Here is what I'm working on.
With a POD no earlier than 1938, I am going to try to give the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics a nuclear weapon by 1945. It must be the first A-bomb, and it must be entirely a Soviet project.
Here are my thoughts so far.
1. Obviously, Barbarossa limited the Soviet Union's ability to do anything remotely as expensive and immense as a "M(anhattan)oscow Project". Assuming a war between Germany and the West, perhaps one that involves a longer Battle of France and something like a Sealion attempt-and-failure, or a longer and messier attempt to help the Italians in North Africa, or an emphasis on cutting Britain's oil supplies off...etcetera. Barbarossa will be delayed to 1942 at the earliest, preferably to 1943.
2. The one thing you need for nuclear weapons is uranium. In OTL, the USSR discovered uranium in Kazakhstan very soon after work on the atomic bomb had begun in earnest. This will be expedited.
3. If we can, the purges will be limited. This will keep the military of a higher quality. If there is a Winter War, Finland will get steamrolled, and the world will think highly of the Red Army. If not...that's still ok, when Barbarossa rolls around, Hitler will face a much better equipped and trained Red Army than in OTL.
4. Hopefully we can "take" a couple of Western nuclear scientists. Oppenheimer had communist leanings. Fermi could be "traded" by Mussolini to the Soviets in exchange for...something. Niels Bohr wanted to share the secrets of the bomb to the Soviets; he could flee to the Soviet Union when Denmark is invaded.
5. Obviously, it would help if Stalin is convinced of the utility of the nuclear bomb. If not, any other Communist higher-up who could conceivably pull off a coup will take power instead.
Any thoughts? I understand this is on the edge of reason, but think of it as an exercise.
