AHC: Communist Germany/ Fascist Russia after 1914

As the tin says, after 1914 create a realistic scenario where Germany goes communist and the Russian state is fascist. A sort of opposite as to what happened in OTL after WWI.
 
A Communist Germany isn't that hard to do, given the right peopletaking charge if the Kaiser is overthrown after WWI.

But, the Fascist part, I'm not sure howa Fascist Russia would be defined. (I might actually consider using it if my Taft on Supreme Court in '06" TL ever gets moving/if I have time for it.

Would a military dictatorship be enough? Brusilov perhaps pulling a Hindenbuerg and having to tell the Tsar, "Sadly, it's better if you and your family leave, for changes have to come that the people don't trust you to make"? A Stalin taking chage without Lenin first? (He may have been Communist but he was just as much about taking power himself, so if he could do it, he might.)
 
"Fascism" can be defined in various ways, but historically it took on the character of Nazism in Germany (in it's most extreme form) which saw a banning of trade unions and opposition parties (primarily the German Communist Party, or KPD), significant influence amongst those in the middle-class who saw Nazism as representing a sort of "shopkeepers' socialism," racism against Jews and/or others considered outside of the ethnic German folk community, etc.

In Russia's case, fascism was a very real possibility esp. between the February and October Revolutions in 1917 and/or after a White Russian victory in the Russian Civil War.

IMHO a good way to have Russia go fascist is to have the Bolsheviks falter sometime in 1918, overthrown by domestic counterrevolutionaries with the aid of the British in Petrograd who based their activities within the British Embassy.

Assuming that the Cheka doesn't raid the British Embassy, or that several key British conspirators escape only to continue to plot against the Soviet government, a right-wing military coup is possible which topples the Bolsheviks from power in Petrograd and allows for the Whites to triumph on the battlefield elsewhere in Russia.

So we either get a military junta dominated by White Russian military officers and/or a restored monarchy, both of which the British agent Captain Cromie actively explored in 1918 as viable alternatives to Bolshevism.

The character of this new Russian state would most certainty favor Great Russians over national and/or ethnic minorities.

Land reform will most likely be rolled back considerably, if not entirely, by the new regime, (the Whites only adopted land reform IOTL in 1920-1, when Wrangel was desperate), significantly alienating the peasantry from the triumphant White regime.

With the landed gentry's power in the countryside restored, Moscow, Petrograd, and other major cities could/would very well be put under temporary martial law as the remnants of the revolutionary order are stamped out for good.

Bolshevism would be crushed, its few remaining leaders in exile or imprisoned behind bars or sent to the gulags, which would most certainly be in use by the new regime.

Extreme forms of Great Russian nationalism would be prevalent, taking all of the worst elements of Stalinism and Tsarism and combining them. Russification would commence in the borderland areas of the new Russian state (the Ukraine, the Caucasus, etc.), as the regime would be heavily reliant on the most dominant nationality (i.e. the Russians).

So, worst case scenario is a right-wing military dictatorship and/or a restoration of the monarchy (such as in Turtledove's TL-191 series).

As for Germany going red, for my TL I had a variety of overarching factors lead to a German (communist) revolution; The Soviet-Polish War ends in a victory for the Soviets, and thus Poland is carved up between Wiemar Germany and the Soviets.

This puts the Red Army in a position to exploit unrest in Germany despite the somewhat cordial relations between the Soviets and Wiemar Germans at the time. Keep in mind that the Soviets were still itching for revolution in one or more European countries, something which the Third International was to facilitate through the organization of communist parties on an international basis.

Come 1923, Germany is facing hyper-inflation, its economy in ruins, and to add salt to the wound the French enter the Ruhr. Resistance to foreign occupation is heavy along the border, while a general strike threatens to break out in Germany.

In my TL, the KPD (German Communist Party) takes advantage of the situation to hastily seize power in numerous cities and towns throughout Germany. The Red Army enters on the behalf of the KPD from Soviet Poland, further intensifying the German Civil War. IOTL it was hoped that a Red Army entry into Germany would set the powder keg ablaze, so to speak.

There, a communist Germany.
 
How about the Germans and Soviets don't succeed in coming to an agreement at Brest-Litovsk, the war resumes, and the Germans capture enough land to weaken the Russian government for a stronger White effort, which eventually succeeds.

Meanwhile in the west, the German army sticks to the defensive without reinforcements from Russia coming, and thus initially withstands the Entente attacks much better than IOTL. When they eventually break through, then, with the Heer near Moscow and Tsaritsyn, the German government feels so confident that they hesitate in requesting an armistice... just long enough for the spark of Revolution to ignite against them. If the communists, seeing how the Russian attempt fell through, take the lesson that they should join arms with the social-democrats and moderate republicans while not strong enough to overtake Germany on their own. That could lead to them being fairly important in post-revolutionary Germany. Then we see the government being forced to sign the *Treaty of Versailles, the communists loudly denouncing it as a 'capitalist and imperialist robbers' peace' and the stage is set for a Communist revolution in late 1919. Then all you'd have to do is think of a plausible reason for France and Britain not to simply overthrow the new government, and you've got the scenario you want.
 
Interesting, thanks. Who would be the most likely leader of a Fascist Russian sate in the 1920s (Brusilov died in 1925OTL, so while he4'd be a major hero, he lso wouldn't last as long.)
 
How about the Germans and Soviets don't succeed in coming to an agreement at Brest-Litovsk, the war resumes, and the Germans capture enough land to weaken the Russian government for a stronger White effort, which eventually succeeds.

Meanwhile in the west, the German army sticks to the defensive without reinforcements from Russia coming, and thus initially withstands the Entente attacks much better than IOTL. When they eventually break through, then, with the Heer near Moscow and Tsaritsyn, the German government feels so confident that they hesitate in requesting an armistice... just long enough for the spark of Revolution to ignite against them. If the communists, seeing how the Russian attempt fell through, take the lesson that they should join arms with the social-democrats and moderate republicans while not strong enough to overtake Germany on their own. That could lead to them being fairly important in post-revolutionary Germany. Then we see the government being forced to sign the *Treaty of Versailles, the communists loudly denouncing it as a 'capitalist and imperialist robbers' peace' and the stage is set for a Communist revolution in late 1919. Then all you'd have to do is think of a plausible reason for France and Britain not to simply overthrow the new government, and you've got the scenario you want.

Great Britain - conflict in Ireland.
France - elects socialists and/or communists into office, or revolutions in its colonies.
 
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