Sure, Stalin liked to build up a power base, not to act as singular leader as Trotsky did. Just look at the pictures - jovial Stalin laughing and smoking a pipe, Trotsky as a singular firebrand preacher. With Stalin in power there would not have been the great liquidations of the old party base.
DBWI: What if Stalin took power instead of Trotsky?
- Thread starter JustinianTheGrand
- Start date
Sure, Stalin liked to build up a power base, not to act as singular leader as Trotsky did. Just look at the pictures - jovial Stalin laughing and smoking a pipe, Trotsky as a singular firebrand preacher. With Stalin in power there would not have been the great liquidations of the old party base.
I have my doubts. You’re certainly right that local monitorities would have likely been less oppressed under Stalin but the chance of democracy forming in Russia is unlikely to me. Let’s remember, Stalin was Lenin’s chief enforcer and was basically a gangster before the revolution. This was a man who wanted a stronger communist Russia but this does not mean that he would have been a perfect ruler. Hitler destroyed democracy but he also “improved” and strengthened his own country (before invading all of Europe). I see Russia being just as Totalitarian but spending several decades just building up its strength instead of funding revolutionary organizations elsewhere.
That is certainly an.... ironic comparison, considering Trotsky’s thoughts on religion. Your not wrong though, he was much like that, and Stalin certainly doesn’t seem like that based on what we know about him.
It’s so sad that Trotsky had him beaten to death with a baseball bat when he fled to America.
I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was sad that it happened, but it does go to show how ruthless Trotsky was to his enemies.
I'm pretty sure all that is currently confirmed is that some sort of revolution is happening there. For now, it's just a rumor that she's been overthrown. Last I saw there were signs of mass protest in Trotskygrad caught by spy planes. Nothing is coming out of the country though...
It’s not that unusual, mass government censorship is pretty much to be expected by now, especially since they went fully isolationist following the limited nuclear exchange with America during WW3 and the loss of their Eastern European Puppet states and the Imperial German restoration. Still though, considering how unpopular she has apperentlly been since taking power from her uncle after his attempts at reform, the earlier protests she brutally suppressed at the beginning this year, and the sheer lack of information escaping Russia (which is unusual even for them since they are usually at least blasting propaganda over the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Baltic borders) I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the Russian people have had enough and risen up or their has been a coup by someone more pragmatic in the government.
Hopefully, we'll hear something new by the end of the year. If Russia is joining the world again then we'll finally be able to help them rebuild from everything the Trotskys did to them.
Yeah, no kidding, if it wasn’t for the one Trotsky who defected I’d be tempted to think they were a family of demons instead of people.....
Good old Vlad. America’s been doing a good job of keeping the old man safe from any baseball bats. God the stories he tells of the “farms” he oversaw....
Guys, I think it’s not really supported to say that Stalin would have been so much better than Trotsky and done all these great things. I think it’s because Trotsky was so horrible that we imagine anybody would be better than him, and Stalin died soon enough that he hadn’t really done anything bad. Heck, if he had taken power we might be sitting here talking about how things would have been so much better if only Trotsky had beaten Stalin...
thorr97
Banned
A family guy like Stalin? A guy with his religious background? Imaging him being a monster? One worse than Trotsky? That seems to be stretching things, don't you think?
Honestly, maybe we could see a decently decentralized leadership start to take center stage? Maybe a collective head of the nation instead of a singular ruler?
thorr97
Banned
You know, there are times where this "alternative history" thing just gets too crazy. Take Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, for instance. Yes, it's an established fact that both of them in their youth expressed some political sentiment that could be interpreted as being pro-Socialist or even - if you're willing to stretch things - as being pro-Communist. But then, so to did a lot of twentysomethings who'd yet to have much real world experience.
Instead, as we all know, once Castro got picked up by the Washington Senators, his earlier political views became pretty much irrelevant. His career as a professional baseball player was both successful and lucrative enough that it even then withstood the revelations of his long time love affair with Che.
I think much of the current rumorings of their being "closet Communists" is really just anger over their being such heroes in the gay rights world. And the "alt hist" versions of their lives which depict Castro as becoming some Communist ruler with Che as some murderous international terrorist revolutionary are about as far fetched as the "alt hist" tales that feature Stalin as the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union.
Sometimes, all this "alternative history" stuff really needs to take a step back into reality.
Instead, as we all know, once Castro got picked up by the Washington Senators, his earlier political views became pretty much irrelevant. His career as a professional baseball player was both successful and lucrative enough that it even then withstood the revelations of his long time love affair with Che.
I think much of the current rumorings of their being "closet Communists" is really just anger over their being such heroes in the gay rights world. And the "alt hist" versions of their lives which depict Castro as becoming some Communist ruler with Che as some murderous international terrorist revolutionary are about as far fetched as the "alt hist" tales that feature Stalin as the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union.
Sometimes, all this "alternative history" stuff really needs to take a step back into reality.
Without Trotsky in power I guess antisemitism would not run amok like it did in OTL. Nazis would most likely pick upon other enemies, maybe Slavs, thus integrating Jews into their racial theory gaining much more scientific and manpower. It's probable also, that with Stalin in power, Nazis would pick upon Jiddish speaking Jews as the assistant master race in their Eastern campaign of conquest.
As a Haitian I'm not defending Trotsky because his policies led to a lot of death and famine and forcible deportation of minorities and Jews to Haiti and other countries. However we can't ignore his permanent revolution funding Jacques Roumain armed uprising against the corrupt mixed elite leadership and their US allies. Roumain industrialized the country and improved healthcare and education lets be honest Stalin wouldn't have funded such an ambitious plan and would have been unwilling to go against the US
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