As for me:
-Have Russia conquer Galicia in either 1848-1849 (as "compensation" for helping Austria crush the Hungarian rebellion), 1866, or 1870-1871 and thus strangle Ukrainian nationalism there in its cradle and ensure that it won't be able to spread to the rest of Ukraine.
-Avoid sparking World War I in July 1914 by deciding to fight for Serbia. The conflict instead remains a localized Austro-Serbian war.
-Summarily hunt down and kill all of the Bolsheviks in the years before 1917. This would make Russia a total pariah, killing its own dissidents in exile, but it's nothing that Vladimir Putin would not have done had he been transported 100 years earlier and in any case, in this case, the circumstances certainly justified this.
Also, if I could add a fourth event here:
-Make an alliance with Britain and France in 1939 at all costs. Even a French ally that is on the defensive will still be better than the complete absence of any Western Front at all, as was actually the case for the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944 in real life.
-Have Russia conquer Galicia in either 1848-1849 (as "compensation" for helping Austria crush the Hungarian rebellion), 1866, or 1870-1871 and thus strangle Ukrainian nationalism there in its cradle and ensure that it won't be able to spread to the rest of Ukraine.
-Avoid sparking World War I in July 1914 by deciding to fight for Serbia. The conflict instead remains a localized Austro-Serbian war.
-Summarily hunt down and kill all of the Bolsheviks in the years before 1917. This would make Russia a total pariah, killing its own dissidents in exile, but it's nothing that Vladimir Putin would not have done had he been transported 100 years earlier and in any case, in this case, the circumstances certainly justified this.
Also, if I could add a fourth event here:
-Make an alliance with Britain and France in 1939 at all costs. Even a French ally that is on the defensive will still be better than the complete absence of any Western Front at all, as was actually the case for the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944 in real life.