DBWI: What if the Soviets had won the battle of Stalingrad?

As we all know, on September 1, 1942, the 4th Panzer Army broke the back of the Russian 62nd Army and secured control of Stalingrad.

How would our world today be different, say, if the Russians had held the city? How else might the end of the war had looked, instead of in our world, where the Allies and Soviet armies met in Western Poland to celebrate the final defeat of Germany on April 3rd, 1946?
 
For one Nikita Khrushchev wouldn't have been executed. Granted he wasn't that high up in the party ranks but his star was rising.
 
if the soviets had won? heh .. that's good. how? the germans went around the city and cleared a zone around it. controlled the river to the north and the south.

if they had won?

I would think the following would have taken place but its ASB to thnk the germans would fight a frontal city war with out securing the surrounding area.

so as follows: the soviets after bleeding the germans dry at Stalingrad and not having to send in additional forces to stop the drive tblisi, falling back in the north to Saratov and Ufa ..

well
  • Stalin wouldn't have been captured
  • the soviets could have mounted offensives to stall the line outside of Moscow
  • after enough forces were gathered they could have pushed east and more than likely at least liberated warsaw before war end.
as it stands western forces liberated all of Poland, the Baltics and even the nation of Western Ukraine
The soviet union would be much more heavily armed than today I would fear if stalin was around, he was not an ally but an opportunist
China would probably have gone red as well, not that the difference between the groups were that different .. just one was a bit more fascist for my liking.

hard to imagine a world with out todays Poland, Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Baltic states and other nations that are such key players in European democracy not existing.

also splitting Prussia from germany was great for both Prussia and germany.
 
Germany still loses they just lose harder.

They were up against the remnants of the soviet union, resistance groups around europe, the british empire and then america on top of that. They were over steached, ountnumbered and outgunned. If they lose sooner maybe Berlin doesn't get nuked other then that I don't see much difference.
 
also splitting Prussia from germany was great for both Prussia and germany.

What? The destruction of Prussia was a travesty on almost every level, or did I miss this as a reference meant as an ATL in which historical Prussia isn't destroyed but split off in some kind of post war settlement. But I digress.


Germany still loses they just lose harder.

As to the OP, I think as WEST mentions ... the nuke factor really might be the most destructive and obvious change. I'm not sure how much nuclear material was available after two atom bombs, so if there wasn't enough to force Japan into surrender then you'll have a much more bloody and lengthy fight in the Pacific which could impact what kind of European peace America negotiates in 1946
 
Postwar the Soviets might get an occupation zone in Germany. This likely would have kickstarted the Cold War sooner than in OTL-took until the early 1950’s to really get underway. Main impact is it’d bump a lot of things up-maybe the USSR collapses in the 2000’s instead of lasting until 4 years ago.
 
What? The destruction of Prussia was a travesty on almost every level, or did I miss this as a reference meant as an ATL in which historical Prussia isn't destroyed but split off in some kind of post war settlement. But I digress.
(( well off topic but if we are talking OTL .. it was dismantled before the war for most purposes ..Prussia was on the wrong side twice and blamed for the second one and dismantled. ))

at least thankfully in this time line Poland was allowed to keep its pre war borders, danzig was demilitarized with one bank given to the poles after the plebiscite.
Prussia is still an independent nation up to east berlin. they have moderated as a constitutional monarchy with the restored emperor and have proven that the days of war are behind them, hell even open borders with Poland and free trade agreements with Poland, litva, Czech, Slovak and the German-Austrian union as well as west Ukraine forming a central European customs union that has been the foundation for the continued talks at including other members to the union. even Hungary is coming around now a days

obviously Germany was a ruin after the war as was most of Europe, and those responsible for the war were tired and executed rightfully, both Germany, and Prussia have been paying their war debt ever since and have gone out of their way to be productive members of the world community upholding justice and equality.

You have seen pictures of the monument in new berlin to the end of the war, on the grounds of the old Reichstag. left as it was after the atomic bomb was dropped. It does not say that germany was a victim, but that it should "never rest or sleep and let tyranny blind the eyes of mankind again"


The travesty was that after Stalingrad fell and then Moscow the millions of Soviets that died because of Stalin and the NKVD and the occupation is something that will never be forgotten.

Both Germany and Prussia have been diligent to build new relations with the east. a national debt that will never be repaid for what took place, but at least they do not shy away from what took place, but are trying to build a new mutual understanding built on the ashes of the old

now imagine if the the germans lost at Stalingrad and the soviets could get to berlin first. do you think that revolutionary USSR would give up what It conquered? imagine the Nazi yoke, then replacing it with communism / Stalinism for who knows how long that would be.. remember they were on the side of the germans until the germans invaded. they were expansionist and opportunistic. it bit them .. unfortunately it bit them very hard. :(

Looking back after 70 years is one thting.. and Thankfully the world has never seen or hopefully will ever see such events take place again. but the price paid in human lives by the loss at Stalingrad and by the peoples of the soviet union and eastern Europe should never be forgotten.
 
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