AH Challenge: Biggest SU before 1936

Connect the Russian Revolution with the German Revolution, and you have communism in the middle of Europe. See greater communist/socialist elements in the Mexican Revolution - maybe a surviving socialist state in the Yucatan?
 
This is total ASB, but here goes :D:

Soviet/ Red Russian victory on the Vistula sees Warsaw fall, and the destruction of the Polish armed forces leaves the nation defenceless. The Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are going to be in trouble very quickly now...

Interference in a Left Wing uprising in Germany, (or alternatively, a decsion to crush a right wing one) leads to the Red Terror marching into Germany.

Turn the steamroller South through Austria, Hungary and Romania into the balkans - finally seize the straits at constantinople.

Use the Matteoti murder (yes, this still happens! :p) to invade Italy.

Owning half the continent, then march into Finland. If the Scandinavians dont help, crush them one by one, if they do, invade Denmark and cross the Skaggerak :p

All Europe, barring Iberia, France and the British Isles are now firmly Red!!! :D

Geordie
 
Soviet/ Red Russian victory on the Vistula sees Warsaw fall, and the destruction of the Polish armed forces leaves the nation defenceless.
Possible development, nothing ASBish here.

The Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are going to be in trouble very quickly now...
At this point Estonia is recognized by the RSFSR (although ink is still fresh on the Tartu peace treaty), but not by other countries, "Lithuania" and "Latvia" are regions, where nationalist, communist and Baltic German gangs are fighting one another. They're no more independent than "independent Basque state".

Interference in a Left Wing uprising in Germany, (or alternatively, a decsion to crush a right wing one) leads to the Red Terror marching into Germany.
I guess this will be the turning point. Entente will arm every freikorp and every marauding gang they will be able to find in Germany to fight reds. Would it fail (although I'm lost regarding how could it be), direct military intervention will follow. Therefore everything described after it is ASB.
 

Thande

Donor
I would say that any POD in the 1910s/20s involving a Communist Germany joining Russia etc. does not count, because the resulting combined state would be so different from OTL's USSR that it's a meaningless comparison.

I wonder what it would have took for Stalin to actually annex the Eastern European states as component SSRs, rather than leaving them nominally independent but with a heavy Soviet boot of influence wedging their communist parties in power?
 

Valdemar II

Banned
I would say that any POD in the 1910s/20s involving a Communist Germany joining Russia etc. does not count, because the resulting combined state would be so different from OTL's USSR that it's a meaningless comparison.

I tend to agree, in that Union the decisions would have been take in Moscow but in Berlin, thanks to the fact that it would be there the Communist party would be strongest.
 

Thande

Donor
I tend to agree, in that Union the decisions would have been take in Moscow but in Berlin, thanks to the fact that it would be there the Communist party would be strongest.

And it probably couldn't have held together as a single state for that long, what with both Moscow/Petrograd and Berlin.

That would be an interesting TL, actually...I suppose it might turn people off internationalism in general if there was a messy collapse and civil war...
 

Valdemar II

Banned
And it probably couldn't have held together as a single state for that long, what with both Moscow/Petrograd and Berlin.

That would be an interesting TL, actually...I suppose it might turn people off internationalism in general if there was a messy collapse and civil war...

I think it could survive for quite some time if they could avoid absolute leaders like Stalin (and de facto nationalist) and keep the power in the hands of partidelegates, especially if they choose an federal structure with the regional communist parties having the right to choose the delegates.
 
If the Red Army defeats the Poles then the Soviet Union could rather easily reclaim all the former Tsarist territory.

Any further expansion would mean another Allied intervention but this time a more serious one.

Some questions need to be answered however. Where would the Soviet Union expand to? Why would the Soviet Union expand once Stalin comes to power when his chief point of differrentation is Socialism in One Country? Even if Trotsky or a similar figure emerges triumphant why would they expand the Soviet Union? International communism is not and was not the same as a larger USSR.
 

Nietzsche

Banned
If the Red Army defeats the Poles then the Soviet Union could rather easily reclaim all the former Tsarist territory.

Any further expansion would mean another Allied intervention but this time a more serious one.

Some questions need to be answered however. Where would the Soviet Union expand to? Why would the Soviet Union expand once Stalin comes to power when his chief point of differrentation is Socialism in One Country? Even if Trotsky or a similar figure emerges triumphant why would they expand the Soviet Union? International communism is not and was not the same as a larger USSR.
Hm. What would happen to the areas that Germany lost...
 
Hm. What would happen to the areas that Germany lost...

Any territory that originally belonged to the Tsarist state and was reclaimed by the USSR would make it very difficult for the Allies to persuade their people that they should go to war over such territory. Any territory that Germany lost to a newly created Poland, only been in existence a couple of years and was claimed by the USSR would be a problem but one where I think most people would not care less about in Paris or London and even fewer would care even less in the US.
 
The Communists just agree with the first treaty the Germans hand them in 1917. Then they spend the next year establishing control over the armed forces. In OTL they attempted to stall, then found out that the armed forces wouldn't fight for them (would you?) and lost large areas of Russia and crucial respect and legitimacy as a result. The civil war lasted till 1921.
In this ATL they have a year to rebuild the tenuous control they have over the remnants of the Tsar's state and armed forces. They they just walk into their old imperial territory and whatever parts of Germany, Austria, and Turkey that they feel like, which would probably be Poland and Armenia.
Poland does not include the Polish Correidor and does include Ruthenia. Armenia would not include Iranian Armenia because the Soviets are not looking for a war with Britain.
 
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