I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 718 The Father of Blitzkrieg

The expo held around the New Year brought Russia orders worth more than 200 billion rubles.

Witt praised the expo as an "unprecedented" turnaround.

During the imperial era, Russia owed too much foreign debt. The interest alone that had to be repaid each year exceeded 1916% of the imperial Russia's fiscal revenue. In , British and French financial experts predicted that the finances of the Russian Empire would soon collapse.

In fact, this is indeed the case. Financial collapse was one of the main reasons for the demise of the Russian Empire. When Nicholas stepped down, the empire was unable to pay even the salaries of the soldiers on the front line.

After Nicholas stepped down, Russia fell into chaos for another year and a half, and even Russia's allies believed that Russia would never recover.

Surprisingly, with the recovery of Moscow, Russia's finances began to improve in just half a year.

This was actually foreshadowed.

As early as the Imperial Russian era, Russia was severely torn apart. Russia in Europe and Russia in the Far East were like two completely different countries, incompatible with each other.

When the empire's finances collapsed, the Amur economy reached new highs. In 1917 alone, Amur earned more than 100 billion rubles in profits through trade with Britain, France and other countries.

After the establishment of the Constantinople government, Russia repaid its foreign debts in kind. By the end of the World War, the total debt owed to Britain and France had dropped to less than 100 billion rubles.

The influence of the Constantinople Exposition is still gradually fermenting.

During the World War, the materials exported by Russia to Britain and France were mainly food, weapons and ammunition, and the proportion of daily necessities was not high. Most British and French people did not fully understand the high quality and low price of Russian goods.

Orders generated during the Constantinople Exposition were mainly for daily necessities and building materials.

Once Europe becomes dependent on Russian industrial products, Russia will receive a steady stream of orders.

Unlike Russia, where the economic situation had completely improved, a sudden economic crisis swept Britain and France in the spring of 1920, catching everyone off guard.

Like many previous economic crises, this one broke out in the United States.

The world war made the United States a creditor nation and also laid hidden dangers for the U.S. economy.

After the end of World War II, orders from Europe dropped rapidly, which had a serious impact on American companies that had expanded wildly during the World War.

Due to the decline in European orders, small and medium-sized business owners in the United States no longer invested their profits in expanded reproduction, but instead invested them in the U.S. stock market. This not only failed to cool down the already inflated stock market, but instead pushed the U.S. stock market to a new height.

While small and medium-sized business owners were desperately buying stocks, Wall Street tycoons were secretly leaving the market to raise funds to invest in Europe's reconstruction.

This game of passing the parcel continued until this spring, but it finally became unsustainable.

In March this year, Paul Richards, a reporter for the Washington Evening Post, published an article in the newspaper, reminding investors to pay attention to the overheated stock market.

Although Paul Richards committed suicide the day after the article was published, panic inevitably spread.

On Monday, March 3, after the New York stock market opened, almost all stocks fell sharply. The stock index dropped by an average of 23 percentage points from its highest point of 213 points. The life savings of thousands of Americans were wiped out in just one day.

On the 24th, affected by the collapse of the New York stock market, the stock markets in London and Paris also began to fall wildly. Europe, which had not yet emerged from the shadow of the world war, suffered another heavy blow.

Under such circumstances, no one would care about Goryeo's claims against Russia.

After arriving in Geneva, little Nicholas did not go to work at the Palais Wilson immediately. Instead, he held banquets in his own mansion for 10 consecutive days, once again showing the luxury of the Grand Duke of Russia to representatives from various countries.

It was not until Deputy Envoy Mannerheim reminded young Nicholas that the League of Nations was about to review Goryeo's lawsuit against Russia that young Nicholas reluctantly went to work.

Since the United States did not join the League of Nations and Britain and France were mired in economic crisis, Russia became the only focus of the League of Nations in the near future.

The French ambassador to the League of Nations was Clemenceau, who had just lost the domestic election.

During the Paris Peace Conference, Clemenceau was praised by representatives of various countries as the "Father of Victory" in Europe for his tough stance towards Germany.

After just eight months, Clemenceau had lost almost all his aggressiveness and became like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, becoming old and frail.

After all, he is 79 years old and he has to accept his age.

During the Paris Peace Conference, Nicolas the Younger dealt with Clemenceau many times and they were very familiar with each other, so before the meeting officially started, Clemenceau asked Nicolas the Younger how to deal with Goryeo's lawsuit.

Nicolas the Younger was very familiar with this scene. During the Paris Peace Conference, Clemenceau often held closed-door meetings with Lloyd George and Nicolas the Younger to decide the fate of a third party without the presence of a third party.

"Russia has already paid sufficient salaries and pensions to all the Korean soldiers who participated in the war. What else do the Koreans want?"

Little Nicholas was confident.

Clemenceau frowned.

In the eyes of many people, getting paid for working and eating food as a soldier are both natural.

Actually it's not.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 6 last year, marking the complete end of World War I.

Eight months have passed since June last year. Among all the participating countries, only Russia has paid full retirement benefits and pensions to its soldiers.

The League of Nations Assembly moved from Paris to Geneva, partly because the streets of Paris were occupied by striking workers and wandering veterans of World War I. The League of Nations continuing to be in Paris was not conducive to France's image.

If Nicholas Jr. brought this up at the League of Nations, the Koreans would have nothing to say, and it would also be a slap in the face of the French. "As for the so-called unfair treatment of Korean workers in Amur, this is even more nonsense. The salary paid by Amur to Koreans is far higher than the average wage level in Korea. I would like to see if those Korean workers can get the same high salary in Korea as in Amur."

Little Nikolai himself felt that the Amur Oblast government gave too much.

Although Russia has abolished the serfdom system, Russians' salaries are not high.

The Amur Oblast government almost single-handedly raised Russia's overall wage level, and even little Nikolai was deeply affected.

After the civil war, the Constantinople government returned the Nikolayevich family's property to Nicholas the Younger.

This would have been a good thing, but little Nicholas helplessly discovered that hiring people to farm the land not only did not make a profit, but was also not enough to cover expenses.

This is also thanks to Russia's minimum wage system.

Little Nicholas did not "thank" George, because in his grandfather's generation, scolding George was the same as scolding himself.

Then thank Witt's eight generations of ancestors.

Little Nikolai had no choice but to sell the Nikolayevich family's land to the government and then invest the money in emerging industries.

For example, a car factory.

Another example is natural gas pipelines.

Clemenceau's brows furrowed even more.

After the economic crisis broke out, French media were again warned not to publish any news about Russia.

After the ceasefire, although French workers lost their jobs, they could still fantasize that they could return to work once the economy recovered.

After the outbreak of the economic crisis, the situation became increasingly serious. Reporting news about Russia at this time was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.

Geneva now has not only representatives from various countries, but also resident reporters from newspapers in various countries.

"What's wrong with you? Why can't you even manage your own vassal states?"

Clemenceau put all the blame on little Nicolas.

"What nonsense are you talking about? When did Goryeo become a vassal state of Russia?"

Little Nicholas denied it flatly.

Goryeo has a population of more than 20 million. Russia cannot bear such a heavy population burden.

Russia doesn't even keep people from Warsaw, so the Koreans should just go wherever they want.

After the establishment of Poland, Russia began a new round of population migration.

Haven’t the people of Warsaw always been fighting for independence and freedom? Now that Poland has been established, as long as the people of Warsaw want to join the independence and freedom, Russia will not only not force them to stay, but will also provide them with travel expenses and escort them all the way to Poland. Isn’t that enough for freedom?

Even Britain and France had to admit that Russia's move broke people's prejudice against Russia.

For most countries today, population remains the most important resource.

To Piłsudski, the Russian burden was like a pie in the sky. For a moment, he didn't even care about Warsaw and happily returned home to hug his good brother.

Although Russia has suffered a series of labor losses, its domestic construction has not been affected. The influx of German workers has effectively filled Russia's labor shortage.

After Karl and Witte signed the agreement, more than 3 German workers poured into Russia in just three months.

These German workers included not only veterans of World War I, but also a large number of skilled female workers.

During the World War, all German men were on the front lines. In the later period, even boys as young as 12 had to be conscripted into the army. In the factories in the rear of Germany, most of the workers were women.

These female workers were also unemployed after the end of the world war.

Along with the German workers came to Russia a team of German officers.

Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, who had served in the cavalry, came to the Vladivostok Army Academy as an exchange instructor.

As soon as Guderian arrived in Vladivostok, he asked Andrei, the dean, to allow him to work in the Vladivostok Armored Division.

Andrei told Guderian that the Fu Division did not accept foreign legionnaires and that only by becoming a Russian citizen could one serve in the Fu Division.

There is no "von" in Guderian's name. His loyalty to the German Empire has disappeared with the demise of the German Empire.

Although Guderian was also disappointed with the Weimar government, he did not easily give up his German nationality.

In fact, at the Army Academy, you can also get exposed to Russia's armored force utilization concepts.

Guderian's first lesson was infantry-combat coordination.

But he is no longer an instructor, but a student.

(End of this chapter)