WI: Alexei Didn't Have Hemophilia

You also need a very capable PM for domestic issues- a Stolypin/Witte figure- in addition to the talented staff officers HWG mentioned in high military command. Most importantly, land reform and broadening the government's support base. If Russia has capable commanders and decent success on the Eastern Front, then home front might be manageable or better depending on how the war goes. Tsar could keep a chunk of foreign affairs power, but domestic absolutely has to go.

One big question: what about Alexandra? Obviously she'd be emotionally distressed for a while if her husband is KIA, but what about her influence on Michael/Nicholas and the government?

"Distraught by her husbands heroic death HIH Alexandra has joined the Novodevichy Convent"
 
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"Distraught by her husbands heroic death HIH Alexandra has joined the Novodevichy Conven"

Not likely. I would guess that Alexei would be removed to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg/Petrograd with the now Dowager Empress remaining in Tsarskoe Selo or possibly removed to the Livia Palace in Yalta. Pretty much everyone who was important hated Empress Alexandra and would never let her have any power, official or otherwise.
 
If the Tsarevich is not a hemophiliac, the Rasputin does not get to a position of power. Nicholas and Alexandra are still out of touch with reality however. You might see less alienation of the Russian people at least early on in WWI, and the Russian army may do better. With less success on the Eastern Front lots of butterflies (like Ludendorff & Hindenburg not coming wesat, or getting less power. If the situation vis a vis Russia is not so favorable to Germany, then maybe Lenin is not sent in the sealed train.

Unless major changes are made, and these are of a type Nicky unlikely to make, Russia is going to explode.
 
If the Tsarevich is not a hemophiliac, the Rasputin does not get to a position of power. Nicholas and Alexandra are still out of touch with reality however. You might see less alienation of the Russian people at least early on in WWI, and the Russian army may do better. With less success on the Eastern Front lots of butterflies (like Ludendorff & Hindenburg not coming wesat, or getting less power. If the situation vis a vis Russia is not so favorable to Germany, then maybe Lenin is not sent in the sealed train.

Unless major changes are made, and these are of a type Nicky unlikely to make, Russia is going to explode.


I agree. Many competent members of the government and military were dismissed by the Empress because of Rasputin's influence. I can't be sure but I think at one point in 1916 nearly all government ministers were dependent on Rasputin's support to remain in power. If Rasputin is gone then we could see a more competent government and army. Though I do wonder if Nicholas would still take personal command of the army, sense he did so OTL supposedly on Rasputin's advise.

Russia would explode at one point yes, but without Rasputin the explosion, to use your word, will be delayed since the Imperial family's association with Rasputin is what helped bring down the Monarchy.
 
Not likely. I would guess that Alexei would be removed to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg/Petrograd with the now Dowager Empress remaining in Tsarskoe Selo or possibly removed to the Livia Palace in Yalta. Pretty much everyone who was important hated Empress Alexandra and would never let her have any power, official or otherwise.

Eh, you do know this is a rather common and accepted way of removing people from power in that era?
 
Eh, you do know this is a rather common and accepted way of removing people from power in that era?

Really? I wasn't aware sending someone to the Convent was still practiced in the 20th century, even if its Russia. I doubt that the Imperial family and government would lock her away in some convent. Remember Alexei will come of age eventually and I doubt the rest of the family would want to risk being of the Emperor's bad side for sending his mother to a convent. House arrest in Tsaskoe Selo is most likely.
 

Dorozhand

Banned
Remember Alexei will come of age eventually and I doubt the rest of the family would want to risk being of the Emperor's bad side for sending his mother to a convent. House arrest in Tsaskoe Selo is most likely.

I could see an adult Alexei II harboring a massive oedipal grudge because of it and becoming extremely autocratic because of his hatred and distrust of ministers and the people that locked away his mother.
Maybe the Empress Dowager is sealed away from him, and then, when he demands she be released on the threat of military force, the Imperial family begins a rebellion to install Nicholas Nikolaevich as Emperor, and a civil war erupts. Elements of the army loyal to the son of the Martyr Emperor, fighting against the forces mustered by the rest of the family and nobility.
 
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I could see an adult Alexei II harboring a massive oedipal grudge because of it and becoming extremely autocratic because of his hatred and distrust of ministers and the people that locked away his mother.
Maybe the Empress Dowager is sealed away from him, and then, when he demands she be released on the threat of military force, the Imperial family begins a rebellion to install Nicholas Nikolaevich as Emperor, and a civil war erupts. Elements of the army loyal to the son of the Martyr Emperor, fighting against the forces mustered by the rest of the family and nobility.

That seems a bit extreme. Also the Imperial family would NEVER go against the Line of succession. After Alexei the throne would go to Grand Duke Michael then Michael's cousln Grand Duke Kyril and the Vladimirovich Branch. Grand Duke Nicholas's branch of the Imperial Family, the Nikolaevich, were very low in the line of Succession. Only the Mikhailovich were lower in the line of succession.
 
I agree with the idea that a healthy Alexei means no need for Rasputin. He was there to with the boy's disease, which was kept a state secret. No disease no secret and thus no scandalous rumors caused by the "Mad Monk". Without Alexei's hemophilia, Rasputin would never have gotten anywhere near the royal family.

As for Nicholas going to the front line, he went due to the Russian Army getting it's ass handed to it by the Germans. I will say that Nicholas wasn't prepared to become Tsar when he did due to his father dying at age 49. I doubt him not going would have made much difference, since Russia's military and economy were not prepared for a war.

Overall, I'd say that Alexei not having hemophilia might have put the Russian Revolution off by a few more years, but it was impossible for Russia to be ruled as an autocracy anymore. Maybe he'd have been more wiling to work the Russian Duma, but then again he might not.
 
I don't know if it would have prevented the Russian Revolution or saved the Russian Monarchy, but clearly Alexei not having hemophilia would have resulted in a Russian Revolution very different than the one in OTL.

Rasputin exerted a very strong and very negative influence over both Nicholas and Alexandra and he got that influence due to their efforts to deal with their son's hemophilia.

No hemophilia for Alexei, no Rasputin. No Rasputin and his influence over Nicholas and Alexandra, and you have a very different Russian Revolution than in OTL.
 
Things would be better, but it's hard to be too optimistic. Nicholas was -- as has been stated already -- ill-prepared to be Czar when he succeeded, and he never really improved. Alexandra's judgment was consistently, spectacularly terrible in all matters of state.

So who would train the healthy Alexei to be a good Czar?
 

Dorozhand

Banned
So who would train the healthy Alexei to be a good Czar?

That's the million dollar question. Is there any potential figure in the Russian state that could have gotten close to him and could have been a good mentor figure and an influence on his philosophy? He would have to be aristocratic, and yet realistic and conscious of the people. He'd have to be liberal and progressive, and yet conservative enough for the state to trust him with the Tsarevich.
 
That's the million dollar question. Is there any potential figure in the Russian state that could have gotten close to him and could have been a good mentor figure and an influence on his philosophy? He would have to be aristocratic, and yet realistic and conscious of the people. He'd have to be liberal and progressive, and yet conservative enough for the state to trust him with the Tsarevich.

Well of the top of my head, Grand Dukes Michael Alexandrovich or Nicholas Niolaevich. Would either of them work? Or what about Georgy Lvov, first Prime Minister of the Provisional Government?
 
Not Michael, he's a playboy and therefore would fail the character test. For the basics I assume they'd still keep Gilliard, since from what I've read he was doing a great job and was 100% trusted by the Imperial family. So I guess Lvov or Nicholas Nicolaevich plus some academic specialists for the "graduate school" of governance. Perhaps NN, since IOTL Alexei was a military buff like his father but couldn't fully exercise that passion because of the illness. ITTL he can.
 
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