The Revenge of the Bear! A BeAARhug just for you!

[Mishgan]

Alfred Packer : Thank you. And welcome aboard.

demokratickid : Yeah.

Herbert West : I tell you about them >.>

Dr. Gonzo : And it shall be stomped again! Mwahahahaha!

Irenicus : Benin landed a thousand soldiers in Russian Arabia They got stompstomped. As of the events,I just might, but I’ll see if they pop in the next war. Also, do you mind if I steal that quote of yours about the tea shortage? For my signature?

[Irenicus]

Also, do you mind if I steal that quote of yours about the tea shortage? For my signature?

Oh, of course! I'd be honored, in fact.

*evil laugh* My first step to world domination *evil laugh*

[Mishgan]

The Revenge of the Bear

Chapter 15 : “Congratulations, General-Fieldmarshal. Alexander” – Part 2

The joint Russo-American war against the British Empire ended in a stalemate stretching oceans and continents, from India to Canada. Whilst it was clearly the two allies that were winning and holding the most enemy territory, they did suffer some major setbacks. Despite being one of the most powerful in the world, the US Navy failed to prevent the Royal Navy from ferrying in tens of thousands of troops to reinforce British forces in Canada. As of the Russian Navy, it was simply sunk as Russian raiders proved useless against British cruisers.

In the end, it simply came down to how much Britain was ready to give up. At first the British tried to lure the Americans over by offering to recognize the frontlines in Canada as new borders between the two states. In such an event, Russia would only have gotten bits and pieces of British Columbia, whilst her interests lay in India. Much to the honour of the Americans, they refused.

Then came a period of completely senseless British propositions, that were flatly rejected by the Russian Empire. Indeed, Russians saw no use in lands far away in Africa and New Zealand that they would not be able to defend due to the absence of a navy.

Eventually, however, the British had to face the obvious and concede to losing parts of their Indian domains. In Canada, it was agreed to cede the colony of British Columbia to the United States.

The new US British Columbia

Over in Asia, Russia was granted large swathes of north Indian territory, including the North-West Province, Kashmir, Punjab, as well as the northern areas of the Baluchi Agency. Whilst Russia also wanted to take Afghanistan, the government of British India flatly refused to concede even more, and so it was agreed between Petersburg and London that Russia would get only the remote areas of north-eastern Afghanistan, that were perfect for a railroad linking Punjab with the rest of the Empire.

Russian Punjab, as resulted by the Treaty of Washington

Whilst the Punjab was important to Russia due to its vast cotton plantations, the remote mountainous region of Kashmir was far from having the same value. Kashmir had no valuable resources and, even if it have an important strategic position sitting in between East Turkestan and Punjab, that position was only employed because of its railways, with Russian commanders not even bothering to extend Imperial authority beyond the transportation routes. This was why Kashmir de facto became a semi-independent state within the Empire.

Kashmir’s autonomy could be explained by the fact that “no one cared”

Partab Singh, the Maharaja of Kashmir, continued to exercise his powers and authority within the area and began by working hard to establish good relations with the Imperial authorities in order to preserve his autonomy. And this was not always easy. An insider at the Imperial Court of Russia wrote in his memoirs about the Tsar’s reaction to getting a letter from the Maharaja of Kashmir. The Emperor of all the Russias exclaimed: “Cashmere? Isn’t that some kind of fabric?!”

Partab Singh sometimes had a bit of a trouble
explaining what exactly it was that he ruled

[Raden Shaka]

The Emperor of all the Russias exclaimed: “Cashmere? Isn’t that some kind of fabric?!”

A shock! Poor Partab....

Nice gain on Punjab lands, by the way... Now put those Pashtun soldiers into the uniform of the Imperial Armed Forces!

[robou]

Britain just lost the place it got most of its soldiers from and now you will hopefully benefit from those Sihk soldiers. All in all good gains!

[Irenicus]

Even if the American people thinks it's a bit of a costly war for just that empty piece of land, I'd say it's still a big victory now that Fifty-Four Forty or Fight! comes true fifty years late.

The rest of Canada can come when the Bear wants another round of Indian cotton from the Great Game.

P.S. How ironic that the region that would later become central to the territorial conflict in the subcontinent would be autonomous under this timeline's Russian rule because "no one cared."

[asd21593]

War with Kashmir over the Tsar's insult?

Maybe......

Great update



asd

[stnylan]

The Cashmere line was pretty good.

[Dagoth Nerevar]

I am a long time Victoria forums lurker. I just have to say that your AAR is one of the two that has made me want to purchase Victoria. Absolutely phenomonal. A great mix of text and pictures, and a great mix of seriousness and humor.

Keep up the great work.

[Mishgan]

The Revenge of the Bear

Chapter 16 : The Bear Tsar

Alexander III was often called the “Bear Tsar” for his wide stature and athletic build, and was renowned for phenomenal strength. In October 1888, a tragedy nearly happened to the Imperial family on the 17th of October, when the Emperor’s Train carrying the entire Imperial Family came off the rails near the small station of Borky, about half a hundred kilometers away from the city of Kharkhov.

The restaurant car collapsed fully and it was a
miracle that the Tsar and his family survivedю
Photograph taken on the day following the event.

It is said that the Imperial Family was having a lunch in the restaurant car of the train at the time of the catastrophe. During the crash, the roof of the car came crashing down upon the heads of the Tsar’s family. Through an inhumane effort, Alexander supported the roof on his very shoulders, waiting until his family safely escaped the wreck of the car and only then extracted himself to safety. Throughout the rest of the day and into the night, the Emperor would personally lead rescue efforts in other cars of the train, helping rescue survivors from the wreckage.

Ever since, however, the Tsar was not the same. It appeared that the miracle did have a price and Alexander III often complained of searing pain in his waist and back. Over the years, the Emperor’s health steadily degraded. In 1894, he caught a bad cold, which did not heal and further worsened his condition. The Tsar was diagnosed with nephritis in 1894 and recommended to go for rest in the warm Crimean climate. But the Emperor’s time had come, and on the 20th of October of the year 1894, Alexander passed away.

The entire nation was in a state of deep shock and disbelief as the news reached even the most remote corners of the Empire.

Alexander III would come to be known as the Bear Tsar

However, unlike his father, Alexander III was not universally loved and hailed by the population. The Bear Tsar was far more nationalist than his father and it was even rumoured that he quietly pondered repealing some of the reforms that introduced constitutional monarchism to Russia. He never dared take on the State Parliament, for he knew that the Duma would be hostile to any reduction of the Parliament’s power. And in the State Council, he could only guarantee the loyalty of half the members by removing the serving Councillors and appointing his own loyalists. The Tsar had every right to do so, but he knew that such a move would equal a declaration of war between him and Parliament.

The Emperor promoted his idea of Russian greatness in his own ways where he could. Like in the western reaches of the Empire. No, he did not strip Poland off her autonomy, even if the desire to do so was great. But through a series of decrees, the Emperor strengthened the grip on the Jewish population of the Empire living within the so-called Pale of Settlement. What little freedom to settle outside of the Pale that the Jews had received under earlier reforms were revoked. Jews were barred from settling in the countryside, were confined to a series of cities, except for those cities that were explicitly excluded from the Pale by the decrees.

All in all, the Pale of Settlement stretched from Bessarabia in the south to Latvia in the north. Bulgaria, which had a minuscule Sefardi community and the Jerusalem Governorate, with its two hundred thousand jews, were not part of the Pale. But decrees of a nature similar to those concerning the Pale were passed, specifically targeting the freedom of Jews in the aforementioned territories to settle elsewhere. As of the Pale of Settlement itself, the vast territories were home to fourty million Imperial subjects, of them four million Jews. Despite Alexander’s best wishes to have it otherwise, Russia was the homeland of nearly half the world’s Jewish population and, thus, had the largest community than any other country.

Provinces and Governorates comprising the Pale of Settlement.
Governorates of Vitebsk and Smolesk included only partially.
Autonomous Kingdom of Poland shown in red.

Population of the Pale of Settlement in Thousands.

Kingdom of Poland : 12’626, of which Jews 1’013
Governorate of Vilnus : 3’290, of which Jews 523
Governorate of Riga : 1’740, of which Jews 40
Governorate of Vitebsk : 4’172, of which in the Pale 3’179, of which Jews 322
Governorate of Smolensk : 4’292, of which in the Pale 1’637, of which Jews 125
Governorate of Minsk : 5’455, of which Jews 650
Governorate of Kiev : 6’262, of which Jews 770
Governorate of Odessa : 4’566, of which Jews 562
Governorate of Bessarabia : 1’969, of which Jews 183

TOTAL POPULATION: 40’724 OF WHICH JEWS: 4’188

The Jews were not the only ones targetted by Alexander. In the General-Governorate of the Steppes, the Emperor ordered missionaries to convert the muslim horsemen of the steppes to the One True Faith, that is the Russian Orthodox one. By then the General-Governorate in question was already heavily settled by Russians, who presented the single biggest ethnic group and, some census data showed, were close to forming half of the General-Governorate’s population. Assimilating the “Kirgiz” horsemen (who called themselves “Kazakh”) was seen as a means of a quicker integration of the steppes into the core of the Empire.

Attempts to convert the “kirgiz” (actually “kazakhs”) met only limited success

Another muslim region that was at the spotlight of Imperial attention was East Turkestan. Its vast cotton plantations were largely undermanned, run down and inefficient. An important number of Russian peasants, who did not have the luck of becoming kulaks, decided to profit from the opportunity and try their luck with cotton. And many were indeed successful, as a new class of Russian kulaks came to improve cotton production by using native labour and up to date techniques. An improved infrastructure and the many railroads allowed to export huge quantities of much needed cotton for the factories in Poland and White Russia.

East Turkestan proved popular with Russian migrants

Before long, Russians were an important minority in East Turkestan, and even a majority in the northern Altay province, where the de facto capital of the region came to be established to the detriment of ancient Kashgar.

The sudden death of Alexander III caught Russia in a process of demographic change as many Russians, who had little luck in prospering in their native lands, would emigrate to other parts of the Empire to seek better fortune. Whether the process would continue as Nicholas II assumed the mantle of the Emperor remained to be seen.

[asd21593]

What a heroic Tsar!

On to the new era!



asd

[stnylan]

A new Tsar for a new era!

[Raden Shaka]

The Tsar is dead! Long live the Tsar!

Onward! Conquer Europe!

[Nikolai]

I sincerely hope Nikolaj II shows himself to be more of a man than the historical one...

[robou]

This, then, hails the time of the ditherer...

[demokratickid]

Wow! What a way to for a Tsar to die! "Prolonged illness due to pre-existing restaurant car roof related injury..." That's up there with Charles VII (of France, not sure if it is 'VII' or someone else), who died after smashing his heasd into a wooden beam while playing his wife in a tennis match. Yeesh!

[Eams]

An excellent string of updates, Mishgan! Though I know what's coming next

[Mishgan]

Sorry for replying to the earlier comments belatedly, but I am kinda braindead of late due to a number of RL reasons. Anyway, here go!


Raden Shaka : To your first comment: I got enough Pashtuns for five divisions, according to the manpower listings.
To your second comment: Germany has about 150 divisions sitting on my border alone. Invasion might be... tricky.


robou : To your first comment: according to the manpower list, I got enough Punjabis for 21 divisions.
To your second comment: so it does, so it does


Irenicus : What is that "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" you're talking about? As of the US getting the frozen chunk in the west, well I sincerely found a “player scripted” peace giving the US only British Columbia better than having Canada and New Zealand split between US and Russia. And not in full, with British enclaves and provinces all over the place! I swear, the AI has a logic of its own.
And yes, I build my AAR on irony with a healthy dose of sarcasm So this was one reason why I released Kashmir as a satellite. The other one shall be explained lower…


asd21593 : To your first comment: I am sure Partab does not really mind the hick up. What with him only having a single division of troops >.>
To your second comment: and a new era it shall be


stnylan : Thank you. And this was the second reason why I released Kashmir >.>
To your second comment: yepyep. But I won’t say anything else.


Dagoth Nerevar : Well, thank you and I am truly honoured by such praise
Hm, anyone thinks I should poke Paradox on payment for broadening their client base? >.>


Nikolai : To learn whether Nicky shall be a man or a mouse, you will have to keep coming back to this AAR. Yeah, I am cynically chaining my readAARs to the AAR like that >.>


demokratickid : That episode actually really happened in our timeline. And I have decided to keep Alex III a bit historical in my timeline, at least as far as the death dates and reasons are concerned.


Eams : Thank you. And shhhhhhh!

[Irenicus]

I didn't expect Alexander III to die so young, since your Alex II also didn't have an assassination to take him down early. Oh well, he's not his father, so it's not that big of a loss for Mother Russia.

Plus, unlike his enlightened father he showed traditional autocratic tendencies that made Tsarist Russia so infamous.

I laughed at the "Bear Tsar" though. Talk about ironic.

Still, Nicholas II as the Tsar who'd soon face Britain over India again and again? Eh, I don't know, the Russo-Japanese war wasn't exactly inspirational...

Irenicus : What is that "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" you're talking about? As of the US getting the frozen chunk in the west, well I sincerely found a “player scripted” peace giving the US only British Columbia better than having Canada and New Zealand split between US and Russia. And not in full, with British enclaves and provinces all over the place!

It was an American slogan during the 1840's on the Oregon Question referring to the 54 line parallel (the upper limit of the US demands). So the lands the VIP-scripted peace gave to the USA was pretty much what it would've got in real life had Britain backed down on the territorial dispute completely rather than compromise.

In some VIP games this event chain actually resulted in yet another war between the USA and Britain since both countries had a choice of being completely belligerent and the AI sometimes took them. Early AI British-American wars are always fun to watch though, they always tore each other part for years racking up insane war exhaustion levels before signing a random peace deal exchanging three worthless provinces or something.

I didn't know the VIP peace event would work outside of the chain with a human-initiated war 50 years late though.

[Mishgan]

Irenicus : I did not have any VIP event pop up for the war. I proceeded differently. I nevilled the Indian provinces from British India in a separate peace treaty (that way I get all the joys of BB and nationalist unrest) and then wrote an event for the UK to restore peace with Russia/US and cede the British Columbia "state" to the US, with a small BB bonus. This is what I meant by "player scripted".

By the way, as you are knowledgeable... how would Americans call that territory? I do admit to neither having the will nor time to reading that wiki article in full. I did glance at the pretty maps, though.