So Communism is mainly a South American thing with some outliers elsewhere in this world? Interesting idea...
Yeah I figured it was a nice place for Communists to gain a delayed start should they be unable to gain power in Russia, being too European for Asia, too, well, Communist for Europe, and with North America being relatively economically stable, with a growing Middle Class.
When and how did that division of Russia occur?
That's a very different Russian Revolution, with the ATL Bolsheviks collapsing to infighting with the death of their leadership in a "train accident". The ATL White Army gains a good deal of support with the Reds now headless, but many moderates that had been in government simply declared the Russian Republic, a moderate socialist democracy. The border is where the ensuing second civil war ground to a stalemate in trench warfare, officially lasting over a decade, with the last quarter of it being in de facto peace. It served as a border to the modern day, mostly because it and land immediately beyond it on either side is still a toxic waste of trenches, mass graves, and botched chemical warfare attempts.
Why does Germany-Danubia have the same fill color as the German Republic? It's a bit confusing.
That's because both claim to be Germany proper, claiming the "German" lands of each other, with the German-Danubians declaring the Prussians to be "Half-Slav Impostors" and thus want only to Berlin, and the German Republic wanting nothing past what is the Crown of Greater Austria (i.e. Germany in Germany-Danubia) in the Confederation.
So, it's supposed to be confusing, as there are essentially two Germanies, each claiming to be the rightful master of all Germans and claiming all of Germany. Before the Crowns of Hungary, Serbia, and Romania gained equal status (the region called Danubia for short), both were technically called the German Empire, with a North or South slapped on in front by their allies. When the North saw the overthrow of the monarchy, it became Republican Germany and Imperial Germany for a short while before Germany-Danubia was formed.
Also, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call this one a...
If it helps I have a reasoning that isn't just "Confederates somehow did awesome". It's that Grant dies at Shiloh, Sherman dies at Bull Run before even becoming someone of note, Chamberlain broke his leg in his youth and never fully lost his speech impediment, and so decided to remain a professor at Bowdoin College. Thus, an even more paranoid McClellan ends up heading the Army and deciding to pursue a more defensive position, entrusting Pope and Hooker with his few incursions into the CSA (the idea is to cut off supplies and do a war of attrition). This instead lets the Rebs consolidate their forces, train their men, and shift their production from cash crops to food stuffs, thanks to President Robert Toombs (Davis getting deathly ill and having been too sick to attend Montgomery, dying less than a month later). They holdout, and are able to negotiate goods through Mexico and the Caribbean from the French. The US Embargo ends up sinking a French vessel after seeing it leave a Confederate port, leading to the French intervening on the Confederates behalf, who at the time were actually gaining an upperhand. They had most of Missouri under their control, and General Pope's mishandling (mostly by trying to copy the Russians with Napoleon and destroying rails and farms as they were pursued) had the populations of Missouri and Kentucky divided on the war, and said division was less by region and more simply across the state.
The war ends quickly after France invades California, and the peace negotiations see Confederate Arizona go with the CSA, and the remaining New Mexico territory split in half. The CSA was also relieved of debts incurred to all nations but France, something that pissed off the British and resulted in closer ties with the USA. Missouri and Kentucky are both made independent buffer states; both could choose to join either the CSA or the USA after a period of 20 years. During that time, as the Yankees and Dixie refused to trade, Kentucky and Missouri became thriving hubs for merchants from both nations to exchange goods and ideas, Kentucky especially, as it had suffered less damage in the war. Missouri's population slowly became more Pro-Confederate, mostly because, though both nations had done away with slavery by 1890, the CSA had done a gradual fade, compensating slave owners, whereas the USA simply illegalized it, and the moral authority toting nature of its politics meaning they refused to do so for Missouri slaveowners, and the non-slavers were not happy with the US's "separate but equal" laws that would require equal Blacks only amenities be constructed alongside Whites only ones, preferring the ironically colorblind Confederate stance that instead placed literacy and land-ownership requirements on voters (though some states did away with the renewed land-ownership laws locally).
Kentucky meanwhile, remained independent, and is only shown in the Confederate sphere because of its alliance with the CSA against the Communists, the almost hyper-capitalistic Kentuckian culture resulting in the overwhelming majority of the populace endorsing the CSA's hardline stance against the red menace, and disliking the USA's isolationist nature, who, after the loss of California to populists who resisted the government's rather forceful mass industrialization and centralization efforts, and the loss of Deseret thanks to joint Californian-French-Confederate backing, essentially threw their hands up told the western world to bugger off, instead delving into becoming masters of the Pacific.
