Differences and Similarities from OTL (Alexander the Liberator)

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This is a reference page dedicated to the Differences and Similarities from Original Timeline (Our Timeline) in the timeline, Alexander the Liberator.

Russia[]

Perhaps the most notable change within this timeline is the fact that the Romanov dynasty has survived, and the Russian Empire has received the political reforms that it so desperately needed during the reign of Nicholas II. Without the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, the Romanov establishment is not afraid of reform. Not only has the dynasty survived, the monarchy was never abolished and the Russian Empire still lives in the form of a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system.

1923 andre — Emperor Andrew II of Russia

Prince Andrew Andreevich Romanov, who is the disputed head of the House of Romanov, is the Emperor (or Tsar) of Russia in this timeline (as Andrew II). Vladimir Putin, who is the President of the Russian Federation in our timeline, is the Prime Minister of Russia within this timeline. The version of Russia that exists in this timeline retains the post-1945 borders of the Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail Gorbachev never joined the Communist Party and instead served as Prime Ministers of the Russian Empire. Josef Stalin would never gain political power as he did in our timeline but instead become a Marxist rebel in Georgia who would attempt to establish a Marxist state within Russia, and Stalin would end up being hanged for his violent rebellion. Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky would flee the Russian Empire and Lenin dies in exile as he never lives to see a creation of a socialist state. Alexander Kerensky, who led the February Revolution in our timeline, would serve as the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire up until 1942.

In this timeline, it is obvious that the Soviet Union would never exist. Many aspects of Russian culture that were never censored or banned in order for the Soviet regime to promote socialism. The black-yellow-white imperial flag would remain the national flag of Russia and Saint Petersburg would remain the capital city. "God, Save the Tsar" would remain as the royal anthem while "Farewell of Slavianka" would be adopted as the national anthem.

America and Leon Trotsky[]

During the Great Depression, the Free World suffered from economic instability. One man who settled in the United States of America in 1920, decided to take advantage of the situation for his own purposes to create a "pure socialist state", and his name is Leon Trotsky. The charismatic Trotsky would go on rallies across the greater United States, blaming the disasters of the Great Depression on the administration of President Herbert Hoover. Trotsky gains political power slowly, and he is elected as Senator from Washington State in 1925. Despite the strong opposition from around the nation, Trotsky's popularity grows. In 1933, Leon Trotsky announces his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. Trotsky promises to repair the economy, repair the damages done by Hoover, flush out corruption, and bring peace and harmony to the American people.

Leon Trotsky was born from a Jewish family in the Ukraine, and he openly called for the United States to adopt Socialism (secretly he planned on adopting Marxism). He forged a birth certificate and hide his immigration certificate. Even with those records hidden, Trotsky's candidacy caused controversy in the United States. Many protested against Trotsky, not only for his Jewish roots, but also for his Socialist beliefs. At the time, many doubted that Trotsky would win the election, let alone become the Democratic Party's choice for candidate. However, to the surprise of many, Leon Trotsky became the Democratic candidate. President Hoover ordered J. Edgar Hoover (no relation), Director of the Bureau of Investigation, to investigate Trotsky and watch his every move. Through charisma, corruption and bribery, Leon Trotsky would surprisingly become President of the United States of America.

Trotsky's political reforms included the abolition of the United States Congress and the Bureau of Investigation, replacing them with the Chamber of the People (the new legislative branch) and the State Council of Investigation (the state police). Through State Police and censorship, Trotsky quickly gains power and declares the United States to be a Marxist-Leninist state.

In our timeline, Trotsky initially supported the Menshevik Internationalists faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, he later joined the Bolsheviks just before the 1917 October Revolution, immediately becoming a leader within the Communist Party. He would go on to become one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution.

During the early days of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army, with the title of People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. He became a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918–22).

After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Josef Stalin in the 1920s and against the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was removed as Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs (January 1925), removed from the Politburo (October 1926), removed from the Central Committee (October 1927), expelled from the Communist Party (November 1927), exiled to Alma–Ata (January 1928), and exiled from the Soviet Union (February 1929). As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued from exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born NKVD agent, dying the next day in a hospital. Mercader, who attacked Trotsky with an ice axe, acted upon instruction from Stalin and was nearly beaten to death by Trotsky's bodyguards, with Mercader spending 20 years in a Mexican prison for murdering Trotsky. Stalin presented Mercader with an Order of Lenin in absentia.

Trotsky's ideas formed the basis of Trotskyism, a major school of Marxist thought that opposes the theories of Stalinism. He was written out of the history books under Stalin, and was one of the few Soviet political figures who was not rehabilitated by the government under Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s.

Cold War[]

In our timeline, the Cold War was "fought" between the capitalist United States of America and the Marxist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. With the exception of proxy wars such as Vietnam and Afghanistan, the Cold War was not actually a war and the two sides never fought each other. It was just a conflict of ideologies and influence.

There is a Cold War in this timeline, but it is between the Russian Empire and the United Socialist States of America. Like in our timeline, it is a stand-off between the ideologies of Marxism and Capitalism (for the highly religious Russia, it is more so a "Holy Crusade" against Communism). Like in our timeline, the two fight for influence across the world.

Eastern Europe still falls under Russian influence, but without the Bolsheviks ever rising to power, Communist governments are never forced upon these nations. The monarchies of Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria are never abolished and remain in power. Bolesław Bierut never comes to power in Poland, and Czechoslovakia is restored to her pre-war regime. The Habsburg dynasty is restored in both Austria and Hungary. Denmark and Norway would also come under Russian influence.

In this timeline, the USSA would send economic assistance in the form of the Trotsky Plan. It is similar to the Marshall Plan in the OTL, except that it also supports Communist organisations in Western Europe. Like the Soviet restructuring of Eastern Europe in our timeline, the nations of Western Europe fall under Communist American influence, and the following puppet states are established:

Socialist Federal Republic of Great Britain
French (Fourth) Republic
Italian People's Republic
Socialist People's Republic of the Netherlands
German Democratic Republic

Yugoslavia in this timeline would also accept the Trotsky aid, but the government is successful in repressing Communist unrest. Belgium and Luxembourg are annexed by the Netherlands and ceased to exist as independent states.

Ideological Differences[]

Many notable individuals in the Alexander the Liberator timeline hold different beliefs than in our timeline. One example is Josip Broz Tito, who was in our timeline the Marxist leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Tito in this timeline never followed the Marxist ideology since there was never an eastern front in the First World War, due to Russian neutrality. Tito would instead fight on the Western Front of the war, and he would return to Croatia following the fall of the centuries-old Habsburg empire.

Tito would grow resentful over the reign of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, viewing him and his father (King Peter) as tyrants. However, while leading the Yugoslav Partisans, Tito would rescue Alexander's sons, including King Peter II. The two would become close friends and leaders of the Yugoslav resistance. Instead of being a Marxist, Tito is a nationalist, or rather a Yugoslavist. He believes in the unity of the South Slavic people into one nation. Despite never adapting Marxist principals, Tito still held some socialist beliefs.

Josip Broz Tito is one of many individuals who have different beliefs in the Alexander the Liberator timeline. Here are some other examples of individuals with different beliefs:

Name	OTL Beliefs	ATL Beliefs
Ted Cruz	Conservative	Marxist-Leninist
Nancy Pelosi	Democratic Socialist	Marxist-Leninist
Justin Trudeau	Democratic Socialist	Marxist-Leninist
F.W. de Klerk	Liberal	Conservative
Leonid Brezhnev	Marxist-Leninist	Nationalist and Monarchist
Nikita Khrushchev	Marxist-Leninist	Nationalist and Monarchist
Jeremy Corbyn	Democratic Socialist (Alleged to be a Marxist-Leninist)	Marxist-Leninist
Angela Merkel	Centrist	Marxist-Leninist
Kim Jong-un	Marxist-Leninist	Criminal Mastermind

Demographics[]

Rather than creating fictional biographies, this timeline will focus completely on real people. Although, it is most likely that some individuals in our timeline would not existed in the Alexander the Liberator timeline due to the conflicts, purges, as well as different immigration and emigration rates. Without the purges under Stalin, millions of new people would come into existence.

German population of the Kaliningrad Oblast are never forced out of their homeland, and therefore the Russian portion of East Prussia becomes the Imperial Autonomous Territory of Prussia. The population of Prussia, would likely consist of the 7000 ethnic Germans that currently reside there in our timeline; as well as ethnic Germans living in Russia, Poland, and Kazakhstan; Anti-Communist exiles and refugees from West Germany; and German Americans and German Canadians. Dutch and German refugees to South Africa increases the nation's white population, and British and Canadian refugees living in Rhodesia would also see an increase in white population. The number of ethnic Hans living in East Turkestan and Tibet are far lower than in OTL since China does not control those regions. Aside from these facts, international demographics from this timeline are similar to the international demographics from our timeline.

Communism[]

Karl Marx, the father of the Communist ideology.

Without the Bolsheviks rising to power, Russia and Eastern Europe never fall to Communism. Instead, with Leon Trotsky in control of the United States, it is Western Europe and North America that succumb to the rise of Marxism. That is the greatest irony of AtL.

Communism would be viewed as fascism like it is in modern Eastern Europe in our timeline. The Russian government would censor Marx's publications and the publications of his followers, suspected Marxist would be executed or imprisoned, and Communist parties are banned.

As of 2018 in our timeline, there are only five remaining Communist nations. These nations are; China (debatable), North Korea (debatable), Cuba, Vietnam, and Laos. In AtL, these countries never succumbed to Communist revolutions (North Korea would not even exist in AtL).

In AtL, the Cold War never comes to an end, so the USSA regime and Communist governments set up the USSA remain in power.