WI: Lenin never reaches Russia

Not sure if this has been done here or not but what if Lenin's sealed train suffers from a catastrophic rail accident on the way to Russia like, for example, a rock slide in the Swiss Alps after leaving Bern?

The October Revolution is still likely to happen, Lenin's failure to reach Russia won't change the flow of events or the Bolshevik's growing popularity with the peasants or change what Trotsky does with the Red Army. What do you see happening after keeping in mind that Lenin won't be around to issue the Ban on Factions in 1921 or reject Trotsky's proposal to end War Communism in 1920.
 
Political infighting shatters the party leading to a renewed civil war or military coup by 1928? "You have sat long enough for all the good you have been doing. Go I say, in the name of God go."
 
Actually it might change things quite a bit. The Bolsheviks were hardly the only left wing party out there and without Lenin another one might have prevailed including the SRs or the Mencheviks, maybe even a rather minor one could have gained more popularity and took over.
 

Hnau

Banned
The Bolsheviks were entirely ready to form a compromise government with the other socialist parties until Lenin showed up and steamrolled the Bolsheviks in the direction he so desired. Without Lenin the Constituent Assembly becomes the basis of a new Russian government, and it'll be dominated by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, not the Communists. A Bolshevik break with an SR government wouldn't happen until the end of WWI, leading to a period of civil war. The SRs would have to turn towards the Kadets and other parties to the right in order to combat the Bolshevik rebels. The civil war might go better than in OTL because the SRs, being in control of the government and appearing more legitimate, will receive plenty of aid from the West and direct military intervention by the Allies will be out of the question. What you have in the end is either a democratic federation or a constitutional monarchy. Bolshevism is stamped out and the Mensheviks probably attract the remnants, becoming the "extreme socialist party" of Russia, taking on the name of "Russian Social-Democrats" once more.
 
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