章 22: How to have a cake and eat it (January-March, 1907)
Perspectives]
"Well, our attempts to pacify the war in the Caribbean failed and now London is planning something." The Tsesarevich Nicholas mentions. "This means that for now Germany is not going to be useful against the UK."
"Indeed." Tsar Alexander III responds. "We must also prepare to prevent Greece and Japan, or other nearby countries outside the British sphere, from aligning themselves with British interests against us."
"We already have plans for Scandinavia. But what can we do against the British Empire proper?" Nicholas questions curiously.
"It depends, if we talk about the long-term game, the majority of the chances of victory are in our favor. If we talk about a momentary war, well, that is already complicated for all of us." Tsar Alexander III explains.
"Why so confident about our long-term victory?" Nicholas asks curiously.
"Very simply, the Great London Treaty is based primarily on the Social Aristocracy, the economic realities of our time and the recent memories of the British population regarding the loss of Suez." Tsar Alexander III starts. "But it is also based in India, without India there is no British Empire, and European whites are never going to allow an Indian voice, so India is destined to be independent from the British Empire."
"Without India, South Africa loses a lot, and everything falls like a domino. Australia, New Zealand and Canada will have to turn to other markets, and not to the United Kingdom, nullifying much of the economic and socio-political importance of the treaties." The Tsesarevich understands.
"Yes, basically." Alexander III indicates. "As long as things don't change their current course. Still, it wouldn't take away the possibility of other outcomes."
"Could we intervene in the Indian situation?" Nicholas asks.
"We could keep getting closer, but intervening is still far from our power and interests." Alexander III adds.
"Ok, what about the early war between us and the British?" Nicholas indicates.
"We are a land power and they are a maritime power, we both spread too geographically to successfully block each other. The war would be mainly in our colonial empires, decades of progress lost." Alexander III calmly denotes, although some annoyance at the ideas of the results of the war. "How difficult would it be for us to invade the Home Islands and for them to invade the Baltic or the Far East?"
"Difficult, but not impossible." Nicholas speaks.
*******
[Education]
Since the educational reform in the Russian Empire, the literacy of the citizens of Russia had not stopped growing, and during the Great Depression came not only the growth of higher education, but also the specialization of the aforementioned institutions.
For example, Moscow businessmen led by Alexei Vishnyakov, on February 19, founded the Russian University of Economics (Российский экономический университет / Rossiyskiy ekonomicheskiy universitet). With Pavel Ivanovich Novgorodtsev as director.
Today the university is one of Russia's leading institutions for economics, economic science and technology. But first we must tell how important it was for Russia in 1907.
Education had previously been open to men of various social classes (peasants, bourgeois, nobility) but female education was mainly focused on the areas of medicine (nursing) and some other courses.
However, the Russian University of Economics was one of the first (or most successful at the time) steps for the expansion of other educational areas for women in the Russian Empire.
Working with the Ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry and Education, Culture and Technology, the Russian University of Economics was divided into two faculties. The commercial-economic faculty (whose graduates would receive a doctorate in economics and others) and the commercial-technical faculty (commercial engineering diploma and others).
In these for 4 years, the students received education about economics, law, political economy, financial sciences, statistics, mathematics, physics, mechanics, three foreign languages, philosophy, theology and history.
Under these two faculties were divided some institutions such as the Moscow Institute of Electrical Engineering, the Moscow Chemical-Technological Institute, the Institute of Food and Meat Industry, and the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics, etc. Some of which have survived with little change, and others that have undergone certain transformations after the Alexandrian period.
Russia was preparing to continue training a huge number of engineers and specialists, and of which women also began to be a number (fewer than men, but at least they existed).
The mass of the Russian population could already diversify into various sectors after mechanization and agricultural reform, infrastructure reforms (railways, electrification, radio telegraphy, etc.) and the growth of various Russian economic sectors.
*******
* [First Duma]
"While it is clear that women are an important part of our nation, especially in the Russian Empire Army Nurse Corps, some of the statesmen are concerned that the presence of women in education and working life, will strongly distract them from their family duties. And then there would be a demographic drop. " Mikhail Skobelev, one of the leaders of the Russian right and minister of war, reports to Tsar Alexander III.
"An understandable concern, after every demographic boom there are periods of slower growth, but we can find solutions to this." Tsar Alexander III responds calmly.
The idea of higher maternity allowances and other benefits to promote families with more children would still take years to come, but it was clear that the Russian Empire was heading in certain similar directions early.
With the labor reform, Russian society had already achieved certain benefits for pregnant women in the labor force, but eventually more would come.
During many years of life in industrialized Russia, foreigners predicted an eventual 'collapse' of the Russian demography and therefore its economy, due to the reduction of children in families (something that happened in many industrialized countries after the great demographic explosions).
Of course, not all predictions would be correct and material conditions in other parts of the world must be taken into account, but this is a topic for later.
********
[Romania: Peasants and Hungarians]
On February 21 (February 9 in old style, still used in parts of Europe at the time) in the town of Flămânzi, a peasant uprising began after a local landowner refused to lower the rent to the peasants, the uprising spread through Romanian Moldavia (northeast of the country).
The insurgents began looting and burning the properties of local landowners in Romanian Moldavia, demanding not only a reduction in rent, but also adding the division of landowners' lands.
With this the rebel groups were organizing more, although it could be understood as a relatively just cause, soon the rebels (armed with scythes, pitchforks and axes) also carried out pogroms against the Jews (something foolish considering the small percentage of Jewish landowners or tenants in Romanian Moldavia and Wallachia).
In a short time the peasant uprising spread from Romanian Moldavia to Wallachia, managing to begin to repel local garrisons.
Another coup occurred in Transylvania, where the Hungarian rebels began to carry out even more uprisings and attacks against some Romanian-Jewish neighborhoods, to obtain the cession of the Hungarian regions of Transylvania.
The peasant instability and the actions of the Hungarians in Transylvania led to a total division of the resources and attentions of the central government, delaying efforts to appease all these events.
By March 5, the city of Botosani fell, and 5 days later on March 10, the entire districts of Romanian Moldavia were devastated by the peasant uprising. The city of Iasi, capital of the region, fell.
King Carol I declared a state of emergency, but it was clear that an attack on the capital, Bucharest, was coming from Wallachia.
By March 12, some 10-11,000 peasants launched the attack on Bucharest, where local garrisons were overwhelmed after killing just 4,000 insurgents.
King Carol I and his government barely had time to move to some of the yet-to-rebel districts in Romania, while Wallachia, Bucharest, and Romanian Moldavia had increasing problems with the peasants. But Transylvania wasn't exactly stable.
*Perspective.
"I must say, I'm surprised Carol I and his men couldn't beat the Romanian peasants." Alexander III argues.
"After the interference of Hungarian rebels and the capture of important cities, it appears that the peasants seized artillery and weaponry from the local loyalist garrisons." One of the men gathered in front of the tsar explains.
There was the governing body of Russia, Romanian (Kingdom of Romania), Hungarian (Kingdom of Hungary) and Bulgarian delegates.
"We can block any attempt at foreign interference in the Romanian situation, but we must interfere ourselves. There are already certain refugees on the border to Bessarabia." Nicholas indicates next to Premier Stolypin.
"We are going to offer our diplomatic interference to the Romanian government and we will mobilize troops to Bessarabia, but we are not going to enter the country yet." Tsar Alexander III orders promptly.
During the following weeks of March, the Romanian army, although able to defend certain positions in Transylvania, continued to receive attacks from the peasant uprising and Hungarian terrorist attacks.
Some (in Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia) were already asking to divide Romania like a cake, but it was a complicated situation.
After the rapid Austro-Hungarian fall, the Hungarians were able to form a notable resistance in Transylvania, the problem was the huge number of Romanians surrounding them and neighborhoods with a varied ethno-cultural composition.
There were also eager Bulgarians from part of the Romanian coast, and Serbs longing for territory in the Banat.
Russia on the other hand always understood that Romania was very independent, and pro-German Empire, so the Romanian suffering was an opportunity to put the country even more firmly in the Russian sphere.
*******
[Bulgaria]
In part, the delay in the Balkan and Russian response to the problems in Romania, was another series of problems of their own that occurred in the Tsardom of Bulgaria, when Prime Minister Racho Petrov was assassinated by an anarchist (expelled from his government office) in Sofia, while the Prime Minister was passing by the boulevard Tsar Osvoboditel.
Prime Minister Petrov was an ally of the Russian government and a loyalist of the Bulgarian government, which oversaw many of the military reforms of the Bulgarian army.
Tsar Alexander I of Bulgaria and Tsar Alexander III of Russia supervised that Bulgaria was put back in order, because there were some strikes in the railways and problems in the army with the assassination of Prime Minister Petrov.
Dimitar Nikolov Petkov, a friend of the old Minister Petrov and veteran of the Russo-Turkish war of 76 (supporting Russia and the Bulgarian rebels), as well as leader of the People's Liberal Party.
Prime Minister Petkov would immediately bring authoritarian measures to resolve the socio-political situation in Bulgaria and eliminate possible problems caused by the nearby peasant uprising in Romania.
Of course despite this, Petkov was still under the Bulgarian Tsar and Russian influence.
Bulgaria was more in the Russian influence, therefore its stability was more important within the Russosphere.
*******
[Hungary]
On March 25, while the Hungarians in Transylvania were fighting for their freedom or were terrorists (it depends who you ask), the Hungarians of the Kingdom of Hungary celebrated quite well.
The first university sports federation in all of Europe was founded in Hungary, with the support of more than 10 universities and colleges, with celebrations accompanied by the visit of King Nicholas (Tsesarevich of Russia) to the country.
The Kingdom of Hungary, although shrunken after the Austro-Hungarian fall, was receiving subsidies and investments, as well as minor blows relative to other countries during the Great Depression.
In fact, Hungary during the Great Depression would be one of the regions with the highest economic growth in Europe, which was a curious event but one of national pride and stability.
However, it was obvious that Hungary was still dependent, they needed resources and money, which in these times of international war and problems, could only come from Russia.
* Count Mihály Ádám György Miklós Károlyi from Nagykároly.
Mihály Károlyi took a big sip of Coca-Cola (Кокс) after launching a great card game, celebrating his victory while other places celebrated Hungarian youth sports and activities across the country.
"Károlyi, lend me some money." One of the man's friends, drunk, asks. To which the count gives, squandering money like he used to do (a dandy and gambling addict from post-habsburg hungary).
After the games and drinks, Károlyi was somewhat tired, although he still had years of gambling ahead of him, the truth is that the man was taking business and activities more and more serious.
"Hungary will become an economic beacon for Eastern Europe, similar to Switzerland before the German invasion. We will prosper and be a multi-ethnic country, for Hungarians, Slavs, Jews and other peoples." Károlyi mentioned with emotion as he joined the Hungarian political right, siding with the Russians.
Although Károlyi had sympathy for the old Habsburgs, the truth is that that relationship was quite dead and was losing relevance day by day.
"The economy is doing well, but we need more social policies for our workers, unions and other disadvantaged members of Hungary." Sándor Garbai exclaims in front of students and other members of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary, a party that Garbai wanted to take more to the left and to have more relevance in the Hungarian government at that time.
Among this was a young journalist named Béla Kun, who due to his sympathies with the Social Democrats began a friendship with Garbai, which would lead Kun (actually born Kohn) to the socialist-worker camp.
*******
[Geology: Continental Drift, Ksudach and the Ring of Fire]
On March 28, the Ksudach volcano (Ксудач, also called Vonyuchy Khrebet) in Kamchatka, erupted.
The volcano is known for its explosive and caldera-forming eruptions, current information places the volcano's activity from the late Pleistocene and Holocene to modern times.
But the important thing was that this volcanic activity did not go unnoticed in Russia (especially when ash from the explosion could be found up to 200 kilometers beyond the volcano) and was the basis for important studies for geology in the Russian Empire.
Before 1907 there was already the idea that the Americas had been a single continental mass with Eurasia and Africa, however they were incomplete works and that proposed concepts today discredited as the theory of the expanding Earth.
For this reason in the Russian Empire, the Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich began to have an interest in the field of geology, and to promote it among the many areas of study that were expanding in Russia (along with medicine, rocketry and the like).
Leading to advancements in the scientific fields of geology, geography, and to some extent meteorology.
In part this formed the concept of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the presence and volcanic activity around the Pacific Ocean (into which Kamchatka entered).
With these steps in geology, Russia was also a forerunner in the theories of continental drift, explaining the movement and certain similarities between the continents (which had already been noticed before but never so well studied or answered).
This in part thanks to native and foreign geologists meeting in Russia from 1907 to 1910/1912, such as the Italian violinist and geologist Roberto Mantovani, and the Americans William Henry Pickering and Frank Bursley Taylor.
The German meteorologist Alfred Lothar Wegener would be the first to use the phrase proper, continental drift, whose physical processes (theoretical at the time) were best explained by Russian research.
However at the beginning of the 20th century, many rejected these investigations of Russians and foreigners in the Russian Empire, due to doubts about the explanations of the physical processes of continental drift and the Pacific ring of fire.
Later Russia would continue its geographical and meteorological investigations, including places like the North Pole (which had attracted Wegener).
*******
Perspectives.
* [Kerensky and Tito]
After being somewhat disappointed by his left party's boycott of Russia's first democratic elections, Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky had become a Trudovik (left-wing populists, although Kerensky was rather a strange kind of socialist).
Due to this change, the young man still did not have much history in politics, but he began to act as a lawyer in St. Petersburg (assistant to N. A. Oppel, until he became a proper lawyer on January 4, 1910).
"Good afternoon." Kerensky greets politely as he walks into a cafe. He was not as popular as Lenin when he was a lawyer, but Kerensky was not infamous either.
"Good afternoon Kerensky." The owner of the cafe says hello. "As usual?".
"Please." Kerensky responds while the cafe prepares his order. Meanwhile, the music of a piano catches the man's attention. "Why do you have that kid playing the piano?"
"He's 14, he's going to be 15 in May. He's working for me at the moment." The owner of the cafe responds. "He is a foreign talent, his father sent him here to study music but the family wanted to send him to the United States, so he himself is raising some money, to see if he can get a ticket."
"I see. Do you even know his name?" Kerensky seriously questions.
"His name is Josip Broz, he comes from a Slavic family, I assure you it is not illegal at all Kerensky." The owner affirms.
*******
* [Rudolf and Alexander III]
A small home in the governorate of Galicia was visited by Tsar Alexander III on January 30, with the Tsar wearing rather simple clothing. It was not a formal visit, it was not very surprising but not very abnormal either.
"Happy birthday Rudolf." Tsar Alexander III exclaims to the young man of the house, an 18-year-old teenager. Slim but with refined features.
"Thank you godfather." Rudolf responds by welcoming his 'godfather' (unofficial, it was just the way the young man had called the tsar all his life).
"I'm going to take him for a walk for a few moments." Tsar Alexander III mentions the parents of the house, but not before leaving some gifts for them as well. "The car is a gift from me, to you."
Alexander exclaims, surprising young Rudolf when he sees a Romanov car parked in front of his house.
"Amazing!" Young Rudolf exclaims, almost jumping to drive, though not before receiving certain warnings and instructions from the Tsar.
"You know Rudolf, I'm sorry I wasn't so present on some occasions but now you are becoming an adult. Do you understand that?" Tsar Alexander III mentioned as co-pilot.
"Yes ..." Rudolf answers.
"I'm going to tell you a bit about your family, now that you are better able to understand it." Alexander exclaims.
"Do you want me to keep this a secret too?" Rudolf asks curiously, not all children in the Russian Empire could say that the tsar was his godfather, and that had been the case with Rudolf. So he knew how to keep secrets, especially when he lived near the orphanages and officials of the empire.
"Yes." Alexander responds promptly. "As I already told you, your father was a friend of mine, although I did not know anything about your mother. Your father was Rudolf of Austria, Kaiser of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and your mother was his lover. You are half-brother of another protégé of mine, the Archduchess Elisabeth Marie ".
The car had almost stopped in its tracks, but after a little more talk things settled down.
"So being a Habsburg changes anything for me?" Rudolf asks curiously.
"Not really, you were born out of wedlock and the Habsburg empire is dead. Besides, not many can validate or believe the truth about your birth." The tsar is very direct with his godson.
"... Quite cutting." Rudolf exclaims to the Tsar, but he only slaps Rudolf a little on the back.
"Your relationship with the Habsburgs and the Austrians is purely bloody Rudolf, you are you and you can make your own way wherever you want." Tsar Alexander III insists.
"Rudolf Romanovsky-Honcharov" moved to Saint Petersburg to join one of the sniper corps of the Russian army.
*******
[International]
January 6, in the People's Republic of France and the Federative Socialist Republic of Italy educational reforms are adopted (movements that occurred in the past in socialist Iberia years before), due to the need to rebuild, both countries needed more educated people and due to the more consequential times of civil strife, there were many working-class children without literacy or access to modern education.
The Italian educational system was created, in part, by Italian defector Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori (daughter of an official of the Kingdom of Italy during the Milan revolution), but she came from a feminist movement, supporting children with disabilities and children of the working class.
Of course with limitations for the ideas about the freedom of the student, an emphasis was needed on the Italian language, mathematics-geometry, engineering, history, geography, physics, chemistry and biology. And Marxism of course.
Montessori thus designed the 'Montessori system':
* Mixed education for women and men.
* Introduction of state theory (socialism) for students. Especially for the more advanced degrees of public education, for which students could even obtain doctorates.
* Direct theoretical instruction but also specialized educational materials, the application of theory and work with materials.
* Physical activity (with certain peculiarities for some students of course).
* Uninterrupted blocks of work time (generally three hours in duration).
* A trained teacher with experience in observing the characteristics, tendencies, innate talents and abilities of a child.
Under Montessori, the idea of a more libertarian educational reform was relatively successful in the north, and it assumed that socialist Italy was a forerunner in many matters regarding the care-education of children with physical or mental disabilities.
In the south, on the other hand, the local communes, although they did promote education, followed a much stricter and centralized STEM program. Much more orthodox and still teaching Marxism (but only classical Marxism).
Benito Mussolini and some others would criticize these libertarian measures in northern Italy, indicating the possibility of the infiltration of bourgeois ideologies.
In the People's Republic of France on the other hand, he followed a STEM program but also actively sought the purge of the 'bourgeois' elements (capitalists, monarchists and other anti-communists) from French society.
"In France, there is no longer a place for those who seek to restore bourgeois democracy, the monarchy or the dictatorship of capitalism."
-Jules Guesde, President of the People's Republic of France.
With this the doctrine of the class struggle and the materialist-Marxist analysis of various subjects (especially the social sciences) invaded education with the aim of nullifying (purging) the most traditionalist elements of France.
Young people were also part of this, mobilizing against the bourgeois elements at the call of the army and the government (product of the previous civil war).
*******
January 9, Lithuanian-Russian art exhibition in Vilna, Russian Empire.
January 14, earthquake of magnitude 6.5 in Jamaica.
February 7th, occurs the "Mud March", a march of feminists from the United Kingdom in London in favor of women's suffrage after various women's organizations were attacked by the Aristocratic Social government.
Despite this, the march (United Procession of Women) is attacked by London troops and police, ruining the march and running it 'through the mud'. Continuing to attack female suffragettes.
In the midst of this there were many cases of abuses in the UK, rapes and other improper abuses by the authorities against the women of February 7th.
The Social Aristocracy was simply not going to give rise to those who were not white men, generally upper-middle or upper class.
February 11, an important part of the navy of the Second French Empire (in Africa) must be thrown away due to damage from past conflicts and problems caused by lack of care.
This seriously damages the last maritime forces of monarchical France, which for the most part only sustains itself on raw materials and taxes.
February 12, Germany, in its policy of unrestricted warfare, attacks an American civilian ship in the Atlantic, killing 183 American civilians.
February 16, Sweden launches projects to give more power to corporations and a process of 'privatization', that is, to put public goods in private hands.
Corporatism was not that new, but if Sweden coined the word 'privatization' during its aristocratic social rule (nationalist, anti-Semitic and Nordicist right).
* Said corporatism and privatization also meant expropriating property from Jewish capitalists to pass it to the state or Nordic capitalists.
Being a capitalist did not take away the anti-Semitic from the Swedes.
February 21, the troops of Mexico and Germany suffer a defeat in southern Mexico, losing 2000 men to 1800 troops lost to the United States.
Although the USA has this victory, it still does not advance that much in southern Mexico, but each defeat to the Mexican imperial army is important, since it assumes that the future of Mexico is less stable.
That's good for the United States ... but it means more guerrillas, and now coming south, the Native Americans (for example the Mayans) form their own militias to support the imperial government against the invaders.
The imperial policies towards the natives gave them wide support, and the natives know that a change of government would be worse for them, so they respond by forming a tough resistance against the USA.
The natives know the terrain and can fight a guerrilla war for decades, having experience fighting the white man's governments. Something that the US does not have and that poses serious problems for them.
From February 23 to the beginning of March, the US Navy suffers a defeat against the Imperial German Navy and the army another defeat against the guerrilla coalition of northern Mexico.
During this and in response to the US invasion, Mexican citizens carried out terrorist attacks against occupation troops in Baja California and Mexico City, some of the main sites of the American occupation.
February 24, coup in Honduras leads to the overthrow of President Manuel Bonilla in favor of a civic-military junta.
On March 1, for this reason, Nicaragua declares war on Honduras.
The Nicaraguan offensive is launched on March 17, and on March 23 they have the majority of the country occupied (after the battle of Namasigue).
Tegucigalpa, capital of the country, is occupied on March 27.
The Diamond Sūtra (a woodblock printed Buddhist scripture) dating from the year 868 is discovered in China at the beginning of March. The discovery is made by the Hungarian-British Aurel Stein, in the Mogao caves.
(OOC: Maybe make Alexander get it later or something).
March 5, 40,000 opponents from central Mexico try to expel Americans from the country, opposing Victoriano Huerta as 'president'.
Yet the United States gains an important victory over these ... thanks to superior weaponry, not for anything else. For the following weeks, the Americans kill a few thousand Mexicans to crush the riots.
The coalition of guerrillas in northern Mexico is strategically separated, Emiliano Zapata and Emilio Madero stay in the north while Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa go south to fight against the occupation of central Mexico.
March 6 to 16, Pyotr Stolypin, Premier of Russia and Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov, manage to create several more educational institutes after the creation of the Russian University of Economics.
During this period, in Finland, many women are already campaigning for the next Russian elections and also the number of women in education (as students) begins to increase.
March 22, the first taximeters and taxicabs are created in London, then some other countries adopt them
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