What are the most improbable things that happened in history?

[krieger11b]

I would state the Soviet victory in the Russian Civil War as a really unlikely thing.

Only a tiny minority of the population was communist, the whites were supported by a host of great powers, and concurrent nationalist rebellions made things even more complex for the Soviets.

How the Soviets solved the situation had some semblance of Prussias exploits in the 7 years war.

The Soviets were much better at politics than their rivals and the support by the Great Powers was rather weak given that sending men to die in a foriegn land was quite unpopular after have just done that in WW1.

However early soviet losses in their civil war had the great benefit of realizing that they needed to move the capital from St Petersberg (aka Leningrad) to the old one of Moscow, if the capital was still Leningrad in WW2 the Soviets would have been in some serious trouble since they were such a centralized state and all railroads and communications were centered around the capital.

 

[trybald]

I would state the Soviet victory in the Russian Civil War as a really unlikely thing.

Only a tiny minority of the population was communist, the whites were supported by a host of great powers, and concurrent nationalist rebellions made things even more complex for the Soviets.

How the Soviets solved the situation had some semblance of Prussias exploits in the 7 years war.

While the Japanese waits on Kolchak, Kolchak waits on Denikin, who waits on the French, who wait on the British, who wait on the Poles, who wait on Petljura etc. the Soviets use internal lines of movement and communication, turn their best units into one big sledgehammer army and defeat varying enemies in detail. They even recovered from the one instance where that sledgehammer failed in Poland (but had to buy off Poland with major territorial concessions).

The Bolshevik (Soviet Union was officially founded only in 1922) victory wasn't that unlikely considering how politically inept their White opponents were. They alienated literally everyone and everyone at some point started to root for the Bolsheviks. They alienated the peasants by taking away land given to them in the Land Decree, alienated the Poles by stubbornly refusing to accept Polish independence, alienated the Entente by their rabid antisemitism and Great Russian nationalism, they alienated the non-Bolshevik Left by indiscriminate executions of their supporters and so on.

The Russian Civil War was won not by Bolsheviks' military prowess, but by Whites' utter stupidity.

 

[Eusebio]

Only a tiny minority of the population was communist

The Bolsheviks and Left SRs were in the majority.

The Red victory in the Russian civil war was quite predictable: the Reds made concessions to the peasantry and the Whites did not.

 

[Amallric]

However early soviet losses in their civil war had the great benefit of realizing that they needed to move the capital from St Petersberg (aka Leningrad) to the old one of Moscow, if the capital was still Leningrad in WW2 the Soviets would have been in some serious trouble since they were such a centralized state and all railroads and communications were centered around the capital.

You know, the railroads didn't suddenly change place because the capital was moved to Moscow...they were there in the first place. Moving the capital was more related to short-term threats than any kind of strategic planning.

 

[krieger11b]

You know, the railroads didn't suddenly change place because the capital was moved to Moscow...they were there in the first place. Moving the capital was more related to short-term threats than any kind of strategic planning.

The Soviets had one of the most rapid industrialization periods in history, so yeah it still applies even if there were some railroads already in place by the Czars.