(Information on Dr. Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Ivanovich_Ivanov)
Stalin briefly became a little obsessed it seems with breeding a subserviant race of non-fussy Soldier-serfs out of Ivanov's theories and experiments in Human-Ape hybrids.
What if Ivanov had been successful in time to assist Stalin to this end? Or what if he had succeeded even earlier? Ape-men soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad, etc.?
Or even earlier: Ivanov receives grants after he proposes his ideas in Graz in 1910 and around the same time becomes sympathetic to the Bolsheviks... Ape-men are introduced into the military and work force by the 20's.
What are some possible outcomes in Russia and abroad? And if it were possible in 1910... could it have been plausible much, much earlier elsewhere in the world? How early could a subserviant race of hybrid Ape-men have been bred and introduced into perhaps even the slave trade?
(A Quick Note: Before the "snobberati" jumps on to provide cries of "ASB!" consider that genetically, fertile or semi fertile offspring of such a hybrid are actually relatively likely. We are closer related to Apes than horses are to donkeys... and there are fertile mules. More information about the possibility can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee)
This one is different enough to be fun and I might actually create a TL out of this one if I can get some serious and constructive discussion going. Especially if it's possible to move it away from Ivanov and throw a "Humanzee population in the slave trade" TL on the "Before 1900" Forum...
Anybody got any ideas?