Maintain course, seize command or let the world burn?
The largest empire in europe was finding itself at an interesting crossroads in the late 1870s. The collapse of Germanic power, temporary or not, alone had opened up interesting options. Near constant warfare in western europe had worn out the french capacity for large scale conflict. They would clearly still defend themselves but any grand imperialistic schemes seemed beyond their current abilities. The Italians were considered by Russia to be a feisty lot with grand dreams but their time was either long since past or perhaps yet still to come. For now while the British maintained their same general strength they had for years there was not the same form of threat from such a nation as those on the mainland. This left open a few paths for the Russian empire.
There had been a very careful direction and plan followed by the Russian Empire following the Crimean disaster, however the world is ever changing. There was a certain wisdom in not rocking the boat too hard and in simply keeping forward a familiar and so far successful strategy. While the average farmer in the empire didn't have any care for strategy, it was those at the top that kept that man safe through their plans. The Polish question had reasserted itself into european affairs and that alone would serve to give pause to the idea of simply following forward a somewhat quiet and friendly approach to other nations. Russia had worked to try and keep balance and stability to european affairs. The revival of Poland was not itself a great threat, at the least it was far weaker than austria or the ottomans. Still, Poland was a wild card. Charting the cautious and slow but steady course might not work well if others disrupt the order too much.
Of course the weakness of many other nations did invite another possible path to go down. Perhaps the solution to a wild card was an iron fist. No doubt there was no single force capable of aligning itself against Russia and winning. At least not in the conventional army power sense. Even the mighty french army had far greater limitations when fighting a long war and it was already partially cornered in europe. As well it was chained to outposts beyond to the lesser areas of the world. Even if it thought to challenge the Russians the end result would be mostly likely a stalemate. France could hold firm in one half and Russia the other. Still this would be rather aggressive and such a heavy deployment of force to realign europe would invite a sharp strike from the south or the north. The British still lurked about, possibly no longer foe but far from quite yet friend. What benefit would keep their fleet and money from action? Likely none that could be offered. Even if Russia and France were to align together, both had seen this song played out before. Perhaps inaction of any kind would work the best.
Turning the focus fully inwards would bring about many benefits. Russia would of course not give away its success in the Balkans but why should they soldiers die to act as police for others? There were still huge areas of lands inside the empire that were barely developed in any way and hardly settled or civilized at all. There are lands to clean and drain, railroads to build and ports to develop. The far east was far from well built and the recently conquered areas in central asia would also benefit from an internal focus. There were still ways to stay open to the world for trade and technology while refusing to deploy and fight others wars. While it could be easily said that Russia often benefited from war, war also needed clear goals. Poland was ejected from Russia by choice, why reclaim lands discarded? The vast hungarian plains were almost within reach but what would such conquest bring to the empire? More areas in need of development, just ones with a few less snow storms and a few more catholics.
The balkans were already in a fairly well made shape so again there was little value to be had. The neighbors were mostly friendly or far too weak.Perhaps the time to make a choice was not yet here anyways. There was a navy to be built and the urals needed a few more railroads. No matter which path was taken there would a need to finish these two tasks as a priority. Still though, there would always be a strong calling to simply taking care of the Empire and letting the world continue to strike at itself in brutal fashion. The tsar longed to finish liberating his empire from the weaknesses it had when he took over control and had the power to enact his goals. Some progress had been made but much remained. The Tsar was well aware that no threat would wait for others to prepare themselves to handle it and that to ignore problems growing outside the borders would bring them to the gates far too quickly. Perhaps the best option would be to secure his lands and people with a few valuable alliances and non-aggression pacts and then turn inward.
Turn other nations into shields against trouble. And make sure they could be used as bridges in event the might of the tsars armies needed to strike forth and defeat an enemy before it became a real problem. The Tsars advisers pressured him to finish putting the Balkans in order. They stressed that no matter what his goals were for his empire, the balkans must be safeguarded. As well Poland must be secured against being used as a club against the Empire. However that must be done it would need to be handled. Both of these problems were still left to handle. Still the Tsar hoped he could see his empire live in peace the remainder of his days. Peace without threat would be his goal but to achieve this possible threats must be read carefully. Reacting too slowly to any threat, even from within the empire could prove fatal. For now the doors would be shut but the windows kept open.
