Descent into Darkness

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Fanny Kaplan, Vladimir Lenin's would-be assassin.

The Russian Civil War was one of the most significant conflicts between World War I and World War II. Many figures and factions fought for control of Russia, ending with the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, taking control of the entire country and defeating their opposition.

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Point of Divergence[edit | edit source]

Vladimir Lenin, after giving a speech at the Hammer and Sickle, heard a woman call out his name. As he turned, three shots rang out from the crowd. One bullet struck his abdomen, one punctured his left lung, and one went through his left eye, killing him almost instantly. As Lenin's corpse lay bleeding on the ground, one of Lenin's guards fired back at Fanny Kaplan, injuring her and taking her into Cheka custody. Upon hearing the news of Lenin's death, Leon Trotsky, the head of the Red Army, became the de facto leader of the Bolsheviks. Commissar Trotsky orders Felix Dzerzhinsky to carry out a purge of suspected dissidents, also known as the Red Terror.

Unlike Lenin, however, Trotsky was far from a unifying figure in the Bolsheviks. His narcissistic personality alienated many of his fellow Bolsheviks, eventually culminating in the Bolshevik split in 1921.