WI the French Communist Party had done better and took full control of the goverment by 1936?

So if they had managed to make the case that they needed to ban the other party's and gain full control with no elections to avoid a civil war would they stay out of the war on Poland?

Would this weakness in France have Hitler push east to Russia sooner or would he stick tight to OTL and invade France anyways if they didn't back Poland due to the Communist wanting to stay out of the war?
 
In other words...
The PCF wins instead of the Popular Front in 1936. That's an interesting idea.

I foresee, these possible scenarios (take that as you may, and say what you think) :
I) Because of Moscow's involvement, France goes at war against the Spanish Nationalists. Do they win or lose, and what consequences we have, is up to you.
II) France stays out of Spain and it goes like IOTL. Then comes the Non-Agression Pact in '39. France obeys to Moscow and leave Poland alone (which I think is unlikely). Now, Hitler would still want revenge on France, so he would have launched the invasion anyway, getting rid of the Communist government and replacing it by a Vichy-like-type government (Communist France doing better than OTL or not is up to you).
III) France still sides with Poland and WW2 goes like IOTL (again, with Communist France doing better or not depending on who you ask), ending with an Axis defeat. Now, I think it's very likely the Allies, fearing Communist spreading, would restore the Republic in France very very quickly.
 
The PCF in OTL got only 15.26 percent of the vote in 1936 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_legislative_election,_1936 It was the fourth largest party in terms of the popular vote, and the *fifth* largest group in the Chamber, behind the Socialists, Radicals, the Republican Federation, and the Democratic Alliance. But even this underestimates how incredibly unlikely it was for the PCF to have won an actual majority in 1936. For the PCF did as well as it largely because of its willingness to cooperate with the Socialists and Radicals. (The election was in two rounds; for the second round, the PCF , SFIO, and Radicals agreed to unite behind a single candidate in each constituency.) If they had taken the sectarian, go-it-alone line the first post suggests, they would have been lucky to get the 8.32 percent they had gotten in 1932. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_legislative_election,_1932 Moreover, to take such an approach would go totally against the Comintern's worldwide popular-front line since 1935. (Actually, for France the Comintern had demanded cooperation with the SFIO as early as the 1934 riots.) The perceived threat of fascism was far too great and the PCF's chances of winning power by itself were far too small to make a Communist France in 1936 a realistic goal for the PCF.
 
What if they had managed to get the Socialist to agree to a party merger after the 1936 election and install a USSR Communist type government with the help of the Russians?

Would the other parties give up or allow a full blown civil war to blow up?
 
What if they had managed to get the Socialist to agree to a party merger after the 1936 election and install a USSR Communist type government with the help of the Russians?

Would the other parties give up or allow a full blown civil war to blow up?

This is ASB territory. The SFIO is not going to let the PCF swallow it up. (Even after World War II, when the prestige of the PCF was at its highest, the SFIO rejected calls for "organic unity"--Leon Blum famously called the PCF a "foreign nationalist party.") But in any event, the SFIO and PCF *combined* did not have anything near a majority of the Chamber of Deputies after the 1936 election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_legislative_election,_1936 The Popular Front could govern only with the support of the not-very-radical Radical party.
 
They don't complain when Germany and the Soviet Union invade Poland, they go totally ape when Barbarossa happens.Germany will have to divert forces to deal with France,the Heer isn't going to get anywhere near Moscow.
 
They don't complain when Germany and the Soviet Union invade Poland, they go totally ape when Barbarossa happens.Germany will have to divert forces to deal with France,the Heer isn't going to get anywhere near Moscow.

I would rather State that France and USSR would jointly deter Germany from breaking-up Czechoslovakia. No Munich agreements.
 
I would rather State that France and USSR would jointly deter Germany from breaking-up Czechoslovakia. No Munich agreements.
That would be the real butterfly, I can't really imagine the Communist French doing anything for the Polish regime.


I don't think they'd deter Germany however, if anything war would erupt in 1938. Britain would probably be warier of the Franco-Russian axis than of Germany at this point too

But I just don't know how the communists could take over France while avoiding a civil war.

The army was still very right wing, even royalist, so I don't think the Communists could peacefully consolidate power the way the Nazis did in Germany.
 
If they secretly offered Stalin half of Poland and the Baltic States,Munich is happening.

In 1938, Stalin did not demand half of Poland and the Baltic States. He demanded passage for the red Army to attack Germany in a joint-attack with western powers.
 
In 1938, Stalin did not demand half of Poland and the Baltic States. He demanded passage for the red Army to attack Germany in a joint-attack with western powers.

The problem was that the Polish (rightly) suspected that once in place the Soviet soldiers will never leave
 
I have to agree that to get a Communist France as of 1939, you need a POD long before, probably one that changes global perceptions a bit as to what the Communists were all about--not enough to prevent right-wing opponents from seeing them as the Devil on Earth of course, but enough that left-wing people are more willing to unite behind their banner. That probably does require much less of a perception that the various national parties are in fact tools of Moscow. Anyway if we have Communist run France in 1938, it probably did not happen by means of peaceful elections alone--elections probably did have to go better for them sooner than in OTL, but they will not be allowed to take power peacefully. In the course of the struggle to take over Paris, I daresay all of Europe would be thrown into convulsions. France will have lost control of all colonies; I would think that some faction would claim to be the legitimate French government in exile and this lot would be supported to run the colonies by Britain. The government in exile would have rather more manpower than just the French colonists plus emigre military; a substantial number of French citizens would be emigres.

Whether Algeria would be under Parisian Communist control or not, would depend on whether the Reds were strong there or not, but given the basic politics of the colony I'd assume no, they are on the White side and probably the seat of the government in exile.

Whether France is seen as the leading military power in Europe as OTL (until the Battle of France that is) depends on how badly the revolutionary war period damages the country, on what proportions the Army, Navy and other forces split up with, and how much latitude the new government has at rebuilding.

The diplomatic map of all Europe will be completely shaken up by this event.

And no, Hitler cannot contemplate attacking the USSR without conquering France first--as in OTL he will need to steal that country's resources, never mind he can't have them at his back. Will Stalin stand foursquare against a Reich attack on France? I could argue either way! But possibly a necessary condition for France to be Communist might be to butterfly away Stalin's rule of the Soviet Union anyway!
 
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