u/Competitive_Raise579

LORE

In this timeline, Trotsky's international revolution came true, mainly due to an unlikely cause: The italian socialists. During the chaos of the post-ww1 period, they funded several communist groups around Europe that eventually managed to overthrow their governments and bring socialism to their land:

HUNGARIAN SOVIET REPUBLIC - They overthrew Mihály Károrlyi's Government on March 21st, 1919, although they faced a Romanian invasion seeking to destroy the revolution, however, thanks to funding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), they managed to stage a counteroffensive on the Battle of the TIsza river, pushing the Romanians back decisively and forcing a ceasefire between the two nations. They later waged a short war agianst Czechoslovakia, and although they failed to spread the revolution to Slovakia, they did manage to take Carpathian Ruthenia from them.

POLISH-SOVIET WAR - The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) looked to secure it's western borders in 1919, after the fall of the Ukrainian People's Republic, whose Galician territories were disputed with the Second Polish Republic, who invaded the unprepared Soviets, managing to reach all the way to Kiev, but due to reinforcements coming from the siberian front of the ongoing Russian Civil War, they were pushed back, all the way until the gates of Warsaw, where they tried to stage a desperate last stand in August of 1920, but due to aid sent by the Italian Socialist Party, the soviets made sure it failed, and thus, Poland fell to communism, with the at the time Weimar Republic taking Posen, West Prussia, Danzig, and East Upper Silesia.

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ITALY - The PSI itself, right after the end of ww1, chose a radical path, as they completely denounced and refused to participate in the November 1919 elections, instead spending all of their time arming their paramilitary, the Red Guards, infiltrating government and reactionary forces to prepare their revolution, aswell as funding several communist groups around Europe. Eventually, the conflict with Benito Mussolini's fascists came to a boiling point in October 1922, when they Marched on Rome, demanding Mussolini become Prime Minister, however before the King, Victor Emmanuel III could respond, the PSI mobilised the Red Guards agains both Fascists, Bourgeois, and Monarchist forces, winning the following short civil war against all odds, thanks to their previous efforts. They wasted no time in creating a Socialist Republic led by Giacinto Serrati, and implementing long-awaited reforms, eventually managing to end the Italian economic crisis by late 1925, and somehow managing to negoitate both British and American war debts with amortisation plans.

GERMAN COUNCILS REPUBLIC - The First German Revolution, between November 1918 and January 1919 ended with a decisive defeat against revolutionary socialist forces, with the MSPD under Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Noske siding with the reactionary Freikorps to suppress the Spartacist Revolution led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, who were executed after it. The MSPD then proceeded to form the Weimar Republic, named after the city where its constitution was written. However, the same freikorps they used to suppress the spartacists turned against them on March 1920, when they tried disarming them to comply with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, who launched a Coup d'etat led by Wolfgang Kapp, that was only stopped thanks to a General Strike against them, although some discontented communist workers in the Ruhr launched an uprising which the MSPD also suppressed violently.
This new Republic suffered a ton of problems, mainly that it didn't have resources to both pay war reparations and fund it's new social programs, which led to the Government to print money to solve this. Eventually, it got eventually worse once the French occupied the Ruhr area in January 1923 due to Germany failing to meet reparation payments, and the government chose a policy of non-cooperation, where the Ruhr workers would go on strike while the German Government kept paying their salaries by printing even more money, and eventually the prices of the Mark entered hyperinflation, and German Society broke down as millions lost their savings and trust on the republic. This was capitalized upon by the Comintern and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) led by Heinrich Brandler; who started entering governments with left-wing Social Democrats in the states of Saxony and Thuringia, arming revolutionaries known as the "Proletarian Hundreds", which the Government in Berlin tried to stop, but the aid coming from the Soviet border made this extremely difficult. Eventually, once strong enough, they rose up in revolution in October 1923, first in Hamburg, then Saxony/Thuringia, then the Ruhr, and finally, Berlin. After a brief civil war, the Reactionary and Bourgeois forces fled to the Rhineland, where they founded the Rhemish Republic with French backing, while in Germany, most Social Democrats were givern amnesty, except Noske (who was executed as a traitor); and Ebert (who also fled to the Rhineland).
After a near-escalation to total war between the Comintern and the French over this, the French were too tired to commit to a war, and eventually signed the Treaty of Locarno (1924), where Germany agreed to recognize Rhenish independence, create a demilitarized zone between the 2 nations, and to keep paying Versailles reparations, although these were heavily slashed, and the military restrictions remained merely on paper.

THE 13TH CONGRESS OF THE CPSU - Lenin had thankfully lived long enough to see these international revolutions succeed, but he died on January 21st, 1924, after which Joseph Stalin took over as General Secretary, developing a concept known as "Socialism in one country", although the question of party leadership came up when the Congress convened in May, where Lev Trotsky critized Stalin for this isolating policy despite the fact that revolutions HAD succeeded in other major countries, and argued there was no reason to abandon the Internationalist line. Trotsky's Left Opposition, aswell as Nikolai Bukharin's Right Opposition, aswell as Lev Kamenev outvoted Stalin and elected Trotsky himself as General Secretary, eventually securing his position and leading to a slighlty more moderate Soviet Union.

Left Bloc

-Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands (SAPD) - Democratic Socialism

-Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) - Reformist Social Democracy

-Chritslichesoziale Reichspartei (CSRP) - Christian Socialism

-Radikaldemokratische Partei (RDP) - Progressive Liberalism

People's Bloc

-Liberale Volkspartei (LVP) - Neoliberalism

-Christlische Volkspartei (CVP) - Christian Democracy

-Bayerösterreichische Volkspartei (BÖVP) - Conservative Federalism

-Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP) - Tory Conservatism

-NDPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands) - Far-right populism

LORE

SPD - This is us. We are the traditional party of the working and common people, representing the interests of the common German man. We are the Heirs of Marx and Engels, of Bebel and Lassalle, of Ebert and Scheidemann, of Braun and Breitscheid, of Schumacher and Ollenhauer, of Brandt and Schmidt. Our ideology is Reformist Social Democracy, working to create the fairest system possible within a liberal democratic and capitalist framework, with a strong welfare state, trade unions, workplace democracy, and social programs. We have historically been considered the natural ruling party of Germany since 1928, though we have been recently been threatened by the rising NDPD, capitalising on our stagnation as our policies have been seen as of the "establishment" and benefitting the older generations disproportionally.

SAPD - They are an offshoot of the SPD, having split from us in 1930 due to our Reformist transformation, and were a fairly small party until the decline of the KPD led a lot of their rank-and-file, aswell as some leaders (such as the conciliators) to join them, disillusioned with the control that the CPSU had on the party through the Communist International, aswell as the incorporation of the bulk of the Austrian SDAPÖ after the Anschluss. They joined the Left Bloc led by the SPD in 1948, after fully breaking with the Comintern. They currently sit directly to the left of us, as a more Marxist and worker-focused approach to our policies.

RDP - They are a Social Liberal and Green Party, aswell as our foremost allies. Although they generally support slightly more pro-business policies, our parties are somewhat similar to eachother, and we have been usually in governments together through the Left Bloc. They used to be represented by different Parties during the Early 20th century, such as the FVP, DDP, and even the LVP, although most of their members were expelled from the DDP to merge with the DVP and form the LVP in 1929, and these eventually forming the RDP in 1932 with their first leaders being Ernst Lemmer and Anton Erkelenz. Later, a faction of LVP dissident members joined them in 1946, with them finally rising to prominence nationally. More recently, they merged with the Green Party in 1985, to prevent the loss of representation in Federal Politics.

CSRP - They are also our Ally in the Left Bloc, they have an ideology of Christian Socialism, being the old left Wing of the Zentrum and later CVP, from whom they Split off in 1942 led by Joseph Wirth and Jakob Kaiser. We share common economic policy, though they tend to be more socially conservative.

LVP -They are the main party of the Middle Class, of pro-business policies, of capital, and of liberalism. They used to have a slightly Social Liberal phase between their foundation thanks to Hans Luther and Theodor Heuss in 1929, until around the 1940s, and since then have shifted to the right. They support more laissez-faire economics, don't like budget deficit, and are generally the standard Neoliberal party.

CVP - They are our main opposition party, and are key proponents of Christian Democracy, being situated between the CSRP or LVP and the DNVP. Although they started off close, with a left-leaning phase under Jakob Kaiser in 1931, his deposition in 1942 caused the party to split, and since they have been generally conservative.

BÖVP - They are the regional wing of the CVP in Bavaria and Austria, and used to compete with the SPD for control of these states, though they have been declining as the NDPD has been eating into their voterbase.

DNVP - They used to be the furthest right major party, and historically haven't had the best reputation among the other parties, with only the CVP, BÖVP, and maybe the LVP being willing to work with them due to their history of being an anti-republican, monarchist, archconservative, and even reactionary and quasi-fascist party. They are to the right of the forementioned parties, and are the most fervent supporters of nationalism, rearmament, and euroscepticism, aswell as their constant and sharp attacks on all of our policies, speaking openly of undoing many of them. For this reason, they are still quite controversial, though their coalition partners often moderate them if in government, although they are now generally seen as another "establishment" party, having largely moderated themselves over time.

NDPD - They are a National conservative party, quite new on the national stage, formed from disillusioned right-wing members of the LVP, CVP, and mainly the DNVP, and have recently been gaining in the polls, primarily due to the African and Middle eastern refugee crisis and the Economic stagnation of the recent years. Their right-populist, nationalist, anti-establishment, and at times anti-democratic rhetoric has been compared to that of the fascist movements of the early 20th century, which were represented in Germany at the time by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) led by Adolf Hitler, that although gained some traction during the Great Depression, failed to make enough gains due to the SPD's handling of the crisis through the WTB plan, aswell as Hitler's deportation to Austria in 1932. (no logo for this one cuz i forgor 💀)