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I have to admit that I'm disappointed with how little I know of communism in Western Europe post-WW2, so what I'm proposing may be implausible. As far as I know, the first explicitly Communist government in Europe to take power outside of the Eastern bloc after WW2 was AKEL in Cyprus, and that was after the fall of the Soviet Union. But other Communist parties in Europe had quite high support historically—the Communist Party of Italy was consistently the second most popular party from 1948 to 1991, when it split into a democratic-socialist and a hardline faction. The CPI managed this even despite a relatively fractious left, so a larger degree of left unity might have boosted their position in elections. From there, it doesn't seem unfathomable that it might be able to come into government.

So, onto the AHC/PC. Your challenge, should you choose to take it, is with a POD no later than 1 May 1945, have a communist-led government in Western Europe align itself, whether formally or informally, with the Eastern bloc. Is this even possible?

I imagine avoiding events like the Soviet repression of the Hungarian uprising (or the material conditions that led to the uprising) and rolling in the tanks to halt the Prague Spring are necessary; would dispensing with Stalin by having him die from assassination or health problems as soon as possible aid this? Or are the roots of this division too entrenched by the end of WW2 for Western Europe to caucus with the Soviet Union after events like Stalin's purges?
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