A Lighter Shade of Red

My first alternate history Russia! Here, the October Revolution didn't happen. Russia dropped out of World War I when the provisional government took over and the Duma manage to work with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

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With the Tsar overthrown, the Duma convinced their leader to surrender, rather than risk agitating the populace any more. With Russia's surrender with the Central Powers, Turkey ceased their blockade and instead focused their efforts on the Arab rebellion going on, thus withdrawing from the war soon after. With help from the Americans, the Entente won against the Central Powers. With the new change in Russian government, Russia had become something of a wild card. Despite the arguments the Duma had with the Petrograd Soviets, they reached a concensus that any potential in-fighting could lead to a country exploiting their weakened status. In order to ensure their survival, they were a founder on the League of Nations. A sort of balance between the Duma and Petrograd Soviets had been made. Eventually, after the Bolshevik attack, resulting in the murder of the Tsar and Tsarina as well as several Petrograd soviets being killed, the two worked together to squash the uprising and solidifed their co-existence as a socialist republic.

The next few decades were filled with gradual rebuilding and rediscovery of the Russian identity. Europe was too involved in maintaining the Treaty to do much in regards to Russia as a nation. Wealth was spread to the farmers and by using connections to the rest of the Europe and the US, they were able to bring in people to help industrialize the nation, albeit it was a slow process. However, this did help the country stand out when the Great Depression hit. They were the least due doing their best to not get involved. In addition, some immigrants from Europe and America headed over to Russia to start a new life and the Russians were okay of it for the most part.

Eventually, the Nazi threat had emerged and began their blitzkreig into Europe and it was inevitable that World War II would begin. By this point, the Socialist Republic of Russia had recovered pretty well. It has also become a very popular place of immigration for escaping immigrants from the Nazis. The socialists didn't care much beyond matters of religion and so on, so Jews were pretty tolerated here. Initially, they opted to stay out of the war, playing a supporting role much like the United States have. Nonetheless, idealogical differences and the past war made it very plausible that war was inevitable for the Russian Bear. Meanwhile, the Russians were dealing with territorial conflicts between groups who wished to branch out such as those in the Causcaus and Turkic areas. The Pearl Harbor bombing along with the surprise Petrograd bombing was enough. The Russians joined the United States and the Republic of China into World War II. While not as advanced as OTL Soviet Union, the relationships and communications were much better between the Allies. China assisted mainly in fighting the Japanese while lending auxillary units to the Russians to fight their front while the US would help with Europe. The Allies were eventually able to defeat Germany and Hitler was killed. However, the Japanese did not give up until the Americans perfected their secret project: the atom bomb. After the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan surrendered.

Life goes on.

Russia and China have become rising stars and began influencing their corner of the world, presenting a friendly rivalry to Europe while the US went back to their side of the world.

The Socialist Republic of Russia mainly still relies on agriculture and industry run by the workers' union, councils and more, but they have also been adding plenty of funding in the sciences to keep their friendly Space Race with the rest of Europe. While not as economically strong as some of the other well-off countries, they have plenty of productive people and serve as a becaon for treating the working class. However, the balance is being somewhat tipped as conservatives and liberals battle it out in regards to old patterns such as anti-Semitism, especially with the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide being seen as well as homosexuality. Public university is generally free, but they still make a nice bit of money from students studying abroad. They are strong allies with the Americans and they have been testing several potential possibilites for nuclear power plants in the colder and desolate regions. Turkestan and Caucasus remain their strongest allies, formed as part of their deal. Both coutnries follow similar idealogies to Russia, but influenced by their hertiage, such as Turkestan's subtle Muslim hertiage. The Caucasus Union manage to maintaina good peace between the different states and while there are occasional plants to become their own countries, they generally get along with one another nor do they wish to jeopardize their young economies.

The Republic of China does take cues in economy from Russia, but they are more capitalist than they are, leading to some good-natured ribbing. Having helped win the war and having grown larger, they spend most of their time in helping their burgeoning neighbors in the south and enjoying the new wealth and resources now available to them. However, corruption and exploitation remain problems that they are still solving while also dealing with cultural changes as a result of the youth coming up into age. Indonesia has become a very popular tourist site and help make revenue off of that while also improving their quality of life. They serve as a friendly arrival to the Philippines and the same could be said to Korea with Japan. However, Japanese still face discrimination to some extent by the Koreans and marriage between the two is a hot button topic.

Meanwhile, Europe has huddled closer together, having put their past of war behind them. However, Britain and France still maintain some control over their former empires and now try and replicate or rather succeed in what Russia did regarding developing independent nations. The British Commonwealth remans with the British thanks to maintaining the Suez Canal and successes like India inspire them that they hope to become more independent. That being said, some of these nations remain wary since the incident with Iran occurred and the British ensure that they don't repeat the same mistakes, especially in Africa as a booming chocolate industry is growing for them and for France. France has managed to get plenty of good luck in managing their former colonies in Africa, namely trying to get to be just as good as the ones under British maintanence is. A conflict with Algeria was barely averted and the situation is still tense, but improving by the year. However, the West African Union is doing well for itself and competes in economic growth with the Congo. Cultural changes are affecting them all as they maintain some conservative flavors to help stand out against the Russians However, it's becoming more difficult in regard to drawing the lines as well as the desire for change thanks to the new generation.

The Unites States, more liberal than in OTL, merely watches the game between the two and tends to their problems at home, while still participating in the Space Race and maintaining peaceful relations while growing economically. They have taken a few cues from Russia in economic policies and a form of counter-culture has risen up against the formerly conservative standpoint of the time. Movements for femnism, black civil rights and much more have been proving successful, but is still somewhat slow. The big problem is with religious rightwingers against the rising movement for homosexuals. Furthermore, new scientific data showing potential environmental hazards have been making its way to the news. Beyond that, drugs are becoming popular and the government continues to debate the best way to counter them, wanting to avoid a repeat of prohibition.

Technology is a bit behind in some aspects than OTL due to the lack of ferocity in competition, but this is counter-balanced by the exchange of ideas. The hope of landing a man on the moon is within grasp for the next few years and computers have become the big thing looking into. Nuclear physics have also become an interest, hoping to use them to power many things in the future. There is no massive threat on the world scale and while there are hiccups every now and then, the future seems pretty bright.