Challenge: Russia wins WW1

With a POD after Nicholas's Abidcatin, your challenge, if you wish to undertake it is for Russia to win World War 1.
 
I have it!

Russians (Soviets) refuse to sign the treaty of Brest-Litvosk in 1917/8 and newly trained armies in Siberia arrive to fight both the Entente in and around Archangel'sk and also Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Germany weakened by the entry of the USA into the war the Russians advance through Ukraine and Belarus and the Baltic trapping the Germans and Austrians in great offensives similar to Operation Bagration. With Germany itself threatened with the Russians, Entente advances coupled to Austrian collapse led to separate peace treaties with Russia and the Entente.
 
I have it!

Russians (Soviets) refuse to sign the treaty of Brest-Litvosk in 1917/8 and newly trained armies in Siberia arrive to fight both the Entente in and around Archangel'sk and also Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Germany weakened by the entry of the USA into the war the Russians advance through Ukraine and Belarus and the Baltic trapping the Germans and Austrians in great offensives similar to Operation Bagration. With Germany itself threatened with the Russians, Entente advances coupled to Austrian collapse led to separate peace treaties with Russia and the Entente.

That would break the Soviets, they wouldn't stay in power - they are not that stupid. Also they have no intention of staying in some 'Western Imperial war'
 
The White Movement manages to form some a coalition of sort and a semi unified command (to a degree). At least, most of them agree that Alexander Kerensky is the leader and that the Soviets are the main enemy in this tl. Then they allow several countries to break free if they fight the reds and the Entente send a lot more help. Then to send even more manpower in Germany is allowed to pay off parts of its war debts by sending soldiers to fight in Russia. Then give the Whites a dose of luck and the Russian Republic has survived the war. Which is a better victory than complete destruction.

That would break the Soviets, they wouldn't stay in power - they are not that stupid. Also they have no intention of staying in some 'Western Imperial war'
Breaking the Soviets would be a victory. :p
 
If Kornilov is able to occupy St. Petersburg and obliterate the Bolsheviks, Russia might have a shot. He had reorganized and restored the Russian Army and had actually won some minor victories against the Germans even in the very late stages of the war, IIRC.

If Russia can hold out a bit longer--assuming them staying in doesn't delay US entry into the war--they might end up on the winning side.
 
If Kornilov is able to occupy St. Petersburg and obliterate the Bolsheviks, Russia might have a shot. He had reorganized and restored the Russian Army and had actually won some minor victories against the Germans, IIRC.

If Russia can hold out a bit longer--assuming them staying in doesn't delay US entry into the war--they might end up on the winning side.
Thats the most plausible one in my opinion. Kornilov could have succeeded if his troops didnt defect and idiot Kerensky didnt let the Reds go free.
 

Germaniac

Donor
Cannot happen latest I see is march of 1916, and a part of my upcoming TL...

March 1916 - Nicholas tells the French that they simply cannot launch a large scale offensive that will limit the Germans ability at Verdun (OTL It didn't anyway) and the Lake Naroch Offensive never gets the Green.

This in turn allows Kuropatkin's Northern Army Group, and Evert's Western Army Group to be at (or as close to Russian standards) full strength.

June 1916 - The Brusilov Offensive is Launched and Kuropatkin's/Evert's Army Groups as well as Brusilovs forces blitz across the lines after a devastating artillery barrage (Now or never because with the two extra Army Groups the Russian army will likely be near empty on shells). Brusilov is MUCH more successfull, while expectedly the Northern and WEstern Army groups (Facing Germany not Austria) are stifled.

With Germany forced to focus on fighting the Russian Advance they cannot support the Austrian collapse to the south. Brusilov's 11th army captures Lemburg, the 7th Stanyslaviv, the 8th army captures Kowel, and the 9th captured Czernowitz.

Evert was able to capture Brest-Litovsk, while Kuropatkin only manages to Push the Germans back a few miles. However, This forces the Germans to move troops from teh West to the Polish Front. This action relieves the French for a time.

However to the South Brusilov had been able to destroy the ability of the Austrians to launch any kind of couter assualt and by the time the Germans were able to send in reinforcements Przemysly was back in Russian hands and the 7th and 9th were pushing across the Carpathians, with a very poorly organized defense (with huge losses the Austrians who lost 1.5 m troops OTL at least 2 m ITTL)

The Russian are now within Striking distance of Budapest and the Hungarians Force the Hapsburgs to the table threatening them with the stopping of food shipments. The Russians are happy to come to the and the austrians submit to an armistice across all fronts.

Germany is not threatend on all sides, even with Russia still near collapse. Hindenburg/Ludendorff Make a last ditch effort to knock out the French in Verdun and are destroyed.

Nicholas is able to buy himself a few more months, and the February Revolution (better yet March) is held of. The United States, seeing the Germany is in its death Throws declares war in order to attempt to get bargining power at the table.

By mid 1917 Germany delcares a ceasefire and the war is over.
While the War is won, Russia still faces all the same problems as it did during and before. A revolution takes place, albeit less severe, and Nicholas abdicates in favor of his brother and the Democratic (Fifth Duma) accepts this abdication and succession. Nicholas and his family move to an estate in England and is nicknamed "The Czar of [insert royal residence["
 
If Kornilov is able to occupy St. Petersburg and obliterate the Bolsheviks, Russia might have a shot. He had reorganized and restored the Russian Army and had actually won some minor victories against the Germans even in the very late stages of the war, IIRC.

If Russia can hold out a bit longer--assuming them staying in doesn't delay US entry into the war--they might end up on the winning side.

This is the closest thing. The abdication of Nicholas was the signal for the army to start dissolving, and Kornilov is the last chance to check that. With a great deal of luck, an internationall-recognised Russian government with some sort of armed force can hang on to Petrograd, Moscow, and Kiev long enough for Germany to loose in the west, and Russia can be extended at the peace treaty, but in reality it will be falling to bits already.
 
The White Movement manages to form some a coalition of sort and a semi unified command (to a degree). At least, most of them agree that Alexander Kerensky is the leader and that the Soviets are the main enemy in this tl.

The "Whites" in the strict sense (the armies in the south, the northwest, and Siberia assembled from right-wing volunteers, Cossacks, and conscripts by ex-Tsarist officers and NCOs) didn't agree on a government or leader (being essentially warlords) but didn't actually fight eachother and they certainly agreed that the Soviets were the main enemy. A notional adherence to one government isn't going to help them overcome the Red control of the infrastructure necessary to keep armies in the field.

None of this is particularly relevant. The White Movement only really got going after Brest-Litovsk. In March 1918, the Volunteer Army of Southern Russia was a few warbands on the run in the Kuban.

Then they allow several countries to break free if they fight the reds

An old cliche without much basis in fact. Who, prior to March 1918, are they going to "allow to break free?" And what good would it do them anyway, even if we're talking about White victory over the Reds and not Russian victory over Germany? The Finns and the Poles have absolutely no need to take the deal, since they can make themselves independent. The Estonians and Yudenich had an uneasy co-operation going on as it was. The Georgians and Armenians had all their forces facing the Turks; the Azeris were fighting the Armenians with their minimal forces and the only target they can strike at is the north Caucasus, already controlled by the Shamilists, who were basically more anti-White than anti-Red. The Ukrainian Directorate Army was after the second loss of Kiev pretty much nothing, with the Whites in Ukraine being far stronger. And what "Whites" there were in Central Asia generally came to understandings with the Basmachi under Britain's aegis.

Basically, the only obvious thing is for Pavel Bermondt-Avalov not to waste his time in Latvia, which isn't going to save the Whites in any way, shape, or form, still less save Russia.

and the Entente send a lot more help.

The Entente could send all the guns in the world (well, it couldn't, because in March 1918 it still needed them to fight Germany, but you get the point) and there wouldn't be enough Whites to carry them. The Whites had at their core small, ideological units of hardened veterans where ex-colonels led companies and most footsoldiers had been subalterns and NCOs. Around this were masses of hastily conscripted troops with little training or morale who could be relied on to defect to whoever appeared to be winning. Once the officers regiments experience attrition against the reds, who have military industrial, a recruiting pool, and a proper system of organisation new divisions with cadres, the whole structure comes apart. That's what happened outside Moscow, and the Whites were done for.

Then to send even more manpower in Germany is allowed to pay off parts of its war debts by sending soldiers to fight in Russia. Then give the Whites a dose of luck and the Russian Republic has survived the war. Which is a better victory than complete destruction.

Well, not really, because Russia is now basically China. It's divided into warlordistic fiefs and it's going to take the strongest time to assert itself. The country is utterly knackered, foreign troops are everywhere.
 
I have it!

Russians (Soviets) refuse to sign the treaty of Brest-Litvosk in 1917/8 and newly trained armies in Siberia arrive to fight both the Entente in and around Archangel'sk and also Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Siberia? It had a tiny and largely rural population and very minimal infrastructure. It would be a poor place to "raise new armies" even if it wasn't a bubbling politicaly mess where the Red government of Moscow had little control.

Germany weakened by the entry of the USA into the war the Russians advance through Ukraine and Belarus and the Baltic trapping the Germans and Austrians in great offensives similar to Operation Bagration. With Germany itself threatened with the Russians, Entente advances coupled to Austrian collapse led to separate peace treaties with Russia and the Entente.

When Russia was still a single intact and functioning state and quite capable of holding the Riga-Danube line, it tried to go onto the attack. That ended badly. The Red Army in 1944-45 was quite possibly the most formidable military machine in the world: you cannot replicate its success with Trotsky's army. It took all his energetic leadership and organisation to create a peasant conscript army capable of winning the Civil War.
 
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