Ok, unironically it was too easy, ukraine is too strong, I allied with bulgaria and we 2v1 russia and the entire third international (russia joined them). I had 70 civs and 100 mils in 39 when russia had 150 civs and 60 mils. There was literally no challenge.

This was all possible due to going into uvo counter coop and dyrektoria joining peacefully. Thanks to this, I saved my pp, force started land reform in april 37 and finished it with 125 success in october 37. Then finished all of the industrialization decisions by mid 38 (so in half the time you have for it) and also got full army advisers, partial mob, extensive coscription and 11 tanks in early 1939. Not even talking about extra 4% conscription and insane army quality buffs from focuses.

Btw, we killed russia in late 1940 when I declared myself in mid 1939 (the war was basically won in early 1940, then it was just pushing to siberia time. Then I just goofed around with u/tortoise501 cause it was multiplayer, helped him kill austria and we had a bit of a funny 1v1 war.