What if Trotsky Came To Power Instead Of Stalin? (Ft: Cypher the Cynical Historian) 

Dear AlternateHistoryHub, Do you ever look at history and how it turned out, and figure that there really is a God?

I have a question: What if the Second Balkan War never happened because, I don't know, Bulgaria takes a few parts of Macedonia? I feel that that might make WW1 end differently because Bulgaria would probably join the Entente at some point during the war. Would this change the outcome of WW1? Would it be similar to what would happen if Teddy Roosevelt became president in 1912?

What if South Africa kept its nuclear weapons program?

Hello Cody, I sincerely enjoy watching your videos and content and was wondering if you could perhaps dedicate a video towards the question of "What if Britain and the United States accepted Himmler's peace negotiations to help the Germans fight the Soviets?". I know Hitler and some of his still faithful supporters weren't aware and I think it would be interesting to see how the whole situation would turn out. I hope the question doesn't come off as idiotic as I did not do too much research into the peace talks, but I think it would still be interesting nonetheless. Thank you and keep making awesome content for everyone to enjoy!

Honestly I don’t like the last part. Until 1933 Germany didn’t have the N. in control. They would remain a democracy. Then if Trotsky helped the communists in Germany either they would take over and become an ally, or trigger a civil war. Then the western powers would likely work together against him like you said. Then there is the fact of the Great Depression, and that could spur communism in the west. Lastly, France had many socialist supporters, and Trotsky also could’ve demanded they trigger a civil war. This is very great tho, 10/10

So dumb... I LOVE IT!

"The world may never know if Stalin's paranoia was targeting the right people, or whether he made more enemies trying to exterminate every Trotsykist in the Party. What is known is that what he feared eventually came to pass. Today, Leon Trotsky reemerged as having returned from his exile, and with the support of several influential party members and NKVD officers, launched a coup overthrowing Stalin's rule. The former General Secretary was attacked in his home with an ice axe, and was swiftly executed along with several of his supporters. Tearing down the cult of personality he built up will take time, but the people know now at least that he was not immortal." - HOI4

😂

lol

That’s gold 😂

As a leftist, trust me when I say that all leftists annoy other leftists

Maria G as another Leftist, the anarchist kind, I can confirm

@@Maria29G No wonder Franco won the Spanish Civil War.

To be fair, all leftists are annoying to all other leftists. Have you ever met a leftist?

And the leftists are so obnoxious that they tried to each other alive.

I doubt that, Trotsky was a military leader and history has a tendency to fetishize military leaders. Stalin being a complete bungler, really hurts him in history.

@@Edax_Royeaux That's true, but you could also make the case that Hitler was a military leader, and I don't see many people fetishizing him.

@@Edax_Royeaux Funnily enough, Nazi Germany's military was so effective directly *because* Hitler didn’t touch it. Most of the officers of WW1 weren’t purged, with promotions and medals still being based on competence. The problem was that having all political power consolidated into one man is a double-edged sword. While Hitler could promote skilled leaders at a record pace and make risky moves, it also meant that commanders would over-promise and grovel to Hitler for resources. Not to mention the fact that because France fell so quickly (a war that Hitler himself thought would cost over a million German lives), it made Hitler feel invincible and caused him to overextend his military until it broke.

@@morningwoody4514 Hitler was Supreme Commander of the German Army. During the Battle of Stalingrad (before the encirclement), he sacked General Halder and Field Marshal List and took direct command of Army Group A in the Caucasus. And at least according to TIK, he wasn't terrible as Commander of Army Group A, because he was capable of thinking on a grand strategic level while his generals had tunnel vision. Even though Hitler could see the impending disaster at Stalingrad coming, there wasn't many forces left he could put in it's way to try and stop it. Also Hitler being Supreme Commander of the German Army and Commander of Army Group A created a weird chain of command structure loop

@@Edax_Royeaux It shows that the German military was most effective when he provided a general overview and allowed the military to do its thing, but once he because overly involved in military matters things got worse. But Germany was bound to loose, and there was nothing Hitler could do about that.

Scrolled all the way down here to see a comment appreciating it as much as I did 😄

Swastica ? You confused hold east asian symbols with hammers and sickles.

Aren't those the same thing?

@@johnathangaminj8200 The difference is one of them has incorporated females into their regime, and the other one never had the chance

@@johnathangaminj8200 Yes, you’re right, my apologies

For some reason I read this in the voice of Slavoj Zizek

@@HiromiyamotoDesuDesu *nose touching intensifies*

@@HiromiyamotoDesuDesu PAH-URE IDEOLOGY

@@oracle8192 *sniff*

That was not about Trotsky, that was about Dzierżynski.

Sounds like he'd be right at home on twitter... Just saying.

So, like AOC?

@@lewisvargrson Look no more than 18:27 😂

Oh no indeed

@@willblack7353 aoc bad bottom text

My guess is that had Trotsky wound up at the top of the heap instead of Stalin, it would have resulted in the failure of Communism any number of times. Trotsky simply lacked the political skills and iron determination to drive the Communist agenda with the talent and energy Stalin brought to it. Just as a possible scenario--- Trotsky was HOT to collectivize the land ---to take it away from the control of the peasantry who had grabbed it during THEIR revolution. Lenin took a shot at doing that. He failed and adopted the NEP. I can see Trotsky doing what Lenin did, and driving the USSR and Communism over the cliff when the peasantry revolted effectively. Trotsky was always hot to collectivize the land, while Stalin patiently accumulated the power to WAGE WAR effectively on the peasantry when the time came. So again I would expect Trotsky to have gone off prematurely, causing a rebellion he couldn't contain. Stalin DID begin his campaign to collectivize the land, right after getting rid of Trotsky! At that time he has the political means to wage WAR effectively against the peasants who constituted most of the population of Russia. He killed off MILLIONS in getting what he wanted. Trotsky was as brutal as Lenin or Stalin, but I don't think he would have had the political talent to carry that off. Just my guess and bias, of course. But while Stalin was successfully waging war on the peasantry, stealing their assets and collectivizing the land, Trotsky was first kicked out of the Communist Party, then forced into internal exile, then kicked out of the Soviet Union altogether. That's the measure of the difference between Stalin and Trotsky, in my opinion.

being devoted to spreading communism as opposed to just advancing soviet interests is a good thing though. Stalin was such a controversial figure the USSR underwent an entire period of de-Stalinisation after he died. He was then replaced by increasingly liberal leaders who culminated in Gorbachyov & the destruction of the soviet union from the inside-out. I think it would have played out a lot differently if Trotsky did a good job of promoting communism, something that Stalin failed at.

@@SeattlePioneeractually, by that logic, Trotsky would probably end the Bolshevik rule, prematurely freeing Russia

Interesting speculation. I would suppose that Trotski would have failed to be willing to kill millions of Russians and Ukraineans in order to steal grain produced by peasants to selll on the world market to finance USSR's industrialization. That would have meant that USSR would only had a part of the industrialization needed to arms millions of Red Army soldiers with T34 tanks and aircraft to defeat Hitler. And he would not have flogged and terrorized a winning effort out of Red army commanders and soldiers, and thus the USSR would have been defeated by Germany. So PERHAPS the people of the USSR would not have been as enslaved by Stalin, and instead would have been enslaved when USSR was defeated by Germany in WWII. Stalin's main way of justifying all his murder and terror was the defeat of Germany. That really only happened BECAUSE of Stalin's murder and terror. So your suggestion that Trotsky would not have been as murderous as Stalin also suggests that USSR% would not have had the margin of power needed to defeat Hitler ---and even at that it was a very near thing early in Germany's invasion.

I would be suprised if the soviet union still exists in the 50s, at least in Europe

Speaking of Bukharin, another aspect I'm curious about is to what degree the Old Bolshiveks would have had Stalin not kill them off. I feel Trotsky would've kept them around to support his legitimacy, and in doing so, might have kept enough "carefully curated opposition" to help keep memory of the revolution alive... whereas Stalin basically killed everyone off who wasn't constantly loyal to him personally and therefore upon Stalin's death the USSR was basically drifting with a system that doesn't develop a system of leadership willing to take chances. Would the USSR still be around today had the Old Bolshiveks been left around to in turn keep that revolutionary zeal alive?

Remilia elected as Chairwoman of the State Soviet

Bukharin didnt get a funny death

Strange as it might sound, as far as the West is concerned at least, I think the reason might be George Orwell. For a long time, Orwell has been capitalism’s favorite anti-communist shill, and his perceptions of Soviet politics have become the *only* perceptions of Soviet politics for a lot of westerners who don’t study the subject with any interest. But while he might have been an irritating reactionary gnat, Orwell was a strange sort of Trotsky proponent. You see it over and over again, in his two most subsidized works especially. Snowball and Goldstein. Apart from Trotsky’s own writings, the idea that Trotsky was just a few years away from achieving “real socialism” really starts in most people when they read Animal Farm. None of it is true, of course. Trotsky was a political fool whose ideology was riddled with petty bourgeois revision. But the idea has gotten there none the less.

​@@seronymusWho was Remilia?

Lol

Nailed it.

That’s kinda true tho, Britain was supposed to become communist, not a pre industrial nation with less resources like Russia. And the soviets weren’t really following the whole Marxist theory because they really couldn’t. You could say it’s like in capitalism you have rotten countries like the Latin America and US and more balanced and fair countries like the nordics, Europe, etc. If the whole world was like Germany or Norway I don’t think many people would oppose capitalism so much, the same way, if Britain had developed communism in the vein of Marxist theory I don’t think it would have been as bad as it was

@@MacetazzOpina You aren‘t levying the criticism Trotsky did

@@n.m.8802 well we have a political party that flip flopped between centrism and socialism so it's not that strange.

I don’t get it

@@Cadu_Ferreira The joke is that people that did nothing get 5 years in the gulag, the man got 10, meaning he did something

Wow you are a comedy genius

@@mycrobyte6063 I think he gets the joke but is adding his own humorous layer. As perhaps are you.

It's funny because it's true!

U kidding right!!!!! Uker famine holocaust in 30s was caused by zion komissars...lenin jew, marx jew, trotski jew...kommies were jews

Hey, do you happen to have a source on the Trotsky turning down that position thing? Not doubting you but I'm doing a pet-project related to Soviet History and I wanted to know where you heard that he declined the position. Thanks!

@@quack6292 Sorry for the late reply: Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan. He's a journalist, not a prof, but he does do a HUGE amount of research and keeps a relatively neutral position as he goes through Russian History, Marxism, etc. He's also a good source for French, Haitian, American, and Mexican revolutions and the English Civil Wars.

@@BlueRockBill Sorry for my late reply lol, Thank you very much! This should be very helpful to me

National socialism and fascism are not the same.

Everything Snowball wanted to do Napoleon did so the results would've stayed the same.

@@mysteryjunkie9808 umm, no.

@@mysteryjunkie9808 No, not really lol

snowball was a fucking revisionist and you know it

@@darjeelingoffthegourd not as bad as Napoleon, he was just a pig... Sorry

Huh, you are here too

Is it wrong that I read that in lemongrabs voice?

Joshua Saffy saaame lol

You here too????? We’re are you coming from?

Joshua Saffy no

Fascism is not a threat to the bourgeoisie; on the contrary, it is salvation. Fascism was formed as a reaction to communist sentiments in the country, as a terrorist agony in an attempt to preserve the bourgeois system.

That's part of how the US's current fascist party came into power

@@ratelarmonter4736 Communism is not seen as a threat to the bourgeoisie either. Those are the ones funding it. Communism is a threat to the middle and working class. To those with enough money to be hated, but not enough to be safe and to those who have no means of resisting tyranny.

@@therainbowconnection6813 lol. Tell me you're joking, because if you are then that's a good one.

@@user-yj3ti9rg7n Explain.

spaaAAACE

REEEEE

Red Alert ?

@@pitipuziko3555 realistically no as anime would be near unrecognisable or never exist.

Wrong the people elected Stalin , Lenin didnt chose heirs in USSR people elected their leaders.

I see you're a man of culture

Thats too simplified

@@riccards You could even say it's Oversimplified

@@oswald7597 Roll the credits

nice oversimplified reference

But the hair

He made good chicken though.

Mario vs Colonel Sanders

Kfc man >>>> stalin mustache

It didn't stop Lenin. If Trotsky had ultimate authority he would have used it.

You are supposing that Trotsky WAS NOT A BOLSHEVIK? There is PLENTY of evidence that he was ----and none that he was not. Shucks ---even soft hearted Stalin gave Trotsky opportunities to LIVE after being expelled from the party. Stalin never made THAT mistake again!

i rembered that

I remember when the What if l Persia defeated Greece video came out

Zoomer Imperator that was 2017. I’m talking about the 2013 era.

Same

@Zoomer Imperator I'm pretty sure he still does it. The timing is just erratic.

“This is a classic!”

New fans: What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new,

Communism spreads beyond Russia, as well as becoming the aggresser in what would become WW2. And so after the Soviets are defeated, the Nazis and America enter into a Cold War. Which would ALSO mean, that instead of "The Nazis Were Right!" and "Neo Nazis" being in America, there would be far left "The Soviets Were Right!" and "Neo Soviets" would be in America.

Hunter V and instead the left jeers and points at everything remotely right wing and calls it Nazi propaganda

@@hunterv9983 nah, even If the Nazis won (which No, but let's ignore that), they would still lose

"I understood that reference"

Communism in a nutshell

Considering the alternatives: *Romanticizing Stalin* Yeah I can understand the blind hope.

Useless fact Stalin very rarely took a bath of course everyone was too scared to say something

@Spartan 506 and the fact he killed 20milion people

@Spartan 506 ? Stalin was estimated to have killed 20 million

@Spartan 506 tankie detected

Japan already had China and most of Asia pretty well flatten by then (2nd Sino war).

Excuse his lack of knowledge in sure he thinks Japan was an allied 😁😁

@@mommat794 a perfect vehicle to export the revolution across

@@maxwellli7057 look up William Blum on the internet archive.

Uh.... the CCP was waging its revolution since the mid 1920s

Then we'd bemoan the failure of Stalin to take over

I was thinking maybe it was some sort of "fool-the-algorithm" thing, a bit like the RU-vid Party replacing the Nazis in all these videos...

My family still thinks Orson Welles is the English socialist and George Orwell did the broadcast about aliens.

@@Doctor_Robert nope, just a slip of the tongue that neither Cody or I caught, LOL

@@CynicalHistorian lol, awesome. (Could've entirely fooled me)

In an alternative timeline where citizen Kane ran an animal farm in 1984 called Insoc

Based

Fuck he really did not think that one through

@@ItsButterBean1020 Mexican Ice Picks! Come get your Mexican Ice Picks!

He wasn't a military genius lmao, he was good at organizing and modernize the Red Army. He wasn't a strategist at all. The best thing he did was getting former Officers into the Red Army so it's a professional army instead of a Revolutionary.

Then, since Lenin wiuld be in, Stalin would be out, so he would become Stalout and maybe be related to Stallone.

@Jonathan Williams Search up Lenin's : Peaceful Coexistence It would have been the opposite

Churchill wrote that 'Russia's greatest misfortune was Lenin's birth. It's second greatest misfortune was his untimely death' Even an arch imperialist and capitalist like Churchill could see that the Soviet Union was ultimately a humanist ideology. He found it easy to be an ally of the Soviet Union because he argued 'Whilst Nazism can only get worse, Bolshevism can only get better' When your ideological opponents respect and agree with you, you know you are doing something right.

@@PORRRIDGE_GUN man fuck I wish Lenin didn't die

Lenin would’ve accidentally been killed and Trotsky would’ve disappeared. Stalin would then reluctantly take power and eat all the grain.

For a handshake?

Targi Svear Centracide

@@randomuser5443 I mean, Cody was criticising people who would take fascists side just because communist attack them by calling them "basically centrist" so Cody isn't being nice to them, unless Jreg would centracide at the mention of them at all... would he?

@@Targisvear I think we both know the answer

@@JohnSmith-gz4fs So like "Meet the Parents" it is: "You said centrism on an airplane" "I said I didn't like centrism" "You said centrism on an airplane".

You’ve never seen The Magnificent Burmese Ambersons?

He was best known for the (largely fictional) panic aroused by his (actual) broadcast of a radio play based on War of the Worlds in 1938. But apparently this guy just had a brain fart when he said Orson Welles instead of George Orwell.

@@bradfordhatch5085 To be honest their names are quite similar.

@@JonatasAdoM Oh, I know that; that's probably how the brain fart (or Freudian slip if you prefer the actual technical name) came about in the first place. I wasn't *dissing* the man, if that's what you thought. We *all* make such slips; God knows I've made my share. That doesn't mean the guy was dumb or anything. If anything the smarter and more educated you are the more likely you are to make such slips! Hence the common trope of the absent-minded professor. :-)

@@bradfordhatch5085 If I had a nickel for the times I've messed up Will Farrell and Pharell Williams...

(Not making fun of you) It's been like that for a while, specifically since RU-vid's been flagging and censoring WWII videos.

Remember the the left for their sins and vote come Nov

Königstiger what?

I don't think Qannon is healthy for you. Don't listen

Yeah I do remember that now, he made a whole video. I feel like an idiot.

Yeah but Mao ended up doing Lysenkoism which was done by Stalin's apprentice tho.

Not only Trotsky but Lenin too.

USSR anthem: 1922 overture

Well sh

So Stalin was tame in comparison???

@@laurocoman As terrifying as it sounds I guess so

The same goes for Lenin himself. Simon Sebag Montefiore describes a scene in his biography of the young Stalin (until 1917, that is - he wrote about Stalin's later life and rule extensively earlier), in which Lenin, in an argument during a pre-revolution communist congress, began to call for the immediate exectuion of everyone who didn't agree with him. It was Stalin who told Lenin to calm the hell down and stop being so ridiculous.

@@Depipro is there any communist who wasn't bat-shit insane?

He also under-estimated the spinelessness and bravery of potential allies in the party.

He was also an inconsistent and undecided leftist who had bad strategies and couldn’t make up his mind. Lenin called him a political slut in the newspapers, to make sure that he wouldn’t replace him.

@@thomasprat7760 Whom are u referrıng to?

@@JakobMusick Trotsky. He played a crucial role in the October revolution and in the civil war, but then his ideas were constantly changing and he wasn’t consistent. Then he fled in 1928-29 and started advocating for a US military coup in the SU.

@@thomasprat7760 Stalins were also changing throughout the years. Stalin was the ultimate opportunist. It was charecteristic of State Socialism for the 'party line' to change. These people were forging absolutely new paths. Their ideas changed as the conditions changed, and their prospects of being in or out of power also changed

"Snowball... That's right. Snowball Frozen Peas. Full of country goodness and green peaness."

I heard that and thought did I hear that right? Maybe that’s the same world where the president was Ronald Reagan, the First Lady was Jane wyman, and the Vice President was Jerry Lewis

Orwell WAS a radio host. For the BBC. He did anti communist propaganda. Look it up. His work as a broadcaster for the BBC is what gave him the details for the offices and rooms in the Ministry of Truth.

Citizen Smith (that's probably only going to work for UK readers).

@@NoahBodze and Wells was a writer. He co-wrote Citizen Kane.

Yes, he did.

Orson Welles wrote Animal Farm in the timeline where Trotsky got to power

I was so confused....

At least it wasn't me having a brain fart. I'm getting old and thought I was having a senior moment, or maybe there was a glitch in the matrix.

Cypher, to me, can be a bit of a know-it-all pompous twat, so I find this especially funny.

Where

@@antilinkpartyleader3239 The fact that you didn't notice makes it even funnier

@@CassDaMan1138 I was at 4 minutes while reading comments and I noticed it

always has been

@@antilinkpartyleader3239 14:12

“Blow up the moon to empower black minorities”

Yeah we leftists don't like trots

@@comissar8953 I can't think of a strain that LIKES trots. from anarchist, to Marxist-Leninist from Council comminists and syndicalists to Third world Maoists and Bordgists. Is there any actual kind of leftist that likes Trots?

@@bouddicathesleepinglioness3148 maybe leftcoms but idk , he has Trotskyists

@@bouddicathesleepinglioness3148 there is a kind of meme Trotskyism , posadism believes in permanent Revolution and nuclear war and aliens lol

I tried being a nice Stalin and not purge anyone in one of my Russia runs, but then Trotsky attacked.

@@sevret313 Everything changed when... Never mind

I always do a Trotsky run, I like the stage a coup buffs

RIP Sequelitis

I wish I understood, alas I know nothing of history and only watch these because me likey the voice

@@creshiell The picture was used on an old video of his on Trotsky, but it's not Trotsky there. I forgot what the guy's name was.

@@dakkarnemo1094 that's amazing LMFAO thank you

@@dakkarnemo1094 Yeah, IIRC, it was Mikhail Kalinin

Russian civil war uniform goes brrrrrrrrr

he just needs some telogreika and then our lives would be complete

@@awkwardbound569 And Sapogi. Don't forget the Sapogi

@@historyarmyproductions Also the gimnasterka

probs because welles is similar to orwell

I guess they would be Cosmonauts in this case.

Братан, ты запостил скукожиться

😆😆😆🤮

AL S, Not if Stalin died before being able to gain power. That’s another possibility. Perhaps Trotsky only gained power because Stalin wasn’t around to take it

@@GargamelGold Comrade I think you need to talk to these nice men with guns. They will show you how Stalin would always have been around. Good point though.

*"reluctantly"*

Two self-inflicted gunshots in the back of Trotsky's head, Stalin had no choice but to step up

I'm still not sure if it was a joke, or an oversight on Cypher's part. Either way, Citizen Kane but it's Animal Farm. Talk about a confusing crossover.

Marxist Leninists are not Leninists but Stalinists.

@@MasterAdam100 depends on who you arguing

@@MasterAdam100 that's dumb

Not all ML's are the Stalinist types, the stalinists are usually teenagers and just really loud(they post and reply a lot).

@@theblackestvoid I know 40 year old MLs which support Stalin and can be considered stalinists

What a stupidly pointless and irrelevant detail, definitely Trotsky

It's not so much that the western dates are wrong, but that Russia used a different calendar. For example, in the old Russian calendar, the taking of the Winter Palace was in October 1917, but by the western calendar it was already November. LOTS of quotes give the dates in the original Russian calendar.

@@fanaticaltechpriest1002 Very relevant given that the topic was Russia's relationship with modernity. Moron.

It's because Russia still used the Julian calendar and it's date differs by a week or so.

@@thaneofwhiterun3562 - By some 13 days.

this pun makes you deserve 10 million years in G.U.L.A.G.

It's not original, I saw it in another video

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

@@omar_xxnader9246 cuz its *OUR* comment

The Red Death

The worst adjective Lenin stated on the big three: Stalin - Authoritarian Trotsky - Political Slut Bukharin - Young and unprepared

So it was Lenin's essentially roasting the Bolsheviks from his deathbed...

Yes but he later sent a second letter calling for the removal of Stalin. Although the letter did come from Lenin's wife who was an active party member and was vocally against Stalin so who knows the authenticity.

Nice one mate

Xiaoping wasn't a socialist

Deng was probably a communist in the 20s through 40s, but by the time of Mao's death he was arguably one of the most right-leaning leaders in China. Most of Deng's supporters today fits pretty well into the stereotypical US Republican voter image, although more socially conservative (you hear me right) and favor slightly more government intervention.

@@lukexu6400 So a stereotypical US Democrat. I see.

@@orrorsaness5942 weak

when you're a radical leftist like me, you'd know that they were authoritarian social democrats who can't be brought to actually practice communism.

@@JohnDoe-mp1yn Same enemies to me.

@@susangoaway social democrats are plugging the holes of capitalism, so you better pray they get shit done. you will never be a billionaire and capitalists will always be private dictators.

What world superpower across history isn't? Cause we all know US imperialism isn't fanatical at all. "they hate us because of our fReEdOm" *US proceeds to bomb another children's hospital*... Yep, that must be it.

@@JohnDoe-mp1yn Social democrats are the ones creating these holes in capitalism turning it into cronyism. They are the last ones I'd trust.

He didn't even direct the film. It was John Stephenson, 14 years after Welles died...

@@fikanera838 I think the bigger issue is that Orson Welles had nothing to do with it.

In his defense, I know many people who get then confused (myself included, I also throw in H. G. Wells because reasons).

He did that to avoid demonetization.

@@JohnSmith-wx9wj ...how does that work exactly?

May the comments be stained red with blood and communism.

Maybe they'll cancel each other out.

Adelante, Compañeros!

*munches popcorn in anarchist*

What if the Second Great Depression actually happens?

Why

@@europadefender simplified, Woodrow Wilson kept the US neutral, which lead to WWI lasting longer, and the Germans sending Lenin back to Russia, who later lead a revolution against the Russian Republic, which lead the Soviet Union. Also he created Wilsonism, which basically means that America should intervene in other countries to make it safe for democracy

@@gamebawesome Wilsonianism is just a fancy way of saying imperialism with democracy sprinkled in. At least Teddy was honest about it

@@samuelwithers2221 aT lEaSt

@@NathanDudani Relax, not defending Teddy, but he didn't even beat the bush about it

Is it given you some profit? Trotsky just gives faster wargoals and you have to trade best generals and ministers for Him...

I do like playing with Permanent Revolution + NKVD Primacy to turn Europe communist without firing a shot. Slower wargoals are annoying, but I’m not a fan of world conquest anyways. Once I kill the Axis as USSR, it gets pretty boring.

@@mangoshi1251 same I usually just win ww2 conquer some time countries around me and give up

@@mangoshi1251 im doing that with road to 56, you should challange japan and the usa, and this comment was 2 months ago so idk if you done it, and also build up the nuke piles.

well, the New Soviet DLC comes out sooner, and good luck..

avery, my hero

Hahahaaha ice pick go brrrr

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT

@@chuckleshelicopterwigwamjo7315 HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY YAAAAAA

Avery go away

Except for the Baltic states who were outright conquered and were made as full states in the Union.

Eastern Europe was basically a Meat Shield

Cody did mentioned that in the first video he did on What if Stalin never rose to power? I'm disappointed that he didn't put that fact here.

@@nickrustyson8124 yeah, just like us europeans were to america. With the difference being that USA also have 2 oceans

@@MyName-lq7rv And also to have a bigger coast on the baltics i belive?

The correct take

I don’t think the Soviets would take control of the world. More like Cody’s take on the Nazis: eventually civil conflicts bog down the empire, and US/Canada/Australia become fighting forces to eventually take it down....and just like in the IRL USSR their inevitable undoing will be their own system and lack of innovation to keep up with the West while maintaining such a vast empire. Making it larger doesn’t change the fact that a socialist empire fighting a capitalist one in innovation will never win. In fact it exasperates a lot of the issues it had being bogged down in massive bureaucracy and mismanagement. ...or everyone just dies in nuclear hellfire and no one wins. Don’t see a scenario where the Soviets take over the world. But yeah, probably the majority of it (Europe and most of Asia).

@@jpusar The thing is that with Trotsky, the ideology of the USSR is changed completely (you know, party separated from economics) and more union power, and less command economics, therefore there's more room for improvement (the USSR actually didnt lack improvement and innovation, it lacked consumer products and individual people)

Most purged officers were not shot. Many were in fact reinstated. Do 3 of 5 marshals were shot.

​ @hypppo Yes, 3 of 5 marshalls. Also 13 of 15 army commanders, 8 of 9 admirals, 50 of 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars. And most of those who weren't purged were Bolsheviks who were put in those positions because of their political affiliation with the Politburo, every veteran officers who had actually served either Trotsky or the Tsar at some point were purged. And those who were reinstated were only reinstated during WW2 after Russia had already lost millions of men. The effects of the purge on the Red Army were massive dude. Their ''strategy'' during the Winter War was basically to send their armies in a single compact line toward Finland's biggest cities. And then they wondered why they lost 6 times more men and thousands of tanks to Finnish infantry on skis.

Lol

He said the wrong name, people do it all the time, Jesus

Georgson Orwells

@@twoscarabsintheswarm9055 Indeed, in the given context, Jesus would be the wrong name also. :p

@@Depipro yes but I just don't like how everyone cared so much about the wrong name being said, someone tried to portray it as a reason why Cody is a bad RU-vidr or something

The Kulaks were just more successful farmers. Whether they got that success honestly or not is irrelevant to the Soviets

> Oh, boohoo! So you say they were plucky and self confident.

@@SeattlePioneer what? no I'm saying the opposite. Private land reform in Russia was a very recent situation. The Kulaks were those who stole the best land from the strip system (prior to the Stolypin reforms, the land was marked into strips and each farmer in the village received a set of strips, some good, some bad, ensuring everyone had a balance). They were thieves who got rich at their neighbors' expense

@@NathanLucas5 You are a TREASURE! It's very rare to find a committed Stalinist who will still repeat the lies underpinning one of the great massacres in human history! That's the equivalent of someone who blames the Jews for being the victims of Hitler.

@@SeattlePioneer I'm not a stalinist and I don't support collectivization, my issue is with the common portrayal of Kulaks as family farmers who just did well

There was also Snowball agreeing with the plan that all apples from the apple tree would go to only the pigs. It was one of the few things he and Napoleon agreed on.

It's almost as if most people are bad at getting subtlety... Hmm...

He got a 13 year old pregnant at 27

I didn't get this joke. What was it all about?

Luther Blissett Cynical said Orson Welles when he talked about Animal Farm, Orson Welles did not write Animal Farm, George Orwell did. Orwell, O. Welles.

@@LtLuigi25 Yeah i got that one, but i thought there would be something deeper about it 🤷🏻‍♂️

@@lutherblissett2634 deeper than your name?

@@skywindow6764 that was what I was hoping for 😉

That would be amazing 😂

Lenin’s Mustache has entered the ring

Now this is what I'm talking about

I think trotsky's would win but only after his goatee intervenes