Hiyo. I'm working on a sort of role reversal world where Germany gets a Stalin and the USSR gets a Hitler, and the world gets a somewhat different Cold War. Here's the timeline version 0.5. Whaddaya think, sirs? The Soviet victory that starts the TL's divergence, and Wilhelm III as the new emperor, are the things I'm most shaky about - do they pass the laugh test?
1920 - Soviet forces defeat the Polish armies along the Vistula and seize Warsaw on August 22nd.
1921 - The last remaining Polish forces surrender to the Soviets or cross into Germany, where they are disarmed and interned. A Polish People's Republic is proclaimed. French and Lithuanian troops in the Free City of Danzig deter a Soviet invasion.
1922 - No Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and the USSR. Instead, German begins very tentative and limited rearmament on its own terms, stopped by French pressure. The British are less concerned. In the wake of Lenin's stroke, Leon Trotsky and Evgeny Volkov, as well as Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, manage to out-maneuver Joseph Stalin for control of the USSR.
1923 - The NSDAP attempts a coup in Munich. The farcical attempt ends with the death of Nazi leaders Hitler, Röhm and Hess, and the imprisonment of the other would-be revolutionaries. The NSDAP is banned; its supporters drift to more mainstream nationalist parties or form obscure splinter groups.
1924 - Federal election in Germany. The Polish People's Republic is annexed to the USSR as the Polish SSR.
1925 - Stalin is ejected from the Central Committee by the Trotsky-Volkov faction and internally exiled to the Far East to deal with the mostly non-existent counterrevolutionaries there.
1927 - Volkov purges Trotsky and Zinoviev from the Party, and drives Stalin into exile (he dies in Macau six years later).
1928 - The Soviet Revolutionary Armament Program, an incredibly ambitious scheme to make the USSR a world-class military power, begins. The initial hostile reaction by the great powers is soon muted by the Great Depression (which has negligible impact on the isolated Soviet economy).
1929 - The Gleichschaltung (coordination) begins - the consolidation of the main parties of the left and the right into the leftist Democratic Party of Germany (DPD) and the right-wing Nationalpartei (NP). The Catholic Zentrum party generally holds the balance of power, especially in the south and west of the country.
1930 - A plebiscite held in the Danzig Free City results in a 92% Yes vote in favor of rejoining Germany. After great debate, the League of Nations approves reunification in the face of vehement Soviet opposition.
1932 - Raffael Stoschberg, a WWI veteran and the Nationalpartei candidate, is elected as President of Germany.
1933 - German rearmament ramps up. The Rhine crisis occurs, and the French don't call Stoschberg's colossal bluff.
1934 - President Stoschberg plans the construction of an ambitious network of highways, the Reichsstraße, patterned on the Kraftfahrstraße built between Cologne and Bonn in 1931.
1935 - The Imperial Restoration takes place and Wilhelm III, not his father (who refuses to accept the limits on his authority), is crowned Emperor in Berlin (many members of the non-Prussian German royal families refuse to attend) and then King of Prussia in Königsberg (which most members of the non-Prussian royal families of Germany do attend).
1936 - Just over 1000 km of Reichsstraße have been completed.
1938 - Otto Hahn discovers the principles of nuclear fission. The Yangtze River Incident, in which Japanese forces sink two American and one British patrol boat near Nanking, escalates into a full war between Japan and the Anglo-American powers by mid-summer.
1939 - East European War begins when, after the completion of the second five year Revolutionary Armament Program, the USSR invades Finland and the Baltic republics. After Albert Einstein approaches President Stoschberg with concerns about a Soviet nuclear weapon program, Germany begins Project Blue (Projekt-Blau), its top secret atomic bomb project.
1940 - 4500 km of Reichsstraße have been completed (several months behind schedule, as men and money are shifted to the war effort). Anglo-American forces occupy Iwo Jima, breaking the last major Japanese line of defense before the Home Islands.
1941 - Wilhelm II dies and is buried in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. The first German grand offensive is halted after a major defeat at Lviv, and a retreat to the Vistula ensues.
1942 - The Vistula Line is broken at the end of the year. Japan surrenders after a lengthy bombing campaign and a failed last-ditch militarist coup.
1943 - East Prussia falls despite enormous Soviet casualties. Civilians stream through the shrinking West Prussian corridor, suffering severe losses from Soviet air and artillery strikes.
1944 - The eight month long Siege of Breslau, the high point of the Soviet invasion of Silesia, ends in a German victory. Soviets suffer nearly 800,000 casualties and 100,000 soldiers are taken prisoner - one Verdun stacked atop another.
1945 - The Germans begin a counterattack across Poland, but their losses in men and materiel over the last six years hinder them considerably.
1946 - The Soviets manage to halt the Germans more or less along the western frontier of the old Russian empire. A stalemate resembling the Western Front of World War One develops.
1947 - Late in the year, Project Blue successfully conducts a nuclear test (code named Sonnenwende) on the Baltic island of Fehmarn.
1948 - Nuclear destruction of Moscow on January 7. War ends three weeks later (most of that time spent finding someone to surrender), Stockholm Treaty. Poland (minus pre-Versailles German territory), Belarus and Ukraine gain independence, Finland and the Baltics make modest territorial gains at Russian expense. Much of East Europe is a wasteland thanks to the successive German, Soviet, and German advances over the last nine and a half years.
1950 - The United States' nuclear program, the Chicago Project, successfully detonates an atomic bomb at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The Cold War begins.
1920 - Soviet forces defeat the Polish armies along the Vistula and seize Warsaw on August 22nd.
1921 - The last remaining Polish forces surrender to the Soviets or cross into Germany, where they are disarmed and interned. A Polish People's Republic is proclaimed. French and Lithuanian troops in the Free City of Danzig deter a Soviet invasion.
1922 - No Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and the USSR. Instead, German begins very tentative and limited rearmament on its own terms, stopped by French pressure. The British are less concerned. In the wake of Lenin's stroke, Leon Trotsky and Evgeny Volkov, as well as Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, manage to out-maneuver Joseph Stalin for control of the USSR.
1923 - The NSDAP attempts a coup in Munich. The farcical attempt ends with the death of Nazi leaders Hitler, Röhm and Hess, and the imprisonment of the other would-be revolutionaries. The NSDAP is banned; its supporters drift to more mainstream nationalist parties or form obscure splinter groups.
1924 - Federal election in Germany. The Polish People's Republic is annexed to the USSR as the Polish SSR.
1925 - Stalin is ejected from the Central Committee by the Trotsky-Volkov faction and internally exiled to the Far East to deal with the mostly non-existent counterrevolutionaries there.
1927 - Volkov purges Trotsky and Zinoviev from the Party, and drives Stalin into exile (he dies in Macau six years later).
1928 - The Soviet Revolutionary Armament Program, an incredibly ambitious scheme to make the USSR a world-class military power, begins. The initial hostile reaction by the great powers is soon muted by the Great Depression (which has negligible impact on the isolated Soviet economy).
1929 - The Gleichschaltung (coordination) begins - the consolidation of the main parties of the left and the right into the leftist Democratic Party of Germany (DPD) and the right-wing Nationalpartei (NP). The Catholic Zentrum party generally holds the balance of power, especially in the south and west of the country.
1930 - A plebiscite held in the Danzig Free City results in a 92% Yes vote in favor of rejoining Germany. After great debate, the League of Nations approves reunification in the face of vehement Soviet opposition.
1932 - Raffael Stoschberg, a WWI veteran and the Nationalpartei candidate, is elected as President of Germany.
1933 - German rearmament ramps up. The Rhine crisis occurs, and the French don't call Stoschberg's colossal bluff.
1934 - President Stoschberg plans the construction of an ambitious network of highways, the Reichsstraße, patterned on the Kraftfahrstraße built between Cologne and Bonn in 1931.
1935 - The Imperial Restoration takes place and Wilhelm III, not his father (who refuses to accept the limits on his authority), is crowned Emperor in Berlin (many members of the non-Prussian German royal families refuse to attend) and then King of Prussia in Königsberg (which most members of the non-Prussian royal families of Germany do attend).
1936 - Just over 1000 km of Reichsstraße have been completed.
1938 - Otto Hahn discovers the principles of nuclear fission. The Yangtze River Incident, in which Japanese forces sink two American and one British patrol boat near Nanking, escalates into a full war between Japan and the Anglo-American powers by mid-summer.
1939 - East European War begins when, after the completion of the second five year Revolutionary Armament Program, the USSR invades Finland and the Baltic republics. After Albert Einstein approaches President Stoschberg with concerns about a Soviet nuclear weapon program, Germany begins Project Blue (Projekt-Blau), its top secret atomic bomb project.
1940 - 4500 km of Reichsstraße have been completed (several months behind schedule, as men and money are shifted to the war effort). Anglo-American forces occupy Iwo Jima, breaking the last major Japanese line of defense before the Home Islands.
1941 - Wilhelm II dies and is buried in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. The first German grand offensive is halted after a major defeat at Lviv, and a retreat to the Vistula ensues.
1942 - The Vistula Line is broken at the end of the year. Japan surrenders after a lengthy bombing campaign and a failed last-ditch militarist coup.
1943 - East Prussia falls despite enormous Soviet casualties. Civilians stream through the shrinking West Prussian corridor, suffering severe losses from Soviet air and artillery strikes.
1944 - The eight month long Siege of Breslau, the high point of the Soviet invasion of Silesia, ends in a German victory. Soviets suffer nearly 800,000 casualties and 100,000 soldiers are taken prisoner - one Verdun stacked atop another.
1945 - The Germans begin a counterattack across Poland, but their losses in men and materiel over the last six years hinder them considerably.
1946 - The Soviets manage to halt the Germans more or less along the western frontier of the old Russian empire. A stalemate resembling the Western Front of World War One develops.
1947 - Late in the year, Project Blue successfully conducts a nuclear test (code named Sonnenwende) on the Baltic island of Fehmarn.
1948 - Nuclear destruction of Moscow on January 7. War ends three weeks later (most of that time spent finding someone to surrender), Stockholm Treaty. Poland (minus pre-Versailles German territory), Belarus and Ukraine gain independence, Finland and the Baltics make modest territorial gains at Russian expense. Much of East Europe is a wasteland thanks to the successive German, Soviet, and German advances over the last nine and a half years.
1950 - The United States' nuclear program, the Chicago Project, successfully detonates an atomic bomb at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The Cold War begins.