The Fourth Pretender: an All The Russias AAR

Thanks to these first fans; in particular for General Hannibal, who made so much for Sarmatia 1871's mods!

RossN: Well, it's maybe false, because I find it on Wikipedia's article for "Imperial Crown of Russia", but:

Following the October Revolution the new Russian Republic, which was seriously low on funds, sought a loan from the Irish Republic, whose finance minister, Michael Collins, had become internationally famous for his fundraising for the unofficial Irish state. The Russian Crown Jewels were therefore sent to Ireland to be used as collateral in the loan. The jewels were placed in a safe in Government Buildings and promptly forgotten about.

On their discovery in 1948, by the new government led by John A. Costello, it was originally intended that the set of Crown Jewels would be sold by public auction in London. However, after consultations as to their legal status, and negotiations with the Soviet ambassador, it was arranged for them to be returned to the Soviet Union in exchange for the sum of $25,000 originally loaned in 1920. The jewels would ultimately return to Moscow in 1950.

Click to expand...

The Russian Empire in 1914, at the eve of the Great War.

CHAPTER 8: PLOTTING THE RENEWAL


Tsaritsyne, January, 29 1938
As I predicted, our threats to the Cossack people didn't give us anything. The decision of ataman Petr Krasnov to proclaim the independance of Don-Kuban Union, even with the restauration of the Tsar, was not only reinforced, but he engaged negotiations with president Mustafa Kemal of Turkey and the Prime Minister Kakimbek Salykov of the secessionnist country of Kazakhstan. Along with the Azeri Premier, Suleyman Rustam, they created a new alliance, the Pan-Turkic Alliance. Thus, a war against them would put in alert almost our entire southern border and trigger a crisis with Bosphorus strait and Baku oil fields. Be careful.
General Andrei Andreievich Vlassov, Head of Russian Empire's Army Staff


Saint-Petersburg, February, 12 1938
It's obvious we must absolutely expand in order to rule All the Russias and make our beloved motherland. By every possible way. I don't care of the Allied point of view about our belligerance and the German hate against our Slavic race. Long live Mother Russia!
Dmitri II Pavlovich Romanov, Tsar of All the Russias
***
Saint-Petersburg, April, 12 1938
0017-stop-take contact with Mikhail Polskii's fellows of Faith and Nation-stop-insist of our government's role for the recognition of Orthodoxy as state religion-stop-their contacts in Balkanic countries should be useful-stop-good luck
Prince Felix Yusupov



February, 18 1938
My services in Tbilissi just told me that the Georgian Premier Lavrenti Beria decided to use their citizens of foreign origin as hostages in order to force their relatives in other countries to spy their countries for them. Fortunately, they are just making this to families of Caucasian origin, leaving our Russian cousins in Georgia alone.
Prince Felix Yusupov
***
May, 25 1938
The Azeri response was quite heavy! Georgia is now surroundered by Turkey, Don-Kuban Union and Azerbaijan. It's the best occasion to see the Pan-Turkic Alliance's capacities. I will keep an eye on it.
General Andrei Andreievich Vlassov, Head of Russian Empire's Army Staff


March, 22 1938
I just learned that Austria has been just totally annexed by Germany after a so-called plebiscite in order to resolve the dreams of "Greater Germany" built since Bismarck. Hitler is more powerful than ever: keep an eye on this man with a horrible moustache, but continue to support his regime. Don't forget that the last time what we dealed with a Little Corporal, things came bad.
Me, the Vojd Vladimir Purishkevish, Father of the New Russian Nation


April, 16 1938
The last Republican bastion in Sevilla felt: Franco and his followers are now the masters of the Spanish nation. Send my personnal congratulations to him, so we can have a place with other fascist nations who supported him, like Italy and Germany.
Dmitri II Pavlovich Romanov, Tsar of All the Russias


May, 16 1938
Our ultimatum to the Mongolian ambassador was more than successful. Fearing our intervention on his possessions in response to the killing of several Russian citizens near his borders, the Mad Baron himself, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, came to me to present his apologies by the name of his entire nation, offered us the heads of the burglars who assaulted the train and retroceded us his own portion of the Transsiberian railroad. War was avoided, and even the Japanese are now respecting us. Kolchak must be fearing his fate...
Marshal Mikhail Tukhaychevsky, Chief of Russian Empire's Ground Forces for the Far Eastern Sector


July, 23 1938
Here 0017-stop-the mission in Greece is a success-stop-king Georgios II called archbishop Damaskinos to form a government-stop-Greek clerical government is full of our partisans-stop-they're coming with an alliance proposal-stop-please accept
Iossif Vissarionovich Koba, director of the Russian Company for Pig Exportation

Oddman: I'm trying to make a more narrative AAR, to picture the power struggles between four men:
-Dmitri II Romanov, the Tsar who didn't wanted to make politics but wants to improve his nation
-Vladimir Purishkevich, full of hate, antisemetic, trying to copy both Nazi and fascist regimes in order to establish his full power on Russian nation
-Felix Yussupov, best friend of Dmitri (I'm stating here that they were not lovers, just very good friends), who refuses to see him as a puppet of the all-mighty fascist aristocrats, using the high-skilled agent Dzhugashvili
-Andrei Vlassov, trying to test his own strategic theories, to restore Russian splendour, and to improve the condition of former Red Army's officers who rallied Russia in the aftermath of the Civil War, threatened by Purishkevish's henchmen

I hope that my English is enough correct and my writing skills enough good so you can understand my ideas.

But anyway, guns will fire in the next chapter.

Red Square (the city square's name has not any connections with the short communist rule, but because of the name "Krasnaya" which means either "Red" or "Beautiful" during a military parade. As the Winter Palace was still under renovation, the official ceremonies in Tsarist Russia were held in Moscow Kremlin, which was also the Tsar's official residence, but Dmitri II continued to live in his own mansion, Constantine Palace of Saint-Petersburg, along with his wife and his son.

CHAPTER 9: THE AUGUST, 11 CRISIS

MOSCOW, AUGUST, 11 1938

Dmitri II, Tsar of All the Russias, was sitting in his personnal office in Moscow Kremlin, browsing some official and confidential files before going to this historical reunion. Ambassadors of all countries formerly under Russian rule (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Don-Kuban Union, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkestan, Transamur) were standing at the Red Square, waiting for the audience of the Tsar, who will reassure Russia's neighbours about Russian claims, maintaining that Russia will never assert claims about independant countries...Officially.

Purishkevich wanted to go to the meeting himself, but Dmitri II, using the few powers he held as Head of State and figurehead of Holy Russia and Purishkevist regime, refused to let him make that, claiming that the ambassadors attending there would rather heard the words of the Tsar of All the Russias than whose of an agressive Vojd. Purishkevich reluctantly agreed, knowing the popularity of the Tsar, who was still too independant for him.

Someone knocked to the door, awakening the headaches that assaulted Dmitri since a few days. Despite of the pain, Dmitri ordered:

-Come in!

Tatiana, his personal secretary, entered the office. She was young, tall, kind, zealous, intelligent and very seductive, despite her big glasses. Until July, he tried several times to seduce the Tsar, in order to be her mistress. But, despite the desire and the affection he had for his red-haired secretary, Dmitri refused to do so, knowing that Tatiana had been engaged by Purishkevich for this goal: the Vojd knew the problems that the Tsar was facing with his Tsaritsa. Fearing black mail, Dmitri II reluctantly forgot his drives.

-The Romanian files, Your Imperial Highness.
-What is it? Yusupov's agents in this country entered in contact with these fascists...The Steel Guard, isn't that?
-Iron Guard, Your Highness. The point is that the Romanian government banned this organization. But our agent in Bucarest is hoping that the Iron Guard leaders who avoided incarceration could be united under the program of the clerical leader, Miron Cristea. He's waiting for orders.
-Tell him to do what he thinks the better for Mother Russia!



Dmitri smiled and slumped onto his chair.

-You know that you could be executed for these informations, Tatiana?
-Come to me.
-That why I prefer your Imperial presence to the Vojd...
-Come to me.
-...Your Highness? Is everything alright?

Dmitri was turning pale, dribbling and feeling difficulties to take his breath. His headaches were becoming worse, like if his brain was squeezed by bits of glass.

-Come to me.
-Do you want me to call a doctor?
-I...I...Know this voice...
-Come to me.

Dmitri tried to stand up, barely resting on his chair's arms, but the only result was him falling on the floor. The terrifying screams of Tatiana soon became very far as Dmitri was falling in deep darkness.

He finally landed on a snowy ground, outside a huge palace. Charasteristic of Saint-Petersburg: Yusupov palace. Standing up, his eyes quickly noticed a terrible presence between two trees. Despite twenty years, he was still wearing this strange mix between a cassock and a peasent gown. But, with these deep blue eyes and this great dark beard, it was Him. It was impossible, but it was Him.

-RASPUTIN!
-How are you, my tiny little Tsar?



-Who are you? Where am I?
-I'm the man you killed, in the place where you used a gun for the first and las time of your life.

Dmitri, completely frightened, tried to hit the Mad Monk, but his hand only passed through the phantomatic apparition.

-Listen to me, little Tsar. You, Purishkevich and Yusupov think that you came to the supreme leadership by your own will...But it's false. From the Afterlife, I made everything to help you.
-You...You're not Rasputin! You're not a ghost! You're a hallucination!
-Listen my voice. Was it the voice that you despised, the voice this poor foolish Nikolai listened with attention, the voice that was ordering the doctors to not give more aspirin to the Tsesarevich: I was maybe the only one who knew that aspirin was worse for his hemophiliac rotten blood!...Yes, it's me, I'm Grigori Rasputin, the Red Monk...
-You're a demon! We three knew that, but the Tsar refused to do so!
-A demon? No, I'm just a man who was knowing the secrets of the Afterlife, a smart man who knew that death was not an ending, neither a curse...In fact, you helped me...
-To do what?
-Then I died, shortly after drinking to death the water of the Neva, I saw several parallel worlds. A world where the Mongols continued to dominate Russia, another one where another dynasty than the Romanov came to the throne, where the Teutonic Order beated Alexandr Nevsky...I understood that our existence was not so important, and I decided to get revenge of this rotten pro-German autocracy who was destroying my fatherland...I triggered from my tomb the Civil War: I was knowing that if the Reds won, a new tyrant, worse than Hitler and Purishkevich, would walk this earth and make Russia establish a terror reign in Europe and Asia...But it didn't work, and even if almost your whole stupid family was executed, Russia became a weak democracy...I possessed a gunman and I killed Kerensky, in order to help your rise...
-You're lying...
-No, and I will show you how I can help Russia to regain her prestige...

Rasputin touched the forehead of Dmitri, who screamed then he reintegrated his body, surroundered by the frightened guards and Tatiana...But SOMEONE ELSE was controlling his body. The Tsar was now prisoner of his own body, unable to speak or to move. Another will make him stand up, reassuring the guards, telling Tatiana to led him to the conference. Someone else, using his voice, told the secretary:

-And what about the problems of Cossack persecution against our agents?
-Uh? General Vlassov said that a military intervention was not preferable.
-Vlassov is completely stupid and I'm the Tsar of All the Russias! Then this wasting conference will be finished, I will personally declare war to these bastards who are rebelling against us!

Dmitri thought: WHAT I'M SAYING?!...I mean: WHAT IS HE SAYING?



-If you said so, Your Highness...
-Don't worry, sweety. And after this boring stuff, you will come in my office. Alone. I got some special files to show you.

Rasputin-controlled Dmitri Pavlovich winked and came out of the Kremlin. Without shaking the hands of the embassadors, who were all coming from governments with good relationships with Russia, he climbed to his personal platform and simply said:

-Gentlemen, I'm happy to tell you that I'm not only the Tsar of All the Russias, but I'm also Grand-Duke of Finland and Lithuania, king of Poland and Voivod of Bessarabia. Thus, all your governments are obviously illegal and they should be crushed and executed. And be happy that I'm not ordering my police to arrest you as rebels. Have a nice day, good bye.

The Polish embassador quited the place without a word, but the Finnish one shouted:

-THE FINNS WILL NEVER SURRENDER! I SWEAR IT!



This possession continued until Dmitri II Romanov went to sleep in his personal bunker under the Kremlin (as Saint-Petersburg was bombed by Finnish ships), after declaring war to five countries, beginning an extraconjugal relationship with his secretary and make believe to the whole world and his country he was completely mad.

In his dreams, before disappearing, Rasputin said:

-I sweared to bring Russia again to her past glory. As I'm not anymore of this world, I will make everything to do so, even destroying the entire world. Including your poor soul. Now, fear every time that you will suffer headaches, because it will mean that the Red Monk is coming...

I was wondering, as the Victoria Flag Directory is now reopened, which flag you would prefer for the renewed Russian Empire. I find these three ones on the website. They all seems cool (except the third, because it's used by a real and existant Russian fascist organization), so I call you to vote for the one you prefer. Thanks a lot!







You can also vote for keeping the current flag, which is also the current flag of Russia.

Does anybody understands that the Tsar is now possessed by Rasputin's almighty ghost?

Thanks for your advice!

General Grant: Hey-hey-hey! The Fatherland Russian flag, huh? Interesting, I will see for that...If you want to vote for his proposals, guys...But the coat of arms is not on the second part of your second flag...

Votes:
1 - Yellow with coat of arms
1 - Black, gold, white
0 - Fascist imperialist flag
1 - Cross of Saint Andrew with coat of arms
2 - Black, gold, white with coat of arms

Also added a chapter list on first post.

Russian propaganda movie depicting Russian volunteers under General Vassili Konstantinovich Blyukher, for the defense of Russian capital St-Petersburg against Finnish troops

CHAPTER 10: BAPTISMS OF FIRE-PART I

THE TURKIC WARS (AUGUST, 11-OCTOBER, 4 1938)

KAZAKH FRONT



-The war against the Kazakh Republic should have been easily won by the Russian army, because of the lack of experience of the Kazakh troops, but it was almost a disaster: judged not prioritary by the Russian Ground Forces, it was given to unskilled troops and officers, who were soon beyond by the great Kazakh steppes, without any supply or industrial capacity. Adopting a guerilla strategy, Kazakh troops finished to surround the Russians without encountering critical defeat. The latters were almost helped by the Turkestani agression in September, 23 against Kazakh Republic, disconcerting the Kazakhs and pushing them to the negotiations.

THE CAUCASIAN AND TURKISH FRONT

Despite the recapture of "Tsargrad", as the Russians were calling Constantinople, the Second Rome, under Turkish control since 1453, was a well-known theme of the Russian propaganda since Piotr I the Great, Purishkevich decided to avoid a long-time war in Turkey due to the international pressures (France cancelled their non-agression pact with Russia on August, 29), and also to strengthen the position of the Clerical Greek Prime Minister, Archbishop Damaskinos, installed there by the Russians, who was counting about a renewal of the Megali Idea (Greek irredentism) to strengthen his popularity. Thus, Constantinople was given to Greek nation, but the Russians retained control over the Bosphorus strait.

All was oriented to the Caucasus front, in order to stop the desire of independance from the Cossack people, who had always been considered as an integrant part of Russia and a loyal servant of the Tsars. Distracted by the war against Georgia, the Cossacks were soon under attack of the few troops of General Andrei Vlassov himself, the Chief of Staff. At August, 28, the capital of Krasnodar already felt to the Russians, and the last Cossack army in Novossirisk was about to fell, with General Evgueni Miller attacking other ones in Maikop...But something happened.




Was it the sudden Armenian expansionnism, with dictator Andranig Toros Ozanian attacking Azerbaijan without any reason in August, 16, conquering it on August, 29 1938, the same day that the withdrawal of French diplomatic links with Russia and the first proposal of peace from the Turks?


With Turkish support to the Cossacks, the lack of supplies in the high Caucasus mountains to the Russian troops, and the experience of the old riders of the Don and Kuban peoples, the Russians were unable to defeat the Cossack army during more than a month. Even if the government managed to secure his relations with foolish Armenia, negotiating the access to Baku oil fields on October, 26, it was felt as a major snub by the Russians, in particular for General Vlassov, feeling that his strategy was not the best at all.


Russia had to sign peace with the Turkic alliance in October, 4 1938, having great territorial gains in Caucasus (securing Tsaritsyne), the gain of the control of Bosphorus, and weakening the Kazakh Republic, who was already losing against the Turkestanis...But something had broke in the heart of Russian army.

Vladimir Marcuzki, The Russian Bear awakens 1938-1941, St. Petersburg 2008

Russian propaganda movie depicting Russian volunteers under General Vassili Konstantinovich Blyukher, for the defense of Russian capital St-Petersburg against Finnish troops

CHAPTER 10: BAPTISMS OF FIRE-PART II

THE FINNISH WAR (AUGUST, 11-OCTOBER, 4 1938)


Finnish Field Marshal of Commander-in-Chief of Finnish Defence Forces, Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.

Only twenty years after the recognition of their independance by the Bolsheviks in 1918, the Finns were once again fighting for it, against the armies of Russian Tsar Dmitri II and his Vozhd, Vladimir Purishkevich. In their speeches, both Russian leaders were barking that there was no reason that Finland existed, that it was an integral part of the Russian territory, teared off by a German conspiration during the Great War; there was another reason for this propaganda: the Chief of Russian Staff, Andrei Vlassov, was considering that the new capital, St. Petersburg, was too close of the Finnish border, and thus threatened by an assault from them. The Finnish Prime Minister Kyösti Kallio answered to the Russian claims by saying that their Karelian brothers were oppressed by the Russians and it was thus a duty for all the Finns to free them.


-The first phase of the Finnish War was a disaster for the Russian army. Defence of St. Petersburg was given to General Vassili Konstantinovich Blukhyer, former Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, and Murmansk one to the few divisions under General Alexandr Illitch Egorov. The poor tentative to take the Finnish city of Viipuri, in order to secure St. Petersburg, totally failed, and General Egorov was forced to retreat to Kola Peninsula, where he surrendered, overwheled, on August, 21. The Finnish Defence Forces were now about to reach the strategical port of Arkhangelsk. One of the very reasons of the Russian problems was the former appartenance of the two generals to the Red Army, that explained the lack of support from their fascist superiors.


-General Vlassov, since his outpost in Caucasus, ordered that two heroes of the Civil War, Field Marshal Piotr Nikolaievitch Wrangel, and Field Marshal Anton Ivanovich Denikin...Both high-skilled leaders and well-known supporters of the fascist government. The first one had to replace Blukhyer, the other to stop the Finnish advance to Arkhangelsk, which was still advancing. Wrangel arrived in besieged St. Petersburg with his own divisions quickly enough to stop another hero of a Civil War, but in Finland: Field Marshal Mannerheim himself. During the battle of Viipuri, Wrangel was helped by the bombings of the Russian Navy under Admiral von Wiren, which had previously defeated the small Finnish Navy. Viipuri felt, and from this place, Wrangel attacked the Finnish capital, Helsinki...After heavy battles and several bombings from the Russian Navy, this city felt on September, 14.


-The last phase, after the fall of Helsinki and the splitting of Wrangel's armies into two parts (one under his authority, another under Blukhyer's one), the war was just a serie of defeats for the brave Finns. On September, 23, Denikin met the weak Finnish vanguard at Petrozadovsk, quickly defeating them and beginning to reconquer Karelia. After some weeks of heavy guerilla, Finnish president Pehr Evind Svinhufvud agreed to sign the complete terms of peace with Russia, after the falls of Vaasa and Murmansk. It acknowledged the end of Finnish independance and his full annexation by the resurgent Russia.

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD


The Ukrainian crisis in September, 21 1938 was about to put Russia in another war, worst than ever, with all his troops being in Finland or Caucasus at this time: a war against Poland and Ukraine. The Ukrainian orthodoxes, manifesting for rallying with Russia, with acknowledgement of their claims over Ukraine, were banned by the Ukrainian authorities, under Polish control. The Purishkevich government, despite being close of another war, encouraged the Ukrainians to continue their claims, making a march on Kiev. Despite Polish threats, the wise Ukrainian government agreed to let their Eastern part, far more pro-Russian than pro-Polish, to join Russia's side. It was a diplomatic success for both Purishkevich and Yusupov's secret services.


On September, 30 1938, Germany officially destroyed the nation of Czechoslovakia, annexing the Sudetenland, with no reaction from the Franco-British alliance or even the almighty Poland. Through his Foreign Minister Nabokov, Purishkevich officially congratulated Hitler for his genius, even if he felt upset of not being a guest to the conference.


On October, 20 1938, after days of plotting, Bulgarian Clerical Leader Nikola Petkov made a coup in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, putting king Boris III under house arrest and officially announcing the rallying of Bulgaria to the Orthodox alliance led by Russia. Russia and its allies (Romania, Bulgaria and Greece) was now controlling the area from Bessarabia (as Russia was cut from Romania by Polish-controlled Ukraine) to Bosphorus.

Vladimir Marcuzki, The Russian Bear awakens 1938-1941, St. Petersburg 2008