What if the Russian empire successfully liberalized and industrialized in the 20th century?

...

It would continue to grow economically and population wise and probably look like austria-hungary, with minorities resenting them and russians having some setlements in non russian areas. With more education to the masses science would flurish. It would increase the size of some navigable rivers and expand railways to get access to new areas and decrease transportation cost. Oil would be found in the south. It could pose a serious threat to japan, as the soviet union did. Its relation to China, Germany, Austria-hungary, Turkey, Armenia, Japan and afganistan would be questioned.

Maybe a MAD type situation would ocur and infranstruture grow internationally, causing globalism to create peace.

Or maybe a world war would occur that makes russia even more influencial in eastern europe.

I would love to see this have happened, as it would increase the reach of western science by large bounds.

>and probably look like austria-hungary
>that's a good thing

Without some authoritarian system Russia would probably fall apart. Way too diverse to be held together.

>This
The reason even today western styles of liberal democracy doesn't work is because of Russia's demographics, culture and geography. They have massive land borders to worry about and 100s of different ethnicities and religions at that. The US and UK have oceans to act as natural borders, Russia doesn't. As my Russian English teacher told me in 8th grade; who had lived in the Soviet Union through her entire childhood, told me, "Democracy just doesn't work for Russians, they kinda just need to be told what to do."

this
Democracy in multicultural state cant work

Worked fine in Britain

And Switzerland

I personally don't take the "hurr durr Russians love strong-men" pseudo-intellectual argument seriously. Also I'm not sure how valid the multicultural argument is, considering ~80% of the country is ethnic Russia. Historically Musocvy/Russia has been pretty successful in integrating Tatar & Finno-Ugric groups.

Russia is attacked because it is large, and white, and will always be seen as a threat to the british/american empires.

No matter the government - monarchy, socialist, communist, fascist, capitalist - russia will be embargoed, sanctioned, invaded, etc and end up the way it is today.

>Russia is attacked because it is large, and white, and will always be seen as a threat to the british/american empires.
>, and white