great purge

POD is Sergei Kirov not being assassinated, I know Stalin still could've purged everyone but just assume he doesn't. The Red Army has officers however it still has some other issues such as outdated equipment. I assume the Red Army would be able to conquer Finland ITTL. Would Hitler still launch...

Let's say that Stalin keeps to the initial ideological purposes of the Great Purge, rather than consolidate all power solely under himself. What then?

So the way I understand it, Soviet armed forces were seeing some serious innovation as regards military theory during the 1920s-30s. Not only was the Red Army rapidly modernizing, Soviet commanders were also theorizing how to best make use of it, and they came up with Deep Operation/Deep Battle...

How likely was another purge had Stalin lived longer? The first Great Purge was initiated by Stalin against anyone who didn't owe their position purely to Stalin enabled by a highly centralized and brutal system created by Lenin. Stalin's perceived enemies, many of whom were created by...

The great purge, especially of armed forces, seems like the greatest blunder of the early soviet union. It killed countless innocents and culled trained military personnel, because ol' Joe Steel was worried about a coup. Given that it seems to have led to humiliation against Finland and probably...

POD is from 1934. Let's imagine that Stalin never tried to implement purges/failed to made it. Could this provoke an uprising of the army and a possible civil war? Could anti-Stalinist uprising develop into an anti-Soviet rebellion in general? (probaly with returning of emigres).

So I'm working on a premise for a timeline where Hitler's generals depose/kill him in 1940, and I was wondering how I could get the Soviets to intervene. My first thought is that it wouldn't happen, due to the Great Purge. What could happen differently to give the Soviets more readiness and thus...

Lavrentiy Beria is infamous as one of the most downright loathsome people to ever be part of Stalin's inner circle (which is quite the achievement, all things considered). There were hardly any mourners when he was executed in 1953. But he could very well have died earlier. Nikolai Yezhov, one...

If the Germans had taken either Moscow or Stalingrad (or both), would Stalin have ordered a Second Great Purge of his officers once he learns of the fall of said cities due to his paranoia akin to what he did in the "Anglo/American-Nazi War"? If so, how much would the Soviet officer corp have...