WWII but both the Nazis and Communists don’t exist

How would WW2 start in a world where both the Nazis and Communist Russia doesn’t exist? (The allies still win WW1 btw) Who starts it? How does it end? Who are the allies fighting against? Is the atomic bomb still made?
 
World war 2 was a direct result of Nazi germany. No Mossi mean no ww2. Plenty of wars that didn’t result in a world war. Modern economics, trasportation, and communication makes a world war more possible than before but the scale of German ambition and their philosophy made it inevitable. Another war in europe is possible but the circumstances of neither Nazis or the soviets leaves many butterflies to create a senario
 
If the Germans are still revanchist post Versailles (which is virtually inevitable - OTL even the German Communists opposed the Polish Corridor for instance) and a revanchist Russia is interested in reclaiming Bessarabia, Finland, the Baltics and Poland then a war is possible. Could even be bloodier (though not quite as nasty) than OTL. The Germans would have better equipment without chasing talented engineers and scientists out of the country for the crime of being Jewish and wouldn't be wasting manpower and resources on a lunatic programme of racial extermination. Probably saner leadership and less intervention in the conduct of military affairs.
Russia minus War Communism and the Stalinist purges would also be in better shape for a fight. Not to mention Stalin being truly awful in respect of his interventions in military matters, Russia only started winning battles when Stalin stepped back from the day to day running of military affairs. Probably earlier introduction of jet fighters as OTL their development in Germany was retarded by bees Hitler had in his bonnet.
 
First I doubt it will get a "World War" moniker. The best scenario would be revanche Germany and revanche Russia eventually running into each other over Poland. You may have seen an Anglo-Japanese War or a Pacific War (with USA added or substituted) but it plays out apart in time or connection. If you want to get strange have Weimar Germany and Republican Russia grow close and then get revanche on everyone. That feels more fictional to me but could become a global war as both have axes to grind everywhere. And I am guessing it is a worsening Depression, inept everyone else, and many butterflies that build that ATL.

Unless one intends that an Entente "win" leaves Imperial Germany less broken and Russia more fully like Weimar Germany, a leftist Republic embattled by the right-wing anger fest. That gets you far more traction for another war on global scale. It could be revanche Germany or simply bat shit hate orgy Russia under a maniac demigod, either has reasons to start a war for the glory, for the money, and for the show. Or it could be more organic as the Empire(s) break down, bush wars and proxy fights get out of hand as independence for one is revolution to another, world at war.
 

RousseauX

Donor
It also depends on what kind of Russia emerges from post-1917 revolutions

If it's a pariah state on par or almost on par with OTL USSR but without being Communist, then you could still have had German-Russian reproachment in the 1920s as per otl rapello. This is especially true if Russia loses some of its western territories in the aftermath of the war.

With a saner Germany without dreams of eastern lebscraum, you might very well have a Germany-Russian alliance to partition Eurasia between them: with Germany fighting to establish a "Mittleeuropea" (which territorially Nazis achived otl) while the Russians gets a free hand in trying to conquer Korea from Japan and maybe India from the British and northern China too. This is the "pact of steel" but with (probably) two right-wing dictatorships instead of a Communist-Fascist alliance.

Does this alliance win against France/Germany/Japan and maybe the US? Maybe.
 
Germans were discussing a second war before the ink was dry on the Armistice paperwork. The nazis rode the wave but they didnt create the feeling amongst many Germans that they were robbed of a well deserved victory.
 
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