alternatehistory.com

Not intended as a lazy Variation Thread but as a serious WI.

Stalin dies in some really ignominious way, like falling down the stairs, at the end of 1936. I.e. the Nazis have already gained power in Germany, but before the Great Purge happened.

So:

  1. Who succeeds Stalin?
  2. How does that person rule the USSR?
  3. How is the history of the end of the 1930s altered? Is this different USSR less threatening, leading to the Western powers being less tolerant of Hitler as a bulwark, or what?
  4. If the Nazis invade this USSR, do they do better or worse than OTL?

With regards to the last one, on the one hand you have a lot more competent people who were purged or gulag'd in OTL, but on the other the USSR might not industrialise (and shift industry to the Urals) as fast without Stalin's monomania and ruthlessness driving it.

Thoughts?
Top