• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Status
Not open for further replies.
...you horrible plebians...
Hm, not showing quite the level of trust in The People that one would expect from a true Socialist, eh comrade? Are we already heading down the road of For the People, not By the People? :p

Anyway, this sounds quite interesting. Even if I never manage a meaningful vote, it should still be enlightening. Possibly even educational, given my weak knowledge of the history of socialism. :)
 
In game I have changed the usual parties into my factions. The Communist Pary in game is the Marxists, the Liberals the Anarchists

So what are the Reactionaries called? Stalinists? Orthodox Marxists?
 
Sounds good.

Not sure I will be much use to you on the revolutionary front. As a British person I may assume we have achieved complete revolution as soon as we have public healthcare and some trinket reforms.
 
Members of the Central Committee – January 1st 1850

CentralCommittee1850.jpg


The Central Committee was formed in a way that would limit the powers of any particular faction over the key offices of state. Each member of the Committee played a key role in the Revolution – frustratingly for those who wanted balance within the Committee the Marxists just so happened to be the most active force of the revolution and held 4 of the 9 offices (although Blanqui often followed an agenda entirely of his own despite being an official part of the Marxist faction).

The Members

Karl Marx
Chairman
(Marxist)


YoungerMarx.jpg


Karl Marx is a man who needs no introduction. At just 32 years of age he has become a titan of the worldwide Socialism. He is both ambitious and intellectually brilliant – he is also considered to be the most intellectual of a Central Committee unmatched across the world for sheer brain power. In 1848 he, alongside his close friend Engels, released the Communist Manifesto which set out the belief structure of his own brand of Socialism. In late 1848 he and Engels came to the Rhineland after Blanqui called upon them to help lead the revolution to victory. During the revolution two cliques of revolutionaries formed – those who stayed in Cologne and discussed their grand plans for the future and those who went out and won that future for the people. Marx was originally in the former group but unlike most of the intellectual revolutionaries he did indeed leave Cologne to deliver a series of speeches to revolutionary troops towards the cataclysmic conclusion of the revolution. When the Central Committee was formed on January 1st 1850 he was given the role of temporary Chairman – depending on the result of the coming Party election who could either retain his position or pass it on to another faction leader.

Wilhelm Weitling
General Secretary
(German Socialist)


437px-WilhelmWeitling.jpg


At 42 in most governments Weitling would be a youngster but in the Central Committee he is one of the older, steadier heads. Once praised by Engels as ‘’the founder of German Communism’’ Weitling is often berated by Marxists for being a utopian socialist – a relic of the early development of the ideology. However he leads the most popular faction with the people of the VSVR and by far the oldest. Weitling’s socialism is very different form Marx’s – he brings German nationalism, populism, early socialism and religion together. Most of his revolutionary works link Christianity to Communism and in the year before the revolution he was arrested in Zurich was blasphemy after publishing a work that described Jesus Christ as a Communist. His ‘evangelical’ branch of socialist is very popular with the less educated members of society. During the early stages of the revolution Weitling, one of the great men of action, shunned the then much weaker revolutionary factions and attempted to defeat the Prussians on his own. However after facing a military defeat to the Prussians he was forced to join forces with the Marxists and Anarchists before victory could be achieved. In his position as General Secretary he sits on the second most important office of state, if used properly it could well be the most valuable. It is his responsibility to convey the decisions of the Central Committee to the lower ranks of the party and it is also his responsibility to appoint some members to some of the lower ranks of the party.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Commissar for Finance
(Collectivist Anarchist)


proudhon_small.jpg


Proudhon was the first man to describe himself as an Anarchist. At 41 years old he has outdone even Marx in terms of revolutionary works (most notably ‘’What is Property?’’) yet lacks the wide base of respect that his younger opponent has. Outside of the Anarchist movement Proudhon lacks respect for two key reasons – Anarchism is commonly looked down upon by the other leftist factions and he is French. Like so many of the revolutionaries he was in Paris at the start of 1848 and only left when the counter-revolutionaries started to reassert their control. Unlike Marx he went straight to the Rhineland (Marx and Engels first went to Brussels) after leaving Paris and because of this the then weak Anarchist movement was able to become a significant force by 1849. Whilst he was able to build up a significant powerbase for the Anarchists he knew he would be unable to secure revolution without the other factions and was the single most important figure in the foundation of the pan-party coalition that eventually evolved into the People’s Party. As Commissar for Finance he has vast powers beyond the Central Committee. His position effectively gives him responsibility for the entire Rhenish economy.

Johann Eccarius
Trade Union Councillor
(Trade Unionist)


eccarius.gif


Another 32 year old, Eccarius in unique in the Central Committee in that he did not play a major role in the leadership of the revolution nor did his faction and he had little to do with the revolution before 1848. His rise to power was a post revolutionary phenomenon, when the Trade Unions found themselves empowered but without proper representation they forced Eccarius into the Central Committee. Although not a major leader Eccarius does have some revolutionary credentials – he ordered his Union members onto the streets very on in the revolution and from then on fought for the revolution. He served first in Weitling’s army and then later in Weydemeyer’s as an officer. Unlike most members of the Committee he had to kill for the revolution and did not merely talk about it. In his position as Trade Union Councillor he is in an immensely powerful position – able to coordinate of the factory workers, miners, lumberjacks and farmers of the Rhineland he has the power to cripple the state at any time. He acts as a direct conduit between the Union and the Central Committee and thus from the workers themselves to the Central Committee.

Joseph Weydemeyer
Commissar for Military Affairs
(Marxist)


Weydemeyer.jpg


Yet another man from that golden vintage of 1818 Weydemeyer was not an active revolutionary before 1849 but was perhaps the most important figure in its success. In fact he was a high ranking Prussian military commander but at heart a socialist. He led around 3,000 men who were stationed in the Rhineland and deliberately did not march against the people in the early part of the revolution – allowing it to build momentum in a manner that it failed to elsewhere. He later betrayed his Prussian commanders and led his men as a part of the revolution – he later became supreme commander of the military forces of the revolution. It was his military victories that defeat the Prussians and other counter-revolutionary armies to secure the VSVR. Being a young and brilliant General he was the obvious choice to take charge of the People’s Army giving him a large powerbase and significant responsibility.

Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
Party Secretary for the Ruhr
(German Socialist)


460px-Feuerbach_Ludwig.jpg


As a 46 year old Feuerbach was a comparative ancient amongst the bright young things of the revolution. However he was well respected as a leftist philosopher and leading figure within Weitling’s faction. Despite being one of the first revolutionary figures to arrive in the scene and being the only one of the great socialist intellectuals to actually be in Cologne when the city fell he was the epitome of the intellectual, inactive portion of the revolution. He never led any men, he did little actual organising and rarely left his apartments in Cologne expect to meet with other revolutionaries. Despite this he played a major role in finally convincing Weitling to join the other leftists in the People’s Party and can thus take a lot of responsibility for the revolution’s eventual success. As Party Secretary for the Ruhr he has an invaluable powerbase in one of the most industrially developed places on earth.

Mikhail Bakunin
Commissar for Justice
(Collectivist Anarchist)


Young_Bakunin.jpg


Bakunin was a 36 year old Russian with a military background and a long history of exile (during which time he had come to know many of the leading revolutionaries such as Proudhon, Marx and Engels). Initially in 1848 he had attempted to raise the Slavs of the Austrian Empire in revolt – however after a mixture of failure and close shaves with the Austrian authorities he came to the Rhineland. Once there he played an active role in leading the Anarchist militia whilst still playing a significant role in most key negotiations in Cologne. This commitment to two very different roles during the revolution meant that he was never as important as Weydemeyer or Blanqui in revolutionary matters and never as important as the figures that stayed mostly in Cologne in negotiations. That being said, he was granted an important office as Commissar for Justice which makes him one of the key men in the reordering of Rhenish society.

Friedrich Engels
Commissar for Foreign Affairs
(Marxist)


Engels_1856.jpg


Engels is the baby of the Central Committee at just 29 years old. A famed writer already having co-written the Communist Manifesto alongside Marx in 1848 he has travelled with his dearest friend for many years and is totally devoted to him. He played a major organisational role during the revolution and was one of the key men in the creation of the People’s Party. However he rarely left the comparative safety of Cologne throughout the revolution. Engels can justly feel hard done by for being given the role of Commissar for Foreign Affairs. In 1850 this role consists almost entirely of trying to keep the country out of war whilst being mostly shunned by the world’s foreign offices. However Marx was forced to give up the fight to give his friend a more important office (with a larger powerbase) after it became apparent that the other factions feared the disproportionately large number of Marxists within the Central Committee.

Louis Auguste Blanqui
Minister for Intelligence and Deputy Commissar for Military Affairs
(In Theory Marxist, In Reality – Independent)


blanqui.jpg


At 45 Blanqui is the second oldest man in the Central Committee and is the most seasoned revolutionary. By 1848 he already had a very active history having spent the previous two decades fighting on the streets to make France a Republic. In 1848 he was one of the most important figures who set off the wave of revolutions in 1848 and helped secure Paris for the revolutionaries. However when the French counter revolutionaries retook the city he evaded capture and fled to the Rhineland. Rather than rest on his laurels Blanqui quickly attached himself to the Marxists and engaged in the Rhineland revolution. He, more than anyone else, transformed the rioters on the streets into committed revolutionary soldiers. It was he who founded the People’s Guard (Marxist militias) and it was he who led the revolutionaries in the capture of Cologne. It was also he who invited Marx and Engels to come to the city to help legitimise his cause. Later he became a military commander and showed great ability as he served as Weydemeyer’s second in command. Despite his impressive revolutionary credentials he is distrusted by both the Marxists and the non-Marxists but is simply too popular to touch. In truth his ideology is not Marxist but Blanquist and despite being attached to the Marxists he functions as if he leads a separate faction. As Minister for Intelligence Blanqui does not only have responsibility for foreign intelligence but has also been given a mandate to form his own secret police to help bring about social change in the name of the revolution. He also holds the non-Central Committee post of Deputy Commissar for Military Affairs which expands his already large powerbase into the army.
 
This was jsut to give you an idea of who the main people are going to be. Don't worry, most updates will have less writing and more action.

At the moment I expect the mains guys to be - Marx, Proudhon, Blanqui and Weitling. But your votes could change things. ;)

Also every single pic with the exception of Eccarius (couldn't find any of him) are actually of the person in question. Most are of the person around the right date but some aren't sadly. For example Weydemeyer looks a bit older than mid-30s. :p
 
Count me in for sure. :D

This first update was very nice and informative. Keep it up!
 
Nice to see lots of comments. :)

It looks great and it was a good read, very informative, I'm looking forward to voting for something/someone (I'm not too sure of your system)

It'll become more obvious at the time.

Mmm, history lessons...
I'll throw you a cookie, this the right eccarius?
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/e/pics/eccarius.jpg

I have no idea what he looks like. Here's the page on him from the Marxist Internet Archive - http://www.marxists.org/archive/eccarius/index.htm

Same guy?

Comrades, I am glad to be here with you all to bring our revolution to completion. Let us go forward in the spirit of fraternal equality.

Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite! (my spelling is likely totally wrong all the way through).

Count me in for sure. :D

This first update was very nice and informative. Keep it up!

Thanks.

Feuerbach<3!!!

The beard? It is epic.

Comrades, I'm looking forward on this great revolution!

!

Cant wait to vote

I can't wait to see how you guys vote. :p

Awesome update, cant wait to see what happens and poor Mikhail Bakunin is the only one without an awesome beard :)

You've clearly never seen a picture of him when he got older

The next update is about the revolution itself. Expect it tommorow or during the weekend.
 
The beard? It is epic.

Personally, I'm partial to Weydemeyer's hairy ensemble - the fuzzy white beard, the curls in his neck and then that absurdly pointed bald bullet-head...

Anyway, I digress. :p

Eccarius sounds like a practical man. That I like. And what exactly is Blanquism? Not sure there, but if it serves as a counterweight against the preponderance of the Marxists, I'm all for it. :) I prefer a balance of power to complete dominance by any faction.
 
The Rhineland Revolution – 1848-1850

The reasons for the outbreak of the wave of revolutions in 1848 have frequently been discussed. Liberal tensions had been rising for decades whilst new radical ideas had swept the continent. At the same time nationalism was on the rise whilst only a few nation states existed. Recent urbanisation had created large numbers of oppressed urban poor whilst in the countryside conditions remained almost medieval. All these rising tensions eventually erupted in an orgy of revolution as the people of Europe demanded to have their say – the was the Springtime of the Peoples.

france1848.jpg


It began, like so many great movements, in Paris. Just two days after Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto in London the French capital exploded in violent revolution as the people looked to overthrow King Louis-Philippe. The most important figure of this violent period of the revolution in Paris was Blanqui who organised the unruly rabble into a force dedicated to overthrowing the King. The revolution started on February 23rd, two days later Louis-Philippe fled and by February 29th his troops had withdrawn from Paris as well. The Second French Republic from proclaimed and revolutionaries shot to the city like moths to a flame. At the same time revolutions started to spring up across Europe – most notably in Germany and Hungary.

765px-Maerz1848_berlin.jpg


It was in March that the revolution really started to kick off in Germany. Whilst in France Republicanism had been the main unifying force of the revolution in Germany it was pan-nationalism. Across the country the Republican tricolour of the German nation was flown alongside bands of workers and peasants as they rioted for freedom. Yet even at this early stage it was clear that things were different in the Rhineland. Whilst most of Germany was largely rural with only small pockets of proletarians the Rhineland was heavily industrialised and heavily proletarian. In Cologne the main printing presses that published the Communist Manifesto were pumping out copies of Marx’s work and it was here were most of the copies remained. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that the workers of the Rhineland did not carry with them the Republican tricolour but the red flag. They did not riot for the unification of a bourgeoisie nation but for class war and the creation of a state in which the people, not an aristocratic of bourgeois clique, ruled.

14879-p.jpg


As Spring turned to Summer in 1848 things started to go against the revolution. In July Louis-Philippe returned to Paris with a large army from the Southern provinces of France causing an exodus of revolutionaries. Marx and Engels, fearing that the entire revolution was on the verge of collapse fled to Belgium. Meanwhile the Frenchmen Proudhon and Blanqui went to Cologne – now with Paris lost to the counterrevolution Cologne seemed to be the centre of the entire European-wide revolution. Both men were in Cologne by the end of July and found that the Rhineland was already virtually lost to the Prussians.

Before the arrival of the Frenchmen the undisputed leader of the revolution was Weitling. Weitling’s decision to spread the revolution out of the cities is one of the key reasons for its eventual success. His reasons for doing this are not quite so visionary as one might think – by midsummer 1848 the cities were far too volatile to control, the urban proletarians were also much less impressed with Weitling’s ‘evangelical’ socialist rhetoric than the rural population. This meant that Weitling and his German Socialist focussed on spreading revolutionary fervour to new areas and did not preach to the already converted urban poor. Meanwhile in Cologne Weitling’s ideologist in chief Feuerbach helped spread the ideas of the German Socialists across the Rhineland.

As soon as Blanqui arrived he threw himself into the depths of the Rhenish mob in Cologne, seeing the popularity of Marxism with the people he portrayed himself as a Marxist through and through. Around the same time Bakunin arrived in the Rhineland after failing to stir the Slavs of the Austrian Empire into revolution and started to organise the Anarchists into revolutionary units.

cologne.jpg


The speed at which Blanqui worked to whip the Marxist rabble into shape was quite extraordinary. On September 5th, after barely a month in Germany, he led the Marxists in the armed seizure of the Rhineland’s greatest city – Cologne. Suddenly it became apparent to revolutionary and counterrevolutionary alike that in the Rhineland there was a serious chance of the socialists succeeding. On September 10th Blanqui requested Marx’s presence in Cologne to help his legitimise his leadership of the Marxists – the great man arrived on September 20th and was joined two days later by Engels.

BR01-2416.jpg


At this moment Prussian High Command, which was still fighting for control of Berlin and Silesia, ordered Weydemeyer (a man they had feared to use early in the revolution due to his apparent sympathies with the revolutionaries) to march on Cologne with his 3,000 men. Instead Weydemeyer declared his army for the revolution and swore allegiance to the revolutionary government in Cologne.

Following the capture of Cologne the Anarchists, German Socialists and Marxists seemed to engage in a race to see which side could secure the most cities and territory as possible in the absence of any meaningful Prussian resistance. As it started to become apparent to the Marxists and Anarchists that Weitling’s forces were vastly superior to their own the two most ideologically opposed leftist factions of the revolution agreed to unite under the banner of the People’s Party.

proudhon.jpg


The architect of the formation of the People’s Party in December and January was the Anarchist leader Proudhon. Proudhon used his political nous to convince Engels that the Marxists needed to join forces with the Anarchists. By getting Engels firmly on side Proudhon was then able to convince a reluctant Karl Marx to agree to the alliance in the name of the revolution. On a high from his success with the Marxists Proudhon then began to bring the most powerful leftist faction – the German Socialists – into the People’s Party but despite a receptive Feuerbach their leader, Weitling, remained confident that he could achieve victory for his party alone. By the start of Spring 1849 Prussian influence in the Rhineland had been crushed. Along the Rhine itself and throughout the Ruhr the People’s Party (split roughly 65-35 between Marxists and Anarchists respectively) was more powerful than the German Socialists but outside of these areas its influence remained rather weak. Weitling’s party remained the clear leaders of the revolution.

Both sides had also started to build up their own armies. Weitling commanded an impressive 80,000 men however they were a poorly armed, pathetically trained and badly disciplined rabble. The People’s Party on the other hand had Weydemeyer and the energetic Blanqui training their army. Weydemeyer had added to his 3,000 ex-Prussian troops with another 5,000 men who were now trained almost up to the same standard. Blanqui on the other hand had concentrated on drilling large numbers of men and had around 25,000 men – all were armed and his force was mostly disciplined but still far behind Weydemeyer’s troops. All this was just as well for in March 30,000 Prussian soldiers entered the North-Eastern Rhineland. Weitling was quick to lead his large army out to face them.

jelacic-1848b-300x217.jpg


Weitling’s rabble proved no match was the elite Prussian Army. Things were only made worse by the fact that Weitling, a man who was no General, was facing Generalfeldmarschall von Wrangel – one of Prussia’s finest and most experienced military minds. Out of 80,000 men who entered the battle the socialists lost 10,000 saw a further 20,000 capture whilst the majority of the rest simply dispersed following the battle. Weitling limped back towards Cologne with around 12,000 men (Just 15% of his original force) and sent word to Feuerbach that he was willing to enter the People’s Party and would also give over his remaining troops to Weydemeyer.

Wrangel was no fool and realised that the odds were still against him even after his great victory at the Battle of Munster. He decided to agree to a plan put forth by the Prussian Foreign Office in which the Dutch would invade with 15,000 men from the North and would in exchange receive Cleves (in truth the Dutch were preparing to invade under any circumstance, this merely formalised the invasion). As the Dutch army poured over the border and started to threaten Cologne directly Weydemeyer was left in a perilous position as Wrangel slowed his advance to a crawl. If he marched North to fight the Dutch then Wrangel could easily pounce forward and take Cologne, thus ending the revolution. Yet if he stayed where he was the Dutch would threaten Cologne itself and he could not trust his rearguard to hold the city against 15,000 Dutchmen.

maprhen.jpg


In the end Weydemeyer opted for a high risk strategy. He would ignore the Dutch and march head on into the jaws of the Prussian army. News had reached Weydemeyer that a small force of around 8,000 seasoned troops had just stumbled over the border from Baden and had formed up at Koblenz (where they had been recently beaten by the Badenese Army), these troops could prove invaluable so Blanqui was sent South to gather these troops and to raise whatever soldiers he could on route before returning North. Meanwhile Weydemeyer would, after giving Blanqui a few days head start, march East to face Wrangel with around 40,000 soldiers (8,000 true soldiers, 12,000 from Weitling and 20,000 from Blanqui’s men).


On April 15th Blanqui set out for Koblenz. On April 16th he reached the city and gathered the troops (around 8,000 Badenese and 3,000 other soldiers). On April 17th Weydemeyer set out on his way to Wrangel’s army. On April 18th his troops skirmished with Wrangel’s for the first time. On April 20th (with Blanqui fast approaching from the South) the two armies joined in battle.

molino-del-ray.jpg


Weydemeyer was in an inevitable position. He was forced to go on the offensive against the most feared army in Europe with what was essentially a rabble army with sprinklings of crack troops. Yet Weydemeyer proved to be a master of manoeuvre and was able to use his crack troops in every attack. He divided these units of soldiers and used them in a ratio of 1 to 2 with the irregulars. Each unit of regular soldiers also fought almost continuously whilst the irregulars were used slightly more sparingly. By peppering the Prussian lines with attack after attack, never giving them time to rest Weydemeyer made his small numerical advantage appear much bigger and he started to sap the moral of the Prussians. On the second day of the battle Prussian discipline seemed to start to break down as units frequently broke from combat and Wrangel’s commands failed to filter down to the ranks. It became clear that Wrangel’s army was suffering horrific casualties whilst it appeared that the socialist casualties were much lower (in truth they were about the same, even slightly worse). Realising that he had no need to defeat Weydemeyer this day (by this stage the Dutch were again bearing down on Cologne) Wrangel decided to withdraw his troops from the battle.

This proved to be a costly mistake. Wrangel’s hopes of an orderly withdrawal were not fulfilled as the Prussians lost their formation and their organisation as they fled back Eastward. Weydemeyer pursued them, knowing that Blanqui’s army had managed to position itself around 12 miles behind the Prussians and was ready to block their retreat.

image3.jpg


Wrangel and his entire army were captured.

Weydemeyer quickly organised his forces and returned to Cologne to fight off the Dutch. This was indeed accomplished but at great cost. Even with the capital relatively safe his army was in tatters having suffered heavy casualties and the Dutch remained entrenched in the Northern portion of the Ruhr. From May until the start of August Weydemeyer led the revolutionary armies in attack after attack against the Dutch positions until they were forced back into the Netherlands. After this the Dutch King reluctantly made peace with the revolutionaries, fearing an invasion of the Netherlands themselves. For the rest of August peace started to settle upon the Rhineland until September 12th when the Prussians launched their final attempt to reclaim their lost provinces. 12,000 Prussian soldiers and 6,000 Hanoverians entered the North-Eastern territories.

Unlike Wrangel this force actively tried to avoid battle and instead attempted to pick on smaller units of Weydemeyer’s army to try and bleed him dry and sap moral. However the Prussians had miscalculated, as Summer slowly faded away it started to become much more difficult for their army to live off the land and they were forced to reduce their army’s mobility in order to make it easier for supplies to reach it. This allowed Weydemeyer and his lieutenants to start attacking it directly. By start of November it had been thrown out of the Rhineland.

On November 23rd the King of Prussia agreed to a peace treaty with the People’s Party of the Rhineland although he refused to recognise its independence as a state (the treaty was worded as a ceasefire with a rebel army). However it was clear that this really meant admittance by the right that the revolution had succeeded.

On December 20th the United Socialist People’s Republic (Vereinigte Sozialistische Volksrepublik) or VSVR was officially proclaimed and it was decided that the country should be ruled by a Central Committee until Communism could be achieved. The Central Committee officially convened on January 1st 1850, Karl Marx was made the stand in Chairman until an election could take place in which the Chairman and the plan of action for the next 5 years could be decided.
 
Personally, I'm partial to Weydemeyer's hairy ensemble - the fuzzy white beard, the curls in his neck and then that absurdly pointed bald bullet-head...

Anyway, I digress. :p

Eccarius sounds like a practical man. That I like. And what exactly is Blanquism? Not sure there, but if it serves as a counterweight against the preponderance of the Marxists, I'm all for it. :) I prefer a balance of power to complete dominance by any faction.

Blanquism is similar to Leninism in many respects. He believed in the vanguard part. Basically a small group of proffessional revolutionaries would take control in a coup (much like the October Revolution in Russia) this same small group would then lead the proleteriat forward towards Communism. Marx on the other hand believed that the whole proleteriat should move towards Communsim together rather than be led.

In the end I expect Blanqui will split from Marx in my AAR but at this stage he's officially a Marxist.


Phew!

I've finally finished the last of the back story. I'm afraid that didn't come out nearly as well as I'd hoped :(. O well, at least its done.

Next update you can have a detailed look at the VSVR in game.
 
Don't be too hard on yourself. Your were trying to cover a lot of action for a single post.

Can the next post include a map? My Rhineland geogrpahy is a bit sketchy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.