I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 669 In the Name of the Provisional Government
What Kerensky meant was that he did George a great favor by not giving the Tsar to George, allowing George to let go and do something powerful.

This is purely judging others by one's own standards. George never wanted to be the Tsar, otherwise no one could stop him.

Little Nicholas had previously suspected that George had the intention of usurping the throne, but now he is sure that George has no idea about being the Tsar, otherwise George's "Tsar" would be more than just a nickname.

In the past, young Nicholas would never meet Kerensky and would have just killed him to be done with.

Now if little Nicholas wants to kill someone, he must follow the correct procedure.

Alexander also wanted to kill Kerensky, but killing him directly like this would be too easy for him.

Alexander thought about what he would do if it were George.

Then there was a way.

"He wants to be the prime minister, right? Let him continue to be the prime minister..."

"Are you crazy?"

Little Nicholas was surprised. Is this the level of the next generation of Grand Duke Yuriev?

"Let him be the chief judge, and in his name, settle accounts with all the guilty people."

Alexander wanted to make Kerensky a scapegoat.

Although Alexander and Nicholas the Younger wanted to kill Kerensky.

But it must be said that if Kerensky were to be killed through normal means, it would be highly unlikely.

Kerensky was guilty, but his crime did not deserve the death penalty. The damage he caused to Russia was not even as great as that caused by Nicholas the Younger.

There are many people like Kerensky in St. Petersburg. Their actions have caused varying degrees of harm to the empire, but according to imperial law, they cannot be held accountable.

"You're right, we should have done this a long time ago."

Little Nicholas suddenly realized that if anyone was insidious, it had to be someone from your Yuriev family.

Kerensky did not know what fate he was about to face. After leaving Tsarskoye Selo, Kerensky was taken to the Tauride Palace, which was the former seat of the State Duma and the Provisional Government. After the establishment of the Second Provisional Government, the committee also worked here.

Kerensky was no stranger to the Tauride Palace, as he had worked here before.

After eight months, Kerensky finally returned to the Tauride Palace, and everything in front of him seemed unfamiliar to him.

The Tauride Palace was also looted by the rebel army. On the day when St. Petersburg fell, a battle took place here. Although the corpses had been cleaned up, the bloodstains and bullet holes had not yet been cleaned up.

Kerensky's office was on the right side of the third floor. After the establishment of the Second Provisional Government, it was used as the office of a certain committee member and was completely transformed.

Kerensky was born into a noble family. Although he did not live a life of luxury, he had enough food and clothing. He never had a hard time. Even during his exile in Paris, Kerensky's life was known for its luxury.

This might be the most messy office Kerensky had ever seen. There were several desks, and it seemed that many people were working together, which was unbearable for Kerensky.

Kerensky opened the door and found the guard, asking him to call the cleaning staff to come and clean the place.

Two guards in sailor uniforms stood on either side of the door, holding rifles with sharp bayonets, with stern faces and meticulous manners.

The officer on duty came over and after listening to Kerensky's request, he suppressed his laughter and said, "I'm sorry, Prime Minister, there is no cleaning staff here. I'm afraid you will have to clean up yourself."

"Can I have a soldier help me clean up? I can pay—"

Kerensky tempted him with benefits.

The officer suddenly realized what was going on and ordered the guards to search Kerensky.

Kerensky's purse was filled with pounds and francs, but no rubles.

That's right, the ruble has depreciated so much that one hundred rubles can't buy a loaf of bread, it's really useless.

In addition to the cash, Kerensky also had a ring and a watch.

The officer took away Kerensky's wallet and watch and left him a receipt.

"What's the use of this thing?"

Kerensky suppressed his anger, and the officer still had some humanity and did not take away his wedding ring.

"It seems that you have forgotten what you have done--"

The officer reminded Kerensky that the Provisional Government had used receipts to exchange for the wealth accumulated by princes and nobles for countless generations.

"That was done by the Provisional Executive Committee and has nothing to do with the Provisional Government!"

Kerensky's eloquence, which he was so proud of, was of no use at all.

“Since you are the Prime Minister, why did you let the interim executive committee go?”

The officer's question left Kerensky speechless.

Kerensky did not indulge, but rather condoned.

Little Nicholas had Kerensky thrown into the Tauride Palace and ignored him, and went to the Peter and Paul Fortress in person.

The Peter and Paul Fortress is now full of people, including staff members of the Provisional Government, accomplices of the Provisional Executive Committee, various robbers, speculators, unscrupulous businessmen, newspaper editors, and even writers who claim to be righteous.

Joseph, the head of the fortress, slept less than four hours a day since the city was captured. He was not only responsible for the management of the prisoners, but also for confirming their crimes.

Criminals of more serious nature, such as those who took the opportunity to rob when the city was broken, were all shot on the spot.

In addition to returning the property to the original owner, those who illegally hide property will also be severely punished. If they are unable to pay the fine, they will have to perform corresponding labor until the fine is paid.

Editors and writers are the most difficult to deal with, as their crimes are difficult to identify.

Joseph brought a thick stack of files and asked Nicholas to review them. Nicholas did not even look at them, and with a stroke of his pen, sentenced all of them to death.

"Grand Duke, please take a look. There are several professors from Petersburg University here—"

Joseph reminded little Nicholas to be careful with these special people.

The empire has always been particularly tolerant of capable people. Even if students of St. Petersburg University assassinated the Tsar, they could freely choose the death penalty.

This was the Stolypin era.

Stolypin was in exile before he came to power.

"You made it so thick, how can I see it? Do you want to tire me to death?"

Little Nicholas is still the little Nicholas George is familiar with.

In front of George, little Nicholas has restrained himself a lot.

But after returning to St. Petersburg, little Nicholas let himself go again.

"All of them will be shot, but not in my name, but in the name of Mr. Prime Minister."

Little Nicholas grinned. Even though Nicholas was gone, there was still Kerensky. How good!
When Nicholas was the Tsar, no matter what mistakes the grand dukes made, Nicholas was always blamed.

Therefore, Nicholas the Younger was not responsible for the heavy losses of the Russian army on the northern front.

While in Constantinople, young Nicholas finally experienced the pain of losing the Tsar's protection.

To be honest, it didn't feel good at all.

Joseph was dumbfounded. There is still a prime minister now?
This can be done.

No matter how much killing spree Nicholas the Younger committed, Alexander asked George to come to St. Petersburg to participate in the reconstruction of St. Petersburg.

George wanted Alexander to understand how complicated it was to rebuild a city from ruins.

After this disaster, St. Petersburg suffered heavy losses and it would take decades for it to recover.

Alexander had few resources at hand, and the most critical one was the lack of labor.

During the World War, the empire lost tens of millions of people, and only the elderly, the weak, women and children were left in St. Petersburg. The young and strong either died on the battlefield or were taken to Moscow by the Second Provisional Government. Only one in ten survived.

Nearly one million Austro-Hungarian soldiers captured by the Russian army on the northern front during the war were all released after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which left Alexander and Kuchayev in a dilemma of having no one to use.

Alexander was only an assistant, while Kuchayev was the chief engineer of the reconstruction of St. Petersburg.

"We can only make use of the women and children in St. Petersburg first and restore stability to their lives as soon as possible."

Kuchayev had participated in the construction of Constantinople and Adrianople and had extensive experience.

"They are definitely not as efficient as real workers."

Alexander didn't know where to start.

"We'll talk about efficiency later. The key is order. We need to restore order in St. Petersburg as soon as possible."

Kuchayev has priorities.

Last winter, St. Petersburg residents spent 40 hours a week shopping for food, an average of nearly 6 hours a day.

In St. Petersburg's winter, the daylight hours are so short that residents spend almost all of their time rushing to buy food.

Even so, there was still a tragedy of people starving to death in St. Petersburg last winter.

In the current context, it cannot be said to be a tragedy, but rather a common phenomenon.

Not only in St. Petersburg, the situation in the capitals of the major belligerent countries was not much better.

After the Viennese people ate all the war horses, they even ate all the dogs used to pull the carts. If the war continues, even the rats will probably be eaten to extinction this winter.

The staple food of Berliners last winter was cabbage, a food that used to be fed to livestock and was not eaten by humans.

The situation in Paris and London was slightly better, and hunger was not serious, but the hygiene and medical levels had dropped significantly. The proportion of neonatal deaths soared tenfold compared to before the war, and the proportion of women dying from tuberculosis also soared.

It should be noted that this is only official data.

In fact, it is impossible to count how many people died indirectly in the war.

After all, every winter, more than a thousand people die in London due to smog.

The worst year was 1916, when more than 12 people died from smog in December alone.

Alexander was in a heavy mood. Through the office window, he could clearly see the crosses standing on the roadside.

Hanging on the cross were criminals who were executed for various reasons.

It would be a dream to restore order if these corpses are not cleared away.

Let's start by cleaning up the bodies.

What Alexander didn't expect was that St. Petersburg actually had a team specifically responsible for cleaning up the bodies, and some of them had worked for the Provisional Executive Committee.

Alexander found the team leader Constantine and asked Constantine if he had any news about Nicholas' family.

Constantine also did not know the whereabouts of Nicholas' family, but Constantine admitted that his team had dealt with many unidentified bodies, some of which were severely damaged and their faces were unrecognizable.

Alexander was sad, feeling sorry for Alexei and the princesses.

(End of this chapter)