Legacy of the Narodniki: Trotskyism and the beginnings of Objectivism]
With the purge of Lev Kamenev and his allies from power within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, initiated a major transformation within the International Workers' Party of Russia (Международная рабочая партия России/Mezhdunarodnaya Rabochaya Partiya Rossii), led by Lev Trotsky and the old-SR's.
We can say that Trotskyism had truly begun to emerge, as Trotsky further developed his political activity and theory, in opposition to the prevailing doctrines of the Russian left (the growing power of the Stalinist Wing and to a certain extent, the Trudoviks aligned with the RSDLP). Trotsky did not do this alone of course, he was influenced by Maria Alexandrovna Spiridonova and Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov (party members belonging to the Socialist Revolutionary wing), and supported by other 'young' politicians in the party, leading to curious developments.
Although Trotsky's party was the first Trotskyist party in the world, Trotskyism was more popular outside Russia than inside Russia (especially in Southern China and Argentina, but that's another story).
It is precisely in Russia where 'Trotsky' is synonymous with 'political prostitution', but it is very easy to speak without knowing why this situation arose.
And to do so, we must understand the Narodniki (plural of Narodnik), a term that within Russia translates as 'Populism'.
This political tendency (divided between conservative, liberal, reformist, socialist and anarchist movements) emerged between the 60s and 70s-80s of the 19th century, during the final years of Alexander II and the first years of Alexander III as monarch.
In this context the Russian 'intellectuality' was seeking to get closer to ordinary people, seeking to better understand their roots, their place in the Russian state and Russian society, and the World.
This populism or 'peasant socialism', whose first ideologue was Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, was based on 'simple' concepts: "Preserve the community and liberate the individual, extend rural self-government and volost to the cities, to the state as a whole, maintaining the nation's/national unity, develop private rights and preserve the indivisibility of the land"
-Herzen's writings, which translate to eliminate land ownership, decentralize power structures, introduce peasant communal self-government and 'democratize' the country.
The term 'Populism' in the context of Russia at the time, came to mean many things, from terrorism to crude chauvinism and the unbridled instincts of the crowd, literary movements or even 'democracy and general interest in common people'.
*Even abroad and in modern times, the term Populism is controversial or difficult to pin down. Many times it is used to refer to measures that seek to gain popularity among the people by leaders who want power, but it has problematic connotations (since it is sometimes used to dismiss popular movements or popular leaders).*
It is partly because of this that the 'Populism' of the 60s and 70s/80s failed in the Russian Empire:
*The effectiveness of the Alexandrian regime in dealing with troublesome 'Narodniki' (such as members of The People's Will/Narodnaya Volya).
*The ineffectiveness of the Narodniki organizations and intellectuals (the members of Going to the People/Хождение в народ and Zemlya i volya/Earth and Freedom).
* And the progress of the Alexandrian reforms in solving the problems of the quality of life for the peasantry, which were what really led to the development of Russian politics.
During the early democratic reforms of the Russian Empire under Alexander III, there was a brief resurgence of 'Populist' movements within the Left (the Socialist Revolutionaries) and the Right (the so-called 'Greens', and some parts of the 'Black Hundreds').
Moves that also failed for various reasons:
1- In the case of Left Populism: The triumph of the RSDLP and the Trudoviks in the political arena, plus the initial refusal of the SRs to participate in political activity (such as elections).
2-In the case of right-wing Populism: The death of Mikhail Skobelev and the division of the Russian Right, which led eventually to the Russian civil war.
Where the original Greens and Black Hundreds movements died (either through inactivity and unpopularity, or Russian martial law and Stalinist purges, or because their brief alliances with elements of Kolchak's Directorate).
The Revolutionary Socialists considered themselves the legitimate heirs of Russian Populism, but were effectively isolated from the political scene by their initial mistakes in dealing with the transformations that occurred in Russia during the Alexandrian period.
Instead the peasantry moved away from 'Peasant Socialism' and Agrarian Socialism, to doctrines that seemed more attractive, more successful and more useful, such as Stolypin's progressivism, Skobelev's right-wing union or the Stalinism led by the RSDLP and Kerensky's Trudoviks (Labour/Laborists).
And it makes sense, because the Revolutionary Socialists had ideas that were hardly reconcilable with Alexandrian Russia or just Russian reality, one of their main ideologues, Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev, argued that in reality the Russian autocracy had no 'social support' in any class of Russian society, and it can be 'quickly be eliminated' by the action of the "carriers of the revolutionary idea" (radical intellectuals, who according to Tkachev, would need to create a ecret society, to carry out a coup) who would turn the country into a gigantic commune...
Clearly Tkachev (1844-1886) ignored reality, since the Russian Tsarist system did have support within the social classes of Russia, and it was a support that was only increasing among peasants and workers, within the Alexandrian period (perhaps it was better for him [Tkachev] not to see how Alexander III's regime evolved after 1886, with even more support among the peasant-worker class and eventually leading to some form of Tsarist democracy).
The smartest jumped off the sinking ship or joined the most successful groups of Russian politics (these ones who joined the RSDLP or the Trudoviks are the so-called Narodniki-Communists), and those who remained SRs (the so-called Old Socialist Revolutionaries) waited for an opportunity, which led them finally to join Lev Trotsky when he parted ways with the RSLDP (dominated by I.V. Stalin).
The main leaders of these Old-SRs, were the already-mentioned Maria Alexandrovna Spiridonova and Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov, who at first underestimated Trotsky (to be honest, it made sense, in the end he was better military than political) but anyway they could never remove him from power and Trotskyism irremediably altered the Narodnism/Populism of the Old-SRs and their descendants.
And all this starts because Spiridonova insisted on the evolutionary development of the Party, in contrast to the considerable advances that Stalin was making in the Russian political arena (the purges against Zinoviev and Kamenev, development of the Russian People's Democracy, the Eight Petals/the society for which the RSLDP and the Russian people strive, Eight national questions, Four Basic Knowledges, First Stalinism and the other political concepts propagated by the RSDLP).
Perhaps Trotsky's most famous theory is the idea of the 'Permanent Revolution' (taking inspiration from the idea of an 'eternal revolutionary spirit', held by French Marxist theorists during the time of Jules Guesde - making the revolution continue until that all non-proletarian classes and ideologies are eliminated from state power) and the so-called 'Combined Development' (a workers' revolution should expand before being attacked or destroyed by bourgeois/imperialist countries, such a revolution would expand indefinitely until reaching a stage of 'world socialist revolution' or world unification).
Actually because of this, Trotsky to a certain extent supported the idea of supra-national organizations, in Trotsky's opinion, the formation of the European Socialist Union was a very good step for world socialism and the Covenant of Nations was a useful platform for the Permanent Revolution.
*In the case of the ESU, Trotsky sooner rather than later found himself disappointed because they seemed 'unambitious' to him (not committed to expanding the revolution sufficiently).
Decades later Trotsky also considered that the socialist state of these countries was deforming after the death of Guesde, Lenin and Lazzari or the withdrawal of Caballero and Liebknecht, giving rise to 'revisionisms' (the governments of Togliatti, Thalmann and more ).
*In the case of the Covenant, Trotsky was somewhat more optimistic, if a change occurred in the Covenant (either in Russia itself or the alliance's periphery) or the ESU succeeded in spreading the revolution successfully, it meant [in Trotsky's view], that Russia and its allies would follow a form of Permanent Revolution-Combined Development.
Essentially causing a domino effect across Eurasia.
But simply talking about Permanent Revolution and Combined Development or domino effect is more boring than it sounds, and actually ignores the other problematic effects of the rise of Trotskyism or Trotsky's ideas, since he revived or borrowed thoughts from the Narodniki and Old-SRs.
In essence, Spiridonova insisted on the need for a 'social theory' because the second stage of Russia's evolution (after the success of democratic reforms and the Russian civil war) would be a social revolution, which would shake all of Russia (or even the world).
But whereas Spiridonova aimed to 'win over the peasantry' with her idea of social revolution, Trotsky basically said: The peasantry is useless in a social revolution, only the proletariat (urban workers) are capable of carrying out the task of transforming the Russian society.
"All historical experience...shows that the peasantry is completely incapable of playing an independent political role."
-Lev Trotsky.
A concept that essentially aligned Russia's peasant class against Trotskyism, and made it primarily an urban movement.
To top off Trotskyism, Trotsky revived the concept of "the heroes and the mob" of the original Narodniki.
According to which, by following their own interests and ideas, the political-social revolutionary role will be carried out by 'heroes' (a particular group of outstanding individuals from the proletariat, intellectuality and/or vanguard parties), who in the name of their status interests and of improving their own conditions, will strive to carry out revolutionary transformations that would make the mob into associated forces for the transformation of the Old Society into a New Society (in theory, this would gain the support of the peasantry without the actual real participation of the peasantry).
This is an extremely individualistic concept and more related to the 'liberation of the individual' before the liberation of a society or a social class.
For ideological reasons like this, personal motivations (like Trotsky's hatred for Premier Stalin) and strategic needs, Trotskyism in Russia during the times of Lev Trotsky aligned itself more with groups like the New Right (with personalities like Boris Savinkov) and at most, anarchist-syndicalists, more than with the rest of the Russian Left.
To make matters worse, with Trotsky bringing back the Narodniki's concept of 'heroes', he caught the attention of a young Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum (in October 1924, a recent graduate of the Petrograd State University Department of Social Pedagogy, majoring in history, and aiming for further education at the Petrograd State Technicum for Screen Arts).
Rosenbaum was influenced by her time in Petrograd social pedagogy, the Russian New Right, and the Narodniki-Trotskyists' concept of 'heroes', which would later help found Objectivism.
An ideology that never gained strength in Russia, but that in modern times is relevant in countries opposed to Imperial Russia or with individualist tendencies, as exemplified by the United States and Australia.
But why have these concepts of socio-political 'heroes' failed so greatly in Russian society and politics? A society that for this time, did not stop producing innovations or obtaining apparently extraordinary individuals:
*Alexander III of Russia.
*Nicholas II of Russia.
*Premier I.V. Stalin.
*Nikola Tesla.
*There was literally a cult of military heroes of the Russian Civil War.
*Russia is an important center in such notable fields as rocketry, information technology, infrastructure and communications, among other types of technology.
* Leading country of the Covenant of Nations, which meant a huge portion of Eurasia (just over 5% of the land mass of planet Earth).
*Future home of the 'second industrial revolution'.
And the reason is actually simpler than many would like to admit.
Many Russian Narodniki, Trotsky, Spiridonova, Rosenbaum/Rand and eventually several Kremlinologists and various American politicians did not really understand how Russian society worked.
These Russian politicians and opponents of Russia understood that the Russian Autocracy was a top-to-bottom system, led by important individuals.
While the Russian leadership (which currently had political power in Russia), understood the Russian system as a ship: The captain (Tsar Augustus) and the vice-captain/helmsman (the Premier) have considerable power, but they will only be able to steer the ship as far as they can get the crew (numerous elements of the Russian government and society) to work together.
Many historians make the mistake of focusing perhaps too much on Russia's 'political juggernauts' (most of the literature of the Alexandrian period makes this mistake), such as the Tsars or Premiers, but ignore the complicated system of alliances and cooperation that exists within the Russian system.
In reality the government was always led by several individuals, with one or two functioning as captain and helmsman, but being supported by various other administrators and organizations.
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"Worker and peasant", art about the two members of the big working class groups that make up the Russian Empire (whose working class and lower-middle class is massive, made by millions and millions of people, whose name and identity is perhaps unknown for most of history, but still played a vital part in all the developments of the Russian Empire and were ordinary humans, like every other person).
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"The Peasant and the Mongol" - Sculptural composition for the anniversary of the Unification of Mongol lands and Russia, representing two common men united by camaraderie and not by outstanding characteristics or events, created in by the Russian-Tuvan folk master Dongak Okaanchik.
"Plekhanov shattered the third major error of the Narodniks, namely, that "heroes", outstanding individuals and their ideas, played a prime role in social development, while the role of the masses, the "mob", the people and social classes, was insignificant. Plekhanov accused the Narodniks of idealism, and showed that the truth lay not with idealism, but with the materialism of Marx and Engels.
Plekhanov expounded and substantiated the view of Marxist materialism.
In conformity with Marxist materialism, he [Plekhanov] showed that in the long run the development of society is determined not by the wishes and ideas of outstanding individuals, but by the development of the material conditions of existence of society, by the changes in the mode of production of the material wealth required for the existence of society, by the changes in the mutual relations of classes in the production of material wealth, by the struggle of classes for place and position in the production and distribution of material wealth.
It was not ideas that determined the social and economic status of men, but the social and economic status of men what determined their ideas.
Outstanding individuals may become non-entities if their ideas and wishes run counter to the economic development of society, to the needs of the foremost class; and vice versa, outstanding people may really become outstanding individuals if their ideas and wishes correctly express the needs of the economic development of society, the needs of the foremost class.
In answer to the Narodniks' assertion that the masses are nothing but a mob, and that it is heroes who make history and convert the mob into people, the Marxists affirmed that it is not heroes that make history, but history what makes heroes, and that, consequently, it is not heroes who create the people, but the people who create heroes and move history onward.
Heroes, outstanding individuals, may play an important part in the life of society only in so far as they are capable of correctly understanding the conditions of development of society and the ways of changing them for the better.
Heroes, outstanding individuals, may become ridiculous and useless failures if they do not correctly understand the conditions of development of society, and go with the historical needs of society, without the conceited belief that they are "makers" of history."
-Premier I.V. Stalin about the political evolution of the Russian Empire.
Alexander III was not an extraordinary individual because he 'raised' Russia simply by force of will. Alexander III was an extraordinary individual for his humanism, and his ability to understand Russia, supporting the bourgeois and working social classes to a breakthrough that left the nobility in irrelevance.
Nicholas II was not an extraordinary individual for being able to rule with an iron fist. Nicholas II was an extraordinary individual for his empathy with the nations of Russia and the Covenant, supporting the development of the productive forces of their society and movements in favor of national and international cooperation, in a fight against economic inequality and social problems.
Stalin's RSDLP or even Tesla (who for all his merits is a genius), would never have gotten this far without the support of citizens from all over Russia supporting and co-operating with them in the construction of Russia.
*******
[Perspective - Ming, Qing and whatever more]
November 5, 1924 - Federal city of Moscow, capital of the Russian Empire under Tsar Augustus Nicholas II.
The meeting between the aforementioned Russian monarch, and the previous Qing dynasty puppet-'monarch', Emperor Xuantong (known as Puyi/溥儀 and Yaozhi/曜之), takes place.
It was a strange visit and one might even argue controversial. Naturally no one in the Russian Empire or the northern states of China had much fondness for the old Qing dynasty (although the aforementioned Puyi was a puppet and child emperor, so it wasn't exactly his fault).
Those who lived through it (Han Chinese, Manchu, Mongols and others) saw it in its final years of decline and fall, and their children were born in a very different world than the Qing dynasty so there was not a good image between different generations in the Russian Empire or the Northern Chinese State.
"I don't think I've heard from you in, like, 10 years." Tsar Nicholas II nonchalantly mentions. "I occasionally read of your wanderings in the Republic of Shandong."
"Yes, me and my companions tried to leave China somewhere else, but we got stuck in Republican China. It did not end well due to its many civil wars and I had to go to Shandong to save my life" Puyi explains quickly, and sometimes he lets the emotions out of him, he was hard to read, maybe it was anger or sadness, or a mixture of both (despair).
"And now you're here." Tsar Nicholas adds, not very surprised.
"I had to sell 2,685 golden statues of Buddha, 1,675 golden altar ornaments, 435 porcelain antiques, and 31 boxes of sable furs!" Puyi adds.
"Sounds like enough for a decent life, I guess." Nicholas II answers. "But all of this doesn't tell me, what do you want?"
"I sent you a letter."
"Yes, but one thing is what is written and another is what is spoken, we are speaking right here, right now." Nicholas II exclaims, even with so many technological advances, Alexander III and Nicholas II were always people who liked to talk face to face.
"I want to enter the Zhili republic, but they have me as a 'persona non-grata', I wondered if you could let me in or something. I had to take a boat to Port Arthur, a train to Mukden and then all the Trans-Siberian to get here." Puyi asks honestly.
"What do you want in Zhili?" Nicholas II asks once more.
"...I'm not sure yet." Puyi indicates, the ex-emperor is only about 18 years old (a month older than Nicholas's youngest son).
"...You haven't opened your eyes yet? Didn't you see in Shandong what life is like for ordinary people, or did you never wonder what life was like for them under the Qing dynasty?" Nicholas II strongly indicates. "I have the tools to know Puyi, I saw how the Qing dynasty was like in its final years when I was governor of Inner Manchuria."
"Mostly, I lived holed up in my apartment with acquaintances and my guardians. I just know that I want to go home." Puyi insists once more.
"And what is your house?"
"The Forbidden City in Beijing." Puyi replies.
"Puyi, you're too young. You haven't asked yourself the important questions yet." Nicholas II indicates with legitimate concern for the former emperor.
"As which?" Puyi asks confused and impatient.
"Were you ever really happy being an emperor? Do you even know what you want? The Forbidden City must have stopped being your home a long time ago, and I'm not speaking on a physical level, but on a mental level." Emperor Nicholas II insists on the young Puyi.
At first Puyi would react with anger, but there was really nothing he could do before the emperor of Russia, they were both in very different positions.
Nicholas II was 56 years old and undoubtedly much more experienced than Puyi in practically all walks of life. Puyi didn't know how to tie his shoelaces himself.
"Tell me Puyi, what do you think if we walk a little?". Nicholas II offers a hand to the young Manchu.
"...I prefer to ride a bike." Puyi replies.
"Very well, I will walk." The Russian Emperor concludes, taking a ride around Moscow with the ex-Son of Heaven (who for his part rides a bicycle).
"I think I'm freezing." Puyi mentions.
"You're exaggerating." Nicholas II insists, but it was true that all of Russia could be very cold for Puyi.
His meeting with Tsar Nicholas II marked an important change in the life of Puyi, the former Chinese emperor did not have much hope in restoring his head to a throne in Beijing.
True, the Northern States were not yet as developed as other parts of Russia and the Russosphere, but they were advancing beyond the Chinese monarchy, both in economic, political and social development.
The idea of being a benevolent monarch similar to the Russian tsars was not very plausible in Puyi's case.
If we talk about former Chinese dynasties, at most Russia had ties with the Zhou family (descendants of the imperial Ming dynasty, although Nicholas II doubted that they would be of use, it was Alexander III who had more confidence in the Marquis of Extended Grace, Zhu Yuxun and their descendants) and not with the Manchu royal family.
*Tsar Nicholas II indicated that a Monarchical Restoration (Qing or Ming) in the northern states of China would only be possible by referendum (which would only show that the majority of the population was inclined to 'No').
Tsar Nicholas II's policy towards Taiwan was a little different, in 1924 the emperor did not know what he was going to do with the island (the future was uncertain, with a clearly unstable Japan).
In the Taiwanese case, Nicholas II was inclined towards giving more autonomy to the natives and allowing a pseudo-republic, unless a kind of Ming restoration was carried out.*
Tsar Nicholas II was a surprisingly compassionate man towards Puyi, unlike those interested in Northern China or the warlords in southern China, Nicholas II did not gain much from Puyi.
And for this Nicholas II showed him quite a bit of respect, actually giving a young ex-emperor the opportunity to live something similar to an ordinary life.
1924-1925 was the beginning of the restructuring of Puyi's life. The ex-Son of Heaven was sent to the city of Chita in Zabaykalsky Krai, where he lived in a sanatorium for quite some time.
From being the still pampered ex-emperor, Puyi would transform into someone quite humble and kind, taking on relatively simple jobs (where he discovered a new passion, gardening).
Only years after Puyi rebuilt his life as an ordinary person, he was finally allowed to enter Zhili.
As a curious fact, Puyi met Sergei, the youngest son of Tsar Nicholas II, during the works of the Gran Duke in the Russian Far East (1924-1931).
Perhaps it is a story for another time.
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Russian soldiers sitting on the throne of old Chinese emperors, result of the Russian victories over China.
nNTtRBLu1VaNoh2JO3RNvRPCHL27MLpmZ7mnSvV93no.jpg
Puyi (or Pu Yi, courtesy name Yaozhi, also know as Xuantong Emperor/Hsuan Tung Emperor) in his garden, after learning a lot from the Russian education system.
*******
[Perspective - Anniversary of Tsar Nicholas II]
December of 1924.
"Nicholas, happy jubilee!" Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), excitedly calls her eldest son.
The emperor and autocrat of all Russia was working in his office, working even if it was quite early in the morning.
"...Jubilee?" Nicholas asks confused.
"Yeah! I can't believe you forgot about your own anniversary Nicholas." The empress dowager mentions.
Emperor Nicholas II again checked his calendar and his notes, normally he was a very orderly person. "Yeah, you're right. I guess I just got a bit lost." Nicholas brushes it off, he had only believed there was one more day left before the jubilee.
"Well, you'd better at least remember your plans for today." Maria Feodorovna warns her eldest son.
"Yes, everything is ready mom, don't worry." Nicholas II calmly insists before going through his office once more, getting rid of the useless things that were there.
The plan was quite simple, there were a lot of festivities around Russia (civilians, military and bureaucrats of the Empire), celebrating 10 years of the reign of Emperor Nicholas II and 10 years since the departure of Tsar Alexander III.
Debts were forgiven, there was much food, gifts and activities of all kinds (especially charity) throughout Russia, with flags in the imperial colors flying in almost every settlement. Russians often say that once a Russian flag is raised, it will not be lowered (sign of a united and strong Russian Empire), Alexander III and Nicholas II tried to make sure of that.
Time had flown too quickly for Nicholas Alexandrovich, who soon found himself once again having to attend to quite a few festivities, answer and arrange endless paperwork, and of course, attend to his allies and co-workers in the government, specially in the State Duma.
In addition to giving an infinity of speeches that he had had to write, detail, edit and memorize.
A lot of work, that was the life of Tsar Nicholas II, who did not like too much luxury or social situations, especially after the death of Empress Elena.
Tsar Nicholas II in particular took time to quickly visit his father's burial site (Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Petrograd), where he had a bit of solitude beyond his office.
"Hey old man." Tsar Nicholas II greeted the tomb of his father, where he laid some flowers for the late emperor.
The tomb received lines of visitors almost every day, but if you are the emperor visiting your late father you can have more privacy...
"Sorry for not visiting you often, too much work to do, too little time." Nicholas adds. "You made it look easy, I try to stay on my feet but it hasn't been easy...we had a civil war and...Damn I don't know how to deal with somethings."
"I miss you old man, that's all."
After this Tsar Nicholas quickly had to return to Moscow, the goal was to close the day with a review of the last decade in the Russian Empire and the achievements of Russia during the last decade.
It was something similar to what Tsar Alexander III did during his first jubilee, a mechanism that the Tsar had left in his last years, but that Tsar Nicholas II decided to repeat for his first jubilee.
"In retrospect, it is perhaps too early to talk about achievements, we have done a lot, but there is still a long way to go. If we are lucky, we will see the end of important projects that began under my father and we will see the development of the important projects that we have started, both in Russia and in the Covenant of Nations".
-Nicholas II of Russia during his first jubilee (10 years of reign).
In reality, Tsar Nicholas II had done much more than it seemed, the construction of the Covenant was already an achievement that many monarchs of the past could only dream of.
The productive forces (social and economic) of the country continued to develop, multiple infrastructure projects began and would be vital for the country's development and quality of life, the post-civil war reconstruction was going well, strength to strength, and the whole country seemed in order.
Even if there were some problems or failures, even if the czar and his government made mistakes, the number of successes in the last 10 years far exceeded the number of failures.
And we could even speak of the legacy of Tsar Nicholas II in just 10 years, within the rest of the Russosphere, as the creation of the foundations for the Federation of East Africa, influence around several parts of the Covenant in good ways or just help of the Tsar to humanitarian cuases.
*******
[International]
October 2, Argentine footballer Cesáreo Onzari scores a direct goal from a corner kick against Uruguay (a country that had recently won the gold medal in football at the Chicago Olympics).
After this event, the direct goal from a corner kick is called 'Olympic Goal' (Gol Olímpico) in Latin America.
October 3, the government of the Emirate of Ha'il makes Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashimi desist from his more political intentions (mainly regarding the restoration of the Muslim Caliphate), initiating a period of 'self'-isolation.
Ali bin Hussein, son of the aforementioned Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashimi, is put on alert because of this. Ali bin Hussein has some influence in the Hejaz region, but it is obvious that he cannot compete against the progressively modern Ha'il government.
October 5, the British Raj government issues new ordinances to crack down on 'terrorists' (separatists) from British India.
The first British attempts to suppress the independence movement of the Raj end in 7 civilians killed and 48 wounded.
7-8 October, former laborist-liberal leader James Ramsay MacDonald dies in British possession during the time of the All-British Party dictatorship.
Ramsay MacDonald had opposed the Social Aristocracy during the civil war in the Home Islands due to his socialist tendencies and personal convictions, but he was also opposed to the British Communists and was one of the reasons for the 'betrayal' of the opposition to the Leftist groups of the conflict (one of the the factors that helped in the final victory of the Social Aristocracy).
"Communism is not practical at all. It is a product of treason and war, and as such we will have nothing to do with it."
-A segment of MacDonald's (in)famous speech during the civil war in the Home Islands, which is why neither side would later mourn his death too much.
October 12, criminal Gerald Chapman murders Police Officer James Skelly of the New Britain Police Department, during his crime spree in Connecticut, one of the reasons why Chapman was the first person nicknamed "Public Enemy Number One" by the press.
The inter-war period is very curious in the United States, famous for its political tensions, but also for other eccentricities (such as the prohibition law and the success of the gangster figure in the country, some very famous people of this kind later became semi-public figures in the United States after to the crack of 1933).
October 13, the corporate group of the Ford family (the presidential family at the time), finally buys the nitrate plants and the dam in Muscle Shoals (Alabama).
October 15, King-Emperor Edward VIII of the Imperial Federation arrives in Toronto, during his stay in the State of Canada, the King-Emperor and his companions on the trip launch a great sporting campaign of animal hunting.
October 18, throughout East Germany media reports begin to circulate about evidence of communist 'false passport factories'.
Forged documents allegedly used by communist agents operating under false identities in various countries (United States, Imperial Federation and others).
The veracity of these reports is debatable, although if there were communist agents during this time, it is difficult to say if the reports were true or simply one of the Red-Black Front's early anti-communist campaigns.
October 19, the first Atlantic hurricane officially classified under Category 5, hits the west of the Mexican Empire (the island of Cuba).
The 1924 Cuban hurricane left 90 dead, and affected the regions of Yucatan (Free Republic of Mexico), Cuba (Second Mexican Empire), Florida (United States) and the Bahamas.
October 21, the East German Red-Black Front monarchist faction asks about the possibility of further progress toward the restoration of a Kingdom of Prussia or the German Empire.
The comments are unclear, the leader of East Germany, Manfred von Richthofen, precisely nicknamed 'the Red Baron', was an aristocrat, but his political interests lay more in the vindication of German nationalism and an imperial aesthetic (looking towards the First Reich and the Second Reich) than in the restoration of the monarchy itself.
We can see this in how Richthofen advocated the recovery of German lands and a revival of Prussian militarism, but he always preferred to concentrate more power in himself and the Front, than return privileges to the German aristocracy and monarchy.
October 24, King-Emperor Edward VIII and his companions end their visit to Canadian territory, returning to the Home Islands.
October 25, Akira Yamada founds the Osaka Metal Industry company, which would later function as a state-owned and manufacturing company in the Kansai region.
'Trunko' is reportedly sighted in the coast of Imperial South Africa.
Trunko is basically a globster/blob, a mass that reaches the coasts and is difficult to identify initially, generally due to the advanced state of decomposition suffered by said remains.
What made Trunko briefly famous is his "Fish Like A Polar Bear" appearance and that in the 10 days that said carcass was stranded, no scientist gave it a proper description or thoroughly investigated it.
Trunko_carcass.jpg
Based on the four surviving photographs of this object, it is now believed to have been a whale carcass.
October 29 of 1924, the elections of the Free Republic of Germany take place, which decide the successor of the People's Chancellor Karl Liebknecht (one of the founders of Socialist Germany).
The results determine that
becomes People's Chancellor, marking the victory of the hard-line Communists.
Although the October-December period is quite calm for the Free Republic of Germany, already in 1925 important reforms begin in West Germany, led by Thälmann and his process of building socialism.
* Joseph Goebbels becomes his 'ideology secretary' (right-hand man of the new Chancellor, Goebbels has several key-ministries de-facto under control)
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Ernst Thälmann upon becoming People's Chancellor in 1924.
November 2, Uruguay and Argentina ended in a scoreless draw (0-0) in the fifth game of the eight edition of the South American Championship of football.
Uruguay ended with 5 points, Argentina ended with 4 points and Paraguay with 3, the other competitor (Chile) had 0 points.
November 3, the presidential candidates (Henry Ford, William Gibbs McAdoo Jr and Morris Hillquit) make their final radio announcements before voting for the United States presidential election.
November 4, beginning of the voting in the presidential elections of the United States.
The result is quite historic within the United States, with the National Republican Party's candidate, Henry Ford, being elected for a third consecutive presidential term (something that had never happened before).
And for a few moments there is a resurgence of the Democratic Party under McAdoo, who narrowly held the second place favorite (leaving the Socialist-Communists again in third place, under Hillquit this time).
The consequences of the 1924 elections are several:
*The populist-Fordist period in America continues and will effectively settle into American culture for all its consequences (among them, the progressive erosion of democracy).
*The anti-KKK factions among the Democrats lost ground due to support for McAdoo, whose position was consolidated despite losing the election to Ford.
*The defeat of the moderate wing meant that the period of 1924-1928 was one of the reasons that helped (at least in part) to the final triumph of the Radical-Communist wings in the S-CPUSA.
Yeah, everything was pretty bad.
The immediate effect would be the reorganization of the radicals of the S-CPUSA and some left populist factions to counter-attack the defeat of the moderates.
One of the particular alliances that was formed from this reorganization was the alliance of socialist-progressive Theodore Roosevelt III with Huey Long of Louisiana (who had been elected Governor of Louisiana on February 19 of 1924, election thst marked the end of the Democratic Solid South until the crack of 1933).
During this same period of the beginning of the elections (when the results were not yet known), veterans from different political factions ended up fighting in a march near Washington D.C, raising the tension and social problems that existed in the United States of the time.
This Washington D.C. incident is one of the events that would eventually strengthen Smedley Butler's 'Army' and other militant S-CPUSA campaigns.
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Example of Communist veterans in the USA before 1933.
November 5, meeting of Emperor Nicholas II and Puyi, former emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
November 11, opening of the Martin Beck Theater in New York City.
November 12, an attempted peace conference between KMT factions ends unsuccessfully, maintaining civil war (a state that is pretty much normal in southern China for much of its history).
It is more likely that the attempted peace conference deepened the ideological divisions that existed in the KMT at the time, with the joining of Zhang Ji, until then a member of the Right KMT, to the anarchist troops (Black KMT) of Chen Jiongming.
Zhang Ji would influence the Black KMT to do some rather worrying practices:
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"Kill all Manchus, monarchists, officials, capitalists, Confucians, people who marry (as opposed to free love). In total, 1/4 of all 400 million Chinese"
-Yes, this was the "Brilliant" plan of Zhang Ji for a 'Anarchist' China, replace all murderous warlords with a murderous Anarchism.
And of course, the attempts to reconcile the Left KMT-CPC (led by Liao Zhongkai) and the Center-Right KMT (led by Wang Jingwei) also fail.
With Wang Jingwei's Center-Right KMT, evolving more and more towards the political ultra-right.
November 15-16, the consumption of opioids and their derivatives continues to increase in the Empire of Japan, shaken by its enormous socio-political problems.
November 19, in the Philippines the dictatorship of Gregorio del Pilar passes new resolutions in favor of increased military spending and cooperation with the Imperial Federation (mainly Australia).
This may be in part due to Filipinos seeing that the time for military action across the Pacific and Vietnam seems to be creeping closer (after all there are always Indonesian ports to plunder or rebels to attack, and Japan is in a years-long civil war).
November 25, Charlie Chaplin the British-born filmmaker living in socialist France decides to visit the Free Republic of Mexico, where he learns about the principles of the construction of socialism in Mexico under Felipe Carrillo Puerto (based more on the economic participation of the unions-syndicates than planned economy).
After his trip, Chaplin decides to briefly visit Latin America. He is banned from the Federation of Central America, Peru-Bolivia, Chile and Brazil (and a few others) because of his Communist connections, but he does visit Gran Colombia, Acre, Argentina and Uruguay, before returning to the République Populaire Démocratique de France.
In France, Chaplin commented that he was impressed by Mexico's progress, but of course it was still behind the rest of the European Socialist Union.
Due to its geographical position, Mexico was considered the biggest pariah in the socialist world, even more than the red Turkey. To make matters worse, his model was considered revisionist (among the hard-line governments that existed in the ESU at the time).
November 29, the Army–Navy Game in Baltimore (United States) is won by the Army team (12-0).
President Henry Ford was among the 80,000 attendees at the event.
The Montreal Forum was opened in the Imperial Federation, which during 1924-1943 became one of the best-known arenas for hockey in the country.
Today it is one of the emblematic hockey buildings in North America.
November 30, British publisher Hannen Swaffer recounted a seance he attended along with writer Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Robert McAlpine and others.
Swaffer testified that the medium contacted Lord Northcliffe (a British newspaper magnate, who died in 1922 due to a streptococcal infection), who admitted that Doyle was right about life beyond the grave.
"I mistrusted your judgement, but now I see how wrong I was"
-Northcliffe spirit...according to Swaffer, of course.
December 2, an earthquake hits the island of Java, killing 27 people.
December 3, United States President Henry Ford delivers his State of the Union address to the United States Congress.
According to Ford, the state of the union "may be regarded with encouragement and satisfaction by every American."
A very big lie, political things.
Obviously Ford was not blind or dumb, he had a lot of information about the situation in America. Perhaps his words were due more to his bad relationship with Congress.
December 4, death of the former president of Gran Colombia, José Cipriano Castro Ruiz.
The dictator-president of Gran Colombia, Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón, organizes a grand funeral for his predecessor, who is considered by many to be essentially the most important of the founding fathers of (second) Gran Colombia.
December 9, in accordance with British-Philippine cooperation plans, there is an expansion of several ports within the area of influence of the British Empire.
In particular, the port of Singapore is expanding, since the creation of the Thai Canal has been in a certain decline.
December 15, Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed his belief that World War III would not occur for another 15 to 20 years.
But he of course continued to insist that Russia and the European Socialist Union posed a threat to the vital security of the British Empire.
And therefore, that it was necessary to continue the important reforms that were taking place in his government (such as the Keynesian economic reforms and the construction of the British armed forces, whose military spending practically rose almost every year under Churchill).
December 18, Pope Pius XI (Pietro La Fontaine of Venice) visits Russia, speaking favorably of the Covenant's recent anti-poverty policies.
Pope Pius XI's stance during the inter-war period was characterized by enormous opposition to the Imperial Federation and its allies: "There is no way in which we should lend our support to a system of government which we are far from approving"
-Pope Pius XI about the supremacist ideology of the Imperial Federation.
December 25, the Broadway Theatre opened in midtown-Manhattan (New York City).
December 26, in case it wasn't clear, during this time the authorities of the European Socialist Union announce that they will not pay any 'substantial' debt from the period before their revolutions.
December 27, during a transfer of 10.5 tons of dynamite, an explosion occurs at Temiya railway station (Otaru, Hokkaido, North of the Empire of Japan).
As a result of this there are 94 dead and more than 300 injured (according to official reports, the explosion occurs during the transfer from a cargo ship to a freight car).
At first there was confusion whether this was a terrorist attack during the Japanese civil war, a false flag attack by the government, or an accident.
In modern times it is accepted that the Temiya railway station explosion was an unplanned accident, but in these years it was a great mystery and shock in Japan.