AHC: Keep The Russian Empire Alive For As Long As Possible.

Say the October Revolution, for whatever reason, fails, and the Empire limps on a while longer.

How long can it survive before it is brought down by internal causes?
 
I remember reading that without WWI, Russia can pretty much become the dominant power in Europe. It would start surpassing the German Empire militarily around 1919, and when it finally industrializes, it will be unstoppable.
 
I remember reading that without WWI, Russia can pretty much become the dominant power in Europe. It would start surpassing the German Empire militarily around 1919, and when it finally industrializes, it will be unstoppable.

The thing is, the Russian Empire needed reform badly, and the Tsars werent willing to budge. I could easily see a Russia power dominating Europe in the early 20s and then collapsing into revolution, anarchy and civil war when the depression hits (not necessarily in 29, but one will hit +/- 5 years from then)

So. You have to get Russia to reform, and thats going to be tricky. The process did start in 1905, so the trick is to force the Tsars to keep giving ground as the country gets stronger.
 
You need someone like Stolypin to survive. He could have pulled off a lot of reforms that may allow Tsarist Russia to live on borrowed time.
 
I remember reading that without WWI, Russia can pretty much become the dominant power in Europe. It would start surpassing the German Empire militarily around 1919, and when it finally industrializes, it will be unstoppable.

Russia would come out to one of the first places in the world and with the participation in the First World War. The problem was not in October, but in February 1917, when there was the first Russian revolution (or rather a failed military coup) and everything went awry. Russia since 1906 has been a constitutional monarchy and the king gradually lost power - in the hands of Parliament have been finance, there was a struggle for control of the government.
The Bolshevik industrialization - a 90 percent recovery of what has happened before, (yes - expansion, modernization, but that the restoration of the destroyed during the civil war).
Lenin himself, living in Switzerland, he wrote on the eve of February: "The revolution in Russia will only see our grandchildren," so unexpected was the February revolution.
On the other hand, the communists did not come to power in Russia, tempting idea could try to make someone else, such as the United States. How's that option?
 
As mentioned, Stolypin and if you want autocracy intact, Okhrana must be made more ferocious, similar to Cheka and NKVD. Shooting all the proto - Lenins you can find would be a must.

I don't know if the surviving empire would have any success with imitating the policies of Ottomanism, but it seems worth a shot as well. Some stronger, more palpable form of panslavism that does not discriminate as much as before could be the key - having Poles as an integral part of the nation beside Ukranians, Belarusians and Russians.
 
As mentioned, Stolypin and if you want autocracy intact, Okhrana must be made more ferocious, similar to Cheka and NKVD. Shooting all the proto - Lenins you can find would be a must.

I don't know if the surviving empire would have any success with imitating the policies of Ottomanism, but it seems worth a shot as well. Some stronger, more palpable form of panslavism that does not discriminate as much as before could be the key - having Poles as an integral part of the nation beside Ukranians, Belarusians and Russians.

Stolypin too quickly destroy the peasant community, forcing peasants to the cities, which led to a large number of outsiders in the cities, which became the pillar of the Bolsheviks. Skilled workers in the October Revolution was hostile. In the Civil War fought for the white working-volunteer division of Izhevsk gunsmiths plants. And as the fighting! Reds beat constantly. It is ridiculous that they fought without shoulder straps (White Army wore shoulder straps as opposed to the Red Army) and the red flags! "We are for Sovestky power, but against the Bolsheviks."
 
As mentioned, Stolypin and if you want autocracy intact, Okhrana must be made more ferocious, similar to Cheka and NKVD. Shooting all the proto - Lenins you can find would be a must.

I don't know if the surviving empire would have any success with imitating the policies of Ottomanism, but it seems worth a shot as well. Some stronger, more palpable form of panslavism that does not discriminate as much as before could be the key - having Poles as an integral part of the nation beside Ukranians, Belarusians and Russians.

Yes, the Okhrana (right: Okhranoe branch of the Police Department) had enough civilized institution. He was engaged only in combating terrorism, political investigation was under the jurisdiction of Department III of the Imperial Chancellery (Gendarme corps). But that threatened the arrested revolutionary if it was only an agitator? Imprisonment for the duration of the investigation and exile in Siberia, which is not as scary as people think. It's not hard labor and life in a designated village, home of a wealthy farmer. The government pays for it. Lenin was in exile have read, hunting and fishing. Only had a certain time to report to the nearest police station. Not surprisingly, the revolutionaries out in droves fled to Europe, where he talked about the horrors of tsarist.
Here for participation in a terrorist attack relied hard labor, and even hanging.
 
IMHO for the Russian Empire to survive serious attempts at reforms must take place prior to the outbreak of the 1905 revolution, quite possibly through the actions of Czar Alexander II assuming that he survives and then continues his reformation of Czarism.

The 1905 revolution more or less destroyed the monarchy's legitimacy (i.e. Bloody Sunday, the violent crushing of the Moscow Uprising, etc.), which in turn was caused by defeats faced by Japan in Manchuria and in the open seas due to the sorry state of the Russian Imperial Army and Navy.

The Imperial Army and Navy had previously been the cornerstone of the Tsarist monarchy, whose defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (and later WWI) propelled the country into open rebellion against the Czar.

Furthermore, the lack of any serious reforms during and after the 1905 revolution only further ended the chances of the Tsarist monarchy surviving while eroding its authority even further.

So for the Russian Empire to survive, earlier reforms have to be passed preferably sometime during the late 1800's and prior to the Russo-Japanese War and quite possibly during the (longer) reign of a surviving Czar Alexander II.

But it is possible, with a POD further back. The the federalization of the Russian Empire (i.e. something like the federalization seen under the early Soviet Union, with significant rights being granted to minority nationalities and ethnic groups) could very well take place as well, which would serve to stabilize the monarchy and would mitigate national independence movements and would decrease clashes by local ethnic groups.

I'm currently in the process of writing an essay examining the necessary changes required to have the Russian Empire survive, and I will discuss the points listed above.
 
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