Alright, I know Vlad is probably one of the most beloved historical figure on this site ("He modernized Russia!" "He brought freedom and democracy to the Ruskies etc."), but let's say that the young Lenin had gone Communist rather than embracing Social Democracy (he apparently was a big fan of Marx in his teens, but eventually got turned off by the "class warfare" bits). Would the October Revolution still happen in ITTL? And if it does, what would a Communist Russia look like?
 
Given the role of Menshevik dominated factory committees and the October rising in support of the Menshevik dominated Constituent Assembly (after the treason purges of the Bolsheviks, "left-srs" and rightists in the treason motions) it is hard to think of Lenin as not a revolutionary. What he was was a constitutional revolutionary unlike the "communist" Bolsheviks, Spartacists, PSI majority, or AAUD.

YOURS,
Sam R.

(One rides the tiger, you can't kill it)
 
I'd imagine a Communist Russia under Lenin to look like the People's Republic of Germany under the triumvirate of Rosa Luxembourg, Ernst Thalmann, and Adolf Hitler or the Socialist Republic of Italy led by Benito Mussolini as well
 
Given the role of Menshevik dominated factory committees and the October rising in support of the Menshevik dominated Constituent Assembly (after the treason purges of the Bolsheviks, "left-srs" and rightists in the treason motions) it is hard to think of Lenin as not a revolutionary. What he was was a constitutional revolutionary unlike the "communist" Bolsheviks, Spartacists, PSI majority, or AAUD.

YOURS,
Sam R.

(One rides the tiger, you can't kill it)
Lenin's activities often promise - one of the consequences of the social democrats' policy in the Russian Republic was large-scale inflation. Only the left radical managed to avoid this. As a result, Black Hundredness and Corporatism prevailed in Russia.
I'd imagine a Communist Russia under Lenin to look like the People's Republic of Germany under the triumvirate of Rosa Luxembourg, Ernst Thalmann, and Adolf Hitler or the Socialist Republic of Italy led by Benito Mussolini as well
It is unlikely - 80% of the population by the 1920s - peasants. As a result, Russia is a very conservative country. It is unlikely that an analog of the German "Freikörperkultur" will appear. And Germany and Italy are not so similar - compare the Socialist Realism of the Germans with the "Art of the Future" Italians.
 
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