I agree that most technological innovations, scientific discoveries, and broad historical events associated with a "great man" would have happened anyway if that person did not exist.
Even Napoleon was very much a product of the times he lived through as a young man.
But one specific person that in my opinion personally changed world history in a drastic way was Lenin.
The history of the Bolsheviks rise to power is pretty insane. Nobody thought they could seize power, and once they got it, which was pretty much solely because of Lenin browbeating them to commit at the moment they committed, nobody thought they could hold on to it. And for good reason.
If just a few things had gone slightly differently Russia would have been governed by groups with different belief systems than the communists.
Disclaimer: 100% armchair historian who's knowledge mostly comes from a handful of podcasts. Hopefully someone will correct me :)
Trying to "what if" Russian history without Lenin is impossible, but I doubt Russia's overall century would be drastically different without a Leninist government. Even if you view the system as completely bad, spending 70 years under it still saw them develop at a similar rate to the rest of Europe.
> would be drastically different without a Leninist government
It probably would've been drastically different had the socialist-liberal coalition held on to power. It likely would've been overthrown in a couple of years politically/socially it would have still played out quite differently (bolsheviks were pretty unique amongst socialist group in their single mindedness, hatred of democracy and support of totalitarianism and mass terror).
> develop at a similar rate to the rest of Europe
Unless you were one of the subjugated Central/Eastern European countries. Economically the gap between Czechoslovakia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia etc. and Western European countries considerably wider in 1990 than it was in the 1930s.
Even Napoleon was very much a product of the times he lived through as a young man.
But one specific person that in my opinion personally changed world history in a drastic way was Lenin.
The history of the Bolsheviks rise to power is pretty insane. Nobody thought they could seize power, and once they got it, which was pretty much solely because of Lenin browbeating them to commit at the moment they committed, nobody thought they could hold on to it. And for good reason.
If just a few things had gone slightly differently Russia would have been governed by groups with different belief systems than the communists.
Disclaimer: 100% armchair historian who's knowledge mostly comes from a handful of podcasts. Hopefully someone will correct me :)