Russian Empire what if

[unsunghero]

This is an idea I have been playing with a bit tonight: what if the Russian troops who were ordered to put down the bread riot in Petrograd in 1917 had done so, as opposed to joining the angry and hungry rioters, thus beginning the Revolution? What if Nicholas II immediately returns to St. Petersburg, and his train is not delayed by nor seized by revolutionaries (because they are not yet brazen enough to try it)?

Brusilov and the armies under his command are recalled from the front in order to put down the strikes and 'soviets' that have been springing up in the cities - thus the Habsburg armies are spared. German and Austrian forces take advantage of the growing weakness of the Russian armies. By November the Germans are able to wrangle an armistice and peace settlement with Russia. Would it be as severe as Brest - Litovsk?

 

[PJ Norris]

I think even if the soldiers shot the rioter's it would have done little - Russia was sort of careening down an inevitable path of self-destruction by 1917.

If the Tsar was still in some control of his country and was defeated by the Centrals (I'm going to use a piece of my TL of if the Germans won in early 1914.) Germany would take Poland and Austria-Hungary Moldavia, giving it passage into the Black Sea. I haven't made my mind up entirely but I think Germany would still make the Baltic nations protectorates and absorb them into it's 'European Union' (presuming they won.)

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

I think it was too late for Nicholas due to the perception that he was personally responsible for military disasters. You can't just withdraw troops from an active front - it takes a long, long time and is very slow. Pulling back with any speed would lead to a route and the destuction of the Russian Army. In the Caucasus, when the Russians went home, they collapsed entirely so that the Ottomans overran the entire region with 20,000 troops in 1918 (!)

Also, the Hapsburg army was already toast - the Brusilov Offensive had seen to that.