alternatehistory.com

Hello all! Based on the overwhelming response :)p) to my floating around a "Kamenev's Russia", vaguely similar to Weber's Germany: The Veterinarian Totalitarian, I've decided to do a little bit of brainstorming for:


(Forgive the pun. I couldn't resist. Also, I hope nobody steals that title).

I probably won't start it until The Veterinarian Totalitarian is close to finishing, but that's still a long ways to go. However, that doesn't mean I can't float around some key questions regarding the nature, tone, etc. of this, and also ask around for some resources.

Format: I'm thinking three options:

  • TLIAW: Short, snappy version, broad geopolitical changes.
  • Traditional historical narrative: Similar to Weber's Germany, where the rise and fall of Kamenev and Russia is narrated by Prof. Tom Colton and H. N. Chernenko.
  • Scrapbook storytelling: The events of Kamenev's Russia and its effects on the world, told through various viewpoints (e.g. Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire or A World of Laughter...). This'll be a challenge as I've never tried this before.
Continuity:

  • Limited butterflies: Similar to Weber's Germany, where geopolitical changes generally will remain in Russia until shit starts hitting the fan in *World War 2 (i.e. Hitler vs. Kamenev).
  • Wider-spread butterflies: More in the world is free to change following (or even before) the PoD proper. May even butterfly Nazis away, but that's unlikely given my idea for the PoD.
  • Weberverse: An offshoot from Weber's Germany, so the titanic conflict between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia is led by two bespectacled tyrants.
Resources:

  • Finally, I'll need some good resources about the pre-WW2 days of the Soviet Union, and biographies of Kamenev, Zinoviev, Stalin, Bukharin, etc. would be really useful.
  • Resources about Russia's strategy in World War 2 and the early days of the Cold War would be really handy too. I can probably find a good few on my own but any particularly insightful volumes would be appreciated.
Others:

  • No Paul Driscoll this time. The time police caught up with him after last time and kicked his ass. The PoD will be purely internal.
  • I haven't decided what tone it should take, but the key driving question is What if the leader of the USSR hadn't been as rabidly paranoid? That sounds like it should lead to something nicer than OTL Cold War, but we all know about best intentions...:eek:
  • And really, any other considerations I should undertake before I start.
Thanks in advance for all your help! :D

Top