[Ah, my closest AAR to reaching 1819... Sad that it had to end early.
Or did it?
Recently, I was looking over my old AARs, and realized that I remember the general series of events during these final years. So, without further ado, I present:
The conclusion (finally!) of "God Save the CzAAR"!]
Catherine's Russia
It is here that we reach the farthest end of living memory. And it was also here that the partitioning of Poland began in earnest. While Russia swept through the vast expanses of Ukraine and Lithuania, Sweden expanded their lands near the coast. Prussia joined in, claiming lands along their border. The Habsburgs moved in and took Krakow and Galizen.
As this slow and intermittent campaign continued, a young officer began to distinguish himself: Alexander Vasiliyevich Suvorov. Suvorov rose to colonel in 1762, by which time Poland was truly reduced to Poland. One of the short periods of peace in Poland continued, marking the end of the Second Partition. Suvorov returned to Russia, where trouble was brewing.
That year, Czarina Elizabeth died. She was succeeded by her nephew, who became Peter III. Peter was disliked by the resurgent boyars, who remained suspicious of the Prussians despite their help in the partition of Poland.[*] When Suvorov sided with the nobles, he was dismissed from service. Meanwhile, one of the boyars, Gregory Orlov, was planning a coup against Peter, in favor of Peter's wife Catherine, who was also Orlov's lover.
[*]Ed. Note: As this history was ordered by Peter's grandson, it "forgets" to mention his mental difficulties.
Orlov contacted Suvorov and asked him to join in with the conspiracy. Suvorov was popular among the army for his bravery, and on 28 June a huge force of disaffected ex-soldiers appeared outside Peter's palace in Moskva. Peter attempted to flee, but his own bodyguards turned him over to Suvorov and Orlov.
The coup almost went wrong for Orlov, as many of the soldiers began proclaiming Suvorov as Czar! But he rejected this and said that, as planned, Catherine would rule. Peter was imprisoned, but less than a month later was killed on Catherine's orders.
Once Russia was finally stable, Catherine looked to the north. Suvorov, given command of the Russian armies, was directed to conquer the ancient city of Novgorod. Catherine knew that the conquest of this city would show that Moskva's empire had completely replaced Novgorod's. Suvorov rapidly swept through Novgorod's lands, and by the end of 1769 the Republic acknowledged Catherine as Czarina.
Once Novgorod was conquered, Suvorov recommended the destruction of now-tiny Crimea. Catherine agreed, and Suvorov went southward. The Girays had been losing support for the past decades, and once the first Crimean army was destroyed, Suvorov found the going easy.
Next came the complete conquest of Poland. Catherine had put forward another lover, Stanislaus Poniatowsky, as candidate for the Polish kingship. The Poles resisted and elected Adam Czartoryski as King. In 1775, Suvorov prepared the army for invasion. Rumors of a revolt under Cossack leader Emelyan Pugatchov slowed the work somewhat, but when the other Cossacks sent Pugatchov to Catherine with their regards, Suvorov returned his army to the Polish border.
By this point, Poland was nothing more than a small area around Warsaw. Suvorov demanded a quick surrender, but the Poles refused, saying, "Come and see how many men you'll lose before we fall!" Suvorov took them up on the challenge. The Polish general, Kazimierz Pulaski, advanced to Bar in Podolia. He had carefully maneuvered such that Suvorov was rather badly outnumbered at the battle. The armies met on opposite sides of the Rov River. Suvorov struck at Pulaski's strong right wing, much to the surprise of the Polish general. He rapidly did the same on the other flank.
As he did so, Suvorov managed to trick the Polish right out of position, and into the river. The Poles, thinking he was retreating, took no care, and many fell into the river and drowned. In any case, they were in chaos. Russian artillery began firing on the mass in the river. By the time Pulaski broke through on his end, he had no right wing left. He retreated into Poland, both sides having taken proportionally equal casualties.
Suvorov always kept one step ahead of Pulaski. At Lublin, he took a hill overlooking the city. Pulaski wisely moved around to Radom. There, he found a spot he considered perfect--a commanding hilltop, steep-sloped, which still allowed him to move northward if Suvorov so chose. Rather than attack, Suvorov sat just out of artillery range. The standoff lasted more than a month before Pulaski realized that Suvorov's army, while keeping the camp the same size, had mostly moved north to Warsaw.
Pulaski, angry, destroyed Suvorov's covering force in Radom and raced to catch the Russian general. By this point, it was getting towards fall of 1776, and Suvorov realized that he needed to inflict a decisive defeat in order to have a good chance of taking Warsaw the next year. Suvorov led Pulaski to the town of Jabłonna, north of Warsaw. King Adam Czartoryski met with Pulaski and said in no uncertain terms that Suvorov was to be destroyed. Pulaski felt confident, as his numerical superiority was now all the greater for the destruction of the Radom force.
Pulaski struck before dawn on 17 October. Suvorov, prepared for an action such as this, ordered his massed artillery to open fire. When Pulaski spread out somewhat to lessen the damage, Suvorov's Cossack cavalry, which had been hidden, struck at Pulaski's right wing, the same wing Suvorov had attacked at Bar. Pulaski panicked. His right wing was again completely destroyed. This time, his army didn't even reach Suvorov's right. The left wing fled in disorder. Pulaski fled northward, where he eventually left Europe completely and joined the American Revolution.
King Adam was captured trying to flee into Warsaw. The city held out for only three months before they realized they would be unable to hold out for the winter. Poniatowski became King of Poland, and Suvorov became Russia's greatest general.
Suvorov retired to his estates for some time. Several years later, though, Catherine demanded several portions of old Poland from Sweden. The Swedes refused, and Catherine declared war. Suvorov volunteered to lead, but Catherine refused and instead gave the command to yet another lover, Gregory Potemkin. Suvorov sent angry letters to Potemkin; Potemkin replied by pointing out Suvorov's distant Swedish ancestry. The angry exchange got the point that, once the campaign started, Potemkin did poorly, so focused was he on Suvorov's attacks.
The last Baltic War lasted a decade--ending in 1791--mostly due to Potemkin's distractions. Russian lives were lost in immense amounts; Russia's long-standing advantage in numbers against other enemies came close to being permanantly lost.
Meanwhile, Potemkin and Catherine were growing more and more addicted to luxury. Catherine, especially, became infamous for perversions of all kinds. Just after the Baltic War, the aging Potemkin, after one night of over-feasting, drinking, and women, tried to stumble to his home in the again-Russian city of St. Petersburg. He fell into the Neva and drowned.
Catherine lasted five more years. Suvorov had finally grown tired of the situation in St. Petersburg. Peter III's son with Catherine, Pavel, contacted Suvorov and asked for help with a coup. Rather than that, however, Suvorov ordered Catherine's assassination. Catherine died on the latrine on 5 November 1796.
