"One and Indivisible" (A Russian Kaiserreich AAR)

[Teivel]

PROLOGUE: AFTERMATH​

England : Some days later. ​

Captain Warwick was ushered into the mahogany walled study by two impeccably attired guardsmen. His Full Dress uniform was as clean as he could ever remember and it clung to him like an unwelcome alien skin. Sweat drenched his brow but it had nothing to do with the thick cotton tunic and everything to do with the man sitting in the heavy antique chair behind the rooms desk.

“Captain Warwick then we would presume?”

The Captain bowed deeply, every muscle in his battered frame complying only reluctantly with the action.

“Yes your majesty, reporting as ordered.”

The king swiveled his chair to regard the marine officer. “Captain, we would talk to you about the recent events in Russia.”

Warwick struggled momentarily to contain his unease “ It would be my honour your majesty, although if I may say so, Admiral Beatty may well be more capable of providing your majesty with a..”

“We have already spoken to our Admiral captain. Sir David Beatty was able to inform us that thanks to a series of rather unconventional naval manoeuvres the fleet was able to temporarily resupply and provide for the strategic mobility of our forces in Russia.”
The king stood up and seemed to drop his carefully controlled posturing. “We would have you inform us of the health of our royal cousins.”

Warwick shifted uncomfortably. “ The Tsarina and her daughters have all made full recoveries, they are a little shaken but otherwise ok. They spend their hours tending to the young Alexei. He suffered only minor injuries but his condition makes his recovery a slow, arduous and by no means certain thing.”

Seeing the deep concern on the monarch’s face Warwick quickly added.
“The Doctors are with him constantly your majesty, we have no reason to doubt his prospects of recovery.”

In the next moment King George the Fifth of England looked directly into the young marines eyes with a humanity that explained why this meeting had to be held privately.

king George V and the czar in Berlin, 1913.​

“And our cousin the Czar?”

Warwick opted to bite the bullet.
“By all accounts your Majesty, he shouldn't be alive. When we pulled him out of the water he was already suffering severe hypothermia and extensive shrapnel wounds. As it were he lies in his room under medical care writing incessantly despite our protestations, seeing his family when he is too weak to write.”

“Do our staff believe he will survive?”

“He has an indomitable will your Majesty, one that has kept him from passing long after a lesser man would have. .. But it is doubtful. I ...apologise profusely for my failure your majesty.”

The King resumed his seat and clasped his hands together on the desk. “You and your men have made your nation proud captain. You have saved lives of no small significance and granted our royal cousin several extra days of life. The future is a construct moved as much by the smallest ripple in fate as the clashes of great armies. We can not know the full consequences of your success for many years yet, if ever.” The monarch straightened up and resumed his original posture.

“But until then Captain, our royal cousin bids you take this.” The king placed a slip of paper on the desk and then turned away which Warwick took as his signal to exit. As he bowed and exited the chamber he unfolded the slip and read the short sentences inscribed upon it.

Your actions and those of your countrymen will never be forgotten.

Thank you for our family.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov.

Saint Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias​

 

[Teivel]

With that day's work of activity tommorow will have us in the familiar time and place of 1936.

For the night however, i'm going to take a long hard sleep. With the finishing note such as it is, i believe a pause in updates for a few hours seems most...appropriate.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Indeed. An spectacular beginning.

 

[TheHyphenated1]

Great beginning! Good luck!

 

[unmerged(62251)]

It seems for once Nicky had the resolve when needed.



Excellent writing I await the start of this AAR

 

[TheExecuter]

With a prologue like that...I'm eagerly awaiting the fireworks of 1936!

Roll on the updates, good sir!
TheExecuter

 

[unmerged(102667)]

Wow it is a good story. You must let the tzar survive!

 

[Teivel]

THE FIRST ERA

"From The Depths Of Chaos": The Pavlovich years.​

 

[Teivel]

Chapter 1: A Broken Russia. ​

The Kerensky years were dark ones for the once mighty Russia. Defeated by enemies abroad and subject to continuous internal conflicts, the largest nation on Earth had been reduced to a shadow of its former glory.
The news of the royal family’s flight had, in many ways, saved Kerensky. The Bolshevik propaganda machine rapidly spun tales of the Czar being liberated by an army of foreign soldiers (supposedly some 70,000 strong) that had brutally sliced their way through the poignant but powerless resistance of citizens militia. The red forces rapidly discovered however that they did not yet have a monopoly on the hearts and minds of the people. Throughout the nation’s innumerable Orthodox churches the word spread that the escape of the family against all odds had been the will of the lord defending his agent on Earth. Revolutionary spirit had to this point taken solid hold in Russia but with this hint at divine intervention, doubt crept back into the minds of many.

The result was an immediate Bolshevik backlash against the church. Tasked by Lenin with silencing the Russian Orthodox church, Stalin set about his task with vigour proclaiming “ the next generations of this nation will know the church only as an extinct institution, a relic of the deluded old society.” Within a fortnight, some 40% of the upper echelons and some 20% of the common priests were rapidly and publicly liquidated.

It was to be Lenin’s greatest mistake.

The purging railed that forgotten element of the nation against the Bolsheviks, the peasantry. The resurgence empowered Social Revolutionaries and moderate parties as never before. Before long the SRs had been catapulted to ascendance in Parallel with the white forces. Almost as soon as it had started the civil war was over with a provisional government re-established. Kerensky rose again to ascendance leading a coalition of Kadets and Social Revolutionaries. There would be a second attempt at a Bolshevik uprising in the 1920s but this would be put down quickly and with German assistance (the latter seeking to prevent a Bolshevik takeover as well as assuring the continued payment of Rusisa's exorbitant reparation payments.

Kerensky's "grand coalition" One of the longest lived (if least effective) governments in Russian history. ​

Regaining leadership and leading successfully are two entirely different things however. In his coming years of leadership Karensky reigned over a Russia that remained largely in chaos, the authority of the central government virtually meaningless. While the government in St Petersburg passed laws on the right to free speech or electoral reforms Russian industry stagnated. While Kerensky made speeches on national unity, the peoples of Central Asia were able to secede. While the grand coalition espoused compromise and bi-partisanship, extremist regimes of national populists sprung up on every frontier of a rapidly shrinking Russia...a fact the Russian people did not fail to notice. Kerensky would hold on, through a mixture of an absence of serious opposition and flagrant electoral fraud and corruption but his Government of continued compromise proved singularly ineffective. The public service choked under the demands placed on it, the budget on Germany's reparation demands.

Central Asia, Jan 1936. Large elements of the former Russian empire had by this point broken away and almost universally developed anti russian governments.

These many failures placed Russia in a position of negligible foreign influence.
Simultaneously however they provided the impetus for Russia’s dramatic return.

All that would be needed..was a spark.

 

[Teivel]

@ All.

Ok folks, thanks for your patience. we are now officially off and racing. The first update is a short one but it took me longer than i'd hoped to host my screenshot collection to date, order and ready them but i wanted to have at least something up tonight to keep to a 1 update a night average.

In any case, thanks all for your compliments and feedback.

If there's any presentation issues or you want an update covering something specific in addition to what i'm posting or (once we get past my played to point) you have a policy choice you would really like to see Russia take then by all means speak up.

Just call yourselves the Duma.

 

[trekaddict]

Yes. I'd like to know if the British went syndicalist as per normal KR please.

 

[unmerged(62251)]

Just call yourselves the Duma.

Yes sir, President!


So, the Grand Duke is President....... The comeback of the Tsars are near!

 

[Johnny Canuck]

Fascinating beginning, Teivel! It's always great to see the RN doing its duty!

 

[Milites]

I just tried a Kaiserreich game as Russia and I must say that the event chains are absolutely stunning. Very excited to see what path you lead Russia down.

 

[Teivel]

This is just an update to let you guys know what's happening. I've played ahead the necessary portions, drafted and almost finalised the next few updates and the first one should be up in about 12 hours after I've had some decent sleep.

Update of a far more decent size than the last one tomorrow morning/early afternoon.

 

[Teivel]

Chapter Two: The Paper Revolution​

Saint Petersberg

Anton Orlov watched the chaos unfolding before him in the Duma chamber with a mild amusement. The SR representative had coalesced into one shouting mass, struggling to make their barrage of insults heard over the opposition’s verbal fusillades. Orlov let a small, depressed smile develop as the honour of one memebr's mother was insulted by one side only to be met by a thrown book from the other.

Kerensky’s death had cast the Duma into chaos, the ruling coalition devolving within hours into a chaotic mass of screaming delegates.

“Looks like vultures are fighting over the scraps.”

Olrov turned to see one of his fellow conservative representatives, a member of the senate, take a seat next to him in the back row of the minor party seats. It was out of the way of actual debate but granted them a clear view of the chaos in the chamber.
“Ah Nikolai, I’m afraid you could barely be more right my friend. And you may want to duck.”

The two men took cover behind the heavy rows of seating as volume on procedural regulations sailed over their heads and impacted somewhere behind them. Nikolai looked to the doors and noted the honour guards looking on, seemingly apathetic.

“Anton, it is insanity in here! Why have the guards not restored order to proceedings yet?”

Orlov chuckled at the aristocrat’s disbelief. That said, Orlov reflected , the fact that he no longer found this spectacle disturbing was probably a greater curse than his friends naiveté.
“Why should they my friend? The speaker has retired to his chambers with a bottle, the clerical staff have all gone home to their families and the soldiers are betting on what band of robbers will get here and seizes power first."

The senators face seemed to be struck momentarily with horror before it sunk into a frown.
“I pray you jest Anton.”

Orlov just let a sarcastic grin curl across his face. “Denikin Is paying out double or nothing but some sort of coup by Wrangel or a new Bolshevist uprising are both giving decent odds.” Orlov let the smile drop into a mournful sigh.
“ These vultures pine day in and out on the merits of their representative democracy. They say that autocracy is dead and government can no longer be the business of one man. But they all know they need someone at the head.”

“A head they lost with Kerensky’s passing.”

“Exactly, and now they will bicker and squabble until someone turns up and once again starts telling them what to do... At which point they will likely rebel.”

Anton expected to see his compatriot frowning when he turned back to him. Instead he was greeted by a sly smile that Orlov remembered from nights of cards they had shared during the dark days of 1918.

“ How about you escort me back to the Senate my friend, we may just be able to give these children what they want.”

---

Some forty minutes later Orlov re entered the chamber and took his seat.

He watched as the somewhat sodden speaker was found and ushered back into the room.

He listened as the chamber went silent as the announcement of Grand Duke Dmitri’s appointment to the Presidency was read aloud.

He devoured the silence as the new reality dawned on the members.

And as the shouts returned and the projectiles began again to arc across the chamber with even more vigour then before, representative Orlov simply smiled and twirled his fresly inked pen.

The Transitional Cabinet​

--

When news first filtered out that the senate had appointed the Grand Duke to the presidency many doubted the situation would be anything more than a temporary sign of defiance. Representatives I the Duma braced themselves for a military coup or, as the left anticipated, a popular uprising by the citizens of the capital against the return of a Romanov to Russia’s helm. Common wisdom in the political circles had the new government slated to last a week.

Once again however, the revolutionary edge of Russian politics had its dreams crushed by the oft underestimated influence of the Orthodox church. Officially backing the appointment and providing the new government with its new prime minister, Mikhail Polskii, the church was able to calm sentiment sufficiently that Russians were by and large willing to give the new government a chance.

The involvement of the Orthodox church pacified elements of the populace.
​

In a similar vein, the loudly traditionalist Marshall Wrangel was totally unwilling to tolerate any moves against events sanctified by the Russian Orthodox Church. His declaration of support for the so called “paper revolution,” along with his solid control of all troops in the Petrograd area put paid the possibility of any military action against the new government.

After years of leftist rule and countless coups, counter-coups and popular uprisings the right regained power not with a bang but amidst the silence of absolute apathy. It is in many ways ironic that perhaps the most important revolution of the post war world would also turn out to be the least bloody. Official records recount only six injuries for the entire event, all incurred when members of the Duma attacked conservative member Anton Orlov and his fellow conservatives before being beaten back by the chambers guards.

Russia’s patience with the Kerensky way of thinking had been exhausted. The people were willing to give the grand duke a chance to prove that he could do better for the nation. The onus was now on him and his new cabinet to see whether he could deliver, or whether a wall of dissent and chaos would drown this new government as surely as it had so many before them.

 

[Teivel]

Sorry about the pathetic pace of replies these last few days.

@trekaddict: I lack the ability to change the basic KR set up so Great Britain is syndicalist. Even if i had this ability though, i can't see how the rescue attempt would have prevented the revolution there. At first glance it appears that the rescue of the royals was a sacrifice bunt on the part of the British...but we shall see.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Beware the swastikas

Now, the GD is back... what comes next? Unifying the former Empire?

And, please, remove books from the Parliament. It's a parliament, not Pressing Catch.

 

[Teivel]

Chapter Three: Extending Power
​

These past months... these past months i shall never forget.

From the moment I was named president I gained my first indication of where Kerensky’s methods had failed him. I was subjected to a bombardment of men of every description and political persuasion putting forward the most passionate pleas that funding, energy and effort be channelled towards this goal or another. The strengthening of the military, the building of a tractor factory, research into something called atomic theory, the restoration of churches... and the list went on.

That is where Kerensky went wrong. He tried to do everything, and in doing so he achieved nothing.

I was determined not to make the same error, to focus all effort on one challenge at a time to eliminate it completely. Thus far, the results have been heartening.

Russia has endured many upheavals, it was and is somewhat unstable and dissent remained prolific immediately following our return. If there is one lesson I have taken from the last two decades it is that the first and foremost foundation of any nation is not its industry or armies, but the patriotism and loyalty of its population. It is a lesson I have endeavoured to act upon.

For the first months of our leadership, every resource that could be mustered was directed towards gaining the support of the population. Workers accommodation, public services, transportation infrastructure, schools etc. Throughout Russia all possible resources were directed towards regaining the trust and bettering the immediate living standards of this nations people.

​

The effect was dramatic. Workers have returned to their jobs, former revolutionaries deserted their causes and returned home. Dissent can never truly be eliminated it was apparent by April the people had, by and large, been satisfied to such an extent that the cries of opposition were reduced to inaudible levels.

If anything further was to be achieved however, if the glory of Russia was to be restored then a means had to be found to carry the directives of our government throughout the country and enact them in a co-ordinated fashion. There had been much pressure to greatly weaken the central government, to enact all policies through the local town and village governments. No doubt the SRs would have welcomed such an approach but I could not conscience it. Russia is to become a modern nation and the only way to reach that goal is by the establishment of a modern bureaucratic apparatus that can enact our policies. Russia must grow, not merely subsist, and to do that leadership from the centre will be necessary, I have no doubt.

But why do I write this tonight? Why would I in the middle of such constant and incessant action put to paper events which history will recall all too well without additional effort on my part?

I believe in truth I write to convince myself that what I dream for this nation is indeed possible, that perhaps after all these years of chaos us men of the old order can indeed guide this nation back to the glory that befits it.

I write to convince myself of what must be done

This nation, and its people have an infinite potential. Wealth, prosperity, strength...unity. This nation can achieve all of these I am sure.

But not without cost.

The motherland abounds with an industrious people, boundless plains and resources. But if those are to be harnessed then aid is required. Technical assistance to develop our industry, agriculture and military is necessary, capital to finance the modernisation of the country a prerequisite.
Czar Peter the Great showed once what Russia could achieve when she harnessed the skills of the west to her own betterment. He showed the Russia could exceed the powers that lie across the Dnieper if only pride would give way to a willingness to learn.

History however, seems little comfort when once faces into the unknown abyss of the future.

Nay, it must be done.
Russia will rise again, modern, complete, one and indivisible.

If I must shake hands with the devil to deliver the motherland to its destiny..

Then I shall shake it gladly​

.

 

[Teivel]

@Kurt_Steiner : Who would have thought i'd end up being caught out on that one in a version of the game that doesn't actually involve any factions that use the Swastika. I'll be sure to fix it up when i get back from uni tommorow.


The Romanovs are committed to Russia being one, whole and indivisible. Having played ahead a little however i can tell you it's not going to be as easy a ride as i had initially thought.