Timeline (Cold War variants)

This is meant to list the possible alt-histories arising away from OTL, rather than being coherent of itself. Links to timelines, existing or created, to be added as appropriate, as are additional dates.


 * 1917 Russia: Lenin and other Communists do not take over the Russian state:
 * the "Sealed Train" is not sent or
 * the various Communist leaders do not get a chance to take power.
 * 1917 Russia: The Communist leaders decide to play the long game, and persuade the population to develop towards socialism and Communism.


 * 1918-19 Communist takeovers in Europe are successful in at least the middling term - Bela Kun in Hungary, the Spartakists, various parts of Germany etc: a mosaic of political structures emerge.


 * 1918-20s The Russian Civil War develops differently - the Communists are ousted, or forced to compromise; the Czech troops on the Trans Siberian Railway establish a semi-permanent entity etc.


 * The assassination attempt on Lenin is successful, and a power struggle among the various Communist leaders ensues, with White Russians, "Greens" (being a party name, rather than an ecological association), other local groups, some of them of a nationalistic or state-creationist intent, and outside forces intervening, making use of the situation.


 * Early-mid 1920s As Lenin becomes increasingly ill, the power struggle among the Soviet leadership develops differently - Stalin gets marginalised (whether or not as a result of Lenin's "last testament"). In one variant, Leon Trotsky becomes head of the Soviet entity; or a variety of seccessionist/regionalist groups are able to secure greater autonomy.


 * 1926 The General Strike, UK is successful in some manner (likewise similar.


 * 1930s The Republicans win the Spanish Civil War.
 * The great purges and great famine ead to denunciations of Stalin's policies, and he is ousted.

1940s The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is not signed.
 * Stalin is ousted as a result of military defeats.
 * Communist control spreads over more of Europe (Greece and Italy being the most obvious candidates)..
 * The communists are prevented from gaining the dominance across Eastern Europethey did in OTL.
 * Neutral Germany - or North Germany and South Germany (the fault line being much clearer than between East and West) - established.
 * In China the Communists are unsuccessful - or at most remain only regionally powerful.

1950s
 * Effects of Stalin's death are different
 * Senator Joseph MacCarthy is challenged earlier.
 * The Korean War develops in a different manner.
 * The Hungarian Uprising leads to successful seccession from the Warsaw Pact
 * Sputnik is unsuccesful - or only after a Western equivalent is put into orbit.
 * Fidel Castro and associates are unsuccessful in Cuba.

1960s
 * The Berlin Wall is not built.
 * The Vietnam War develps differently
 * Nikita Khrushchev stays in office, or is replaced by someone else.
 * The Prague Spring leads to a more general political reform

1970s
 * Detente does not happen.
 * Different succession in the PRC.
 * John Paul II is not Karol Wojtyla.

1980s
 * Solidarity does not emerge.
 * Mikhail Gorbachev does not become Soviet leader, or is not seen as someone whom business can be done with.
 * The events of 1989 proceed differently.

1990s
 * The end of the Soviet Union - does not occur, or happens in a different form - possibly more overt power struggles at the top, civil war etc.