what if Lenin wasn't a communist

What if Vladimir Lenin managed to stage a revoulution, take over Russia and take Russia out of WWI, but wasn't a communist, but instead supported a more democratic government, he may be slightly socialist, but isn't a communist, what's going to happen
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
If Lenin is not a Communist, then he has no reason to stage a revolution in Russia.

If you're trying for a non-Czarist, non-USSR, semi-democratic Russia, I would go with a POD that keeps the Kerensky Provisional Government in charge.
 
If Lenin is not a Communist, then he has no reason to stage a revolution in Russia.

If you're trying for a non-Czarist, non-USSR, semi-democratic Russia, I would go with a POD that keeps the Kerensky Provisional Government in charge.
Exactly. If Lenin isn't Communist, he sets himself up as a Provisional government politician.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Exactly. If Lenin isn't Communist, he sets himself up as a Provisional government politician.

Or a journalist or teacher of some kind.

I think it's a mark of just how fanatical a Communist Lenin was that, despite the best my AH-attuned mind tries, I can't really imagine him as anything aside from a Communist revolutionary.
 

TheCrow__

Banned
You could have Lenin's brother not attempt to kill the Czar. Then Lenin probably would not grow up to be as revolutionary. Also what I'd then like to point out about that if it may be possible that without the support of Lenin the Bolshevik takeover does'nt happen. Peter Kropotkin would likely accept a role in Kerensky's government as well. Therefore you would see an increasing democratic power and anti-statism in Russia.
 
If Lenin's not a Bolshie - a believer in the revolutionary vanguard party and the possibility of skipping out beaurgoise democracy - he doesn't launch a revolution to take total control of Russia. In other words, this is much the same PoD as "Lenin dead", except that Lenin can hang around doing literary criticism or something. :p

How I imagine a no-Lenin, no-Bolshevik-revolution world is the establishment in Russia of a fairly stable provisional government resembling interbellum Italy: a democracy with a lot of structural problems including a big debt and general economic mess, a politicised army, and so on. It'd be pretty left-leaning, with lots of SR and Menshevik types in government, but I doubt it could really infringe on the priveleges of Russia's officers and the small industrial capitalist class - I can see a major land-reform, however.

It would also be a federation or have lots of autonomous units, and would probably include Besserabia, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and perhaps bits of the kresy. The "civil war" would be a series of fairly small outbreaks of quixotic violence from the far-right and perhaps far-left.
 
The October Revolution was built on the social issues that confronted Russia, the lack of any democratic processes in the Provisional Government, the poor conduct of the war and its social costs, and the radical and progressive agendas of much of the Russian working class and peasantry. This lead to the atrophy of support for the Provisional Government to the point that the Red Guards didn't even have to kill anyone to take over the White Palace, the growth in social and political power of the Petrograd Soviet, and the rise of the Bolsheviks and the SRs as the political mainstream of the nation.

If Lenin hadn't been a communist, the Provisional Government would probably still fall apart. Perhaps earlier (as in Hnau's "A Lenin-less World," where it collapses during a different July Days), or later (less likely, considering how weak it was by November 1917).

While without the Bolsheviks you are going to see a bit of a different relationship between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government, ultimately the Petrograd Soviet is full of radical, anti-war workers and the government is full of liberals who lead idiotic offensives.
 
I agree with the above: forgive some singularly poor phrasing, but by "a provisional government" I did not mean "the Provisional Government". Silly me! ;) I too base a lot of my views on Hnau's work.
 
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