I've spent the last few days complaining about how much I dislike the two main Kaiserreich Cold War mods- Krasnacht and Kalterkrieg, so I felt like trying to make something original. Taking a few ideas from my own headcanon and research into different figures from the mod, and of course trying my damndest to do something that no one else has done!
Premise- Savinkov being an unhinged motherfucker starts WK2 by invading Ukraine. Since he's never bothered to try to industrialise Russia to the extent of Stalin (he didn't really have the time either) there's a lot of sponsoring of Slavic partisans and terror tactics against German civilians in Eastern Europe. Savinkovs Russia is a land of contrasts, he's barely stabilised the place since taking power and he's not even bothered to go after Turkestan or anyone else, he's much too keen on throwing a horde of peasants at the Germans to prove their will to survive.
As the Germans begin to depart to the east they start feeling the pinch of the Internationale in their rear. No Jacobins, Sorelians, Mosley, or Mussolini in power ITTL so there's no desire to avenge bourgeois "national honour" for the hiding the Germans handed the capitalists in 1918. Instead, the Internationale helps to organise a series of anti-war strikes across Germany, which turn into revolts and revolution in the Rhineland and Walloonia, which of course they're arming. They might not want to avenge any honour but humiliating the Germans is a cornerstone of the revolutionary effort.
And so the German army is pulled back from the Eastern Front to help crush the revolt at home- no point in beating the Russians if you get back to Germany and the Kaiser's had his head cut off. Ukraine and Belarus are abandoned to the Russians, who turn to hunting down partisans who didn't get the message that they're Russians again. The forces of the Internationale start moving into Lorraine, and then into Alsace and Walloonia, and before long they're having schnapps with their German brothers and sisters in Dusseldorf and imagining what the Brandenburg Gate will look like once it's decked out with red banners...
Sadly for them the German army knows how to dig in, that's how they won the last war after all- bunker down and let the Frogs and Ruskies throw men at machine guns. As good as they are at it though they can't do it forever. Most of Reich's food came from Ukraine (being stripped bare by Savinkov), most of its fuel came from overseas (being commandeered by Britain's Republican Navy), and most of the actual war materials were made in the Rhine-Ruhr (being liberated by the Armée de la Révolution!) As for the Internationale, the people are starting to get a bit war weary since the lines halted, the Italians in particular are getting flashbacks to the last time they faced off against the Austrian Army in the Alps (D'Annunzio joined Serbia and Romania in attacking the Empire when Hungary started kicking off, the SRI didn't see any need to let that go to waste), they just don't have the population to do this forever. In Moscow Savinkov is starting to fear the same thing, if this goes on much longer there won't be enough of an army left to remind the Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Estonians that they're Russians again.
And so the three major factions end up going to talks out of fear that they'll end up in another meat-grinder, much as the Internationale believes that they might see more revolutions in Germany and Russia if it goes on much longer they know that there's a few groups that call them statists and traitors behind their backs and they don't want to give them any excuses...
*****
So the idea is for a multi-polar Cold War, with a lot of later conflicts we see in KR occurring as well potential conflicts. So there'd be Canada trying to forge its own path without the Exiles in the way, the CSA and the Pacific States trying to learn to live with each other whilst they're divided by the Rockies, the innumerable conflicts of Africa and China, Japan, Brazil, and Egypt trying to maintain their status as great powers in an increasingly divided world- and of course the Internationale, Reichspact, and Russia trying to gain the advantage over one another as they prepare to end this war once and for all.
