During the 1920s, the Weimar Republic and the USSR had a close, if tentative, relationship and there were many secret suggestions to partition Poland between the two nations, none of which were realised and Soviet-Weimar relationships started breaking down. What would the international community do and how would history change in the following decades?
WI: Germany and the USSR attack Poland in the 1920s
- Thread starter Spam78
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Tyr Anazasi
Banned
Both sides were too weak to do so. The USSR even feared a two fronts war with Poland and Japan (although this was quite unrealistic).
While the French and Belgians freely occupy the industrial heartland of western Germany, the Weimar Republic will go to war against a country whose army is twice as big as its own? With an ally that was smashed to pieces by this same enemy just a few years earlier? An ally whose leadership is in the midst of a complex power struggle?
This.
As for how things would go: The Poles curbstomp the Germans, whose aggression provokes an invasion by France and Belgium. It is now clear to the world that Germany will never shed its warlike ways, and the state is partitioned into the kingdoms from which it was unified, with the exception of Prussia, which is itself neutered.
As for the USSR, the Poles defeat them as well, driving the state into civil war.
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What you have to remember about the Polish-Soviet War was that the Soviet Union wasn't at full strength given it was still fighting the White Russians and important industrial areas like Tsaritsyn had only just fallen. The Soviet Union had solidified and strengthened since 1921 and in the mid 20s would be more than capable of taking on Poland, especially if half its army was on the other side of the country fighting Germany, so I can't really see it being a curbstomp victory, if even a victory at all, for Poland.
The problem is that Poland will not fight alone this war, as France and Belgium and probably the UK will be fighting the Germans in the west, and as Romania will be probably fighting the Soviet Union. And countries as Hungary will probably send some military supplies to Poland as they did in 1920.
France alone will be able to crush the Germans armies who will lack heavy military equipment as heavy artillery and tanks when the french still have the military equipment from 1918 including thousands of light tanks as the Renault FT-17.
And Poland, which did not exist a few years before, was at full strength in 1920?
problem is that all of them put together dont have a snowballs chance in hell to deal with the soviets, logistics alone would keep them all from setting a foot on russian soil. there's also the very likely scenario of domestic worker uprisings and strikes in protest of the war and in support of the workers paradise(c)(tm).
Yes I'm sure that the average Josef Doev will fight to the death to protect the Soviet Union from the imperialist polish and rumanian troops (excuse me invade Poland). As he fought the Germans in 1941 when most of Soviet Union soldiers or citizens don't know about the genocidal german army and welcome the germans troops with bread and salt.
In 1921, famine had killed 5 millions people in the Soviet Union...
And the Soviet government just went over the Orthodox Church. In this year also, the Soviet Union had difficulties to put down the Kronstadt revolt and the Tambov area uprising...
Then you have the NEP period and in 1928, the Soviet Union just restored its economy to the 1913 level. With around 10M citizens less...
The second problem is that the threat of a communist uprising in France was rather inexistant.
And the best exemple is how quickly the french autorities disband the French Communist Party in 1939, even the communists newspapers were forbidden. Or how many french communists left the party and reaffirmed their commitment to national defense. When the Molottov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in August 1939, many of the french communists rejected the pact, and left the party, only when the Komintern ordered the French Communists leaders to be against the war, a part of them fled the country, the others were arrested.
And who did it, some right-wing fascistoid government ??? No Edouard Daladier from the Radical Party (centre-left).
Was the communists supported by others leftist ? Leon Blum from the SFIO (socialist) claimed that the PCF should not be forbidden (because most of its leaders and members were against the pact) but the french communists who were traitors should be executed by firing squads.
At the height of its popularity, in 1936, the PCF represent around 15% of the votes but the left was rather loosing support after 1936.
And in this case, the french army will be rather fighting directly the "Boche" and not the workers paradise soldiers. And once a war begin, it is rather unpopular to begin striking and be a de-facto support of the ennemy. In July 1914, Jean Jaures who was against the war, was shot and severals days after his murder, french socialists were in the "Union Sacrée" government.
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Who said anything about setting foot on Russian soil? Nobody would go into this war with the intent of marching on Moscow.
The Franco/Polish armies can easily crush the Red Army(which was in the midst of famine, economic shittery, and a huge leadership crisis) in Poland and send whoever remains running home.
The Soviets in 1925 were not the Soviets of 1945. If the USSR could've beat Poland in the 1920s, they would have.
Yeah no that didn't happen nearly enough to be considered a factor. Everything else - France wasn't in a terrible shape whereas USSR was - is correct. The WW2 thing though, not so much.