Russia: Austro-Hungarian situation and economy]
Between the last days of December and the first days of January, Tsar Alexander III meets with the generals, his ministers and the Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich.
"Let's be honest, I bet Austria-Hungary will last ... 5 months." Emperor Alexander III expresses showing his right hand with his 5 fingers up.
"It sounds like a truly dire opinion." Nicholas argues.
"But very plausibly, we talk about facing Germany, Italy, France, Romania, possibly Serbia and all the minorities unhappy with the current Austro-Hungarian elites. Relying solely on British help to seriously sustain the logistics." General Mikhail Skobelev argues.
"Austria-Hungary is precisely an undead country. Now, we have to take advantage to maximize our position in the Balkans and Central-Eastern Europe. Tsar Alexander III promptly explains. "We mainly target Galicia and Lodomeria as annexation zones, and solidify Russian relations with Slavic nations, Romania and potentially Hungary once it is independent."
"What will happen to the Slavs who are surely annexed by Italy or Germany?" Skobelev questions with concern.
"We will worry about them later, this is not a good time to sabotage our chances by being very greedy." Tsar Alexander III proclaims.
"How are we going to get Austro-Hungarian territory without declaring war on the British?" The Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov exclaims.
"You wait and watch." Tsar Alexander III responds.
The Russian economy exploded with the start of the Fashoda war, and it did not stop growing counting the participation of the other great powers. Exports of food, agricultural products and raw materials in particular, which allowed Russia to sell much of its primary sector to the participants.
And obviously Russia was also selling some war material to her favorite side, all simply to make sure the British bleed more and more.
As a curious fact, Russia began to become one of the largest exporters of tea to the United Kingdom after tea prices (among other products) were rising in the United Kingdom.
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[Labour reform]
It is obvious that with the situation abroad, currently Russia seemed like a curious beacon of stability, Europe was descending in war, the white man still saw Asia as truly barbaric-problematic, and the United States was in an economic crisis, at least a little more.
This meant that currently the Russian economy continued to grow competitively and that it received investment due to the low confidence that various European investors and immigrants had.
The upper capitalist-bourgeois class and the lower-middle class of immigrant-workers had few options, the two most popular were Russia and Argentina respectively (Switzerland was fine, the problem was that it was surrounded by fighting countries).
Simply because Russia was cheaper (it was closer) it received a remarkable continuous flow, while Argentina received a series of waves from time to time.
It is in this context of chaos and potential that Alexandrian Russia begins its labor reforms, implementing in all the governorates of the Russian Empire (Eurasia and Alyáska).
Reforms that for the context of the time, were very backward or very liberal, for example the situation of the Russian unions was very limited by the subordination of the unions to the state (with these having to announce a strike at least 1 week before and with the reasons for said attempt), but they were the first country at the national law level to adopt the eight-hour workday.
Other countries only adopted the 8-hour workday law for specific jobs or at a sub-national level (administrative unit) at best. The second country to adopt a law of 8 hours of work was in 1915, Uruguay (in other countries the work day of 9/10 hours was more normal).
The Russian autocracy then was still an autocratic state ... but one that implemented workers' reforms that no one else had carried out at the time, and would not carry out until years later. While they were also very active in the international economy.
It was a very strange situation, Russia in general was a strange country and as it treated its ideology, it was nationalist, populist, and at the same time (and to some extent) reformist in various aspects.
The international socialist proletariat did not know what this meant, they opposed Russian tsarism but the Russian proletariat currently reached, for example, the goal of 8 hours of working hours ...
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[Okhrana: Agent Koba]
"So? What do you think of this?" Felix Dzerzhinsky ("Iron Felix" inside the Okhrana) questions his partner while they were in Germany, reading about labor reforms in Russia.
"... It seems very good to me as a start, it alleviates problems of the working class and attacks the bourgeoisie without necessarily harming the state, I like it." Iosif exclaims.
Felix was thinking more about the victory of the proletariat over the working day, while on the other hand the young Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (called Agent Koba by that time) was looking at the anti-monopoly laws.
"What do you mean exactly?" Felix exclaims curiously.
"Did I ever tell you the reason why I hate the bourgeoisie?" Iosif exclaims.
*******
"Then the more developed Armenian bourgeoisie simply oppressed the smaller and less developed Georgian bourgeoisie." Iosif explains.
"Then do you hate Armenians?" Felix Dzerzhinsky asks.
"No, I hate the Armenian Bourgeoisie. And also the Georgian bourgeoisie. It is just that it is necessary to emphasize its origin for history." Iosif responds. "The point is, I think runaway capitalism is wrong."
"Oh I see." Felix exclaims and analyzes for a few moments. "You are truly inspiring when you put your mind to it Iosif." Officer Dzerzhinsky adds.
"Thanks, I guess". Iosif mentions.
"You know, I myself have my own stories, I am of a certain class of the Polish nobility, but I sympathize much more with the working class." Felix cries out and it's actually true, meanwhile Prus returned a few moments later.
Socialism was not dead within Russia, quite the contrary, but it was evolving in mysterious ways. Iosif and Felix came to the conclusion that the Western European socialists did not understand Russia and its peculiarities, therefore they were failed designs FOR Russia.
"Only someone who understands and accepts religion can properly unify and guide the international proletariat.
The teachings of Jesus are already a good path towards socialism. "
-Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.
*******
[Okhrana and KGB]
The Lubyanka building was completed, and with this the Okhrana moved to Moscow officially.
Not only that, the restructuring of certain offices of the organization was also completed, which led to the founding of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or abbreviated as KGB (Комитет государственной безопасности, КГБ).
Also translated as Committee for State Security, the Okhrana and the KGB are technically both Russian intelligence services, but they have different purposes, doctrines and directors, sharing only certain cooperations, structures and positions (in addition to being under the tsar of course).
The Okhrana was intended for observation, information gathering, threat removal, and various other tasks WITHIN Russia.
While the KGB as an intelligence service focused on gathering information OUTSIDE Russia and promoting Russia's interests abroad.
So the KGB had a presence abroad (especially in neighboring countries to Russia) while the Okhrana was in charge of eliminating the internal danger of Russia.
During this time also Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky and Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, continued to grow within the organization through jobs in administrative positions.
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[International Trade]
It is just on January 1 when finally the Second Mexican Empire and the German Empire, led respectively by Emperor Maximiliano I and Kaiser Wilhelm II, end the Tehuantepec Canal.
An interoceanic canal accompanied by a series of double-track railways that can transport products from the Atlantic to the Pacific, without having to go through the dangerous Cape Horn (Kaap Hoorn).
This obviously triggers Mexico's economic development possibilities, with Germany obtaining a 99-year condominium over the administration of the canal, part of the profits and various rights, to the annoyance of various strategic interests of the Anglo-Saxon countries (United States and United Kingdom. United).
As if that were not enough ... cannons of German production (but Mexican design) and forces of the German army are stationed in the Mexican canal with permission from the Mexican government according to the construction treaties of the Tehuantepec canal.
Much money invested that becomes quite profitable for a Germany that does not stop rising, but obviously all this is seen very negatively by the United Kingdom and the United States, already mentioned above.
It is not, however, for the rest of the countries and many investors, entrepreneurs and capitalist companies. Capitalism does not serve any nation only in the pockets of the rich after all.
The British tried to stop this but failed, and the United States waits for the best time for a move before attempting anything drastic.
In the Fashoda war this is extremely important, because some British fear the possibility that more countries will join the Franco-German side, even if the particular states are not particularly strong, because it limits financial possibilities, narrows resources and the logistics have to be used, etc.
On the other hand, now Germany is very involved with the interest of protecting its own interoceanic canal.
Capitalists from other states such as Russia are also interested in the peace and existence of this canal, since it would facilitate the transportation of resources by land and sea to different markets in the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.
******
*[International Trade: Secret Diplomacy]
Wilhelm II and Georges Boulanger agreed that to fight against the Royal Navy it was not only necessary to use the German navy, but also to continue bleeding the British Empire as much as possible.
The issue was how, and for this Germany began to send secret telegrams to various countries such as Guatemala and Venezuela, to direct the claims of these countries to violence against the British colonies (Belize and British Guyana) to lead them to the Fashoda war .
In exchange for certain rights in the Tehuantepec channel and of course "support" in the conflict (quite vague).
In the particular case of Venezuela, Germany and France also offered to forgive the debts of this country (in particular with Germany).
If Venezuela also won, potentially, they would lose their debts to the British Empire, or they would no longer have to acknowledge them as much ...
*******
[Jewish population in Russia]
The Fashoda war mobilized a large population, mainly in Europe, for example we can mention the Jewish populations of the combatant countries. Some insisted that the Jews were unloyal and traitorous, but that was very wrong, many Jews served in the armed forces of their respective countries, especially in Austria-Hungary.
But we speak of a time with high anti-Semitism, and where the Jews were very dedicated to certain activities.
For this reason, many Jews left their countries to migrate to greener regions, but could not go to the Holy Land, many Arabs and anti-Semitic French dominating the government, expelling any Zionist project.
The United States and Argentina were an option, but they were expensive and very competitive, Russia was cheap but it was very competitive as well.
Under these considerations, many Jews migrated to the Russian Keniya (mainly, but also other regions of Russian Africa, but to a lesser extent) to occupy prestigious positions, jobs that were necessary but not abundant.
There a strange tradition was formed, of Jews moving to the Russian colonies in Africa, where a dentist, banker, doctor and other jobs did not have fierce competition for Jewish workers.
It helped develop the colonies, Jews got jobs and escaped war, perfect for practically everyone.
*******
[International]
* [Fashoda War]
On January 6, the general and massive mobilization had begun in Italy and Germany (a few days later in Romania), on the other hand the best Austro-Hungarian mobilization attempts began on January 13, a week later.
Needless to say, the leaders of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff were divided in two, those who were realists and knew that a war would end badly for them, and those who overestimated the capabilities of the Austro-Hungarian wars.
Unfortunately things were starting badly, although the Mediterranean Italian fleets could have some problems, the British were being distracted in the north with the German navy and the French navy (and other problems in the vast world at war).
The problem is that, on the other hand, the Italian navy practically hit fatal blows to the Austro-Hungarian navy in the Adriatic, costing serious logistical resources to the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was being invaded by the armies of its powerful neighbor (and Italy and Romania. ..).
Austria-Hungary simply couldn't move as many railways as Germany, Britain or Russia, and there was a lot of poverty and inter-ethnic conflict.
Under this situation and the war, they soon started various problems with the Italian and Romanian populations of Austria-Hungary, and the South Slavs especially as well.
In essence, Austria-Hungary faced a multi-pronged war, with complicated logistics, without a very useful navy, internal problems and without help from Russia (thus complicating any attempt to obtain resources from a neutral partner).
Austria-Hungary was doomed from the start of the war.
But they refused to surrender immediately, although the Germans and their allies began with notable victories in the Austro-Hungarian border territories.
Enemy armies marched for miles in Austro-Hungarian land, until finally for the first time the Austrians were able to mount something similar to a defense with trenches.
The problem was that the enemies had better logistics, tactics and numerical superiority with respect to the deployed forces ... The Austrians only delayed the inevitable while Germany went through Bohemia-Austria, Romania towards Transylvania-Banat and Italy towards its objectives (Trentino and South Tyrol, and Istria, and potentially more if they could).
Throughout February the war with the use of air forces (for transport, exploration and bombardment) and the war in the ocean only intensify, the German navy and the British navy had been increasing in recent years so this crash was more than expected.
The chief admirals of both sides become Prime Minister Louis Alexander Mountbatten for the British side and Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz for the German side.
Originally the French had a notable disadvantage, but with the German navy (which annexed the Dutch navy to its corps) and the Italian navy the Paris-Berlin side has a much greater chance of inflicting defeats on the Royal Navy.
Forces increase on the German colonial edges pointing towards the British Empire's southern colonies on the African continent, while the Germans support the fortification of the Suez Canal against British attempts to recapture it.
Fashoda continues to turn into a bloodbath.
*******
* Sweden-Norway.
On February 25, during a North Sea plagued by Anglo-German conflict, a German ship was repaired near a port (and military base) of the Norwegian navy in Sweden-Norway, when suddenly some of the Norwegian ships exploded.
This would be rare but the Swedish government, which ran foreign policy, was willing to investigate that it was an accident, until a "German ship" (originally Dutch) fired on a Norwegian ship.
Oscar II faced a rapid and sudden increase in Norwegian opposition to his government and the pan-Germanic (pro-German) positions of the Swedish elites.
The situation again as normal in the violent spring of Fashoda, soon escalated with various Norwegian forces supported by the British Empire moving, originally to threaten the Swedish government.
Then the Swedish-Norwegian civil war started, and Sweden was drawn into the Fashoda war, cutting the precious Swedish iron available to the German Empire (since they had to spend it on their own production).
Germany was quick to support Sweden while the United Kingdom intervened with its navy to support Norway (and some Swedish partisans) against Sweden central goverment, with the Norwegian public on behalf of Norway-UK alliance.
The Swedish public was mostly divided, and that worsened the situation.
(So, there is a pro-UK Norway, some pro-UK Swedish population and UK against Sweden central authority and Germany).
* Secret: In part it had all been a plan by Prime Minister Louis Alexander Mountbatten to damage the German Empire (its iron supply in particular) and make it waste resources in the north.
Getting important positions in Scandinavia against the coalition of Berlin and Paris or Russia in certain cases.
The Dutch ship was paid to carry out operations against the Norwegians, due to the opposition of her crew to the German government over the Netherlands.
The explosion in the Norwegian ports ... that's more of a mystery to the interpretation of historians.
It is not the first time that violations of the neutrality of neutral countries at war have occurred, for example the previously seen Belgium, and sometimes Switzerland (with the passage of French, German and Italian forces through some Swiss territories).
*******
* [Russian soccer]
Tsar Alexander III proclaims that in 1899 the Russian Soccer League (halted by the Russo-Turkish war) will be restarted in Astrakhan.
*******
March 14, Macedonian forces defeat the Bulgarian-Greek armies in the region, marking a humiliating defeat of thousands of Bulgarians and Greeks (more than 20,000) against 17,000 Macedonians, but then the IMRO, revolutionary government, suffers a coup de been by the bourgeois, Social Democrats and other Macedonian Republican-moderates.
An unsigned truce occurs due to the defeat of the army of 20,000 while the Macedonians get enough time to reorganize.
On March 16, to continue pulling population against problems, the British Empire continues to recruit colonial citizens-subjects to use in the army, of course with all the problems that this entails.
Above all, it causes problems between the Francophone populations of Quebec and the Bengali populations of the British Raj, leading to some particular recruitment crises in the aforementioned populations (and radicalization).
March 26, in South Africa the Sabie Game Reserve is created, a game reserve (that is, dedicated to the sport of hunting and not to the preservation of animal species).
*******
* [Iberian revolutions]
January 15th.
The Russian-German socialist (Russian living in Germany with his wife Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya), Vladimir Ulyanov mobilized towards the socialist revolution in Iberia to "advise" the PSOE of Pablo Iglesias.
Ulyanov's point was that the Spanish revolution should not focus on elections like the revolution of the Paris Commune, innation would cause the possibility of socialism being crushed by Carlist forces in northern Spain.
The problem was the moderation of Pablo Iglesias in this aspect, so Vladimir Ulyanov currently aligns himself more with the lawyer Rafael García Ormaechea (who shares a profession with Ulyanov) and the trade unionist Francisco Largo Caballero, a trade unionist-socialist which Ulyanov radicalizes towards revolutionary line.
This leads Caballero the "Workers Leader" and the "Conscious Worker" towards an even greater radicalization of the Iberian revolution when he calls out to the working masses.
Ulyanov and Caballero with the help of Ormaechea recruited a total of 100,000 Spanish-Portuguese workers who made movements against the monarchical economy of Portugal and Spain, effectively stopping the Iberian economy on February 25.
The Iberian revolution spread to Andalusia and even parts of the north of the Iberian peninsula, with only southern Portugal, the Basque Country, Navarra and Catalonia as independent regions of the socialist movement.
Pablo Iglesias tries to de-radicalize the movement so much, but fails due to the results of the votes of the provisional government of Madrid. He still continues as "president" for the time being.
Britain gets nervous spending more resources trying to stop "the Spanish Red Army."
* Dialogue between Ulyanov and Caballero.
"Do you know about the reforms of Tsar Alexander III?" -Ulyanov starts.
"Which ones?" -Knight questions.
"His reforms regarding labor laws, he is the first in the world to fulfill the 8-hour workday. But you see, that is not true reform of the situation of the Russian worker." -Ulyanov exclaims.
"Why not?" -Knight adds with another question.
"Very simple, the autocratic tsarist state does not help the workers, it only bothers about their self-salvation, nothing more. They choose the reform rather than eliminate the systematic problem they suffer, capitalism, they will not stop the war or the imperialism of this Anyway, therefore they will not stop the workers' suffering. A bourgeois state will never help the workers! " -Ulyanov proclaims.
(OOC: Caballero was called 'The Spanish Lenin' when he radicalized a bit, let's say Ulyanov gave him a push earlier ITL, XD)
*******
[Russia and the other Slavs]
Serbia, parts of Bosnia and other Slavs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were very anxious, very nervous, they just needed a little spark and motive to jump on Austro-Hungarian territories, either because of their expansion or desire for independence.
In the midst of all this Tsar Alexander III sees how Austria-Hungary, even with the attempted trench warfare, continues to constantly lose without being able to advance or recover fast enough.
Tsar Augustus, Alexander III, proclaims a mobilization towards the Austro-Hungarian border to "defend the Russian border from the possible effects of war." Or at least that is the statement of the Russian foreign service in 1898.
The population was also somewhat shocked and on the brink of this, but then the "Odessa Volunteer Army" is formed and the Russian Empire allows its citizens to join en masse as volunteers to the Romanian front in the war between Austria-Hungary and their enemies. .
This obviously means that Russia also sends much more material to Romania, material that passes to its allies, more specifically Serbia.
In the midst of this Tsar Alexander III launches other of his plans, some declarations in favor of avoiding crimes against Slavic citizens in Austria-Hungary "because the Slavs are peace-loving people" (obviously moving even more against Austria- Hungary gaining support among the Slavic peoples inside and outside the Austrian empire).
And he gives loans to Romania and Serbia (debt traps of course) in this very tense situation, Romania was at war depending on the Straits or Russia for many vital resources and its interaction with her allies.
Therefore they were already linking strongly economically.
Whereas on the other hand Serbia was a state still recovering from the war on its territory, so it suited them well, and the government was put there by Russia.
Alexander III offered a military deal for Serbia to be definitively integrated, on the one hand to "defend Serbia" from possible border problems in the war, a series of Russian forces would be stationed in Belgrade, including the foreign legion with which the royal family it was so close. In addition to that the Russian army would begin to train the Serbian armed forces (and potentially give secret support in the Serbian expansion in Austro-Hungarian territory).
Peter I accepted, and effectively sealed a similar fate to Bulgaria, Serbia fell definitively in the Russian field.
The Slovaks in particular began to be much more problematic for the Austro-Hungarians, excited by the Russian mobilization so close to the edge.
The South Slavs also joined in this wave of Slavic emotion caused by the Tsar.
The Czechs were a bit more occupied with part of their German territory (and the Czech territories proper) being invaded by Germany.
The Austrian-Hungarian project was falling apart, Russia didn't even need to move a full finger, just a little and the Slavs where making the wave.