My idea for that is he learns about the Stalin purges before they start, so starts a coup to get rid of Stalin. Don't know if that could work out but...
Might work, if he had support. My concerns are that he would draw his support primarily from the army (as internal politics in the USSR worked for some time, factionalism) and this would effectively align everyone from the Party to the NKVD against him. The fact that he's ACTUALLY a part of the military and not a token outsider chosen to lead the faction.
Power in the USSR was shared between the military (meaning the Red Army), the Communist Party, and the NKVD. Whenever one started to get too powerful (in the judgement of Stalin) the other two would cooperate to restore the balance.
This is precisely what happened; Stalin judged the Army to be too independent and took measures to bring it back into line, politically speaking. That those measures seriously weakened the Red Army precisely when its strength was needed was an unintended consequence.
For Tukhachevski (as his name is normally written in the West) to supplant Stalin will require the cooperation of the NKVD or the Communist Party. Given that Stalin was head of the Party and kept the other members on a tight rein, and periodically purged them as well, no help will be forthcoming from that quarter. Beria, who is one of Stalin's cronies, is ambitious himself, so might be persuaded to cooperate, but will probably not be willing to give first place to Tukhachevski; he will probably insist on a civilian leader, preferably himself.
A coup engineered by Tukhachevski is probably a non-starter; the Army is too closely watched and the necessary cooperation of the Party and/or NKVD will not be forthcoming. A coup engineered by Beria, on the other hand ...
Tuckachevsky and Stalin hated one another since they were on diferent wings of the soviet offensive against Warsaw, and when the offensive failed the left and the right flank teams accused one another of having been responsible for the defeat. So whe can imagine tha if they had been on the same flank, with Tuckachevsky as military commander and Stalin as political commissar, they could have been friends and Tuckachevsy could have been running the Red Army after the purges instead of dimwits like Buddienny and K.V. From here on the butterflies go wild, for the Red Army would have been much better run, but once Stalin died as in OTL our favourite soviet Field Marhall could become the new leader.
That would not be good for NATO. The man was way ahead of it's time when it came to operational doctrine...
Tuckachevsky and Stalin hated one another since they were on diferent wings of the soviet offensive against Warsaw, and when the offensive failed the left and the right flank teams accused one another of having been responsible for the defeat. So whe can imagine tha if they had been on the same flank, with Tuckachevsky as military commander and Stalin as political commissar, they could have been friends and Tuckachevsy could have been running the Red Army after the purges instead of dimwits like Buddienny and K.V. From here on the butterflies go wild, for the Red Army would have been much better run, but once Stalin died as in OTL our favourite soviet Field Marhall could become the new leader.
That would not be good for NATO. The man was way ahead of it's time when it came to operational doctrine...
If the Japanese get a severe enough curbstomping vs. the Soviets, could that discredit the militarists politically?
The Army militarists maybe. The Navy militarists would seek to use this as support for attacking the colonial powers, as it was OTL.If the Japanese get a severe enough curbstomping vs. the Soviets, could that discredit the militarists politically?