Soviet Union Wanted To Topple Honecker In 1987
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Summary

August 13, 2009: Allegedly, in 1987 the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to topple the East German leader Erich Honecker because of his hard-line views, so that they could reform the state. They sought out the East German spymaster Markus Wolf, who had ties to the KGB and had resigned as the chief of Stasi foreign intelligence in February of that year. In March, Wolf met with then-KGB deputy chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and Hans Modrow, the designated most likely successor to Honecker. However, Wolf was unable to get East German security forces behind him.

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Game and Story Use

  • If Wolf had been more successful, this might have been a good trigger point for an Alternate History.
    • If Honecker had been removed successfully instead of eventually causing public outrage in East Germany to reach a boiling point, the Soviet Union might have been able to continue to exist in a reformed state and still control its massive territories and satellite nations surrounding it.
    • On the other hand, if the situation in East Germany had gotten out of control with different factions of the security apparatus and East German army backing different leaders, it might have degenerated into a civil war - and with a larger involvement of the Soviet Union and other Warshaw Pact nations, degenerated further into a regional conflict.
  • Easily recycled with any instance of The Empire attempting to covertly replace one of their client kings or provincial governors for being excessively harsh - an overt replacement would bring discredit on the central state (and possibly upset other clients or governors) whilst a covert one allows them to defuse incipient revolt and maintain control. Failure, of course…
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