OP, do you truly believe that these "clans" were based mainly or even mostly on religion/ethnicity? Or could it have possibly been loyalty towards the Chekist/BolshevikLeviathan?

What clans do you mean? Khazarian/Ukrainian Jews? Soviet Union elite families?

Stalin in his power-hungry paranoia (or insight?) pretty much wiped the floor with much of the Bolshevik Leviathan or elite Soviet Union families during his rule (minus the Birobidzhan, that is really damn interesting). He was from Georgia and not someone I'd consider a Bolshevik or Jew.

After he died it was pretty much free game. You had Ukrainians take power over the Communist Party thanks to Khruschev and later you started having other families climb the degree of hierarchy through the Chekist/Silovik route. The Chekist/Silovik route looks like it allows more meritocracy as I imagine most officers in KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, FSO, the Federal Drug Control Service, or other armed services were not part of prominent families and "productive" work allowed openings to climb up in the system. However, once you were a higher up status in the Communist state, it was very easy to stay there.

In capitalism with a free-market, when a family climbs the hierarchy, future generations get taken down the hierarchy when they lose their money/influence through bad decisions and living in decadence. It happens very often when government regulations don't prop up corporations/elite the upcoming generations are terrible at handling money. They're not able to live without the decadence they were born into so they lose the fortune they were born into and generations after have to find a way to make that money back. This is a generational cycle that I've observed from people/families I've met in life.

In Soviet Union, I would say the only ways to get taken down the hierarchy was a monstrous purge like Stalin did or an individual speaking out against the USSR. In fact I would so far to say if Stalin hadn't taken power and killed all rivals to power while weakening/starving/terrorizing his population, the USSR would've collapsed much sooner. It's Communism right? Even if you lose all your money, you can just use influence in the government to get more money. The problem is if nobody comes in and purges these elite families and they still retain political power over the USSR, their numbers will grow like a cancer and pretty soon the state will not be able to carry their weight with the same levels of decadence.

Also, do you honestly believe that since the West applied some token pressure that they just shrugged their shoulders and gave up their power in ANY of the republics without any fight? When and where in human history does that ever happen?

I'm gonna take the time to read these links before I answer this and I'll reply to you in another comment. Thanks for the interesting info!

OP, do you truly believe that these "clans" were based mainly or even mostly on religion/ethnicity? Or could it have possibly been loyalty towards the Chekist/BolshevikLeviathan?

What clans do you mean? Khazarian/Ukrainian Jews? Soviet Union elite families?

Stalin in his power-hungry paranoia (or insight?) pretty much wiped the floor with much of the Bolshevik Leviathan or elite Soviet Union families during his rule (minus the Birobidzhan, that is really damn interesting). He was from Georgia and not someone I'd consider a Bolshevik or Jew.

After he died it was pretty much free game. You had Ukrainians take power over the Communist Party thanks to Khruschev and later you started having other families climb the degree of hierarchy through the Chekist/Silovik route. The Chekist/Silovik route looks like it allows more meritocracy as I imagine most officers in KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, FSO, the Federal Drug Control Service, or other armed services were not part of prominent families and "productive" work allowed openings to climb up in the system. However, once you were a higher up status in the Communist state, it was very easy to stay there.

In capitalism with a free-market, when a family climbs the hierarchy, future generations get taken down the hierarchy when they lose their money/influence through bad decisions and living in decadence. It happens very often when government regulations don't prop up corporations/elite the upcoming generations are terrible at handling money. They're not able to live without the decadence they were born into so they lose the fortune they were born into and generations after have to find a way to make that money back. This is a generational cycle that I've observed from people/families I've met in life.

In Soviet Union, I would say the only ways to get taken down the hierarchy was a monstrous purge like Stalin did or an individual speaking out against the USSR. In fact I would so far to say if Stalin hadn't taken power and killed all rivals to power while weakening/starving/terrorizing his population, the USSR would've collapsed much sooner. It's Communism right? Even if you lose all your money, you can just use influence in the government to get more money. The problem is if nobody comes in and purges these elite families and they still retain political power over the USSR, their numbers will grow like a cancer and pretty soon the state will not be able to carry their weight with the same levels of decadence.

"clans"

What clans do you mean? Khazarian/Ukrainian Jews? Soviet Union elite families?

Stalin in his power-hungry paranoia (or insight?) pretty much wiped the floor with much of the Bolshevik Leviathan or elite Soviet Union families during his rule (minus the Birobidzhan, that is really damn interesting). He was from Georgia and not someone I'd consider a Bolshevik or Jew.

After he died it was pretty much free game. You had Ukrainians take power over the Communist Party thanks to Khruschev and later you started having other families climb the degree of hierarchy through the Chekist/Silovik route. The Chekist/Silovik route looks like it allows more meritocracy as I imagine most officers in KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, FSO, the Federal Drug Control Service, or other armed services were not part of prominent families and "productive" work allowed openings to climb up in the system. However, once you were a higher up status in the Communist state, it was very easy to stay there.

In capitalism with a free-market, when a family climbs the hierarchy, future generations get taken down the hierarchy when they lose their money/influence through bad decisions and living in decadence. It happens very often when government regulations don't prop up corporations/elite the upcoming generations are terrible at handling money. They're not able to live without the decadence they were born into so they lose the fortune they were born into and generations after have to find a way to make that money back. This is a generational cycle that I've observed from people/families I've met in life.

In Soviet Union, I would say the only ways to get taken down the hierarchy was a monstrous purge like Stalin did or an individual speaking out against the USSR. In fact I would so far to say if Stalin hadn't taken power and killed all rivals to power while weakening/starving/terrorizing his population, the USSR would've collapsed much sooner. It's Communism right? Even if you lose all your money, you can just use influence in the government to get more money. The problem is if nobody comes in and purges these elite families and they still retain political power over the USSR, their numbers will grow like a cancer and pretty soon the state will not be able to carry their weight with the same levels of decadence.

"clans"

What clans do you mean? Khazarian/Ukrainian Jews? Soviet Union elite families?

Stalin in his power-hungry paranoia (or insight?) pretty much wiped the floor with much of the Bolshevik Leviathan or elite Soviet Union families during his rule (minus the Birobidzhan, that is really damn interesting). He was from Georgia and not someone I'd consider a Bolshevik or Jew.

After he died it was pretty much free game. You had Ukrainians take power over the Communist Party thanks to Khruschev and later you started having other families climb the degree of hierarchy through the Chekist/Silovik route. The Chekist/Silovik route looks like it allows more meritocracy as I imagine most officers in KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, FSO, the Federal Drug Control Service, or other armed services were not part of prominent families and "productive" work allowed openings to climb up in the system. However, once you were a higher up status in the Communist state, it was very easy to stay there.

In capitalism with a free-market, when a family climbs the hierarchy, future generations get taken down the hierarchy when they lose their money/influence through bad decisions and living in decadence. It happens very often when government regulations don't prop up corporations/elite the upcoming generations are terrible at handling money. They're not able to live without the decadence they were born into so they lose the fortune they were born into and generations after have to find a way to make that money back. This is a generational cycle that I've observed from people/families I've met in life.

In Soviet Union, I would say the only ways to get taken down the hierarchy was a monstrous purge like Stalin did or an individual speaking out against the USSR. It's Communism right? Even if you lose all your money, you can just use influence in the government to get more money. The problem is if nobody comes in and purges these elite families and they still retain political power over the USSR, their numbers will grow like a cancer and pretty soon the state will not be able to carry their weight with the same levels of decadence.