Russia in the 20th Century: a Kaiserreich AAR/Story

Sorry for the slow pace guys. This upcoming update requires a lot of modding and I have been struggling with writing the events that do exactly what I want them to do. Shouldn't take more than another day or two.

Sorry again guys. I had some problems with my work this week, so unfortunately the update was delayed. Here is a short preview for the upcoming update that should get posted in the next few days.


Peter Struve (January through April 1944)



Peter Stuve has moved across the political spectrum as he moved through his life. In his youth he was a fiery Bolshevik and a Marxist theoretician. He opposed the Tsarist regime and was brutally persecuted for his outspoken nature. But gradually he re-evaluated his views, becoming a moderate socialist during the early 1900, and then finally, after the revolution, choosing to oppose the Bolsheviks in the Civil War. Since then he has found himself estranged, not welcomed in the Conservative camp because of his Marxist past, and uneasy with the “social justice” agenda of Chernov.

He was, in January of 1944, just about the only person who predicted the Conservative defeat. He published a newspaper called “Russian Voice” and the overwhelming number of letter he received were concerned with the lack of commitment the Conservative government had shown to social reforms, and not with the victories of the Russian armies in the Far East. He was not surprised when the small towns of the south voted for Chernov and the SRs because he knew that food priced had gone up during the war, and the peasants and workers in those towns cared more about the prices than about Japan and China. It was a sad state of affairs, perhaps, but it was true.

When the elections came around in April Romanov was out of office and Chernov was in. Not only was Chernov in, but he was in with the largest share of the Duma supporting him than any other President before. Not a majority mind you, that would really be news, but a large enough party that he could play his rivals to his immediate left and right (Mensheviks and Kadets respectively) and secure support. Bukharin was sacked by the Mensheviks from leadership after an awful electoral performance and Irakli Tsereteli was back in charge. After a prolonged period of bickering Kadet’s Smirnov became Chairman of the Government (again) and Tsereteli took over the Ministry of Justice. Conservatives howled at allowing a Menshevik into the Government but could do nothing.

The March of 1944 was a time of changing political landscapes on the international scene. Germany and France were locked in a war that has lasted for two years now with little gain to either side. Casualties were mounting. The Entante has proven that Canada and Nationalist France were by no means the heirs to the French and British Empires, incapable of causing any serious harm to the Syndicalist governments that had replaced them. And across the oceans, in the United States, General McArthur was solidifying his dictatorship. The old rivalries between Germany and the Entante and between the Entante and Syndicalism seemed to be growing irrelevant and at the same time the current system seemed unable to accommodate the growing power of a democratic but aggressive Russia.

Peter Struve was the man who, in March of 1944, destroyed Mitteleuropa. Smirnov and Chernov were locked in an argument over how to approach the question of Eastern European countries that were under Germany’s influence. The more hawkish Smirnov wanted Russia to demand control over the lands, and move against Germany if Germany refused. Chernov preferred to offer help to Germany in exchange for the lands. Negotiations with the Germans started in early March using Chernov’s plan, but Smirnov, frustrated with the prospect of helping Germany, passed copies of the documents along to Struve. Next day the Russian Voice ran the headline, “Germany to Abandon Allies for Russian Help.”

The political fallout shook Europe. The outcry from Belarus, Lithuania, and the Baltics was ferocious, and these countries were joined by the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were weary of the war with France, while an expanding Russia was the last thing the Ottoman Empire desired. Wilhelm III immediately backtracked on the idea, announcing that Germany would not conclude any such deal with Russia. Chernov was frustrated that his diplomatic approach had failed but he moved on with Smirnov’s plan.

Just two days after Wilhelm’s defiant proclamation in which the German Emperor announced that Germany would “resist all Russian expansion into Eastern Europe and would protect the regimes that are loyal to Germany” Russian troops crossed the border into Belarus. Meeting only nominal resistance the Russians occupied Minsk and installed a new government. Berlin was silent. The Russians had called Wilhelm’s bluff and had effectively exposed the fact that Mitteleuropa was no longer able to offer protection to its members. German hegemony was over and the country could be counted lucky if it survived the war with France. A long way to fall for the most powerful nation in the world a decade ago.

Actually Germany will be left to fight out its war with France. We are just taking Eastern Europe and the Ottomans. Germans can't do much about it. But in the full update you will see that there is a new alliance out there threatening Russia. Care to guess what it is?

OOC: Sorry my friends, but this is the end of this AAR. I tried moding the game to change the alliance systems the way I wanted them and my save won't load now. I tried playing an autosave, but I am just not very interested in it and I feel that the interactive portion of it has not gone the way I had planned. I already have something else planned, for those of you who enjoyed reading this AAR. Thank you everyone.



Utopia Today – Reality Tomorrow

Something changed in the psyche of the Russian people in 1944. Something indescribable, but fundamental. And it wasn’t the realization that the Russian army was stronger than it has ever been or that the Russian economy was now the largest in the World. It was the realization that Russia, a country that since 1820 has suffered a string of unbearable defeats interrupted only by periods of disastrous internal turmoil, was now a Great Power. And it was also the sense of pride that came with that realization.

What brought it about? That is hard to day. Perhaps the collapse of the largest alliance system as a result of something simply published in a Russian newspaper. Perhaps the swift war with the Ottoman Empire where it took less than a month for Russian troops to capture Istanbul. Or perhaps the way that others begun to look up to the country, the way “Russian” was no longer a term of derision but a description of something innovative and efficient. A number of countries in Latin America had made plans to make their economies more “Russian.”

Russia’s enemies (the few that were left) were licking their wounds. Japan, Australia, and the Untied States formed a military alliance aimed specifically at containing Russia – the Pacific Treaty Organization. All three societies grew more militaristic and xenophobic by the day, terrified of the prospect of a Russian-dominated world even as people in Russia felt little more than pity towards those countries.

The war in Europe between France and Germany lasted until 1946. By that time neither side had made much progress against the other, more than 20 million people were dead, German and French economies were in ruin and the two sides were willing to talk. Russians supervised the talks and drafted the peace treaty that left France with little more than it had started with and transformed Germany into a democracy. Neither side was happy with the outcome but neither wanted to resume war.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was formed in Moscow shortly after the end of the war. The initial goal was providing economic support to Germany and her former allies, but the scope of the organization soon expanded to cover trade, investment, economic development, and even political integration. Germany recovered from the war with surprising speed while France and Britain (the only remaining Bolshevik countries) stagnated in their isolationism.

The end of the ‘40s saw the beginning of the “decade of prosperity.” Economic recovery in Europe fueled the Russian economy and the OECD expanded well beyond Europe, incorporating most Latin American countries, South Africa, India, Vietnam, and most of the Middle East. Viktor Chernov famously proclaimed that the OECD would eliminate poverty in the world “within a generation.” Social progress matched the pace of economic progress with education becoming commonplace even in areas of the world where it was unheard of before, women entered the labor market in force and ideas such as self-determination, universal human rights, and global governance become accepted everyday topics.

Viktor Chernov retired from politics in 1950 and Dmitri Romanov served two more terms as President until 1958. By that point Russian politics had undergone a transformation more radical than even the transition from the Tsarist regime to a Republic. The same political wrapping remained – there were the SRs and the Conservatives, the Kadets and the Octobrists – but the composition of the parties had changed. As information became more accessible through radio, TV, and newspapers more and more doctors, teachers, engineers, joined political parties. These people were not professional politicians – they simply served one or two terms in office and then went on with their lives after hopefully enacting whatever change they wanted to enact in the first place. The disappearance of a political class during the ‘60s resulted in broad political coalitions governing the country that included every, or almost every, political party.

1960 marked two important events in human history. On a cold and clear day of January 3rd spacecraft Vostok blasted off of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying on board Yuri Gagarin who became the first man in space. Three months later Russia and the OECD begun to provide economic and humanitarian assistance to France and Britain after a major famine struck both countries as a result of government policies. Bolshevism collapsed in both countries within two years and both countries joined the ranks of the OECD as full members.

The world was changing quickly. By 1975 personal computers have started to become common, satellites were used to help navigation, and in 1980 the first artificial heart was installed in a patient. Society and economy were changing as well, with the new digital age allowing people to communicate with anyone across the globe and share information. Innovation, often for the sake of innovation itself, became the driving goal of society and new ideas were often cherished simply for being new. Space exploration, for example, offered no immediate rewards to humanity, and yet it became a fixation throughout this period.

The first expedition to Mars took place in 1982, two years before the collapse of the authoritarian regimes in America, Australia, and Japan. Fifty years of repressions and economic mismanagement have left the three countries technologically, economically, and socially backwards. In Washington DC protesters gathered for a small demonstration that snowballed into a larger one. Over the course of a week similar demonstrations sprung up throughout the country in large cities and small towns. The military refused to fire on peaceful protestors and the government fled. Without American support the Australian and Japanese governments toppled soon after.

In 1988 Russian scientists solved the problem of cold fusion, and the following year the use of antimatter as a source of energy. In 1991 an expedition to Venus was planned on a spacecraft that used antimatter as an energy source, but that is a different story entirely.

Stay tuned for the continuation. To be announced shortly.