Ride of the Black Tsar: A Russian Empire AAR (KR)

Part 5: The Second Russian Civil War: Finish him!






Perhaps unsurprisingly, the situation in America had erupted into civil war before the years' end. "Typical Americans," said the Vozhd with frustration "So obsessed with their 'freedom' and 'democracy'".


With the advance across western Siberia proceeding at a snail's pace, many in the cabinet, Wrangel included, decided that sweeping military reforms were in order after the catastrophic damage inflicted on existing units by the Bolsheviks. While he himself favored a force led by a centralized command structure, the Vozhd was, at the last minute, swayed by the General Sergei Makarov's Mobility Focus doctrine, Wrangel taking a liking to the swift, overpowering force described as being inherent to such a doctrine






While the Petrograd had succeeded in purging Syndicalism, Bolshevism, and other assorted revolutionary movements, other states were not nearly as fortunate: The economic turmoil caused by the Black Monday, in concert with French meddling in its neighbors internal affairs, lead directly to a syndicalist revolution, with the royal family being captured and murdered by a syndicalist mob en route to refuge in Germany. While the Netherlands did not extend diplomatic recognition to the Vozhd's Russia, this event touched a cord within his inner circle for some reason or another, making them especially wary of potential neo-Bolshevik sentiments. This suspicion was in no way unfounded:




On February 1st, 1937, shortly after takeoff from an Murmansk airstrip, the personal airplane of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, heir to the vacant Russian throne was shot down by a lone Bolshevik sympathizer. A frenzied search of the crash site turned up no survivors. During his interrogation by the Okhrana, Twenty-year old Ivan Pruskovich described his act as "retaliation for the murder of Comrade Bukharin and other Bolsheviks". Being shuffled off to a Murmansk jail cell and a certain fate (indeed, the rope was already prepared), Wrangel was furious upon receiving the news. The last remaining Bolshevik terrorists and sympathizers had to be receiving aid from somewhere, but where precisely? There was little time to ponder, there was an important conference in Ulaanbaatar:


On February 27th, Wrangel met with emperor Hirohito of Japan, Admiral Kolchak of Transamur, and Khan Roman von Ungern Sternberg of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar. All three parties, the latter two taking advantage of the chaos to seize parts of Siberia, which understandably irked many in the Vozhd's cabinet. Nonetheless, with the poor infrastructure in place and the war already wearing on the pitiful Russian industrial capacity, Wrangel hammered out a deal with Tokyo and Ulaanbaatar: In exchange for a mutual non-interference/non-aggression pact, the two Asian regimes would be entitled to whatever territory from the Siberian state that they were able to take, with the final lines of demarcation to be hammered out at a later date. Both sides unwilling to fight a war with Russia, the two Asian states gladly accepted the offer.

At noon that same day, the Vozhd received a phone call from Vlassov: That the Siberian capital had fallen and the remaining Siberian troops were surrendering in droves:



In addition, Makarov required Wrangel's signing off on a scheme of his to arm the American Union State. Given the relatively poor fortunes of the Americans in their latest civil war, the Vozhd agreed to the plan. Besides, there was a very real chance that a democratic American government would be, once again, hostile:

Part 6: The Black Tsar



With the Bolsheviks and Siberians defeated, it became clear that any real threats to the new regime had been completely and utterly crushed. However, there was one matter, intimately tied with the Russian state, which had to be addressed: The Autocracy. While a monarchist himself and surrounding himself with like-minded individuals, the Vozhd was in a bind: The presumptive heir, Grand Duke Cyril was far too sickly to take the throne. While he had famously described himself as the new autocrat, no one could have seen Wrangel's next move coming:



The cabinet of E.I.V. Pyotr VI Wrangel, Tsar and Autocrat of all the Russias. While his full title (in the tradition of the Russian Tsars) was much longer, by this point Wrangel was known also as the Tsar, the Vozhd, the Black Tsar, (or in the case of assorted leftists, revolutionaries. and republicans) simply "that bastard".




At last, it came time to decide the Russian stance in foreign matters. While some in the cabinet pushed for a restoration of all the lands of the old Russian Empire, the Tsar, having become considerably more cautious as a result of his experiences in the past year and a half, decided on a policy of realpolitik.




Meanwhile, the Americans had succeeded in destroying the Combined Syndicates of America, with the Union State not far behind. In order not to ruin relations with the MacArthur regime, Wrangel ordered the foreign minister, Georgi Brassov, to sever any ties to the failing American Union State and burn records of official Russian support.






By the evening of April 14th, 1937, all in the government of newly rechristened capital of St. Petersburg were abuzz with chatter about the Tsar's latest address: Not wanting to focus on Eastern Europe (yet), Wrangel announced that focus of Russian foreign policy was, for the next several months, to secure the restive Caucasus region, destroy the Don-Kuban Union and the red regime in Georgia, and blunt Ottoman influence in the area. The main reason that so much excitement was generated by the announcement was the fact that there was so much ambiguity inherent in the possible routes to secure the region. Several days later, the Vozhd reiterated his statement: Azerbaijan and Georgia were to be bought under Russian protection as well.





Technically, expansion into the Caucasus region would have been a violation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Needless to say, Berlin was not happy, going so far as to cease all contact with the empire. While outwardly defiant, Wrangel, behind closed doors, was eager to repair relations with the German Empire, if for no other reason than the economic pressure the war's aftermath and embargo were placing on Russia.




While the leadership of the Don-Kuban Republic were elated at the news of the imperial restoration (albeit in somewhat of an unorthodox manner), the Cossacks however, requested to serve the new Tsar on their own terms. Although, Wrangel saw this request as an insult.

Part 7: Preparing for War


On May 17th, 1937, a collective of Anarcho-Syndicalist trade unions armed themselves and began a general rising against the government in Madrid. Shortly afterwards, the Carlists were to join the fray against both the government and the syndicalist rebels.




The Tsar, loathe to see syndicalism spread across the globe (especially beyond Russia's grasp), ordered the foreign ministry to prepare to send material and volunteers to Spain immediately. Much like with America, the legitimate government was to be preferred, however Wrangel was not against a rapprochement with the Carlists should the Kingdom of Spain fall to the CNT.




Finally, the time had come to decide just what precisely to do with the Don-Kuban Republic. The Cossacks, more or less aligned with Berlin since the end of the Weltkreig, could prove a potential stumbling block for expansionist plans into the Caucasus region, especially with the recent chilly turn in relations with the Germans. One wrong move could very well set off a second Weltkrieg. As per his policy of reconciliation with the German Empire, the Tsar sent a letter to the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II regarding the Caucasus region.



Wrangel's gambit paid off: The Kaiser being convinced to see St. Petersburg's position, formally withdrew Mittleuropa's position of support for the republic. Of course, the Cossacks were not happy with the new arrangement.




On May 25th, the Carlists officially began their uprising against the Bourbon-ruled Kingdom of Spain. While the more predictable Bourbons were to be preferred, the Vozhd, in the event of their fall, ordered all support directed towards the Carlists instead.






On July 7th, the Americans finished off the American Union State, finally putting an end to their brief, but brutal civil war. While a few high-ranking members of the America First sought asylum in Russia, these requests were promptly denied as of MacArthur's July 15th announcement. On a state visit to Washington in September, the Tsar personally congratulated MacArthur, heralding a new era in Russo-American cooperation.


Meanwhile, a phone call to Wrangel's hotel suite from Vlassov bought some troubling news regarding Russia's southern flank:





Ukraine's Hohenzollern king, in response to worsening living standards, dismissed the head of government Skorapadsky and invited the syndicalists to form a popular government, hoping to enact reforms to alleviate the problem. The syndicalists, headed by veteran agitator Nikita Khrushchev, instead began a program of radical land reform in accordance with syndicalist principles. Gravely concerned about the reds' next course of action and the now very real possibility of another syndicalist state (almost certain to be allied with France) on Russia's borders, the Vozhd ordered all intelligence assets in Ukraine on the highest state of alert: Any and all relevant information on the next actions of Khrushchev's government were to be immediately sent to Wrangel's desk.


Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Wrangel decided to give the Cossacks one last chance to settle the matter peacefully. Their response was less than cordial:




With all other avenues exhausted, on October 15th, 1937, a declaration of war was sent to Krasnodar:

Part 8: The Russo-Cossack War

As the forces of the Imperial Russian Army stormed the frontier of the Don-Kuban Union, from his field office, Wrangel received news both terrifying and humorous:



The Caliphal pretenders (contesting the Ottoman Sultan) in Turkestan, seeking to recreate the domains of Tamerlane, officially began their assault against the neighboring Alash Orda. While few in the cabinet worried, Turkestan actively laid claim to parts of the empire. A victory against the Kazakhs and later against Iran and Afghanistan could very well lead to a powerful, belligerent state on Russia's border.




Khrushchev, having posed as a well-intentioned reformer, finally showed his true colors, leading a coup against the government of the king and declared the Ukrainian People's Republic. Outraged by this development, the German Kaiser met this with a declaration of war. However, Mittleuropa entered into a ceasefire with the new republic after the Commune of France threatened a war that Berlin was not yet ready for. Outraged by these developments, the Vozhd phoned Generals Vlassov and Markov with a declaration: After the fall of red Georgia, the Ukrainian regime was next.



While theoretically a Cossack state, the Don-Kuban Union ruled over a good many minorities in the Caucasus region. Some of the leadership, sensing blood in the water, began to agitate for greater autonomy or even outright independence. When Krasnodar diverted troops from the front to crack down on this dissent, the religious and political leadership of many (predominantly Muslim) ethnic groups of the Caucasus region did not take kindly to these crackdowns


By the end of November, the situation was desperate for the Cossack republic: With Russian troops just outside Krasnodar, many in the Don-Kuban government petitioned President Petr Krasnov for a peace deal with the Russians in a bid to keep their sovereignty at least:



When Krasnov's letter reached his desk, the Vozhd gave a hearty laugh: Why on earth should St. Petersburg accept a peace offering when complete and utter victory was in its grasp?




Meanwhile, the modernization of the Russian military continued apace at a slow, but steady rate. While not in the same league as the German Empire or the Commune of France, the empire would now be able to hold its own and even crush many of its neighbors easily.


Despite the December capture of Krasnodar, Petr Krasnov eventually sided with the hawks in his cabinet, managing to feebly prosecute the war until February of 1939 before finally being cornered in the Caucasus Mountains:



With the capitulation of the Cossack republic, Russia now possessed free access to states of Azerbaijan with its much-needed oil and the red regime of Georgia. In order to ensure continued material for the modernization of Russia, Wrangel decided that the government of Azerbaijan was to be overtaken next, and if need be, taken by force.




In response to the collectivization policies of Khrushchev and his crackdowns on Orthodox Christianity and Sunni Islam, the Russians and Tatars of the Crimean Peninsula sent an envoy to Wrangel's court: Given the current chaos on the peninsula, the emissary suggested that St. Petersburg claim sovereignty over the area. The Tsar, eager to gain another port not prone to freezing over and another vantage point at which to strike at red Ukraine, agreed to the proposal.




While Khrushchev may have been many things, one of them was not stupid, defying the generals urging a campaign to retake the peninsula.




On a visit to the newly-acquired port city of Sevastopol, Wrangel laid out his new policy regarding ethnic minorities in the empire: Gone were the days of the mass Russification programs. In exchange for their loyalty to the Russian crown, the various ethnic minorities were to receive varying degrees of autonomy in the empire regarding their own internal affairs so long as the policies did not interfere with imperial administration as a whole. The crowd, being of largely mixed ethnicity, gave the Vozhd a standing ovation.



Of course, these new policies did little to prevent some Krasnov loyalists from causing trouble.

Finnische said:

I really don't understand why there isn't an option to send aid to Carlists, considering that they are also National Populist, like Wrangel's Russia.

Click to expand...

It really doesn't.
I'm pretty sure there are events for the other major powers in Europe (besides Britain and France obviously) to support the Carlists.
I know for a fact that Italy, National France, Ireland, and Portugal can all support the Carlists.

Anyway, you should get rid of them before WW2, so you can attack from more positions

Click to expand...

That's the plan.

Interesting to see you release Georgia, but i'm sure they'll be able to provide a division or two to help out in the future in exchange for their liberation.

Click to expand...

I actually ended up giving them back their cores, so they were a bit more help on that front.

What are your plans for Far East?

Click to expand...

Any plans I might have had ended up getting interrupted by...something.

Part 9: Russo-Azerbaijani War





And so the time came for a decision regarding Azerbaijan and its oil: Interestingly enough, the Tsar, for all his military experience, sought at first a diplomatic, yet forceful solution to the Azerbaijani problem. However, given Baku's resistance to attempts at influencing their government, war became more or less inevitable.


But there was one hitch in St. Petersburg's war plans:





Azerbaijan had recently found itself allied with Persia and Afghanistan, both of which declared war upon the empire in defense of their ally in Baku. While some hawks in the Vozhd's cabinet (Vlassov featured most prominently among them) advocated extending the war and taking Persia and end Russia's petroleum woes forever. Wrangel, although tempted by these suggestions, ultimately declined for two reasons: The fact that the infrastructure in the Caucasus region was still relatively poor as a result of the war (with Cossack partisans still attacking imperial supply lines) and to avoid bringing on the wrath of every major power which relied on Persian oil exports. To this end, Foreign Minister Brassov secretly departed by ship for Tehran to hammer out a ceasefire with the Persians.


Meanwhile, on the foreign front, some good news:



Khrushchev's regime in Ukraine had defied the expectations (including those in Russia) of all outside observers and declined to join the Syndicalist Internationale. Wrangel and his cabinet were ecstatic at this news:The threat of French intervention in a Russo-Ukranian war was officially dead. However, the Tsar urged caution: With rising tensions between Germany and France, an opportunistic Khrushchev may decide to align with France after all. Needing no further instruction, Vlassov and Markov began, with the Vozhd's oversight, to draw up plans for an invasion of Ukraine.



By April of 1938, the partisan threat in the Don-Kuban region had been completely and utterly destroyed, the last of the Cossack leadership finally agreeing to serve the crown as in days of old. This would be essential for the supply lines in the final campaign against red Georgia.




On April 15th, 1938, Vlassov came to the Tsar with an odd proposition: Recently, a loosely organized Orthodox group known as Faith and Nation had begun agitating in neighboring lands, seeking to create a loose brotherhood of Orthodox nations. While some wanted to ban them, Wrangel saw an opportunity to destabilize potential future enemies by allowing them to exist.




Naturally, the Azeris did not last long against the might of the imperial army. However, on the eve of Baku's fall, something odd occurred: The Georgians declared war on Azerbaijan, possibly with the intent of integrating it into their planned Pan-Caucasian Socialist Republic. Whatever the cause, both Baku and Tbilisi were destined to fall before the might of the Black Tsar's forces.

Part 10: Russo-Georgian War

With the Azeris once again a part of the empire, there remained only one threat to oppose Russia in the Caucasus: The red regime in Georgia. Not having had his fill of battle against the syndicalist menace, Wrangel himself vowed to take the field, the veteran 1st Corps already in the area. However, there were first a number of preparations required:



The efforts of Foreign Minister Brassov had finally paid off as the Persians and their alliance were convinced to see the inherent hopelessness in their situation and signed a white peace.




The rebuilding of Baku and suppression of partisans was well underway as well.


And finally, the time at last come to deal with Georgia: Despite the usual split between the (relative) doves such as Brassov and the hawks such as Vlassov and Markov, the Vozhd initially decided on a middle ground between diplomatic pressure and outright warfare: Espionage. With St. Petersburg's blessing, Faith and Nation had gone underground, agitating among Georgian believers for a restoration of the monarchy. The staunchly republican and atheistic regime in Tbilisi was not happy to say the least:




However, it was an act of true diplomatic tone-deafness which escalated the situation further and ultimately set the stage for war:



The government in Tbilisi set in motion a nation-wide crackdown on Faith and Nation and the Orthodox Church as a whole. Headed by the notoriously brutal security minister Iosif Dzhugashvili, many Russian expatriates fled the country in anticipation. Receptive to the pleas of both the Georgian clergy and laypeople, Wrangel shortly afterwards, from his field office in Grozny, issued a declaration of war against Georgia:





The cabinet of Georgian President Kandid Charkviani as of April 30th, 1938. The Tsar, having heard the tales of their cruelty, was particularly interested in doing battle with Beria and Dzhugashvili.

In spite of all their bluster to the contrary, the poorly-equipped and motivated Georgian army was no match for the battle-hardened imperial forces, lasting little more than two weeks before the assault on Tbilisi began, led by the Black Tsar himself:








On the evening of May 25th, 1938, the last defenders of Tbilisi laid down their arms and surrendered to the troops of Wrangel's 1st Corps. By midnight, the Imperial Russian Army was in complete control of the city. That same night during a routine patrol, a Russian company encountered a convoy attempting to flee the city. After being fired on by the vehicles' defenders, the imperial troops returned fire. Upon inspection of the rear limousine, the body of one Laverenty Beria, was discovered in the back seat, clearly killed during the firefight. Upon receiving word, the Tsar ordered Beria's body to be disposed of as not to facilitate the creation of a memorial and gathering place for future generations of would-be revolutionaries.

Elsewhere in the city near the Vozhd's field office, a convoy's guards fired upon a detachment from the Imperial Guard. Much as with Beria's convoy, the guards were quickly overpowered, however unlike the previous incident, there was one survivor: An unusually large woman. Upon this being bought to his attention, Wrangel attempted to communicate with the woman in (poor) Georgian, only to have her wig fall off and reveal "herself" as none other than Iosif Dzhugashvili. Pleased to locate the so-called "Terror of Tbilisi", Wrangel himself delivered the coup de grâce, putting an end to the red reign of terror over Georgia once and for all.





With the fall of the syndicalist regime, there came the matter of the postwar government. At dawn on May 26th, Tbilisi once again joined Europe's monarchical club.

Part 11: The First Steppe War (Alash Orda)

With the Caucasus secured and the Georgian reds little more than a bad memory, it came time to decide on a direction for expansion:





Central Asia, historically under Russian influence and plagued by instability and a pretender to the Caliphate in Turkestan, was the obvious next choice as Wrangel made clear. However, as with Georgia, there were many ways by which St. Petersburg could extend its dominance over Central Asia. But the ongoing Turco-Kazakh War (which Alash Orda was losing badly) provided some interesting opportunities:



However, this military assistance was to come at the expense of certain territorial cessations in areas largely inhabited by ethnic Russians. Alma-Ata did not take this request well at all:



With this snub, the First Steppe War officially began.



Situation of Alash Orda prior to the Russian invasion. While Turkestan had already taken a good deal of their territory, Alma-Ata was determined to fight off both of the invading parties. However, it remained to be seen whether or not their sparse resource base was up to the challenge.




The first imperial offensives came from the east, near the Mongolian border. Still exhausted from the campaign in Central Asia, the Tsar appointed his close confidant, General Andrei Vlassov as the commander of Russian forces in Central Asia.




Despite the de facto alliance between Turkestan and Russia, all was not well in their bilateral relations: Rivaling territorial ambitions and a series of skirmishes in the occupied territories portended poorly for the future of relations between the two empires.




By October of 1938, the last of the Kazakh units had either surrendered to the Turco-Russian forces or had been destroyed. While both sides wore a mask of amiability over their cooperation against Alash Orda, to the international community at large, both sides were, in private, preparing for war.


Meanwhile, an emissary from an unexpected land was recieved at the Tsar's court. Khan Sternberg of Mongolia and his government were becoming increasingly concerned about the growing and belligerent Turkestan. The emissary delivered a hand-written letter from the Khan: A final demarcation of the borders was to be decided with concessions to Russia in exchange for the destruction of Turkestan. Many in the imperial cabinet were skeptical about the offer, given its closeness to Japan and the fact that Mongolia had claimed a considerable amount of territory which was once Russian. Wrangel however, welcomed the offer, eager to secure the eastern flank and unwilling to fight a war against the Japanese-alligned state.


Spoils from the Kazakhstan campaign presented to Mongolia as a token of Russo-Mongol friendship and cooperation.

Part 12: The Second Steppe War (Turkestan)


Very similarly to the situation in the Caucasus, partisans made final, desperate attempts to resist Russian domination through acts of industrial sabotage. While not terribly damaging to the empire as a whole, it still was, in the words of the Vozhd, extremely annoying.


On the 1st of November 1938, the Tsar called a staff meeting with his generals to discuss the inevitable war with Turkestan. Chief of Staff Markov laid out the latest map of Central Asia, the conquests of both empires being displayed prominently:



While Turkestan was vast and with a large army, said force was (for now anyway) poorly trained and equipped but battle hardened and dedicated to their "Caliph". As commander of Russian forces in Central Asia, Vlassov predicted that Dushanbe shouldn't last more than six months.


A week later, a delegation from the Ottoman Empire arrived in St. Petersburg, diplomats from Russia's former foes in Persia and Afghanistan in tow as well. The Ottoman sultan, Abdülmecid II was gravely concerned about a pretender to his title as the Caliph of Islam rising to such prominence. A war between these two states had the potential to rend the Sunni world in two. The Persians and Afghans were also deathly afraid of being forcibly incorporated into the rapidly-growing "Caliphate".



Already bound by his pact with Sternberg, Wrangel assured the delegation that the days of the so-called Caliph were indeed numbered.


Finally, on December 11th, 1938, the Second Steppe War, the showdown which would hold the Muslim world in suspense, officially began when imperial troops engaged the Turkestani border guard, easily overpowering the undermanned units. Meanwhile, Vlassov presented the Vozhd with his master plan to bring the war to a swift, decisive end:



While the Imperial Russian Army possessed no motorized or cavalry divisions, Vlassov took a page from General Markov's book and proposed a swift drive towards the former Kazakh capital of Alma-ata, Tashkent, and Dushanbe.



But as always, the duties of a head of government never allowed rest: As far as the economy was concerned, Wrangel decided wisely not to make any drastic changes in the economic policy of the empire.






By March of 1939, the situation had become increasingly dire for the once feared state of Turkestan: Imperial Russian forces (aided by volunteers from the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia) had succeeded in capturing the north of Turkestan and achieving a relatively broad encirclement of the remaining Turkestani forces. By late March, Vlassov's entrapment of the Turkestani forces was mostly complete, save for a few enclaves in the south.


Finally, on the morning of April 5th, 1939, after nearly five months of fighting, the last of the Turkestani soldiers not already destroyed laid down their arms:





During his flight to Delhi, the few remaining followers of the "Caliph" Mohammad Alim Khan sabotaged much of Turkestan's infrastructure and industry as a final insult to the Tsar.



With Central Asia finally secure, the time had come to orientate Russia's foreign policy direction anew. However, events in Europe would soon grant a new urgency to this campaign of expansion.