If Lenin had been defeated and Russia had not become a communist country, would today's Russia be as free and rich as USA?

The Lord Humungus.

No What chucklehead amateurs always fail to notice is that the Soviets were a product of the brutal Czar's regime. Much as the brutality and eventual totalitarian rule by Napoleon was a product of the French regime. It isn't as if Democracy magically transformed America after the revolution. It basically was just a modification of the English system, with fewer aristocrats. It is far easier to tear down an old form of government, then it is to build a new one. And much of what you learned in grade school was deliberate propaganda.

Anonymous

No. I doubt it. The most prosperous of the former Eastern Bloc states are Slovenia, the Czech Republic and maybe Estonia. Russia was a semi-feudal mostly rural and poor country in 1917. Stalin and his successors were more responsible for Russian industrialization than the old regime. There was no tradition of freedom or free government in Russia or most of Eastern Europe.

Anonymous

Doubtful. Russia has never in history been free or democratic. The closest they got was a few years in the 1990s.

tc.brown56

No, but they would have been much better off.

Anonymous

Not likely, there would have been waves of repression to prevent any future revolution.

socialistpb: Russia was not a Communist country

Russia was not a Communist country: it was state capitalist, with most workers being employed by the state, and those who controlled the state being the ruling class. Russia in 1917 was different in many ways from the USA, which was the most powerful country on the planet.

Gerald

asking the west is like asking jesus if satan is bad Russia is thousands of years old and need I say it the west has been at them for nearly as long there have been many interferences Lenin was exiled and Germany gave him a protected passage through the back door the British in Crimea the Battle of Balaclava so no there has always been interference that's what causes a closed state like the USSR a strict regime like the KGB and today the USA IS CLOSING BORDERS so how will these times workout