WI the soviets handle east germany better

I readed this excellent article about the east german riots of 1953, and one part that caught my attention was this one:

The uprising was a product of Soviet and East German reaction to West Germany’s formal alignment to the West. In May 1952, Western powers signed the General (Bonn) and European Defense Community (EDC) treaties. These treaties were, in essence, a rejection of Stalin’s March 1952 offer to agree to a unified Germany on the condition that it remained unarmed. In response to West Germany’s absorption and rearmament by the Western powers, the Soviets and the regime of East German General Secretary Walter Ulbricht decided to unequivocally transform East Germany into a Soviet satellite state.

At the heart of East Germany’s transformation, a process dubbed “Constructing Socialism” enacted forced collectivization of agriculture, a campaign against private trade and Industry, and the development of heavy industry. Collectivization produced severe food shortages, which began in the winter and spring of 1953. Forced remilitarization, the suppression of churches, and the persecution of opposition also added to the strain on the population. East Germans emigrated en masse to West Germany via West Berlin, protest movements flourished, and expressions of general dissatisfaction characterized public life.

What we can get here is that the Stalininsts were more interested on repressing east germany while keeping them submissed than allowing it to "flourish" as a strong ally or puppet (you probably already knew that, but I'm a beginnner in the subject)

Well, I wanted to know how and which PoD is necessary to make the soviets handle their east german satellite government, I'm pretty sure that to do that we must get rid of Stalin before the riots happen
 
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GarethC

Donor
I think you have to avoid Barbarossa.

France does not fall in June 1940 but instead blunts the sickle.

Stalin is correctly advised of the writing on the wall and declares war on Germany in support in spring 1941, rolling through Poland over the summer; RKKA weaknesses in air power, armor, doctrine, and command structure are offset by the fact that they face category-C reservist-only divisions whose supply situation is even more dire than the Red Army's.

After a military coup against the NSDAP, Germany surrenders in late 1941 and is occupied.

The Soviet occupation involves Katyn-like wholesale murder of former officers, nobility, academics, and the wealthy in general, and yet is still vastly less brutal than OTL.

Within a decade a new crop of Sovietised Germans have taken over the day-to-day running of the East Sector, and without Barbarossa there is much less fear of a nascent Germany in Stalin's mind (which is concentrated on the nuclear-armed Entente, and a new Great Game against post-Mussolini Fascist Italy in the Balkans). With Poland as an additional buffer, there is far less fear in the USSR of allowing the alt-DDR an economic renaissance.
 
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Stalin is correctly advised of the writing on the wall and declares war on Germany in support in spring 1941, rolling through Poland over the summer; RKKA weaknesses in air power, armor, doctrine, and command structure are offset by the fact that they face category-C reservist-only divisions whose supply situation is even more dire than the Red Army's.

Stalin was correctly advised, but he stuck his head in the sand shouting "LALALA THIS IS NOT HAPPENING."
 
Stalin was correctly advised, but he stuck his head in the sand shouting "LALALA THIS IS NOT HAPPENING."

I remember watching a session of the Duma in which Vladimir Zhirinovsky told about how big of a blunder Stalin was to the soviet war effort, his generals spent the entire night telling him that the german invasion was about to start but he ignored, and only at the 4 AM he sent a alert to the front
 

GarethC

Donor
Stalin was correctly advised, but he stuck his head in the sand shouting "LALALA THIS IS NOT HAPPENING."
Sorry, I was unclear - I meant that with France undefeated and Italy not in the war, Stalin is correctly advised that the Entente is going to win.

Believing that an ATL front line which has rolled east from Paris back to the Franco-German border will keep on rolling east is a much smaller leap than accepting that a pseudoally already OTL at war with the empire on which the sun never sets would be so rash as to attack east as well.
 
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