[Raellus]

I'm playing with the idea of the Soviet Union invading Finland and Sweden at the beginning of the Twilight War, c.1996, basically as the immediate precursor to WWIII in Europe. I haven't done a detailed write up yet but, in a nutshell, due to aggressive Soviet action in E. Europe, nervous neighbors Finland and Sweden make overtures to NATO, raising the possibility of joining the alliance. The Soviets see this as an existential threat and decide to take preemptive military action. The Soviets gamble that NATO will not respond in-kind to the use of force against non-member nations. They launch a full scale, but non-nuclear, offensive against Finland and Sweden (focusing on the latter to essentially envelop the former).

The Soviets aren't naive. They're aware that this might trigger a larger European war, but they believe that controlling Sweden and Finland will put the USSR in a more strategically advantageous position. Controlling Sweden puts Norway in a much more vulnerable position (opening a broad-front, as opposed to the narrow corridor in the far north), and allows the USSR to dominate the Baltic and threaten NATO's long left flank in central Europe.

I haven't decided if the Soviets prompt a wider war w/ NATO by [accidentally/on purpose?] crossing the Norwegian border, or if NATO decides to come to the neutral, non-member nations' aid before that can happen. IT doesn't really matter, I don't think. Either way, WWIII kicks off and the rest is... alternate history.

That's as far as I've gotten, so far. I'll share more later, if/as it comes along.

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