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Chapter VIII: Mr.Matale Part II

August 3rd, 1908

The Albanians had the last laugh.

One of the captured Albanian men, one of the ones who had been to our stronghold, revealed our location to Turkish authorities.

Fortunately, the Turks didn't capture any significant documentation (maps, names, plans, or otherwise) in the raid, it was smuggled out during the bloodshed.

However, nearly all of the highest ranking members of the party in the Empire were killed. Those were good, hardened, experienced men...and they were friends.

I had known Dirk since I was a teenager. We both joined the party together and had fought in the revolution back home. I remember when we helped seize and subsequently burn down Buckingham palace. That was where we met Jean, in London. We helped him build the gallows that the party leaders used to hang the royal family. We were nothing in the party then...

And really all three of us still are nothing. Those two are dead, and I'm in command of a headless snake located in a backwards, arid empire on the wrong end of Europe.

The party is scattered. The raid couldn't have come at a worse time. The civilian population is growing extremely restless. The looming tax increase has finally arrived. The middle class is breaking, as are the lower classes. A storm is coming; a revolution is coming. But the party has no one to lead it.

The regional commanders were all here the night of the raid, to be briefed by me as to the procedures of the revolution. I don't know how we can overthrow the Ottomans now. Who will lead the uprisings in each region now that the experienced commanders are dead? I have sent a dispatch to London asking for assistance.

What a day for the Ottomans to attack. Perhaps they have an informant in our ranks? I was running late that day. There was a knock at the door and one of the recruits thought it was me (he didn't know that we didn't just knock), he opened the door and had his head promptly blown off.

Our men ran to get their weapons but were swiftly overwhelmed. The Ottomans struck hard. One of the more fast-thinking members of the party grabbed everything of value and ran, and told me what happened.

The people who stayed were brutally murdered. Against my instincts, I returned to Matale's factory a few days later. There was blood, bones, brains, intestines, and other grotesque monuments to the frailty of the human body, all in Matale's old factory.

Matale's factory used to make cradles.
 
How did GB go communist? Player intervention? Seems that would be the most likely way a large nation would collapse to rebels. Other than that, nice AAR so far, keep it up!
 
A bloody crackdown by the monarchists. I hope this kind of iron fist only sparks further resistance by the people!
 
I'm a sucker for socialism/communism and I really like where this AAR is going! I will definitely see where it is heading. So far it's in the right direction!
 
Chapter IX: Comrades

September 30th, 1908

The last two months were difficult—the most difficult since I came here.

The domestic turmoil has been getting worse and is now unbearable; the Empire will be crushed under it's own weight soon and the hand of the communist party will be forced into revolution.

Taxes have gone up—dramatically. Ottoman subjects don't like paying taxes. The middle and lower classes rioted and killed several tax collectors. Units from the Empire's armed forces were called in to keep the rioters in line but it was all for naught. The situation only continued to escalate as time went on.

taxstructure.jpg

The taxes on the middle class don't seem particularly harsh, but they were raised from a significantly lower level. The rate approximately doubled overnight.

I sent dispatch after dispatch to London asking for support (be it elite men from the Red Watch, ships from the Red fleet, or just brigades of experienced volunteers) but I was denied by my "comrades" in the government. It seems the proletariat is no longer valuable to them. They wrote only one letter back after I had sent them about a dozen. They told me that it was in the best interest of the British government to maintain good relations with the Ottoman Empire and sending me more aide might compromise this goal. Nevertheless, I was to maintain the operations of the party but only in the utmost discretion. Above all, I wasn't to lead a mass uprising—which is what my instructions for the past several years had been telling me to do.

The party sold me out and sold the worker out. They're no longer protecting those who need them, all for the sake of international diplomacy.

The Union of Socialist Republics fears the French. They are across the channel from home, have a proven army and field commanders, are notoriously anti-communist, and control the Suez canal as well as the Egyptian government.

suezk.jpg

The French have a vested interest in Ottoman affairs due to the close proximity of French colonial possessions and interests.

The bourgeoisie scum only let British ships cross the canal because our money is still good, but relations have been souring. If they were to close the canal to Britain, our Indian brethren would be cut off and the global movement would suffer. Thus, the recent strategy is to court the Ottomans as an ally despite the fact that they mistreat the worker more than any other nation. A communist revolt is seen as opposing this new strategy since, if I fail, the Turks will know who supported me and will be more inclined to side with the French.


Unfortunately, realities on the ground aren't that simple. There's going to be mass chaos soon and I have tens of thousands of armed men who want to fight and are getting anxious. If the lower and middle classes revolt, I won't be able to stop my men from joining.

Therefore, I'm preparing them as best I can. The regional leaders of each section of our army were killed in the raid I mentioned in my last entry, but we'll have to make do.

Even today, things are nearing a boiling point. The revolution will start soon and it's success is doubtful. I am nothing to my comrades in London.
 
So, things don't seem to be going as well as you may have planned.

But I do have some good news. You are the new Writaar of the week. Congratulations on a well deserved award! I look forward to watching you set the east ablaze
 
French Egypt makes things a pain for the British Socialists...if only they had someone, an ally in the middle east or something, to support them...
 
So, things don't seem to be going as well as you may have planned.

But I do have some good news. You are the new Writaar of the week. Congratulations on a well deserved award! I look forward to watching you set the east ablaze

Thank you so much for the honor, friend. I really appreciate that.

Betrayed and hung out to dry. London seems to much preoccupied by the interests of Realpolitik instead of the proletariat.

Indeed.

French Egypt makes things a pain for the British Socialists...if only they had someone, an ally in the middle east or something, to support them...

The French, ugh!

I don't know if I'll be able to update this week because work at both jobs has been insane. Hopefully I can. If not, maybe Sunday or Monday night.

—V
 
This is tremendous stuff; did you mod these changes in, or did it just so happen that your game played out this way (up to 1907)?
 
Chapter X: October Revolution

October 25th, 1908.

It started with iron.

Practically a decade ago, the Ottoman government, despite its troubles, had commissioned its scientists to develop a new form of transportation so that its soldiers as well as government officials could traverse the then-growing empire faster between destinations that weren't linked directly by train.

They came up with something known as the "automobile"—basically a carriage without a horse.

The Sultan and cash-strapped government were enamored with this new toy and put many other budgetary matters on hold to order tens of thousands of these automobiles produced in the empire. Horseless carriages require steel. Steel requires iron, something the empire didn't have much of to begin with since the vast majority of it was earmarked for the Trans-African railroad.

Therefore, the price of iron in the Ottoman Empire skyrocketed as demand practically increased tenfold overnight and supply remained next to nil.

Vital industries that required iron couldn't afford to pay for the resource any longer, but government subsidies were denied across the board since the government refused to pay for them. These industries collapsed as a result, starting a chain reaction that brought the entire industrial sector to its knees.

Within a short time, many were jobless and desperate. They were starving and had nothing to lose. They began to lash out, uncontrollably. Peasant and middle class riots were rampant.

Ottoman authorities didn't have enough troops to cover the empire. Each district requested the presence of the armed forces but military leaders were paralyzed and dumbfounded. Now is the time.

It started with iron, and it will end with iron, iron through the hearts of the capitalist scum, or iron through our own hearts.

revolteurope.jpg

The revolt as it is now. Tens of thousands more red comrades will join in arms in the coming hours.

Long live the revolution! Long live the proletariat!