Tsar Russia was a backwards and problematic nation. WW1 and the consequent, The Russian revolution, is still the largest catastrophe to ever happen to the human race.
Imagine a 400 million liberal Russian nation today, a timeline where the bolsheviks dont take over.
Please, provide economical facts. As stuff about "repressions", althought, for sure, took place in USSR(as in US) and had few very well known cases of excess, is mostly based on US propaganda.
To be clear, i'm not defending the personality of Stalin or any other ruler and aware of excesses in power that they used(whatever the motivation for that was). But i would argue, that it was at the same level as in US(by politician and business owners). And even much milder, if we take into account US colonialism and suffering(physical and economical) that it caused to many nations all across the globe.
Tsarists Russia was agrarian state with minimal human rights for common folk. And then take a look what common people had after Stalin's era. Almost everyone had a housing/education. No risks of becoming homeless/unemployed. And that after a multiple catastrophes that USSR indured because of external factors(famines and wars).
Modern Russia is wholey based on Soviet achievements. And it's people are still holding up, provided with food and shelter, despite actions of it's rulers and oligarchy. Indeed, what a catastrophe was an October revolution.
You likely want to disagree but it is true - Putin came to power just after Yeltsin era hard and difficult reforms were done and oil prices, that were for a decade record low, skyrocketed. And Russian economy is nothing more than oil, and then some more oil and gas.
And yes, i realize that it sounds utopic.
I think that the model of European Union is still promising. It could even sustain more national independence. Nothing would break fundamentally when for example Catalonia became independent (from Spain) within European Union - there will be still free trade, there will be still freedom of movement.
Bolsheviks destroyed this, they also destroyed the change for Ukraine and Belarus and made all of it a murderous genocidal shit hole that lasted well until the death of Stalin during what they invaded and murdered even more nations.
No risk of unemployment? Just the great opportunity being forced to work without pay in the collective farm - from serfdom into slavery, have Russians ever been free? Getting executed for protection of your rights? Or at best getting long imprisonment? What you are doing here is glorification of regime responsible for large scale crimes against humanity. It is like glorifying Nazis because they built the autobahn. Well done!
Yes, modern Russia, is based on this past, clearly, but not in the good way.
Provisional government had a lot of decisions or rather "undecisions", for example regarding land policy. For which there was a huge support from peasantry. Then it's questionable position on war.
Provisional government was what it is -- provisional. There were a lot of disagreements between majority of people and old elites. At the end, old elites lost.
And what " murderous genocidal shit" are you talking about? I will not argue about excesses in repressions, as they clearly existed. But can we call them genocidal? Then, if you talk about Holodomor -- it's very controversial topic, surrounded by Western propaganda. You can easily find and read Stalin letters to Kaganovich, where you see that they actually tried to solve the problem of supplies but due to poor government organization failed to do so. So in no way it was "murderous genocidal shit", but just a system failure which lead to catastrophe.
Holodomor is a different case that stands out on its own as a clear case of targeted starvation. It was created by planned over collection of grain where no compromise was allowed despite clear signs of very dangerous situation.
I really don't know to what Putinist Stalin white washing propaganda you are referring to, but events of the genocide are very well documented. You can study this summary for example https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resista...
There was no failure. It was a planned way to crush Ukrainians.
https://education.holodomor.ca/teaching-materials/primary-do...
Specifically, because provisional government couldn't get to a peaceful consensus that would satisfied both sides. Old elites didn't want to give they privileges away. So people took it. Good lesson to modern elites.
But you are right, in the end the opposition to Bolsheviks failed because the only serious opposition to them was tsarist who could not provide any new ideas. Bolsheviks killed (and very literally) any change of real opposition to them. When people realized the actual situation then it was already too late.