Winner, Didn't i make something very similar in the World History forum a while back?
Possible, I don't remember
Shouldn't we get more land in Silesia? It wasn't only the Russians hating on the Germans and wanting get rid of the Germans in Silesia and areas.
Good question, here's the answer:
in this timeline, the massive post-WW2 ethnic cleansing of Germans didn't take place due to Allied military presence and their influence. Czech Rep. (by that time still called Czechoslovakia)expelled about 300,000 German collaborators and their families, but the rest was allowed to stay. In Western Poland, Germans from the territories annexed after polish surrender in 1939 were partially cleansed, but the Allies would not allow a massive ethnic cleansing in areas which were predominantly German (much of Silesia, Pommerania).
Historically, many Germans fled the German lands East of Oder on their own, fearing the Soviet hordes of "sub-humans" who would surely rape their women and eat their children
In this timeline, these land were liberated by the Allies, so the Germans had no reason to flee. In the end, Western Poland was compensated with Danzig and parts of Eastern Silesia where a sizable Polish minority had historically been established.
Eastern Poland got the southern part of East Prussia, the rest was annexed by the Russians. The Germans fled to the West.
Interesting, Winner. a couple of observations:
You've used the Soviet H&S instead of the Warsaw Pact logo at the bottom
I know
I couldn't find an adequate WP logo. But the map is open to revisions, so if you have one, I'll gladly add it.
There's a fairly good chance it wouldn't be called the Warsaw pact in this timeline, maybe the Belgrade Pact or something?
I think that it adds a bit of irony to this scenario, and WP is well-known.
I'm pretty sure Turkey would have been given the islands that make up the Republic of Greece
I don't think so - Crete, Rhodos and Cyprus were controlled by the British. When large numbers of Greek refugees arrived, Britain helped them to establish a non-Communist nationalist government (something like Taiwan in OTL) which continues to claim all of Greece. Turkey in this timeline was MUCH more threatened by the Soviets as it is now surrounded from the West and East and the Soviets established naval presence in the Aegean. Therefore, it was in no position to demand some ethnic Greek islands from the Allies.
This col war would be a lot more one-sided than OTL, without most of Poland and no Germany, the WP is at an even bigger disadvantage
Yes, WP is definitely much weaker and the Cold war will probably end sooner than in OTL. Just think about all the consequences of the early end of WW2 in Europe: Germany has not been so devastated by the war and Allied bombings, so it recovered much faster after the war. Czech Rep. is now one of the most developed countries in Europe and fields a disproportionately large army for a state of its size. Allies also captured all the German scientists and rocket facilities, so the Russians in this timeline didn't have any advantage in rocket technology. First man in the space was an American and the US developed ICBMs sooner than the USSR. Oh, and many more Jews survived the Holocaust, so Israel is probably stronger and bigger than in OTL
On the other hand, Soviets now have ports in the Mediterranean and they control more land in Asia than in OTL (Stalin was pretty vengeful, so he seized whole of Korea, helped the Chinese commies to win the Civil war quicker than in OTL and he also invaded Northern Japan, which is now divided - Hokkaido and parts of Northern Honshu are controlled by puppet People's Republic of Japan.). He also never gave up parts of Northern Iran (not on the map).
Also in this timeline me thinks that eastern Poland would be getting Lwow and a piece of Belarussian border territory. Likewise i think Slovakia would keep Ruthenia.
No. Stalin wanted his puppets, but he didn't need to placate them with unnecessary territorial concessions.
You didn't explain why Albania and Finland are communist.
It follows - the Balkans was pretty much all liberated by the Soviets or pro-Soviet partisans. Finland was defeated and occupied by the Red Army, and in this timeline, Stalin wasn't as forgiving as he was in OTL. Finland suffered the same fate as other European countries "liberated" by the Red Army.
So, in this timeline, Yugoslavia and Albania didn't leave the Warsaw Pact?
No. Yugoslavia was never allowed to become too independent and Soviet control elsewhere is much tighter - the Soviets want to keep the little they got after WW2.
Why would Austria choose neutrality in your alternate history? If I understood correctly, Austria would be occupied by the Americans and I would expect that the Americans would ensure that Austria joined their side.
In real history, Austria was occupied by Soviet and Allied forces and had to choose neutrality as a concession to the Soviets to regain souverainity. In your alternate history this wouldn't be neccessary.
Good point. In the first version of the map, Austria was in NATO. I later made it neutral. Let's say it was agreed by the Allies right after WW2 to appease the Soviets a tiny bit. Austrians themselves were favouring neutrality in this timeline.
If it's too implausible, I can always make it part of NATO again
