The streets of St. Petersburg were no longer silent. The sharp crack of gunfire echoed through the air, accompanied by the acrid scent of smoke and the distant wail of alarms. What had begun as a declaration of martial law had spiraled into outright conflict. Revolutionaries, emboldened by the Tsar's oppressive measures, had risen in rebellion. The iron fist of Tsar Ivan III, intended to crush dissent, had instead become the spark that ignited a full-scale civil war.
The room was tense, filled with senior military officers and state officials. Maps of Ruthenia were sprawled across the central table, marked with red and blue to denote areas under the Tsar's control and those seized by the revolutionaries. Gregori Vasiliev stood at the head of the table, addressing the room with his usual composed intensity.
