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Veritas555, while I understand that suggesting required reading for an AAR is presumptuous of me, but since you're interested in this subject I'd highly recommend "A Concise history of the Communist party of the Soviet Union" by John Reshtar. Though it was written in the 60s, it's one of the few histories I've read of the subject that devotes so much time to the Party's history before 1914. Long story short: the Bolsheviks used the creation of the Duma to their own ends, acting in many cases as an unloyal opposition and seeing the new pseudo-democratic system as another front for their war.
 
Veritas555, while I understand that suggesting required reading for an AAR is presumptuous of me, but since you're interested in this subject I'd highly recommend "A Concise history of the Communist party of the Soviet Union" by John Reshtar. Though it was written in the 60s, it's one of the few histories I've read of the subject that devotes so much time to the Party's history before 1914. Long story short: the Bolsheviks used the creation of the Duma to their own ends, acting in many cases as an unloyal opposition and seeing the new pseudo-democratic system as another front for their war.

Haha, it's no trouble at all. I'll add it to the list of an admittedly long list of books I have planned to read. Update tomorrow night. I got promoted at work so I haven't had as much time on my hands. I'll try to do as many as I can this week since I'm travelling this weekend and will be unable to update Friday and Saturday.

Thanks for your patience, everyone.


—V
 
Chapter V: Safari

January 25th, 1908

Things have been going well, but not too well.

The Albanians have not only become a thorn in the paw of the Turkish lion but a thorn in our paw as well. They're just too damn obstinate. They refuse to listen to us when we tell them to save their strength for when we ultimately rise up against the Ottoman slave drivers; there is strength in numbers.

They apparently don't see things that way. They are fed up with the Turks and want freedom as soon as possible. If they don't choose to join us, they won't get it. Dirk and I met with the Albanian leader, a man by the name of Liridon, and we managed to convince him to calm his men down but he couldn't wait long, at least not as long as we wanted him too.

Truthfully though, I doubt it matters much. The Albanian armed forces are so small in number that they wouldn't mean much to the mass revolt of the people we have in store. They also don't blend with our ideology; they're friends by circumstances.

But I grow tired of business talk. I started this journal as a way to log my journey through the communist world, to document my hopelessly idealistic ideals. I really believed that the corporate, greedy earth could be swayed through words rather than deeds. I was a writer back then, I'm not anymore.

Nevertheless, I'll humor my old self for a short while and indulge myself in romantic musings.

I picked up the newspaper today and the featured story was an expose on the considerable uptick of wealthy European tourists visiting Ottoman Africa and the amount of safaris that have sprung up as a result.

safarix.jpg

It made me reminisce of the times I visited Ottoman Africa—the Tanzania province—years ago, as the routes for the ill-fated Trans African Railroad were being planned.

The idea was we would try to stake out where the intended routs were supposed to be. We'd find out where they would go, then infiltrate the surrounding areas so by the time bureaucracy was served and construction actually had begun, we'd have a solid footing in the community, making sabotage far easier.

The trip was awful.

The safaris had already started to spring up, and being surrounded by the grotesque capitalist pigs of Europe sickened me.

They were pompous, and lazy, and cruel to the natives. I've done...questionable things, but to see "nobility" go so low as to do the things I saw...

One of the most horrid things was when I saw a cartographer talking with some engineers. The village we were in was in the perfect plain for a railroad to Tanzania's interior. It had to be demolished.

villageq.jpg

The village that was fated to be destroyed.

As I heard these words I simply thought of the village. How many years had it been there? How many generations of Tanzanians had called it home? What myths originated there? What customs did they have?

The answers didn't matter. Where once stood a village of true nobles, would now stand a lifeless, horrific monument to the "progress" of mankind—nay, to the progress of money, industry, capitalism and the rape of the working man.

The over-zealous soldiers that were part of the group sent into Tanzania along with us interpreted the fact that the village had to be eventually destroyed as an order to destroy the village that day. I've seen battles, I've sent people to die, I've taken lives, and I've done so without remorse (and was even glad in some cases)but it was to a greater end: the liberation of mankind. The innocent lives I saw taken that day still haunt me.

And the European onlookers didn't bat an eyelash at the horrors. It was just another look at the wild nature of the savanna, something akin to watching a lion devour a zebra.

But they had riches, and power, so it was alright; they could do what they wanted. The had the right to do that to another human being just because of their material wealth. So, while the trip was horrifying in some ways, it strengthened my resolve to the cause; I had to open my eyes one day and see red-colored stars in the sky, on all the flags of the world. Just like a beautiful, comforting red-colored star eventually adorned the Union Jack after the revolution.

At the risk of sounding even more romantic, I picked up a necklace that was among the ruins, I still wear it underneath my shirt to remind me of what I'm fighting for, and fighting against. The fight to liberate the worker was also the fight against evil. These disgusting caricatures of humans didn'tcare about life, they only cared about numbers, about profit, about productivity, about efficiency. Life is more than numbers. Humans are more than numbers.

I'm beginning to ramble...




________________________________________
 
Chapter VI: Turkish Bayonets​

"The industrial world is changing," Lee said to his underlings as they silently listened around the aged wooden table, whose cracks in the wood were as numerous as meetings the communist cabal had while sitting at it.

Perhaps the table had cracked from the enormity of the decisions made over it, or of the importance of the documents and maps placed upon it.

Despite the cracks, it was sturdy.

"Have you all heard of the recent horrors going on in factories all over the Empire—all over the world?" Lee continued. "These factory pigs have gotten control over their fellow man down to a science. Every minute a man takes is accounted for, every breath, every motion, it's all monetized. Man has become living machinery, if you can call being a wage slave living."

heirarchy.jpg

"You're right, Comrade," Dirk replied. "One of our agents in Istanbul reported to me a week ago of a new machine that's been invented in the Empire. It's called the "Internal Combustion Engine" and it's an incredible source of power. They say it will ultimately change the face of the world, although that change is only good for the rich, I'm sure."

enginel.jpg

Before Lee could address his second in command, the secret knock was heard. The door was opened and Jean burst in, his face pale and his skin shiny with sweat.

"Where the hell have you been, Jean!? Why are you sweating so much!?" barked Lee.

"Sir..." Jean said and took a few deep breaths "They've decided to ignore or demands to wait for our lead; they've begun preparations for an all-out rebellion against the Turks!"

Jean then threw that days newspaper on the table. Another barely visible crack appeared on the table.

sabotage.jpg

The paper read that "Greek" saboteurs had damaged the industrial facilities in Edessa. But to those in the know, there was no question as to the ethnic identity of the saboteurs. They were saboteurs who were in Greece, but they weren't Greek saboteurs, they were Albanian.

edessafactory.jpg

The region once had a sprawling group of paper mills. After the sabotage, it was barely functional and losing money. While paper doesn't sound that important, the primary industry in the region was the logging and timber industry. With the paper mill severely damaged, there was less demand for their product. With less demand, came less money, less people employed, and more angst for the Ottoman government to deal with. An uptick in sabotage in the regions outside Albania was the first stage in their revolt plans.

Even worse, the headquarters of the British Communist 5th columnists was in Edessa.

"IDIOTS! FOOLS! HORRIBLE, DECEITFUL INGRATES!" Dirk shouted. The crowd of the other communists yelled anti-Albanian slurs in response.

This was no accident. The Albanian's had wanted to gain Albanian independence as soon as possible, the communists wanted them to wait. This lead to numerous disputes until the two rebel organizations finally had a falling out that nearly ended in a shooting war between both factions; the enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend.

By conducting sabotage in Edessa, the Albanians were trying to distract the Turkish intelligence forces from the Albanian nationalists and put them on the trail of the underground communists.

Lee pinched the bridge of his nose and then responded "Relax, Dirk. We'll be alright. We'll have to scale down our operations briefly, and call in a few favors, but we'll be alright. And as for the Albanians, they still have their use."

The room paused, intrigued with what Lee had to say.

"You see, it's to our advantage if the Albanians get themselves killed in a pointless bid for independence. First, it'll allow us to gauge the Ottoman Army's response and reaction time to a revolt, information that'll be invaluable to us in planning the revolution of the proletariat. And second, it'll show these idiotic nationalist groups that their individual armies can't win without us. The Ottomans are overstretched, but they still have enough to crush the Albanians like bugs. We'll sit back, observe, pull relevant information out of it, and move on. The revolt will then belong to history students."

The fate of the Albanian independence movement was decided: they would suffer at the end of Turkish bayonets. The rest of the meeting went on as usual.



____________________________________________________________________
 
Very nice, And I hope to see a Communist victory!
 
The story of the Tanzanian Village was truly touching and the Communists continue to gain favour for their cause. I look forward to their hopefully successful future!
 
Chapter VII: Inglorious Defeat

July 23rd, 1908

The Albanian threat is over; the fools got what they deserved.

On May 31st, 1908, the 24,000 men of the Albanian Liberation Army revolted against the Ottoman Empire against our continued warnings that it was a fool's errand.

albaniarevolt.jpg

The Albanian press talked about how glorious their freedom from the Turks was and how the Empire was decaying too rapidly for the Ottoman army to do anything. They thought that the Ottomans would just let Albania go.

They were wrong.

albaniaattack.jpg

The first battle of the ill-fated Albanian "war" of independence.

The Ottomans are a lot of things, but they aren't stupid. The know of the dozens of independence movements afoot in the Balkans and elsewhere. If they were to let one of them go free after an armed insurrection that saw the brutal deaths of quite a few government officials, the others would spring up and the Empire would lose its place as a great power and would be reduced to Anatolia (not that that would be a bad thing).

But even though the revolt was insignificant in terms of the number of men fielded, it was still an armed rebellion against the Empire; an army had to be mobilized and properly fitted with weapons, ammunition, and materiel and sent to march against the enemy.

This cost money that the Empire didn't have. Our man in the government said that the only way to fund the crushing of the rebellion was to further raise taxes.

The poor were being taxed into starvation and the government didn't dare raise taxes on the rich who were do desperately tangled up in the Trans-African railroad. Thus, they planned on raising taxes on the middle class.

irregulararmy.jpg

The army that marched against the Albanians. It took less than 1,000 despite being outnumbered and comprised of many irregulars.

Of course, this tax raise hasn't been enacted or announced to the general public yet. The army that took outthe Albanians while barely taking any losses is still on its way back to Istanbul. It'd be suicide to practically double the tax rate on the struggling middle class without having the army in the most densely-populated middle class area in the Empire—Istanbul.

Truthfully, whilst I'm glad the Albanians were crushed (and their "glorious" revolt lasted less than two months. After rebelling on May 31st, the last of their "army" was eradicated on July 21st, only a month after coming into contact with a Turkish army of 23,000) this incident is worrying.

The Turkish response was quicker than we had anticipated. Even worse, the increase in taxes is going to have a massive impact on the general malaise in the Empire. We had hoped to control the people and revolt when the time was right for us but our hands may be forced. If the middle class and the poor are going to revolt independent of our will, we may have to join them or resign ourselves to inglorious defeat—like that of the Albanians—or wait another generation.

Both choices are unacceptable. We may have to spill capitalist blood sooner rather than later. I wonder if they really bleed gold.
 
The Albanians offered little real resistance, but their revolt could set a dangerous precedent. If they had the courage to rise up, perhaps other Balkan powers will regain theirs. It certainly seems to be fanning the flames of the People's Revolution!