Best POD for a communist Europe?

Which POD would be best and most plausible for creating a communist Europe?

  • German Revolution 1918-1919 succeeds

    Votes: 28 40.6%
  • Polish forces lose at the Battle of Warsaw

    Votes: 2 2.9%
  • Soviets invade Nazi Germany during the Battle of France

    Votes: 6 8.7%
  • Soviets pre-empt Operation Suvorov before Operation barbarossa is launched

    Votes: 3 4.3%
  • Hitler delays Barbarossa, Soviets invade Germany 1942

    Votes: 2 2.9%
  • Allies lost at D-Day

    Votes: 19 27.5%
  • Other (please specify)

    Votes: 9 13.0%

  • Total voters
    69
I apologise if this has been done before, but what POD would be best in creating a communist Europe?

Note: Communist does not have to mean Marxist-Leninist.
 
Soviets have better officer training and mobilization planning in the 1930s, implement universal military service earlier than IOTL. Kulik dies in a plane crash, so that while the Purges still occur, the de-modernization program does not. The Red Army rebuild its officer corps and, while it remains fearful of Stalin, it remains quite competent. The Red Army wins in Finland, at a cost, and utilizes it's experience to conduct graduated improvements. When Hermany invades in 1941 it fails to advance past the Border regions, and from 1941-42 is bled white. From 1942-43 the Red Army conducts a steady reduction of German strategic depths, culminating in the collapse of Nazi Germany and the advance of the Red Army to, and beyond, the Rhine.
 
Soviets have better officer training and mobilization planning in the 1930s, implement universal military service earlier than IOTL. Kulik dies in a plane crash, so that while the Purges still occur, the de-modernization program does not. The Red Army rebuild its officer corps and, while it remains fearful of Stalin, it remains quite competent. The Red Army wins in Finland, at a cost, and utilizes it's experience to conduct graduated improvements. When Hermany invades in 1941 it fails to advance past the Border regions, and from 1941-42 is bled white. From 1942-43 the Red Army conducts a steady reduction of German strategic depths, culminating in the collapse of Nazi Germany and the advance of the Red Army to, and beyond, the Rhine.

Hmmm, never thought of that. You could even have Stalin feeling more confident with the Red Army and attacks Nazi Germany when the Wehrmacht is still fighting in France.
 
Extend World War 1 by a few years perhaps to 1921 or make it more vicious and unrelenting with further damage to agricultural land by preventing trench warfare and making the war far more manoeuvre based. Either way you will get revolutions everywhere.
 
Not an exact POD with clear-cut results, but if the Reds somehow win the Finnish Civil War, it might lead to a domino effect of the Baltic states also falling to Communist rule in 1918-1919, followed by a Soviet victory in Poland and possibly a German revolution. If all (or most of) this would come about, the Soviet leadership would from the beginning see that it is possible to "export the revolution" outside Russia; that could in turn make the USSR more internationalist in its goals from the outset, averting Communism in One Country.
 
German Revolution 1918-1919 succeeds

Which was highly unlikely IMHO. The German Communist Party was relatively weak then, with the Free Corps in tandem with the military able to squash any potential communist risings (i.e. the Bavarian Soviet Republic, the Spartacist Uprising in Berlin, etc.) that occur.

In my TL I took a middle-of-the-road approach, seeing as to how 1918-19 was to early for a successful communist takeover while 1932 was too late by setting the successful communist takeover in 1923 (with Red Army intervention) when unrest in Germany was high due to economic and political unrest, with the KPD being markedly stronger by 1923 to the point where IOTL it was capable of temporarily seizing control of certain sections of Hamburg.

In my TL a nationwide insurrection occurs and, with the arrival of the Red Army into Germany, a civil war unfolds rapidly which quickly engulfs the whole of Germany.
 
Hmmm, never thought of that. You could even have Stalin feeling more confident with the Red Army and attacks Nazi Germany when the Wehrmacht is still fighting in France.

The Red Army's strategy in the 30s was defensive in nature; absorb the enemy's main blow, and then strike back and destroy him. The main debate was whether this counter stroke would be one of maneuver or attrition. In the end the Red Army utilized a combination during WW2 to achieve victory.

Anyways, a reorientation to the offensive would require extensive preparations and a shift in strategy going back several years.
 
An example of a socialist state earlier could lead to Communist parties getting established earlier, which has huge consequences come WWI. My personal favourite is Japan losing the Russo-Japanese war.
 
Lets go through these:

German Revolution 1918-1919 succeeds

Presuming you have the regime survive, you have a communist Germany, and a little entente which is likely to harden against without even the excuse of them being a bulwark against the Soviet Union anymore. Presuming they're Spartacists you might even see schisms with the USSR eventually, Europe may be even less communist in this scenario.

Polish forces lose at the Battle of Warsaw

Communist Poland sure, maybe even a better Soviet relationship with Germany, but again the entente is powerful enough to see both off during this period.

Soviets invade Nazi Germany during the Battle of France

Leaves France (largely) intact, the Balkans and Italy intact, without any Communist resistance or collaborationst regimes to make Communism overly endearing.

Soviets pre-empt Operation Suvorov before Operation Barbarossa is launched

The only PoD that (if successful) would leave the Soviet Union in a position to dominate most of Europe sans Britain. Could go wrong of course but definitely my pick.

Hitler delays Barbarossa, Soviets invade Germany 1942

Leaves the Soviets with more of Germany possibly, but will likely create a situation similar to OTL presuming the US still joins in.

Allies lost at D-Day

Soviets might get a bit further into Germany, but as they do you're going to see the surrenders to western allied troops seen in the spring of 1945 occur en masse as the allies fight their way up from the south of France.
 
In my TL I took a middle-of-the-road approach, seeing as to how 1918-19 was to early for a successful communist takeover while 1932 was too late by setting the successful communist takeover in 1923 (with Red Army intervention) when unrest in Germany was high due to economic and political unrest, with the KPD being markedly stronger by 1923 to the point where IOTL it was capable of temporarily seizing control of certain sections of Hamburg.
Pretty much this. The absolute earliest Germany can go red (assuming a PoD after 1900) is around the summer of 1919. The last real opportunity was probably around 1921.
 
As I've previously stated you want a longer WW 1 with a extra few million dead and starving. Should you get this most of Europe will turn extreme left or right and your likely to see coups and revolutions everywhere (except perhaps the UK where it will be touch and go).
 
Delay the German revolution by a couple years to 1920ish in order to put the communists in a better position. Have the Bolsheviks win a couple more victories against the White counter-revolution to secure more land. Expand Biennio Rosso across all of Italy with the peasant-based south also rising up and the industrial north being more co-ordinated until the communist party unites the struggle and the revolution in Italy is successful. Have the revolution take hold in Austria and Hungary with the assistance of German and Italian communists and then to Romania and Bulgaria from the Soviets.

You could have a communist eastern europe by 1928, just in time for the Great Depression to hit France and Britain.... well, it's a bit ASB but not entirely impossible.
 
I said Allies delayed by a failed D-Day; which would probably see the fall of all of Germany. I'm chary about the chances of the 1919 German Revolution; IMHO, the odds were stacked too heavily against the communists. A post Great Purge scenario is unlikely to me, unless the Nazis refrain from attacking long enough for the Red Army to rebuild itself, especially the officer corps. Considering how many German generals felt Germany would be ready to attack by 1942, this strikes me as unlikely.

Soviet victory in the Polish-Soviet War is the most likely to me after a failed D-Day, but even so, I don't rate highly the chances of the USSR successfully moving into Germany. If there was one thing at that point in history that could bring together France, Britain, and Germany...
 
1940 or 1941 IMO, I don't know which one would be better. On one hand France has a greater chance of surviving after a 1940 Soviet attack. On the other, the later this attack comes the greater the probability that the USA might become directly involved in the war, and manage to liberate France together with Britain while Germany is being overrun.
 
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