What if the 20th of July 1944 Hitler has been "terminated"

[Cyclops]

Certainly there was a lot of pressure on Poland from Germany and the Soviets, and choices there were hard ones.

I thnk most communists (Polish and others) were very genuine in their beliefs and opposed Hitler for the good of humanity. Even in Australia (a very wealthy and safe place) we had and have communists who see the evils in our system and strive to fix them: Communism offers an alternative and Stalin seemed to be the agency to achieve this alternative. Australian communists (and I have meet some, young and old) really believe this, and see Stalin's evils as a mixture of "well nobodies perfect" and "he's been disparaged by propagandists".

Stalin's deal with Hitler would've been devastating to many Polish Communists: partition was almost every Pole's nightmare. The difficulty in accepting help or direct rule from Moscow would have taxed many hearts, but the real alternatives were few: Hitler and his camps, Stalin and his camps and what? Independence hadn't worked out too well in 1939.

The thing is Communism seemed to offer real internationalism, as opposed to the really viral nationalism which was sending armies to war in the name iof bood and race. I think Communists saw themselves not as traitors but as the acolytes of the new faith bringing the new peace.

I think it was close to a "no-win" situation for all Poles. They went down swinging at least: if there is a Polish national trait (and i know such characterisations are dodgy) its a willingness to stubbornly fight for their beliefs.

I believe Stalin was a cynical murderer and Communism was a cloak for his dictatorship to the same extent Hitler's insane beliefs served his dictatorship. I think Stalin came to rely on Great Russian Nationalism as a principle element in his rule, so the Soviet system was not free of a "Nationalist" element.

I think Stalin's brutal purges in 1937 were the reason there were less attempts on his life from within his military (we hear of none but how would we know?). Hitler purged very few generals and they kept their competence but also some degree of rebelliousness.

If Stalin had not purged the Red Army would they have folded so quickly in 1941? I think they would have held up much better, losing far less ground although still losing millions of dead. it might have shortened the war by a year.

And would there have been more attempts on his life if things went badly? I think so, especially if there was a "Kiev encirclement" type disaster.