WI: Joseph Stalin goes to War

Recently I was reading about how Stalin's early life and an injury to his left arm would exempt his from service during the First World War. Suppose that Stalin had avoided the accident that damaged his arm, or that it healed, or that Stalin was forced to the front anyways; whatever you choose. How would combat on the Eastern Front have affected his mentality and later political career?
 
Recently I was reading about how Stalin's early life and an injury to his left arm would exempt his from service during the First World War. Suppose that Stalin had avoided the accident that damaged his arm, or that it healed, or that Stalin was forced to the front anyways; whatever you choose. How would combat on the Eastern Front have affected his mentality and later political career?

Given that two major politicians of the 20th century fought in WW1, of whom one was socialist before, and both joined an irredentist fascist movement, Stalin might end as head of a nationalist Russian party.
 
Given that two major politicians of the 20th century fought in WW1, of whom one was socialist before, and both joined an irredentist fascist movement, Stalin might end as head of a nationalist Russian party.

Mussolini had rejected the Italian Socialist Party's antiwar position early in the war. Stalin in his years of exile seems always to have maintained a Bolshevik antiwar position. Note his letter to Lenin in 1915:

"My greetings to you, dear Ilyich, warm, warm greetings. Greetings to Zinoviev, greetings to Nadezhda Konstantinovna. How are you, how is your health? I live as before, chew my bread, completing half of my term. It is rather dull, but it can't be helped. But how are things with you? It must be much livelier where you are. I recently read Kropotkin's articles—the old fool must have completely lost his mind. I also read a short article by Plekhanov in *Rech*—an incorrigible old gossip. Ekh-mah! And the Liquidators with their deputy agents of the Free Economic Society? There's no one to beat them, the devil take me! Is it possible that they will get away with it and go unpunished? Make us happy and let us know that in the near future a newspaper will appear that will lash them across their mugs, and do it regularly, and without getting tired. If it should occur to you to write, do so to the address: Turukhan Territory, Yeniseisk Province, Village Monastyrskoye, for Suren Spandaryan. Your Koba. Timofei [Spandaryan] asks that his sour greetings be conveyed to Guesde, Sembat and Vandervelde on their glorious—ha-ha—post of ministers." https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZNuZ6fq1WoC&pg=PA625 The people Stalin is ridiculing are precisely the socialists who had gone over to the "patriotic" side.

Now you might say, would serving in the military change Stalin's mind? But remember that it was only late in the war that the Tsarist government felt desperate enough to start drafting exiled revolutionaries, and it was only in December 1916 that he was rejected for military service because of his arm. So even if he was drafted in December 1916 he would have only a couple of months of service before the February Revolution would break out. And after the February revolution, right-wing nationalist positions were *very* unpopular among Russian soldiers...
 
Assuming he survived, he would go AWOL and join the Bolsheviks in St Petersburg after the February coup. He would his contacts in the Russian Army to spread Red propaganda. He would also have a lot more military experience so he might serve in the Red Army as a commander.

Likely nothing changes Stalin's mentality. It just makes him slightly more competent in military affairs; gives him more friends in the Red Army; and makes him seem like a more powerful alternative to Trotsky after Lenin's death which may not actually help him take power.
 
Assuming he survived, he would go AWOL and join the Bolsheviks in St Petersburg after the February coup. He would his contacts in the Russian Army to spread Red propaganda. He would also have a lot more military experience so he might serve in the Red Army as a commander.

Likely nothing changes Stalin's mentality. It just makes him slightly more competent in military affairs; gives him more friends in the Red Army; and makes him seem like a more powerful alternative to Trotsky after Lenin's death which may not actually help him take power.

It would change Stalin in numerous ways. Maybe he gets involved in trench warfare (it did exist in the Eastern Front), making him more cynical and making him more of a pragmatist. He might moderate his opinions and become a Menshevik, or maybe become an ultra-communist at the very beginning.

It would shift his views in way we cannot predict
 
Maybe then he knows better than to purge the Red Army all the time
I doubt it. Stalin didn't get along with many of the commanders, and was paranoid about the possibility of the generals (many of whom had worked with Trotsky when he was head of the Red Army) would launch a coup against him.
 
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