Better USSR performance

I'm trying to write a timeline which leads to the USSR doing much better in the cold war. The basic idea is that they are better prepared for Operation Barbarossa and so slow the germans down (by destroying bridges etc) and lose less men. The Germans are kept within the former Polish terrorities, the Baltics states and West of the Dnieper. After several years of attritional warfare, the Germans are defeated etc.

However, I'm more interested in the affect of this on the Soviet Union. If we say, maybe 5 million military dead and 4 million civillian dead (mostly Poles, Baltics and Western Ukrainians), this means there are only 9 million dead compared with OTL of about 27milion dead, mostly slavs. This leads to a massive shift in the ethnic make up of the USSr and Russians make up and even larger majority and there are alot more Ukrainians and Belrusians (in OTL Belrus lost a third of its population, most of which survive here). Will this lead to the Baltic SSR's and Kazah SSR having larger Russian minorities or even majorities?
 
Keep the bulk of the Red Army behind the Stalin line, the Germans will have to travel a couple of days before their first major engagements with no element of surprise.
 
Keep the bulk of the Red Army behind the Stalin line, the Germans will have to travel a couple of days before their first major engagements with no element of surprise.

Just heard from a friend that heard from a freind that Stalins first response to Barbarossa was to get drunk, and everyone else was afraid to issue orders without his approval.

If you can verify that it, it would be a pretty could POD for you.

Actually, if you could verify it, it would make an even better "first" butterfly for Rain's POD.

Better initial postion combined with quicker reactions, and you're halfway there.:)
 
Well, reports of Stalin drunk, hiding under his bed etc. are not reliable, though not nesessary untrue. There are some evidence that he was busy working instead, but that's also not proved.

Returning to the topic. Unless Baltic states devastated by the war more then OTL, it's not very likely that russian population there will be larger. It is less clear with Kazakhstan and Sibir. There will be less evacuation, may be none at all. In OTL a lot of industry was transferred over Ural and a lot of refuges settled in Central Asia. It may not happen here.

Larger slavs population in European Russia may lead to more active settlement in Sibir and Far East after the war, as there would be more human resource, but as there would not be an industrial base as OTL things may compensate. I think there simply would be more populous cities in European Russia (which could lead to better industrial capacity,but could as well lead to overpopulation and famine with overall management as poor as OTL) not increase of slavs persentage elsewhere.
 
I think the biggest problem with the Soviet response to Barbarossa was Stalin himself. Stalin recieved numerous warnings that the Germans were about to invade, from a lot of sources, (British Intelligence, Richard Sorge, a German communist in Japan who fed information back to the Soviets, Soviet Agents within Germany - The Red Orchestra, his own generals), and disregarded the lot.
His self belief was shaken to such an extent that he was virtually catatonic for a couple of days, by which point though the damage was done and the lines of communication and the Soviet order of battle had been thoroughly disrupted.

The POD would need to be with Stalin himself and his attitude towards the information he recieves.
 
Keep them our of WW2 together, let the Germans and Allies knock lumps out of each other until they're both too worn out to fight any longer then wait for the inevitable communist uprisings in Europe.
 
Here we goes again...
Yes, Stalin did receive a lot of intelligence about incoming German invasion in 1941. Trouble, that all this intelligence was often incomplete and contradictory. The sources often seemed unreliable (even if not in truth) because of past misinformation. And there was another intelligence pieces which denied the invasion.
In does not change the fact that Stalin made a huge mistake here, but it was not all transparent as seems now to us. Considering that he was well aware that USSR still was not ready to fight Germans in 1941 (despite what some historians say) and still thinking himself outsmarting Hitler. He was understandably reluctant to provoke the war before he was ready to fight. And add to this that it was not only Stalin's blind belief that Hitler won't attack in 1941, but most of the military and intelligence staff shared this opinion. It may come as surprise but Stalin did listen to his staff (what concusions he made is another story, but not always bad) and in that case their opinion only strengthtened his own. And yes, it was possible to contradict Stalin's opinion and live if he assumed that person speaking has the expertise in the field.
Still the POD is valid - more decisive measures in june, give order earlier to prepare. In OTL the decision to prepare for battle were made late evening June 21 when Stalin could not ignore German forces on the border any more. The problem at this point was not with Stalin any longer. It's impossible to say did he believe at this point that war is coming, but he did give an order to prepare for possible battle. The delay after that was completely on his generals, most of whom still thought that all this just a german provocation. Not all by the way, some troops were quite ready for battle, notably the Baltic Navy (which began preparations before 21st despite scary Stalin and all)

Well, sorry for the blabber. Just wanted to clear some common misconceptions. This does not change that Stalin could do a lot better than he did, but that was not that easy as usually presented.
 
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