alternatehistory.com

A couple of decades ago I read a novel from the late 1920s called The Red Napoleon. It had Stalin getting assassinated in the then near future--very late 1920s. He is replaced my a military genius, who mobilizes the Soviet Union for war, and in a year or two heads west. Through a combination of military successes and internal subversion he ends up taking all of Europe, including the UK, all of Asia, including Japan, and invades the continental US, before finally failing. (Fun book, by the way. If you see it second hand somewhere it is worth it)

Obviously that wasn't something the Soviet Union of the late 1920s could have realistically pulled off. The challenge is to come up with the closest approximation possible. Let's say we begin in say 1926, just to give this challenge some degree of flexibility. You can use an existing Soviet military or political leader or assume some unknown with talent who rises quickly. The goal is to build the Soviet Union into a power capable of seriously threatening Europe at least, and then conquering as much as possible, all within say ten years--so how much can the Soviets have conquered by 1936.

Hitler and the Nazis may or may not come to power. There is no restriction on what political ideology the Soviet Union adopts. It can remain communist. It can go fascist in reality while maintaining communist trappings. It can become a military dictatorship while being officially communist. It can go Tsarist if you can figure out a plausible way for that to happen.

Any takers?
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