World war 2 ends with the Nazis still deep in Russia

Anyway the European theater could end around the same time with a allied victory but with the Axis still deep inside Soviet territory.

Would the Soviets make any territorial gains or be stuck with pre-1939 borders

How would this impact the Soviet Union and the Cold war
 
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Easy mode: Have Germany win WW2

Now if we want Germany to lose while being "deep in Russia" (whatever that means), it is almost impossible due to the fact that if Germany has enough forces they will not surrender and if they start losing the Soviets will start winning. Maybe if you made the Western allies take alot of causalities public support for the war would go down, allowing for a peace that does not involve destroying Germany while making them not win completely. It would be really hard to pull off, especially with the restriction of having it end the same time as otl.

Conclusion: Likely impossible with the time restriction.
 
I think the model to work with here is Imperial Japan, which surrendered unconditionally even though it was still occupying swathes of China. Perhaps if the Allies land in France in 1943 and don't invade Italy, you could get a slow struggle along the Western Front that would culminate in the A-bombing of Berlin, Munich etc, and force Germany to unconditionally surrender. All the while, German forces are still fighting deep in Russia, holding out on a slow rearguard action — perhaps if they took Moscow (even for a bit) the Soviet war effort could be hampered sufficiently to significantly delay the "Superblitz". When Germany surrenders, they are ordered to stand down, though some will inevitably fight on. This is just an idea, mind.
 
Anyway the European theater could end around the same time with a allied victory but with the Axis still deep inside Soviet territory.

Would the Soviets make any territorial gains or be stuck with pre-1939 borders

How would this impact the Soviet Union and the Cold war
If this happens I doubt the Cold War happens. Russia would likely lose 10+ million extra civilians and deal with a a much longer rebuilding. They gain no prestige from the war and fail to spread Communism in Eastern Europe and China/Korea. The Soviet Union would just be another broken down Great Power destroyed by the war.
 
You need to establish your POD a bit further then. The soviets may have taken grievous losses to the Nazis, but by 1943, had turned the tide.

So, you'd need a few things to occur;

*The germans do far better. For example, winning Stalingrad decisively, not getting encircled, not outrunning their logistics.
*The allies commit to invading France far earlier, but get bogged down doing so, forcing a slow grind

I honestly can't see a way how either of these occur though. Unsure if the allies had the sea-lift capability to go in earlier, and the Germans, although initiating early defeats upon the soviets, underrated them badly, and assumed that they would fall apart. In OTL, that never happened, thus you'd need multiple PODs to explain that.

As far as the cold war goes, it really depends on a lot of things. Did Stalin perish? Is there a united leadership in Soviet Russia? How terrible were their casualties compared to OTL? What ultimately forced the Nazis to surrender?

At worst, you might see the Soviets turtle down, perhaps abandoning the Ukraine (Stalin dies, leadership in disarray, majority of fighting fought there). At best, the Soviets keep so much of the Wehrmacht pinned down in the eastern front that it is a relative cakewalk for the allies to storm Berlin, only to find a Soviet juggernaut on the border, poised to push forward into territory they feel is rightfully theirs (Stalin lives, Nazis routed, KV-1 is stronk!)

What the cold war devolves into largely depends on the outcome of WW2. Were the Soviets losses better or worse? How were the allies able to force a surrender, and what was the military position relative to that? Once you create a framework for how things occurred, it will be far easier to predict any cold war shenanigans.
 
Late July 1944 - the Battle of Normandy is going badly for the Germans - Cean and the surrounding area in in British/Canadian Hands after some savage battles causing very heavy losses on both sides and the Americans having overrun the Cotentin Peninsula and taken Cherbourg are now massing to break out.

OKW reports that there is no reserves left that can realistically hope to stop it, with all available reserves having already been thrown into the effort to prevent the British and Canadian forces from capturing Caen and then subsequently the shattered units doing all they can to prevent any exploitation.

In the East despite the victories in 43 (including Kursk avenging the fall of Stalingrad and shattering the central Russian Armies and the timely death of Stalin that had thrown the Russian Leadership into confusion for vital weeks during August of that year), 44 had resulted in effective and disappointing stalemate with the Russian Attempts to reverse the German victories of 43 costly failures but nonetheless grinding down the Heer (who was obliged to strip forces in the East, leaving them dangerously weak in order to oppose the Allies in Italy and against the expected and then actual D-Day landings in the West) and its allies.

Not helping matters was the Ruhr Bombing campaign* as well as the targeting of Power stations in the Western part of Germany during the latter part of 43 and the early part of 44 (the RAF and USAAF having switched to preparatory bombing missions during the lead up to D-Day) - seriously impacting the ability of the German Grid to supply German towns and cities and having a massive impact on production as a result, (only managing to be addressed when the Allied Bomber forces switched to Tactical targets from March 44).

The Dragoon landings in the South of France at the Beginning of July was the final straw for the German Army conspirators of what became known as the Treskow plan and it was fortuitous that General Fromm joined them and agreed to instigate the Operation Valkyrie plan 'The plan for the continuation of government in the face of some form of social upheaval' - once Hitler was dead.

The plan very nearly failed and had it not been for the Sacrifice of General Helmuth Stieff - who realising that the plan as it was could not guarantee Hitler's death manually detonated the explosive device rather than rely on the chemical timer

This proved to be fortuitous as the bomb only killed 6 (including Stieff and Hitler) of the 24 people in the room (it was expected to be more powerful) although the survivors were all injured, some seriously.

With confirmation that Hitler is dead General Fromm and Col. Stauffenberg begin the Operation Valkyrie plan and across Greater Germany and occupied Europe the Heer arrest Nazi leaders and disarm SS units

The coup is largely successful and despite infighting in places the Treskow Conspirators effectively seize power within 3 days

Despite having their 'unrealistic terms' for a ceasefire rejected out of hand by the Wallies several months of secret negotiations - coupled with a complete and near total collapse of forces in France and the continuation of the Strategic bomber attacks - which now include the Russian government does result in a ceasefire which by complete chance came into effect on Nov 11th 1944 with the German army retreating back into Greater Germany and Poland (until an Allied garrison can be sent to Poland and the Czech republic during 1945)

Greece and Yugoslavia are handed over to a mostly British force by Christmas 1944

Despite the emerging knowledge of the existence and horrific scope of the concentration camps, treatment of Eastern European/Russian POWs and actions of the Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe the ceasefire holds.

Eventually under the First Chancellor of the New German Civilian Government Konrad Adenauer (who serves in this capacity until 1966 - shortly before his death) the Truth commission was established and over nearly 20 years many 1000s of Germans and other Axis individuals were tried for war crimes committed during WW2 (and also in many cases before WW2).

In some cases the trials were held in absentia, the accused having fled (or in some cases actually unknowingly dead) and even as late as 2018 such people were being identified and sent to jail.

There had been talk of an international tribunal made up of Allied Judges but eventually this idea was dropped as Germany had pressed ahead with its own trials - trying and executing a number of Nazi leaders and senior officers involved in those better known war crimes.

There was some relief particulalrly in the West where the legal basis of such a tribunal had it gone ahead was somewhat flaky and in hindsight the reestablished German judicial process was probably the better approch.




*No Battle for Berlin by the Allied Bomber forces ITTL
 
If Normandy goes badly and the east goes well the Germans divert 10% of the Eastern army and double or triple the western forces.
 
Scenario for consideration:

-Germany avoids Kiev for a direct drive on Moscow, taking the city in early November 1941 and still encircling the Kiev pocket

-Leningrad falls three months later

-Germany seizes Murmansk, Russia begins tactical retreat to the Urals and Germans spend 1942 cutting off whatever pockets of Russians they can

-Germans push some of their industry into the Western Ukraine out of Allied bomber range

-Allies land in southern France in 1943 and avoid Normandy altogether, cutting into Northern Italy and trapping large numbers of Germans between Florence and Rome

-France, Italy, and Low Countries are liberated as the Rhine holds back the Allies into mid-1944

-Germany has USSR contained but begins to falter as troops are shipped West to deal woth growing Allied incursions

-By early 1945 Berlin falls to Western troops and Soviet troops are at Kazan and the Kama River along with part of the Volga, Ulyanovsk is also in their hands.

-While fighting continues the Germans relocate their capitol to Brest-Litovsk and try to reorganize, but by early 1946 the Smolensk Pocket collapses as Soviet troops decimate German survivors and forbid nuclear weapons use on their territory as equivalent to an act of war.

-Ukraine and the Baltic Republics regain independence while the USSR claims them though has no way to enforce this. Byelorussia, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus stay part of the Soviet Union but Europe avoids most of the Red Scare (Albania and Yugoslavia briefly become Communist states but quickly reform to 'planned mixed-market economies'). The Cold War that emerges here is with the Confederation of European Republics and the USA starting around 1957.
 
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