Internal propaganda directed against a deadly enemy has little bearing on the requirements of realpolitik. Hitler smiled and shook hands with Stalin. He also said that he admired Britain and its empire above all other nations. What did it mean in real terms? It would have been a long time, if ever, before Germany would have had the power to make all Slavs into slaves without starting another long drawn out war, even if they won the war against the Allies. He would have settled for a "friendly" and subservient Russian nation because Germany needed it.
This isn't 'internal propaganda' this was 'Mein Kampf' which the entire Europe read, including the Russians, and it was at the very core of nazi ideology, the whole misinterpretation of 'ubermensch' and the rest of 'we are Aryans' BS. The Russians were more than aware of all that, and no amount of 'shaking hands' could have made them forget what that they were dealing with a psychotic monster of an ideology. You don't get to have an independent and massive country for so many centuries, especially not one that everyone wants a piece of, if you are so easily fooled. I guess if you wanted to create some alternative 'Russians' that will have a completely different mentality from the actual Russians, your scenario can work. But to me, the alternative history plots are only good if they, taking into an account the details and realities in our world, come up with ingenious solutions to change the course of history.
Villeicht... But whatever language they speak in a novel doesn't have to be that language the book is writing in. A few Herr, Junge, and Fraulein work wonders.
Perhaps, but I still think that the more likely possibility of losing the war would be a U.S. surrender, with the U.S. retaining it's autonomy, rather than the U.S. fighting essentially to the "last man" and being overrun with no hope of victory. Whether the British would end up speaking German is a little more debatable.
Once again, Cracked had a good article on misconceptions about the war, No. 3 is "If Germany _______ they would have won the war" To quote from the text,
I read that article and I disagree. The landing at D-Day was only "succesful" because of Operation Fortitude. If the German forces hadn't been made to believe that Normandy was just a feint (through counter-intelligence), they'd have moved their heavy panzer troops there and, at the very least, would've inflicted countless more casualities. Of course, there is no saying how the rest of the war would pan out from there but as much as that Cracked article says that "Hitler had luck", so had the Allies. There've been several very tight turns which could've turned the tables massively into Germany's favor.
Yes -- I wouldn't rely on Cracked as a historical treatise. It points out some broad misconceptions for a very casual reader. But everything discussed is much more complicated. The Russians were experiencing a brutal time at the hands of Nazi forces and Stalin was begging FDR to open up a Western Front for over a year before it finally happened. I wouldn't say it's an absolute certainty that Russia would have crushed Germany.
