- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Me neither, but it's worth observing that one of his greatest virtues, his ability to make the necessary compromises to put the USSR on a more sustainable trajectory that will hopefully (along with other factors) avoid the 70s-era stagnation that doomed it in our timeline, is one that has a limited shelf-life and does not necessarily make him the best contender to remain in charge indefinitely.Yeah, I am not sure... Masherov sounds like someone who could Gorbachev the Soviet Union potentially (once he gets more experience he could be fine). Abramov seems alright. But in general I have liked Kosygin's calls and wouldn't mind if he got another 5 years or so...
You're not wrong that too much idealism could blow up the Union too soon, though, because the entire institution is, for now, still very firmly founded on a lot of corpses and lies. Improving things rapidly and immediately will tend to delegitimize the entire project, to the point where people start defecting from it if they think they can do better by any means (e.g. nationalism).
I mean, I'm sure some of them went up into the patronage networks, because systems like that do continue to recruit people over time anyway.No, Voz hasn't brought them into the patronage networks. They're all legitimately dedicated communists out to get rid of corruption. They're young and idealistic.
But yeah, Voz did recruit a lot of young idealists with the general intent of pointing them at his enemies and pulling the trigger.