Guest Post: Stalin Fled Moscow

This article first appeared on Today in Alternate History.

March 5th, 1953 - Death of Stalin

Disgraced former Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin died in exile in his native Georgia.

His daughter Svetlana had discovered him semi-conscious on his bedroom floor four days earlier. Moved onto a couch, doctors determined that he had suffered a massive stroke. Years of alcoholism and chain smoking had taken their inevitably toll; he never recovered.

He had seized control of the Soviet Union following the premature demise of Lenin caused by a failed assassination attempt. Although equally ruthless, Lenin was an intellectual leader who would not have wished to be succeeded by such an ill-educated autocrat. The true military hero of the Russian Civil War, Leon Trotsky, was forced out and later assassinated in Mexico City. The sad truth was the death and savage brutality of the Eastern Front and its bloody aftermath had never really left the inner circle in the Kremlin.

Stalin inherited a broken under-developed state that he forced through accelerated reform to prepare for a Second World War that he was certain would follow within decades. The human cost was immense, and unfortunately Germany recovered even more quickly under an equally ruthless autocrat. Both men purged their military leaders, but Stalin's cuts were deeper. His paranoia robbed the Red Army of some of their finest officers. Deluded by some despicable shadow moves, Stalin was blind-sided by Hitler. Minsk quickly fell, and the road lay open to Smolensk and, ultimately, to Moscow. The German Blitzkrieg created a military catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, and Stalin was strongly advised to flee Moscow to avoid capture.

Plans were made for the Soviet government to evacuate to Kuibyshev. Reduced to "a bag of bones in a grey tunic," Stalin suffered a mental breakdown because of the consequences of his disastrous decisions. Realizing they would likely be shot by the NKVD, his daughter quietly took control of the situation. They fled into anonymity, and his eventual fate was not widely known until long after his death.

The Kuibyshev Government would be formed by Vyacheslav Molotov, but real power lie in the hands of a Supreme Defense Council led by Marshal Zhukov. In hindsight, the decision to flee Moscow was wholly unnecessary because the Germans fell short and failed to capture the capital. But in giving control back to the military, the tide of war was turned, and Zhukov mastered a remarkable comeback. His historic victory was much more than that: he had placed the Soviets in a position of global leadership. As Premier, he even built a deep and lasting relationship with French President Charles de Gaulle who saw him as a kindred spirit.

Nearly one out of twenty Soviet citizens would die in the conflict. The defeat of Hitler in the fall of 1944, earned with millions of Russian lives, created a very different and still-uncertain world order. In the final months of his life, President Roosevelt worked tirelessly to establish a United Nations organization that would prevent the outbreak of a Third World War. His successor Truman, joined with Zhukov, de Gaulle, and others to bring peace to a shattered world. This was a remarkable turnaround given that the Soviets had not even been invited to the Munich Conference a decade earlier.

Author's Note:

Stalin decided to remain in Moscow, believing his flight would damage troop morale.

Provine's Addendum:

Zhukov had been a lifelong soldier since his conscription into the First World War from his peasant family's farm in 1916. He had climbed through the ranks of the Red Army, defending the eastern frontier in the conflict with the Japanese Empire in 1939 at Khalkhin Gol, which earned Zhukov his first Hero of the Soviet Union award. He led with military brilliance to the Battle of Berlin and accepted the German Instrument of Surrender.

Unquestioned as the leader of the Soviet Union, Zhukov found himself in a very different role after the war. No longer was the goal to defeat an outward enemy but to care for the devastated nation, which would face years of recovery and famine as infrastructure was rebuilt. Fortunately, Zhukov had built good relations with the other Allies, especially fellow military men de Gaulle and Dwight D. Eisenhower. During one of the conferences, Eisenhower offered Zhukov one of his favorite drinks: a Coca-Cola. Zhukov was hesitant to try it since this was one of the greatest symbols of decadence and American imperialism. Indeed, since Eisenhower's first request in 1943 to have Coca-Cola bottling plants established in North Africa near his headquarters, the company had spread and laid roots wherever American troops set foot. Still, not to be rude, Zhukov tried it. He was won over by the taste, but he knew that being photographed or even rumored to drink Coca-Cola would damage his reputation. Instead, after the war, Zhukov approached Gen. Mark Clark, commander of US-occupied Austria, about a clear Coca-Cola, which would look much like vodka in photographs. "White Coke" soon began arriving into the Soviet Union territory through Austria in cases of nondescript bottles.

The experiment with western goods proved to be a defining moment for Zhukov's legacy. As more than two million Soviet veterans returned home, Zhukov encouraged them to dream of a better world for Soviets throughout the nations. After resources caught up with food and energy needs by 1947, thus ending rationing, Zhukov used the public desire for quality of life as a drive to continue to produce. Soviet versions of sodas, popular music, and fashionable clothing began to flow from worker-owned factories. Institutions liberalized with more rights for the Russian Orthodox Church and academia, and capital punishment was ended by 1947. Conservatives feared a loss of the ideals that had been hard-won in the civil war, but Zhukov countered he knew the struggle firsthand and wanted no Soviet citizen to ever face such dark days again. He denounced opposition as "Stalinists," cowards who abused power but fled when the people were threatened. Despite suffering a heart attack in 1948, Zhukov remained premier and cheered on Soviets to build a better world than had ever been seen before.

Although USSR-US relations were fair during the Truman administration, working to avoid nuclear proliferation beyond a mild stockpile for each nation and even to the point of organizing a ceasefire that ended the Chinese Civil War for a time with a north-south division, international diplomacy reached new heights with the election of Eisenhower. Experimental trade zones were set up across the Eastern European nations, but capitalist exporters became frustrated that Soviets could make copied goods more cheaply at home, which also avoided transport costs. Socialist workers also became frustrated when copies of Soviet designs were sold for profits by the bourgeoisie.

Encouraged by Zhukov's push for quality of life, Eisenhower also promoted at home ideas such as free interstate highways, public health, equality among race and gender, and increased vacation time, building off FDR's efforts to establish a social net for all Americans. The two nations carried out competition through athletic events in the Olympics and the Space Race, which spurred new technological marvels such as the miniaturization of computers, which would boost productivity and allowed for greater leisure worldwide.

In reality, Zhukov was soon removed from power by Stalin. Fearful of an uprising by veterans who had experienced the decadence of Europe (such as the Decembrists in 1825), Stalin conducted another purge by requiring POWs and many other soldiers to be questioned in filtering camps. While not nearly as bloody as the Great Purge, nearly half of those soldiers were sent to labor camps or resettled in isolation.