We were so close to greatness...

Explanation: After the February Revolution in Russia, the Russian Provisional Government, dedicated to creating a democratic government and largely dominated by the SRs (Socialist Revolutionary Party), chose to remain in the deeply unpopular ongoing WW1 on the side of the Entente. The primary reason for this was that the Provisional Government feared economic collapse, and the Entente had threatened to revoke all economic aid (which was all that was sustaining the crippled Russian economy) if they made peace with Germany. It was thus decided to remain in the war since an economic collapse would likely spell the collapse of the Provisional Government.

Unfortunately, staying in the war also spelled the collapse of the Provisional Government, as it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin promising the Russian people “Peace, land, and bread”.

The Russian people would receive none of the three things promised, of course, but… how does the saying about Russian history go? “And then it got worse”?

The war was deeply unpopular for obvious reasons, and the Provisional Government could not even out and say “The Entente is threatening us with economic coercion to stay in the war” without risking losing that very economic aid the Russian economy was relying on. So that continued course of war gave a lot of additional weight to Bolshevik claims of “This so-called ‘democratic socialist’ government is just another tool of bourgeoisie. Meet the new boss, same as the old!” It seemed to most people that the government, after overthrowing the Tsar, was just continuing in the same vein. Made worse by the fact the Provisional Government was reluctant to pass any legislation until the first elected legislators were seated - which would not occur until shortly after the Bolsheviks took power in October/November of 1917.

The legislature, backed by protesting citizens, would immediately pass socialist measures once it was seated in January. Don’t worry, though - the Bolsheviks would have troops fire on the protestors and dissolved the legislature on the first fucking day they met.

The Entente’s threats were self-defeating - they’d forced Russia to stay in the war for just a single additional year, but at the cost of turning Russia into a hostile polity to the West for the rest of the 20th century.

Imagine a 20th century with a democratic and socialist Russia.