What a fascinating (and upbeat) ending to this WWII (although I'm eager to read about Mao getting his butt under to him a plate too) Excellent work as always.
Even if WWII has not fully ended, I have to remark that so far, this TL has seen a fairly utopian outcome. Nazism nipped in the bud before it could do serious damage and relegated to footnote of history, no Holocaust (although sadly this Stalin managed to kill as many or even more people in Eastern Europe and the Middle East than Hitler, but that was inevitable given the PoD; by the way, OW, how do the Western poublic opinion get to call Soviet atrocities by a catchy dramatic nickname ?), WWII wipes out the last two genocidal dictatorships in one fell swoop (too bad for the increased use of nukes, but it is wholly understandable for the Allies to use them to bring the USSR wholly to its knees rather than wasting more of their soldiers conquering Moscow by convenrional means), and good that Russian soldiers managed to recover a measure of honor for their country. In one fell swoop, TTL anticipated the 1990s global landscape to the 1940s, without (I assume) a Communist China, even better.
Now that the Allies occupied the USSR, the staggering body count of Soviet atrocities, both before and during the war, shall become fully known, so Communism is totally getting to be the pariah ideology, Stalin the new face of absolute evil, and I expect TTL's equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials shall be started. I've made a spinoff thread about this point, I propose St. Petersburg as the seat of the Tribunal, a fitting charge as the city that saw the birth of the Soviet regime. By the way, OW, I assumed that Beria died in the coup like Stalin, he was too dangerous to leave alive, is it correct ?
I make some proposals for the peace settlement and for the post-war world. Russia and Japan get about 5 years of Allied military occupation, and as much or double of "supervised" democracy. Japan keeps the Kurili Islands, Sakhalin, and the Ryukyu, loses everything lese. Taiwan and Korea get independent. China loses Tibet, which goes independent under Allied protection, but recovers Inner and Outer Manchuria. Occupied European countries are freed and recover their 1941 territories, Finland gets Karelia, Romania may get Transnistria, Poland may get a slice of western Bielorussia and Ukraine. Central Asia, Caucasus, Bielorussia (which gets Smolensk), and Ukraine (which gets the Russian Donbas and Rostov) get independent.
Even if Dewey is going to be less enthused about it than Roosevelt, it is likely that Allied wartime cooperation blossoms in some form of global international organization, be it the UN (maybe with a different name) or a strenghtening of a revitalized LoN. Anyway, America, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy are going to be the new great powers directory, make up the equivalent of the UNSC permanent members. Russia and Japan are going to be in the diplomatic doghouse for a decade or so, and be denied a place in the directory. China may or may not get it, depending on whether the Allies get to regard the Maoist regime as imposed by the Soviets (say like OTL Vichy France, even if it was not really so) or a homegrown phenomenon (say like OTL Fascist Italy). Since there is nto going to be a real Cold War, it is possible that the UN-equivalent is given a bit more leeway and teeth. Canada, Australia, and South Africa could share another rotating permanent seat, too.
Westen Europe, including the vast majority of Germany, has been spared OTL devastation and is primed for a post-war economic boom dwarfing OTL. Wartime cooperation buried WWI antagonisms, and both it and the possiblity of Russian revanchism ought to jumpstart a rather effective European integration. Given WWII Euro military cooperation, it is to be expected that strong security integration is part of the project alongside economic integration. The German-Nordic-French-Benelux core surely complements it with strong political integration, wartime Euro cooperation ought to make Britain rather less paranoid about it, but with Imperial committments, hard to say how much Britain is going to involve itself. The British Empire likely lingers longer ITTL.
Italy, its Balkan bloc, Portugal, and Spain are likely kept a bit at bay from full European integration until they democratize after the death of their respective dictators, up to then there's going to be some rivalry between the democratic northern bloc and the authoritarian southern bloc, but likely not a radical antagonism, the democratic powers would be too strong for that, Italy is the only power in its bloc that can be regarded as a great power, at least until Spain recovers from the SCW and industrializes.
Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and the Middle East have been wrecked and are going to need about a generation to fully recover, in the meanwhile they shall be dependent on Western Europe. This ought to dampen down nationalist antagonisms in the Balkans somewhat, and to make them enthusiastic supporters of European integration.
Nonetheless, in a decade or two this Europe is going to be more prosperous and much more happier than OTL, without Communist domination over half of it. The Middle East has been hit just as hard, however, it also saw the Western powers spill their blood to liberate it, hopefullt this may diminish the likelihood of a later Islamist swing, even if the shock of Soviet occupation and lingering colonial resentment might still cause it. Israel may or may not happen, without the Holocaust however it becomes much less likely, if it does, however, it has better chances of conquering all of Palestine b/c a bit more Jews survived in Europe (not that many, hower, the vat majority of European jews lived in Eastern Europe and were among the victims of the Stalinist genocide.
Russia is going to be in the doghouse, under Allied military occupation, and later "supervised" democracy and limited independence, somewhat more (5-10 extra years) than OTL germany, since the Allies don't need it to fight a Cold War and it's bigger and scarier, although it's eventually going to recover its independence and it keeps the vast majority of its 1992 territory (minus Smolensk, Donbass-Rostov, and Outer Manchuria), thus remaining a great power in its own right. It is spared 40 extra years of an horrible regime, and given full access to Allied-sponsored reconsturction and democratization. The Allies are going to implement thorough de-Sovietization, democratization, disarmament, and to rebuild a capitalist economy, under better conditions than the 1990s transition, with less communist thugs and mob bosses reinventing themselves as oligarchs. Post-Communist Russia has better chances of get bit more like post-WWII Germany and Japan, even if Communism inflicted far more serious damage to Soviet society and pre-Soviet Russia was more backward than pre-Nazi Germany.
The defeat and de-Sovietization, not to mention being confronted with the full magnitude of Soviet crimes, ought to push Russia to do more of soul-searching and reinvention of its collective psyche than it did in the 1990s and 2000s. Hopefully, but it is not a given, this could prevent the OTL sliding into Putin-like revanchist authoritarianism.
China has got Maoist madness nipped in the bud (I assume) and can proceeed to do its modernization under a far better poltiical regime, jumpstarting its political evolution by several decades.
All in all, it looks like a rather happier and more prosperpous world, even if trade rivalry and some clashes about decolonization are wholly possible, America, Europe, and China do not seem really likely to slide into an outright Cold War, just like they did not in OTL 1990s-2000s. The American-European consensus seem sufficiently strong to keep the reins of the international order, eventually coopting newcomers as blossoming China and India, and resurgent (but hopefully reformed and cowed) Russia and Japan.
Only two kinds of global problems seem likey: first, with stronger economic development of all-capitalist Europe, Russia, and China, there is going to be rather more industrialization and rather earlier and more serious environmental troubles.
Moreover, this war reaffirmed the moral standing of the Western powers, lack of Nazism kept right-wing ideas like imperialism and colonialism more respectable, while they made left-wing revolution and far left in general much more suspect. It follows that decolonization is going to be rather mroe gradual and fought over (e.g. ITTL Euro military intervention in a Suez crisis would end up with Nasser's head on a plate), which could easily generate more North-South antagonism. With the demise and ostracization of Communism, third-world elites are going to look for an alternative ideology to fuel their anticolonial struggle. Unofrtunately, the most likely alternatives are fascism and/or, in the Muslim world, Islamism.
Cuturally, this is a rather different world, more right-wing, where Communism is taboo, the far left is barely tolerated, its ideas like PC and third-worldsm seen as fruitcake by all but a fringe, racism, militarism, and imperalism remain respectable longer. Eugenetics, too, remain respectable and a mainstream concern, which could provoke interesting results further down the line (e.g. development of genetic engineering and human cloning within the 2000s).
Women emancipation, the sexual revolution, and the emergence of the youth as major social force are going to happen on schedule, since the social forces that created them are all in place (although the youth counterculture shall use something else as its rallying ideology, maybe right-wing environmentalism). Overall scientific and technological progress is going to be somewhat faster, thanks to a stronger Europe, Russia, and China.
As it concerns space exploration, on one had it could be delayed by the lack of Cold War competition, on the other hadn substantially accelerated, with a stronger Europe, Russia, and China, especially with a much stronger Germany leading Europe and the West in it. Personally, I would evaluate that the latter effect prevails and we have a joint Euro-American landing on the Moon by late 1950s-early 1960s, orbital bases by the late 1960s-ealy 1970s, moonbases by late 1970s-early 1980s, a Mars landing by late 1980s-early 1990s.
As I said, a strong EU is pretty much a given, and Euro-American cooperation (with occasional bouts of alienation) remain at 1990s-2000s levels. It is a bit more difficult to say whether America and Europe care to set up a NATO-like integrated collective security organization. They may or may not do it, but it is plausible they do as a bulwark against Russian, Japanese, and Chinese revanchism. If they do, it is almost surely going ot be global in scope, and include Australia and New Zealand, too, and to be named something like the "Global Alliance of Democracies" or somesuch.
