Saving Soviet Democracy: A Russian Revolution Timeline
by GiantMonkeyMan
"Under the pitiless pelting of facts I have been driven to the conclusion that if Lenin and 18 other Bolshevik leaders had perished, events in Russia would have taken much the same course. The robbed and oppressed masses - a hundred millions of men and women - moved toward the goal of their long unfulfilled desires like a flow of molten lava that no human force can dam or turn aside." - E. A. Ross
"I have reached the end of the road and so, I'm afraid, has my sort of liberalism." - Prince Lvov
"I told them that it would be better to die with honour than to obey any further orders to shoot the crowds: 'Our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and brides are begging for bread,' I said. 'Are we going to kill them? Did you see the blood on the streets today? I say we shouldn't take up positions tomorrow. I myself refuse to go.' And, as one, the soldiers cried out: 'We shall stay with you!'" - Sergei Kirpichnov
"Up to now, the entire great historical epic of the Russian social revolution has mistakenly been identified only with Bolshevism." - Isaak Shteinburg
"Now things will change. Now we are all: dictatorship of the proletariat. Dictatorship of those who were nothing the day before." - Victor Serge
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The events of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War that followed shook the world. A dynasty hundreds of years old was toppled in the midst of the most devastating war the world had ever known and hundreds of millions of people all across the former Russian Empire cried out for dignity, fairness, and a chance to control their own lives. I've been fascinated by these events for most of my adult life and more than that I've wanted to explore the events and the myriad of possibilities that could have occurred. For a brief moment, a barest shadow of time, the downtrodden and the wretched ruled a segment of the globe.
But it was only a glimpse of socialist democracy for a variety of reasons. Some perspectives proclaim the Bolsheviks entirely at fault, that they hungered for dictatorship from the start, and cared little for the whims of the masses. Some perspectives suggest that the Bolsheviks represented a revolutionary push towards socialism, that they channelled the frustrations of the working class into a concrete political programme, and that the forces of reaction and imperialism did everything in their power to strangle the revolution in its bloody birthing bed.
I won't pretend to have all the answers, although I obviously agree with the point that the poor masses were more autonomous and aware than many give them credit, they were not simply duped by Bolshevik machinations. I also agree that the Bolsheviks are, at the very least, partially responsible for the turn towards single-party dictatorship even if they were central to giving the masses a voice in the first place.
This timeline is an attempt to explore some of the possibilities of the Russian experience. There were more than just Bolsheviks involved at the most radical peaks of the revolution and at times the Bolsheviks held the masses back for fear of total collapse. This timeline aims at offering a plausible pathway towards the idea of a multi-party soviet democracy. I know that many will contest this as a possibility and so I aim to include quotations from things I have researched to better support the alternate historical ideas that I am positing.
I hope you all enjoy and comment. Also, thanks
@Cregan for listening as I threw a load of ideas at you.