Greetings, fellow historians of the Internet!
This being my first venture into the weird and wonderful universe and alternate universes that is this forum, I should perhaps write a few words of introduction.
As some of you might gather from my username, I am interested in Russian history and especially Imperial Russia (1721-1917), but my interest in Russian history and politics is pretty much from Rurik to the present day.
While studying 19th century Russia and the reforms of Alexander II, I often wondered how different history might have been had his eldest son, the Tsesarevich Nikolai, not died somewhat unexpectedly in 1865. Nikolai was liberally educated and could have been expected to continue with his father's reform programme, unlike his younger brother, the eventual successor Alexander III.
What I have done is sketched out a list of scenarios that might stem from Nicholas II's succession following Alexander II's assassination in 1881. While it is possible to argue that the problems facing Russia were so great that the tsarist regime was eventually going to collapse, I intend to demonstrates that under a reforming tsar who was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his subjects, the radical elements in Russian society would have been much weaker by the turn of the century.
The plot is by no means 100% fixed, and comments are welcome so I could improve the timeline. My intention is to develop each scenario with more details and be able to justify the developments in the timeline.