Historian Reacts | What if Stalin Never Came to Power? (AlternateHistoryHub)

hello everybody my name is Brady and we are back with another react video and today I'm going to be doing more alternate history hub the video is called what if Stalin never came to power when I first started this channel I wanted to stay away from the stuff that was outside of my comfort zone because I put historian in the title so that implies a certain level of expertise but I'm new to being a historian I've had my beard longer than I've had my degree so that should always be out there but that shouldn't keep me from introducing myself to new things I'm trying to get outside of my comfort zone why not make that part of the journey while I grow this channel I think to see me develop greater understanding of it could be just as interesting as me coming in knowing things so I'm excited to get into the Cold War so learning a little bit more about Joseph Stalin could be fun and these alternate history things involve a lot of 3-dimensional thinking so maybe I'll learn a thing or two along the way plus I know a couple things about Stalin and the people he was around so maybe I can provide something here but I emphasize that this is definitely on the fringe of my comfort zone is I'm not completely sure how much I know so don't take too much of what I say seriously and quote it back to people I doubt any of you are doing that to begin with but I just think it should be pointed out so let's get it started I love alternate history hub and I haven't watched one of his videos in a minute so this should be fun this is Joseph Stalin a tyrannical dictator of the USSR whose rule was built off of fear in ideological brainwashing the legacy of his actions have cast a shadow over modern history wait I've said this in the past but if you haven't seen the movie the death of Stalin you should I don't know if it's on net I think it's on Netflix right now I'm not completely sure I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix though it's a comedy about the death of Stalin so he dies at the beginning of the movie and everybody's like what do we do what do we do about this and there pretend stalin's not dead for a minute it's actually really really funny doing a comedy about somebody like that so yeah it's I highly recommend it if you've not seen it the complex figure it was a small dream oh yeah thank you to everybody who's been telling me how to use my keyboard shortcuts I should have known this but the left and the right arrow actually jumped forward and back Wow because every time I get back into it I want to send it back just a little bit just to catch the whole line but I've been doing it manually the whole time and your guys are just like use the keyboard shortcut I don't know and you guys explained it to me so I appreciate it wait no stolen was a complex figure he was a small uninspiring and sickly man who was somehow able to rule the largest country on earth simply by sheer brutality born to a devout and poor family in rural Georgia not that Georgia he never should have ruled but he did and just like figures in the 20th century like Hitler FDR and Churchill him being in his place at this time in history changed everything Stalin is always portrayed as kind of a brute kind of more of a simpleton than a lot of the people around him I don't know to what degree that is true I haven't read a lot of his writings though I'm sure there are a lot of them out there when I think of people I'd be interested in I don't usually think of Stalin I just understand how important he is when I think of Lenin and stuff I find him to be politically very interesting and complex and if you gave me a Lenin book and a Stalin book and it's like which one do you want to read I'd go for Lenin any day but maybe there's more to Stalin than I thought I don't know Churchill him being in his place at this time in history changed everything and the only way to truly know how different the world would be without Stalin is to take him out of it so that's why I have a scenario what if Stalin never came to power well before I can discuss that here's some historical context yes I love historical context click here and skip to the scenario no go ahead do it national stuff oversimplifying the first twenty-something years of his life little Stalin was born in Georgia under the Russian Empire living with his parents at a poor household his real name was a lot of people point out the fact that both Hitler and Stalin were technically out of like the mainland of the place that they would go on to govern they liked they were on the on the fringes of that they were they were they were part of something that was definitely connected to the place that they ended up running but they they were not born exactly in that place so that's actually really interesting wish for him to become a priest and he received a scholarship to go to the tilty spiritual seminary it was here where he began reading the controversial views of Karl Marx and ironically became an atheist at this point in his life in 1901 Stalin began running with a different crowd as an underground revolutionary Bolshevik movement bent on bringing down a corrupt autocracy and he was a badass - I believe I read a thing that he like robbed banks when he was younger or at least robbed a bank or something like that which is like that's some crazy badass stuff going on there I cannot deny I don't condone it but it does say something about a certain a certain bravery a certain willingness to take big risks or whatever I don't know it says something you know kid stuff after reading the works of Vladimir Lenin Stelling going to hop on board and quickly became comrades I'm so sorry with my hair himself the [ __ ] makes at this time work very underground so much so they pulled off bank heist to get money to fund their operations oh ok so so the bank rock I I'm glad that I brought that up not now that puts that in context I only read like Stalin robbed banks I thought he was doing it for fun or just for money but he's doing it to fund their revolutionary movement that that's a that's a big difference that I've already gotten out of this yeah and this is a an alternate history channel and it's already teaching me stuff and maybe this will be good for me Stalin really doesn't do anything except work for the cause for the next 17 years the Bolsheviks would slowly become prominent as anger and distrust rose against the Tsar's regime well it's that time of the century world war 1 and Russia is preparing to go kill some Germans and then they don't those brutal and pointless war leaves the Tsar in a pretty bad position with the people who are growing more Restless 1917 comes by and Lenin who has been in exile for years finally returns back to the motherland in there so Lenin he he was returned but who was it is it like the Germans that returned him to to Russia so that he could disrupt their government or whatever which first of all is completely insane how you could just send a person or a group of people and and like hey go disrupt their government and they do and they succeed I couldn't imagine that working today like who would you have to get and send to the United States to just completely disrupt the entire system you could like get all of Isis and put them in the middle of the United States and I don't know if they'd have as big of an impact as as Lenin does it's it's quite amazing how successful that was and that ends up causing them to pull out of World War one right revolution can begin yeah yes I know this is a vast oversimplification check out my Russian Revolution video if you want to brush up on that history Russia okay World War one and now the Russian Civil War has begun communist versus noia communist a versus night Batman versus Superman in the fighting men informed the Politburo which were the main central leaders for the future Soviet Union it was a small group but the only names you really need to remember or Lenin Stalin in Leon Trotsky Trotsky is one that I'm interested in I I know about like there was the thing with the photo and that does that was interesting but uh I guess he was like a big communist thinker and when I think about it I I would like to learn more about why he didn't ascend and Stalin did I understand that Stalin like kind of took him out of it or something of this sort I don't really know exactly what happened to him I know he was assassinated at some point but from what I know about him he seemed like a perfect fit to succeed Lenin but I guess I'm probably gonna learn that here Trotsky is the main guy we need to focus on yes so he is the obvious replacement okay because he was supposed to be okay he grew up in Odessa where he grew discontent with the Czar's regime its anti-semitic policies and hardship against the working class oh yeah I did know that that the the Russia at the time was extremely anti-semitic but let's be real who wasn't anti-semitic at the time that's not an excuse or anything it's just like it it's the thing you go to America and we still today have so many anti-semitic people there he wrote about his communist sympathies as a journalist and was arrested at the age of 18 this is actually where his pen name came to be Trotsky was named with his prison guard he fled to London where he met Vladimir Lenin and they edited a communist paper together he fell out with Lenin when they split in ideology revolutionaries in 1905 he went hardcore so to say going to literally fight bizarre after his return in st. Petersburg and joining the Soviet like fist fight him so they split that that's actually very interesting so I'd imagine they come back together correct I believe they end up working together like once things end though this is actually very interesting I don't I don't have as much to like provide here but I and I know that it's weird that I'm pausing so much but I I want to give you my thoughts as I'm slowly either figuring this out or getting off the rails because I think that's what makes this sort of content unique from the original and I don't want to just sit here and watch the original I want to share my thoughts with you a workers council in the city this revolution was put don't think Petersburg and joining the Soviet a workers council in the city this revolution was put down hard and Trotsky was arrested again but he was able to escape once again going on the run in exile for Trotsky he believed that communism should be universal he won a revolution that spanned across the world not just in Russia I've heard about this and this is like this is like one of the big communist things here like that it would not just stop stop in one country it would spread and I guess the Americans recognized that and that's why the containment policy is manifested in the way that they did because they knew it was subject to spread and it had a certain appeal to it if you just look at the rhetoric it would appeal to countries that are struggling when they become desperate they're they're more likely to turn to communism when you just think of all that it promises it didn't deliver her in most cases but I think there's bigger problems that also contributed to that one reason being that it became less about communism in itself and became very authoritarian and I guess to a certain degree it it just spawns authoritarian leaders because it doesn't have the same amount of checks that a lot of other countries have and I think that was one of the flaws and a lot of these revolutions because they they come up through these revolutions and they have to start by policing their own and a lot of it ends up getting pretty brutal because it's for the revolution or whatever then you're in power and its newfound powers fragile so it ends up leading to a lot of a lot of brutal leadership and that's just it's just a down side of a lot of countries that are spawned from revolution for the next decade Trotsky was in exile living from city to city writing his communist ideals becoming a celebrity of sorts he fought with Lenin and the Bolsheviks ideas who wanted a more centralized party while Trotsky wanted a looser and larger one once revolution erupted in 1917 Trotsky found his opportunity to return him and Lenin traveled back to Russia to lead the fight returning to Russia Trotsky and Lenin rebuilt their relationship and became allies because when everyone wants to kill you you kind of have to yeah so they still don't completely agree at this point okay one thing I just wanted to say as a side note I noticed I have some communists in the comment section lately I don't know what's attracting you to me am i putting off a vibe is it this thing I did you see this and you're like Oh comrade I don't know it is it's I've seen a few of you and I thought it stood out quite a lot you're welcome to be here I have no beef with you having a different economic ideology or whatever and I actually think it makes for much more interesting conversation in the comments especially with stuff like this I'd imagine I'm gonna be looking for some particular comments on this video because you guys are always so good at explaining stuff to me almost immediately supporters or anyone not wanting to communist state declared war against the new Bolshevik regime and the war had begun Trotsky was charismatic and they extreme idealist only reason I bring this up is because this is everything stolen is not trust me with his revolutionary zeal was put in charge of the Red Army the resulting war was horrific I know that a thing that's a thing with leaders a lot of the less charismatic leaders like if you can't lead them by inspiring them you lead them by brutally suppressing anyone who might impair your abilities to lead I didn't know where Stalin fell on the charisma meter I guess and then from the sound of it he was not very charismatic at all and when he mentioned his height that that was another thing that stood out to me cuz he was like 5'4 he was shorter than me really cuz he when you see him he looks so big cuz he's got like I guess he's got broad shoulders or something so it makes him look big but he seems like he was a short dude and that's another thing that a lot of uncharismatic leaders have in common a lot of them are short and it's it's like correlation doesn't equal causation but it is a tragic thing that happens with a lot of leaders who fail to inspire a lot of them are short atrocities occurred by both sides many ordered by Trotsky himself to destroy any opposition the communists were on the defense in many periods and defeat was always at the door they don't think for a second Trotsky was a pure angel of course with our viewing glasses I don't from century anyone seems better than stolen but still Trotsky was a fanatic extreme revolutionary well Stalin was brutal in securing his own personal control Trotsky would kill to maintain the dominance of the party sure so do you want the question is do you want somebody who is an honest idealistic person but also brutal or do you want somebody who is out for personal gain but is also very brutal I personally rather somebody who I at least believe is ideologically more inspired I'm not saying that Stalin didn't personally have that inspiration but it comes off the fact that if he did have personal inspiration his personal ambition seems to have gotten ahead of it but I'm not completely sure like I said I'm I'm kind of new to this for him what was Ruth Trotsky would kill to maintain the dominance of the party for him blood was required to secure the Soviet Union as the war deteriorated this blood was spilled more and more frequently to the opposition he was deemed a butcher after three years of war and revolution the Red Army finally won to a certain degree I give a little leeway to people during revolutions from when it comes to violence or whatever because that's kind of how revolutions work and you get especially brutal because you don't have the same built-in infrastructure that the that whatever the established power has and if the established power is oppressive and you don't have the means of taking them on through legal means then this is kind of what ends up happening so I give a little leeway I don't like condemn revolutionary movement immediately as evil in a sense though there are some that have done it for just the worst reasons I'd say that the modern revolutionary is most often going to be referred to by the the prevailing power as terrorists and their tactics will resemble what we think of as terrorists because that's how you take on a an established power it's not when when people look at people who like stockpile guns and think they're gonna fight the government and yeah often that does come off as silly but if you think they're if a revolution happened today that they're gonna just take them on and like fair combat you're out of your mind it's going to be through terror against the white millions in revolution the red army finally won against the white millions had died and starved to death the country wasn't ruined but the Soviet Union the first of its kind was secured Lenin was under bad health and now the talk of a successor had begun Trotsky to the world and Russia was always seen as the obvious choice he was the right hand of Lenin leader of the Red Army the face of the revolution Lenin is a huge what if story like what would have happened if he kept going and I think that's why he stands in such such gray area it's such a gray area when it comes to history a lot of people will condemn him for the same reasons they condemn any other communist revolutionary but it's not quite the same as Stalin there's a certain vitriol for Stalin that people have that they don't necessarily have for Lenin even if you dislike him most people recognize that they are two different kinds of bad if you think they're bad so he's like a huge what if what what would have happened if his health was good and I I think that's probably I I have no doubt that he's probably done a video about that topic or at least played with that sort of concept and he could probably make that the concept here instead of what if Saleh never came to power he if he did like what if Lenin never died that could be a great video in itself but I assume where he's gonna go with this one is more around Lenin dies and Trotsky takes over because that it seems to me what he's focusing so much on but in upset occurred instead Joseph Stalin power-hungry and at this time in the shadows and manipulated control to grow his support from within the party within a few years Stalin's grip on the USSR was absolutely secure and Trotsky was thrown out of the country he lived the rest of his life in Mexico whereas influence as a writer and glimmer of hope of what could have been became a threat to Stalin who ordered him assassinated in 1940 okay I was about to say he moved to Mexico I didn't know about that I knew he was assassinated I was thinking like if he's in Mexico how'd he get assassinated did did they come after it yeah they they came after him and if you think he wouldn't have been a threat to Stalin's power you you just got to look at Lenin like he was out of the picture and then he's back then he's back and then the revolution went down the way he did he was in exile they they'd gotten rid of him but they didn't get rid of him for good they oh there's only one way to get rid of somebody for good one year later Hitler would invade Russia for many trans is seen as an alternative which was one of the reasons why he was killed his full resulted in the rise of a dictator whose policies killed millions of his own people whose group hijack the Bolshevik Revolution into a cult of personality no different than Mussolini or Hitler who'd he ironically fight against so as is tradition what if in this alternate timeline Trotsky had replaced Lenin what if Stalin just never came to power in our timeline Lenin wrote that Stalin was power-hungry and should not become his successor yeah he like specifically didn't want that I don't know how I want to know a little bit more about what went on went on behind the scenes with Stalin and how he manipulated things into getting in that I know he like he had a pretty powerful position and he was in the position to like put people in you know put other people in positions of power like he gave people jobs or whatever I believe I heard that I think that was in an oversimplified video that I heard that one but I don't know the extent of how that worked but did he like put people in positions of power and then those people backed him up or it's it's interesting I would like to learn more Trotsky should have used this initiative to destroy Stalin's power base but instead he did nothing in this alternate timeline Trotsky seizes the opportunity it publishes Lenin's opinions that validate him and discredit stolen basically stopping that little power grab in its tracks if this doesn't work then some other alternate reason occurs boy Stone doesn't get into power I don't know we have a lot to cover point is stolen out Trotsky in wealth removing merkins such as myself love capitalism and barbecues and all that freedom entails many often won communism into a single ideology just like you wouldn't think Democrats and Republicans love each other just because they agree a democracy same thing with the Soviet Union but yeah that's one of the things like communists they get a bad rep because they're they've been put into like one box and I don't think that's necessary pher that we've not gotten like that real communist success story I'm not gonna rule out that it could potentially happen like one day some country adopts communism and it's amazing and then we all realize oh wait communism isn't the problem they were just doing it wrong the whole time I'm not gonna rule that out because it's a crazy world we live in and anything is possible but there are some communists that have different beliefs from others and I I think there's a million different ways to interpret the philosophy if you take Karl Marx's writings and you interpret them broadly there there are many directions you can go from what I can tell I've only read a little bit but I think it's there's definitely room for interpretation in any political fawcett philosophy that is so vast the difference between trial of each other just because they agree on democracy same thing with the Soviet Union the difference between Trotsky and Stalin is not just in Stalin ends up killing millions of people both had a different mindset on how to achieve communism and what it should play on the world Stalin had an idea called socialism in one country to someone all up everyone wants to kill us so why try to expand which wasn't particularly untrue considering how every European and Western power fund to the white army still don't believe that since socialist uprising is failed in Europe the best course of action was to not focus on a world revolution well that's interesting because he comes off as some like these strongman types and of seeming like the types I would want like imperialism and expansionism by day I guess I'd never thought of it like that that that's interesting failed in Europe the best course of action was to not focus on a world revolution but to maintain what they already have and where do they already have Stalin so keep me in power Trotsky and his followers who happen to follow Trotskyism well very much disagreed with this idea communism as an angle isn't supposed to have borders so this one country approach didn't go over too well there were more traditionalists believing in marks of Lenin's idea that workers all around the world will unite and global communism will be a natural thing and the thing with Lenin Trotsky and Stalin no one interpretation of communism is absolute you can go back to Karl Marx and be like yeah what he said is communism he was like the beginning or whatever mark you can go to Marx or angles or whatever but the fact is political philosophies are so fluid and they're supposed to develop and change with the times and the fact is just because they branched off doesn't mean that one is more pure than the other some may be more conservative or liberal when it comes to how they interpret the philosophy of Marx but the fact is that's just it it's just a product of how political philosophies develop capitalism has a very similar thing there's like unfettered capitalism but then there's a million different shades of gray and there are some compromises we make like we we don't think everything should be out of the hands of the government otherwise we wouldn't believe in government at all and in the United States if we didn't believe in government at all we would not be as as powerful as we are today as as secure as we have been generally having those those little things that we realize okay it might be good if the government were in charge of this or this or that most people understand that there are some places for that so it's it's a gray area it's just like that with communism and I think it's unfair to put people in a box like that Trotsky as a hardcore revolutionary believed the Soviets must fund socials uprisings across the world to make this happen in this alternate timeline the Soviet Union does not go down the path of Stalinism duh but instead goes down the path of Trotskyism what's this change a whole lot of course in a scenario not everything can be accurately predicted so every tenant of Trotskyism might not be followed maybe because of opposition or just it doesn't work that way well yeah with the European countries opposing them as much as they do I'd imagine Trotsky's philosophy would be very hard to execute and practice the Soviets ended up getting a whole bunch of influence over time in the in the 20th century but I don't know if they'd be able to be particularly aggressive with the whole thing and I don't know if he would have been able to maintain it the same way that Stalin did there if I don't know how well his philosophy is on cracking down on people to the degree that Stalin did because maybe if he doesn't crack down on dissidents the same way that Stalin did his power is not as secure I'm sure he's gonna try to explain it to me and I'm very excited to learn because I'm very into this video so far I've learned a good amount maybe because of my position or just it doesn't work that way but for the sake of the scenario let's say it does in our time when Stalinism brought the USSR immediately into an age of autocratic authoritarianism where paranoia and brutality reigned supreme just as the Nazis expelled and destroyed any opposition immediately a call of personalities circulated around Stalin purchase on an immense scale hunted down old Bolsheviks who had disagreed with him to extinction anyone and everyone who is a potential threat was either shot or sent to the gulags in this alternate timeline the Soviet Union is not one authoritarian centralized state it's not comparative to a republic like the US or Western Europe but it isn't the state of immense political death and under Stalin there was like a crazy amount of growth would with this with the it not being as brutal have slowed the growth of the Soviet Union which I I think might have actually been healthier for it I think growing a little too I can actually just like shock the system a little bit too much and I think if there is a successful communist nation out there if like one day they developed like the great communist nation I don't think it's going to happen overnight I think it's going to be slowly adopted and it's gonna have so many checks on it that will keep it from growing too quickly and maybe theoretically who knows that could work but it's also hard for me to say I'm playing armchair history-maker here I guess the phrase dictatorship of the proletariat didn't actually mean a dictatorship under Trotsky what is instead implemented is Soviet democracy in this alternate scenario the Soviet Union is made up of numerous democratically elected worker councils Soviets who would elect their own representatives to the larger Council of Soviets it's almost like a union of Soviets that's nods rad was meant by a dictatorship instead of nobles capitalists or priests making the decisions in Trotsky of mine the working class was the main body in charge what's wrong with that dad that's actually I would have been executed like this who knows once Trotsky's like in power and power is he going to forfeit this power to them in this way um it depends how true to his principles he wasn't I guess he never really got the opportunity to show that so who knows what would have happened but this is actually a very interesting thing and I've always thought if there was going to be a successful communist nation they would need to have plenty of input from the people the people would have to be cool with it and ready to convert their society to this sort of thing if you're forcing the people along and it's going to require a lot of the suppression that Stalin ended up using because Yuri you are just generally using force if you convince them ideologically you're playing a different ballgame there I can't really say the state would be effective working-class was the main body in church I can't really say if this state would be effective but that's what the original plan was supposed to be not one guy controls everything but the party does why would you say that doesn't sound completely terrible yeah but also keep in mind this is Trotsky we're talking about the believer that the revolution never ends the Soviet Union becomes the supplier of socialist rebellions across the world a good modern equivalent today is Saudi Arabia who story for another day the Soviet Union uses a strength to fund militant groups communist parties of socialists of all kinds across the world under Stalin the Soviet Union turned its back on these revolutionaries so this is like this is the interesting thing about communism in the 20th century it had like an imperialist thing to it but it was imperialist by fighting against other like Western imperialism which is very interesting as I've mentioned I've been getting into the whole cuban revolution thing and that's kind of what it is you get your influence with this country by helping them fight against the Western proxies that are running them and it's not a bad strategy politically it's a very modern way of doing imperialism in order to set up your sphere of influence across the world under Stalin the Soviet Union turned its back on these revolutionaries except for in Spain with the socialism in one country idea under Stalin the Soviet Union was only supposed to preserve itself or that we put Stalin when to preserve stone worth Trotsky as leader the USSR takes a more selfless approach for lack of better words the constant revolution must be achieved now whether they succeed in doing this in this alternate timeline is up to your opinion but what this realistically does is one makes the USSR far more tagging istic to the West than in our timeline when Stalin was focused on his people two drains a whole lot of USSR resources and three pisses off a lot of people yeah I think this is like closer to a World War three then we'd get the other way around it's interesting okay the US has the atom bomb in no matter no matter what scenario in this case the US has the atom bomb so it makes me wonder where the Soviet Union is on that at this point if they have it as well are we gonna just get another Cold War or are the Western powers going to end up triggering like a world war 3 thing and now so the Soviets are on the other side it's hard to say but if they are being more antagonistic towards the West it's a very good chance that they'll all get together and just try and take them down but also that's just speculation it's hard to say under Trotskyism USSR resources and 3 pisses off a lot of people under Trotskyism the USSR is a much more prominent antagonist in the 1930s oh so like how the Soviets created the Eastern Bloc in the Cold War II you say no this is an entirely different mentality that whole takeover post-world war ii Iron Curtain funding communist regimes in Asia wasn't for the noble idea of spreading us socialist utopia it was to create a buffer zone against Russia's enemies this mentality was born with Stalin in this alternate timeline Soviet foreign policy is extremely combative in zealous but doesn't prioritize Russia safety over others this was Lenin's main idea and with Trotsky it would continue and what better way for the workers of the world to unite than a global depression internationally by the time the 1930s come around the Soviets have a much stronger priority on the game so oh wait I got ahead of ourselves okay we're in the 1930s I lost track of time I thought we were a little later on for some reason I we haven't got into World War two of course but yeah that's I forgot when Lenin died I'd forgot that it was a little earlier yeah the depression is definitely going to get people looking at communism because it promises a lot and there's something appealing about it to regular workers who are struggling I've seen this thing about it's like a modern Russian factory town that ends up getting pretty much shut down and I think I was watching it with a history teacher and he was like you think these people are happy being free of communism at this point communism at least guaranteed a lot of them a job so it kind of shows how people in vulnerable situations are definitely more likely to be influenced by this sort of thing because it does have a big promise of equality or at least a general promise that you're going to be able to get work it in communist rebel in 1930s come around the Soviets have a much stronger priority on getting communist revolutions going against the capitalist West basically kicking it while it's down Trotsky never wanted to negotiate with the capitalist of course they didn't use all their resources to fund people but they certainly do more damage than Stalin did in our timeline Stalin was a paranoid nutcase he saw everyone and everything as a potential threat but what he most distrusted was the outside world and believed that the USSR would be annihilated by the capitalist powers if it didn't industrialize he believed that a war would occur at some point and that the USSR must move decades ahead technologically if it was to survive problem was most of Russia looked like this and Stalin kind of like put that on steroids so if it's going with the Trotsky thing they wouldn't be able to develop as quickly and therefore they wouldn't have gotten as advanced as it and then they probably wouldn't have gotten to the Nuka as quickly as they did and that was an important thing so the West would probably try to impose its will upon it a little bit more and if he's not willing to talk with them boom we got a war or maybe it'll manifest in some sort of like proxy war in the same way that uh like in like a Vietnam style thing and we'd probably get we'd probably still have wars like that but I don't know if the Communist sides would be as well-equipped so yeah this is this is putting things in very interesting context across the 1930s five-year plans reinvented Russian society it took a nation that a generation before wasn't practical feudalism and brought it into the 20th century kicking and screaming and by kicking and screaming I mean the most heartless policies that resulted in millions starving to death so what happens in this alternate timeline Hitler still rises to power in Germany the Nazis still had the idea of laban from and no matter who is in charge of Russia Germany still wants that land oh shoot Stalin kicked Hitler's ass I don't know if Trotsky can take him okay that's actually that's very interesting I don't know if Trotsky it is prepared for this this is actually a very interesting idea I thought okay they're gonna beat Hitler like that but no Stalin being in charge in Trotsky being in charge that's that's there their visions are completely different and that might even influence how they take on the war well in this alternate timeline those five-year plans still happen millions potentially still die because industrialization was trotsky's original idea oh okay okay that I did okay yeah that's fine that explains the thing a few but also another thing I was just thinking was it would this version of the Soviet Union well would this version of Russia be as chummy with the Allies III know they weren't chummy or whatever but like it wouldn't have worked out in the same way Russia they were involved I guess there was a level of self-preservation there and they could still have that possibly but I don't know what would they still get along that's another important question there's so many important questions here and it's all a big what-if so we're never gonna get the answers that's Dolan's stolen just stole that after he kicked Trotsky out okay that bad bad it answers a bunch of the questions that earlier don't listen area we could actually see an industrial Red Army just like in our timeline so then what's the main difference Stalin was an idiot he was such she could trust a regime who rose from the explicit hatred of communism before 1941 Hitler and Stalin had a bit of an alliance after invading raping and massacring the poles between them most Russians with common sense saw that Hitler couldn't be trusted in fact many people reported that the Nazis were preparing an invasion but Stalin did nothing Trotsky on the other hand saw the danger that Nazism true I forgot about that whole thing yeah they were they were allies for a second I don't from what I'm being told about Trotsky I don't think you would he would fall for that so yeah that that is a definitely a game-changer so maybe yeah just understanding this he would have jumped on the Allies side earlier maybe when he was more crucial and the Nazis would have gained a little less ground who knows Stalin did nothing Trotsky on the other hand saw the danger that Nazism truly was the intense anti-communist rhetoric the finally ideology the hey we're going to take your land thing in this alternate timeline I believe Trotsky would not have sat back and allowed the Nazis to dictate the war on their own turn in this alternate timeline it would be the USSR that would invade Nazi Germany no Trotsky although he was an intellectual and believed in a less authoritarian way of governing was still brutal he led the Red Army for a reason and if he was in charge Russia never would have sent back in but if he's not like the sole power he has to answer to a lot of people right so he might have a harder time executing any of his vision at this point because if you're giving up a degree of your power in favor of a slightly more democratic society then that's kind of one of the sacrifices you end up making this is assuming that Trotsky has the power and the just the general pull to make that big of a difference but who knows he might it's hard to say and I'm going to keep that it's hard to say cuz that's kind of all that it comes back to when it comes to these videos this scenario instead of the Nazis quote surprise attack on Russia the Soviet Union invades Poland and Germany the specifics of such a war I can't really predict but without the stupidity of Stalin at the top a Soviet Red Army it's a far more effective and terrifying tool against the Germans however they could be too effective the Soviet Union could establish a series of communist regimes just like in our timeline but across Germany instead from the perspective of yahwah is under Trotsky the Soviet Union has funded international communist rebellions against countries like France Britain and America they are the closest to enemies you can get while Nazi Germany was certainly horrible this communist nation which nobody is allies with has invaded and spread their ideology across the entire European continent he's he going for like though the Allies end up a lying themselves with Nazi Germany is that where we're about to go here because that's kind of insane it's a weird thing to think about and I understand how he's coming to that conclusion but I couldn't it's it goes against everything I understand about Nazis Nazis invade and we were are against them that seems to be the thing that Western countries tend to emphasize but then here we go here we're going here what would you do whoa in our timeline Churchill wanted to fight the Soviets even after World War two so in this alternate timeline the West probably wouldn't be all hunky-dory about trotsky's Red Army plowing through Germany in this alternate scenario fascism while it was bad live too short of a life to be a massive threat in comparison while communism was a decades-old enemy we could see an actual world war two but between the Soviet Union and the west one if the Russians invaded Germany they would push a very large Nazi halation underground the fears of the Nazis and the far-right would be legitimized and without the war crimes and horrors of the Holocaust fascism is never discredited but instead is martyred - and Hitler wouldn't be Hitler anymore Oh God and my bird just pooped okay I'll clean that in a minute we're almost done anyway dude there's always the question like who was Hitler before Hitler it was Napoleon right hmm maybe it's not quite the same but who would be Hitler if Hitler wasn't Hitler who was the guy who you'd evoke if if you're in an argument and you're out of things to say what are you gonna compare them to Hitler no Hitler Hitler isn't Hitler in this timeline who's Hitler it's hard to say would he be Trotsky I don't know it's it's always an interesting thing to think about who would be Hitler if Hitler wasn't Hitler and who was Hitler before Hitler and who's the most Hitler II Hitler since Hitler Britain France the United States Italy and underground anti-communist movements across Europe fight a war against the Soviets I can't predict how long this war would be or how many would be killed by it when you have to relax everyone is fighting the Russians perhaps Russia is pushed out of Europe perhaps the West decides to overthrow the source of international communism this means another land war against Russia by instead of the Nazis its Brits French Germans and Americans all fighting together in this alternate timeline fascism is never killed by Sheila's MA legitimize an often popular alternative in Western society yeah or never occurs because it already got hot the political relationships of post-world War two are entirely changed in ways I can't even predict Trotsky was not a saint he was like stolen in many ways no cold war like World War two will settle what would become the Cold War that that is an interesting timeline but they don't discredit fascism mm-hmm but he was also less authoritarian and more idealistic had he been in power he would have been a hero to many and most likely one of the most hated men in history millions still would die of hunger under his regime but none of millions from a war he could start what the scenario shows is that without Trotsky the 20th century entirely changes the ground I shed modern culture all from one guy 80 years ago getting booted out of his job this is just one scenario about what if Stalin never came to power we'll never truly know how things could have changed yeah it's fun to theorize what do you think could have happened in this alternate timeline say in the comments mrs. Cody altering history of spit thanks Cody I really appreciate it you're really awesome your videos are some of my favorite and at first I wasn't sure about the alternate history thing because it's like oh this is historical fiction this is like historical fanfiction but it's very interesting because it takes a lot of three-dimensional thinking you've got to take so many things into account and it actually challenges your mind to consider how complicated a scenario is so I think I've grown a great amount of respect for this alternate history stuff and I I i was always discouraged from like the what-ifs by my professors and stuff because they they'll say historians are not supposed to speculate what happened is what happened if you want to explain that that's fine but if we're speculating we're getting out of history or we're not in history anymore we're wearing something else and I think that's perfectly legitimate but I also fully recognize how valuable this can be as a thinking exercise so thank you for that and thank you to all of you who took the time and stuck around this long into the video because I don't know how long it's gone but I'm sure it's been incredibly long and it's not even something that I'm all that good at yet but it's been a great learning experience and I would love to do more if you guys have anything else you think I should check out leave it in the comment section below as always like this video if you liked it subscribe and that's about it thanks that that was fun that's fun and I'll see you guys next time bye

Channel: Social Stud

Views: 9,811

Keywords: Historian, Reaction, History, React, Historian Reacts, American History, American Revolution, Early American Republic, Graduate Student, bird, green cheek conure, conure, communism, trotsky, lenin, vladimir lenin, russia, russian revolution, joseph stalin, death of stalin, stalin never came to power, alternate history, russian history, cold war, world war 2, wwii, world war 1, wwi, france, germany, america

Id: Uwr2KFF5UT4

Length: 50min 55sec (3055 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 04 2020