The most obvious is the 1986 Chernobyl event for me.
1953 - The Corn man doesn’t win the power struggle in the CPSU after Stalin dies.
1956 - The Corn man does not attempt any kind of “de-Stalinization” but doesn’t really change much about his policies.
1960 - The ANPO protests in Japan escalate, as Kishi’s plan to use fascist forces to crack down on them doesn’t get blocked or some other circumstance.
1963 - Kennedy doesn’t die
1965 - Malcolm X escapes the assassination attempt.
1968 - The events of May 1968 escalate into a revolution for whatever reason (backing from the PCF, DeGaulle doesn’t call for early elections, etc. and either a radlib state is created in Western Europe or NATO intervenes just like the Warsaw Pact did in Hungary 1956 or Czechoslovakia that year. Martin Luther King survives the assassination attempt.
1969 - the Neo-Nazi NPD passes the 5% electoral thresshold in the West German elections. Brezhnev dies in an assassination attempt that was prevented IRL.
1970 - The fash coup plot in Italy, the Golpe Borghese, is attempted or possibly succeeds.
1973 - The US escalate the war in Vietnam yet again, turning it to a forever war. Allende finds out about and prevents Pinochet’s coup.
1974 - The Left wins the power struggle in post-revolutionary Portugal, creating a socialist state in western Europe, likely influencing the developments in Spain, where Franco was not long for the world. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus escalates into a war between Greece and Turkey - both military dictatorships, and both in NATO. Nixon stubbornly refuses to resign.
1975 - Thatcher loses the Conservative Party leadership election and the rise of the neoliberals is at least delayed.
1976 - A different faction wins the power struggle following Mao’s death.
1977 - Ethiopia gets defeated by Somalia in the Ogaden War.
1978 - A different faction wins the power struggle in the Iranian revolution. The Sino-Vietnamese war starts early with China rushing to defend its ally… the Khmer Rouge. A different cardinal is chosen to replace John Paul I, lessening the influence of the Catholic Church in Poland.
1980 - Reagan loses the US Presidential Election to Carter or another lib. The USSR decides against intervening in Afghanistan.
1981 - The USSR marches in to suppress the “Solidarity” campaign in Poland, much like in 1956 or 1968, but likely facing way more resistance.
1982 - The Falklands War doesn’t escalate, and Thatcher doesn’t get the boost in popularity from nationalism from that.
1983 - The diplomatic incident of the Rangoon bombing escalates to a second Korean War.
1984 - Andropov is succeeded by someone else.
1985 - Gorbachev doesn’t get the job.
1986 - Olof Palme survives. No Chernobyl Disaster.
1991 - The August Coup in the USSR succeeds.
No Chernobyl Disaster.
great list, but I’m actually going in the opposite direction on this one.
A more severe one? Alright, it’s your scenario - I just listed some possible divergence points.
I think the worst case scenario for Chernobyl was that Eastern Europe would become uninhabitable. I’m not changing the Chernobyl exclusion zone’s size though, instead the Chernobyl disaster will be caused by alien infiltrators for the purpose of conjuring a colossal alien demon thing. In my story the USSR is basically the last country on earth that’s not secretly controlled by aliens.
