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OK, taking one of these (though currently, preference is for the first one) as a choice of PoD:
  • the July 20, 1944 Plot succeeds in killing Hitler
  • FDR dies on his way to Yalta (Feb 1945)
Now, ideas like them have been discussed here before, usually with the focus falling on how the military advances and subsequent occupation zones of Europe are changed (or, as plenty intelligently insist, don't change). But what interests me here is how either of these PoDs affects not only how much of Europe is militarily occupied by the Soviet Union (and WAllies respectively), but if and how the character of said occupation differs from OTL. Particularly in the East, as the factors I'm currently curious about are:
  • the building (from ground up) of the political police in Eastern Europe, and the levels of violence said police conduct in the aftermath of the liberation and subsequent years
  • other methods of violence, mainly ethnic cleansing and the suppression of competing antifascist partisans
  • the degree of direct control Moscow holds over the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe, and the degree to which political opposition to said parties are crushed
  • the levels of economic centralization and "socialization" (the "wars on the shops", nationalization of industry, etc)
  • the nationalization of civic organizations, youth organizations, and radio
Again, these changes can be by way of changing the area controlled by the Soviets, the strategy of Soviet occupation, or both.
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