Let's Save Russia! (At the last possible moment)

Ladies (maybe?) and gentlemen: what is the last possible moment to save Russia and have it turn out well?

That can mean some faction of the Commies managing to reform Russia without mass killings and maintaining some kind of relationship with the outside world.

Or Kadets and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich turning Russia into a functioning democracy with a constitutional Tsar.

Or Kerensky (or analogous figure) pulling something out of his nether regions and some White Russia that isn't terrible.

Entente or Central Powers early victory?

Even afterwards, the most obvious and difficult issue is economic reform. Without Stalin and forced industrialization + collectivization of farms how does Russia manage to transform into a peer European economy without mass peasant revolution?

(As usual, lately, I'm asking in regards for my Futurist Manifesto timeline. Lose or win, I'd like to see Russia turn out well, but the needle threading I have at the moment is… iffy. So, in hopes someone has something I missed: the floor is open.)
 
Ladies (maybe?) and gentlemen: what is the last possible moment to save Russia and have it turn out well?

Even afterwards, the most obvious and difficult issue is economic reform. Without Stalin and forced industrialization + collectivization of farms how does Russia manage to transform into a peer European economy without mass peasant revolution?

(As usual, lately, I'm asking in regards for my Futurist Manifesto timeline. Lose or win, I'd like to see Russia turn out well, but the needle threading I have at the moment is… iffy. So, in hopes someone has something I missed: the floor is open.)

If Russia finds herself allied with solely France and pitted against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire, I'd say that the pro-war sentiment among left-wing forces in Russia would be remarkably lower as they realistically realize that in the long run the situation will only deteriorate.

And if Central Powers are wise enough to offer milder terms than OTL Brest-Litovsk, a negotiated peace after February Revolution-style overthrow of Czarist Russia is possible.

And with the war out of the way, PSR, Mensheviks and a significant part of Bolsheviks were willing to support the Constituent Assembly due the simple fact that demographics and their popular support would have allowed them, especially PSR, to dominate it's program.

If Germans leave ol' Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov to enjoy the mountain climate in Switzerland, it seems likely that Mensheviks and Bolsheviks would have resumed their cooperation to balance PSR out. Without Lenin determinedly steering Bolsheviks to conflict with nearly all other post-February political movements in Russia and the issue of continuing the war radicalizing the nation and fragmenting all left-wing alternatives to Bolsheviks to bitter infighting factions, things look brighter than OTL while the new Russian Republic will still go through painful and chaotic early start.

Here's how they are saved: Land reform and demobilization stabilize the countryside, workers's soviets and trade unions do the same for urban areas and Kadets bring key parts of the middle class supportive towards the new status quo. As these new forces have firm control of the army, Kornilov and the few officers supportive to them have little chances to stir up trouble either.

Due their nature the new democratic Russia will allow limited foreign investment. Combine this to domestic economic situation being as open as OTL NEP and remove the bitter, bloody and long Civil War from devastating the Russian heartlands, and suddenly the slower speed of development is counterbalanced by lesser needs for reconstruction in the first place.

It's not sunshine and flowers all over, but IMO such development would still spare Russia from worst horrors of Bolshevik rule.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Avoid WW1, and have Nicky II die early and that sick little kid become Czar. With a weak Czar reforms could be pushed through and the Duma could become an actual legislative body. Perhaps even an Constitution could be written that limit the influence of the Imperial Family and the nobles. However even with all that Russia would have a really hard time. There's just no easy way out.

Another suggestion is the already suggested "Germans never send Lenin", which would mean the Russian Republic survives. However it need to be combined with a peace with the Central Powers. If the Kerensky government is keen on keeping Russia in a war that is causing starvation and pain to the populace, they will be overthrown sooner or later, with or without Lenin.
 

MSZ

Banned
Could you specify what "saving" means? If you mean to save Russia from the type of autocratic rule it always finds itself under, and develop into a type of Liberal Democracy, you probably would need a XVI century PoD to butterfly away the Gathering of the Russian Lands, a have the various russian states unite via gradual unification, allownig them to preserve local power, and eventually form some "Union of Russia" (or maybe even "United States of Russia?").

As for a XXth century PoD, the best possible scenario would be for the Whites to win the war with the bolsheviks, letting go of all non-russian territories (to prevent it from descending into internal infights with a national/religious background), and allowing for administrative decentralization (to reduce the temptation of those ruling from Moscow to dominate the country). This coupled with post-great war recovery, no WW2, and the development of an diversified economy is your best chance at seeing a somehow "westernized" Russia.
 
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