A brief note: I tried searching the forums, but the search function gave me keywords spread throughout a posting (i.e., "Hitler becomes a communist" - with quotes around it - still searches for those words with any degree of spacing)
There is a rumor of that Hitler was once a member of a communist organization. WI he actually was, and, more importantly, never left?
So here was my idea: WI Hitler still takes control of Germany in 1933, but does so as a communist, having organized German leftist factions into eliminating the right by any means necessary, and then engages in his rearmament program, with a Leninist "one step backward" policy as need be, thus resulting in success as OTL?
I see two scenarios:
1. WAllies forego appeasement as communism is not to be tolerated. Germany is invaded and defeated upon Anschluss with Austria. USSR remains out of it, nowhere near ready to make a move.
2. Things progress effectively as they did OTL up to 1939, with the exception of a communist takeover after the Republicans win Spain's civil war. The WAllies declare war on Germany and USSR after the invasion of Poland. Spain's only role is to shut down Gibraltar and hold the Spanish border. This keeps Italy neutral while the rest of Europe is carved up by the communist alliance.
Stalin does not fear a war with the West, as Germany can bear the brunt of the Allied assault, and signs a nonagression treaty with Japan, effectively handing IJ all of Asia (he had no faith in Mao until postwar IOTL anyhow) in return for a secure eastern border. Soviet diplomats press IJ to focus on mainland Asia and keep the US out of the conflict, as the US's industrial base and manpower would be cause for concern. By 1941, as Britain continues to soldier on alone in Europe (and at increasing cost), the USSR and Germany plan to steamroll through Africa and the Middle East to link up with the Japanese around Calcutta.
Thoughts?