What would have happened if the Soviet Union had persisted into the 21st century?
>>523274
questions like this are pointless without specifying how it manages to survive in your fantasy timeline
25 year rule OP.
>>523283
>25 year rule
explain
>>523280
Not OP but it's fairly easy to do.
>August Coup never happens
>New Union Treaty is signed in Belavezha
>Union of Sovereign States continues to exist as a body of semi-independent countries with clear Russian dominance
>Until in 2014 Ukraine, one of the most and least Sovietized countries, finally gets a clear pro-independence majority
>Russia can't let that happen and starts a proxy war
So, you know, about the same with different coat of paint would be my opinion. August Coup was THE main driving force for independence declarations of most countries except for Baltics who wanted out no matter what.
Russia still had majority of ex-USSR countries in almost colonial status until 2014. Hell, most of the "national elites" in the countries excluding Baltics first thought of an independence as a new shiny toy to play with and that's about it. Moreover, CIS was considered by many to be that new "Union Treaty" people signed but resistance of other parties besides Russkies completely froze down those aspirations beyond simple economic integration space.
>>523274
Look at China, which still is officially communist. Following the shock therapy, Russia's economy would have rapidly expanded thanks to western investment (say, by being a factory for Germany or the US like China is). The Politburo would have scaled back much of it's centralization and planning, but ultimately would still exist.
One thing they wouldn't be able to shake is the inherent corruption inside the party politburo, as well as the naivity of individuals new to capitalist markets. Look at how everything has crashed in China because naive first time investors are getting fucked hard on the stock market. The CCP politburo, unwilling to tolerate failure, keeps trying to just stop the market from crashing by shutting it down. It's not working and is leading to a full blown mortgage meltdown.
Then, at some point, it would all bust and they'd find themselves in real hard up financial times. Like China is now.
![space-station-fulllbleed[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/1tvJTrQ.jpg "space-station-fulllbleed[1].jpg")
>>523509
>>523532
What would relations with the USA and the West be? Would we still have the International Space Station for instance? What would the Cold War have looked like in the 1990s and 2000s?
they'd clandestinely fund little capitalist revolutions that fail beyond miserably and then use it as evidence of capitalism not working despite orchestrating them
>>523540
more proxy wars
>>523540
It would be friendly, of course. Russia, even today, supplies the ISS and runs scientific experiments in it. Russia even supplies Boeing with rocket engines, though that is set to end by 2020. Russia would become America's factory like China currently is. Again, see the past 30 years of US-Chinese relations.
Until it busts, of course.
>>523545
Wouldn't be necessary. Russia would standby while the US blows up Iraq. Yugoslavia would fall apart on it's own as well. Meanwhile the USSR is filled full of American tax money and everyone is rich and happy.
>>523561
>tax money
*walmart money
>>523274
A much more interesting answer would come with a POD either during Kruschev (so Brezhnev never comes to power) or Stalin dying before he comes to power.
>>523274
They'd probably send their agents into the West, then infiltrate educational and media outlets, but instead of preaching that the "proletariat" must combat the "bourgeois" (because that would be obvious) they'll preach that other "oppressed" classes need to combat the "privileged" classes. Could you guys imagine this? If the same globalist group that infiltrated Russia infiltrated the top Western nations and completely divided and conquered them from within in order to essentially enslave them just like they did under the rule of communism?
Spookey stuff...
>>523295
This. I see it everywhere
>>526159
Maybe theyd also false flag as paranoid wingnuts to discredit all right wing opinions, how mad would that be
Looks like Stanley Kubrick on the right
>>527896
And Arthur C Clarke to the left
Neither of them look like leaders
