Harmy said:

Oh, really? So when Joseph Stalin died in 1953, the USSR just fell apart within a couple of years, did it? Or do you think that if Hitler was killed in say 1941, the National Socialists would have just called it a day and capitulated? (Without Hitler's egomania, they may actually have had a better chance at winning the war). Or you can go even further back; When Caesar was murdered, was the Roman Republic automatically restored?

Re: Stalin: he didn't found the Soviet Union, and the post-Stalin USSR was very different (de-Stalinization took place).