WI: Russia wins WW1

What if Russia had not collapsed during World War One, and had instead made it to the 11/11/1918 as a victor, while being ruled by the provisional government? In this scenario, no Bolshevik revolution occurs before the 11/11/1918.
 
They are better off by not have reparations to pay but in many ways I think they become the Entente's Weimar Republic. It will take billions more to rebuild and any faltering in the recovery will pose the successor government with threat of extinction. They have to actually deal with the war debt. But no civil war or purging of society to put a new ruling elite in power. Weimar did strive to be a democracy and part of the world, this Russia would too. I am trying to find a plausible path to keep the provisional government alive and open the possibility that Russia transitions into a much better state for its people than either Czar or Kommissar.
 
Keep Lenin out and maybe Nicholas II still abdicated in favor of his brother. Russia was *very* innovative but needs to industrialized and lacks the capital up front to do so. Perhaps the gluags involving gold mines still come to pass...
 

CaliGuy

Banned
I am trying to find a plausible path to keep the provisional government alive
If you really want to achieve this goal, you could try having the Provisional Government be as ruthless as the Bolsheviks later were and thus summarily shoot and execute all of the members of the Petrograd Soviet.

True, this certainly isn't very pretty; however, it might have achieved what you're looking for.
 
If you really want to achieve this goal, you could try having the Provisional Government be as ruthless as the Bolsheviks later were and thus summarily shoot and execute all of the members of the Petrograd Soviet.

True, this certainly isn't very pretty; however, it might have achieved what you're looking for.

I could easily sleep at night.
 
If you really want to achieve this goal, you could try having the Provisional Government be as ruthless as the Bolsheviks later were and thus summarily shoot and execute all of the members of the Petrograd Soviet.

True, this certainly isn't very pretty; however, it might have achieved what you're looking for.

Maybe a quote from someone later one goes 'Whites will bleed them out and the Reds will just drown them in blood'?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
I could easily sleep at night.
Well, given the evils of Bolshevism, one can argue that such a move would have been the lesser evil.

Of course, there might not be any good options in regards to this. :(

Maybe a quote from someone later one goes 'Whites will bleed them out and the Reds will just drown them in blood'?

If the Provisional Government actually successfully pulls this off, I doubt that there would even be a Russian Civil War in this TL.
 
Well, given the evils of Bolshevism, one can argue that such a move would have been the lesser evil. Of course, there might not be any good options in regards to this. :(

I wonder if that was the "positive" in the execution of the Spartacists in Berlin. Not to condone it but the revolution did not happen, yet then we saw another evil crop up.
 
Russia would be on very bad shape if it can survive to 11/11/1918. Probably Kerensky should be even more authotarian, even to clearly dicatorial level, that he can keep Russia on war.

But Russia would be economically ruined and there would be much restlesses in Finland, Baltics, Poland and posssibility in Ukraine and Caucasus too.
 

Deleted member 9338

I would allow Finland and the Baltics to become independent.

Poland would be given ITL lands and East Prussia with some minor Russian or German nobility to boot.

Urraine is needed and any independence movement converted to a federal system joining Russia with the Ukraine.
 
Russia would be on very bad shape if it can survive to 11/11/1918. Probably Kerensky should be even more authotarian, even to clearly dicatorial level, that he can keep Russia on war.

But Russia would be economically ruined and there would be much restlesses in Finland, Baltics, Poland and possibility in Ukraine and Caucasus too.

I would allow Finland and the Baltics to become independent.

Poland would be given ITL lands and East Prussia with some minor Russian or German nobility to boot.

Urraine is needed and any independence movement converted to a federal system joining Russia with the Ukraine.

But surely that would be an almost utopian outcome; Russia has a moderate government instead of the Bolsheviks, and Russia's conquered territories become independent Republics. And when I say 'independent', I mean real independence - countries like Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia would become genuinely independent nation-states, and not, Soviet 'republics'. What's not to like?

So this is what I see happening: Russia's provisional government manages to avoid a Bolshevik Revolution and wins the First World War. However in the mean time, independence movements spring up in Finland, the Baltics, Ukraine, and the Caucausus. Russia manages to just about make it to the end of the war. The provisional government subsequently holds an election. A combination of Socialists and centre-right Kadets are elected. However, the Caucasus, Finland, the Baltics and, inspired by them, Central Asia, elect seperatist deputies who like Sinn Fein in Ireland in 1918 and the Hungarians in 1848, they boycott the Russian Duma and form their own national assemblies, declaring themselves independent republics. This then creates a situation whereby Russia is like Britain; it is a victor of the war yet faces a nationalist insurgency (Ireland) and subsequently looses a large chunk of territory. Thus all these territories fight a collective war of independence, and after domestic pressure at home in Petrograd, the government recognises those countries' independence just as the British Government eventually granted Ireland independence in 1922. Or, who knows, maybe a certain Vladimir Lenin, having failed to cease power during the First World War, rallies the masses in Moscow and St Petersburg against this new 'imperialist war' and stages his 'revolution' before subsequently recognising all the new republics' territories. Russia still goes red albeit after WW1, and not during, and the new Bolshevist Russia is a lot smaller than the OTL USSR?
 
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