What if the Bolshevik Revolution had failed? – Episode 6 of Almost History out now

Sixth episode of new ‘What If?’ podcast from All About History available now – Subscribe today on your preferred podcast player

In 1917 Russia experienced not one, but two revolutions. The first came in March and the Tsarist autocracy, which had been ruling the nation for nearly 370 years, was toppled and the advisory council called the Duma took over. But a few months later, radical revolutionaries led by Vladimir Lenin, known as the Bolsheviks, took over the capital and toppled the fledgling government. It was a seismic shift of power and politics in the midst of the Great War than immediately resulted in Civil War and would have a profound impact on world history for the next 70 years.

But, what if this already unlikely band of communist revolutionaries had failed in their bid to capture Petrograd in November 1917? What if they had been crushed by their united opposition during the brutal Civil War that dragged on into 1922? And were there any international powers who might have chosen to intervene?

We wanted to delve into all of these questions, so the All About History team spoke with historian Professor Jonathan Daly, Associate Chair of the Department of History at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-author of Seven Myths of the Russian Revolution. You can listen to our conversation now in episode 6 of Almost History: The What If Podcast from All About History.

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