DBWI: Germany invaded Belgium in 1914

While I agree that Germany winning was definitely the best outcome, you don't know what would have happened to Russia had Germany gone into Belgium. I don't think Russia could have beaten Germany even with the US and UK in the war. On the other hand with Russia inevitably defeated later that could have given time for more revolutionary groups to have taken power. I know that Lenin in control of Russia has been derided as ASB almost as much as Operation Sea Dragon (the attempted Chinese invasion of Japan, for the uninitiated) but it legitimately could have happened had Germany gotten desperate.

The difference between Lenin taking power and Operation Sea Dragon is that the later actually happened.

Ok it ended very very very badly for the chinese, but the idea that they could overwheilm Japan's qualitative edge with enough ships was sound in theory. In practice....well we all saw how that ended. Lenin taking over? The russian people are pretty much defined by the orthadox faith, the idea that some one as irrelegious as Lenin getting and keeping power is rediculous.
 
The british empire did just fine for themselves, yes they were left out in the cold diplomatically but considering how the war thrashed russia, france and germany in blood and treasure I would say their splendid isolationism paid off. As for Russia they existed the war poorer but also a fairer and more democratic place. The Tzar's needed to be humbled, the aristocracy needed to have their power curtailed. The war was bad for the upper crust but created a fairer and more just country in its place.

What Germany permitted to remain of the Russian rump state did fine as a vassal of Germany, though I would hesitate to call the Romanov puppet dynasty a 'democracy'. In terms of Anglo-German relations, true, it can be argued that Britain's ebb tide in the 1930's was the bloodless path to what was going to happen anyways, but still I doubt this is what London had in mind back in 1914.
 
What Germany permitted to remain of the Russian rump state did fine as a vassal of Germany, though I would hesitate to call the Romanov puppet dynasty a 'democracy'. In terms of Anglo-German relations, true, it can be argued that Britain's ebb tide in the 1930's was the bloodless path to what was going to happen anyways, but still I doubt this is what London had in mind back in 1914.

The Duma weilds actual power and firmly holds the purse strings, the supreme court has over the last 50 years regularly checked the romanov's tyranical impulses, no one's saying that its sunshine and roses but its a drastic improvement over what they had before the war.
 
The difference between Lenin taking power and Operation Sea Dragon is that the later actually happened.

Ok it ended very very very badly for the chinese, but the idea that they could overwheilm Japan's qualitative edge with enough ships was sound in theory. In practice....well we all saw how that ended. Lenin taking over? The russian people are pretty much defined by the orthadox faith, the idea that some one as irrelegious as Lenin getting and keeping power is rediculous.
Look, I figure if someone like Jingwei can come to power as an avowedly anti religious nationalist leader in the extremely Confucian China, someone like Lenin can come to power in Russia. I think that if the various other factions (Liberals, Absolutists, Constitutional Monarchist's, Fascists) wore each other out, Lenin could have pulled it off, especially if he toned down his anti religious rhetoric.
 
Look, I figure if someone like Jingwei can come to power as an avowedly anti religious nationalist leader in the extremely Confucian China, someone like Lenin can come to power in Russia. I think that if the various other factions (Liberals, Absolutists, Constitutional Monarchist's, Fascists) wore each other out, Lenin could have pulled it off, especially if he toned down his anti religious rhetoric.

maybe so the russian leadership was pretty fragmented post war, but they would have to screw up royally for that to be possible.
 
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