The Rise of Russia

[HistoryDude]

Despite this, Alexander II didn’t believe that the war was over. He had only suffered a single defeat, and the crown of Russia was still his rightful inheritance. Opposing his brother hadn’t worked, but there would be other battles.

Still, Alexander wanted more support from the Russian people. He offered an alliance to the Tsar of Siberia, promising to negotiate some sort of agreement with him in exchange for military aid. He refused to officially recognize Siberian independence, but he heavily implied that generous autonomy was on the table. His messages to the Siberian ruler were also vaguely threatening, though - he pointed out that the only thing protecting Siberian independence was that other factions in the Russian Civil War were too distracted with each other to deal with him, but that state of affairs was destined to end.

To Alexander’s shock, the Tsar of Siberia didn’t see this as a reason to negotiate with him. However, the Siberian ruler did take Alexander’s threat to heart - he recognized that the threat was a logical concern, so he determined that Russia could never be reunited. He intended to make the Russian Age of Chaos last forever, and he sent messages asking for aid in keeping his enemies divided. He found two allies who agreed with his view for different reasons - Yegorov and the self-proclaimed Tsar Nicholas II also wanted to keep Russia divided. Together, these three men formed the Russian Triumvirate, which would become one of the mightiest factions in the Russian Age of Chaos. However, they were a triumvirate, and they were loyal to their Roman roots.

Meanwhile, Alexander II realized that the numerous independent states across Russia were easy pickings for any claimant. He attacked many of them across European Russia, and his first targets, Rostov and Ryazan, were quick to fall. After this, the other independent Russian microstates realized that none of them could take on Alexander II, so they formed the Rus League. This faction agreed that the Kremlin in Moscow was to serve as neutral ground that was owned by no individual state within it. That area would remain purely as a place to plan joint League operations.

Alexander II remained undaunted by the newfound unity of his enemies. “It will not last,” he proclaimed. “The decentralized nature of these ‘alliances’ leaves them too prone to infighting. History has shown us that”. He continued to attack their cities, but many of them began to be mysteriously undefended.

There was a simple reason for this. “Prince” (formerly Governor) Oleg of Kiev had convinced his allies that victory in a pitched battle against Alexander II would increase morale and grant their small group legitimacy. As November neared its end, this battle occurred.

At Tula, a few miles south of Moscow, the two armies clashed, and Alexander’s prediction proved prophetic. Old rivalries within the Rus League reared their heads, and many were killed by “friendly fire”. Prince Oleg saw that his cause was lost and held a meeting in the Rus League’s war camp. There, he chose a few princes and dukes that he believed were smart and capable of winning battles and talked with them in private. On November 30, 1852, these rulers withdrew their men from the battlefield and headed toward Kiev. The additional confusion this caused within the army of the Rus League led to that army’s complete and utter destruction. For Alexander II, the road to Moscow was open.

Prince Oleg and his compatriots, meanwhile, vowed that the Rus League would fight on.

Tula is controversial in popular imagination, and Prince Oleg is mired in controversy. Did he simply see a lost cause and make the smart decision to retreat? Or was he a scheming mastermind that organized a culling of the least intelligent and ruthless men in his own faction? The rest of the war shows us much about Prince Oleg, but historians still debate this topic.

 

[Midnite Duke]

When stuck in a hole, dig deeper and you will come out on the other side of the world. The light is getting dimmer and the canaries are dying. Thank you for updating.

 

[HistoryDude]

When stuck in a hole, dig deeper and you will come out on the other side of the world. The light is getting dimmer and the canaries are dying. Thank you for updating.

Sure.... that'll work. Just ignore those dead bodies in the corner.

 

[HistoryDude]

Alexander II ruled in Moscow. A new and more stable alliance in favor of decentralization had emerged. Konstantin I ruled in the Caucasus, and his armies had proven their might. Across all of Russia, Siberia had declared their independence, and Bulgaria had moved out of the Russian sphere of influence.

Georgia, for its part, had once been allied with the Duma, but the collapse of that regime had left them unaligned. Many Georgians were in support of establishing a republican regime in Russia… or as much as it as they could. Others viewed Russia’s division as the opportunity to establish a mighty empire.

Yegorov had spies in that Tsardom, and they heard of these plans. Yegorov worried that a Georgian empire was a real possibility, and, despite everything, he remained loyal to Russia as a state. In addition, the aftermath of Tsaritsyn and Tula left Alexander II and Konstantin I as the most powerful people in Russia. Yegorov worried that they would form a duumvirate and reunite Russia as a fragile alliance. He was completely in favor of a unified Russia, of course, but he knew that any alliance would collapse into infighting.

However, he thought that he knew what the claimant Tsars wanted. Neither would tolerate another claimant to their throne if they didn’t think that they had to. Yegorov intended to prop up the power of Konstantin’s regime, and, to do that, he needed to give them more influence. He had his spies suggest to Konstantin that he deal with Georgia.

Konstantin took the advice, but he was suspicious of the spies. They hadn’t proven their loyalty to him at the Battle of Tsaritsyn, so he suspected that they were working for someone else. He followed their advice because it was sound advice, but he also assigned people to check them for suspicious activity. The less careful of them were caught in their treason, but they didn’t have much information about what they were doing. Some didn’t even know that they were working for Yegorov or temporarily against Russian reunification at all.

Still, Konstantin realized that he could use this. He made some of the spies believe that he knew nothing of their plans and then gave them false information. The Intrigue Phase of the Second Russian Civil War had begun.

Of course, Konstantin’s forces defeated the Georgians. To do this, they exploited the same phenomenon that many Georgians had planned to exploit in Russia - internal divisions. The Tsardom of Georgia had many Russian loyalists, and those opposed to Russia were divided. Konstantin sent his spies to whip up unrest across the Georgian population and even in Tbilisi itself. Konstantin then presented himself as a liberator and took Tbilisi, where he installed his own puppet Tsar. Then, he turned his eyes north - toward Moscow, and, in his eyes, legitimacy.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Rus League reached Poland, where they requested an audience with Tsar Nicholas of Poland. Prince Oleg of Kiev set up a temporary war camp in Vilnius and offered a deal to Nicholas. A reckoning was coming… but betrayal lurked in every corner. The Second Russian Civil War was far from over.

 

[Midnite Duke]

At least, life is no worse. Thank you for the update.

 

[HistoryDude]

The deals made in late November changed everything about the war. Nicholas saw how the Rus League could be useful to his plans and formed an alliance with them - an alliance that was honored by the other members of the Triumvirate until that alliance of convenience collapsed. Nicholas viewed the Rus League as fundamentally unstable, and that meant that they would collapse in the moments of their victory, which would allow him to keep Russia in perpetual civil war. This perpetual civil war would occasionally cease when there were foreign enemies, but its very existence would make Russians a race of people who could never be defeated by people who were not hardened by perpetual war.

This logic was extremely flawed, but Nicholas believed it wholeheartedly, which is what matters to the annals of history.

Still, November had one final development that helped determine the course of the war. Konstantin had ordered his spies to stir up unrest near and in Moscow, and they had succeeded. Many in the city believed that a ruler constrained by a parliament would be less likely to sell them out in deals for their own glory, and they began to form militias.

Tsar Alexander II realized that these militias were harmless on their own, but he also realized that they might encourage Konstantin to challenge him sooner rather than later. Because of this, he began expanding his army, advertising the benefits of his planned absolutist rule… and doing absolutely nothing about the militias. After all, he wanted a victory over his brother in order to prove that he was a better ruler. He worried that his previous defeat at Tsaritsyn might negatively affect his legitimacy, so he wanted to balance it with a glorious victory that was far more meaningful. Moscow was the center of Russia, an unofficial capital and larger than St. Petersburg. It also had a far more extensive history than the official capital.

Still, both Konstantin and Alexander failed to consider the Rus League, and both had dismissed the newfound alliance between their other brother and the League as the “alliance of anarchists with a madman”.

Objectively, they were probably right about that, and neither Oleg nor Tsar Nicholas had plans to do anything with their alliance at any point within the two months remaining in 1852. However, they weren’t the only driving factors in their faction - and many of the Rus League refused to surrender immediately without a fight.

One of these polities was Oka, and its capital was Kaluga, which was only a few miles from Moscow itself. Alexander began besieging it on November 28, and, initially, it appeared as though the siege would prove unremarkable.

Appearances were deceptive. Some of Alexander’s soldiers had been convinced by Konstantin’s rhetoric, and a few of his backup regiments were also infiltrated by his men. These men began a mutiny, proclaiming that, “Alexander II is an enemy of the Russian people, the rightful Tsar, and God”. The fighting within the ranks of the besieging army didn’t stop the siege, though. Nobody of importance in Alexander’s army thought that the Rus League was a good idea.

Still, the Battle of Kaluga had begun, and it would only come to involve more factions. Kaluga was sometimes known as the Battle of the Lords, and it certainly earned that name.

 

[HistoryDude]

At least, life is no worse. Thank you for the update.

On the other hand, it would've been next to impossible for life to actually get worse. Seriously, life after a nuclear war would probably be more stable than this...

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the update. Britain and Prussia begin their nightly prayers with 'Lord, thank you for letting us lose to Russia'.

 

[El Pip]

On the other hand, it would've been next to impossible for life to actually get worse. Seriously, life after a nuclear war would probably be more stable than this...

It is good that Russia is being punished for it's crimes, long may it continue.

 

[HistoryDude]

The initial battle went well for the Rus League and terribly for Alexander. The mutineers wished to fight for this battle alone, but the loyalists refused to serve with men that they knew were going to be traitors. The loyalists told Alexander that accepting the aid of the mutineers would be tantamount to handing Kaluga - and a path to Moscow - to Konstantin on a silver platter, and Alexander agreed with them.

Initially, this led to a massive problem, as it meant that Alexander didn’t attack. The self-proclaimed Prince of Oka took advantage of this by attacking the Tsar’s army himself… with night to cover his approach.

Alexander II didn’t see this brazen surprise attack coming, and he was unprepared for battle. This initially allowed the destruction of a large portion of his army, but his men quickly rallied. The attackers were driven back to the outskirts of Kaluga, but they refused to enter the city. They would stand and fight against Alexander. Alexander II recognized this, and he used it as a lynchpin in his plan to deal with his other problem.

All he needed to do was send people who he suspected of disloyalty to attack first. This would destroy all of his brother’s supporters. They would all die as a result of being on the front lines alone, and Alexander might even be able to sway the survivors back to his side. This situation had only emerged because of the formation of the Duma, after all.

Alexander’s plan worked perfectly - most of the men convinced by Konstantin’s propaganda were killed, but a few survived. Alexander’s followup speech - that any nation with a representative assembly would be prone to infighting that would inevitably end up like the Rus League - convinced many of those that did survive to abandon their treasonous plot, but it didn’t convince all of them.

The most extreme decided that they should launch a suicide attack on Alexander II… but they planned to misdirect blame for their deeds. Indeed, these men, when they attacked, shouted, “long live the Tsar of Poland!”. This successfully redirected blame onto Nicholas, although the attempted assassination failed.

Konstantin arrived in Kaluga soon thereafter but so did Nicholas I. This didn’t exactly hurt the misdirection. Indeed, even Nicholas himself didn’t attempt to deny it, although that was probably because he thought that damaging his reputation in exchange for continued war was a good trade. This was the guy who was trying to prolong a civil war so that it lasted for eternity, after all.

Many of the militarists in the Duma also arrived, and they officially supported Konstantin. Unofficially, it was far more complicated than that. Most of these guys aren’t relevant to the overall history of the Russian Age of Chaos, although many of them did write biographies of themselves. The few who are relevant are Demetrius of Moscow, Paul of Minsk, and Makarov of Tomsk.

Anyway, the three armies clashed, but, as December dawned, their battles were increasingly inconclusive. The city of Kaluga itself was still technically held by the Prince of Oka, even though he had no army by this point.

Even without an army, though, he could still prove relevant. He realized that whoever he surrendered the city to would be able to force the other claimants out by the strategic position it would grant them. Alexander II realized this as well, so he entered into negotiations.

These negotiations paid off - the ultimate deal was one that favored Alexander heavily and gave the Prince of Oka almost nothing. It is extremely likely that Konstantin would’ve given the rebelling man better terms, but he hadn’t offered any, and the Prince of Oka was desperate. He agreed to give up all of his territory and merely become the mayor of Kaluga, but he was allowed to keep that essentially meaningless title.

The aftermath of that agreement saw the opposing armies retreat from the city, but they were far from defeated. A greater prize could still be won, and all parties involved knew that. After all, the legitimacy offered by Moscow paled in comparison to the legitimacy offered by St. Petersburg.

 

[HistoryDude]

Thank you for the update. Britain and Prussia begin their nightly prayers with 'Lord, thank you for letting us lose to Russia'.

Yes, things are indeed looking good for those nations right now.

It is good that Russia is being punished for it's crimes, long may it continue.

Russia is still in dire times, but it is a superpower in the modern day. All things must come to end eventually.

That being said, Russia's night won't brighten for a while, and it should have more likable protagonists when dawn comes.

 

[Midnite Duke]

While the land is still ravaged by war, life is improving for factions/claimants are beginning to fall by wayside. How much of this is gameplay (I know less of Vicky than I do HoI) and how much is your wonderful imagination? Thank you for the update.

 

[HistoryDude]

Alexander II had Moscow, and he intended to secure that city before expanding his reach further. This left an opportunity for his rivals - St. Petersburg offered the legitimacy of the official capital, so it was, in some ways, more useful than Moscow in terms of legitimacy. Even better, it was controlled by none of the main factions. At the war’s beginning, it had sworn allegiance to the Tsar… but that was when there was only one Tsar. Supporters of the different claimants had fought in the streets for a brief period, but that quickly ended.

St. Petersburg was somewhat stable, but it owed allegiance to no one. The highest government that the city acknowledged was an elected mayor, and even he had barely any power. Still, the peace that had settled in the city was extremely fragile, and it ended as soon as somebody made a move to claim the city.

The Rus League reached out to the mayor, who refused to join them. He said that they were, “the instruments of anarchy who would bring about the end of everything we have worked for”. Oleg knew better than to attempt to cross the territory of multiple rivals that had already defeated him to attack it. Still, the letter was intercepted by Yegorov’s spies and sent to Tsar Nicholas I… as a trap.

Yegorov, after all, knew that Nicholas wanted an endless war, and he didn’t and never had. The Triumvirate was composed of people who had common enemies, but they had their internal divisions as well. The reason why they trusted each other was not out of trust but out of a single principle - they knew that any victory would end in betrayal (or at least Tsar Nicholas I and Anton Yegorov did), but they also knew who their fellow conspirators were. Any extreme premature betrayal would lead to mutually assured destruction of all members of the Triumvirate.

All of which meant that the members of the Triumvirate attempted espionage against one another if they thought that they could get away with it. Yegorov knew that St. Petersburg had no ruler, but he also knew that implying it was under threat of falling to another faction would force his hand - the legitimacy it would grant them might allow them to marshal enough support to attack his land. That was a threat that Nicholas knew existed.

The letter itself wasn’t the trap - the trap was the revelations contained within. If St. Petersburg was up for grabs, then everyone would want it… including Nicholas. In his letter that was sent with the letter from the Rus League, Yegorov implied that everybody knew this information, and they didn’t, but Nicholas took the bait and began marching to St. Petersburg anyway, which was playing right into Yegorov’s hands.

Indeed, everything went so well for Yegorov that some historians - of the Second Civil War and of the Russian Age of Chaos in general - suspect that the letter from the Rus League to St. Petersburg never existed. It is possible that the great general simply forged this offer… and that is supported by the fact that there aren’t any records of it from Kiev itself… although we don’t have many documents from Kiev, given what happened later.

 

[HistoryDude]

Sorry that this update is a bit late. I got distracted a bit by real life.

While the land is still ravaged by war, life is improving for factions/claimants are beginning to fall by wayside. How much of this is gameplay (I know less of Vicky than I do HoI) and how much is your wonderful imagination? Thank you for the update.

It is becoming easier to understand. A lot is my imagination, but the game did hit me with a lot of rebels, which is what this part represents.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Crosses and double-crosses, forged letters; General Yegerov seems like a leader that Russia needs and deserves. Thank you for the update.

 

[HistoryDude]

Of course, Yegorov was correct in assuming that everyone would want St. Petersburg - Tsar Konstantin, outraged at his diplomatic and military losses, decided that taking St. Petersburg was the perfect way to recover support. He told his generals that he needed to reach the city with an army immediately, but they were skeptical. They pointed out that his armies would have to march great distances to the city, and that doing so might harm their chances of victory.

Unfortunately, Konstantin didn’t care. He had won one victory, but it had meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. He needed to win another in order to keep his faction loyal. He ordered his armies to march to the capital, although he did leave a small force to defend the Caucasus. This move would prove extremely unwise, as it left his territory open to attack and destroyed the faith of many of his generals in his competence.

Sure enough, his armies entered St. Petersburg and were exhausted by their long march. The Mayor of the city refused to bend his knee, even telling Konstantin that he could do nothing to force the people of St. Petersburg to kneel to him. Konstantin legendarily responded that he didn’t need to, as his loyalists that were doubtless present would force the Mayor’s hand.

He was wrong about this. While a small portion of the citizens of St. Petersburg did storm the mayor’s residence, it was nowhere near enough people to force anything, much less a matter of policy for the entire city. Ordinary civilians were able to force the protestors back.

This failure didn’t deter Konstantin, who was only barely talked down from killing the mayor right then. His generals were able to talk him out of this action, correctly pointing out that such a move would prove ruinous for his claim. They reminded him of the ultimate fate of the Conservative Coalition, but he remained unconvinced, claiming that the Conservatives had failed because God himself was opposing their unjust coup. The generals were forced to resort to threatening to tell his soldiers what he had been planning.

Ultimately, none of that mattered. Tsar Nicholas I reached the city in March 1853, and he attacked it immediately, proclaiming that he was Tsar by virtue of blood and being present. The mayor of St. Petersburg, unwilling to allow his city to swear allegiance to a madman, agreed to recognize Konstantin as Tsar in exchange for aid against his brother. Konstantin agreed, seeing this opportunity as divine intervention in favor of his cause.

The most beneficial part of the agreement for Konstantin’s forces was that the Provisional Government of St. Petersburg would give them food and shelter. This would allow them to rest and recover from their long march at long last. Naturally, the Provisional Government would also marshall an army to aid in the defeat of Nicholas the Mad. The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an extremely unusual statement - mainly because it actually expressed an opinion on a faction in the civil war, even declared that he wished to kill the Mad Claimant Tsar himself.

 

[HistoryDude]

Crosses and double-crosses, forged letters; General Yegerov seems like a leader that Russia needs and deserves. Thank you for the update.

Opinions on Yegorov are sharply divided, but he certainly thought he was doing what was necessary. Rather or not his actions actually benefitted Russia in the end... is hotly debated.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Tsar Konstantin is more popular than Tsar Nicholas, but that is a very low bar to clear. Are any foreign nations trying to take advantage of the Russian turmoil? Thank you for the update.

 

[HistoryDude]

The clash between Tsars Konstantin and Nicholas was way closer than anyone expected or planned for. Tsar Konstantin won in the end, but it was a very close call, and the time that was bought allowed Tsar Alexander II to bring his campaign in Moscow to a close and reach St. Petersburg very soon after the battle ended.

Why was the First Battle of St. Petersburg so long? Because Nicholas decided on two unconventional strategies: first, he appealed to the people of St. Petersburg and the personal honor of his opponents, and, second, he engaged in a very strange form of scorched earth tactics. This allowed him to leave the former capital with a strategic victory.

Tsar Nicholas I sent in a very small portion of his army into the city not to attack its citizens but to convince them that he was perfectly sane and would be a great Tsar. This was a rather Sisyphean task, but he actually managed to pull it off… by emphasizing how Russia under his rule would be free from periodic warfare and extreme politics and how glorious his rule would be. How would he achieve these goals? He would ritualize the periodic warfare by periodically making his opponents fight each other in Moscow, and he would achieve glory by spending his entire reign at war. His agents pointed out that this meant that every Russian would have a chance to gain glory as part of a military force.

This was obviously a terrible argument, but it was an argument, which none of the other Tsars had offered to the denizens of St. Petersburg. Shockingly, many were convinced by it. Many of the more militant of them joined the army of the Mad Tsar.

Nicholas I also exploited the personal honor of his opponents by challenging both Tsar Konstantin and the governor of St. Petersburg to duels. The governor declined, insisting that his duty to his people was greater than his personal honor, but Konstantin accepted, proclaiming that he would “put an end to your madness once and for all”.

The two met on the River Moyka and began their duel on the water. Konstantin attempted to force his brother into the river, but he initially failed. Nicholas refused to allow himself to be forced overboard and dodged Konstantin’s attacks by moving sideways. However, he eventually achieved his goal, and Nicholas went plunging into the waters of the Moyka, but that was far from the end of the story. I’ll let Konstantin finish the tale of the duel by quoting his Memoirs of A Dethroned Tsar.

“As I forced my insane brother into the water, he must have realized that he could not avoid falling into the depths. He stopped resisting and pulled me closer to him. I attempted to escape his grasp, but my brother, although mad, was strong and held onto me. When he finally fell, I was dragged with him. We plunged into the waters of the Moyka, and I feared that the hour of my death was nigh. I resolved to at least force my brother to drown with me, which would give the throne to my brother, who sat victorious in Moscow.

However, both of us could swim, and the shock of hitting the water must have slackened [Nicholas’s] grip. I wriggled free and swam as fast as I could toward shore. My brother followed me.

We both reached land and resumed our duel right then. I had no intention of allowing Nicholas to leave with his life, no matter what tricks he pulled. I knew that he would not be lured into the waves again, so I moved our battle to the great cathedral of St. Isaac. I would end my brother’s life in the shadow of a house of worship, so that no one could deny what I had done.

Once I had completed my task, I would beg forgiveness for the greatest of my sins from the Almighty.

Unfortunately, it seemed like I would only do that after a long wait. My brother proved resilient in his struggle to avoid his just fate, so I was forced to wait.

In the end, my goal went unachieved. My brother blinded me, and I could no longer fight on. I stabbed in his general direction anyway - I could not let even this setback delay me. I hit him, and he screamed, but he managed to snap my sword in half.

While I could not prevent it, he left, proclaiming that our duel had been a draw. It was now June In the Year of Our Lord 1853, and I was left with unusable eyes and a ruined city for my troubles.”

 

[HistoryDude]

Tsar Konstantin is more popular than Tsar Nicholas, but that is a very low bar to clear. Are any foreign nations trying to take advantage of the Russian turmoil? Thank you for the update.

Almost everybody is more popular than Nicholas.

The involvement of foreign nations will be covered after the St. Petersburg Arc is over, which should be finished after the next update.