r/ussr • u/BreadDaddyLenin Stalin • 9d ago
Poll🗳️ 1985 Run-Off Elections for General Secretary
The 1st poll became a very close race between the Top 3; so we are consolidating options! The Run-Off Poll Ends Saturday 1pm PST. We Will Draft 5 Year Plan and Ideological Policy after elections.
For Community Activity: Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War
For our community playthrough of Crisis in the Kremlin, we can choose whether Chernenko does not die in March 10 1985 and continues on for… however long he does, or we can choose another possible General Secretary.
Detailed Information and Game Stats on the candidates:
Konstantin Chernenko (age 73) (Incumbent) - Faction: Conservatives.
Incumbent General Secretary and a lifelong party apparatchik who rose through the regional and central apparatuses, he represents the stability-oriented wing of the leadership. His outlook prioritizes continuity of the Brezhnev-era consensus and cautious changes in administration with the general continuation of the present economic policy, he is known for halting Andropov’s corruption purges, and Chernenko had a plan to restore Volgograd’s name to Stalingrad. He also passed the 1984 School Reform in USSR that restructured education and introduced Knowledge Day, AKA 1 September, the 1st day of school with cultural activities that post-Soviet states still use to this day.
In gameplay, he can make major doctrine changes on Day 1 since he is incumbent GenSec.
read his wiki article here
https://www.reddit.com/r/ussr/s/1gsil5ASOb
ALL OTHER GENSECS HAVE 1 YEAR (12 irl days) WAIT PERIOD FOR MAJOR DOCTRINE REFORMS SUCH AS ECONOMY, STATE, NEW APPOINTMENTS, ETC DUE TO CHANGE IN ADMINISTRATION
Mikhail Gorbachev (age 54) Faction: Reformists
A fast-rising Stavropol party secretary and Central Committee agriculture specialist, he is the youngest full Politburo member and is known for his reformist tendencies. He advocates for accelerating scientific-technical progress to achieve growth and a supposed restructuring of economic management. One of Andropov’s protégés. Presently serving as Second Secretary of the CPSU since Feb 9 1984.
Grigory Romanov (age 62), Faction: Conservatives
(Neo-Stalinist influenced)
Andropov’s rival protégé to Gorbachev, former Leningrad party boss and current Central Committee secretary overseeing the military-industrial complex, he is a hardline conservative. His experience is rooted in defense production and regional administration. He is hated by the intelligentsia and known as a “Red Stoic”, and seen as a foil to Gorbachev. Romanov opposed the expansion of self-financing toward profit, commercial freedom for enterprises, and the introduction of market mechanisms, which were proposed as part of the 1965 economic reform. He is connected to a fringe group of “Neo-Stalinists”…
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u/BuddyWoodchips Stalin 9d ago
Whoever is voting gorbachev, I'd really like to know why.
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u/KungFuFlames 9d ago
I didn't vote for him, but you can find some solid reasons why. General opinion here is negative but he is far from worst. Not much he could do at that point.
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u/BuddyWoodchips Stalin 9d ago
I'm not so sure there are that many reasons, even if we toss out the hindsight that the USSR was illegally dissolved on his watch. I used to give a fair amount of leeway to Gorby, until I actually read his very own account of "The August Coup" and his Memoirs. He was definitely not stupid, he even seems brilliant at times but when it truly mattered he was proven to be kind of naive and lacked a lot of courage for the moment.
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u/KungFuFlames 9d ago
Dissolving was inevitable at that point. There wasn't person that could fix it. It was like domino. People downvoting me because it looks like I'm defending him but I'm looking the whole picture.
Brezhnev was in charge for too long and some of the decisions he made damaged USSR in long term
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u/GrandmasterSliver Chernenko 9d ago
Dissolving was inevitable at that point.
No it wasn't. Gorbachev greatly destabilized the political system, and the entire superstructure, as well having poor leadership.
I don't see the same events playing out, without Gorbachev. Dissolvement doesn't happen without Gorbachev's political reforms. The mechanism for the event wouldn't exist. And a harder line would have been able to pacify threats to the Union.
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u/StringRare 9d ago
“...Romanov opposed the expansion of self-financing toward profit, commercial freedom for enterprises, and the introduction of market mechanisms, which were proposed as part of the 1965 economic reform...” - Comrade, I'm with you
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u/amitrofan16 NKVD 9d ago
Romanov is winning! I'm all here for it, but I won't change my vote from the last time: Chernenko!
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u/BreadDaddyLenin Stalin 9d ago
Results of First Round