Stalin is captured outside of Moscow by Army group center?

Priority would be getting him back. Although I somehow doubt that Stalin would be anywhere other than safe and snug in the Kremlin by this point.
 
When was he close enough to the front to be caught?

I've always though that the whole house of cards might have collapsed if he'd left Moscow before the German winter offensive without Beria's compliance/execution. But in that scenario Uncle Joe would have been heading east, not west.

Unless you're positing a WI where the German pincers get around Moscow, isolating it from the rest of unconquered Russia.
 
Maybe in this scenario Luftwaffe bomb Moscow so heavely that Stalin tries to slip out of Moscow pretending to be a Sovjet Civilian?
 
Maybe in this scenario Luftwaffe bomb Moscow so heavely that Stalin tries to slip out of Moscow pretending to be a Sovjet Civilian?

Doubtful, considering the Sovs could just build bunkers, and all the problems the Luftwaffe had on the eastern front.
 

Germaniac

Donor
If he is captured by the Germans, which is unlikely, it will be a war winner. The Soviet Union was held together at this time by the iron grip of Uncle Joe, without his hand the cards would fall.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
If Stalin is killed, or worse, captured by the Germans, the Soviet Union would fall. While the Politburo would probably rally (they all knew Stalin was a just man; a terrifying man, but a man nonetheless) and try to lead some sort of resistance, the soul of the Soviet people would be crushed.

I mean, how would you feel if you heard that your god had been killed or captured?
 
Why was he there? Of course the Great Stalin would be on the front line wiping out a whole pazer division with his bare hands before he was taken, due to a German sneak attack.:cool:
 
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Does the top dogs of the USSR still fight on?

We'll leave aside the question of why Stalin has decided to go for a country ramble through Operation Typhoon.

I for one question the effect this would have on Russian morale. Sure, there was a cult of personality, but the Russian people were by no means fighting only because Stalin said to: they were fighting because if they didn't, the Russian nation was well and truly fucked. That's still the case, and given the precariouss situation the Soviet bigwigs (I don't know who was in and out of favour at the time) will probably save any murderous power-struggles they plan to have till after the war.

The effect of removing Stalin's strategic, ah, "input" would be interesting, though.
 
We'll leave aside the question of why Stalin has decided to go for a country ramble through Operation Typhoon.

I for one question the effect this would have on Russian morale. Sure, there was a cult of personality, but the Russian people were by no means fighting only because Stalin said to: they were fighting because if they didn't, the Russian nation was well and truly fucked. That's still the case, and given the precariouss situation the Soviet bigwigs (I don't know who was in and out of favour at the time) will probably save any murderous power-struggles they plan to have till after the war.

The effect of removing Stalin's strategic, ah, "input" would be interesting, though.

Well there is such a thing as dangerious fun.;)

As for the effects on the war Stalin became highly effective as a war-leader at the latter half of the war and was highly skilled at organization & logistics.

With Molotov in charge you wont have that but it'll avoid some blunders.
 
Actually if Stalin was captured there would be a massive struggle for power in the Soviet leadership. The head of the Secret Police would probably attempt to seize power but there would be a fight and the Russian military would probably get involved. This would offer the Germans a great chance to win the war.
 
Surely if Stalin was captured he'd be brought to Berlin to engage in Thunderdome style gladiatorial single combat with Hitler to decide the future of Europe?
 
To be honest, I think Beria, Molotov, or whoever was suddenly running the show would immediatly showcase a Stalin body double to counter German claims and make them look like liars. When the Soviets eventually win the war and assuming they capture the POW Stalin, they will welcome him back to the victorious side with a bullet through the brain.
 
Actually if Stalin was captured there would be a massive struggle for power in the Soviet leadership. The head of the Secret Police would probably attempt to seize power but there would be a fight and the Russian military would probably get involved. This would offer the Germans a great chance to win the war.

Yeah, this is rather why i suspect it wouldn't happen. There's nothing like the threat of genocidal destruction to bring people together. I recall the story in Beevor's Stalingrad of the new volunteer's father, a bristly-faced gray-haired Cossack who had fought in WW1 and as a White, going to "see his son off" and in fact volunteering himself as well. Even people as madly power hungry as the Soviet leadership will probably see thta they'll all have no power at all if they've all been executed by the Nazis.

To be honest, I think Beria, Molotov, or whoever was suddenly running the show would immediatly showcase a Stalin body double to counter German claims and make them look like liars. When the Soviets eventually win the war and assuming they capture the POW Stalin, they will welcome him back to the victorious side with a bullet through the brain.

That's certainly one possibility, and makes for a fun conspiracy theory. Another is that they trumpet his death defending the Rodina, turning him into a Christlike national saviour who takes his after Nevskiy and Kutuzov in the row of floating propaganda heads.

Surely if Stalin was captured he'd be brought to Berlin to engage in Thunderdome style gladiatorial single combat with Hitler to decide the future of Europe?

But of course!

Stalin wins, obviously.
 
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