Rise of Australia

Chapter 443 Russian Earthquake
As the Russian government began to cleanse the capitalists to a certain extent, it inevitably affected the factories in St. Petersburg and surrounding cities.

According to incomplete statistics from the Russian government, this purge affected hundreds of Russian capitalists, and hundreds of factories were affected.

This has also affected the jobs of at least tens of thousands of Russian workers. After all, their behind-the-scenes bosses have been arrested. Who will pay them wages and let them continue to work?

For the Russian workers who are already hungry, whoever makes them lose their jobs is their enemy.

Those capitalists who have been purged or affected are also trying to solve the current predicament they are encountering at this time.

For these people, the weapons they can use are the workers who are dissatisfied because the factory has stopped operating.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the Russian Duma, which is the Russian State Duma established since the 1905 revolution.

The Russian State Duma is similar to the British House of Commons, but the power of the State Duma is not very great at present. Tsar Nicholas II still holds the right to appoint cabinet ministers, and the government does not have to be responsible to the State Duma.

But no one can deny that a united workers' group can indeed exert great influence on the government.

Didn’t the former Nicholas II also couldn’t bear the pressure of workers’ demonstrations, so he set up the State Duma to appease the workers’ anger?
As long as the workers in these factories can be used reasonably and the government and Nicholas II are forced to give up the purge of the capitalists, the big capitalists in St. Petersburg will be able to escape this crisis.

It is precisely because of the pressure from the Russian government that European capitalists and political parties actually have a common goal, which is to achieve their goals by promoting workers' demonstrations.

Adhering to the principle that the enemy of the enemy is one's ally, in just a few days, the big capitalists in St. Petersburg united with the workers' party, intending to incite a large-scale demonstration against the Russian government and Tsar Nicholas II. exert pressure.

It is ironic that many workers' parties were originally established to fight against factory owners and capitalists who exploited the working class.

Two forces that seem to be rivals have joined together. Although it is against their respective interests, it has to be admitted that this is an extremely large interest group.

Beginning on October 1916, 10, large-scale demonstrations broke out in the streets of St. Petersburg. Workers held up the banners of "Please give us back the jobs" and "We just want to survive", and started a vigorous parade.

At the same time, a small number of unaffected workers also went on strike. Hundreds of thousands of workers in St. Petersburg gathered together to convey their wishes to the government and the tsar.

On the afternoon of October 10, news of the general strike in St. Petersburg reached Tsar Nicholas II.

At this time, Nicholas II was dealing with military affairs in his bedroom, and Nicholas II also cherished this hard-won hour of military affairs. Sitting next to him was his queen and Rasputin, in their It is recommended to deal with military affairs hastily.

Nicholas II couldn't help frowning when he heard the prime minister's report on the parade in St. Petersburg.

"Your Majesty, those damned workers are all instigated by the capitalists and the reactionary party behind them. You can't tolerate this parade, otherwise those capitalists and the reactionary party will intensify their demands. I have calculated that the empire will win this soon In war, no clown can shake the empire." Before Nicholas II could give any advice, Rasputin next to him couldn't wait to say.

As an out-and-out magic stick, Asputin is very obsessed with the feeling of power.

Relying on the trust of Nicholas II and his wife in themselves, Rasputin handles most of Russia's government and military affairs, and it is Rasputin's opinion to even dump the blame on front-line commanders and capitalists.

For Rasputin, it was important to ensure the stability of Nicholas II's status.After all, only if Nicholas II and his wife are still alive, can he rely on Nicholas II and his wife to master the power of the whole of Russia.

As for how his decisions would affect Russia, Rasputin actually didn't care, and he was completely unaware.

It is better to expect Nicholas II to show his military prowess than to expect an uneducated magician to understand the principles of governing the country and the military.

Queen Alexandra also nodded, very supportive of Rasputin's decision to forcefully suppress the parade.

It is not uncommon for Nicholas II to use force to suppress the parade, and naturally he will not have any objections.

Under the nod of Nicholas II, the St. Petersburg garrison began to move, surrounded a large crowd of parades, and began to forcibly evacuate these people.

In order to prevent capitalists and reactionaries from fleeing St. Petersburg, under the order of Nicholas II, the entire city of St. Petersburg was under martial law. Without the order of Nicholas II, no one was allowed to enter or leave at will.

In order to prevent some of the St. Petersburg garrison and police from being corrupted, Nicholas II decided to call in the front-line troops, and ordered all policemen to stay in the police station and not to act without orders.

You must know that the situation of the St. Petersburg garrison is much worse than that of the front-line troops, but there is no guarantee that any of these people will be bought by the reactionaries and capitalists.

Not to mention the police, they enjoy the super high prices in St. Petersburg just like the workers, and it is only natural that they are dissatisfied with the government.

Immediately after the martial law in St. Petersburg, a large number of demonstrators were scared away.

You know, there will be no martial law in St. Petersburg without something particularly important and urgent.

As the capital of the empire, every martial law in St. Petersburg also means that there will be a bloodshed in St. Petersburg.

The workers only think about fighting for their own rights, and don't think about giving their lives for those capitalists in vain.

Immediately after Nicholas II lifted the table, a large number of parade crowds were scared off.

After most of the workers who blindly followed the crowd were scared off, most of them were bought by capitalists or recruited by political parties.

The number of these workers is small, less than 1 in total, and they are scattered on various streets in St. Petersburg.

Some of these people also wanted to retreat, but they soon found out that it was too late.A large number of troops have surrounded the streets of St. Petersburg, and they are facing cold muzzles.

"Sir, I'm afraid it was a mistake." A member of the leading political party was about to beg for mercy and explain, but was interrupted by an oncoming bullet.

boom!
The corpses fell on the street, the sound of the collision was not loud, but it was a heavy blow to the hearts of all those who participated in the parade.

Most of these demonstrations organized by capitalists and political parties are workers who are dissatisfied because of lost jobs.

These people don't have any weapons, some just give their blood for their own livelihood.

After the army took the initiative to open fire, it immediately calmed down the remaining parade crowd.People put down the banners in their hands one after another, looked at the army in fear, and waited for their own fate.

"Take it all away!"

Seeing that no one resisted, the leading commander nodded in satisfaction and ordered the soldiers to arrest all those who participated in the parade.

It wasn't even just those who participated in the parade. Some newspapers that had criticized the tsarist government, and factories and individuals involved in the parade were all on the arrest list.

It can be inferred from the military's mighty operations in St. Petersburg for several days that at least tens of thousands of people were arrested in this suppression.

On October 1916, 10, the Russian government began mass executions of captured prisoners.

The tsarist government's way of dealing with these people was very rough, either to provide the government with more useful clues, or to execute them directly.

Few people are not afraid of death, which also led to the expansion of the list of arrests, and even involved a large number of people outside St. Petersburg.

All of a sudden, people in St. Petersburg panicked.The masses didn't even dare to go out of their homes, because the army patrolling the streets might capture them at any time.

Although the law and order environment in St. Petersburg has improved a lot, the Russians will soon face a very serious problem, that is, the food crisis.

Although he knew that the food crisis in St. Petersburg was more serious, Nicholas II had no idea of ​​​​relief for these civilians.

For Nicholas II, if he didn't deal with the workers in these demonstrations, he was already lenient, and he would have to wait until his next life to take the initiative to help these civilians.

Nicholas II did not have the idea of ​​buying people's hearts. After all, Russia has a population of 1.6 million, and it costs at least 1.6 million rubles for each person to send a ruble. This is not a small expense.

It seemed to Nicholas II that no one would use his own funds to help the people, not to mention the gray animals in Russia that would not feel sorry for millions of people who died.

As St. Petersburg entered martial law, although prices did not rise in a short period of time, the problem is that most people have lost their jobs.

In the past, they couldn't afford it if they had money, but now they can't afford it even more if they don't have money. They can only watch the grain in those seized granaries being transferred to the palace, or divided up by those high-ranking officials and nobles.

But no one dared to covet the food transport team. The food transport team not only had a large number of soldiers guarding it, but also had patrol teams everywhere in the city. It was not something that unarmed workers could covet.

But this is an opportunity for all parties.After a large number of capitalists have been purged, the workers in those factories are like grasshoppers without roots. They have no ability to fight against the government, but they are indeed suffering a life crisis.

Now, they only need to pay a little food, and they can quickly draw these workers into their own political party and strengthen their own strength.

Nicholas II may not have looked down on these workers, but for the reactionary political parties that are vigorously pursued by the government, the support of a large number of workers is life-saving, and at the same time can better accomplish their goals.

To say that most of these political parties in Russia have plans to overthrow the government.This is not surprising, for a decaying autocratic empire, there are already dissatisfied dragon slayers, with a chance to kill with one blow.

In fact, looking at all countries in the world, as long as it is a human society, it is inseparable from class gaps and vested interests.

The high-level wants to squeeze the bottom layer desperately, squeeze out all the value of the bottom layer to serve themselves.

After being squeezed for a long time at the bottom, there will always be warriors who want to slay the dragon, and there are warriors who succeed in slaying the dragon every time.

But the problem is that neither a tribe nor a nation can do without actual leaders.

Power always blinds people's hearts. When desire overcomes reason, the dragon slayer will eventually become a dragon.

This kind of reincarnation is happening in every country and every time. As long as there are human beings, it will never be an unavoidable topic.

From the end of October, the political party headed by the Workers' Union began to distribute some food to those workers who could not afford to eat. The price was that these workers had to sign a declaration against the Russian government.

In normal times, even if they endured hunger, most workers would not sign such a declaration.

Once seized by the government, the signatory will not only bring disaster to himself, but also implicate his entire family and his relatives.

But now it's different.If there is no more food relief, these workers and their families will really starve to death.

Whether to be starved to death now or to be seized by the government in the future, I believe most smart people know how to choose.

Instigated by these political parties, tens of thousands of workers signed a manifesto against the government and had to stand with these political parties.

As time entered the beginning of November 1916, the great purge launched by Nicholas II was successfully completed, and St. Petersburg restored the previous order.

The seizure of a large number of capitalists allowed Nicholas II and the Tsarist government to obtain a large amount of funds and materials. Satisfied, Nicholas II waved his hand and distributed a small amount of materials to the people of St. Petersburg.

If it is just at the stage of the big purge, doing so may be able to win some people's hearts.But unfortunately, it is too late now.Except for the workers who rebelled against the government's declaration, they have been coerced by the political party, and it is impossible to restore their previous peaceful life.

A crisis that was even more chaotic than the previous parade was about to break out, but the proud Nicholas II didn't know it yet.

The failure of the previous large demonstrations made the reactionaries clearly realize that it is impossible for the government to change its policy only by relying on more moderate large demonstrations.

Coupled with the previous dissatisfaction with Nicholas II's sweeping actions, and after careful consideration, the political party headed by the Bolshevik Party decided to launch an armed uprising to forcefully overthrow this brutal and cruel government.

On November 1916, 11, thousands of workers forcibly captured the arsenal in St. Petersburg and took away a large number of guns and ammunition in the arsenal.

Because the cleaning operation had just ended, Nicholas II and the top Russian officials were very satisfied with the results of the cleaning operation, and had already relaxed their vigilance against the order in St. Petersburg.

This also led to the arsenal in St. Petersburg being guarded by only dozens of soldiers, and there is no patrol system.

After the occupation of the arsenal, large quantities of weapons were distributed to the workers.At the same time, a small number of St. Petersburg garrisons who had been recruited by the workers' party also defected to the uprising workers' side and participated in the armed uprising together.

A total of tens of thousands of soldiers and workers marched to the Winter Palace and various government departments, attracting a large crowd of onlookers.

During the absence of any preparations by the tsarist government, the uprising team quickly occupied the Winter Palace and various government departments, and arrested a large number of high-level Russian officials and generals.

Fortunately, Nicholas II was located in the palace outside St. Petersburg and did not live in the Winter Palace, otherwise he would have been arrested.

But the insurrectionary team that occupied the Winter Palace and the government departments had actually controlled most of St. Petersburg.

The control of the capital was a huge blow to Nicholas II and Russia. If not handled well, such rebellions could break out everywhere in Russia.

On the one hand, Nicholas II urgently recalled the army that had just been evacuated from St. Petersburg, on the other hand, he urgently asked Britain, France and Australasia for help.

It was November 11 when Arthur received word of the outbreak of the Russian mutiny.

The news of the civil unrest in Russia is not good news for the Allied Powers, which means that Russia will almost 100% withdraw from the war.

No matter which side of the civil strife wins in the end, those in power in Russia have no spare power to fight this war again.

Without the containment of Russia, the Germans fighting on a single front would not be weaker than the British and French allied forces, and would even be able to help the already precarious Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In order to ensure the stability of Russia as much as possible, and at the same time weaken the strength of the Soviet Union that will be established in the future, Arthur made a decisive decision and ordered the intelligence personnel in Russia to rescue Nicholas II's family as much as possible, at least to rescue people like Crown Prince Allier. Only a direct heir to the throne like Kexie can ensure the continued existence of the Russian monarchy as much as possible.

The Tsarist Russian Empire ruled by the Romanov dynasty was an ally of Australasia, but Russia controlled by the uprising forces had nothing to do with Australasia.

The countries formed by these parties can easily influence the Russian populace in Australasia, while also costing the Entente and Australasia a major ally.

Judging from the trend of Russia after the uprising in history, Russia and the United States at that time jointly destroyed the colonial system maintained by Britain and France for hundreds of years, and let the two top powers of Britain and France step down from the altar.

For a country as large as Australasia, which also has a large number of colonies and territories, the collapse of the colonial system is not good news.

Therefore, it became necessary to weaken the power of this unestablished country as much as possible.

On November 1916, 11, the mighty uprising team surrounded the palace where Nicholas II was located.

This palace is guarded by thousands of soldiers, which is enough to ensure the safety of Nicholas II in peacetime.

But now facing the siege of tens of thousands of people, Nicholas II can only hope for the support of his allies and the return of the frontline troops.

What worried Nicholas II still happened.The defenders in the palace also had a mutiny. Although the mutiny was unsuccessful, it greatly weakened the defenders' combat effectiveness.

After a two-day siege, the palace was finally captured by the rebels, and Nicholas II and members of the royal family were captured by the rebels with pale faces.

Although the Russian uprising was a complete success, the status quo in Russia at this time was not as smooth as it appeared on the surface.

First of all, inside the Russian uprising army, there are still two factions.More powerful was the working-class alliance of the Bolsheviks and other workers' parties.

This faction advocates the establishment of a completely republican and democratic government and withdraws from the monarchy that has existed in Russia for thousands of years.

The other faction is dominated by the big landowners and big capitalists in Russia.Because the capitalists have been weakened to a certain extent before, the strength of this faction is relatively weak compared to the working class.

But the bourgeoisie is more afraid of the working class than the previous tsarist government, because the workers and the bourgeoisie are naturally opposed, and assets are equal to exploitation, and the workers launched an uprising just to resist exploitation.

Fearing that the working class will liquidate itself in the future, the bourgeoisie opposes the abolition of the monarchy and advocates the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, where power is transferred to parliament and all parties compete fairly.

The proposal of the bourgeoisie was quickly opposed by the working class.Most of the bourgeoisie are big aristocrats and big capitalists. Although their strength is weak, their capital is much stronger than that of the working class.

If the competition is only in parliament, as long as the bourgeoisie is willing to spend money, it is impossible for the working class to compete with the bourgeoisie.

This is also tantamount to handing over power to the bourgeoisie, which not only violates the original intention of the working class to launch an uprising, but also violates the desire of some workers’ union parties to gain rights.

　5400 words two-in-one chapter, ask for a monthly ticket, ask for support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)