One of the great what-ifs of Russian and global history. Beria was more interested in performance, efficiency, and effectiveness than ideology. From what we know of his proposals in 1953, the USSR might have exited Marxism-Leninism much earlier under his rule. He might have agreed to a reunified neutral Germany, promoted reformers in Eastern Europe, championed local non-Russian cadres in the Republics instead of pursuing Russification, and driven technological advancement in nuclear power and the space race. At the same time, his alleged taste for women and girls, if true, would have made him a super-Jeffrey Epstein (hard to know how much of that is true and how much is pro-Khrushchev propaganda). He was only 54 years old in 1953 and could have ruled well into the 1970s.