WHAT IF — Charles De Gaulle had successfully convinced western powers to allow the creation of a union in Central Europe.
CONTEXT :
The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 — March 1921) was an armed conflict that pitted Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People’s Republic over the control of an area equivalent to today’s Ukraine and parts of modern-day Belarus. Ultimately the Soviets, following on from their Westward Offensive of 1918–19, hoped to fully occupy Poland.
Although united under communist leadership, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine were theoretically two separate independent entities since the Soviet republics did not unite into the Soviet Union until 1922.
Poland’s Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski, felt the time was right to expand Polish borders as far east as feasible, to be followed by a Polish-led Intermarium federation of East-Central European states as a bulwark against the re-emergence of German and Russian imperialism. Lenin, meanwhile, saw Poland as the bridge the Red Army had to cross to assist other communist movements and bring about other European revolutions. By 1919, Polish forces had taken control of much of Western Ukraine, emerging victorious from the Polish–Ukrainian War. The West Ukrainian People’s Republic, led by Yevhen Petrushevych, had tried to create a Ukrainian state on territories to which both Poles and Ukrainians laid claim. At the same time in the Russian part of Ukraine Symon Petliura tried to defend and strengthen the Ukrainian People’s Republic, but as the Bolsheviks began to gain the upper hand in the Russian Civil War, they started to advance westward towards the disputed Ukrainian territories, causing Petliura’s forces to retreat to Podolia. By the end of 1919, a clear front had formed as Petliura decided to ally with Piłsudski. Border skirmishes escalated following Piłsudski’s Kiev Offensive in April 1920. The Polish offensive was met by an initially successful Red Army counterattack. The Soviet operation pushed the Polish forces back westward all the way to the Polish capital, Warsaw, while the Directorate of Ukraine fled to Western Europe. Meanwhile, Western fears of Soviet troops arriving at the German frontiers increased the interest of Western powers in the war. In midsummer, the fall of Warsaw seemed certain but in mid-August, the tide had turned again, as the Polish forces achieved an unexpected and decisive victory at the Battle of Warsaw. In the wake of the Polish advance eastward, the Soviets sued for peace and the war ended with a ceasefire in October 1920.
A formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga, was signed on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. The war largely determined the Soviet–Polish border for the period between the World Wars. Much of the territory allocated to Poland in the Treaty of Riga became part of the Soviet Union after World War II, when Poland’s eastern borders were redefined by the Allies in close accordance with the Curzon Line of 1920.
INTERPRETATION :
Charles de Gaulle has fought with the Poles against the Bolsheviks. He knew that Bolchevism wasn’t a temporary threat and that Russia would eventually try to expand west.
He was sympathetic to the interests of Poland because he understood that destiny of France was closely tied to the destiny of central Europe.
It’s during this war that he started to see the potential of war of movement with tanks; and that he started to develop his conviction for the necessity of a professional army instead of conscription.
FICTION :
After the war, De Gaulle and Piłsudski work hand in hand to create a new professional army in central Europe that would be able to quickly and effectively intervene on the Western front against a potential threat from Germany and on the Eastern front against the Bolcheviks. This new leadership in central Europe permits the unification of Poland with, on the north Lithuania, Lettonia, Estonia and Finland, on the East with the Ukraine and on the south with Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
This new union greatly serves the economic interests of France which also expands it’s soft power in the eastern part of Europe.
“Radio Liberté” becomes the greatest cultural European phenomenon in this early 20th century.
It exposes the marxist imposture and the inhumane working condition in which are living Russians.
This demoralization forces the communist party to create a border wall to keep Russians from fleeing from the country to the west.
In 1927, the Treaty of Versailles is rewritten and a “German Recovery Program” is put in place.
A workers syndicate eventually forms in Russia, destroys the western wall and forces the totalitarian party to abdicate and liberalize the economy.
A great loan is accorded to Russia to make the liberalization of it’s economy as stable as possible.
French becomes the first language spoken in Europe and a student exchange program between Moscow Warsaw and Paris is created. This is the first step toward an international European student exchange program that would accelerate the development of European science and technology.
New forms of transport are developed by Germany, and a new science of urbanism is flourishing in every European country, Sustainable agricultures becomes a priority. Satellites are launched in space to track the quality of the soils. All those innovations improve the living standards of Europeans by a hundred folds.
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