I've heard comments about this in other threads and I thought it was interesting enough to warrant a full thread.
Anyway, it's the 1980s and for whatever reason (not really needed for this TL in my opinion), the Warsaw Pact and NATO are on high alert against each other. On a cold, dark night, trigger-happy East German sentries shoot and kill some of their West German counterparts, and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket very quickly--full-scale, conventional WWIII.
I've heard that large groups of soldiers in different Warsaw Pact countries, especially in Poland and Czechoslovakia, weren't really all that keen on fighting a third world war on the Soviets' behalf. What would be needed for those militaries to "mutiny" against the Soviet military and/or other Warsaw Pact countries?
Simply put, the POD is this: in the midst of a full-scale conventional WWIII between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, a large percentage of the Polish, Czechoslovakian, and (for good measure) Hungarian militaries revolt against the Communists. What happens next? Does the Warsaw Pact front collapse in on itself, or do the Soviets merely crush the rebellious units?
Anyway, it's the 1980s and for whatever reason (not really needed for this TL in my opinion), the Warsaw Pact and NATO are on high alert against each other. On a cold, dark night, trigger-happy East German sentries shoot and kill some of their West German counterparts, and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket very quickly--full-scale, conventional WWIII.
I've heard that large groups of soldiers in different Warsaw Pact countries, especially in Poland and Czechoslovakia, weren't really all that keen on fighting a third world war on the Soviets' behalf. What would be needed for those militaries to "mutiny" against the Soviet military and/or other Warsaw Pact countries?
Simply put, the POD is this: in the midst of a full-scale conventional WWIII between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, a large percentage of the Polish, Czechoslovakian, and (for good measure) Hungarian militaries revolt against the Communists. What happens next? Does the Warsaw Pact front collapse in on itself, or do the Soviets merely crush the rebellious units?