Heard this scenario in Monsieur Z, although I didn't hear anything else about Lenin living longer. How do you think the Soviet Union and the rest of the world would go if Lenin lived until, let's say 1949.
What if Lenin lived longed
- Thread starter JewishBolshevik
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1949 is impossible, I hope you wanted to say 1929.
Anyways Lenin living longer would mean severely weakening Stalin's power, IOTL Lenin nominated Stalin to the position of Party Secretary to counter the influence of Trotsky and supporters (who was opposing the NEP as too capitalist); here Lenin can manage the party himself since he's not terminally ill and Stalin remains in some useless position like "People's Commissar for Nationalities". Having Lenin around would also make Trotsky somewhat stronger since he would be the main critic of certain of Lenin's policies (like the NEP IOTL). I think that pretty much any Bolshevik including Lenin would implement the 5 year plans (or something similar), everyone considered modernizing Russia necessary and nobody in the Bolsheviks' ranks would shy away from using draconian measures to do so.
After TTL Lenin death there will be a power struggle just like IOTL however Stalin is largely irrelevant but Trotsky should still end be ousted from power since he made too many enemies in the Politburo and wasn't very good at political maneuvering.
Edit: The lack of Lenin's assassination attempt would also mean the Bolsheviks are slightly less repressive.
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Lenin living until 1949 is very unlikely even if he avoids his assassination attempt/gets only mild injury and has more health living style (speciality takes good night sleep instead just sleeping about one hour once). But even then stress over his job would finish him much sooner, probably already good time before WW2. To early 1930's could be possible what already gives pretty much changes. Probably Stalin at this point would be purged from the party. Perhaps Trotsky too would be severely weakened.
After Lenin's death there would be potential power struggle and probably power takes someone who is very obscure character in OTL.
After Lenin's death there would be potential power struggle and probably power takes someone who is very obscure character in OTL.
If he lived longer then there would be a lot less Lenin apologists trying to pretend he was some perfect and moral communist leader who had his wonderful policies undone by Stalin (a trap I fell into myself when I was younger). Lenin living longer directly implicates him in likely many more "genocidal" events and programs
Lenin's reputation would be indeed worse than in OTL altough hardly as bad as Stalin (and there is still too many Stalin apologists around). Lenin's regime would see lot of opression and bloody purges altough not quite that bad as Stalin. But Lenin would make things really bad.
I just chose a random date for Lenin to die, but thanks for giving a response, it's certainly interesting. What I wonder is if the Soviets would survive the Germans (if the nazis or some other fascist party even took power) and who would've been Lenin's successor.
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If Lenin lives even five years longer it would cause lot of butterflies and we can just guess his successor. Might be too someone who was obscure character in OTL. So actions before WW2 and during potential Barbarossa would depends about that leadership. But this leadership probably won't purge Red Army in such level as Stalin did in OTL.
Probably yes, Lenin would also implement policies to rapidly industrialize and it would actually help the Soviets since Lenin would be less paranoid about the army overthrowing him, Germany was doomed from the start IOTL WW2. Lenin's successor depends on when exactly he dies and politics in the meantime
Very unlikely that Lenin would live until 1949. It is technically possible but stress would decline his health faster. WW2 would be indeed very different. I have difficulties to imaginate Lenin making deals with Hitler or purging Red Army such way as Stalin did.
And by this time succession would be extremely unrecognsible since pretty much all of Lenin's close allies would are already aged men, almost all of them would are over 60 years old. Molotov is probably youngest early Bolshevik and even he would be on that time 59 years old. Almost any of them who were close allies of Stalin wouldn't are anywhere near of Lenin ITTL. So if someone would write such TL he could just invent some random Russian sounding name.
Probably higher tensions, Lenin is unlikely to have the same appeasement policy towards them and would support communist movements, however Germany would still be seen as a more dangerous threat to Britain and France than the Soviet Union is.
Why would Lenin have problems remaining in power? While he didn't have the same control over the state that Stalin had later on he still was the uncontested leader of the Bolsheviks until he became terminally ill.