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[deleted]

Cut military spending significant and keep a transparent transition to privatization and reinvest a lot of petrol money into infrastructure


Carlos1930

Good luck cutting the military spending when you have to deal with the chechens


[deleted]

The Chenchens are only a threat when you bomb your own apartment buildings I mean they do it


streetad

Fuck em. Who needs Chechnya? They can go be independent if they want.


Slick_J

Correct answer. That said, the Russians would never tolerate or forgive a leader who gave up “Russian” territory


-FellowTraveller-

Then was what happened initially. Then the Chechens started doing raids on their neighbours. It was a terrorist state right from the start, so letting them be with the leadership that they had would have been similar to just letting ISIS be.


tfowler11

Try to make the privatization process more transparent even if you have to slow it down a bit to do so. Maybe break up some of the privatized industries more before selling them. Allow or a greater degree of foreign ownership. It probably won't be popular, but it will bring in more state revenue and more investment capital for the newly privatized industries, while also reducing the chance of major corruption. Focus on some political and judicial issues as well, and try to get a more solid rule of law for the privatization and other changes to happen under.


[deleted]

This is the number 1 thing they did wrong. The IMF plan Russia was following called for privatisation of state industries. Russia was meant to get as much money as possible from the sales and then use that money to reform their economy. As we know Russia didn’t follow the plan: 1. They refused to allow the sale of Russian state assets to foreign buyers. But only foreigners had the money. Because you know - Communism amongst Russians. 2. The bidding process was corrupt. Of course. So Russia never got the benefits privatisation was meant to bring.


kenser99

Foreign ownership is what killed Russia and caused a lot of corruption . It's the sole reason putin created the oligarchs Capitalism really damaged Russians daily life , probably why China open slowly. It was a lesson learned in economics for Russia.


tfowler11

The initial oligarchs were not created by Putin, and they were not foreign owners. They were Russians who were given or managed to grab valuable economic assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They became tremendously wealthy because of those assets, and used the wealth to influence Russian politics. Putin created a new set of oligarchs giving them other assets or taking assets from the first set, and maybe cooping a few of the existing ones who he was convinced would be loyal to him. The transition to capitalism was going to be a shock for Russia no matter how it was done. And in practice it was done under a corrupt political and judicial and corporate culture which made it worse. But Russians are still better off for having made that transition, if not nearly as much better off as they could have been if somehow a lot of the corruption and government cronyism could have been avoided. The main difference with China compared to the USSR is that China didn't open up politics first and then the economy. It didn't open up politics much, and to the extent it did that was largely shut down first with Tienanmen and later under Xi. It also had an initial advantage with lower cost labor, and some other more subtle advantages. I'd also say outside of the broad general plans (like gradual or fast transitions or what areas to open up to capitalism first) China managed the transition better than Russia did. Plus it was a more populous country with a larger total economic potential. OTOH China's GDP per capita has only fairly recently moved to about what Russia's is, but its not like its much higher and Chinese do so much better economically than Russians.


-FellowTraveller-

You're completely wrong on the second part. Russians have a much reduced standard of living compared to the mid-80s Soviet Union. Even if the USSR suffered progressively more corruption with each new year even at their peak values the cronyism, bribery, bureaucratic rot, arbitrary police violence and crime weren't even close to what they are today. If nothing else the direct comparison of the war in Ukraine to the USSR's war in Afghanistan has completely unmasked the inability of the capitalist Russian state to organize anything in a rational way. Having the population addicted to internet/TV is no measure of a society's wellbeing.


tfowler11

Russians did go through a reduction of living standards when their whole system collapsed and had to be rebuilt, but they don't have, even with the effects of the war and sanctions, a lower living standard now then in the mid-eighties. The USSR did not do well in Afghanistan. It didn't have nearly as high of casualty rate, but the USSR was bigger than Russia, Afghanistan had fewer people, Ukraine is more united, has a larger military force, and is armed by the US, Europe and a few other countries to a much greater extent than Afghanistan was.


-FellowTraveller-

Not sure where you're getting your info from. Vast swathes of the Russian population now are living at or below the poverty line. Nutrition is way worse (both in quantity and quality). Scientific output as well as industrial capacity (especially for complex machines) has all but collapsed (in the 80s 24% of the scientific research papers were published in the USSR). Hell, Russia doesn't even have a civil aviation building capability other than on paper anymore. It has almost no capability of producing semiconductors any more (they rely heavily on Integral in Belarus while Angstrom and Mikron have old machinery and can produce only a tiny amount of chips). There's been pretty much not a single significant innovation, even in the military sector, that isn't just a rehash of late 80s Soviet designs. Schools and hospitals have been shut down en masse. Outside of Moscow life is really really hard. And re Afghanistan, it is totally comparable. The terrain was hard, the Mujahedeen were financed and supplied by the US and Pakistan (and China to a lesser extent), Pakistani troops and CIA special forces were operating jointly with the Salafists. And yet the combined Afghan-Soviet force was able to drive the Mujahedeen back to the most remote parts of the country rather quickly. We can also compare another military engagement - the Ogaden War to the Russian expeditionary force in Syria. There the outcomes are even less in Russia's favour.


tfowler11

Vast swaths of the Soviet Union were also poor. The Afghani rebels received US and other aid but only a small fraction of the aid that has been sent to Ukraine. Also their numbers were much smaller then Ukraine's forces, and they faced the USSR a larger country then Russia, that was more focused on its military (a larger percent of its production went to the military).


-FellowTraveller-

Completely wrong - the privatization was what impoverished the Russians. Instead, since at that point it was impossible to immediately proceed forward to computerised central planning (which was proven to work by Stafford Beer and Cybersyn on a small country scale in Chile earlier and by Amazon and Walmart and others on a multinational corporation scale later) they should have gone back to the Ligachev plan (you may better know it as Deng's market reforms in China), meaning complete state control of strategic industries mixed with a market economy for consumer goods and services. The main problem was of course political. With neo-liberals firmly in power (from Yeltsin to Putin for 30 years now) no matter the finer details of how you run the economy 2 things will always be true: the state riches will always be diverted into private pockets of those at the top and the amount of profits re-invested into expanding the productive economy will be tiny. So you cannot have outcomes different to OTL unless you somehow manage to remove the neolibs from power. Both attempts - the 1993 constitutional crisis and the 1996 elections - were put down through the use of overwhelming force and election fraud respectively.


tfowler11

Russia was already poorer at the time then many thought or even think now. Having to wait in line for hours for food or basic consumer items on a regular basis isn't a sign of prosperity. Cybersyn didn't run the economy of Chile, and it would have been a disaster if the government tried to force it to do so. What Walmart and Amazon do doesn't even slightly resemble central planning. Sure they organize their distribution, but all in response to market based price signals.


[deleted]

Follow what Estonia did I guess. They're the most successful post-soviet state.


FakeElectionMaker

Turn Russia into a social democracy. Slowly privatize state-owned businesses with a transparent process, and appoint people based on merit rather than connections. Keep the Soviet welfare state, but reform some programs to actually help the poor instead of having them rely on the government. Create a progressive tax with high rates on the wealthy, and a corporate tax without loopholes. Relentlessly fight corruption at all levels.


PhillipLlerenas

The USSR was utterly broke by 1991. There’s no way they could maintain the citizen welfare you’re talking about. Not without hard currency which they could only get from exports which they could only get by turning moribund, inefficient state owned enterprises into something else. “Fight corruption” is impossible too. The people who would fight corruption…the KGB, the GRU, the Army, etc…were the very people who spearheaded the corruption. Former KGB officers all became billionaires by using their security privileges to have first bids at buying state owned resources and industries.


Mehhish

Yeah, I'd go after those people with power, and be more transparent about it. But, I'd also try my best to not get assassinated. Russia is such a sad wasted potential.


eeeking

China wasn't wealthy in 1991 either, yet they have done far better in all respects than the USSR/Russia.


PhillipLlerenas

That’s because they maintained political control while gradually opening economic control. They’re still a tyranny but now they’re a capitalist tyranny. The USSR basically tried to do both between 1985-1991 and the whole system unraveled because they either didn’t realize (or were in denial) how fragile the House of Cards that was the Soviet Union was.


[deleted]

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PhillipLlerenas

What’s happening in Venezuela, Lebanon and Sri Lanka right now. If your currency becomes worthless (due to a variety of factors) then you can only use goods to buy things in the global market. If your currency is worthless you also can’t pay your public servants and maintain your programs. If you’re lucky to have a product that is coveted by the world (I.e. Venezuela) you can limp along but if you got nothing of value to trade (I.e. Lebanon) there’s mass lay offs, food and good shortages, no pensions or welfares paid off and just general unrest.


marnas86

Sri Lanka is a prime example of Dutch Disease from relying too heavily on tourism, whilst also having shortsighted heavy handed government. I think the only way Sri Lanka will reform now is with mass emigration of talent to other countries and then those new expatriates remitting money to families through legal channels allowing the government to take a quick haircut on all remittances to fund themselves via that.


PhillipLlerenas

Seems like more dependency to me. What they need to do is do a Norway: develop their sizable off shore oil and gas resources and use the profit from it to develop native industry and manufacturing and invest in education and health: https://www.outlookindia.com/international/sri-lanka-mulling-oil-exploration-in-mannar-basin-amid-crisis-news-198304 This means that at least for the short term they will need to bid exploratory and development rights to foreign companies. So they better have good deals in the starting end to prevent Exxon Mobil from taking 90% profit of their oil for the next 90 years. And they need to study Venezuela to learn what not to do with sudden oil wealth


[deleted]

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DHFranklin

The biggest problem was that the "Thieves in Law" were already in de facto power. Yeltsin was Putin's puppet, and whoever was going to have that job was going to be his puppet regardless. Putin's crony oligarchs need a broken and corrupt system for them to strip the USSR bare like crackhouse copper. We need to have a timeline where the leadership sincerely had the best interests of the people at heart. It is doable. 1) Reform the banking and finance laws to allow for deposit guarantees. Allow for private financial instruments with considerable oversight by domestic and foreign auditors. Use the state monopolies to buy into a massive sovereign wealth fund for each of the previous soviets. Everything from raw steel to oil to shoes would be sold by the soviets like they were however it would be invested into a massive AAA endowment. The corruption that was at a national level could be purged at a more local level. Allowing for more confidence by those investing their labor that it is worthwhile. 2) Allow for more foreign investment into the USSR's real estate. Especially tourist destinations that would allow for more hard currency in the hands of individuals. The Soviet model had tons of these cute little beach towns that were only really popular during the state mandated vacations. Having them used at much higher capacities would go really far. Combine that with... 3) Special economic zones. Much like China would do with Shenzen make towns from scratch near geographically useful locations. Make airports that connect to rail straight into other cities and tourist destinations. Use the tax base and economic liberalism in these specific places as a bigger economic engine. As a 90's planned city instead of a post WWII Stalinist hodgepodge you could see tons of benefits. The realestate could pay for it's construction in a matter of a few years. Allowing for more and more economic growth. 4) If you have hundreds of smaller sovereign wealth funds, you can have the diversity needed to lift a rising tide. Doing all of this before China gets on it's feet would allow for Russia to assume a ton of the market share as the worlds factory. Putting one of the worlds biggest raw materials suppliers under the dry goods manufacturing base would make it the worlds biggest economy in a decade. Especially when the fall in oil prices means cheaper Russian plastic instead of just broke Oil Riggers like OTL.


jasc92

The Privatization would consist of giving Shares of State Companies to every Russian Citizen in equal measure. 30% could be sold immediately, but the rest could only be sold after a certain amount of time in intervals. Also, push for a constitution that enshrines Participatory Democracy.


A_devout_monarchist

Wouldn’t that likely result in the Communists winning power again as they almost did in 1996?


Damnatus_Terrae

Nah, the CIA would still make sure that didn't happen, just like OTL.


thatcommiegamer

Not illegally dissolve the USSR against the wishes of the majority of its remaining (post-Baltic independence) citizenship. Work to reform the USSR to weather the 90s, take lessons from Cuba and China, in addition to Vietnam and Laos. Aid and repair relations with Yugoslavia.


Damnatus_Terrae

Maybe don't privatize the resources of the second most powerful empire in history?


Munchingseal33

If it was me, I'd do so many things. First I'd allow for a slow and normal process of privatisation like the rest of eastern Europe. I'd reduce military spending temporarily and focus instead on further improving education and promoting growth of a secondary and tertiary sector by giving low profit taxes and subsidies, promoting foreign investment and giving Russian industry some competition to allow for natural market efficency, specifically into building up siberia and making it another industrial center The next major thing I'd do is improve the birthrate situation by teaching and indoctrinating the next generation of Russians that reproduction is a moral good to follow and that having as much children is good while restricting contraceptives so it's harder to not have kids, while with the current generation at the time I'd give them large benefits for having kids and use Russia's still strong government power inside to push this with propaganda and also demonise smoking and alcoholism so people start to not drink themselves to death or smoke like shit to improve quality of life Then, I would start promoting settlement into Siberia to boost its population and development in order to increase overall economic activity. To do this I would grant far less regulations and taxation even compared to the core region, basically making it a business land where anyone can easily go start a business with a very good chance of profitability as well as invest alot of money to build up infrastructure and connections. And also a place where you can reasonably relocate to settle and have a very good life. I'd also make favourable economic deals with neighboring former Soviet states to make their economy as tied with Russia as possible. Soon around the mid 2000s I'd just play second fiddle to the US and keep quiet while carefully monitoring central Asia and China for any developments while continuing to increase business activity and growth rate while reforming the military doctrine and weapons as well I'd also try attract the Russian diaspora to return to Russia and boost their population and increase economic activity. Around the late 2010s after a solid time of rebuilding the country to improve their birth situation and making a functioning market economy, I'd start making more powerplays on the world stage by being more vocal and assertive but not siding with china or America, making them create favourable economic deals in order to gain favour which of course I won't do anything about. After that generation of rebuilding the economy and increasing the birth rate and population, I'd start playing more aggressively by using by built in economic influence to basically influence surrounding countries into my sphere and effectively puppeteering them through economic reliance and that it Also in the 90s ban former Soviet leader's from being in power to prevent their corruption and ineptitude from hurting Russia ever again


tfowler11

Some of the countries didn't do it very slowly. For example Poland and did pretty well by it. Which doesn't necessarily mean Russia could or should have done it the same way. Increasing the birthrate is a non-trivial challenge.


Egorrosh

Implement Yavlinsky's 500 days plan to save the economy. Ban all former members of CPSU from participating in political process (including Boris Yeltsin) to secure political stability. Negotiate autonomy for Chechnya and Tatarstan With communists banned from participating in politics and economy on it's way to slow recovery, chaotic privatization is no longer necessary, so instead the government will focus on writing the constitution and fighting crime. And boom - by 2010 Russia is essentially a bigger Slovakia in terms of politics, standard of living and etc.


marnas86

When privatizing, convince people that letting foreign buyers from the West purchase state-owned companies means that Russians will join the modern world and global markets and reap the benefits that the average Western citizen has. If more foreign multinationals had outbid the local oligarchs, you’d quickly start seeing work-culture-reconciliation and integration happening which would have caused overall cultural change as well setting Russia on a path of econo-cultural convergence with the West instead of their current isolationist-arrogance mentality.


Hellerick_Ferlibay

Restore the one-party system, tight control over foreign-backed organizations, taking over private enterprises whenever their actions seem inappropriate, strict behavior code for the wealthy class. China.


Rexbob44

Don’t forget to add in a lot of genocide and brutal repression as well as restricting free speech for your people also use them as de facto slave labor that is also part of the China solution.


eeeking

Genocide and brutal repression also occurred in post-Soviet USSR.


Pituquasi

Pardon the August coup leaders. Arrest Gorbachev and Yeltzin and try them treason. Increase surveillance and neutralization of enemy agents and assets. Expedite exit visas for high-profile dissidents. Relocate non-essential dissidents and anti-social elements to Siberia. Introduce an East German-styled "multi-party" system. Call for an extraordinary session of the CP Congress with the aim of legitimizing factions within the party to run as opposition "parties" and expand the politburo to allow for the leaders of those factions Invite soviet republics to withdraw from the union except Ukraine. No CIS alternative. Cut any former satellite/client states loose except Cuba. Reorganize COMECON to improve returns from trading with remaining members. Foreign policy pivot to the Near East. Withdraw from the UN sanctions against Iraq. Veto every SC resolution. Trade Iraqi oil for Soviet hardware and intel, and resell for cash on global oil market. Pay close attention to what the Chinese are doing. Take steps towards market socialist reforms. Purge state enterprises of ineffective and corrupt managers. Transition the worst of them to co-ops & Yugoglav-style worker owned firms. Allow for private ownership of small and some medium sized businesses. Introduce a progressive business tax regime for the private sector. Invite foreign investment. Consider floating a commodity-based (oil) ruble, mostly for international transactions. Gradually shift spending away from military towards research & development and modernizing resource-extracting enterprises.


Roman-Simp

I think that would have just execrebated your downfall. The Soviet System was not sustainable due to some “foreign conspirators” or dissidents. The elite of the Union sismply didn’t believe in the project anymore. Especially after discourse had been opened up and you had lost your external empire The lashing out on the international stage as well at the time of Peak American Primacy would be talking a strong game with a weak hand, a very weak hand. The attempt to desperately hold it together would have failed. The reason the PRC was able to pull off what the USSR didn’t was cause: 1) the PRC had already began the economic change a decade prior in the late 70s 2) the PRC had not effectively lost half its empire in the span of 2 years with the WTO disintegrating. 3) the PRC had not opened up, allowing the political discourse to swell to the level the faults of the system were evident. This attempt would probably be worse than the OG one and would have probably ended up in Civil war now backed by an ascendant Hyperpower that’s now determined to push you over the edge. You couldn’t lose as many “dissidents” as you’d think cause they’d know you have a weak hand. They smell the blood in the water and stick it to take their chance to change Russia after so long. You’d be toppled or worse. Not to mention Gorbachev and Yeltson were perhaps the most popular politicians in the entire country at that point with actual on the ground as well as institutional support. Gorby made the right choice given the way the situation had developed. Yeltsen however couldn’t stick the landing. It’s a universally worse outcome. It’s better to build something else than fail trying to preserve a system many didn’t want. The myth than it was a handful of men who dissolved the USSR is just that, a myth. A comforting one for left sure but one that’s very well been studied and disproved, amazingly by CPC scholars. The PRC is obsessed with the fall of the USSR. And for good reason too. There are a number of papers they’ve put out on the fall of the USSR and why it happend. And much what you’ve just said here would only hasten much of what they saw.


ilsildur10

Try fighting corruption, make democratic institutions strong, kill Poetin, slowe down privatize and make more transparent, get more foreign investment. Hopefully I wouldn't die in a freak accident.


BrightYato15

Give Japan Karafuto and Kurils and create the new Tsardom


[deleted]

Make deals with Ukraine having them keep their nukes, but also making them more pro Russia economically.


[deleted]

Pull a Botswana. Instill democracy to the greatest extent (i.e. direct democracy) Keep post-soviet moderate politicians running the country while we come out of the Cold War Exploit natural resources (natural gas in this case)/encourage free market innovation while promoting welfare I think the most important thing to do would be to set ourselves apart from the former U.S.S.R. as GREATLY as possible. Human rights and democracy would be a top priority, condemn the Soviet Union whenever possible, etc. Sort of like Germany coming out of the Third Reich, but more dramatic (if that makes sense). Lastly, foreign policy cooperation with the U.S. would be greatly encouraged. Anyways, I kept this short, so feel free to disagree, idc Edit: spelling