I would suggest to boost the communism focus tree. The facist tree get 3% recrutible population, which is way better than the communism.
I would suggest that you make communism tree also get recrutible population.

When I play these nations there is no way I do anything other than the facism way because of this 3% pop boost.

Also you might the non aligned/democratic way also get a little population boost. I suggest adding it to the "why we fight" focus. Manpower is crucial.

Maybe 2% for the communism focus tree, and 2% for "why we fight". This way the facist route gets you 1% extra manpower (which is still very good)