The October Revolution was not a coup d'etat, and it would not have succeeded without the support of the majority of the Russian people; it also benefited from the enthusiasm and support of plebeians worldwide, including the United States. The Revolution did not produce Utopia, but many of the expectations it raised were not disappointed. Without the October Revolution, Russia would not have morphed in very short time from a big but backward and impoverished country, ravaged by the Great War, into one of the world's two superpowers with a relatively high standard of living; and the colonies and semi-colonies of the imperialist powers might not have achieved their independence. As for the Western World, it would not have attained its high level of political and social democracy without the major political and social reforms that were introduced by the ruling elites in the years following 1917 to avoid revolutions a la russe in Britain, France, and so forth. Finally, it is also thanks to the October Revolution that the Soviet Union was strong enough to survive the Nazi onslaught of 1941 and ultimately to bring about the defeat of Nazi Germanyfor the benefit not only of the Russians and other Soviet peoples, for whom Hitler had planned enslavement, but for all of Europe and the entire world.
