

Beria got removed and executed by his peers. It isn't unthinkable that if Stalin tried to purge the Army the Marshals would have stepped in to remove him.

However if he had carried on living then the Korean War would have staggered on for a few more years. The Cold War would have been even "colder" for longer. If he has lasted till the Cuban Missile Crisis then who knows what would have happened?

…And they say Adolf was mad!