A POD which abolishes serfdom earlier then OTL, followed by an intensive effort at land reform which, in turn, spurs an industrialization of Russia alongside Western Europe, in contrast to the late and fumbled Russian industrialization of OTL.. Such a POD, however, could very well butterfly Marx and all of his works, so the Communism you get might manifest out of an analysis of Capitalism which is markedly different from that of Marx.
In any case, recreate the devastating World War which we saw in 1914 in the year 1895, and have the material conditions in Russia broken down such that a revolutionary left wing group, or collection of groups as we saw IOTL, has a window to take over the machines of the state.
Another issue is that the POD would precede the formation of Germany. How this affects European geopolitics, and whether or not this means that a Russian Empire which is industrialized will ever possibly get beat down like they did in OTL by whatever powers come out of your POD, I cannot say.