WI: WW2 was fought agianst the USSR not agianst Germany?

yourworstnightmare

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For a crazy USSR you need to replace Stalin. Stalin was mad, but not dumb. He knew he couldn't take on all of Western Europe at once. That's why the USSR did not try to expand that much before WW2.
 
Seems pretty likely if the Soviets were to be clear aggressors in Poland, but as several others have said that means finding someone other than Stalin. But assuming it happens I can envision a timeline that looks a lot like ours with Russia and Germany trading places post war...

Assuming Germany could defeat the USSR on land, even with British and French support, which while possible depending on how the POD affects the Soviet armed forces, isn't guaranteed.

One of my AH bugbears going back a few years now is the idea of an alt-WW2 featuring a coalition of Germany, the USSR and Nationalist China vs all-comers (UK, France, Japan, Italy, Poland just for starters). Still don't know exactly how to bring it about, though.
 
For a crazy USSR you need to replace Stalin. Stalin was mad, but not dumb. He knew he couldn't take on all of Western Europe at once. That's why the USSR did not try to expand that much before WW2.

Pretty much, to invoke TV Tropes, he was Genre Savvy, he knew his country was "the Evil Eastern Commies" to much of the world and to some extent that a lot of people were itching to take down the Soviet Union once and for all. Stalin was an opportunist if nothing else, the Nazi-Soviet pact was made with the explicit idea on Stalin's part that A. the Nazis would attract all the attention and B. it let him rebuild the Soviet military that he eventually planned to use against them while simultaneously acquiring choice pieces of useful land, like Bessarabia.
 
No pact in and of itself is just going to give Germany full control of Poland. You still haven't solved the more fundamental issue of Stalin not being willing to start a major war.
 
I would like to draw attention from how it would start to how it would happen. So I am just going to assume that 1939 It looks like this:
Germany, France, and England form an alliance to take on the soviet union. At this time things are heating up between China and Japan. Stalin is helping china against Japan but starts to get worried about western Europe and begins to arm the USSR and prepare but is not dedicating that many resources to it.
In the Summer of 1940 Germany throws the first punch. A repeat of operation Barbosa occurs only this time they have some french troops and some British planes. They push deep into the USSR. The USSR is better prepared then it was in the real WW2 but they are facing greater foes so everything evens out. Stalin throws all his resources at stopping the advance. By winter French reinforcements coupled with complete British control of the north sea causes Stalin to retreat farther back. The winter slows things down. The lines do not move significantly but the USSR becomes stronger slowly.
With the spring of 1941 An allied advance begins and pushes toward Moscow Leningrad is ignored but a second group heads south for Stalingrad. Churchill hopes to take these two cities as a means of breaking soviet moral Stalin had prepared for an Attack on Moscow and turns the 10miles east of Moscow into killing fields of mines barbed wire and soviet troops. Stalingrad is fought for fiercely but is taken. Stalin is focused on holding Moscow and dedicates most of his forces there however.
 
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