I'm starting this new alternate history series to probe for interest on the Steemit community. This series will mostly consist of "what if" events throughout the course of human history. With lots of media attention on Russia in recent times, I thought this would be a good place to start. I will just be going over my predictions of what would have happened if Gorbachev had managed to hold the Soviet Union together.
This alternate history will start in the late 1980s / early 1990s. The scenario is that Gorbachev was the leader of both the communist party and the soviet union. Boris Yeltsin never rose to power and never took control. The satellite states decide to all keep their communist leadership and follow the general direction of the Soviet Union.
While the state maintains major sectors such as petroleum production, Gorbachev's perestroika allows private enterprise and international corporations in the Soviet Union. As many foreign investors and brands are attracted to the Soviet Union by the new potential markets, the Soviet economy experiences a massive growth for the first time in several decades. Petroleum exports begin to rise once again as the Soviet Union starts exporting to more capitalist countries.
With its booming economy, the Soviet Union never feels the need to withdraw from Afghanistan and ultimately maintain control of major regions in the middle east. As relations with the US thaw, the Islamic world, lead by Saudi Arabia, becomes the major enemy of the Soviet Union. After the Middle East condemns the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the tensions begin to escalate until violence breaks out. The Soviet Union is ultimately able to take over the Middle East, but not without extreme backlash from the international community. Tensions with the US begin to heat up once more after the Soviet Union defeats some of its Middle Eastern allies. At this point, the Soviet Union controls a majority of the world's petroleum production.
Meanwhile, the Soviets don't cancel their Buran spacecraft program, and successfully develop it to a point where they can easily send cosmonauts to a Soviet space station. The Americans are scared senseless by the sudden Soviet domination of space, and begin pouring tons of money into their Star Wars project in space. The Soviets begin to fund a similar program and ignite the second space race.
At this point, the Soviet Union and the United States are no longer two competing ideological superpowers, but rather two prideful imperialist countries that want to see the downfall of the other. As tensions reach an all time high, trade between the free world and the communist world is cut off. However, at this point they are roughly equals in terms of population and GDP.
The Soviet Union remains officially communist, while its internal workings have become very democratic and capitalist because of reforms. At this point, the world is split between two players who essentially want the same thing and to be better than the other (think of the centuries-long conflict between England and France).
As both sides ultimately have unlimited resources, the seconds space race becomes magnitudes greater than the first. Both superpowers establish colonies on the moon, and are quick to draw lunar borders claiming which parts of the moon they are entitled too. Similar actions happen on Mars and other celestial bodies.
As both nations develop capabilities of travelling beyond the solar system, they realize that the conflict is useless and join forces to propel humanity forward to conquer the galaxy!
Note: That Alternate History started off somewhat realistic but my imagination soon took over. If you would like future alternate histories to be more realistic, please leave your thoughts in the comments! As always, thank you.