the quick demise of the ussr was a shock to the world and brought the cold war to an end with the fall of the soviets the world’s geopolitical landscape shifted setting the stage for the conflicts today in iraq afghanistan and ukraine yet what if as an exercise of alternate history we asked a simple question what if the cold war never ended what if the soviet union never collapsed and both sides to this day continued to compete against one another how would the soviet union adapt to the digital age and the revolution in technology what would this new ussr look like before we talk about this alternate world we need to look at how the soviet union fell in the first place the topic is highly debatable but the most accepted theory is that the ussr fell because its system was unadaptable any type of reform or adaptation led to the smallest cracks and the entire structure fell apart which is exactly what happened the reforms by gorbachev led to greater liberties for the people this being greater freedom of speech and political opposition yet these reforms backfired as exposure to the outside world led to the public realizing how corrupt and flawed their government really was the people simply lost faith in the system and demanded change with the birth of new technology the ussr was unable to stop the spread of these ideas to the people the best solution was to replace everything the ability to speak more openly allowed many to voice their opinion and their opinion was to leave the union many countries abandoned the ussr and the soviets fell yet in this alternate world what could be one possible scenario for the soviet union to survive however unlikely it may be this is one of the many possible alternate timelines which could have happened had the ussr continue to live for this scenario not only did the soviets somehow solve their economic stagnation but they are able to without allowing political and social freedom in this alternate timeline the soviet union survives because hard-line communists regain control from gorbachev and suppress political opposition and free speech gorbachev is never able to implement his reform policies the extreme soviet government cracks down on any liberal or western ideas that could be a suitable threat to their government’s hold-on power not only would the ussr need to combat revolutionary thinking in russia but also across all of eastern europe the scale of this type of oppression would be immense the soviet censor knew technologies and media coming to the people as they would fight the growing world of the internet this would have to mean the ussr would control what the people see and hear on the internet across east europe russia and central asia because the world would become so connected in the 1990s the government would worry new media could lead to their downfall communication with outsiders would be heavily regulated or non-existent since it couldn’t modernize the soviet union would become much more socially isolated as well if the true threat to the soviets would be western ideas they would seal off their country as much as possible to stop the flow of such thinking a 1990s soviet union would be very hermit-like outside of the ussr europe would remain completely divided today germany would not be unified at all since the soviets never allow any political opposition the eastern bloc nations are never allowed leniency any attempt to rebel against the ussr is met swiftly and brutally yugoslavia’s history would probably have taken a much different turn in our timeline after the fall of the ussr yugoslavia found itself in a difficult position its government was in trouble as the wave of revolutions across europe led its leaders to lose grip on their nation with the capital’s power weakening areas of the country broke off the strong ethnic tensions of the region led to sectarian violence and genocide which still scar the area today if the cold war never ended it’s assumed yugoslavia would not have broken up and the country would still be around the history of the 1990s would be drastically different than our own a more hardline soviet union could damage american soviet relations leading to a resurgence in cold war tensions the growing world of the internet and the global economy become grave threats to the ussr regime leading the government to crack down on internet use or perhaps have russia-only sites much like china has today this is only a scenario and not a prediction we’ll never know a hundred percent what the effects could be of such a situation but it’s fun to theorize since there is so much to talk about i can’t fit it all in one video so this scenario will be a new series in part two we’ll talk about the greater effects worldwide that the cold war could have on the 1990s and 2000s would the war on terror ever occur would the u.s invade iraq how would the us outlook on the world be what do you think the world would be like if the cold war never ended like us on facebook subscribe if you have not done so this is cody from the alternate history hub you Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw_RX0Cv4wo
