Dismembered Russia

JJohnson

Banned
I was wondering, what would happen if the USSR had been on the "Axis" side of World War II, wherein the US, UK, Germany were fighting against France, Poland/USSR, and Japan? Assuming the Allies won, would they dismember the USSR and restore a democracy there? How would the dismemberment look on a map?

I'm looking to incorporate this into a timeline, so your opinions would be most helpful.

James
 
who would Russia Be split between?
France and Britian are in shambles, and China's too busy trying to push to each other out of the country.
 

JJohnson

Banned
hypothetically, if France were on the Axis side against the US-UK-DE allies, then it would also get heavy treatment after the war. In this timeline, France was given blame for WWI in the Treaty of Versailles, and developed a nasty revanchist National Socialist (fascist/socialist) government. Germany remained a monarchy.

As for Russia, I was thinking it would be split into several smaller countries, perhaps based on the so-called 'Republics' including the now independent republics and some still part of Russia. I'm no expert on the USSR/Russia, so I was wondering what y'all thought.

James
 
As for Russia, I was thinking it would be split into several smaller countries, perhaps based on the so-called 'Republics' including the now independent republics and some still part of Russia.
Speaking about Russia proper, as well as Ukraine and Belarus, you can use lists of "Oblast" (provinces), easily available on wikipedia, to serve as general model of smallest possible statelets, as communist tried to make every Oblast a "natural" region with biggish industrial city (or cluster of thereof) plus agricultural/mining/ resource hinterland. Mind you, this structure is not sustainable without permanent foreign meddling into local affairs (I would say nothing short of direct military occupation would really work) to prevent statelets from banding together to advance common economic goals.

Would you like something biggish and a bit more self-sustainable, Belarus (or it's rump) might be allowed to unite (they're not that numerous to pose serious threat to any neighbours but Lithuanians, and Lithuanians aren't likely to have a controlling vote in the TL you're trying to draw). Ukraine would have 4 regions (Left Bank, Right Bank, Novorussia, Crimea) with OTL Western provinces likely belonging to some other statelets. For Russia, OTL Federal Okrugs or something close to that (sans Karelia and whole area West of Northern Dvina, as well as Caucasus autonomous regions and Dagestan) would suffice. Tatarstan would be granted independence by any sane victorious power, but it would naturally gravitate to "Volga Republic" as soon as it would be allowed to do it. Oh yes, and Northern areas of Kazakhstan would merge with ether "Siberia" or "Ural Republic" (those are majority Russian areas, attached to Kazakhstan by Stalin).

Caucasus and Baltics would, with some minor border adjustments (and, for Caucasus, some genocide), be similar to OTL. Ethnic democracies with seriously suppressed minorities.

Central Asia without foreign occupation would be a sheer nightmare. Genocidal free for all for years, before most capable warlords would carve khanates of their own. There's no way to predict borders. OK, Ferghana valley for sure and old Great Cities (Tashkent, Samarkand), as well as Soviet-built centers (Alma-Ata) are likely. Those are too juicy pieces for any warlord to pass by.
 

JJohnson

Banned
I'll definitely take a further look at the oblasts on wikipedia for more info on that, and draw that up later on today or tomorrow. One thing I'd like to do is have the Volga German SSR survive and transition into a functioning Capitalist Republic like Germany, instead of the population being expelled and sent to camps.

James
 
I'll definitely take a further look at the oblasts on wikipedia for more info on that, and draw that up later on today or tomorrow.
Good luck. One more thing to consider. Siberia would look better if kept closer to OTL oblasts, as the whole area is mostly a string of major cities along Transsib railway, each with hinterland of it's own. Theresn't really a lot tying them together. Oh yes, and Yakutia is likely to get independence.

One thing I'd like to do is have the Volga German SSR survive and transition into a functioning Capitalist Republic like Germany
Having certain degree of familiarity with Volga Germans, I'm not sure they're bunch you're looking for. Very good farmers they are, but not really market wheelers and dealers. Even OTL a lot of market activity in German-populated area was conducted by non-German merchants and industrialists. But good luck anyway.

Last but not least: you need to establish severity of occupier regime 1st, as a lot of borders would be pretty artificial and would depend on how hard wou;d victors want to screw Slavic Motherland.
 
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