A Different Shade of Red TL

The POD of this timeline will be the increase of Lenin's health, not by much, just enough for him to push his own Letter to the Congress into the eye of the party, and let loose all hell in the political world of Soviet Russia.

I'm eager for any criticisms, and I don't mean that as spiel. I'm not the best historian and I'm not experienced in writing alternate histories. Any help is appreciated.


POD 1924 January: Lenin manages to get his letter read publicly at the Congress, thereby causing quiet a bit of a stir in Soviet Russia.

1924: Trotsky, a long time supporter of universal revolution, is faced with an incredibly messy situation. The left opposition is weakened from Stalin's manipulations. Trotsky is forced to work on increasing his own popularity with the party members and undoing the manipulations of Stalin and instating loyal party members to posts that he or the left can gain control of.

A general reading of the political atmosphere is chaos. Originally vastly in Stalin's favor, the atmosphere is turbulent, with many former Stalinists now without a political home as it were. The manipulations of Stalin ultimately failed however, and the consequences of that failure will last for a long time.

Stalin is removed from his position as general secretary (the position will never again reach the power it had when Stalin sat in it, too much suspicion) and from his position in the politburo. His followers disperse to other members, deserting him as would any good political opportunist.

Of the other major players, Nikolay Bukharin is left in a position of some power, having gained a (albeit a little disparaging) commendation from Lenin. He probably comes out with more advantage, scooping up some former Stalinists and appearing as a legitimate "second choice" to Trotsky, benefitting as he does from more or less the same praises and criticisms Trotsky did, though he has to toe the line of disagreement for some time, appearing as a more "marxist" individual while retaining most of his previous ideology and setting out to appear more "political".

Lev Kamenev decides to lay low as far as a member of the Politburo can. He's still more or less safe from the retributions of Trotsky or the opportunism of the right, and Lenin's wild card had not officially affected him, and for now his major political goal is satisfied. Trotsky won't gain full strength back till next year, leaving Lev in relative safety.

Mikhail Tomsky is more or less benign, unmentioned by Lenin, he keeps his mouths shut, lies low, and tries to strength Bukharin's position as opposed to Trotsky's.

Alexie Rykov is a relatively stable politician and forms an alliance with Bukharin, aiding Bukharin's climb into power in exchange for support, in time the two will form a close relationship and build up an alliance capable of withstanding many years of political difficulty. Rykov's power with the old members of the Right and Bukharin's with the former stalinists will direct the political atmosphere of the party for some time.

Gregory Zinoview works actively against Trotsky, snapping up most hard line stalinists and pushing against Trotsky's economic ideas. The conflict is ultimately somewhat successful, degrading Trotsky from a position of great strength to a position of moderate strength.

The Congress is expanded to 100 and the "legislative functions" of the State Planning Commission are ratified, as detailed in Lenin's letter. The last words of the leader of the revolution have a great deal of weight. At least, they do shortly after his death. These expansions, in theory solid, prove to take a while and will not have full effect in the year 1924.

And thats the end of the timeline's year. I intend to update this timeline twice weekly (monday and friday, hopefully by 6 PM GMT-6, one new year per update), altering past years according to helpful advise or due to an inaccuracy I catch too late. Its worth noting this timeline has already gone off my expected course, as I did research on the leading members of the Politburo, it proved quiet interesting. I look forward to continuing it further. I imagine it will get even more complicated once I escape the realm of Red politics into the wider public.

Thoughts? Comments?
 
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Hnau

Banned
Oh, no doubt it'll get complicated. But I loved the first installment and the premise. I always wondered... what if the Union had gone in the direction Lenin had planned! A good POD, no doubt this'll change the course of history. Good luck to you, sir, I'll be reading.
 
1925

(Turns out school is off for the week, boo hurricane, so I've got time to kill.)

1925: Outside Russia: Mussolini announcement of his seizure of dictatorial powers in Italy causes some concern in Soviet Russia, though not too much.

St. Nedelya Church Assault occurs, a bit off schedule (April 23rd). The attack itself and its consequences are disowned promptly by the Soviet Union though Trotsky comments, "A bomb is not a revolution, but men in desperate places often mistake it for one." Within soviet politics, its a pinprick against Trotsky's permanent revolution.

Mein Kampf is published and, as IOTL, ignored by the soviets.

Ruhr Occupation ended.

Television's invention occurs as IOTL, provoking little interest from the Russians.

Inside Russia: Seychelles is given back to Russia, causing a decree of celebration among the party.

Joseph Stalin "commits suicide" on March 13th, later historians mostly speculate on wether Kamenev, Bukharin, or Trotsky arranged for the murder. Stalin's death was a useful ending to many political loose ends and the loss of his life would cause little trouble for the Russian moral.

Tikhon of Moscow dies, many in moscow go into mourning. According to rumors from the time, several major members of the communist party got together and had a beer to "The death of the lunatic in the funny hat." This is probably nonsense, at least as regards it members.

Mikhail "Blight of Berlin" Tukhachevsky takes over most of the day to day running of the Red Army, though Trotsky remains commander in chief and general director of the efforts.

Mikhail Frunze lives through the year and will likely go on to a bright and happy future in a bright and happy land. Okay, not really, but he will go on to be a major soviet politician.

Pressing policy concerns have begun and inner-party struggles begin in earnest. The three major factions being The Left (Trotsky, Tukhachevsky, the former Left Opposition), The Centre (Lev Kamenev, Gregory Zionview, remenants of the stalinists), and the Right (Nikolay Bukharin, Mikhail Tomsky and Alexie Rykov).

The NEP comes under fire from Trotsky and Kamenev, with aggressive pressure placed on Bukharin and Rykov to change the policy. Bukharin stands his ground and points out the benefits that the policy has had for the country. The NEP stands, though barely.

On the other issues, Trotsky and Kamenev support exporting the revolution or "aggressive revolutionary policy." Trotsky supports the aggressive increase of foreign communist parties, including provision of communist manuscripts, pamphlets, and posters to those parties, and a general meddling effort in foreign communist parties. The action goes through.

In spite of the effort to spread communist ideology, however, Rykov and Bukharin's foreign policy reigns supreme in the Soviet Union and can roughly be described as an isolationist position, allowing the Soviet Union to build up as much as possible.

The Left controls the defense planning, and begins a slow and steady increase in military size to aid or begin revolutions across the world. It will be some time before the full implications of these actions will be seen world over.


Education improvement stagnates in spite of Lenin's wishes, it will be some time before another focused effort will be made to improve the education of the commoner is made.
Those portions of the timeline which are underlined are altered, having been changed for whatever reason, in the case of the first post, I felt I had underestimated Rykov's importance in Soviet politics. As always, I welcome comments.

EDIT: Okay, I think my grasp of soviet politics is solidifying, hopefully I won't suddenly remember anything about say Gregory that forces him to throw a fit.
 
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Hnau

Banned
Hmm... so when does Lenin die? The main things I'm interested in the last update are: A) Tukhachevsky running the Red Army, which will be very beneficial in my opinion. Tukhachevsky was one of the best the Soviets had. B) Bukharin and Rykov's faction seems to be in the lead, which means continuation of the NEP which is huge for the USSR. I wonder how they'll stimulate/control industrialization? C) Trotsky is still a major player! When is the next bout of revolutionary fervor... he will certainly support it more than Stalin did in OTL.

Keep it up!
 
Hmm... so when does Lenin die? The main things I'm interested in the last update are: A) Tukhachevsky running the Red Army, which will be very beneficial in my opinion. Tukhachevsky was one of the best the Soviets had. B) Bukharin and Rykov's faction seems to be in the lead, which means continuation of the NEP which is huge for the USSR. I wonder how they'll stimulate/control industrialization? C) Trotsky is still a major player! When is the next bout of revolutionary fervor... he will certainly support it more than Stalin did in OTL.

Keep it up!

I think Lenin died of February the 17th, 1924, due to his improved condition.

I'm not sure how The Right would industrialize the USSR, though I've been considering it. The Right is indeed in the lead, but its not a permanent one. It all depends. I don't think anyone will make the hard push like Stalin did, but they'll likely begin. I think after this last update I'm going to have to go digging for the individuals goals, which means finding their books and reading them.

I think the next major revolutionary attempt is in the mid 30s during the Great Depression which will effect Russia less then most other nations thereby validating communism in the eyes of some. And some other reasons I'm not quiet sure of yet.
 
Firstly, thank you for that link Faeelin, it is appreciated.

Secondly, I appear to have greatly misremembered Trotsky's politics, he did not in fact support the NEP. Thereby voiding most of my soviet politics for 1925, man thats irritating. Oh well. I'll rewrite it tonight.
 
Secondly, I appear to have greatly misremembered Trotsky's politics, he did not in fact support the NEP. Thereby voiding most of my soviet politics for 1925, man thats irritating. Oh well. I'll rewrite it tonight.

Trotsky was among the most ideologically flexible of the Soviet leadership; he advocated promoting foreign investment at times, opposed the invasion of Poland and propping up Germany's communists, etc...

There's an article of his I love about life in a Communist America.

Your soviet government will simply abolish all trade secrets, will combine all the findings of these researches for individual profit and will transform them into a scientific system of economic planning. In this your government will be helped by the existence of a large class of cultured and critical consumers. By combining the nationalized key industries, your private businesses and democratic consumer cooperation, you will quickly develop a highly flexible system for serving the needs of your population.

Soviet America will not imitate the monopoly of the press by the heads of Soviet Russia’s bureaucracy. While Soviet America would nationalize all printing plants, paper mills and means of distribution, this would be a purely negative measure. It would simply mean that private capital will no longer be allowed to decide what publications should be established, whether they should be progressive or reactionary, “wet” or “dry,” puritanical or pornographic. Soviet America will have to find a new solution for the question of how the power of the press is to function in a socialist regime. It might be done on the basis of proportional representation for the votes in each soviet election.

Thus the right of each group of citizens to use the power of the press would depend on their numerical strength – the same principle being applied to the use of meeting halls, allotment of time on the air and so forth.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1934/08/ame.htm
 
1926 in Britain
Events in Britain take a singular turn for the worse in 1926 during the General Strike on May 5th, when a London striker and communist, Robert Johnson*, is killed by a OMS constable named Luke Smith* (the legitimacy of this action will never quiet be resolved). The virulence of the Strike increases, leading to numerous out breaks of violence both by and against the strikers. By the end of the day, seven strikers, two OMS constables, and a blackleg worker are dead. News of the deaths increase the striker's resolve and public support, dragging the strike out till May 20th, when at last the TUC caves and gives in

In the end, though, the strikers gained nothing for their troubles but an increase in public sympathy and a massive drop in employment.

1926 across the world
General Manuel Gomes da Costa leads a coup in Portugal

Antanas Smetona made President of Lithuania by a coup. Trotsky attempts to gain support for an intervention but is solidly put down.

Black Monday in Belgium.

Mussolini lives through three assassination attempts.

No Great Miami Hurricane

Józef Piłsudski becomes prime minister of Poland

Shōwa period begins in Japan

1926 in Russia
Trotsky pressures increasing government focus on industrialization.
 
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