This is a background detail for a sci-fi novel and is not really important to the main plot or any specific ideological tenet. I have a tenuous grasp of non-RA2 history, so here's a summary of what I've been shower-thoughting:
- Sino Soviet Split happens in the 60s, maybe like normal.
- Deng Xiaoping is assassinated or couped in the 70s, resulting in roading to capitalism
- USSR reacts with re-stalinization or w/e
- By 2010, China is fascist, USSR is principled AF, the US has a weird divide where some states turned to light socialism and some turned hard fascist, weakening the federal government for being effective at anything outside of imperialism.
I know in novel writing you can just hand-wave anything, but any advice for "making it work" or replacement ideas would be appreciated. The whole purpose of this is for me to rule-of-cool the USSR still being around.
Maybe just have someone other than Gorbachev take over the USSR and it lasts until today? The Sino-Soviet split was starting to thaw out by the late 80s, and a diplomatic rapprochement was happening. You could look at the way Russia and China have built an alliance recently based on shared interests and grievances, and have that happen in the 90s-00s.