WI/ACH: Soviet-American War (1922-1939)

[Historyman 14]

The basic idea is to have a full war to break out between the Soviet Union, and the United States between 1922, when the Reds won the Russian Civil War, and the Soviet Union was born, up to 1939, OTL date for World War 2.

How can this happen? Is it possible? What would the war look like if the USSR, and America went to war between this time frame?

 

[Shevek23]

No, I can't see the USA leading such a war. And in a situation that created the USSR in the first place, I don't think Britain or France would be able to lead it either. By 1922, the reactionary powers had pushed the Civil War as far as they could and were losing support in their home countries. Trying to galvanize the masses of a nation like the USA into a crusade in Eurasia would probably have backfired badly, raising the question of why the Bolsheviks were such bad guys anyway.

Going back to a POD that would give Americans reliable motive to obey such orders is probably going back to well before 1914, and thus tosses the events OTL after that into a big raffle basket and shaking it; we probably don't get the February Revolution at all. A militaristic enough USA to recruit armies that could be relied upon to keep shooting at the Reds would probably I guess have joined with the allies long before the Tsar would be overthrown, and deliver victory to the Entente early.

 

[Salem_Saberhagen]

Perhaps on a timeline on which Trotsky prevails over Stalin following Lenin's death (1924 though, not 1922), and begins to agitate for his "permanent revolution" theory, with the Soviet Union supporting Communist uprisings in Germany, Eastern Europe, and perhaps the USA itself, you could see some form of war erupt.

Even in this case I think it would be very unlikely, in OTL the Soviet Union in 1922 was on a very weakened state, and was trying to consolidate its Civil War gains, it couldn't even take on Poland, I don't see them trying to commit suicide by challenging the US.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish–Soviet_War