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The Ottoman Empire joining WW1 was a key part of how the war unfolded. It closed the Black Sea off for Entente shipping at a time when Germany had cut the Baltic off. The inability of Russia to get sufficient supplies would cripple her economy and her armies. The result would be a weak Russian performance and eventually economic collapse and revolution.

If the Ottomans had not joined the war, it is very likely that the straits would never be closed, since such a move would almost certainly pull them into the war. That in turn would mean Russia would perform much better and her economy would not collapse.

I've always been interested in how the Russian Revolution might have unfolded if the Ottomans had been able to intervene in it. However, I can't think of any plausible way to have an interventionist Ottoman Empire exist at the same time as a collapsing Russia.

Such a thing might be possible in a CP victory TL. Most likely, the Ottomans would be focused on trying to survive their own post war exhaustion in such a scenario though, not spending blood and money in Russia.

So how might we get a Russian Revolution in a world where the Ottomans stay out of the war? The only idea I've come up with is perhaps if the US took the side of the CPs.

fasquardon
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