The problem was that the USSR was isolated and forced to compete on the capitalists’ terms. Stalin shouldn’t have stopped marching West, sealing the Soviets behind the iron curtain ensured they’d be choked off eventually
I think a realistic reimagining wouldn't involve Stalin actually continuing to march west from Berlin but instead involve the Soviet Union supporting communist revolutionaries west of the iron curtain rather than abandoning them a la Greece. This would've resulted in another hot war while the ink was still drying from the last peace treaty, but hopefully this time the Germans actually take up the side of the Soviets rather than wavering like they did post-WWI. I don't know if it would've changed the outcome, if the USSR would've won the fight against global capitalism, but by sealing themselves off they ended up losing anyway. They needed the support of industrial workers outside of the Eastern bloc and they never got it because they chose to protect what they had gained rather than risk it all. Pursuing this route though ended the ascension of communism in the 20th century, leaving behind fledgling socialist projects without the industrial base to truly compete with the US and global capital. Only China is now positioning itself to take on that challenge but it took decades of building infrastructure and a Faustian bargain of market liberalization to get there
What would the war have looked like if the Soviets started advancing against the Allied occupied West Germany?
:sicko-blur:
What would world look like (then or now) if the Soviets controlled Europe all the way to France+Spain?
:sicko-beaming:
spoiler
Actually I'm as skeptical as you are about the possibility of a Soviet win had they kept going west. Turning the Eastern Front around had been done with an awful lot of Soviet blood, change the equation so that the Red Army is fighting on foreign soil and having to balance pushing west with maintaining control of Europe as they captured it and I think they would have been thrown back and every communist movement worldwide might have been crushed in the backlash.
The problem was that the USSR was isolated and forced to compete on the capitalists’ terms. Stalin shouldn’t have stopped marching West, sealing the Soviets behind the iron curtain ensured they’d be choked off eventually
based, but:
What would the war have looked like if the Soviets started advancing against the Allied occupied West Germany?
What would world look like (then or now) if the Soviets controlled Europe all the way to France+Spain?
Short term, I doubt the Soviets could have realistically invaded the UK after fighting the Allies for control of West Germany and France.
In this scenario, where does the first nuke land, instead of Japan?
I think a realistic reimagining wouldn't involve Stalin actually continuing to march west from Berlin but instead involve the Soviet Union supporting communist revolutionaries west of the iron curtain rather than abandoning them a la Greece. This would've resulted in another hot war while the ink was still drying from the last peace treaty, but hopefully this time the Germans actually take up the side of the Soviets rather than wavering like they did post-WWI. I don't know if it would've changed the outcome, if the USSR would've won the fight against global capitalism, but by sealing themselves off they ended up losing anyway. They needed the support of industrial workers outside of the Eastern bloc and they never got it because they chose to protect what they had gained rather than risk it all. Pursuing this route though ended the ascension of communism in the 20th century, leaving behind fledgling socialist projects without the industrial base to truly compete with the US and global capital. Only China is now positioning itself to take on that challenge but it took decades of building infrastructure and a Faustian bargain of market liberalization to get there
:sicko-blur:
:sicko-beaming:
spoiler
Actually I'm as skeptical as you are about the possibility of a Soviet win had they kept going west. Turning the Eastern Front around had been done with an awful lot of Soviet blood, change the equation so that the Red Army is fighting on foreign soil and having to balance pushing west with maintaining control of Europe as they captured it and I think they would have been thrown back and every communist movement worldwide might have been crushed in the backlash.