Xen
Banned
OTOH, had the U.S. not dropped the Bomb on Japan, Stalin might've convinced himself she wouldn't drop it on Russia, either, & decided to invade Germany in 1950...![]()
The question then becomes do the Soviets still acquire the bomb? They didn't get one until 1949, and if there is no Hiroshima or Nagasaki to prove the bombs "worth" then Stalin may not acquire one or give it the same funding and priorities that he did. He invades Germany, the US Air Force drops a bomb on Soviet formations, annhilating an entire army with just one bomb.
The American's have more of these bombs, and a monopoly. Stalin begins demanding his scientists build him one, and in total paranoia begins removing people who he believes failed him. Any massive troop formations the Soviets manage to conjure up is quickly destroyed. The Red Army begins to fear the sound of plane engines, and begin to refuse orders. Some regiments surrender in mass to the west, high ranking generals begin to conspire to overthrow Stalin.
In the end the USSR is forced out of Eastern Europe, and perhaps even dissolved in favor of the Republic of Russia. The Cold War is over before it really begins, and Communism is discredited the same way Fascism was a few years prior.