AHC: Russia, the Heart of European Democracy

Could potentially do it fairly late. Say Napoleon manages to invade and conquer Britain, which becomes even more of an ulcer than Spain was in OTL. This distracts and restricts France from much eastward expansion, and Prussia and Austria both survive as decent powers and come to terms with the French after fighting stalemate wars against them with Russian help. You've got an absolutist Napoleonic France ruling over most of Western Europe, either directly or through puppet states, plus an absolutist Prussia, Austria and Russia in the east. The Russians, annoyed at being cut out of European influence by exhausted Prussia and Austria making peace with France, engage in a series of wars against the Turks and Persians (as was the case OTL, but throwing more men into it). The sense of soldiers being killed for little real gain is coupled with the shortages of the Year Without A Summer (1816) and the result is mass public anger which turns into a more successful Decembrist-style revolt. Russia becomes a radical republic, with some attempts by the Prussians and Austrians to intervene and restore the Tsar, but these fail. Therefore, with Britain's parliamentarianism quenched (at least temporarily) by the French and absolutist regimes everywhere else, Russia becomes the centre of democratic and liberal thought by default.
I like this
 
Top