WI: Soviets betray Germany in September 1939

This is politically close to ASB, but I'm trying to look at this as more of a strategic/military aspect.

What if Stalin saw this as a chance to crush Germany, so he tricked Hitler with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. He pretends to be shocked by the German invasion of Poland and declares War on Germany.


What happens next?
 
His army's in bad shape. It still hasn't produced more than a handful of T-34s, and the learedship is still gutted by the purges. Germany has a real chance of winning here.
 
His army's in bad shape. It still hasn't produced more than a handful of T-34s, and the learedship is still gutted by the purges. Germany has a real chance of winning here.
Against Britain, France, Poland, and Russia? Didn't the Germans only have a few 100,000 men guarding their French Border?
 

Valamyr

Banned
It may well have been Stalin's plan; but he expected to be able to backstab after a long struggle on the western front, that would have bled European armies white. Why does he choose to attack Germany at full might in the battle of Poland whilst he has all reasons to believe that in the fall of 1940, his Army will be in better shape and Germany's will be in a bloody stalemate at the gates of the Maginot line and Eban Emael?

Sure, the Allies and the Comintern have a chance to crush Germany in 1940; but Stalin would gain FAR less this way than he plans to by being a little more patient. Had the western front stalemated, the USSR could have conquered all continental Europe in 1941-42. (assuming the French and Germans don't make a hasty peace to stop him).
 
It may well have been Stalin's plan; but he expected to be able to backstab after a long struggle on the western front, that would have bled European armies white. Why does he choose to attack Germany at full might in the battle of Poland whilst he has all reasons to believe that in the fall of 1940, his Army will be in better shape and Germany's will be in a bloody stalemate at the gates of the Maginot line and Eban Emael?

Sure, the Allies and the Comintern have a chance to crush Germany in 1940; but Stalin would gain FAR less this way than he plans to by being a little more patient. Had the western front stalemated, the USSR could have conquered all continental Europe in 1941-42. (assuming the French and Germans don't make a hasty peace to stop him).
Like I said, it is illogical and unrealistic for Stalin to do this. But, say he gets paranoid that France will fall(Like it did) as Poland was falling. At this point, the French Army is intact and the Polish Army will have some forces able to join up with Russia.
 
This is politically close to ASB, but I'm trying to look at this as more of a strategic/military aspect.

What if Stalin saw this as a chance to crush Germany, so he tricked Hitler with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. He pretends to be shocked by the German invasion of Poland and declares War on Germany.


What happens next?
Poland would never allow Soviet troops on it's soil so any Soviet attack against Germany is unrealistic before Sep. 17, 1939. French could not be counted on as allies (according to De Gaulle, French General Staff spent more energy drawing plans to attack Baku than to fight Germans), and Stalin had been aware of that. Britons were not trusted too ("British" being somewhat synonimous with "backstabbing allies-selling bastards" in Russian political argo even today) and did not have ground troops to speak of. In Stalin's view he was alone against Germany and had no allies he could rely on. Besides, Polish campaign exposed a lot of problems in logistics and organization of the Red Army.

Bottom line: unlikely, very unlikely.
 
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Like I said, it is illogical and unrealistic for Stalin to do this. But, say he gets paranoid that France will fall(Like it did) as Poland was falling. At this point, the French Army is intact and the Polish Army will have some forces able to join up with Russia.

And why did he believe that the French army could fall? It had the Maginot Line. The supposedly impenetrable Maginot Line.
 
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