What if the Soviet Union never dissolved?

Answer 1

Mikhail Gorbachev's initiatives of Perestroika and Glasnost were attempts to reform the USSR into a more democratic and open entity, as well as to stop the economy being swallowed up by continued military over-spending.

By all accounts, the USSR should have been a rich nation, with a good standard of living for its citizens. It's plentiful natural resources (oil, gas, minerals) and vast farming lands, making it almost self-sufficient. It was only the mismanaging of these resources under Stalinist communism that stopped this wealth being evenly spread amongst its peoples. Even by 1989 the Soviet Unions Gross Domestic Product was higher than the USA's, however its GDP Per Capita was less than half that of the USA's. Again, this only demonstrates that the wealth of the nation was not finding its way into the pockets of its citizens, with even basic amenities like food, housing and power being neglected and in short supply.

If Gorbachev's reforms had succeeded as planned (instead of causing its collapse) they may well have turned the USSR into an entity similar to the current EU - The former Soviet republics would be more akin to independent nations, but unlike the modern EU, they would be subsidized and governed by Moscow and continue to fall under the umbrella title of the USSR. This would have certain advantages for trade, economy, employment and education.

In theory, Gorbachev's new USSR would now be able to turn its efforts away from a constant arms and technology race with NATO and be able to spend those resources on their own desperate internal requirements (housing, power, food, etc). Assuming that this vision of the Soviet Union followed Gorbachev's plan, by 2008 living conditions would not be vastly different to those in Western Europe today.

Would this vision of the USSR still be considered a superpower though? Reallocation of government spending into basic living needs would have meant massive cuts in spending to the Soviet military and Space Program (as happened in the early 90's when Russia became a republic). These two things were arguably what made the USSR a superpower in the first place, so in a sense no.

Gorbachev wanted to end the Cold War with NATO and to eradicate Nuclear weapons. His emphasis was on a new form of democratic communism that released its vice-like grip on the media, the economy and peoples lives. Who knows - perhaps if it had been successful we would be in a situation where western European countries were clamouring to join the USSR, rather than former Soviet republics trying to join the European Union as is the case now.

Answer 2

The Space Race would've picked up again, and we'd have moon colonies. That, or, the world would be a radioactive hole. Probably both.