alternatehistory.com

Alright, my first shot at this. I've always had an interest in alternate history, and fially decided to post about it. A bit of a long lead up here, but what do you think would happen in such a scenario:

The year is 1916. The summer is ending, and the fall is a sign of the cold Russian winter ahead. The Imperial Russian Army has suffered a crushing string of defeats and retreats since 1915. The people of Petrograd are starving, and morale is at an all-time low. The Russians retreat further back into Russia, past the borders of OTL present-day Ukraine and Belarus and into old Russia, an even faster retreat than the one seen in OTL. The populations of Petrograd and Moscow demand bread. The peasants starve in their villages. Mobs, now swelled with deserting soldiers surround the Winter Palace and demand the abdictation of the Czar. The Kaiser, seeing this, presses home his advantage, digging in furher while reducing troop commitments in the West. Troops, covered in heavy wool coats march eastward, bringing with them the most fearsome of weapons that Thyssen, Krupp and Farben can furnish.

The Czar refuses to relinquish control. The army is a mess, and retreat further. Bolshevik communists gain popularity in peasant villages far from the reaches of the Czar's police. Worse still, they are smuggled a charismatic leader, Vladimir Lenin, sealed in a car labeled for ammunition for a Krupp gun. He was originally supposed to be smuggled through Sweden,but the progress of the Heer allowed him to be transported directly. Nestor Makhno attracts the attention of anarchists and those who want a leader who tells them that they may take whatever they want. His fur coat and hat and black sleigh are a feared sight. As the Germans grow ever closer to Petrograd, Russian resistance stiffens, but this seems only to give the Bolsheviks more time to amass popularity.

By February 1917, the Germans are within ten kilometres of Petrograd. As railway guns are wheeled into position, the Czar sues for peace, using the vast Romanov wealth, and territory of Poland, White Russia, Ukraine and the Baltics. The Romanovs flee, in disgrace, presumably to neutral Sweden or Switzerland, and a moderate socialist coalition government develops, tasked with rebuilding infrastructure, and caring for the starving and sick.

With the stretched front and increased troop commitments, Germany is weakened in the West, and face defeat in the early months of 1918. The resources gained in the new territories is no match for US troops and industrial might. The Treaty of Versailles is signed in October 1918, and, in addition to the OTL punisments to Germany, declares Poland, Ukraine, the three Baltic countries and Byelorussia as their own countries.

In Russia, political parties begin to develop: the Democratic Socailist party, moderate socialist and most popular of the parties; the Liberal party, composed of capitalists who favoured smaller government and the party of businessmen and many professionals; the National Front, hardline anti-Semitic ultra rightists based on chauvanistic nationalism. The Communist party had been banned temporarily afther the death of Lenin and imprisonment of Trotsky. Lenin himself was blamed by many for causing the defeat of Russia in the war by destroying it from within, particularly by National Front members before the party's formation. Posters of Lenin as a cockroach about to be crushed under a Russian soldier's boot, puppet on the Kaiser's hand, and cancerous tumor on the body of Mother Russia appeared. He stayed far from the cities, preferring to attempt to raise support amongst the farmers. He was murdered by an angry mob along with his supporters in October 1917

The task of rebuilding Russia was not easy. The new Democratic Socialist government recieved only token support from the Western allies and little compensation from the treaty of Versailles. Epidemics of typhus struck the villages and food shortages were felt strongly in the new capital of Moscow, which the government relocated to as a symbolic break with Imperial Russia. The new government had a five-year term, and a majority in the Duma. industry, given small subsidies began to appear, with the focus being on steel and construction aggregates. Wealthy farmers began to mechanize their operations, and some purchased smaller farms and employed the former owners. Consumer goods remained few and far between, although the wealthy enjoyed lower prices on luxuries.

The elections of 1923 resulted in the Liberal party's election, whose focus being on the improvement of industy. Steel production increased severalfold, and consumer goods began filling shelves in mass quantities. St. Petersburg, recieving its prewar name in a 1924 referrendum remained the cultural capital, and the home of the nation's stock exchange in 1925. A slight grain surplus developed, with exports to China making up the destination for large amounts of Russian grain. The developing capitalist country was still decades behind Europe and the United States, but nowhere near the prewar backwardness it had experienced. A small expatrite community of European and American expatriates, lived in Moscow, drawn in by perceptions of furs, wood carvings, Faberge eggs and Tchaikovsky ballets.

The Depression hit Russia hard. Factories folded overnight, and businessmen were reported to have jumped from the newly completed office towers of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Unemployment was 30% overall by 1930,and as high as 50% in smaller towns and villages, particularly those based around single industries. Starvation was of comparable concern to that of the United States, although exports fell dramatically, as the grain was needed at home. The Democratic Socialists were re-elected with a staggering 67% majority. By 1937, recovery was occuring, but nation building was set back considerably.

The harbinger of Nazi agression loomed. The Army, with much of the experienced, prewar officer corps remaining. Also remaining were bolt-action rifles whose design was of a similar vintage. The Air Force had few modern aircraft, most being biplanes or PZL-11s imported form Poland. The Navy consists largely of aged cruisers and destroyers. Modern examples of both types exist in small numbers, two modern battleships exist on paper. Mobilization is an arduous process.

It is now 1939. The Wehrmacht crashes across the Polish frontier. What would happen?
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