Somebody: We don't really know that. What we can safely assume, is that feudal survivals would have persisted much longer absent social revolution. But, as we saw with in Germany, Italy, and Japan, it's possible to modernize without having a complete rupture with the old ruling classes. Indeed, it may be ideal to avoid the economically dislocating step of complete liquidation. The whole premise of socialists like Trotsky, of course, is that that option was closed off to the semi-colonial countries. But, with the current development of a vast swath of East Asia, and parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, that premise is now being called into question.
South Korea's elite, for instance, has ties going back to the Japanese colonial puppet regime, and yet it's very successfully marshaled that country into First World status. And all we socialists can do is point to the positive pressure put by the alternative regime in the North. At some point, the question is begged, what accomplishment of the 20th century *can't* be claimed by the October Revolution if we play this sort of rhetorical game of connect the dots?