The Limpid Stream: Russia without Lenin

by Jack Tindale

In the spring of 1917, Vladimir Lenin was taken from his exile in Switzerland, loaded onto a sealed train, and taken to the Russian capital of Petrograd - a city where all manner of revolutionary ideas were in the air. Sent by the German government to add his radical voice to the chaos of the post-Tsarist regime, few would have expected that Lenin would soon preside over the establishment of the world's first communist state and inexorably change the course of human history.

But what if he had never arrived?

In 'The Limpid Stream' Jack Tindale postulates a world where Lenin's assassination on his arrival at Finland Station leads to a very different Russian Revolution. With the Bolshevik cause robbed of its most charismatic leader, a very different nation emerges. From the bumbling actions of Alexander Kerensky, to the autocratic modernisation of Pyotr Wrangel, to the staunch liberalism of a very different Ayn Rand, 'The Limpid Stream' shows a vision of a very different 20th Century.

Reviews

Genres: Alternate History

61 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 24, 2015

Reviews

[Tom Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Jack Tindale explores an alternative Russia in which Lenin never made it successfully there during the First World War, and Kerensky's Republic survives. This is not to say everything is sweetness and light without communism, with leaders such as strongman Pyotr Wrangel often being quite as unpleasant. Tindale makes the observation that some figures we might consider synonymous with Communist Russia from our timeline might well adapt to a partly-democratic republic instead. He also repeatedly uses figures from families that were emigres fleeing the revolution in our timeline, reminding us of just how many people Russia lost in that period - such as Helen Mirren's family. An interesting look at an underdone area of history, both real and alternate.

[Andy Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy's e

Downloaded this as I quite intrigued by its premise & I am glad I did. Some of the foreign.leaders seemed almost familiar (especially the President of Spain!!) & all of the Russian Prime Ministers were believable.