Rise of Australia

Chapter 444 Contradictory Powers
News of the success of the St. Petersburg uprising quickly spread throughout Russia and incited more cities to carry out general strikes and demonstrations.

In these cities where general strikes and demonstrations were held, it was clear that the demonstrators were divided into two factions, namely the working class and the capitalists.

After St. Petersburg came Moscow, followed by the surrounding major cities and important buildings.The Red Square in Moscow, the Kremlin, and the Moscow Arsenal were occupied by the uprising team in just a few days. This uprising has spread to the entire European region of Russia.

Before World War I, Russia was an extremely large country. The westernmost part was Poland, which was divided with Germany, and the easternmost part reached the border of Asia, separated from the United States by the Bering Strait.

Therefore, Russia is a completely transcontinental country, not only occupying a large area of ​​Eastern Europe, but also owning a huge land in North Asia.

Although Russia's land area is very large, the core part of Russia's real essence is Eastern Europe.

The scope of this great uprising covers the front line from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Except for the front-line areas, almost half of western Russia is affected, and it can be understood that it directly affects most of Russia.

The two most important cities in Russia, one is the current capital St. Petersburg, and the other is the former capital Moscow.

The part between these two cities is also the elite part of Russia in Eastern Europe, which has been occupied by the uprising.

On the way to instigate the uprising, the workers' union and capitalism vigorously encouraged the surrounding cities to hold general strikes and parades, and took the opportunity to insert their own people into them, intending to control these strike cities.

Under the premise that the capitalist group and the worker group have obvious differences in interests, who can control more rights and the initiative of the government in the future depends on the number of cities controlled by everyone.

On November 1916, 11, the uprising team instigated the rebellion of the Baltic Fleet, and a considerable part of Russia's military strength was in the hands of the uprising team.

This is not over, the frontline soldiers also welcome the uprising.Even front-line soldiers quickly established a soldiers committee to supervise the officers of the army.

A large number of Russian civilians also welcomed the revolution. They needed the political liberation brought by the overthrow of the tsarist system, and the economic liberation brought by the partition of the land of the landlords.

Under the premise that all Russian civilians are hungry, as long as the insurgents can distribute food to them, they will unconditionally support these insurrectionary teams.

On November 11, the Soviet regime was formally established, and accommodated the vast majority of workers' parties and the Bolshevik party, the Menshevik party.

On the day when the Soviet regime announcement was established, the bourgeoisie found Nicholas II who was arrested and asked Nicholas II to sign a letter of appointment.

In this letter of appointment, the Cadet Prince Georgi Yevgenievich Lvov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Nikolai Nikolaevich was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia.

At the same time as receiving the letter of appointment, the bourgeoisie immediately announced the establishment of the State Duma Interim Committee, and the Soviets established by the workers' party to seize power.

The Soviet regime had the support of a large number of workers, and the Provisional Committee of the Russian State Duma had the support of the old-school aristocracy, including Nicholas II.

For a while, Russia after the victory of the revolution became more chaotic. The two regimes ran side by side, but their administrative concepts were opposed to each other.

Nicholas II did not sign the declaration of abdication in history. After all, at this time, the old aristocrats and royalists still had considerable influence, and the Soviet regime and the bourgeois regime had not yet officially determined their primary and secondary positions.

Compared with the State Duma Provisional Committee, which was entirely composed of the bourgeoisie, the Soviet regime was more dispersed and included most of the political parties of the working class, the largest of which were the Bolshevik and Menshevik parties.

These two parties also had certain conflicts, and both wanted to gain the leadership of the Soviet regime.

Unlike the Bolsheviks who firmly established a republican regime, the Mensheviks pursued a capitulationist line, attempting to limit the scope of the revolution, and believed that after the overthrow of the tsarist system, the legal masters could only be the bourgeoisie.

With the help of the Mensheviks, the National Animation Provisional Committee quickly replaced the Soviet regime and gradually gained more power in post-revolutionary Russia.

On November 1916, 11, the first Russian bourgeois provisional government was established.It was a provisional government with a constitutional monarchy, and Nicholas II remained Tsar but lost all administrative and military powers.

The great landowner, Prince Georgy Lvov, became Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the first provisional government, and other positions were divided among the major parties of the bourgeoisie.

But at the same time, the rights of the Soviet regime were not all lost.While much of the revolutionary area, including St. Petersburg, was under the control of the Provisional Government, Moscow and surrounding areas remained under the control of the Soviet regime.

However, the nominal Soviet regime is still attached to the rule of the Provisional Government, but the Provisional Government has no real power over the Moscow region.

The Russian revolution attracted the attention of all countries in the world, especially the Allied Powers group headed by Germany.

For Germany, the Russian Revolution was great news.The Russians, caught up in civil strife, certainly did not have enough strength to continue the war.

Not only is it an opportunity for Germany to get rid of multi-line warfare, but it is also a good opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack against the British and French allied forces on the western front.

As far as Britain and France are concerned, they currently do not have enough power to interfere in the Russian revolution.Besides, the current revolution in Russia has not affected the monarchy, but it has built a constitutional monarchy similar to the United Kingdom, which is not unacceptable.

If the Russians, like the French Revolution in history, overthrew the monarchy and hanged Nicholas II, they would definitely be liquidated by Britain, France and other monarchical countries after the war.

The European royal family can allow the European monarchs to lose their rights, but they will not sit back and watch the European monarchs be executed by revolutionaries.

Because no one can guarantee whether there will be a revolution in the country where they live. If the arbitrary execution of the monarch is tolerated, perhaps this step will happen to other monarchies in Europe in the future.

This was also keeping an eye on the situation in Russia. After learning that the provisional government had already mastered most of the power, Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.

At least the situation in Russia has not collapsed to the point where it is completely uncontrollable. Although the Provisional Government is a capitalist country, it is still a constitutional monarchy, and the opposition to the monarchy is not serious.

If power is seized by the Soviet regime, such a republic conveys terrible ideas to neighboring countries, and it can have a huge impact on the monarchy.

After the provisional government was established, both the Allies and the Entente immediately started negotiations with the new Russian government.

The Allies wanted Russia to continue the war, even if only to contain some of Germany's forces on the Eastern Front.

The Allies wanted Russia out of the war, so that it would be free to deal with the Anglo-French forces on the Western Front.

The good news is that the establishment of the Russian Provisional Government is fairly moderate, and the basis for the establishment of the Provisional Government also comes from the appointment letter of Nicholas II.

Coupled with the fact that the Bolsheviks and the Soviets, who really wanted to overthrow the monarchy, had retreated to Moscow, the Provisional Government and the vicinity of St. Petersburg were under royalist control.

Although the current Nicholas II has been deprived of a lot of rights on the surface, he still has a certain status.

On November 1916, 11, Britain, France, Russia, Australia, and Italy held a meeting of the Allied Powers in St. Petersburg. On the one hand, they discussed the next combat plan of the Allied Powers, and on the other hand, they tried their best to win Russia to stay in the war.

For this reason, Britain and France, regardless of the cost, promised the new Russian government a low-interest loan of up to 50 billion rubles, and promised to send enough grain and winter supplies to Russia to help the Russian government tide over the difficulties.

In the meeting of the Allied Powers, Britain, France, and Australia constantly reiterated the relationship between the four major powers of the Allied Powers at that time, and promised not to reduce Russia's contribution and the distribution of benefits after the war.

The current Russia is still an important part of the Allied Powers and one of the four great powers of the Allied Powers.

Obviously, the conditions offered by the Allies still satisfied the Russian government.Low-interest loans of up to 50 billion rubles, as well as a large amount of food and emergency supplies, are enough for the new Russian government to overcome this difficulty while winning the hearts of the people.

The post-war distribution of benefits promised by the Allied Powers is enough for these bourgeoisie and big landlords to obtain sufficient benefits after the war.

After two days of meetings, the new Russian government and the Allies reached an agreement that they will not withdraw from the war for the time being, but they will not initiate large-scale campaigns either.

Russia will take defensive measures on the front line and try to hold back as many German troops as possible for Britain and France.

At the same time, the loans promised by Britain and France must be disbursed in a timely manner, and various aid materials must not be missing.

Because a considerable part of the reason for the people's uprising was disgust with this war, in order to satisfy the majority of civilians, the new Russian government decided to distribute some emergency supplies free of charge to all civilians in St. Petersburg and surrounding areas.

These materials include 500 catties of grain for each household, 200 catties of coal, warm clothing for each person, and some medicines.

Obviously, such distribution of materials still satisfied a considerable part of the Russian people, and at the same time allowed the new Russian government to be accepted by the Russian people.

This is actually an overt conspiracy of the Provisional Government.After all, there are currently two governments in Russia at the same time, and the attitudes of the people towards the two governments will definitely be different.

This also means that after the provisional government distributes supplies for free, the Soviet regime must immediately promulgate the same policy in order to satisfy the civilians who support the Soviet regime.

After all, everyone supports the revolution for their own good life. If they can't even solve their own food and clothing problems, more people will definitely change jobs.

But the problem is that the gap in assets between the Provisional Government and the Soviet regime is vast.

The members of the provisional government were composed of small and medium-sized capitalists, big landowners, old nobles and other former middle and high-level people, who held a large amount of land and resources in Russia.

As for the Soviet regime, although they also control the wealthy Moscow region, the major political parties that make up the Soviet regime are all composed of ordinary workers, and the capital in their hands is not strong.

In addition, the Russian Provisional Government has strong support from the Allied Powers, and the Soviet regime is hostile to almost all European monarchies.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible for the Soviet regime to compete with the Provisional Government in terms of welfare policies.

And those ordinary people are easily affected by these small welfare policies and food distribution measures.If the Soviet regime does not respond to a certain extent, the advantage of the provisional government will become greater and greater.

At this time, the Germans obviously could not offer the generous conditions of the Allied Powers. The Germans were severely consumed by the war, so it was naturally impossible to use a large amount of funds and resources to support Russia.

This also strengthened the confidence of the Russians to continue the war in a disguised form. Anyway, with the support of funds and materials from Britain and France, Russia only needs to adopt a defensive posture on the front line.

Because the Soviet regime could not provide the same welfare conditions as the Provisional Government, this also made the Russian people's voices obviously shift to the Provisional Government's side.

In order not to lose support among the working class and civilians, the Soviet regime could only use the provisional government's reluctance to withdraw from the war as an excuse.

Because most of the Russian people have received practical benefits, the desire to withdraw from the war is not so strong.

In fact, the people are not against this war, but against the Tsarist regime at that time, regardless of the life and death of Russian civilians in the country for this war.

If Nicholas II could distribute supplies to workers and civilians earlier, and control prices in Russia as much as possible, perhaps this great revolution would not have happened.

Without any material benefits, the Soviet could only think of other ways, such as promulgating the eight-hour work system that the working class paid close attention to.

Of course, this is not actually promulgated. The previous Tsarist Russia also had an eight-hour working system.

However, the eight-hour work system in Tsarist Russia was more like superficial work. Before the war, the average working hours of Russian workers exceeded ten hours, and after the outbreak of the war, it generally exceeded 12 hours.

The Soviet regime announced that it would protect the eight-hour working system, and the Moscow region strictly implemented the eight-hour working system, and put an end to all unpaid overtime requirements.

If you want to exceed eight hours, that’s fine, and you need to pay double overtime pay for the extra working hours, and the total working hours per day should not exceed ten hours, and the weekly working hours should not exceed sixty hours.

The promulgation of this system has won the favor of many workers. After all, for the collective of workers, working hours and wages are the most important things for workers.

In addition to the eight-hour working system, the Soviet regime also established a food distribution system to centralize the distribution of food, livestock and various materials in the Moscow region to ensure that all civilians can receive certain materials.

The impact of the war on Russia was enormous.

The important reason why the provisional government of the bourgeoisie was able to gain final power was because a large number of rural population and working class were conscripted into the army and sent to the front to fight.

And those who stayed behind St. Petersburg and Moscow were the middle and high-level leaders headed by large and small factory owners and nobles. These people successfully obtained the rights of the revolutionary government.

Just because a large number of rural population and workers were recruited, the agricultural production in Russia was seriously affected.

According to previous statistics from the Russian government, the area of ​​cultivated land in Russia has decreased by at least 1000 million dessiatines, the number of livestock has decreased from 1800 million before the war to about 1300 million, and the total grain income has decreased by about a quarter.

The establishment of a centralized distribution system by the Soviet regime is also a last resort. If the resources in the Moscow region are not centrally allocated, there will still be a large number of civilians who cannot be allocated supplies, and they will not firmly support the Soviet regime.

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(End of this chapter)