The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2
Chapter Two: 1930s
Part X: News from the west
IMPERIAL ELECTIONS OF 1934
Imperial Senate
Fascists' popularity continued rising. Union of the Russian people was getting more and more votes every year - simply because their orators were better than Octobrists' and Kadets' ones. New political power showed its' strength - PLP, autonomic party of Poland and Lithuania, won the majority in Warsaw and Krakow
Results of the elections:
Octobrists won the elections in Moscow, Bessarabia, Caucasus, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Omsk and Irkutsk. Their allies Conservative Monarchists got the majority in Constantinople and Middle East once again. Totally there were 9 places for conservative coalition, which meant majority in the Senate. Kadets won in St. Petersburg (traditionally) and Minsk, while Liberal-Democrats got majority in Finland, Galicia and Baltic region. Two independent parties - Polish-Lithuanian Party and Union of the Russian people surprisingly won the elections in Warsaw, Krakow and Vladivostok, Kiev respectively.
Octobrists - 7/18
Liberal-Democratic Party - 3/18
Constitutional Democrats - 2/18
Conservative Monarchists - 2/18
Union of the Russian people – 2/18
Polish-Lithuanian party - 2/18
State Duma
There were no chances for the liberals to come back - Octobrists were strong, when a lot of former KD and LDP voters got their own party in Poland and Lithuania. It changed everything.
Results of the elections:
Octobrists managed to save the majority, but other results were quite impressive and unexpected. Union of the Russian people and PLP showed strenght, while parties like Conservative Monarchists and Liberal-Democrats started losing their authority. These parliamentary elections showed a lot of tensions and misunderstandings in the Russian society. Anyway, conservative coalition got 250 seats and Tereschenko was elected on the second term.
Octobrists – 230 (38.3%)
(-20 seats)
Constitutional Democrats – 190 (31.6%)
(+20 seats)
Union of the Russian people - 60 (10%)
(+7 seats)
Polish-Lithuanian party – 37 (6.1%)
(+37 seats)
Social-Democratic Party - 24 (4%)
(-6 seats)
Liberal-Democratic Party - 23 (3.8%)
(-27 seats)
Conservative Monarchists – 20 (3.3%)
(-7seats)
Socialist-Revolutionary Party - 9 (1.5%)
(-2 seats)
Mensheviks - 7 (1.4%)
(-2 seats)
New Imperial Government
Head of Government:
Octobrist Mikhail Tereschenko
Foreign Minister:
Polish autonomist Seweryn Czetwertynski-Swiatopelk
Armaments Minister:
Kadet Pavel Ryabushinsky
Minister of Security
Octobrist Georgy Vernadsky
Head of Intelligence:
Unionist Lev Okhotin
Army and Navy ministers are appointed directly by the Emperor, all of them are
Octobrists.
Rise of Hitler was a bad sign for the Russian diplomacy. Old and weak Hindenburg absolutely lost his power. Revanchist speeches were the best things to mobilize the German people. Hitler's popularity was extremely high, and he did everything to keep it at the high level. In Europe Hitler was quite popular too, because everybody understood that he hated mostly Russia than Western countries.
Chancellor of the German Reich in 1934
The new year started optimistically - Russian naval factory in Odessa finished new light carrier Rus' for the Black Sea fleet.
Rus' is ready to serve
Actually, Russian navy was huge, but there were a lot of obsolete ships (mostly destroyers, cruisers and submarines) and it was divided into 4 fleets, so each fleet wasn't so powerful. It was a problem for Russian naval doctriners. In 1934 Russian navy had two main leaders - Berens and Kolchak. Both of them were quite young, both of them had their own ideas. Berens was sure that Russian navy needed more carriers, Kolchak supported building of the battleships.
Admiral Alexander Kolchak, commander of the Pacific fleet
In February massive street revolts shocked France. The crisis let to change of the government.
France & New prime minister
In spring the United Kingdom ended autonomy of Newfoundland - that semi-dominion became a part of the British Empire once again. It was interesting to see how Britain deals with her former colonies after the Great War...
End of responsible government of Newfoundland
Meanwhile, in the Far East Japanese aggression in Manchuria continued. Anatoly Kaledin, talented Cossack-born general, who was a commander of Far Eastern military district, suggested transferring some forces from the western border. Soon, there were 32 divisions in the Far East to prevent any Japanese provocations.
Kaledin and his Far Eastern army
Meanwhile in Germany Hitler decided to deal with SA, his former guard. He had SS and regular German army, so SA became unnecessary and even dangerous for his political authority. Ernst Röhm, who was one of the best Hitler's allies, was planning a coup against him. But Hitler was faster. SS showed skills, all leaders of SA were arrested, Röhm was killed.
Purges in Germany
Ernst Röhm at the beginning of his fast but unhappy political career
And in August it began - field marshal Hindenburg, president of Weimar republic, died. Hitler usurped the power and became fuhrer. Now Germany had a ruthless, unstoppable leader. Dictatorship in Germany could lead to unpredictable aftermath...
President is dead, long live the fuhrer!
Funerals of Hindenburg
When Hitler had become an absolute ruler of Germany, Russian military advisors clearly understood that they should invest more in military technoligies, because without modern army Russia wouldn't stand against the rising German power, even with a giant army.
Russian military researches
Germany wasn't the only threat, Japan was the same, so Russian air force got one more corps in the Far East.
New air corps in Vladivostok
New Germany was aggressive in foreign policy - they wanted to show their growing might. In October there was an incident in Austria, when the Nazis tried to usurp the power in neighboring Austria. Hopefully, the coup failed...
It's clear who stands behind this...
Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg
So, with Hitler Europe was unsafe. Russia clearly understood it, and tried to create an alliance (like a former Entente) against the Germans. France was ready to help, but Britain forced them to refuse the offer. The British didn't want to make Russia stronger. They believe that Hitler would attack only the East...
Adolf Hitler at Nurnberg NSDAP rally. The British decided not to provoke him...
Europe was going to be a dark place indeed...
To be continued
Waiting for your comments
Once again, Happy New Year
Next update: January, 3