Twilight of the Red Tsar

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BigBlueBox

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If the Germans do so, after having reunited East and West Germany, Berlin, Saar some years in the past (perhaps also add in the small amount of land given to the Dutch after WWII, then sold back), plus Allied Austria (which we presume might be a bit like Austria IOTL, which was snooty about Jews wanting their stuff back while they staffed the cabinet with former members of the Nazi party). as well as not recognizing the border between themselves and Poland... Yes, I feel Germany would go back to being the pariah of Europe. Doesn't matter if they senv over military forces, going after an area that was clearly and unequivocally ceded away to the countries they had a three-step plan to murder virtually the entire populations off... I don't think the Poles and Lithuanians would go into the land really, as the Poles had to resort to populating Pomerania and Silesia with Galician Ukrainians over from the land lost to the Soviets in order to fill the land. Kaliningrad would deem it wise to fight to the death against infaders, while the Poles and Balts would want to keep the Germans away, as well as Russians. Might be that the area becomes extremely crowded if people are pushed over the border, but even more likely any Russians are sent back to Russia, before their own countries are annexed. After all, both sides of the Soviet Civil War are trading fire with nuclear weapons.
Didn't the Ukrainians just stay where they were? It was mostly Poles from Lvov and the rest of the lands east of the Curzon Line that resettled Silesia.
 
Didn't the Ukrainians just stay where they were? It was mostly Poles from Lvov and the rest of the lands easta of the Curzon Line that resettled Silesia.
I'm not entirely sure. I think it may have been some of the more mixe dpopuoatoin, of the Galicians left in the Polish areas. Only read about them in passing some years in the past.
 
How's Estonia doing? Since @Augenis wrote a really neat update about Lithuania's recovery ans briefly mentioned Latvia, I was curious about their northern sorta-bretheren. IIRC ethnic Estonians got practically destroyed by Stalin - Has it been completely integrated into Russia at this point? Is an Estonian revival even possible at this point?

There was a mention that the native Estonian population was reduced to 20%. It is under the CNS's control by now, and with such little amount of the bearers of the Estonian heritage, the Estonian national revival seems impossible.

What could Finland do to help them?

Estonia's only choice now is to encourage reproduction.

Or import the Estonian Diaspora across the globe.

Or those deported to Siberia and Central Asia.
 
What could Finland do to help them?

It is somehow possible that Finland would take Estonian refugees and allow them go to Sweden or Norway. But pretty much would depend how Finland is politcally going on 1950's and early 1960's and how strong catch USSR has from Finnish domestic politic.

Finnish politics is probably quiet different compared OTL due longer living Stalin. Could Finland get Porkkala back and join to UN?
 
Finnish politics is probably quiet different compared OTL due longer living Stalin. Could Finland get Porkkala back and join to UN?
IOTL, it went back to the Finns in 1956. While the extra time with Stalin might make some changes, I imagine he would have been content enough with the Finalnization of the area, especially as he know had so much of the Baltic under Soviet control, so less need to demand areas from Finland to use as ice-free ports. Unless an alternative fate was mentioned already- Actually, scratch that. Reading up on it, it seems the original lease was for 50 years, and the Soviet left early in part to help along get benevolent neutrality from the Finns. Seems they mostly kept artillery there anyways, which wouldn't be too helpful for either side of the civil War if it just stayed there. I imagine they keep their heads down, while the National Council group tries to end the lease in exchange for some supplies from Finland.
 
IOTL, it went back to the Finns in 1956. While the extra time with Stalin might make some changes, I imagine he would have been content enough with the Finalnization of the area, especially as he know had so much of the Baltic under Soviet control, so less need to demand areas from Finland to use as ice-free ports. Unless an alternative fate was mentioned already- Actually, scratch that. Reading up on it, it seems the original lease was for 50 years, and the Soviet left early in part to help along get benevolent neutrality from the Finns. Seems they mostly kept artillery there anyways, which wouldn't be too helpful for either side of the civil War if it just stayed there. I imagine they keep their heads down, while the National Council group tries to end the lease in exchange for some supplies from Finland.

Although with a more dangerous USSR, it would be safe to assume that the Scandinavian countries would join the European Defense Community.
 
Although with a more dangerous USSR, it would be safe to assume that the Scandinavian countries would join the European Defense Community.
Demark, Iceland, and Norway were already in NATO. Though honestly, I don't know the year in the timeline we are at, since I can't find the last post. Anyways, I think the EDC was a bit more French inspired. Seems the French dropped out of it IOTL though, and it had something to do with West Germany Apparently so they could join the EDC, but not NATO? Not sure. Anyways, I see problems with Germany. And yah, the Finns and Swedes might join a group that can support them, if they can do it fast, but they wouldn't make any sudden moves. Since France IOTL would not share control of the nukes with the EDC (Understandable enough), they would want the Americans or British backing them, or they would try to become one Nordic bloc and hope the various Russians didn't care too much about it.
 
Demark, Iceland, and Norway were already in NATO. Though honestly, I don't know the year in the timeline we are at, since I can't find the last post. Anyways, I think the EDC was a bit more French inspired. Seems the French dropped out of it IOTL though, and it had something to do with West Germany Apparently so they could join the EDC, but not NATO? Not sure. Anyways, I see problems with Germany. And yah, the Finns and Swedes might join a group that can support them, if they can do it fast, but they wouldn't make any sudden moves. Since France IOTL would not share control of the nukes with the EDC (Understandable enough), they would want the Americans or British backing them, or they would try to become one Nordic bloc and hope the various Russians didn't care too much about it.

Yeah because Charles Du Gaulle was a complete asshole to work with
 
Yeah because Charles Du Gaulle was a complete asshole to work with
Yes, he had a tendency to be rather Napoleonic Continetal System (if only Napoleon had come up with an alliance name) in trying to keep out possible Anglo-American influence, and to focus on integration areas that were basically the realm of Charlemagne. Still, any agreement on sharing nuclear weapons would have simply made the denial by the French legislature by an even greater margin. Well, unless de Gaulle or someone used special presidential powers to push it through somehow. I expect it would be agreed to and then the French kept hold of them anyways. Still, Italy retained fascists and had a sizable socialist movement, while West Germany had a good deal of Nazis in office. Even if they didn't, how is going to hand over weapons that cost a fortune to those who tried dismembering your country in living memory?

EDIT: Or did you mean De Gaulle was a jerk to the legislature, which was why they refused to support it?
 
Yes, he had a tendency to be rather Napoleonic Continetal System (if only Napoleon had come up with an alliance name) in trying to keep out possible Anglo-American influence, and to focus on integration areas that were basically the realm of Charlemagne. Still, any agreement on sharing nuclear weapons would have simply made the denial by the French legislature by an even greater margin. Well, unless de Gaulle or someone used special presidential powers to push it through somehow. I expect it would be agreed to and then the French kept hold of them anyways. Still, Italy retained fascists and had a sizable socialist movement, while West Germany had a good deal of Nazis in office. Even if they didn't, how is going to hand over weapons that cost a fortune to those who tried dismembering your country in living memory?

EDIT: Or did you mean De Gaulle was a jerk to the legislature, which was why they refused to support it?

Both actually since opinions of him at the time state that he was impossible to work with because of his prideful idiocy, which were comparable to Donald J Trump.
 
A Culture Transformed
A Culture Transformed


Excerpt from Post-Soviet Russia by Anton Luharisk​

The late Stalin years had significantly damaged Soviet culture. Many artists lost their lives to the terror, including Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, and Ivan Pyryev. Those who survived were reluctant to publish. This was particularly true in the film industry, which had been on the decline since the end of the Second World War. In 1956 for instance only 3 films were released[1]. Those works which were published were unimaginative and full of Socialist Realist clichés. Even Stalin’s death (which many artists secretly saw as their deliverance) did little to revive Soviet culture. Like most Stalinists Mikhail Suslov saw art as little more than a vehicle through which to educate and indoctrinate the populace, and he continued many of the Stalin-era restrictions.

The freedom that came with the August Revolution released culture from these chains, creating what writer Alexander Tvardovsky called “one of the greatest revivals in history.” A flood of previously censored works, such as The Yellow Star, Ivan the Terrible Part II (whose depiction of a mad monarch terrorizing the population had enraged Stalin) and The Master and Margarita, were released. So many stories were released that the editors of the literary journal Novy Mir created two other magazines: Sovremenny Mir (“Contemporary World”) and Nash Mir (“Our World”).

An even greater revolution occurred in the world of music. The Soviet Union had long favored classical music, but even in this field there was strict censorship, to the point where artists had serious trouble finding acceptable melodies. Dmitri Shostakovich, who had spent years in the Gulag, inaugurated a new era when on September 2nd he first performed his Tenth Symphony. Shostakovich had written the second part of the symphony about the Stalin years, and at the end of the section he added a moment of silence for all the artists who had been killed during that era. Much like in the world of literature classical music saw a deluge of works released. But even more revolutionary was the coming of rock and roll to Russia. American military advisors first introduced Russians to this genre, and Beatlemania and the psychedelic rock scene quickly established themselves there. In 1969 the rock club Rezinovaya Dusha[2] opened in Moscow and quickly became the center of the Russian rock scene. Many Russian rock bands started off by aping the West, but quickly came to establish their own style. Because electricity outages were common bands were forced to play short sets, and wartime shortages meant that they used very cheap, low-quality instruments. Rock was thus stripped to the most basic elements, which anticipated the coming of punk in the late 1970s. On the other end of the spectrum folk music blossomed, and singer-songwriters (or “bards” as they were called) found themselves topping the Russian charts.

The area of art that the CNS took the most interest in was film. As Kashnikov told journalist David Frost “Film is the best way of reaching a vast number of people.” This proved to be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, a large amount of money was directed at the film industry, and several masterpieces were made. On the other hand, film proved to be where the most censorship was directed, and movies that weren’t either about the front or Soviet terror found it difficult to gain funding. As such most of the comedies, romances, and other non-war movies that were screened in Russia were American. Oddly enough the most popular genre of movie was the Western. Something about the frontier mentality resonated with Russian audiences, and it helped that Western stars like John Wayne and Gary Cooper agreed to visit Russia to perform for the troops (both the Russians and their American advisors). John Wayne’s popularity was such that in 1970 he was declared a National Artist of Russia, one of the only foreigners to receive that honor.

[1] While this seems fantastically low, IOTL there were years where less than 10 films were released.
[2] Translation: Rubber Soul, named after the Beatles album
 
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