marxism

I'm predominantly a c20 historian of labour history, and as a result incidentally of world-systems / imperialism. But Imperialism as a world-system chains back before the 20th century, and Sharpe's Rifles' episode one inspired this thought, as the two brother fight over Spain. Spain did have a...

This question isn't about what if Marx never existed, or never came up with his ideas. I've seen other threads asking those questions, and a lot of them claim that Marx was the "man of the hour" and that others would have developed similar or the same ideas had he not existed. My question is...

With every POD possible, how can communism not only spread to at least most of the major nations, but also stable and not plagued by factionalism/collapse?

With all the possible POD’s in any part in history, can communism/some form of it reach at least most of the major nations if not the whole world? A good starting point might be the absence of the Anarchist-Marxist split in the First International as well as future disagreements over orthodoxy...

Marx sent Charles Darwin a copy of Capital volume one, but Darwin only read a fraction of it, and their correspondence ended with a brief thank-you note. What if the book caught Darwin's attention. He and Marx enter into a lively, years-long correspondence, which affects Darwin deeply. When...

The Swastika is a symbol that has been used in every continent and meant as universal symbol of piece. What if was used as a symbol of or nod to the pro-Communist societies that used it?

I was scrolling by a few threads here since I'm intrigued at the idea of a nation like Germany, the United Kingdom, or France being the first nation to develop socialism as opposed to Russia. Then I thought about Western European nations to develop socialism first, and the two I thought were...

There are decades where weeks happen and weeks where decades happen. -Vladimir Lenin. Workers of Finland, we have Victory! - Kullervo Manner 1918 Lithuania I shall return -Augustinas Voldemaras 1919 Poland yet lives! – Last words of Josef Piłsudski Warsaw 1920 Before a revolution happens, it...

(Not sure whether this belongs in Before or After 1900, since POD is before but I imagine most effects will be after) Suppose Marx is never born, becomes an investment banker, or something, and is never in a position to create Marxism. Christian Socialism becomes the dominant ideology of the...

This idea seems like a neat idea, that came from the Alternate History Writer, Harry Turtledove: The rise of Communism in the CSA, where in Southern Victory, black communists rosed against the Confederates during the Great War. So, this got me thinking, how plausible for...

An AHC I’ve thought of lately POD: 1969-1971 Rules: The Beatles breakup must remain the same Lennon must lead a political party by August 1972 The party would be broadly far-left, with an overall Marxist leaning, to be socially liberal and opposed to the Vietnam War Bonus points if supporters...

Background (1940-45) “While In our present day we resent Paris I still must remember what it gave me. I learned of Marxism, and socialism in underground reading groups, and I dreamed of the world to be built in Africa. I dreamt of peace, and I dreamt of close ties to France, yet when I returned...

WW1 was an event which greatly destabilized Europe, destroyed many pre-war governments, and caused civil wars to break out in many countries. This created a power vacuum which benefitted anti-establishment ideologies. In the aftermath of WW1, both a) pre-existing but basically powerless...

With a PoD of around March 1917 (when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne of Russia), what would have been the best possible outcome for the Russian Empire/Soviet Union by the close of the 20th century? Avoiding war and/or keeping the USSR intact is not required if you do not feel it is...

In the Southern Victory series the Red Rebellion is an uprising of black confederates who rose up in 1915. About 10% of the blacks in the CSA participated and they caused serious damage to the confederates in the process especially with US support. So what i'm wondering is, what would be the...

While this is incredibly unlikely and verging on ASB I want to give a scenario that has been discarded hundreds of times another closer look. The Red Rebellion was a massive uprising of black people in the CSA that shook the nation while it was attempting to battle the USA. While the uprising...

Your challenge is relatively straightforward: with a POD after the 1848 publication of The Communist Manifesto, have a communist state be founded before the year 1900. It doesn't necessarily have to last long, just exist for a time.

We got three main names, William Z. Foster, Earl Browder and Norman Thomas. Ofc there are other proeminent american far left politics but openly communist I only remember those of my head. What do you think of them? How would their governments be like if they somehow grabbed power due a civil...

With a POD no earlier than 1945, how to make leftist revolutions in the west possible? This means communists/socialists and other leftists take to the streets and actually overthrow the western capitalist states. This may be less implausible than one would think. During the late 60s to mid 70s...

That final paragraph it struck me as having interesting AH potential, so I decided to bring up the scenario here; Say that Weber lived longer and/or started work on his 'capitalism study' earlier and managed to get it completed before he died and published before then or shortly after, with...