Communist France?

General Zod

Banned
What if there is a Communism Revolution circa 1915? In France.

A no Revolution in Russia. What then?

The Western Front collapses despite the BEF's best efforts. British troops are evacuated. Germany annexes Luxemburg, Lorraine, eastern Belgium and moves its western frontier to the Meuse. Italy switches sides, makes hasty peace with the CPs and grabs Nice, Savoy, the Riviera up to Toulon, Corsica, Tunisia, and Algeria. Netherlands joins the CPs and partition Belgium with Germany, and grab Nord-Pas de Calais. Communist French government first naively tries to sign a white peace with the CPs, then gives in to relaity and signs the above. Russia keeps fighting the CPs for another year or so, then gives in to exaustion, the CPs realize that they are likley going to overextend themselves invading deep within Russia, so they sign a compromise peace: Russia cedes Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Bessarabia. Britain signs a white peace with the CPs soon thereafter, likely negotiating demilitarization of Channel ports in exchange for recognition of German territorial gains. The French colonial empire gets unofficially partitioned between Germany, Britain, and Italy. Britain occupies Normandy.
 
During WWI? France was very into Revenge on Germany, during the war the French socialist movement was pro-war, the Communists were small brake away from the French Section of the Workers International, it's unlikely.
 
You'd have to do some massive screwing around with prewar events to make a French Revolution during the war even remotely possible (after the war's a different matter entirely). A fair PoD might have something to do with keeping Millerand out of the Government in 1899, and thus removing the precedent that played a big part in the French Socialists joining the National Government during the war.
 
First define what exactly you mean by communism in 1915 France. Trotskysm-leninsm is definitely not on the cards. Proudhonism may be, but I'm not sure you would recognise this as communism.

A Good PoD would be to save Jaures and have him suceed in his scheme to stop the war by simultaneous general strikes in all belligerent countries. But this leads to a socialist government, not a communist one, if the difference has any meaning in this TL ( NB you still have private ownership of most means of productions and commonally owned ones are going to be workers coop, competing on a capitalistic market, not state owned )
 
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maverick

Banned
I think you mean 1917...a marxist revolution in 1915 would be very hard to achieve...especially with the Germans attacking Poland and the French and BEF armies still strong and in shape

France has not reached the levels of economic, military and political exhaustion that it had when the mutinies of 1917 took place.

So, you'd have to have Germany win the battle of the Marne or something similar, take Paris on September/October of 1915, etc.
 
First define what exactly you mean by communism in 1915 France. Trotskysm-leninsm is definitely not on the cards. Proudhonism may be, but I'm not sure you would recognise this as communism.

A Good PoD would be to save Jaures and have him suceed in his scheme to stop the war by simultaneous general strikes in all belligerent countries. But this leads to a socialist government, not a communist one, if the difference has any meaning in this TL ( NB you still have private ownership of most means of productions and commonally owned ones are going to be workers coop, competing on a capitalistic market, not state owned )
Saving Jaures is too late a PoD, mostly because it does too little to effect the international socialist movement. To get "simultaneous general strikes in all belligerent countries" you need more than one charismatic French politician at a critical juncture: you need to redraw several decades of the history of the Socialist movement at least. If you save Jaures, you're still going to have the German, Austrian, and British parties behaving substantially the same, at least in the early months of the war.

To get a more revolutionary socialist movement in the early months of the war, you'll have to change the result of several debates in the Second International, and to strengthen the Left of pretty much every party. This would be extremely difficult, and you may have to go back to the foundation of the International and give it some machinery whereby it can make its resolutions binding on the constituent national parties (historically they were not).
 
Saving Jaures is too late a PoD, mostly because it does too little to effect the international socialist movement. To get "simultaneous general strikes in all belligerent countries" you need more than one charismatic French politician at a critical juncture: you need to redraw several decades of the history of the Socialist movement at least. If you save Jaures, you're still going to have the German, Austrian, and British parties behaving substantially the same, at least in the early months of the war.

To get a more revolutionary socialist movement in the early months of the war, you'll have to change the result of several debates in the Second International, and to strengthen the Left of pretty much every party. This would be extremely difficult, and you may have to go back to the foundation of the International and give it some machinery whereby it can make its resolutions binding on the constituent national parties (historically they were not).

Corrrect. Either that or have him convince enough of the leaders of the other countries to go for the strike on their own decision. And they have to be successfull. Not the most probable outcome.
 
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