The country of Alash Orda, a Kazakh national state, was born in the chaos of the Russian Civil War. A group of Kazakh nationalists under the leadership of Ali Khan Bukeiklianov broke away from the Russian Republic, taking the steppes with them, and the weakened Republic decided to let it go, having bigger problems of its own. Since then, Alash Orda managed to build up a small army for itself and secure its independence; however, it had many problems of its own in 1936, both internal and external.
Alash Orda was divided between several significant nationalities, the biggest being the Kazakhs, then the Turkmen, the native tribal peoples of the area. The northern regions of the state had a significant Russian minority, however, while the west - the Astrakhan region - was inhabited by Cossacks. While Alash Orda was a Kazakh nation first and foremost, it could not simply ignore the interests of these groups: the Russians were very important in upholding the fledgling economy of the state, which was just slowly coming out of its medieval, agricultural phase, while the militarised Cossacks contributed cavalrymen to the army who would have been very dangerous if they had turned against the nation. With its tolerant, secular policies, Alash Orda managed to keep these ethnic groups politically unified, but the tribes barely worked together - central authority was weak in the northern and western regions.
Externally, Alash Orda was surrounded by enemies all around. Russia barely hid its imperial ambitions, only keeping them in check for the time being because they were suffering from their own internal crisis. The most dangerous enemy was Turkestan, the Islamic fundamentalist state to the south which wished to claim the mantle of the Sunni caliphate for itself and unify all of Central Asia under its banner. To the east, the Russian warlord ruling over Mongolia, Baron Ungern von Sternberg, ruled with his elite cavalry divisions under vast areas, including parts of the Transsiberian Railway he had seized a long time ago. Though he had no apparent reason to attack Alash Orda - particularly when the Hui Muslim clique of Xibei Lianbang Yiyuan and their eastern neighbors were more enticing and logical targets - Khan Sternberg was unpredictable and nobody knew where he would strike next.
The Don-Kuban Union, a Cossack hetmanate, also lay to the west, seeming content to rule over its own lands, but the possibility of them wanting to conquer more Cossack lands under their banner couldn't be excluded. All in all, Alash Orda's position wasn't enviable.
This is a picture of the Kazakh cabinet in 1936, before the minister of security was replaced by Azerbayzhan Mambetov, following repeated complaints that Askarov was constantly infringing upon the civil rights of ethnic Russians, like a true "prince of terror" as some were saying. The government was just finished passing a reform that would further bring the economy under state control, hoping this would help the situation as the private sector wasn't strong enough yet to oversee the full transition from feudalism to capitalism. It was agreed that the next pressing concern was the army, which was in a tragic condition.
The Alash Orda army consisted of 7 and a half divisions, all armed with weaponry from the Weltkrieg without exception. The Kazakh state had barely advanced technologically in the last fifteen years. Indeed, the military doctrine of the army was in shambles too: their methods were outdated even by Weltkrieg standards!
Military research was concentrated on updating the logistics and the doctrine of the army - these were seen as essential to survive in the short term. The army's positions were reshuffled: the Cossack cavalry was sent to the south, to the Turkestani border, while the Turkmen infantry divisions were sent northwest to oversee the Cossack regions. Without the necessary infrastructure to execute a proper strategic redeployment, the divisions had to cross most of the distance by foot. Most of the army was to watch the movements of Turkestan; the Russian border was largely left unguarded, reasoning that if Russia invaded, all resistance would be futile. Two new infantry divisions were commissioned as well: the flow of manpower was decent enough, it's just that the equipment was poor quality. However, Weltkrieg-era equipment had to do for now.
To hasten technological development, the Minister of Intelligence, Gabiden Mustafin, began to set up an intelligence service, concentrating on industrial espionage in neighbouring nations. Meanwhile, all Alash Orda could do was wait and watch the world burn around it. The Russian president, Alexander Kerensky, was assassinated on the 2nd of January and civil war hero General Anton Denikin took control of the Russian Republic, declaring martial law even as order started to break down all around Russia.
This was a great relief to Bukeiklianov, as Russia could safely be counted out as a threat for the time being. Denikin tried to keep control of Russia with whatever means he could. After an initial wave of brutal repression of peasant uprisings, the General surprised everyone by doing a complete about-face: he gave the village Soviets, the de-facto administrative bodies of the countryside, official recognition, hoping to co-opt the efforts of the SRs for himself. Perhaps he too saw what was coming, but it was too late to avoid it. The most radical leftist elements of Russian society united to declare Soviet power in Western Russia - they had great influence in the urbanised territories, where the industrial proletariat was the most developed.
What followed was an awkward standoff between White and Red Russia. The Soviets decided to enter negotiations, demanding that Denikin step down in favor of a popular government of left-SRs, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Denikin declined and readied the army, but didn't move yet. It remained to be seen what would happen: would civil war engulf the country once again or would the two sides come to an agreement?
Mustafin's intelligence efforts paid dividends just a few days after the news from Russia. Agents of Alash Orda in the Princely Federation finally brought the first useful blueprint: one describing the doctrine of firepower focus. Although the Kazakh nation had to do more research into military technology to be able to even utilise these blueprints, this was joyous news regardless.
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I tried playing them once, Soviet one.... Ate me....
