What if the Soviet Union Never Fell? | Alternate History

In this video I talk about the fall and collapse of the Soviet Union, its immediate consequences, and what might have happened had it survived till the present.

The major changes in this scenario include no Saur revolution in Afghanistan, no Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Gorbachev's reforms being very different and more akin to Chinese reforms in the 70s.

[eliasziad]

Absolutely crazy to think about that one Russian, born in the year between 1900-1910 was born under the Russian empire, tsar nicholas, then go through ww1 and then the Russian revolution, then under Stalin during ww2, then living peacefully in the USSR 45 years during the cold war. Then experiencing the Soviet collapse, and finally dying after 1999 under the Russian federation under President Putin...

[tragarts]

"They are our brothers, these freedom fighters". That aged well.

[Marylandbrony]

I would like to see what the miliary technology would be like actually as a lot of programs got canceled or scaled back due to the USSR collapsing in both the east and the west and it would be interesting to see how tech develops with a peer level conflict in mind for 3 decades instead of the war on terror and a third world war perhaps breaking out in February of 2022.

[justinroyse]

Yugoslavia might have actually survived because they were reliant upon both the Soviet Union and United States for economic aid. This isn’t gospel, just something to consider.

[nikitanosov]

You are missing one big point. Without collapse of USSR, there would not be a free for all theft of Soviet property and resources as what has happened in the 90's

USA would be in much bigger debt spiral without a way to write off it's currency debt. The economic boom of the 90's would probably not have happened. NAFTA and globalization would not have happened as fast as it have.

There is a very real possibility of USSR and China working out their differences of the 70's

[electrifiedbathbomb]

I highly kinda doubt the USSR would stay authoritarian since gorvachev's goal has always been democracy and transparency in my opinion and most likely the USSR would rebrand itself into the soviet federation or something
But this video is still a very good interpretation of what would happen

[jgr]

the thing is: the PRC had to build up all their production capacity from nothing, meanwhile a Perestroika-only opened USSR would be at the technological level to start being the factory of the world.
yes, the USSR's industry was extremely advanced in some areas (Buran > Shuttle), but it was also quite behind Western industry standards in other (see autos). esides that, we have the fact that standards of living were lower in the USSR, & so were wages in 1991.
with all that put together, we have a highly educated poor population in a highly technological country, which would be able to put out in 1991 the same level of products that China could in the 2ks+ for a fraction of the wages and better quality, all that right by the side of a major market.

my guess is that a Perestroika-only open USSR would have pushed the PRCs boom further down the line.

[robv.]

I think it would have made more sense if the USSR gave democratisation an other go (as was attempted in 1936-1937 with a new constitution that allowed for non communist to run as candidates in elections etc), abandon market reforms and instead keep the planned economy but instead of basing it on output, do it properly by using computer systems to track demand. Thus making the economy much more effective and more appreciated by the people since it would be a demand based, non profit economy. That could kick of an era of liberty, democracy and economic satisfaction for the people in the USSR. Which in turn would have kept pressure on the western businesses not to let income and wealth inequality grow like it has done in the US, UK etc since the 70s untill this very day. For the average citizen in most countries of the world this could have meant a better position than compared to today's reality?

[bosanski_Cevap]

I think you are wrong with the Yugoslavian wars still happening. Many people claim ethnic tensions as the major reason for the war but in reality the ethnic tensions began just after the Yugoslavian economy hit recession in 1980s.
A still economical strong USSR would prevent the recession from becoming an economic disaster like it happen during the 90s where Hyperinflantion happened.
And if the Yugoslav wars still happened, I am not sure if an united Bosnian Federation could exist in this timeline duo the Serbs being more supported by the East while at the same time the Bosnian govnerment by the West

[raymondgough]

This was super interesting. It would have been great to have seen some rough economic and demographic estimates extrapolated from 80s trajectories or based on Eastern European GDPs

[maxwellschmidt]

amazing visuals, amazing in depth hypotheticals, very well done. I'd say this video beats all others relating to this topic.

[georgios_]

Another very interesting scenario. Thanks again, Neatling!

[MiserableMuon]

Ronald Reagan:"they owe our help"
Few decades later: *the state of Afghanistan*

[plexusGD]

Me on every single video: When's the new alternate history coming?
Neatling: What if the USSR never fell?
Me (Bulgarian): Oh HELL no

[johnythepvpgod]

There is a Russian serial on what if the Soviet union never collapsed. It has time travel and surreal plot points but it's amazing

[gwky]

From listening to my family talk about life under the Soviets, they didn't care about politics and thus were wholly detached from the divisive debates tearing our society apart today. The simply pretended to work, actually working like 3 days per month, would go on mandatory 2-week holidays twice per year to holiday resorts and spas, and pretty much drink and party all day every day, since if there wasn't anyone's birthday to celebrate, you would celebrate their friends birthday (in their name, obviously they weren't there in person) or their friend's friend's friends, and so on. They basically made up holidays to drink and party every day. After work, they'd go feast at each other's homes. I wonder if the internet and computerization would have been the same as it is in China, creating a vast internal market, but generally mimicking western tech companies, or if it would have been like North Korea, where only select families would have the ability to use the internet under strict supervision. At the very least, I know that millions wouldn't have killed themselves, and that USSR would have been a much more equal country. It's similar to when I ask my Chinese friends, and they say that they don't need freedom of speech or opinion, basically just don't talk about politics, and then you can do whatever you want. At least in USSR, everyone had free access to schooling of all levels and good healthcare. Free theater spectacles, artistic shows, etc. But my parents did say that the TV programs sucked, it was pretty much soviet propaganda or war films with intermittent showings of the communist party meetings. Boring shit. But hey, at least it was a simple life that everyone enjoyed. People in my home country often reminisce about the good old soviet days, I'm sort of the weird link between the ultra-radical left youth of today and the old conservative soviet boomers, so it's interesting to view such scenarios to contemplate what could have been.

[zombiegaming]

I think in this alternate timeline China would team up with USSR (like with Russia in our timeline) because of many reasons:

1. Economic ties, both would have market socialism economies

2. USA would be militarily active in Turkiye, directly threatening USSR, forcing it to seek new allies

3. USA would support Taiwan against China (like in our timeline)

4. USA would start focusing on China more than USSR/Russia because China would be surpassing USA in economy and technology (like in our timeline)

5. It was Gorbachev who fixed relations with China, which is reason why Russia and China are allies in our timeline

6. USSR and China both would be seen as a threat by the west, forcing them to work together

7. America would have its bases in Far East, Middle east, Turkey, Europe, Taiwan, effectively encircleing both USSR and China

8. Iran and Pakistan would allign themselves with USA as they would see USSR, China and communism as a threat to their culture and islam

9. Liberal-democratic India would have closer relations with communist USSR (and not with China because of their border dispute) than also liberal-democratic USA and the west because of 1971. but, still would remain non-alligned (like in our timeline)

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention that in this timeline North Korea, as Soviet sattellite would likely follow steps of USSR like other Soviet-alligned states so it would be able to secularize, modernize and compete with South Korea

[aeronaut]

that's nutty to think that if the USSR's Afghanistan didnt go so horribly, it would indirectly cause 9/11 and the whole war on terror to never happen

[HOTSHTMAN]

Correction, the soviet union allocated 1.5-2% of its MILITARY BUDGET towards the maintenance of its troops and equipment in Afghanistan. It didnt just randomly take it from its overall budget. There are CIA documents such as “The economic cost of the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan”, which further proves this

[jazzielcarrillo]

Interesting video and view for an alternative history to our own. But how would the world like if the Sino-Soviet split never happened.