What if the USSR had democratic elections in 1977, what would happen?
For that to happen the Constitution proclaimed that year needed to have been different, it was supposed to eliminate the clause that made the Communist Party the ruling force of the society and also those which excluded the possibility of other political parties to exist. But even if it had happened if wouldn’t have caused drastic immediate consequences. The Communist Party was still all powerful and popular, there were no other political parties in the country for 60 years, those who may have been created immediately after would have been very weak and minoritarian and lacked the resources to contend an election. You could not assume that capitalist countries were going to immediately start funding those opposition parties, in 1977 the US influence was in a low point after losing the Vietnam war and have the Watergate scandal, and the whole NATO block was under pressure by rising left wing movements in Africa, Latin America and the complicated situation in the Eastern Asia. Any sign of democratization in the Soviet Union would have been received with relief and surely they didn’t want to interfere with that. It would have taken several years before any impact could be noticeable.