Do you see them being better, or worse off? I imagine they would not be anywhere near as bad as they are now.
If the Tsar stayed in power, it seems like they would have fallen to Germany. But assuming that didn’t happen, Russia would probably be even more backwards.
There is little signs the Tsars were likely to modernize as much as the West and Japan.
The Russians seem to have gone from one terrible government to another to a tiny respite to another awful one under Putin.
In what meaningful way is Putin not a Russian Tsar?
It’s really impossible to say. The entire global history post 1917 is so intertwined with the existence of the Soviet Union.
If you start with Tsar Nichola’s abdication of the throne in March 1917, what if the Grand Duke accepted imperial authority, rather than refusing it? The Bolshevik Revolution would still probably happen, but what if the Whites won, and not the Reds? That gives you a start to developing some sort of alternate timeline.
No part of the bloodline and no designated relative as an heir.
He’s a despot, but a different type.
If WW2 even took place. Every action has its equal and opposite reaction; would the Nazis and Fascists have come to power if the West weren’t so afraid of the Communists?
They sorta did anyway- the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk basically had Russia surrendering to Germany
Maybe, since one of the main causes for the Nazis was the Treaty of Versailles. But maybe Hitler would not have come to power, and just another Right Wing Populist would have been voted in.
Plus, Putin came to power after ~70 years of Communist/Soviet rule, after the monarchy had been deposed. The OP’s question seems to be more like, “what would Russia be like today if the Tsar had never been removed, and it never had become a communist state?”
After WW1, if the White Russians won the Tsar would be been more like a figurehead. They could have turned into a Military dictatorship, at least for a while.
Extensively debated here-
I wonder what would’ve happened had the mensheviks remained in power instead of the bolsheviks.
The Mensheviks were more like a european leftist party. They wanted capitalism with reforms and safeguards. Had they remained in charge, things probably would be far better in Russia today.
Stalin seems to have caused a lot of long term psychological damage in Russia.
FWIW, I’ve read that Russia has a long history of being invaded, which creates a sense of fatalism among Russians about building or investing, since it can all be torn down in an invasion. There is supposedly a strong strain of fatalism and learned helplessness in Russia due to the invasion and the legacy of communism.
Stalin killed most of the military leadership because he was terrified of a coup. As a result, the military was fairly inept when the war started.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/joseph-stalins-paranoid-purge/
The scale of the purge was staggering: 13 of 15 army commanders, 50 of 57 corps commanders, 154 of 186 divisional commanders, 220 of 406 brigade commanders, all 11 vice-commanders of defense, 98 of 108 members of the Supreme Military Soviets, all army political commissars, 25 of 28 corps commissars, 58 of 64 divisional commissars. Even the lower ranks were not spared: almost half the colonels and 7,403 captains fell victim to the purge. “This is worse than when artillery fires on its own troops,” commented General Konstantin Rokossovsky. More Soviet generals and colonels were killed by Stalin than were to fall in World War II.
They were- sadly- out of the picture. It was gonna be White or Red, and that wasnt wine choices. The Mensheviks had no army.
Same with Poland only more. At least every invasion of Russia since the Mongols failed.
I think more the legacy of serfdom- then communism. Went from “you have no rights” to “you have no rights, but we will pretend you do”. They had no hope, no way out except vodka.
Which was sold by the government.