Video Game / Spartakus: World in Revolution

Völker, hört die Signale!

Spartakus: World In Revolution is a Hearts of Iron IV Alternate History total conversion Game Mod set in an alternate timeline where immediately after World War I, a later, more organized and supported Spartacist uprising known as the May Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the nascent Weimar Republic and establishing the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. As a direct consequence of this, the Revolutions of 1917-1923 are much more successful, with many nations between the Soviet Union and Socialist Germany falling to Communism as well. The game begins around a decade afterwards in 1932, as the newly-established communist bloc finishes consolidating their victories while the rest of the world look on in fear and uncertainty - with many believing that another conflict on the scale of the previous war may be imminent which would decide the destiny of Europe, if not the world.

The mod is still very much in development with no release date, but has a dedicated subreddit page here showcasing development, as well as a wiki with hundreds of pages detailing background lore of the world.

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Spartakus: Tropes In Revolution:

• Alternate History: An alternate timeline where the Revolutions of 1917-1923 were far more successful and resulted in the establishment of a bloc of Communist states, all as a direct and indirect consequence of the Spartacist uprising in Germany.
• The Alliance:
  • The Communist bloc in Europe formed a military alliance known as the International Proletarian Defense Pact (INPROV) in response to France becoming a dictatorship as well as other threats.
  • The historical Anglo-Japanese alliance was renewed in 1921 unlike in OTL, which angered the Americans enough that combined with Europe's continued financial troubles led to them withdrawing even deeper into isolationism.
  • Romania in the Iron Guard path will form an anti-communist alliance with either France and Italy or Austria, Czechia, and Serbia as part of the Eastern Entente.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • The emblem of the French National and Social Republic is the same one used by Vichy France during World War II. Additionally, it shares the abbreviated name and flag from the Vichyites.
  • A stock market crash in 1929 sends the world economy into a free for all but it happens not in New York but in London.
  • Just like in OTL, the Weimar Republic in its early years undergoes a failed coup d'état by right-wing German politicians and nobles similar to the Kapp Putsch. Except that it occurs in 1919, not 1920 and it only led to the demise of the Weimar government coupled with the subsequent nationwide strike by communists.
  • Cologne, like Berlin in real life, is divided between a Western capitalist country and an Eastern communist country.
• Balkanize Me:
  • By 1932, the Free Socialist Republic of Germany encompasses a slightly smaller territory than the Kaiserreich once did, as France annexed Alsace-Lorraine and the Saarland, and set up two puppet governments in the areas they occupied during the German Civil War: the Rhenish Republic in the Rhineland and the Kingdom of Baden-Württemberg in Baden, Württemberg and Hohenzollern.
  • China is divided among warlords and struggling rival governments by 1932 as in Real Life, with recent lore hinting the present situation to be even worse than it was in our world: the KMT's Northern Campaign was far less successful, and a series of events led to the KMT splitting in two between a right-KMT government in Nanjing and a left-KMT government in Wuhan, which proceeded to start bickering and refuses to acknowledge each other as legitimate.
• Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Quite a few recently turned communist countries have Jewish leaders most notably such as Rosa Luxemburg of Germany (and female to boot), Béla Kun of Hungary, and Adolf Warski of Poland-Galicia.
• Capitalism Is Bad: The general opinion of the entire communist bloc in Spartakus as in Real Life. For this reason Socialist Germany as of 1932 is trying to convert their entire economy towards Social Ownership of property and the means of production.
• Chummy Commies: Communism is organized under the principles of Soviet democracy, with rights of expression, worship, justice, protection, wellbeing, among others constitutionally guaranteed.
• Civil War:
  • After the April Putsch and other events destabilized the Weimar government, all hell finally broke loose when the national strike of May 1919 in Germany spiraled out of control, pushing the communists to finally launch their uprising. The subsequent German Civil War lasted from May 1919 to November 1920, ending in the German communists claiming victory with aid from Soviet Russia and proclaiming the Free Socialist Republic of Germany.
  • China is presently in this state as of 1932 in the mod, divided among warring warlords, while the KMT themselves descending into this between a right-KMT faction in Nanjing and a left-KMT faction in Wuhan which continues to squabble with each other and refuses to acknowledge the other as legitimate.
  • Portugal is experiencing one as of 1932, torn between a right-wing populist Kingdom of Portugal against a revolutionary socialist Portuguese Republic.
  • Under the right circumstances, Spain in Spartakus could collapse into a Civil War of their own like in Real Life.
  • Should Romania turn National Syndicalist, a Civil War would break out between Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's Iron Guard and Elena Bacaloglu's Fascio.
• Commie Land: Any nation that is communist, especially Socialist Germany and the Soviet Union, although due to the victory of the revolution in Germany, the communist nations of Spartakus are generally better off than the contemporary Soviet Union in real life.
• The Coup: Several are prominently shown in the existing lore.
  • Right-wing elements of the German Reichswehr launched one in April 1919 with the intent to overthrow the Weimar government, supported by benefactors such as Erich Ludendorff, Kurt von Schleicher, Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz. The April Putsch failed, but destabilized the Weimar Republic further and opened the way for a successful Communist takeover when the May Revolution broke out one month later.
  • As in Real Life, Benito Mussolini and his Fascists launched their 'March on Rome' in 1922 with the intent on seizing power. They failed in the Spartakus timeline as King Emmanuel III, concerned about Mussolini's past association with the Socialists and under pressure from his generals, ordered the army to stop them instead of letting them take control, resulting in Mussolini and his Fascists being put down and banned.
  • The right-wing Nanjing faction of the Kuomintang came into power in the 12 April Coup, when KMT rightists led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek attempted to purge the KMT of the left-wing Wuhan faction as well as its communist allies and seize control of the Republic of China. They were only partly successful due to the KMT government in Wuhan refusing to submit and holding out against them, leading to the Nanjing-Wuhan split which had remained since then.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • As a result of many of them surviving and even succeeding in their goals during the events of 1917-23, the mod features many prominent European socialists and communists such as Rosa Luxemburg, Bela Kun, and Lev Kamenev who were killed off or otherwise became obscured as actual or potential leaders of their respective socialist/communist states.
  • Romania potentially can be led by Elena Bacaloglu, an obscure female fascist militant and writer in real life.
• Day of the Jackboot:
  • Played straight with the 25 May Coup, which led to the rise of a right-wing military junta in France, felling the Third Republic and replacing it with the French State, otherwise known as the French National and Social Republic.
  • Subverted THEN played straight in Italy: A Fascist takeover was averted in 1922 when the Italian king ordered the army to suppress the March on Rome, resulting in the Fascist movement being banned and purged, but by 1928 a military dictatorship had also been established as in France with the Governo Militare.
  • It will be the case with Romania if the Fascists win the 1933 elections, they will establish a National Syndicalist dictatorship run by the Iron Guard or the Fascio, depending on the success of Elena Bacaloglu's coup.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Rather than launching an ill-prepared and ill-fated uprising in January 1919, the German communist revolutionaries decide to bid their time to get more organized and gather more public support first, even participating in parliamentary elections where they performed surprisingly well. When a failed right-wing coup destabilized the Weimar government in April and a national strike in May 1919 escalated out of control, the Spartacist League was able to launch the much better-prepared and planned May Revolution, allowing them to prevail in the subsequent Civil War and establish the Free Socialist Republic of Germany by November 1920.
  • As a result of butterflies from the original POD, the Soviet Union was able to defeat Poland in this timeline during the Polish-Soviet War. This results in Poland becoming Communist as well, opening a direct corridor which allowed the Soviets to support the German communists during their revolution.
• The Great Depression: Here, it's the UK which triggered it with the London Market Crash of 1929, which halts whatever economic recovery it had achieved since WWI and sent Britain spiraling towards even more economic turmoil and socio-political instability.
• Government in Exile: The German government-in-exile was formed after the collapse of the White movement in the civil war, but it lacks formal recognition by many Western states, most notably France, which vehemently opposes any prospect of a unified Germany. Its main backer is Britain, which withdrew its recognition of Socialist Germany in 1928 after a series of diplomatic incidents.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The German nobles, generals, and politicians who backed the April Putsch of 1918 had hoped to avert a socialist takeover of Germany, yet among other things, it only served to destabilize and weakened the nascent Weimar Republic enough that it would lose to the Reds in the subsequent German civil war when they finally did launch their own revolution.
  • A similar situation may be playing out in the UK where the establishment's fears of a communist revolution in the British Isles led to the Labour Party disavowing its most radical leftwing and the British government's overly forceful response to the national strike of 1926. This only served to alienate the British public further from both mainstream politicians and the succession of increasingly ineffectual governments that rose and fell on top of everything else, and drive the sympathetic voters and proletariat towards more extreme political alternatives - such as the radical socialists and communists that the government is desperately trying to hammer down on.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Downplayed, but the major capitalist powers had experienced much economic hardship and political instability following the events of 1917-23. Without the Treaty of Versailles and reparations, both Britain and France are left financially wrecked and still massively in debt as a result of the First World War, with the former struggling to maintain their empire while the latter turned into a military dictatorship. The USA is implied to be not doing so well either, having completely cut itself off from the world economy just before the 1929 London Market Crash, which made sense as much of its economic growth during the 20s in Real Life was dependent on British and French investment capital, which would not be available in this timeline as a result of both powers being poorer.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Because Germany went Communist, Nazism as we know it never arose. Instead, beyond standard right-wing populism, there are two alternative tendencies of radical right-wing anti-communist ideologies which arose in the Nazis' stead, differing in the economic organization of their respective nations.
  • National Syndicalism advocates the use of syndicates as a means of national advancement, organizing them to benefit the state instead of benefiting and being run by workers. It is considered more left-leaning than the other tendency, and also incorporates religious nationalism into their dogmas. It is the main ideology of Romania's Iron Guard led by Corneliu Codreanu who will embrace Nazi-like policies such as annexing Carpathia, Alfold and Transdniestra to form a "Greater Romania" and the creation of an anti-INPROV alliance with either France and Italy or Austria, Czechia and Serbia.
  • National Corporatism operates much closer to Nazism as we know it with its advocation of a one-party dictatorship and creation of state- or privately-owned corporate groups based on common interests as means of national development. It is the more right-leaning of the two tendencies, complete with suppression of ethnic minorities.
• Occupiers Out of Our Country:
  • The British found themselves fighting many uprisings and rebellions across their empire following the Great War from their colonial subjects, with the most notable examples being the prolonged Irish War of Independence (which only ended in 1922), the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919 (which the British lost), the 'Red Revolt' which raged across India throughout 1925-28, and as of 1932 faces a new revolt in Burma.
  • Both Venice and Sardinia have strong regional autonomist movements who are presently working with the Anti-Militarist Resistance Movement fighting to overthrow the Governo Militare, but at the end of the day they seek greater or total independence of their respective territories from Italy itself.
• We ARE Struggling Together: As in Real Life, many factions in Spartakus despite working towards similar goals refuses to work with each other and are even squabbling amongst themselves to the detriment of their own causes over various differences.
  • Both the Left-KMT in Wuhan and the Right-KMT in Nanjing have reunification of China as their primary goal, but refuse to acknowledge each other as legitimate and would not put their differences aside even towards that end.
  • Both the main communist and non-communist factions of the Anti-Militarist Resistance Movement in Italy desire to overthrow the Governo Militare military junta, but are barely even working with each other and their ultimate goals for Italy put them at cross purposes.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace: Both Britain and France were rendered unable to pay their debts due to the lack of war reparations, causing them deep economic problems and great political instability through the 1920s. With the London Market Crash of 1929 things are now looking likely to get worse.

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