The purges of 1937 were largely confined to senior generals & Marshals. One possibility is these same men are removed in this WI scenario, then the purge is halted for the war & the lower level generals and senior field grade officers removed in 1938 are not purged as OTL. Rather they continue until they prove deficient & are then removed. This leaves the trained leadership of the Red Army largely intact. I suspect here the large scale doctrinal changes that followed along with the Purge of OTL will not be yet implemented. They may occur later as the war continues, or be heavily influenced by the lessons learned & take on a different character.Thumpalumpacus wrote: ↑21 Sep 2020, 00:13The leadership purge of the Red Army began in '37, did it not? How might that affect the battle?
It seemed to have some effect on the later Winter War. Would its effects have been felt as soon as 1937?
If the Purge continues at the same scale of OTL during the war things become very difficult for the Red Army.
Alternately Stalin anticipates this war with Poland in 1935 or 1936 & executes all or part of the purge early. This of course drops the number or trained officers and leads to the expected problems.