AH Challenge: USSR as Beacon of Liberty & Democracy

Alright, so I've done two WI's relating to the USSR and 20th century Communism, and thinking back on those inspired this.

The challenge is this;
With a POD no earlier than 1905 create a USSR (it can have a different name, but should be reminiscent of Socialism/Communism), that in addition to espousing Socialism/Communism becomes a beacon of (social) Liberty and Democracy, including intervening in dictatorships/juntas/etc..

While I'm not gonna make it a requirement, preferably the United States should be more or less the same as OTL, though likely less anti-communist, that is no clichéd America goes Fascist while Soviets go Democratic.
 
Well, an obvious POD for this might be a Trotsky takeover instead of a Stalin takeover. Trotsky was far more, well, was WAY more democratic than his batshit insane counterpart.
 

wormyguy

Banned
Well, an obvious POD for this might be a Trotsky takeover instead of a Stalin takeover. Trotsky was far more, well, was WAY more democratic than his batshit insane counterpart.
Trotsky was batshit-insane in a way that makes Stalin look like Spock. Trotsky was a "true believer" in the same sense as Hitler and Mao, and thus perhaps even more of a danger to humanity than a paranoid sociopath. He also was rather enthusiastic about the idea of a war to unite all of Europe (and eventually the world) under the USSR. Of course, the oppressed workers in the other nations would spontaneously rise up and help the liberators, making said war that much easier.
 
Well, an obvious POD for this might be a Trotsky takeover instead of a Stalin takeover. Trotsky was far more, well, was WAY more democratic than his batshit insane counterpart.

Trotsky was just as brutal a Bolshevik as Stalin was. If you want to see what a possible Trotsky-led USSR would be like, look into his leadership of the Red Army during the Civil War. He shot thousands of his own soldiers to inspire fear believing that a conventional bourgeois army was weak because it lacked the death penalty. In order to ensure the loyalty of Tsarist military specialists, he took their families hostage, threatening to shoot them if anything went wrong. He only started supporting party democracy when it was apparent that he would lose out to Stalin and become the opposition.
 

Onyx

Banned
Hehe, In Soviet Russia, Liberty and Democracy IS YOU!
I had to say it

Anyways, I'd only see Soviet Union like this if it helps Communist Rebels fighting against Colonial Soldiers in Africa and be good friends with China for a very,very,very,very long time instead of Nikita (Who I think was the worst Soviet Premier other than Stalin since he ****ed up relations with China).
I don't how to make America fascist, but I have guess that the USSR would demoralize them to a point to a point where it comes like that
 
Trotsky was just as brutal a Bolshevik as Stalin was. If you want to see what a possible Trotsky-led USSR would be like, look into his leadership of the Red Army during the Civil War. He shot thousands of his own soldiers to inspire fear believing that a conventional bourgeois army was weak because it lacked the death penalty. In order to ensure the loyalty of Tsarist military specialists, he took their families hostage, threatening to shoot them if anything went wrong. He only started supporting party democracy when it was apparent that he would lose out to Stalin and become the opposition.

Agreed, he only became more "democratic" once he was sure he lost out to Stalin. Even then it would was less democratic vision then most people seem to think.
 
Trotsky was batshit-insane in a way that makes Stalin look like Spock. Trotsky was a "true believer" in the same sense as Hitler and Mao, and thus perhaps even more of a danger to humanity than a paranoid sociopath. He also was rather enthusiastic about the idea of a war to unite all of Europe (and eventually the world) under the USSR. Of course, the oppressed workers in the other nations would spontaneously rise up and help the liberators, making said war that much easier.

Umm. This was the Trotsky who was cautious about invading Poland in 1921 and supported greater foreign investment as a way to industrialize the USSR, no?

I'm not saying he didn't make those claims, but batshit crazy he was not.
 
Alright, so I've done two WI's relating to the USSR and 20th century Communism, and thinking back on those inspired this.

The challenge is this;
With a POD no earlier than 1905 create a USSR (it can have a different name, but should be reminiscent of Socialism/Communism), that in addition to espousing Socialism/Communism becomes a beacon of (social) Liberty and Democracy, including intervening in dictatorships/juntas/etc..

While I'm not gonna make it a requirement, preferably the United States should be more or less the same as OTL, though likely less anti-communist, that is no clichéd America goes Fascist while Soviets go Democratic.

In my opinion, you might have to go back further. One of the main ingredients that caused the development of modern democracy was the Reformation. You would have to, some how, get the Reformation to work in the Eastern Orthodox Church of Russia.
 
Hehe, In Soviet Russia, Liberty and Democracy IS YOU!
I had to say it

Anyways, I'd only see Soviet Union like this if it helps Communist Rebels fighting against Colonial Soldiers in Africa


Well, OTL the USSR used Cuban troops as proxies in Angola, for instance. The USSR _was_ seen as the friend of third-world liberation for quite a while OTL.

and be good friends with China for a very,very,very,very long time instead of Nikita (Who I think was the worst Soviet Premier other than Stalin since he ****ed up relations with China).


You know, that's sort of like blaming Truman for messing up relations with the USSR. Mao was a nutty sonofabitch with an ego the size of a planet, and was almost inevitably going to stake his own claim to at least equal status with the USSR as Leader of The World Revolution. If you want the USSR and Mao's China to remain buddy-buddy, the first thing that has to go is any criticism of Stalin...


Frankly, I don't see much chance of a democratic USSR with any of the major leaders of the Bolshevik party, although I suppose if both Stalin and Trotsky die in a tragic samovar-related accident early on there's some chance of it eventually evolving into a democracy.

If the USSR is going to be a Beacon, then we need opressed people for it to be a beacon _to_. If no fascist US, then perhaps a TL where Facist France, Fascist Italy, Un-Fascist Britain, and Just Itself Japan are Team Colonialism and the USSR is the opposition, with the US isolating itself in its own hemisphere away from all that Unpleasantness.

Bruce
 
In my opinion, you might have to go back further. One of the main ingredients that caused the development of modern democracy was the Reformation. You would have to, some how, get the Reformation to work in the Eastern Orthodox Church of Russia.

No, no, further back. We need the Roman Empire to conquer Germany so the Slavs can receive Roman civilization and Christianity at first hand. :D

Bruce
 
For many people of color, you could have the "Dixiecrat" wing of the Democratic Party under Strom Thurmond (D-SC) and Fielding L. Wright (D-MS) win the White House in 1948. Just consider that this was during the vital period of the post-war independence movements of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Having a president who openly supported the colonial policies of Europe, along with being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, would certainly go a long way into alienating most people away from American ideals....
 
Well when the last son of Krypton crash lands his escape pod in a siberian farming village he grows up to become the poster boy for the workers paradise, or I could just be channelling the plot of Superman: Red Son :p
 
The Soviets brainwash everybody so they see the Soviets as the Bacon of Liberty (intentional misspelling :D). Honestly, historical misconseptions are quite common. Maybe if communism is short lived. Nazis beating them, the return of the Tzar in 1925 or something like that and the misconception begin.
 
I meant an existing entity.


Alright, so since I never actually posted my own ideas on how to do it, I figure I might as well.

The early revolutionaries are inspired more by Anarchism and groups like the CNT-FAI rather than by traditional Marxism, this eventually leads to the formation of the United Confederation of Socialist Republics (UCSR), which, while being economically revolutionary socialist also tends to be socially liberal and organizes itself along Democratic lines.

Following the end of WW2 the, not being Imperialistic, stays on good terms with the west, (though the United States does'nt like their economic system, their's nothing they can really do that would'nt isolate them form the world), however the UCSR realizes that oppression, dictators and theocracies are still rife the world over and so begins a campaign of supporting the toppling of authoritarian regimes to be replaced by free democracies, of course with a socialist economic system.
This marks the beginning of the Age of Liberation as the UCSR and USA compete to liberate as many countries as possible to spread their influence and respective economic systems.
 
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