• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

March 12, 1917

Share this page

NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
Bronze
Offline
One hundred years ago today, part of the Czar's army mutinied to support the people's rebellion, and fired on the Czar's own troops in the capital.

Three days later, the Czar abdicated and the 300 year old Romanov monarchy collapsed.

And since then, much change has occurred.

(How's that for a brief summary?)

Think ... Kerensky.
 
Unfortunately, the shots lasted for decades. Both lead *and* vodka!
 
NutmegCT said:
Unfortunately, the shots lasted for decades. Both lead *and* vodka!
Click to expand...

Well that's true.
But skipping over the WW1 years & looking forward 20+ years:
without Bolshevik Russia during WW2 we would be in a completely different world right now.....and of course Russia would be in a completely different world too (without the Allies opening the 2nd front).
"strange bedfellows"
I believe things happen for a reason.
 
So many "what if's"!

Imagine if the Bolsheviks hadn't finally taken over, and the liberal socialists had kept power. Who knows what Lenin and Stalin would have done - if anything. Could have been better than what we have today - or much worse.

The mind boggles.

Another old "what if" - if Joseph Kennedy Jr hadn't been killed in WW2.

Or, if USA had remained neutral in 1942 and Britain had signed an armistice with Germany.

Wow.
 
Another old "what if" - if Joseph Kennedy Jr hadn't been killed in WW2.
Click to expand...

You mean what if he had of become our president instead of Ike or JFK?
(because ole Joe WAS going to have his way.)

......I would have put my money on Joe Jr.'s guts, over Johns charisma.
 
Same here!

I guess we could take the "what if" way way back - imagine if Adam hadn't eaten that apple ...
 
NutmegCT said:
Same here!

I guess we could take the "what if" way way back - imagine if Adam hadn't eaten that apple ...
Click to expand...

I never understood why Hitler broke the treaty with Russia. seemed like he and Stalin were two peas in a pod.
I believe Stalin would have been a willing axis Allie.....until he thought he had the upper hand anyway.
(must have really made Mussolini nervous).
 
I'm thinking Hitler only made the "pact" with USSR to prevent having a two-front war in the early stages of his Conquest.

Once he had all of western Europe (and realized he'd never have his "alliance" with UK), he turned eastward. I think his General Staff realized it was a mistake - but couldn't speak honestly to the Leader for fear of reprisal. Many of the Nazi aristocracy envied the British, and the way they'd been able to rule the 250 millions in India with only 50,000 administrators. Gave Hitler a modus operandi. Thank heaven for Churchill.

Hitler had been writing and speaking and acting against Bolshevism since the 1920s. He *had* to obliterate it.

A good source: Rees's "The Nazis - A Warning from History".
 
Even though the Czar abdicated, there was still plenty of fighting in a civil war, including a 3-way battle in the Ukraine between White Russians (Czar loyalists), Red Russians (the Bolsheviks) and Ukrainian Nationalists seeking to break away from Mother Russia. About the only thing the three sides could agree on was attacking Jewish villages, either to extort money, steal provision, or just flat out to satisfy their sadistic urges. My grandmother's village was raided on August 4, 1919 by Ukrainian Nationalists. They rounded up all the able-bodied men of military age in the village, ransomed them and then executed them even after the ransom was paid and raped and killed a number of women just because they could, a total of 192 people lost their lives that day, including my Great Uncle Mordecai. Amazingly, though, two other members of the family survived, my great-grandfather's youngest brother survived by playing possum after being struck by a sabre to the side of his head...he would have a scar on his face for the rest of his life, and his nephew, who dropped to the ground when the bullets started to fly and proceeded to roll down an embankment and into the river that flowed by the village. He floated downstream until out of danger and survived without a scratch. It was shortly after that that the remaining residents of the village decided it was time to leave and head to the United States.
 
Ok...this is a little off topic, but humor me.
I have always been fascinated by the story of Josef Gantz, a Austrian born Jewish mechanical engineer & the concept leader of the VW beetle, though the credit was by-and-large given to Ferdinand Porsche.
(Gantz was also a loyal German sailor in WW1. )

Run out of Germany one step ahead of the Gestapo in 1934 & harassed in Switzerland, until WW2 was over.

Never received his due for designing (arguably) the most popular car in the world.
He died in Australia in the mid 60's in relative obscurity.




Standard_Superior_1933.jpgGanz01.jpgGanz02.jpg
 
Thanks for posting that. I'd completely forgotten about Ganz. He also wrote for a major auto review magazine (Motor-Kritik), where he criticized the major makers while pushing the advantages of better designed, smaller cars.

And it makes me extremely angry when I read how people were (and are) persecuted because of their faith, or their bloodline.

Check out The Comedian Harmonists, one of the most popular European singing groups of the 1920s and early 1930s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedian_Harmonists

They gradually lost the right to perform in Germany, due to the anti-Jewish laws. Their farewell concert in Hannover, 1934, was a real gut-wrenching experience. A recreation from the 1997 film "The Harmonists":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0x0of13kfA
 
All the "What Ifs" above took me a different direction. "What If" was a series of shorts on Saturday Night Live during the first generation. I believe the series was loosely based on the CBS news series "You Are There".

Based on the subject above, the SNL episode that comes to mind is “What if Napoleon Bonaparte had a B-52 bomber during the Battle of Waterloo?”
 
here's one for you! What if General Lee had AK-47's!
(actually it is a very good alternate history sci-fi yarn)

guns of the south.jpg
 
By the way... I forgot to mention that on March 12, 1960... I was born.
 
98614F93-0F20-4E8E-AC60-C03FE13397CF.jpg
Don't know if history was re-written to accommodate this early beetle in the Porsche line up.
but it is prominent in the Porsche museum.
"car for the everyday citizen"
no curved glass, no frills, (for cost savings), but it did have a Porsche steering wheel.
 
dklawson said:
All the "What Ifs" above took me a different direction. "What If" was a series of shorts on Saturday Night Live during the first generation. I believe the series was loosely based on the CBS news series "You Are There".

Based on the subject above, the SNL episode that comes to mind is “What if Napoleon Bonaparte had a B-52 bomber during the Battle of Waterloo?”
Click to expand...

I don't remember that one. Have to go look it up. I do remember "What if Spartacus Had a Piper Cub?"
 
Back
Top