The seeds of what the USSR was to become were sown during the Russian Civil War; by the time that was ended (1922) the Soviets were already heading toward authoritarian rule, with the Cheka (the forerunner of the KGB), gulags, and expropriation of the kulaks already in full swing. By then it's too late; the Bolsheviks are firmly in control and Lenin is leading them willy-nilly down the path to 'socialism'.
To have a 'nicer' Soviet Union we need a POD before the February 1917 overthrow of the Tsar and the establishment of the republic under Kerensky. If the Socialist Revolutionaries can gain power and negotiate a less humiliating peace with the Central Powers then perhaps the circumstances which brought the Bolsheviks to power can be avoided. While Russia under the SR won't be Paradise it won't be the living hell that it was in the first years of the Bolsheviks' rule either.
To have a 'nicer' Soviet Union we need a POD before the February 1917 overthrow of the Tsar and the establishment of the republic under Kerensky. If the Socialist Revolutionaries can gain power and negotiate a less humiliating peace with the Central Powers then perhaps the circumstances which brought the Bolsheviks to power can be avoided. While Russia under the SR won't be Paradise it won't be the living hell that it was in the first years of the Bolsheviks' rule either.