most of Europe allied against the USSR, a war that the USSR would most likely have lost.
Why would the USSR or Europe even start the war? They had no territorial issues to be worth a war (Balkans always simmered), France and Germany would not have become allies without a dire need, the UK and the US likely would have stayed out of it, and Poland was not suicidal enough to push for a war, however much they hated the Russians. Stalin had just consolidated his power in mid-1930s, and probably was more interested in economic development after nearly wiping out the peasantry, than in a war, given that Russia had no shortage of territory or natural resources. Maybe once he became paranoid in the 1950s, who knows.
Also, the odds of the USSR losing the war would not have been favorable without a concerted all-out effort by all of Europe and the US (it was tried once, in 1918-1922, with no success), something not likely supported by the public still somewhat receptive to the communist ideas.
If a general all-out war were delayed by 20-30 years, the nuclear weapons would have likely been developed in multiple countries at once (without a threat of war the secrecy would suffer), probably around the same time the industrial atomic energy production would.
Of course, all this is a rather pointless speculating, as there is no way to test any of it.
Why would the USSR or Europe even start the war? They had no territorial issues to be worth a war (Balkans always simmered), France and Germany would not have become allies without a dire need, the UK and the US likely would have stayed out of it, and Poland was not suicidal enough to push for a war, however much they hated the Russians. Stalin had just consolidated his power in mid-1930s, and probably was more interested in economic development after nearly wiping out the peasantry, than in a war, given that Russia had no shortage of territory or natural resources. Maybe once he became paranoid in the 1950s, who knows.
Also, the odds of the USSR losing the war would not have been favorable without a concerted all-out effort by all of Europe and the US (it was tried once, in 1918-1922, with no success), something not likely supported by the public still somewhat receptive to the communist ideas.
If a general all-out war were delayed by 20-30 years, the nuclear weapons would have likely been developed in multiple countries at once (without a threat of war the secrecy would suffer), probably around the same time the industrial atomic energy production would.
Of course, all this is a rather pointless speculating, as there is no way to test any of it.