The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2

[Crazydunn98]

Perhaps, though Alexi is a new Liberal type Tsar. He may not grant Autonomy to Finland, Poland or Persia but, to other far off Countries such as what the UK did with Australia and New Zealand countries situated on the other side of the world. Perhaps he could do that in the Balkans, or if it gets that far a partitioned USA?

[Asalto]

I predict that Wrangel will have the same fate as Churchill. As soon as the war is over, hell be voted out.

Unless he cancels the elections...Churchil was not a military dictator, Wrangel is.

[Deus Eversor]

i think hhm, maybe before stating what will wrangel do later, lets debate on the chances of of both Wrangel and Tzar shall we? i think Russia is to small for someone with legit authority and for someone with real power...

[Falconette]

Unless he cancels the elections...Churchil was not a military dictator, Wrangel is.

I think that he wouldn't cancel elections - his coup was a shock for a society, a cancellation of the elections when the war is over will cause a revolution, which can affect even the Emperor. Russia got used to be democratic

[Falconette]

The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2

Chapter Four: 1939-1941
Part XXI: The things become balanced

De Gaulle's Free France was occupying quite small territory - a piece of French colonies in the Eastern Africa. At the beginning of their path they didn't look like a real power. But Wrangel decided to unofficially support the general - De Gaulle had similar political orientation and could be useful.

De Gaulle's lands in Africa


General is making a radio speech

On 11 of April after long (but hopeless) diplomatic negotiations Netherlands officially capitulated - technically all European Dutch territories were captured a week later. Queen Wilhelmina fled to Britain, while Dutch government and existing parts of army and navy ran to East India colonies. European global war lost one more Allied participant.

Holland capitulates


One of German tanks in the Netherlands

The war was going on - and it wasn't totally successful for the Axis - in Greece and Northern Africa Allied troops were crushing weak Italian divisions. Some balance in the war was achieved...

Attacking Greek soldiers

But Germans were ruthless and victorious - on 12 of April Denmark capitulated, making the war nearly bloodless. The Germans occupied Copenhagen without a single shot.

We're victorious, Mein Fuhrer


German soldiers in the Danish streets

In Libya Italian forces were retreating day by day - their strongpoint at Sidi Barrani was encircled by the British. Mussolini was begging Hitler to send expeditionary forces there, but German dictator said that he was busy in Spain...

Situation in the Northern Africa


Italian tankers in the desert

In the North the things were very interesting too - on 27 of April, according to R40 plan, British marines landed in Alesund. Their target was to rapidly occupy Norway and make it Allied. British soldiers were sure that weak Norwegian army, equipped with WW1-era weapons, won't cause any troubles.

Allied invasion in Norway


One of the ships which participated in the assault

In the Far East the Allies had some more reasons for optimism - Chinese army was standing strong against the assaulting Japanese corps - Kuomintang soldiers were near the borders of Manchukuo. To get more free troops and send them to Chinese front, Japan claimed French Indochina. Petain had to agree.

New Japanese territories


Japanese bomber on the raid, trying to crush the Chinese resistance with fire and bombs

April finished and May began - by 5 of May German troops successfully crossed the Spanish border and invaded Northern mountainous territories. Armies of Spanish republic fought heroically - they have nothing to lose but their lifes. Anyway, Germans were advancing - they captured Bilbao, Burgas and some minor cities only in a week. Commander of the German forces in Spain - general Rommel - became a very famous strategist of the Reich...

German operation in Spain


Rommel, a very promising commander, hero of French and Spanish campaigns

While the Germans were taking Spanish cities, Italy was in a great trouble - all her forces in the Balkans were destroyed and Greece occupied Italian Albania. Mussolini decided to find suitable allies in the Balkans to involve them into Axis and punish Greece for such a disaster.

Courageous Greeks managed to push Italians from the Balkans


A Greek flag over Albania

In June Free France started receiving supplies from both USA and Russia. Wrangel officially joined the Lend-Lease treaty and promised to support De Gaulle.

Military help for those who want to fight


The Baron meets a French general to sign the treaty

To be continued
Waiting for your comments
Next update: February, 1

[Jedrek]

The Franco-Russian alliance lives on Plus I see the awful performance of the Japanese is going to ruin the Far East once again...

[DoomBunny]

Good update. I think that Spain will put up a fight in the North, but once the Panzers are through the mountains and defenses it should be easy.

[Asalto]

Good to see that Franco-Russian relations are being boosted. Anyway, odd to see Free France being Market Liberal...nobody elected De Gaulle to this post, he usurped the power and created goverment in exile in a good Bonapartist manner, so Free France should be at least Social Conservative with only a slider away from dictatorship. Hopefully, this is only temporary democratic facade and both France and Russia will stay decent states after the war, safe of any kind of liberalism.

[Falconette]

@Asalto: I agree about ML in Free France, but the game thinks so

[Jedrek]

DH should take other sliders as well when it comes to defining the political model of the country - at least closed/open society and free/planned economy...

[Falconette]

AFAIK ideology matrix is based only on Authoritarian/Democratic and Left/Right...dunno is it editable or not...

[Jedrek]

IIRC, it indeed is, with some sliders locked with certain ideologies (you can't go fully free market without ML and so on). I personally think it should be the other way - left/right and democratic/authoritarian decide the main ideology (dictatorship, authoriarian government, conservatism, liberalism, socialism, etc.) with society and economy sliders deciding which exact name would be used (so that dictatorships would range from national socialism through autocracy to military dictatorship)... That way we'd avoid things like nazi Russia here But I guess it's up to DH team to edit mechanics...

[SovietAmerika]

You could just manually edit the slider positions yourself. It's what I do for certain situations that don't need too much modding. (such as a Social Democratic Poland and so on.)

[Sakura_F]

You can also change the names of the certain areas, like in Kaiserreich.

Stalinism -> Totalism
Leninism -> Bolshevism
LWR -> Syndicalism
etc.

[Jedrek]

Accutaly this doesn't solve my problem. Falconette's Russia is a fine example - it may be an authoritarian far-right dictatorship, but does it clasify as national socialism? Appointing a Polish foreign minister does not seem very nationalistic, and calling Russia's economic policy a socialist one would be an insult towards most socialists. What I call for are not alternative names, it's expanding the list

[Deus Eversor]

when russian empire existed, all slavs were considered one nation as the panslavic idea was very popular back then. slavic nations were more like tribes than nations, besides, poles didnt hate their slavic borthers, nor russians poles and same goes for yugo-slavs. since elimination of poland in XVIII century, therewas not slavic country to fight another slavic country (that is unless you consider bulgarians a slavs ) since that time, no slavic country to hate or fight the right of other slavic countrys/nations suvereignty...

i think its the best tiem to propose panslavic union and execute it.

edit: ah yes i actually wanted to say that since there is russian empire, there is panslavism and because there is panslavism, there is panslavic nationalism, just because it discloses differences among slavs, it doesnt say it isn't nationalism ^^

[Asalto]

Accutaly this doesn't solve my problem. Falconette's Russia is a fine example - it may be an authoritarian far-right dictatorship, but does it clasify as national socialism? Appointing a Polish foreign minister does not seem very nationalistic, and calling Russia's economic policy a socialist one would be an insult towards most socialists. What I call for are not alternative names, it's expanding the list

I think that such situations can be also simulated by making Authoritarian slider 100% dictatorship while keeping Left-Right slider just one move away from the Left (thus still being on the Right). This way, you still get Paternal Autocrat slider which suits politically more neutral juntas and personal dictatorships better. Of course this is not a solution if the fact that Left-Right slider is not 100% Right bothers you too. Such issue would be also legitimate as my proposal might not be suitable for a regimes that have no Left elements at all (Right-Wing dictatorship with corporativist economy or even Pinochet/militarist Argentina-styled dictatorship with liberal economic system). However, if Wrangelist Russia combines liberal, corporativist and socialist elements in its economic system (small business is not bothered, big business is managed in corporativist manner while some independent labour structures like cooperatives are allowed too), then such setup would suit Russia too. But I'm not sure if Wrangel would be really a copy of Juan Peron...

Speaking of Juan Peron, if he'll get in power before you'll end this scenario, could Russia approach Argentia too, Falconette? In Kaiserreich scenario, I was always attracted to the idea of dark alliance, consisted of Long's America, Peronist Argentina, Wrangelist Russia and Gaullist France (with De Gaulle as military dictator/authoritarian president or with De Gaulle as de facto dictator of restored Kingdom of France/3rd French Empire). In your scenario, I'd be content with axis of constitutional but still authoritarian Russian Empire (big boss), Gaullist France (no matter in what kind of authoritarian shape) and Peronist Argentina.

[Timmie0307]

Yeah, but first we have to see how the war progresses...nice ideas though . I can imagine some sort of Cold War later on between USA and Russia when Russia does not allow its citizens a lot of freedom + other conflicts...in which Great Britain has a difficult choice. Nevertheless first survive the German onslaught..

Tim

[Crazydunn98]

I would imagine it being a Cold War between a Republican Alliance headed by the USA and a Monarchist Alliance headed by Russia

[Deus Eversor]

and that will be the last step before forming The Human Empire, a bright new mind takes over throne, forms new dynasty and conquers the rest of the world!