The Rise of Russia

[HistoryDude]

The Fall of Siberia marked the beginning of the end for Russia’s instability. After it, only two more battles were fought, and compromises were finally reached between rival combatants. It seemed like Yegorov’s plans had succeeded beyond even his expectations.

The Rus League was the first to fall, and that required no battles at all. It fell not with a bang, but with a whimper, as it was mostly held together by the leadership of Prince Oleg of Kiev. This man quickly realized that the end of the Russo-Swedish War and the Fall of Siberia meant the end of the Russian Coalition, so he attempted a desperate rallying of the entire Rus League. Unfortunately, it seemed that only he felt threatened by the twin Tsars, and he received no support for a counterattack.

Left adrift, he determined to launch one final doomed attack upon Moscow. “Our cause has no defenders and is lost,” he is alleged to have said. “I can at least let it die with some dignity - and some glory”.

His attack on Moscow was predictably a failure, and it can’t even be called a battle. He attacked Tsar Alexander II’s forces with barely more than 2000 men - hardly a force that could be called an army. Still, he had the element of surprise. He managed to inflict a few casualties before he launched his true last hurrah. He charged Tsar Alexander II, who honorably met him in a duel. They crossed bayonets, but the Tsar was far stronger than the rebel Prince of Kiev. Still, Prince Oleg fought with all his might and managed to hold back his foe for a full day, allowing his army to flee - or to surrender. By November 1858, though, Prince Oleg lay dead upon Moscow’s streets. His dream of Russia as a loose confederation died with him.

The Siberian portions of the Rus League defected to Tsar Konstantin, while most of the League west of the Urals swore allegiance to Tsar Alexander, who took Kiev in January 1849.

Further good news arrived in Moscow that month. An assassin had managed to put down the Mad Tsar - it was later discovered that Yegorov sent this assassin. Everything was down to the two Tsars, and their battles would be legendary. Many men like Yegorov stayed neutral - all they cared for was that Russia was united, not who it was united under.

The first clash occurred in April in Pyatigorsk in the northern Caucasus. It was an attack by Tsar Alexander II upon his brother, as he sought to force Konstantin into a battle on his terms. This plan succeeded perfectly. Pyatigorsk was famed for its mineral springs, and it was these that Konstantin fought to defend.

Tsar Konstantin and Tsar Alexander II never directly dueled again at Pyatigorsk, but their armies fought like legends. Men were reported to have fought underwater and from atop buildings. They desperately fought for their rightful rulers. In the end, Tsar Konstantin retreated from the city, but he promised his men that they would return to the spa city victorious to vacation like victors - and he would keep his promise.

The two armies would meet again in September - at Adygea. Here, Tsar Alexander II and Tsar Konstantin had their long-awaited rematch, and their armies fought like demons. Both armies climbed the Chugush Mountain and fought each other throughout in a struggle that took a month - and that proved to be nothing more than a prelude. Ultimately, they would extend their conflict throughout the entire oblast, fighting across many rivers.

It was at the height of Chugush that Tsar Konstantin finally began his rematch with his brother. He was still blind, but he had learned how to fight in spite of this - many martial arts were still useful to the blind, and there were many organizations that taught the blind to fight. Konstantin had learned from these as much as he could before the Russo-Swedish War began, and he didn’t let that war slow down his progress.

Even in spite of this, though, the duel began with Tsar Alexander II disarming his brother, and he then proceeded to threaten his life with both of his guns. However, this was just what Konstantin wanted - he used some of his newfound skills to disarm his brother of both of his weapons, but he was unable to catch them, so the duel devolved into a fistfight. Even the outbreak of night was unable to stop their duel, as the stars watched them clash. They would stay awake and fight for nine days until, finally, they had reached the ground and were too tired to go on.

From there, they both rested alongside their armies, and Konstantin grabbed a sword. Tsar Alexander II grabbed another gun. They then dueled, sword against gun, for a further three days, until they had lured each other to the banks of the Kuban River. There, Konstantin disarmed his brother once more, and he used his sword to force him to back up… which he did.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t looking behind him as he backed up, and Tsar Alexander II quickly fell into the Kuban River. Tsar Konstantin was horrified by this, and he even dived in after his brother, but it was for naught - Tsar Alexander II had already drowned.

After this, the Blind Tsar is said to have proclaimed, “Oh, God! Why did my brothers and I have to rebel against my righteous brother? Why did we hate each other so? Is this what ambition has wrought?”.

Regardless, the battle was over. Tsar Alexander II’s army surrendered and didn’t fight for his successor. Tsar Konstantin inherited his lands, and Russia was reunited at last… at a terrible cost. The Russian Age of Chaos killed thousands for such a petty reason. It served as a warning to Russians of the dangerous divisive potential of ambition…

 

[HistoryDude]

Tsar Konstantin decided to begin his reign by expanding the reach of Russia. He knew that many of his subjects were still unsure about how successful his reign could be - after all, he was blind. He knew that they were wrong, but he had no wish to suffer through another civil war. The Russian Age of Chaos had been bad enough already - the people of Russia needed to know that it was over.

To do that, he needed to expand Russia’s reach. He began by meeting with Anton Yegorov, who he knew still commanded a lot of influence across the Russian Empire. They discussed where Russia should expand to…

Tsar Konstantin wanted to expand in Europe, hoping to bring Bulgaria back under Russian influence and expand against the Ottoman Empire. Yegorov disagreed, saying that the eyes of the world were on Europe. The other great powers would attack Russia if they attempted to make a play in Europe…

Yegorov instead proposed an invasion of nations on Russia’s borders in Asia… especially Central Asia. He noted that Britain might give a small bit of support to the invaded nations, but they wouldn’t interfere with their own men. This convinced Tsar Konstantin, who agreed to invade Khiva…

The invasion of Khiva began in October 1861, and it was a quick war. As events turned out, Britain didn’t intervene, as they feared an extreme retaliation from Russia.

The Russian soldiers were led by Anton Yegorov, who decided that this war shouldn’t be long or protracted. He saw the possibility that a protracted war could turn into a war of attrition, which would harm the image of the invincibility of a united Russia. In addition, foreign powers (especially Britain) might change their minds about intervening in the war.

His first move was a strike at Khiva itself. He reached the city in January 1862, and it proved to be shockingly undefended. Only a small army of around 2000 men defended Khiva, and this wasn’t enough for Yegorov. He wanted a big and decisive battle that would decide the fate of the entire Khanate.

To achieve this goal, he waited to attack, instead sending out small bands to thin out the forces defending Khiva. Around half of the defenders had perished, and hundreds had left their posts by the time reinforcements finally arrived for Khiva in February. It was too late for them, though - they now faced a massive Russian army that had defeated the garrison in Khiva itself. The entire army of Khiva fought as much as they could, but it was still a crushing Russian victory - the entirety of that army was destroyed by February 17.

All that was left for Yegorov to do was to negotiate peace, and the Khan of Khiva surrendered his domain as February ended. Russia had proven that they remained a force to be reckoned with, but the Blind Tsar was unsatisfied with this short campaign. He wanted a larger war to prove his mettle - and he wanted to prove his mettle personally by fighting in it.

 

[HistoryDude]

That larger war was achieved when the Blind Tsar declared war on Kokand. Kokand itself was a small kingdom in Central Asia, but it had a powerful ally - Persia. Konstantin wanted to defeat them.

In addition, both Britain and France decided that Russia was expanding too much, but both nations knew that an all-out war would escalate quickly. They were also distracted by the Second Great European War at the time, and they really didn’t want to drag Russia into that, as they feared that Russia might be able to turn the tides in favor of Austria and its allies. Because of that, they kept their contribution minimal, and the resulting conflict has often been referred to as a proxy war.

The war began in August 1862, almost immediately after the end of the Khivan War. Russian forces, led by Tsar Konstantin in person, began to march towards Central Asia to meet with the troops that were already in the former Khanate of Khiva. The armies quickly united and attacked.

The Battle of Aktash wasn’t over quickly, though. Persian soldiers had also left for Kokand to reinforce their allies, and Tsar Konstantin hadn’t predicted that development. As a result, the battle lasted for two months - throughout October and November.

Still, it was a crushing Russian victory. Most of Kokand’s actual army was destroyed, and thousands of Persians died. Persia itself wouldn’t be able to intervene in the war for a year.

Tsar Konstantin then split his army into two separate forces, one that he led personally and another that he allowed Anton Yegorov to command. His army launched raids on Persian supply lines, hoping to knock them out of the war. He also raided supply lines to British India, hoping to cut off avenues of British aid to Kokand.

Meanwhile, Anton Yegorov chased down the survivors of the Battle of Aktash. These soldiers knew the terrain much better than Yegorov, but he was far more ruthless than they were. He pointed out the benefits of aiding his quest to many locals… and the consequences of impeding it. The fear that this generated allowed him to meet the retreating army of Kokand at Yasi in July 1863, and that wasn’t a close battle. It was very quick, and the remnants of Kokand’s army were quickly slaughtered.

That should have been the end of the war, but Britain and France still feared Russian expansion, and Persia was still allied to Kokand. Persia insisted on fighting on - they knew that their supply lines were cut, but they thought that they could make new ones and protect those with a massive army.

The Persians had begun to mobilize a massive army, and they intended to use that against Russia. To make things worse for Russia, both Britain and France gave them massive amounts of gold and silver to pay their soldiers and to pay for mercenaries. They also encouraged Persia to use the money to pay for better infrastructure. This wasn’t solely out of altruism, of course - both nations saw a new potential market regardless of how the war ended.

Still, all of this preparation meant that both Persia and Kokand dismissed Tsar Konstantin’s peace offer when it came in October - it would force Kokand to break their alliance with Persia and to pay tribute to Russia. Later events would imply that Kokand really should’ve accepted this offer.

 

[HistoryDude]

None of the aid that other nations reached the remnants of the army of Kokand in time. Yegorov encountered them at Yasi, and he defeated them. The few survivors of that battle were captured and interrogated.

This interrogation likely changed the course of the war. Persia and Britain both had men - a less charitable man would’ve called them spies - in the army of Kokand, and they knew about the plans that Persia and Britain were forming. Yegorov managed to get the information out of them by appealing to their desire for peace, and they believed him. Of course, Yegorov cared nothing for a peace that didn’t benefit Russia, but he was good at making it seem like he did. This was probably helped by the fact that Yegorov actually did believe that this war was effectively over.

Yegorov then realized that the chances that his men would be defeated alone were higher than he would like, so he ordered his army to march, hoping to reunite with the Tsar. He aided this process by sending a letter to Tsar Konstantin to make the situation clear. Konstantin agreed that Russia’s forces in Central Asia should be united, but he insisted on taking command of the combined force. Yegorov agreed, believing that an argument would only harm the overall unity of the Russian military.

The two men and their armies met in June at Aktash, and they would encounter a small Persian army of a few thousand men at Derbent in December. Their scouts would encounter this army first, and the news was polarizing. Tsar Konstantin believed that they should annihilate this small army directly, but Anton Yegorov disagreed. Yegorov thought that they could trail this army and attack it once it was away from populated areas… after which they could capture and interrogate its members about the whereabouts of other Persian and, potentially, British armies.

In the end, the two men compromised. They would attack immediately, but they would aim to capture, not to kill. This strategy succeeded surprisingly well, and the army’s members told the Tsar and Yegorov of the whereabouts of other Persian forces… and of some “mercenary” forces that were clearly funded by Britain and even somewhat composed of British soldiers.

The problem was that these armies were spread out all across Kokand. It seemed like Russia’s foes intended to fight a guerrilla war, even if they hadn’t armed locals… yet. Tsar Konstantin decided to split his forces into three separate armies - one would be commanded by him personally, another would be commanded by Yegorov, and a third would be commanded by a general who had sided with Konstantin at the beginning of the Russian Age of Chaos and held the Caucasus, one Leonid Chibisov.

The three armies split, but Tsar Konstantin’s army quickly encountered resistance. In January 1864, Tsar Konstantin personally annihilated a force of tens of thousands of Persians at the Battle of Kizylyar.

He quickly followed this with a diplomatic victory, as he offered to protect the Khanate of Bukhara from any aggression if they would aid him. In March, the Khan of Bukhara agreed and declared war on Kokand. The stage was set for Russia’s complete dominance of Central Asia after Kokand surrendered.

However, the war was far from over…

 

[HistoryDude]

Tsar Konstantin himself moved towards where the Persians had come from. He figured that they had sent their entire army to Kizylyar, and, even if they had, they would surely be retreating the way that they came. He did send a few scouts ahead of his army to make sure that he estimated the direction of the Persians’s retreat correctly.

They led him on a chase across much of Kokand until both armies reached the very southern edge of the Caspian Sea - Derbent. The Tsar realized the trap too late to avoid it - the Persians intended to retreat across the Caspian, and the Russians hadn’t brought a large fleet with them. Any battle on the sea would surely result in a Persian victory, but not engaging in a naval battle would be a declaration of weakness and would allow the Persians to escape and supply many future rebellions in Kokand. That wasn’t a viable option for Tsar Konstantin either.

Tsar Konstantin quickly proved that the loss of his eyes hadn’t destroyed his brain, though. He decided that letting the Persians fight on their terms was unnecessary. If he did that, then he was left with two bad choices, but, if he took the initiative, he could create a great choice. Everything that made the situation initially appear amazing for the Persians could be turned against them. If he attacked quickly enough, the Persian army would be forced to fight on the beach - and to prioritize fighting and retreating.

If the Persians retreated, it would appear cowardly, which could harm their reputation… and Konstantin figured that Kokand’s people didn’t have all that high an opinion of Persia to begin with. Hopefully, this move would lead to a decrease in the amount of potential rebels who would accept Persian aid - cowardice was one of the worst crimes a man could commit in the culture of raiding the Steppe people lived on.

On the other hand, if they fought, then they couldn’t retreat. Their only option would be fighting to the bitter end, and they would be unable to change their position, caught between the Russian army and the Caspian Sea.

In the end, the Persian army chose to fight at Derbent, and none of them lived to see dawn as April came to an end. Very few attempted to retreat, knowing that only a cold and watery grave awaited them, for the fleet had been a British fleet, and it could only stay on the Caspian for a limited amount of time - from around February to early April. That was one of the hazards of relying on mercenaries to aid your allies in a war.

A few Persians were cowards during that month, though - they fled back to their home nation on the fleet that Britain had hired. Most fought at the Second Battle of Derbent, which changed the nature of the war.

For all intents and purposes, Persia was probably going to sign a quick peace with Russia soon, as they still had a lot left to lose. When that happened, it would be the end of Kokand, and, soon, the British feared that it would be the opening of a land route to India - an invasion route to India.

That couldn’t be allowed to happen, so Britain began mobilizing an army to send to Central Asia… and, if they were forced to sacrifice on other diplomatic fronts… so be it.

Meanwhile, both Anton Yegorov and Leonid Chibisov were fighting their own small battles, but both would soon be forced to bear the brunt of the Russian war effort. The British were coming…

 

[HistoryDude]

Tsar Konstantin wasn’t done with his own battles, however. In June, the Battle of Guryev was fought against one of the last remaining Persian armies. It quickly ended with a Russian victory, and a small period of waiting occurred. The British armies hadn’t arrived in Central Asia quite yet, and the Persians were almost completely destroyed, at least within Kokand. There were still a couple of Persian armies inside of Persia itself to defend it.

However, France also expressed interest in intervening against Russia, hoping to use this opportunity to crush the Russian Empire in Central Asia and, for some, to gain revenge for their failed invasion in 1812. This worried many Russians, as they didn’t wish to fight against two European powers.

It was Yegorov who did something about it. He had many spies across Europe from the Russian Age of Chaos, and a couple of these were in France. He contacted them and convinced them to cause some internal strife. This wasn’t very difficult, as the French revolutionaries hadn’t truly been wiped out.

Yegorov’s actions began a civil war in France, which caused the French government to sign a peace treaty with Russia, which meant that Russia would only have to fight one European power. Of course, there were many within Russia who didn’t approve of how Yegorov convinced France to leave the war…but that would be a problem for after the war was over.

It was Leonid Chibisov who would encounter the first British army to arrive in Central Asia. He was moving towards Persia proper when he encountered an army in the small fort of Dashhowuz, and he initially believed that this was merely a small Persian force.

However, he quickly sent a few scouts, and they reported that this army was very large, and the Persians would’ve had to have mobilized many of their smaller armies to form it. Chibisov realized that this was one of Britain’s armies, and he knew that his relatively small army wasn’t large enough to defeat it in an open, pitched battle. He would need to use trickery or to escape the battlefield.

He quickly decided that to flee the battlefield would be cowardly and determined that he and his army would fight. Still, they weren’t suicidal, so they didn’t outright attack.

Instead, Chibisov began to utilize the ancient strategy of divide and conquer. He realized that this British army had arrived in Central Asia shockingly quickly, so it couldn’t be composed of mainly British soldiers. It had to contain many mercenaries and subjugated peoples… and the subjugated peoples might hold a grudge against their conquerors. Chibisov’s strategy sought to exploit this and the greed of the supposed mercenaries - he sent a few scouts out to pose as merchants in the small town and spread rumors.

One of the two main rumors was that the local Russian forces were offering a lot of money to anyone who would fight alongside them against their enemies. The other was that the Russians would consider aiding a movement to reduce British influence in India and even to defend the independence of a variety of proposed Indian states. The first rumor was completely true, but the second rumor was a half-truth. Chibisov was certain that he could convince his tsar to interfere in India, but the newly “independent” Indian states would effectively be Russian vassals.

Chibisov’s strategy worked well. Many of the mercenaries thought that his offer was better than serving their current employers, as it offered some of them more money. Many of the native Indians in the army defected to Russia or formed their own small militaries. A few simply abandoned the army altogether and began to return to their homeland.

The resultant Russian army under Chibisov’s leadership was much larger than it had been originally, and the British army was much smaller. Still, the Battle of Dashhowuz was not going to be easy for the Russians to win…

 

[HistoryDude]

The Battle of Dashhowuz occurred in summer, and the city was located in the desert, so the weather was very hot. This gave the Persians and the natives an advantage, so Leonid Chibisov resolved to fight exactly where he was. He suspected that the Persians wouldn’t suspect that he would use this strategy because the Russians weren’t seen as very adapted to hot weather.

Of course, this was incorrect - many Russians actually were used to hot weather, which wasn’t rare in Russia itself and had previously granted the Russians victory against invasion. Still, that invasion was spoken of as being won by the Russian Winter across Europe, and Chibisov knew that.

This misinformation proved helpful to the war effort. The Persians were attacked first, as they were the people who actually might have been somewhat used to the climate. The Indian mercenaries were kept in reserve and spared from attack. The first day saw the last remnants of any Persian force in Central Asia destroyed, and the battle was now between the Russians and their Indian allies and Indian mercenaries who fought on Britain’s behalf.

These mercenaries were mainly from northern India and the tropical areas in the west, but very few were from arid areas… as the British had taken much of their information about the local terrain from spies who had only checked in the winter, when Dashhowuz was cold. This failure to account for changing weather conditions led to the end of that entire British force.

The heat was unfamiliar to the Indian mercenaries, who retreated to the nearest source of water, which happened to be Lake Sarykamysh. This lake allowed them to have a lot of water to drink, but that would prove to be the doom of the army that fought on Britain’s behalf. The lakewater, after all, wasn’t exactly sanitary, so many of them died of disease.

Indeed, Chibisov realized this and didn’t attack the army that served Britain - they would all die rather quickly anyway. He was right, and the few who escaped had either defected to Chibisov’s army or left the area completely. He then decided to move his army towards the army of his Tsar, hoping to reunite with him and destroy whatever forces Britain managed to field against his great nation…

Meanwhile, Anton Yegorov faced his own foe at Adygei. He had moved west, deeper into Russia, as he feared that Britain would land forces in Russia using their dominance of the seas. He was right, as the British navy brought a trained army from their home islands across the Mediterranean and through the Ottoman Empire (which also feared Russian expansion) to the Caspian.

This army landed in the Caucasus, but Yegorov didn’t reach that area until they had reached the northern part of those mountains. None of the local Russian garrisons moved to attack the large British army, and the British didn’t lay siege to any Russian cities. As a result, the first confrontation between Britain and Russia on Russian soil occurred when the Battle of Adygei did. Of course, Yegorov had the advantage, given that he was familiar with the terrain, so he defeated the British by attacking them quickly before they had time to rest. There were no fancy maneuvers or trickery, but the British were too exhausted to defeat General Yegorov and had to retreat. Still, that August battle wasn’t decisive, and most of the British army escaped to fight another day. The direct conflict between Russia and Britain had only just begun.

 

[HistoryDude]

The British army decided to retreat, but they remained in Russia. They wanted to be near a large body of water, as they suspected that Yegorov could defeat them again. In the event of another British defeat, the British armies would retreat across the Black Sea, using their navy’s mastery of the water to their advantage. From there, they would attempt an invasion of Russia from another angle.

It actually took Yegorov a while to figure out where the British had gone. He initially assumed that they had retreated into territory controlled by their allies, so he sent scouts to Persia. These scouts found no evidence that a large British army was in Persia, although they did find evidence that Persia was mustering a massive army with British aid. Yegorov wrote a letter to Tsar Konstantin with this information, but he knew that he still needed to deal with the main invading British armies.

He deduced that they were still in Russia, but he didn’t know where. Indeed, the initial meeting between the two armies was an accident. Yegorov wanted to be near the Black Sea because he wanted to reassure that it was under Russian control so that Russia would be in a good position to invade the Ottoman Empire after the Kokand War had concluded.

The two armies met at Novorossiysk, and they engaged in battle immediately. The British attacked first, hoping to use the element of surprise to defeat the Russians. They were initially very successful, but Yegorov managed to rally his soldiers and push the British back. The British fought on, believing that they could drive the Russians back and establish a base of operations in Russia proper, but Yegorov refused to cede ground.

The Battle of Novorossiysk became a stalemate and remained that way for weeks. In the end, the Russians managed to achieve victory by exploiting the sea, which was ironic given how famed their foe was for controlling the waves.

Yegorov sent a few of his men into Novorossiysk itself and had them request that the locals either build ships or allow his force to use the ships that were already docked. The locals allowed Yegorov to sneak a small portion of his army onto the ships in Tsemess Bay (one of the bays of the Black Sea). This fleet remained in port to trick the British.

The British played their part perfectly - they realized that the battle was going nowhere and attempted to retreat. They demanded that the locals allow them to use their ships, and the locals agreed out of fear. When the British attempted to enter “their” new ships, however, the Russians already on them began to attack them. This took the British by complete surprise and led to the death of many of them. The remainder believed that the entirety of Yegorov’s Russian army was on the ships and retreated, reasoning that they could find another port on the Black Sea to retreat from.

Unfortunately for them, Yegorov’s forces pursued them. They finally began to besiege Ekaterinodar in December, but Yegorov’s forces relieved the city. The British were now trapped between Yegorov’s army and the garrison defending the city proper. Some of them attempted to focus on the garrison, and most of these men managed to survive, as the garrison eventually broke. This allowed the British forces into Ekaterinodar, but it was far too late for most of the army, which had already been destroyed by Yegorov’s forces.

The small remnants of the British force realized that they couldn’t hold the city and sailed away. Most of these men would land on the eastern edge of the Ottoman Empire and plead for asylum, which the Ottomans granted due to their enmity with Russia. Many would be allowed to pass into Persia and join the joint British and Persian army gathering there.

Meanwhile, as the British were defeated on land, a very important battle was being fought at sea…

 

[HistoryDude]

Persia had allowed British ships access to their territorial waters, as had the Ottoman Empire. The British had taken advantage of this and sent a massive fleet to the Sea of Azov through the Black Sea. They intended to use their mastery of the waves to land a few armies in the areas of Russia north of the Caucasus, which would allow them to bypass Yegorov’s army and take the Russians by surprise.

However, Tsar Konstantin had known that Britain might take offense to further Russian expansion. He had prepared a small fleet to defend against possible British attack, though he had never expected it to be necessary. That foresight proved very valuable as 1865 ended.

The British hadn’t expected any challenge to their dominion of the seas. They expected a token Russian fleet, but the sight that met them was of a massive fleet.

The Russians initially didn’t challenge the British fleet, hoping that they were merely a threat.

It was the British that attacked first, and they merely attempted to sink the Russian fleet. A few Russian ships fell into the icy depths, but the Russian commander quickly realized that his entire fleet would follow them unless the British had some incentive not to try to sink his ships.

Most of the Russian sailors didn't have much experience on the water, but a lot of them did have experience fighting on land. The Russian commander, whose name is lost to history, decided to take advantage of this by ordering his captains to sail his ships right next to the British ships under the cover of night. Then, he ordered a large portion of his crew to board the British ships and take prisoners… and to leave a few notes indicating where these prisoners were.

The goal was both to prevent the British from simply sinking the Russian fleet and to piss them off. A tertiary goal was to weaken the position of any warhawks in Britain itself. The first two goals succeeded beautifully - when the British captains awoke, they wanted to sink the Russian fleet in retaliation, but they realized that they couldn’t without losing their comrades.

Still, somebody needed to pay for that. The British decided to try to give the Russians a taste of their own medicine - and force a hostage exchange. From there, they could easily sink the Russian fleet. Unfortunately for them, the Russians were prepared for that, and they achieved nothing - all the British had done was turn the Battle from a battle of ships to a battle of men. In doing so, they’d played exactly the Russian commander’s hands.

The Russian commander then moved across the Sea of Azov and into the Black Sea, knowing that the British had to follow. They did, and a few of the Russian ships that were closer to sinking simply rammed the British ships. A large chunk of both fleets sunk, but the Russians now had more ships and decided to end the battle.

The Russian commander ordered a portion of the fleet to go around the British and back into the Sea of Azov while a few of the smaller Russian ships rammed the British ones.

This was effective - the British fleet was then trapped between two Russian fleets and unable to even sink them. They were humiliatingly forced to surrender.

All of the hopes of the allied Persian-British force were now on their land army, but the war was coming to an end. Most of the British Parliament didn’t see the point of preventing Russian expansion in Asia…

 

[HistoryDude]

That army was gathering in Persia itself - specifically, they were gathering in Asterabad, which was near the border with the Central Asian states. The British and Persians knew that the Russians would attempt to divide and conquer their forces, so they intended to fight as a single army. This army had very few Indians, who the British didn’t trust after the Battle of Dashhowuz. Indeed, there were very few mercenaries at all, and the British contribution to this force was mainly composed of British from Britain and from Canada.

Tsar Konstantin thought that the British were almost defeated, but he knew that Persia still had some soldiers left, and he suspected that the British aid would inspire Persia to fight on and not surrender. He began to march his army towards Persia in order to prevent this.

Yegorov remained in the Caucasus in order to combat any potential invasion of Russia’s core territory by Persia there.

However, Tsar Konstantin did send a letter to Leonid Chibisov asking for his army’s aid. He suggested meeting in the once great city of Merv. Chibisov was also still in Central Asia and agreed, beginning to move in January of 1866.

Meanwhile, the British and the Persians decided that they were going to attack the Russians first. In all the previous battles of the Kokand War, they had allowed Russia to have the initiative, and they had lost every one of those battles. Persia, at least, needed a victory in order to have any chance of even a graceful defeat, much less a victory. Britain, for its part, worried that Russia might want to claim Persian territory and threaten their Indian domain.

The joint army decided to move north toward Central Asia. They would encounter a massive stroke of luck - Merv was in their path. To add to the misfortune of the Russians, the army of Tsar Konstantin was in the city at the time, but the army of Leonid Chibisov hadn’t reached it. In August 1866, the Perso-British army attacked Tsar Konstantin’s forces, and the Tsar was, for once, completely blindsided by the actions of his opponents. He began to attempt a retreat immediately, and the fall of night aided his quest. He managed to extricate his army from the battlefield, but he then realized that Chibisov’s army was still en route to Merv, and they would get utterly massacred by the British if he retreated.

He decided that allowing the destruction of an entire army of his subjects would harm his approval ratings, and he worried that it might lead to a coup that could take his life or his reign.

He rallied his troops in the dead of night and encouraged them to fight the allied army. According to him, they merely needed to hold the line, and, when Chibisov’s army arrived, the Perso-British army would see how outmatched they were and surrender.

This didn’t happen. The Battle of Merv was largely a stalemate before Chibisov arrived, but it was a stalemate that favored the army of the British and the Persians. They managed to force the Russian army to fight in the open desert, which the Persians were able to handle slightly better than the Russians.

Chibisov arrived as August neared its end, and his army provided Tsar Konstantin and his soldiers a temporary respite from fighting. Still, this was only a temporary solution.

On August 29, Tsar Konstantin rejoined the battle with his army, and it appeared like the Russians had managed to retake the initiative for around a day. This appearance was very deceptive - as soon as the allied army recovered from their surprise, they were able to launch a temporary retreat…

The two Russian forces united, and they believed themselves victorious. Nobody expected that the Perso-British force would launch an ambush on the night of August 30.

This move allowed them to reclaim the element of surprise, but it also turned the battle into an unorganized affair. All of the commanders were forced to call off their men, but many didn’t listen. All of these men killed each other, and their blood fell into the Murghab Delta.

The Persians and the British planned to surround the newly-united Russian force, but this proved unnecessary. The Russians used the last days of April to retreat from Merv and the Murghab Delta. The alliance had achieved a victory at long last… but Tsar Konstantin and his Russians had inflicted massive casualties on them that they couldn’t recover from quickly and escaped. To make matters worse, Yegorov’s army was still available and able to fight extremely well.

Britain and Persia ultimately decided to sue for peace in the aftermath of Merv, seeing the battle as a pyrrhic victory and a bargaining chip. Their terms were simple - they would allow Russia to annex large portions of Kokand if Russia left both Persia and British India alone. Tsar Konstantin agreed, and the war ended. Kokand's shattered remnants were also forced to pay tribute to Russia so that they could survive.

Almost immediately after, Tsar Konstantin managed to convince the Khan of Bukhara to ally with him. The point of this action was to have another ally in case of the British attacked from India or the Persians attacked again.

 

[HistoryDude]

Alright, so my apologies for this delay - I caught up to where my V2 game was, and V2 wasn't being very cooperative. Without further delay, let's speak of one of Russia's darker hours




After the Kokand War, Russia settled into a tentative peace. Tsar Konstantin was growing weary of war, but he knew better than to trust in the peacefulness of other European powers, which had been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt by their willingness to initiate a second war over Hungarian independence. In addition, the Tsar knew that the Duma was dominated by paranoid militarists, so a few Russian armies remained prepared for war. The Duma would launch another revolt before it allowed Russia’s complete demilitarization, even if it started another Age of Chaos.

Sweden had been nursing its wounds from the Russo-Swedish War, but they still saw Russia as a threat. They had stopped claiming Finland, but that didn’t prevent them from longing for revenge. After the Central Asian Wars, Russia appeared exhausted, and the Swedish king thought that he had a chance for a quick victory. In May 1867, he declared war, and Russia was forced to fight alone - except for their vassals in Georgia.

Initially, things went horribly for Russia. Most of their armies were in Central Asia, and there were no armies in Finland. Sweden swept over Finland, gradually conquering the area. They even captured the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland, Helsinki.

The Russian armies could do nothing, and the Swedes were emboldened. They proceeded to attack St. Petersburg itself in January 1868, and their assault managed to capture their city. Tsar Konstantin escaped to Moscow. From there, Swedish armies attacked the northern portion of Russia proper with impunity.

However, the Russians didn’t stand idly by as their nation fell. The Russian armies were still on their way to Europe, but Tsar Konstantin feared that even that wouldn’t be enough. He began to raise new armies to defend his lands, and he planned to unite them with his armies from Asia.

Still, the Swedish king believed that he had won, so he sent his peace terms to Moscow. He demanded that Finland become an independent nation and that Russia pay a massive amount of war reparations and limit the size of their army. Tsar Konstantin responded by ripping up the parchment that the terms had been written on. The message was clear - there would be no surrender to Sweden. Tsar Konstantin would rely on his armies - new and old alike - to defend and reclaim his nation.

Still, things remained dark. Very few men were willing to join the new armies that Tsar Konstantin was trying to raise. The armies from Asia had only just crossed the Urals. 1868 AD was one of the darkest years in Russian history, as Swedish armies advanced ever closer to Moscow, and neither the Tsar nor the Duma could do anything about it. For a while, it must have seemed as if the end of a glorious empire was at hand.

Tsar Konstantin himself even considered caving to the Swedish demands or fleeing Moscow. The Duma convinced him that either course of action could doom his reign, but their authority was faltering as well. Their attempts to raise armies for the defense of Russian cities weren’t any more successful than those of the Tsar.

A ray of hope shone through as 1868 ended, however. An army from Asia, led by Anton Yegorov himself, managed to retake St. Petersburg. Still, much of Russia remained occupied, and the Swedish armies remained at large.

 

[HistoryDude]

That quickly began to change. Yegorov’s army moved into Finland, and it took a while for his forces to reach the Swedish army. He finally did so in March of 1869, and a battle occurred. Yegorov’s forces triumphed, and the Swedish army scattered in the aftermath. Yegorov settled down and moved to reclaim Russia’s territory in Finland. The Swedish armies were allowed to disperse, which might have been a mistake.

After all, allowing those armies to disperse also allowed them to regroup. They did, and then they split up. These split armies refused to give battle to Yegorov’s army. Instead, they would besiege Russian cities and attack the many smaller Russian armies. This initially worked well for the Swedes, but Yegorov soon caught on - and so did Tsar Konstantin.

Yegorov’s army did manage to catch a Swedish force at Kotka in April 1869. These Swedes immediately attempted to retreat, but Yegorov didn’t allow them to. The Swedish force was utterly destroyed. In the grand scheme of things, however, this victory was next to irrelevant. The Swedish strategy was still working.

The two moments in 1869 changed that calculus. Tsar Konstantin united multiple of his smaller armies around northern Russia and sent this new unified force to intercept a Swedish siege. This army intercepted a large Swedish force at Smolensk in May, and this Swedish force was utterly destroyed.

The other moment occurred in July outside of St. Petersburg itself. A massive Swedish force - led by their king himself - attempted an attack against the city, hoping that capturing the Russian capital would give them leverage to force a peace. Instead, the small Russian force defending the city and the citizens of the city themselves held off the attackers long enough to send a request for aid - and long enough for Tsar Konstantin to arrive with reinforcements. This turned the tide of the battle, and the Swedish army was almost completely destroyed. Even the King of Sweden barely managed to escape his siege alive and uncaptured.

In response to Smolensk and St. Petersburg, the Swedish King changed his strategy. He moved to reunite his different armies before they could get destroyed by Russian armies. He would seek another decisive battle instead of fighting in a thousand small engagements.

This search for a decisive battle would prove problematic. The Russian armies were able to destroy a few small Swedish armies, although they weren’t able to prevent the King of Sweden from forming a massive army and retreating deep into Finland. The issue for Sweden was that engaging very few of the main Russian armies was even a definitive victory, and, even if they did win that victory, it would not mean much. There would still be many other Russian armies to defeat.

This issue got even worse for the Swedes in December 1870. That month was when Yegorov’s army finally managed to discover and engage where the massive unified Swedish army was. It was at Viipuri that the two armies clashed, and Yegorov emerged victorious after many days of brutal fighting.

In the aftermath of Viipuri, the Swedish army withdrew back into Sweden itself and waited to defend their land against a possible Russian counterattack. Their king sent another peace offer to Tsar Konstantin - no borders would change. He was refused. Tsar Konstantin and the Duma both wanted revenge for being attacked without provocation.




Here's another update. Also, thank you to everyone who voted for this AAR in the Q3 ACAs (we tied for second). Since I forgot to advertise for those, I will begin my advertising for a new set of awAARds somewhat early - vote for your favorite AARs of this year in the YAYAs!

 

[HistoryDude]

Realizing that the Russians would never forgive their unprovoked invasion, they doubled down. They sent messages to most of the other European powers, falsely declaring that the Finns were being mistreated by the Russians. Many of the other powers still held grudges against Russia, and this gave them a casus belli. Tsar Konstantin was forced to give mixed messages, alternatively declaring that they could discuss it and that Finland belonged to Russia, and there was nothing to discuss.

Still, Sweden remained defiant. When it became clear that their plan to defame Russia to other nations wasn’t immediately working, they attempted to land another army in Finland. Thankfully, Russia still had a large army present within the Duchy, although Anton Yegorov had left with a large portion of it in order to reclaim Russian territory in Finland.

The army was now under the command of a man named Igor Kolchak. A Swedish army landed at the coast near Tampere, and they managed to advance to the city of Tampere itself, which was important because Tampere was one of the largest cities in Finland, second only to Helsinki, and a large industrial center. If the Swedes captured it, it would revitalize their war effort and indicate that they might be able to secure Finland. Kolchak’s army utterly destroyed this Swedish army outside of the city walls, but he allowed many of their soldiers to retreat… as a scare tactic. The remnants of this army managed to reach the Swedish fleet and escape to Sweden proper… but they were now extremely afraid of the “limitless Russian hordes” and saw the war as unwinnable.

After Tampere, the rest of the Swedish occupiers retreated from Finland in a hurry, and the cities and towns were immediately reclaimed by Yegorov, but that was far from enough for the Russians. All of them wanted revenge, and they knew that they would have to subdue Sweden itself to get it.

Yegorov moved to Tampere, where he picked up reinforcements from Kolchak’s army. He then moved his new and enlarged army to the northern half of Sweden, which was connected by land to Finland, thereby quickly bypassing Sweden’s shaky naval dominance. The local Sapmi inhabitants of the area didn’t really care about their rulers in distant Stockholm and surrendered to the Russians in exchange for being left alone. Yegorov accepted this deal and began to move south.

He wouldn’t encounter a Swedish army for many months, but one finally appeared when he reached Ostersund. This city was near the geographical center of Sweden, and capturing it would open the entirety of southern Sweden to invasion, so it was guarded by a massive army.

Fortunately, this was an army under Yegorov’s command. While a lesser commander might have retreated, he instead began to think tactically. The city itself relied on agriculture, so he adopted a scorched earth policy, hoping to starve it into surrendering and deny his enemies most of their food. This worked perfectly - the city surrendered, and many members of the Swedish army died due to starvation. Yegorov had to face a much-reduced army as 1872 dawned, but he was able to defeat that army easily.

With southern Sweden open to Russian occupation, Tsar Konstantin saw a golden opportunity to end the war once and for all. He sent a massive fleet of ships to the Baltic Sea to end Sweden’s naval dominance, and they managed to destroy the Swedish fleet in February.

Yegorov fought one last battle at Vasterais against the remnants of the Swedish armies in September, but this was an easy victory. He massively outnumbered them, as most of the remaining Swedish armies were defending Stockholm.

As the winter of 1872 came to an end, the Russian fleet ferried Kolchak’s army across the Baltic to Stockholm. Many of the defenders of the Swedish capital were veterans of Tampere, and they surrendered to Kolchak, believing that their victory was impossible. The remainder of the defenders fought valiantly, but the massive numbers of the Russian army were too much for them. In October 1872, Stockholm fell to Kolchak, but the royal family of Sweden managed to escape.

Fortunately for Russia, Yegorov was on the way to Stockholm, and he intercepted and captured them at the end of October.

The final peace treaty, signed in November 1872, was humiliating to Sweden - they were forced to pay reparations to Russia and utterly destroy their army. They were only allowed a small police force to defend themselves with and to keep order. This was intended to allow other powers to attack them and seize their territory without fear of reprisal… and to prevent Sweden from attacking Russia again for revenge.

 

[HistoryDude]

In the aftermath of the Finnish War, Tsar Konstantin briefly reigned over a nation at peace… and he knew that the peace wouldn’t last. During the Finnish War, the Swedes had attempted to pit the other nations in Europe against Russia. They had exaggerated the conditions of the natives in Finland, making Russia out to be an oppressive nation that persecuted them. These claims were absurd, of course, but they were irrelevant.

Many of the other nations in Europe still held grudges against Russia for past humiliations and defeats, especially the Great European War. There had been a Second Great European War over Hungary, but Russia had been embroiled in their Age of Chaos then and unable to interfere in favor of their Austrian allies. This left many vengeful empires unsatisfied, but none were willing to end the chaos early… and, once it had ended, they were too fearful of the might of Russia to make any moves.

This condition was still true when the Finnish War ended, and it is likely the main reason why the First World War didn’t start during the Finnish War. While the other European powers were still brave enough to slander the name of Russia, they were unwilling to back up their words with action… yet.

Unfortunately, that calculus was quickly changing. Since the end of the Russian Age of Chaos, the government of the Russian Empire had been a combination of the will of the Tsar and the decrees of the entirely conservative (and rather militarist) Duma. During the Central Asian Wars and the Finnish War, this had been begrudgingly allowed to stand by many who didn’t share their militarist views because these were mainly seen as defensive wars against unprovoked aggression.

At the moment, however, there was peace - and the whims of the European powers were largely unknown to the general populace. Many members of opposing political parties held rallies and demanded a more democratic Duma. Tsar Konstantin, fearful of the large turnout of these rallies, agreed, and it appeared as if peace would be maintained… if only just.

And then everything went wrong. The Duma itself refused to allow change and mobilized militias to crush their opposition. They also passed a decree that declared any political meeting of people who disagreed with their views an act of treason.

If the Duma hoped that this would discourage rebellion, they were sorely mistaken. Instead, it began a conflagration that ended their regime… and almost destroyed the Russian Empire itself. The other parties united to form a single “Opposition Duma” - or, as it is sometimes called, the “Anarcho-Liberal Duma”. They then mobilized their supporters in favor of an outright revolt.

This heavily worried Tsar Konstantin, who ordered the Duma to attempt negotiations with their enemies. He was refused - and, disgusted, he gathered most of the official standing Russian army and split it in half. The half that he commanded personally went to Finland, while the half that he allowed Anton Yegorov to command was given the task of patrolling the border with Prussia. This required Yegorov to split his army. Tsar Konstantin was far more worried about the demands that he kept receiving from Prussia and Britain than the “idiotic warring of ambitious fools”.

In response, the official Duma (or the Conservative Duma) raised militias and seized control over the small portion of the standing army that Tsar Konstantin hadn’t commandeered. They attacked and massacred a rally of Anarcho-Liberals at Kazan in March 1873, which destroyed any hope of a peaceful resolution.

The Anarcho-Liberals desperately attempted to raise militias, and they succeeded. Unfortunately for them, their militias were mainly untrained. This made them easy to defeat. There were engagements at Pastavy and Chistopol in April, which quickly ended in victory for the Conservative Duma.

A much more closely fought battle occurred at Ufa in May, although the Conservative Duma’s armies managed to eke out a victory there. However, the vast majority of the militias that the Anarcho-Liberal Duma raised managed to escape to Siberia.

Much more minor Anarcho-Liberal militias were defeated at Izmail and Pyatigorsk in July, but a much more major engagement occurred in October at Derbent, which was where the Anarcho-Liberal Duma was meeting. Here, the Conservative Duma’s militias managed to defeat their foes, but the Anarcho-Liberal forces did their job - they bought enough time for the Anarcho-Liberal Duma to escape into Siberia, specifically Omsk.

The conflict was far from over, but it did slow down a massive amount because of Tsar Konstantin’s news - and orders - in October. The conflict between the Dumas had convinced Prussia, France, and Britain that Russia was vulnerable, and they had declared war. The First World War had begun.

 

[HistoryDude]

Despite the declaration of war being over Finland, the fighting began on Russia’s western border. This was logical - Russia’s main enemies on the continent were France and Prussia, and they would need to cross Russian land to reach Finland, which was what they claimed to care about. Of course, the main reason that the fighting wasn’t mainly in Finland was because the European powers didn’t care about Finland - they cared about humiliating Russia.

Interestingly, the first battle was between France and Prussia. This was because the French had prepared an army before they declared war and quickly crossed Prussian territory (with Prussian permission) to reach the Russian border. Luckily, there was a Russian army on that border that could easily intercept the French army.

Unfortunately, while this army was numerous, it wasn’t led by a great general like Yegorov or Kolchak. Instead, it was led by a man whose name was struck from all Russian records due to his blatant incompetence. He managed to squander Russia’s numerical advantage and only barely defeated the invading French at all.

The battle was fought at Liepaja, which had ideal defensive conditions. The area was on the coast, and Russia’s Baltic Sea navy still existed at this point. Once the battle went south, a retreat wouldn’t have been difficult.

In addition, Liepaja had forests, flood plains, meadows, and swamps. This would’ve made it an ideal spot to launch a guerrilla campaign from. The forests would have provided a lot of cover to allow attacks upon the enemy, and that could’ve at least prevented the French advance. Additionally, flooding the area could’ve been used to delay the advance and inflict casualties.

Of course, the key word in all of those scenarios is “could”. If Yegorov or Kolchak or even the Tsar himself had been commanding the Army of the Southern Baltic, then it is extremely likely that they would have occurred. Sadly, that army was commanded by an incompetent fool who only cared about pitched battles.

He fought a battle slightly outside of the city with the French and refused to retreat. Thousands of Russians needlessly died for his pride. Testimony from survivors of Liepaja seems to indicate that he believed that the French would break and leave Liepaja eventually. He was right about that, but the cost was far too high.

By the time the French formation broke, nine thousand Russians were dead. By contrast, less than two thousand Frenchmen had perished. The French army quickly managed to regroup and attack other Russian cities. Liepaja had achieved nothing.

It would become a memorial to incompetence and defeat. “Remember Liepaja” would become a Russian rallying cry during their battles against France. Everyone saw the battle as a Russian defeat, even though it had been the French formation to break first.

Most of the blame for the battle was laid at the feet of the commander, and, to be fair, a lot of it was his fault. Still, blaming him for the entire battle is misleading - the Russian army was far less advanced than French and Prussian armies, and there were other problems with the Russian military.

The Battle of Liepaja was the first battle of World War I, and it served as a grim portent of what was to come in Russia.




Also, everyone should go and vote in the 2022 YAYAs before February!

 

[HistoryDude]

Away from Russia, the world wasn’t static. One of the most famous conflicts here were the two American Wars. These began because of a huge dispute in the United States of America over their practice of chattel slavery - keeping Africans as servants for life, somewhat similar to Russian serfs. The north opposed this practice, seeing it as inhumane, but the south supported it because their economy was reliant on it.

Keeping the balance of their “slave states” and “free states” was the focus of a lot of their politics before the First American War, but things came to a head in May of 1860. This month saw a slave who lived in a “free state”, Dred Scott, sued his master, noting that, by local state laws, he was free by definition. The court, dominated by the south, disagreed, insisting that a slave was a slave no matter where they were in the nation. This was actually something of a last hurrah for slavery in the United States and was probably inspired by the fact that the northern states had elected a vocally anti-slavery activist named Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate. The south was divided, so it looked like he would win.

Even the “slave states” figured that their loss was assurred, so they did the natural thing - secede from the United States before the election! They then formed their own new confederation - the Confederate States of America in June 1860. This left Lincoln president of the US essentially by default.

However, the previous president didn’t do anything to stop the collapse of his nation, so the CSA was de facto independent by 1861.

Lincoln, once he entered office, responded to this by refusing to recognize the legality of the secessions. He insisted that the United States was a singular entity - the United States, not these United States. This wasn’t helped by the fact that some states hadn’t fully seceded. These border states - Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, Missouri, and Kansas - were split, as two governments existed. The form that this took was different depending on the state - Virginia had a northwestern section that had seceded from it and rejoined the union, while Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas formed two competing governments, one of which seceded and the other of which stayed loyal. The CSA laid claim to both Delaware and Maryland despite the fact that those states remained completely loyal to the union.

It’s worth noting that all of these states were slave states. Their fates after the First American War varied - Kentucky, Maryland, and Kansas were annexed by the Confederacy, while the Union kept their new state of West Virginia, Delaware, and Missouri.

Reams of text have been written on both the American Wars, but none of them are relevant to Russian or world history as a whole. What is important is that the First American War ended in January 1863 with the Confederacy’s independence.

This didn’t last long - to begin with, Mexico attacked the Confederacy in March in order to regain Texas, which distracted the Confederacy and allowed the Union to rebuild. This war ultimately ended in 1868 with no territorial changes, but the Confederacy was exhausted - and it was a rogue state. Very few European powers wanted to trade with a country so obviously based on the exploitation of other humans, and the slaves didn’t like the regime either.

The fact that the United States had abolished slavery immediately after the war ended didn’t help matters. It guaranteed that many slaves would flee into the United States, which wreaked havoc on the Confederate economy.

The Confederacy eventually responded by demanding that the United States return their slaves. The Union refused, insisting that they had been granted political asylum. A few slave owners got tired of waiting for a diplomatic resolution and began launching raids into the United States to recover their slaves. By November, this had annoyed the United States so much that they demanded that the Confederate States pay reparations or face another war. The CSA responded by refusing to pay reparations and was promptly invaded.

The Union didn’t make a lot of early progress, but they did make gains - mainly in the west. By 1871, they had captured the CSA’s New Mexico Territory and most of Texas. The war in the east was effectively a stalemate - although Maryland had quickly fallen at the beginning of the war.

In June 1871, the US bought Alaska from Russia for a large sum of money that was used to finance the Finnish War and World War I. This didn’t substantially affect the course of the war. However, the US also launched a multi-pronged invasion of Virginia in that month and captured Kansas, completing their reconquest of lands north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

The invasion of Virginia forced the Confederate government to flee to Montgomery, Alabama. The CSA offered to cede all of their territory north of the Mason-Dixon Line to the US, but they were refused. The new US government fully intended to reannex all of their lost lands.

To make matters worse, the success of the US army began to provoke slave revolts throughout the Confederacy. These two factors combined brought down most of the Confederate resistance - by March 1863, the only states that held out were the Carolinas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.

By October 1863, none of these states were left unoccupied. The peace treaty reunifying the two countries was signed in Arlington, Virginia in December.

The Confederacy was divided into military districts to manage until slavery and discontent could be fully destroyed there. Furthermore, the Union planned to increase the loyalty of these new states… and to divide the more troublesome ones.

The American Conflicts represent a turning point because they show events in North America that would echo down the ages. More importantly, they made American intervention in the World Wars possible - which is why many consider them a superpower today.






Well, I haven't gotten around to playing the game, so he's an update on what happened in America! Basically, the CSA existed for less than a decade. Also, please go and vote in the 2022 YAYAs!

 

[HistoryDude]

The powers of Europe weren’t peaceful between the Great European War and the First World War. They engaged in small conflicts, but there was a single major conflict that embroiled most of Europe - and that Russia completely ignored.

To be fair to Russia, this war occurred during the Russian Age of Chaos, so intervention would only hurt them. Still, the Austrian Habsburgs would become annoyed at Russia due to their lack of aid, and that would affect the progress of World War I…

Anyway, the Second Great European War was allegedly over Hungary. In September 1858, Prussia began raising concerns about what Austrian rule in Hungary was like - the Prussians described horrific oppression of the Hungarians by their rivals in Austria. The traditional narrative in Western Europe is that the speeches by Prussia convinced most of Europe to back their claims, and the perfidious Austrians were defeated by the righteous coalition against them.

The truth is substantially more complicated and less virtuous. The horrific conditions of the Hungarians were extremely exaggerated, and nobody cared about them. The thing that mattered to Prussia and France was that this was an excuse to defeat and weaken a rival. The timing was perfect - Russia was distracted by internal struggles and it looked like they would be distracted for quite some time. Their only foe would be Austria… and the Habsburgs would have no aid.

Things initially went perfectly for France and Prussia - they managed to defeat Austria in Germany proper and prevent an Austrian advance into their territory. They managed to occupy all of Bohemia and even reach Vienna itself… and then everything went wrong. At Vienna, the Austrian army humiliated them and managed to kill the Emperor of France himself as well as rout the Prussians.

These events unfortunately had unexpected consequences - with their emperor dead, the French had no central command structure, and they turned into groups of wandering bandits that attacked both sides. These bandits established small fiefdoms in Bohemia, and a few groups advanced into Hungary, where they began recruiting Austrian deserters and did far more damage to the Hungarians than the Austrian monarchy ever did.

Indeed, it is this raiding that led to Hungary’s declaration of independence. Austria was too battered and preoccupied with settling scores with Prussia to defend them from the bandits. They needed protection, and a sovereign government would allow them to make alliances of their own. Nobody in Western Europe ever mentions this portion of the narrative because it conflicts with their own view of the war.

Meanwhile, the war in Germany proper was a never-ending stalemate. The majority of the fighting was in Bavaria and Saxony, and neither side ever reached the territory of their main enemy after Vienna. The land was ravaged, and many of the more minor German states began to consider rejecting the dominance of Prussia and Austria.

The fighting was so bad that, in 1861, Russia and Britain agreed that something had to be done about it. They invited Prussia and Austria and many other European states to Geneva, where they began to take steps to prevent the needless loss of lives. This Geneva Convention codified the laws of war that all European countries obeyed from that day forward, but it failed in two of its stated goals - it didn’t pass any measures against war itself, and it didn’t end the Second Great European War. The different powers couldn’t agree on a peace.

However, the conflict did wind down after the Convention. Prussia and Austria fought skirmishes for a year longer, but these weren’t major, and the war ended with no changes in the German situation. The various French forces were attacked by Austria, who defeated a few and began deporting them back to France. Most of the other bands got the message and also retreated back to their homeland, where they would be a major factor in the Revolution of 1865 against the Second Republic.

Hungary was temporarily granted independence as an Austrian vassal, but this didn’t last long. By the time that the First World War began, Hungary had been reintegrated into the Austrian Empire, although Hungarians did enjoy more privileges and rights after their reintegration.

In the long term, the Second Great European War changed nothing at all. Thousands of men died for nothing at all.





Okay, this should be the last interlude. I should be able to play more of my V2 save before Sunday. This was a massive event where the entire rest of Europe fought each other and changed nothing. Anyway, go and vote in the 2022 YAYAs, please!

 

[HistoryDude]

After Liepaja, the Russian army that fought there began to retreat from the city, and its commander was quickly killed in a mutiny. Igor Kolchak and Vladimir Denikin quickly took over command of this army and began to make plans to move against France and Prussia.

In December 1873, they met a small Prussian force at Ventspils. This city was located along the Venta River, and it held a castle that had once been built by the Livonian Knights. It had also historically been destroyed twice, which was why Denikin favored letting the Prussians take the city and then ambushing them.

Kolchak disagreed, arguing that they could sneak into the castle and use the river to force a Prussian retreat. In the end, Denikin agreed to his strategy if a route of retreat was agreed upon beforehand, so that the Russian army could escape from an unfavorable battle quickly.

Things went wrong almost immediately, but the Russians managed to disrupt the Prussian formation by shooting arrows from the top of the castle. This led the Prussians to attempt a retreat, but Kolchak’s army blocked their escape and cut them down. Less than one thousand Prussians escaped Ventspils, but the Russian army’s casualties weren’t negligible, which quickly led to another argument between its commanders.

This time, the argument was over whether or not to pursue the fleeing Prussians. Denikin, who feared that a defeat would irreversibly harm Russian unity and morale, advocated a patient approach where their army regrouped slowly and recovered any lost morale. In his approach, there would be no engagements with either France or Prussia during the winter.

Kolchak, by contrast, saw Russia’s cold winters as an advantage against the Western Europeans. “They cannot handle the cold that has strengthened Mother Russia,” he is said to have said. In his view, an immediate attack would take Russia’s foes off guard and allow for favorable weather for the defenders. He was also personal friends with Tsar Konstantin, and some historians have proposed that part of his plan was to root out people who were disloyal and wanted a different government.

Kolchak’s view won out, and it initially appeared to be the correct choice. The Prussians had retreated to Liepaja, and the Russian commanders knew how to exploit the terrain of that city. They were also desperate to avenge the disastrous Battle of Liepaja against the French.

It turned out that the Prussians had managed to receive a massive amount of reinforcements - both from Prussia itself and from France. This meant that a pitched battle against them could lead to massive casualties and even a defeat. Kolchak responded to this turn of events by doing what he wanted to do during the First Battle of Liepaja - launching a guerrilla campaign. Instead of attacking the allied army during the day, the Russians raided their supplies under the cover of darkness.

This strategy worked brilliantly - the loss of supplies meant that many in the allied army began to retreat from the battlefield. Those that didn’t began to launch reckless attacks against the Russian formation in hopes of achieving a quick victory. The Russians held the line for a few days before the allied force was completely depleted. Liepaja was reclaimed by Russia - and, far more symbolically, was redeemed. At the time, it was thought that the stain of the defeat at Liepaja was removed.

Discontent with the regime lessened. The populace’s hopes of victory skyrocketed. It appeared as if the war might soon end in a Russian victory.

Kolchak favored launching an attack on the French force that had won at Liepaja. He hoped that a victory there would allow an advance into Prussia itself… which would bring the war to a quick close. Denikin agreed, and plans were made to begin 1874 with an enormous battle against the French…





Go and vote in the 2022 YAYAs! And thanks for all of your support! I also finally got around to playing more of the game, so the storyline can continue!

 

[HistoryDude]

Kolchak and Denikin quickly sent a few scouts around Liepaja, hoping to find an enemy army. They quickly found out that the French army that had won the First Battle of Liepaja was besieging the city of Palanga, and they decided to launch a quick attack. They hoped that this would give them the element of surprise.

Initially, it did, and the battle almost turned into a rout. The Russian armies noticed that the French force was faltering and pressed their advantage. Unfortunately, they acted far too quickly - the French had no intention of a third ignominious defeat in Russia. They retreated, but they weren’t defeated. After all, this was only a small portion of the total French army in Russia, and the Russian commanders didn’t know this.

They celebrated their victory on Palanga’s beaches, and that left them vulnerable. Only a small contingent of scouts was left to look for enemy soldiers, so there was barely any warning when the French reinforcements arrived.

The Russian army, unprepared for another battle, was initially caught by complete surprise and slaughtered. Still, they managed to form ranks and put up a fight against their attackers, killing many Frenchmen. It was too little, too late - the battle was already effectively over.

The Russian army was trapped between the Baltic and a river named the Alanga. Many Russians panicked after a few days of battle and attempted to flee. Unfortunately for them, the French army was blocking the only exits that weren’t by sea, and there were no Russian ships nearby. To make matters worse, there would be no Russian ships nearby because the British fleet had already destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet.

A few thousand men (including Kolchak) managed to escape by fighting their way through the French army, but they were only a small minority. Most who tried to escape that way were killed, and thousands of soldiers preferred to attempt other methods of escape. Some felt that they could swim to safety (and almost invariably drowned), while others thought that they could sneak past the French army - preferably at night. Around 4000 men out of an army of over 50,000 men remained to surrender to the French.

The Battle of Palanga was an unmitigated disaster that crippled the Russian war effort during the first phase of World War I. Some have compared it to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest or even the Battle of Leipzig in its effects, and, while that isn’t completely true, it contains an important truth. Palanga destroyed any momentum that the Russian Empire had managed to gain during the First World War. It erased the Months of Hope from the minds of loyalist Russians, rebellious Russians, and the other European powers alike.

The immediate aftereffects of the battle were devastating. The Anarcho-Liberal Duma’s support skyrocketed among the Russian population, and small rebellions erupted throughout the empire. A few nationalists were inspired to take up arms by the perceived weakness of the central government - of both the official Duma and Tsar Konstantin. This distracted a large portion of Russia’s armed forces at a time when national defense was paramount. The rebellions could even conceivably be blamed for the lack of any massive and coherent response to the Disaster.

 

[HistoryDude]

The official Duma wasn’t about to take this outright defiance of their authority lightly. They ordered the armies on the border to crush the rebellions, but most of those armies disobeyed, seeing the French and the Prussians as a greater enemy. A few commanders (including Kolchak) even attempted to negotiate with the rebels.

This enraged the Conservative Duma, who responded by raising militias and smaller armies to keep their authority intact. In March, they even went as far as declaring that all of Russia was under martial law, although this decree wasn’t officially backed by Tsar Konstantin.

The March Declaration only made the situation much worse. It encouraged nationalist rebels in Estonia and Anarcho-Liberals to fight back against the government. The Anarcho-Liberal Duma was able to claim the loyalty of entire armies. A small group of Anarcho-Liberals even formed their own assemblies in Moscow and St. Petersburg itself.

To make matters even worse, the decision to declare martial law - and to focus on the internal war - divided the Conservative Duma bitterly. After all, many members of the Conservative Duma were militarists, dedicated to the expansion of Russian power and influence. They despised the decision to move away from defending the border, so they began to enter into secret negotiations with the Anarcho-Liberal Duma and the assemblies.

Still, the Conservative Duma has an enormous amount of loyalists and didn’t fall easily. In the east, a relative of the Tsar’s named Alexei Romanov arose as a general to defend the regime. This man led his army to victories at Grozny, Qaratal, and Derbent, which secured control over most of eastern Russia and Central Asia for the regime.

At the same time, the Estonian nationalists were crushed by officially unaffiliated armies at Osel and Turku. Yegorov led these armies, and he despised the idea of an independent Estonia, which he feared would lead to a massive splintering of Russia into a thousand tiny and powerless states. The nationalists were quick to disperse, as they were only supported by small militias.

Unfortunately, even these victories couldn’t save the Conservative Duma’s regime. In the beginning of April, many dissidents from the Conservative Duma (the warhawks) opened the gates of their meeting place to the assembly of Anarcho-Liberals in St. Petersburg. These men entered the building and offered a simple choice to the Duma - defect to their new Duma, resign, or be killed. Many members defected, having negotiated with this assembly to become part of the new Duma, which would be committed to prosecuting the war to a hitherto unseen extent. A few resigned, fearing for their lives.

However, many refused to give in to the demands of “foolish and unpatriotic peasants”. These men were brutally killed. A few suffered especially horrible deaths, such as being drowned in Neva Bay or having limbs cut off before ultimately having their throats slit.

The new Anarcho-Liberal Duma began by outlawing all political parties that weren’t already part of it, and it reaffirmed its commitment to prosecuting World War I. Unfortunately, the new civil war had only just begun. Alexei Romanov’s forces still loomed large in the east…