Lenin in world war 2

Let's say Lenin wasn't shot and remained in a good health until the 40's, how would WW2 turned out with lenin ? , would the ussr still make the secret pact with germany ? I know that Lenin wasn't an anti-religion and he also wasn't a brutal dictator like stalin , it's interesting to predict how the world would look like if Lenin lived until the 40's
 

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Let's say Lenin wasn't shot and remained in a good health until the 40's, how would WW2 turned out with lenin ? , would the ussr still make the secret pact with germany ? I know that Lenin wasn't an anti-religion and he also wasn't a brutal dictator like stalin , it's interesting to predict how the world would look like if Lenin lived until the 40's
For one thing you don't have Stalin and Stalin's industrialization. Its extremely tough to say due to the butterflies that would be unleashed as a result of Stalin not coming to power, how the Allies react, how Lenin reacts to the rise of the Nazis, etc. Hitler may not come to power without Stalin in power even.
 
For one thing you don't have Stalin and Stalin's industrialization. Its extremely tough to say due to the butterflies that would be unleashed as a result of Stalin not coming to power, how the Allies react, how Lenin reacts to the rise of the Nazis, etc. Hitler may not come to power without Stalin in power even.

I remember reading that Lenin wanted to spread communism to the rest of europe that was his main goal , if anything i think the nazi party will gain more support after the people realize the communist threat , maybe we can get a very early red scare in europe , maybe the allies joins forces with germany in the hope of defeating the reds , it's actually a very interesting TL
 
For one thing you don't have Stalin and Stalin's industrialization. Its extremely tough to say due to the butterflies that would be unleashed as a result of Stalin not coming to power, how the Allies react, how Lenin reacts to the rise of the Nazis, etc. Hitler may not come to power without Stalin in power even.

While that is correct, industrialization will still happen, at least to show how progress can be made in Communism. Also Lenin may not purge his best generals like Stalin did, so war against USSR won't be that easy either. But yes, many butterflies will ensure.
 
The butterflies are tremendous.

At a minimum, I think Lenin would not launch the Great Purge which crippled the Red Army and Soviet government.

Also, to counter the rising Nazi threat, he may advocate a United Front between the KPD and SPD, which could stop Hitler from taking power.
 
1) A Lenin who lives will still be leading a brutal dictatorship. Due to Lenin being more secure in his power than Stalin, it is likely that the 30s will be less bloody, but exactly how much less bloody is hard to say.

2) The NEP will end and some sort of collectivization and focus on heavy industry development will happen. In fact, with Lenin still alive and healthy, the Bolsheviks won't be distracted for the last half of the 20s with power struggles, that could actually see the NEP end sooner. That said, small changes to the timing and how these things are executed can lead to radically better outcomes. Stalin was not only ruthless about collectivization, he was unlucky. The high point of collectivization came at the same time as a drought and the worst point of the Great Depression for the USSR, meaning trade income was depressed and food supplies also depressed. Collectivizing a few years early or a few years late could have saved millions of lives.

3) As people have pointed out, Lenin being in charge can lead to very different KDP policies in Germany which might be enough to avert the rise of Hitler. Of course, in Hitler's place, Germany could instead get a military government that goes to war with the USSR with the economic backing of Britain and France.

4) I think people over-egg the "wanted to spread communism" angle whenever any other potential leader of the USSR post-1924 is discussed. The truth is, by the time the Russian civil war had ended in 1924, all of the Bolsheviks could see that the time to aggressively spread Communism had passed. The "little wars" elsewhere in Europe had ended, the worst of the post-WW1 economic crisis had passed and Germany was no longer on the brink of civil war. The truth is ALL of the Bolsheviks, including mr Socialism-in-one-country himself believed that spreading the revolution was good for Russia and good for the world. All of them were also rather worried about uniting the capitalist powers of the world against their fragile revolution. I think that without Stalin, the export of revolution would have fallen sharply regardless of who was leader, simply because all of them saw the world in largely similar ways.

fasquardon
 
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