Current Events > What happens if Trotsky succeeds Lenin instead of Stalin?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Trotsky was different than Stalin in the sense that he detested the large central bureaucracy of the country that was held over from the old monarchy.

Trotsky was a firm believer in a "world revolution". Believed in spreading communism to any country possible. Stalin, in contrast, was more insular.

One theory I've heard tossed around was by giving more overt support to communist movements abroad, the Soviet Union pushes most western governments further to the right. Then we're left with our "heroic allies" the German Nazis fighting the evil scourge of Communism

Another theory I've heard is the German Communists come to power instead of the Nazis

Discuss
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here are his writings on many of the decisions of stalin

http://marxism.halkcephesi.net/Ludo%20Martens/node127.html
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I hope you're not referring to John Lenin!
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Communism as a religion would have gotten a seven-decade head start. That's about it.

It's much more likely that Communism wouldn't be associated with murderous, despotic regimes, but beyond that, it's really hard to say. Well, that and there wouldn't be a Cold War, ergo there'd be a lot less nukes in the world.
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Kineth posted...

It's much more likely that Communism wouldn't be associated with murderous, despotic regimes, but beyond that, it's really hard to say. Well, that and there wouldn't be a Cold War, ergo there'd be a lot less nukes in the world.

i am highly skeptical that trotsky as director would have been entirely divorced from authoritarianism

the fact that he wanted to focus on its spread all but ensures there still would've been a cold war, just of a different sort
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AlternateHistoryHub on Youtube had a great video on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTHnTh6bNwc

Kineth posted...

Well, that and there wouldn't be a Cold War, ergo there'd be a lot less nukes in the world.

Trotsky's USSR probably wouldn't have had the military machine to curbstomp Hitler, so the US would probably have been the sole Hyperpower from the mid-40s on, and Germany would have been a string of radioactive craters for several decades.
Eastern Europe would probably have been less communist overall, while western Europe would have probably been more so (France, especially), possibly as an overreaction to US meddling during reconstruction.

Without the Cold War, communism is more a novelty than great adversary.

I played an HOI IV game where I had Trotsky lead the USSR.

Hitler ignored France, Czechoslovakia and Poland and declared war on me. So I had to take out Poland to get to Germany, which made me the enemy of the Allies.

So that's my guess.
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