I did a thread on this years ago but it got no replies at all. Let's try again.
Similar to the 'Nazi puppet president' thread, if more of Europe had, via the 112th Handwavian Rifles Division, been under the control of the Soviets in 1945, who would have been the likely leaders during the creation of the new satellite states? And who would have succeeded them?
TL;DR: who would have been the French, Dutch or Danish Ulbricht, Honecker and Krenz? Who might even have been the British Ceaușescu?
Obviously butterflies make picking the leaders in the 1960s onwards difficult, but try to be creative. Trade union leaders are obvious candidates, but why not see if there's famously opportunist politicians or even business leaders IOTL who could've happily manoeuvred their way to the top of a people's socialist republic?
Similar to the 'Nazi puppet president' thread, if more of Europe had, via the 112th Handwavian Rifles Division, been under the control of the Soviets in 1945, who would have been the likely leaders during the creation of the new satellite states? And who would have succeeded them?
TL;DR: who would have been the French, Dutch or Danish Ulbricht, Honecker and Krenz? Who might even have been the British Ceaușescu?
Obviously butterflies make picking the leaders in the 1960s onwards difficult, but try to be creative. Trade union leaders are obvious candidates, but why not see if there's famously opportunist politicians or even business leaders IOTL who could've happily manoeuvred their way to the top of a people's socialist republic?