Is Alexei gonna work his way up the ranks like Peter the Great? Would be interesting indeed.
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Funny you should ask about Kolchak. He's still alive, yes - in this timeline, he was never captured and executed by the Bolsheviks, so he's all well and good. In fact, he's a potential political advisor you can pick... and I actually did so, making him Chief of the Navy.
Funny you should bring him up, actually, as he'll make an appearance in the next update.
Having the son of a national leader in the military can have some dramatic, and embarrassing, results, some of which may end with terrible fates.
Just ask Stalin.
Alexander's exploits in the military will be seen in future chapters.
Stay tuned for the Alexander movie starring Tom Cruise as an American soldier who accompanies Alexander against the Germans and manages to wipe out the entire Third Reich and oh yeah Alexander exists.
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Europe gets messier and messier. And Alexander wants to throw himself into the mix! One certainly can't deny his enthusiasm.
Spain is going to be devastated whenever the war ends there. Cliché though it may be, but it really doesn't look like there will be any winners out of that one.
Spain is going to be devastated whenever the war ends there. Cliché though it may be, but it really doesn't look like there will be any winners out of that one.
Sorry, real life hits you with curve balls. A lot can happen that affects your entire life.
But I'm still here and alive.
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Your story will be welcomed back warmly when the fates allow. Until then, take care.
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Chapter 05
Bobrova
6 April, 1939
Bobrova continued down the hall, towards the planned government meeting. She was flanked by her associate, Nikolai Vavilov. She had been summoned to attend a meeting of high ranking officials to discuss the current state of Russia’s efforts to modernize itself and bring it into a state equal to other countries around her borders. It was being held at one of the palaces around Petrograd. Accompanied by some Okhrana agents and soldiers, they were led to a room and both were welcomed in.
Bobrova immediately took in all who were in attendance. Maksim Lobanov was there, of course. Alexander Kerensky, the prime minister, was there. Pyotr Wrangel, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, was there. Ludmila Menshikov, the head of the Okhrana, was there as well. Vasiliy Chemtsov, a member of the military command in charge of mechanized warfare production and doctrine, was there. Mikhail Drozdovskiy, another member of the military command, and the one in charge of infantry weapon production and doctrine, was there. Finally, Alexander Kolchak, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, was there.
All of these individuals were seated at a long table, having taken a seat on either side of it. There was one chair at the far end, though it was currently unoccupied. Bobrova was actually surprised that neither Wrangel nor Kerensky had taken the spot, as it seemed fitting for either of them. Why had it been left alone? That answer was soon given as the door at the other end of the room was opened, and two soldiers walked in. Wrangel stood up, and everyone else, Bobrova included, stood up. She blinked at who entered. It was the Tsarina Anastasia herself. She wore a simple green dress, covered in intricate, lacy designs down the front, with black, high heeled boots peeking out from the front. The soldiers took a spot on either side of the chair, and the Tsarina took her seat. As soon as she was seated, Wrangle motioned with his hands, and everyone else sat.
Anastasia folded her hands on her lap and smiled at all those present. “I thank you all for attending this meeting. I know we have many things to discuss, and you all have time that is most precious. Therefore, if you will forgive my forwardness, shall we simply begin? Wrangel, please tell us what you have to share.”
Bobrova was happy it was not her who was going first, for the sight of the famed Tsarina was still awe-inspiring. No doubt to Wrangel, Kerensky, and others who had already met her a thousand times over, she was as mortal as any other woman in the Empire. Nonetheless, Bobrova had not yet had a chance to see her in person, let alone this up close. For certain she had listened to the speeches, she had seen the photos in the newspapers, and she had seen the news reels – yet it was nothing like seeing her in person. Here she was, the girl who had survived the murder of her entire family, and who had lived a life in exile as a peasant only to be summoned back to the throne. It was like someone from a fairy tale, or perhaps one of the legends of the old empire, coming right out of the pages and appearing before you in the room.
At the Empress’ behest, Wrangel cleared his throat. “In February, we began a program to rethink our military doctrines, to bring them up to speed. This was completed not too long after, and we have begun to review the state our army, to ensure it will be a match for any nation along our borders.” Wrangel frowned. “We also did a few war games, to review the status of our armies.”
Anastasia nodded. “What did you find?”
“Sadly, I fear our armies are not quite ready. We reviewed what might happen, for example, if Poland formed their alliance with the Baltic states, as they are trying to do, and we went to war with them. We found that, while we might have initial success, their combined forces would stall our armies well past their borders, and the entire war would become a standstill. It may be a while before our forces will truly be something to reckon with.”
By the way the Tsarina’s brow furrowed and her hands began to tap one another on her lap, it was clear that she was unhappy with that response – but knew there was nothing she could do. “We shall have to remedy that sooner rather than later.” She turned to Maksim. “What do you have to report?”
Maksim’s eyes gleamed with pride. “Well, as you know, last November, we began the process of incorporating all formerly Russian land with the Empire. This was completed by the end of the year. Obviously, the question of Swedish lands is still something of a trump card, but we have troops stationed in the area to keep any potential rebellion quelled.”
Wrangel nodded. “General Anton Turkul was sent in with his men. They had formerly been assigned to keep the Bolsheviks in check. Now they’re making sure that law and order is maintained in formerly Swedish territories.”
“Yes,” said Maksim. “After this, we began to make plans for expanding further.”
“Further?” Bobrova asked.
“Why, yes,” said Maksim, eyeing Bobrova as if her head had just fallen onto the table. “There is still land that should be ours. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, chunks of Poland and Romania… all of it is formerly Russian. For example, we recently supported votes in the regions of Northern and Southern Bessarabia… and all of them voted to return to Russia.”
Bobrova had heard about the votes held in Romania. It had caused no shortage of controversy in Romania, and many of the more left-leaning forces in the Duma had compared it to the land grabs made by Hitler’s Germany. Of course, those were historically Russian lands, inhabited by many Russians and other Slavs, and supporters of the Tsarina had seen it as merely her continuing to live up to her promise to return the land that rightfully belonged to the Russian Empire. Add to this the fact that it was done peacefully (even if the results of the vote for contested), as well as the fact that a major war had most of Europe distracted elsewhere, and you had the recipe for a land grab that was met with very little resistance.
Anastasia turned to Ludmila Menshikov. “Menshikov, what do you have to share?”
Menshikov gave a curt nod, then leaned forward on the table. “We’ve been to greatly upgrade our intelligence capabilities. We have found ways to obtain blueprints, have incorporated a cryptology department among our staff, and created a radio interception group, which we expanded to its full potential. We are now working on a cypher department to better encrypt our communications, both on an intelligence and government level.
“That is good news,” the Tsarina said. She turned to Bobrova, and, to the minister’s delight, smiled. “Now, Miss Bobrova, what do you have to share in regards to the Empire’s industry?”
Bobrova looked over her notes.
“We have expanded the drilling of aluminium in Petrograd and Kamensk. We have also continued efforts to increase the infrastructure in the middle of the country, and to expand the number of factories we have producing military-grade weapons. In December of last year, we began researching an upgrade to our computer systems to make them more modern and head of other countries. Last year, we have updated our rifles to a more up to date model of the Mosina rifle, and our artillery has been upgraded to a standard seen in most countries shortly after the Great War. Our support equipment has also been upgraded. We began in June of last year to begin the process of upgrading our infantry equipment in general. We also began to form the T-35* as a prototype for a modern heavy tank, which we completed at the start of March. We’re now working on a model called the T-28 – more of a ‘medium’ model. In regards to the navy, we began to upgrade the shells used by our warships. Otherwise, the upgrades have been slow going. We have begun to expand the shipyards along the Sea of Azov, however.”
Anastasia nodded. “And what about-”
There was a knock on the door. One of the soldiers opened it, and received a slip of paper from someone on the other side. He walked over, handed it to Wrangel, and saluted. Wrangel stood up and began to read the first part of it. A frown immediately fell over his face.
“What is it, Wrangel?” Anastasia asked.
Wrangel looked up into the air.
“There’s been a coup in Romania.”
The room erupted in murmurs.
“Prince Michael led a coup against his father, King Carol II,” Wrangel explained. “He was backed by the military.”
“Oh my!” Maksim said. “Does it say why?”
“I can tell you why,” Wrangel said. “Dissatisfaction with the war effort. The Germans are steamrolling over Czechoslovakia while Romania sits on its rump. Now, our Empire takes Bessarabia from them. The people weren’t satisfied with the king’s weak leadership. There were protests all over the country after those votes were held, demanding Carol abdicate. If the military hadn’t stepped in, the people would have done so in a full blown revolution.” Wrangel pursed his lips as he read the other held of the communique. “Well now, this is interesting… Michael has broken the alliance with Czechoslovakia and France. He’s apparently attempting to end the war with Germany and Italy.”
“Surely they won’t do it,” Kolchak said.
“No, they won’t.” Wrangel offered the sheet to the Tsarina, who merely shook her head. “The war will continue, I imagine. Hitler no doubt desires the oil feeds Romania has… and he will get what he wants. He’s shown that so far.” Wrangel sat back down in his chair. “And that, my friends, means the Third Reich will come to our very doorstep…”
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* Author’s note: It’s called in-game a T-76, but it’s historically the T-35. I chose to go with the historical name to avoid confusion.
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Ayyy he's back! And with an interesting update at that. Seems the Empire is slowly but surely upgrading their military capabilities to the current times, hope they can churn them out in time if ol' Adolf decides to, God forbid, invade Russia. That coup though, seems France will stand alone once the Czechs fall under the Third Reich's might.
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Welcome back. A good round up of ‘bread and butter’ issues, with a little bit of drama at the end. One gets the feeling Russia wants to start playing directly in events, but lacks the confidence in its capabilities to go up against the ‘big boys’ yet.
A good round up of ‘bread and butter’ issues, with a little bit of drama at the end. One gets the feeling Russia wants to start playing directly in events, but lacks the confidence in its capabilities to go up against the ‘big boys’ yet.
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Welcome back! Also, we are soon going to have the world war come to our footsteps...
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World map update?
And yes, the german and Russian War inches a little closer. Only difference is Russia is even bigger and Germany has been at war for even longer...
And yes, the german and Russian War inches a little closer. Only difference is Russia is even bigger and Germany has been at war for even longer...
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You'll find out in a future update. France won't be quite alone.
Welcome back.
Sadly yes, obviously the updating isn't going to happen overnight - and the shortcomings were quite true in-game. The war game Wrangel mentions is actually based on a moment where I saved the game, then declared war on Poland just to see what would happen... only to find the results weren't too good. So yeah, Russia wasn't quite up to snuff here yet.
All those nice buffer states going away... it's enough to make a Tsarina cry...
I've already played through the game to the point I'd like to stop at, so sadly all the screenshots I took are already done, and I won't be able to load the game and get any more. That being said, there'll be plenty of maps shared in the future that will show the state of things.
Really, nothing much has changed from past updates except for Germany owning more of Czechoslovakia than before.
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Back with a bang, then! Russia’s efforts to tyrannise all unfortunate enough to share a land border with her now leading to imminent war. Will be interesting to see just how ready the White Army are when the Wehrmacht come a-calling. Won’t be pretty if it just comes down to which side can throw more men into the meat grinder…
Well if it just comes down to numbers, Russia has even more men than they had OTL. And much higher moral given what the nazis have very publically and repeatedly said they want to do to them...
Then again, post war or whenever, this attempt to rebuild the russian empire to its fullest extent seems doomed to fail. There's been decades of nationalism going on in Eastern Europe, and I doubt being yet another battleground between Germany and Russia will make them feel any better...maybe if the nazis do their usual thing there and the russians are seen as liberators and then utilise that properly after the war? Rebuild the nations, give them equal treatment etc.
But that seems a little unlikely.
Yeah. I think this may have worked if Russia hadn't gone on an annexation spree before the Nazis, but even by the standards of this regime turning around post war and saying 'aren't you glad we liberated you?' would seem a bit rich…
I suppose at least there is no doubting the Nazis' intentions in the east, so you'd have equally hard a time saying the country would've been fine but for Russian revanchism. It'll be a strange one to balance, that is certain
Depends on post war deals though. No communist scare to split up Germany, no anti russia reactions with US (indeed, they'd be the best of friends in the Pacific)...Russia could well be a gigantic capitalist economy post war with enough investment. Eastern Europe and large parts of Asia will then be under their sway as a matter of course...