DBWI: Lennin's coup attempt comes off

After the February Revolution there was a plan by Lenin and his Bolsheviks to overthrow the new Russian government. Their plan was foiled by some spies in the inside of their party. The government was able to arrest top Bolsheviks including Lenin and Trotsky with evidence linking them to Germany which both got them both 50 years for treason and other Bolsheviks less time. What if Lenin succeeded? How long would his government lasted? Six months? A year? Longer?
 
Well, the dude was a communist. Probably not long at all. It probably would have been a situation similar to the Spartacus in Germany. Sure they'd be a force, sure they'd be able to hold onto some parts of Russia for a while, but there would be a period of civil unrest, maybe even escalating to civil war.

If, however, the Bolsheviks miraculously pull it off, once Lenin died, infighting within the government would probably begin.
 
Well, the dude was a communist. Probably not long at all. It probably would have been a situation similar to the Spartacus in Germany. Sure they'd be a force, sure they'd be able to hold onto some parts of Russia for a while, but there would be a period of civil unrest, maybe even escalating to civil war.

If, however, the Bolsheviks miraculously pull it off, once Lenin died, infighting within the government would probably begin.

I agree, for one thing I read that the party was made up mostly of quarreling intellectuals, particularly at the top. By the time they agreed what color the new flag should be they would have probably been overthrown.
 
The "Lenin Coup" is largely a historical myth. While there was talk across the left-parties of extending the February Revolution by dissolving the provisional government, there isn't a shred of credible evidence to really link Lenin to an actual conspiracy to commit such an act.

Their trials were based on hearsay, in kangaroo court's with no legitimacy. Even then, it wasn't enough to save the provisional government. They had temporarily weakened the far left, but that merely emboldened the right. The pro-Tsarist generals overthrew the provisional government and restored a Romanov to the throne temporarily. Which ultimately led to decades of Menshevik dictatorship by the time the civil war was done.

It's hard to think that a Bolshevik coup could somehow be worse than the decades of Menshevik state capitalism.
 
The "Lenin Coup" is largely a historical myth. While there was talk across the left-parties of extending the February Revolution by dissolving the provisional government, there isn't a shred of credible evidence to really link Lenin to an actual conspiracy to commit such an act.

Their trials were based on hearsay, in kangaroo court's with no legitimacy. Even then, it wasn't enough to save the provisional government. They had temporarily weakened the far left, but that merely emboldened the right. The pro-Tsarist generals overthrew the provisional government and restored a Romanov to the throne temporarily. Which ultimately led to decades of Menshevik dictatorship by the time the civil war was done.

It's hard to think that a Bolshevik coup could somehow be worse than the decades of Menshevik state capitalism.

You are rewriting history. There was a whole lot of documents found in Germany linking Lenin with Berlin. There were also lots of testimony that showed there was going to be a coup including those who escaped abroad and wrote books about it.
 
You are rewriting history. There was a whole lot of documents found in Germany linking Lenin with Berlin. There were also lots of testimony that showed there was going to be a coup including those who escaped abroad and wrote books about it.
Yes. They let a whole trainload of exiles return to Russia. Absolutely no evidence from those documents links those exiles to any coup attempt.

Yes, there's a bunch of third hand hearsay and testimony, but no hard proof. If I'm rewriting history, then history is in dire need of some revision, because the myth of this joint radical-German conspiracy against the provisional government is weak. The records of the trail show that

OOC: Incidentally, I am not making this up. The October revolution was something that the Bolsheviks were pushed into from below by radicalized sailors and workers in Petrograd after the Kornilov affair, and to a large extent, they flew by the seat of their pants on it.
 
Yes. They let a whole trainload of exiles return to Russia. Absolutely no evidence from those documents links those exiles to any coup attempt.

Yes, there's a bunch of third hand hearsay and testimony, but no hard proof. If I'm rewriting history, then history is in dire need of some revision, because the myth of this joint radical-German conspiracy against the provisional government is weak. The records of the trail show that

OOC: Incidentally, I am not making this up. The October revolution was something that the Bolsheviks were pushed into from below by radicalized sailors and workers in Petrograd after the Kornilov affair, and to a large extent, they flew by the seat of their pants on it.

OOC: To some extent but by and large Lenin WANTED to become dictator of Russia sooner or later. The time-table may have been pushed up a bit, nothing more.
 
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