Krasnaya Evropa
- Thread starter InterestingMan15
- Start date
- Timeline Post-1900
For Bukharin specifically, he breaks with the left communists and becomes on the leaders of the "right-opposition" (for a lack of a better term at the current moment) and is one of the main advocates of the New Economic Policy. His position is further strengthened by the presence and support of the PSR(b), as well as the few Mensheviks, Right Socialists and Independents that have decided to pursue a career in the new Bolshevik state.
The internationalist left does find itself on the backfoot, as the postwar revolutionary period recedes and the RSFR is forced to pragmatically integrate into the new order and join the League of Nations following the Paris Peace Conference. A decade of internal scandals and international developments culminating with the Great Depression of 1929 results in a decisive comeback, riding the wave of proletarian resentment at the consequences of the NEP into power.
Thanks!
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Thank-you!
Indeed, though predictably everyone will draw different conclusions from the event (i.e. another Tuesday for Leftists). The Finnish experiment arguably represented the first ever attempted "export" of a revolution by the Russian Bolsheviks, even if that had not been their intention at the time, and the results have been quiet dismal to say the least (the why of matter being up to debate of-course, what did you expect?). Regardless, it has served as a pretty informative dress rehearsal for the Russian Revolution as a whole.
The emerging collection of wartime policies dubbed as "Bayonet Bolshevism" by critics (and being embraced as a term by some of its supporters) have shown their consequences - while the militarization of society, centralization of power in the state and ruthless squeezing of grain from the peasantry have demonstrated their ability to support the war in the short term, they are proving to be very damaging to the societal fabric of a new revolutionary state. The basic tenets of what would become the New Economic Policy is beginning to be formulated by its first proponents, later becoming adopted as state policy after the conclusion of the civil war in 1919.
More importantly, Finland is when the first battles of later political struggles are being fought. Trotsky has amassed almost dictatorial power - he is simultaneously the Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, Chairman of the Petrograd Voyenrevkom, Chairman of the Revvoyensovet, People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs and a senior member of the Ispokom. Many in the party, Lenin being a prominent example, have begun criticizing this accumulation of positions by a single person. This of-course means that he is now steadily accumulating a large list of enemies from his decisions, be they Trade Unionists, National Minorities, or Peasant Representatives. Everyone may be willing to accept his leadership in a time of crisis, but once the war ends, that's another story...
Lenin in turn has been mostly frozen out of active participation in government due to his controversial status and prickliness, with him effectively being given sinecure by being made the first ever Chairman of the RSDLP - a currently ceremonial position given that all decisions are made in organs of the state like the Ispolkom, Sovnarkom and Revvoyensovet. This in part has led him into conflict with Yakov Sverdlov, the Chairman of the Sovnarkom and Chairman of the Secretariat of the RSDLP, who has decided to prioritize the institutions of the state like the Soviets over party bodies. Lenin is thus in search of a potential new General Secretary, who can hopefully assert the party's status as a vanguard...
On a completely unrelated unrelated note, Joseph Stalin currently has warm relations both with Lenin and Trotsky, due to having collaborated with each extensively in their time in exile on various matters. He has also taken the opportunity to forge closer relations with important members of both the RSDLP and PSR, the bureaucracy and the military, and has developed a reputation of a compromiser and a centrist in political affairs. Additionally, as People's Commissar of Nationalities, he has been asked to aid in the writing of a future constitution to include a framework of national autonomy, providing a strong potential support base amongst Russia's minority population.
This reply sort of got bit out of hand (whoops). The internal dynamics of the Bolsheviks will hopefully be a post in the near future.
Bluespark9
Goddess of Magic and Passion
- Location
- SoCal
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... This is not going to end well, is it? Old Joe having that much power seems like a bad idea.
My motivation suffered a large blow when Sufficient Velocity deleted my several thousand word drafts several times. I didn't realize "save draft" didn't actually save your draft for more than a couple of days. Nonetheless I (hopefully) plan to continue.
Part 1, Chapter 9: "Chernaya Armiya..."
The unstoppable march of the People's Movement in the Revolutionary Wars has become deeply embedded in the popular understanding of the period's history, only reinforced by the official histories of the Bolsheviks whose ideological descendants would end up governing almost all of Eurasia. While the simple narrative of revolution against reaction is not untrue, accurately describing the eventual consolidation of anti-Bolshevik groups into the ruling clique of Zheltorossiya during their long retreat east, it overshadows the highly turbulent six month period of bloodletting that occurred concurrent with the Winter War. The Russian Civil War as it became colloquially known, for it would be the last time both factions fought under the banner of the Russian nation. Fought between the "Black" Holy Russian Empire and the "White" Kingdom of Russia, it would destroy the last vestiges of the old order and prime the population to accept the emancipatory flame of the workers' and peasants' revolution.
This history of the Union of Russian People would begin at its founding in 1905 by Alexander Dubrovin and Vladimir Purishkevich, as one of the multitude of ultranationalist and monarchist organizations that formed in the tumultuous aftermath of the abortive 1905 Revolution. Dissatisfaction had steadily grown over the years to the spread of Western ideals like Liberalism, Capitalism and Marxism, and would erupt in a wave of reactionary backlash. Uniting under the banner of the Black Hundreds - a reference to the "Dark Masses", a derisive term used to describe the rural peasantry - these groups claimed to represent the authentic will of the Russian masses and pledged their loyalty to upholding the official Tsarist doctrine of Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. The Tsarist Regime would gladly throw its repressive machinery behind the Black Hundreds, aggressively using them as a sledgehammer against revolutionary groups and "disloyal elements", with the Black Hundreds becoming responsible for immeasurable suffering in their pogroms against the Jewish population.
However, as the Russian military won a series of triumphs and eventually achieved victory in the Russo-Japanese War, patriotic fervor would quell public discontent and the state's need for a loyal paramilitary would wane. This and the need to coordinate ideological and practical efforts would lead to the All-Russian Congress of Russian People being called in early 1906, with three more Congresses occurring in the following fifteenth months, and would quickly show the rapid growth of the URP. While only one of a dozen organizations present at the first Congress, they could come to dominate the fourth, effectively absorbing almost all other Black Hundredist groups. The reason behind their success was twofold; firstly, unlike other groups which restricted themselves to either propertied classes or the nobility, the URP was open to all regardless of economic origin, gaining supporters from a broad segment of society and transforming the URP into one of Russia's first mass parties. Secondly, some of the party's earliest members were senior clergymen and government officials, such as Bishop Hermogenes and Minister of War General Vladimir Sukhomlinov, leading it to receive the lion's share of Black Hundreds funding and even the public praise of Tsar Nicholas II.
While the accession of Pyotr Stolypin in 1906 would pose a roadblock to the URP, for Stolypin was a known critic of the Black Hundreds and reduce support to a trickle, his actions would paradoxically strengthen the party. The party would be forced to painfully transition to self-fundraising, achieving organizational independence from the state, something its remaining rival ultranationalist groups could not do, leading to their absorption into the URP, consolidating it as the sole force of the far-right. Additionally, it would help the organization avoid a schism - a leadership dispute between Dubrovin and Purishkevich threatened a party split, but the sudden external threat would compel them to resolve their differences and adopt a form of (unequal) collective leadership via the Glavnyy Sovet or "Head Council". This restructuring would also concide with the rise of Alexander Trishatny, who would oversee the formalizing of the Black Hundreds as the URP's paramilitary, and have it adopt a standardized decimal organization. The party would steadily grow over the years, participating in Stolypin's downfall in 1911, winning a respectable 59 seats in the 1912 legislative election, and demonstrating its political influence by successfully petitioning the Tsar to overturn the Holy Synod's 1913 decision banning the clergy from participating in politics.
By 1914, the URP had reached the zenith of its influence, having thousands of sympathizers in the military and bureaucracy and effectively co-opting state institutions like the United Gentry Council and Russian Orthodox Church to such an extent that places of worship would be the most common recruiting ground for the party. The start of the Great War would bring catastrophe for the URP. Riding the initial wave of nationalism to one million members, the party's ardent support for the war would lead to it being caught in the public backlash to the military disasters at the front. The party's popularity would suffer another crippling blow when the Imperial government, looking for someone to blame, would scapegoat several prominent URP members such as General Sukhomlinov, who would be imprisoned, and Colonel Sergey Myasoedov, who would be executed on dubious charges of espionage. Already viewed with suspicion by the Imperial Court, Nicholas's departure for the front would allow to Grigori Rasputin, former-ally turned bitter enemy of the Black Hundreds, to reach the peak of his power, and he would convince Empress Alexandra to direct public hysteria against the URP, resulting in state repression against many of their members.
By the 1917, the party's situation was calamitous. Haemorrhaging supporters left and right, the hardcore loyalists found themselves in a crisis of faith. While their belief in Tsar Nicholas had only slightly wavered when he issued the October Manifesto, his incompetence and willingness to scapegoat his most loyal supporters would destroy whatever goodwill they had left. The Emperor had clearly been seduced by the International Liberal Marxist Freemason Jewish conspiracy, and had willingly participating in their scheme to destroy Russia. Why else would the Empire fight against their fellow German and Austro-Hungarian autocracies and the side of the Liberal Entente? Why else was Russia shouldering the burden of fighting for the liberal ambitions of France, Britain and the United States? It was clear - Russia's salvation could only come via separate peace with the Central Powers and the restoration of absolute rule under a Tsar who was not Nicholas. Nikolai Markov, a noted Germanophile within the party, would rise to lead the URP, and would begin to advocate for these views in the Duma, though to little success. The February Revolution, as shocking as it was for many, would end up merely confirming the preexisting fears of the URP, leading to them fully embracing a defeatist position.
Narrowly escaping a proposed ban, the party would quietly establish ties with Germany's foreign intelligence Abteilung III b, who would begin covertly supplying the party with funds and weaponry, which would be used to quietly rebuild the Black Hundreds and the party's apparatus across Russia over the following months. In a manner most hypocritical, the URP would be the loudest voice in denouncing its left-wing opponents as German spies, and would be one of the main instigators of the mass hysteria after the unsuccessful Guchkov offensives that would force the Liberal Government to arrest Generals Alexei Brusilov and Carl Mannerheim, two of its most competent officers. It is all but confirmed that this was done at the behest of Germany, and their arrests would weaken the Russian Army at the most inopportune time, but would allow the URP to wash away their traitorous image amongst the Russian establishment. In an ironic twist, the height of their perceived patriotism would coincide with the height of their treason. Invited to participate in Kornilov's counterrevolutionary conspiracy, the collapse of his support would allow them to seize power for themselves.
While the disintegration of the Russian Empire had begun with Kornilov's Putsch, the signing of the Treaty of Pskov would accelerate it into complete collapse. The Russian establishment that supported the coup was fanatically jingoistic, demanding a victory to justify the sheer sunk cost of the war effort and saw the Pskov Peace as a grave betrayal, and while the Russian public was bitterly opposed to the war, the vast majority were cognitively dissonant Defencists, simultaneously calling for an expeditious end to the war while opposing any territorial or economic concessions to secure this peace. Most would react to the peace with either apathy and anger, the latter of which would join the ranks of seditious organizations. The new regime had grossly miscalculated and, starting with the formation of the Transcaucasian Commissariat, the country would descend into Civil War. Soon two rival governments would be proclaimed: a "Russian Federative People's Republic" from Finland by the exiled Red Petrograd Bolsheviks, and a "Kingdom of Russia" in the former Don Host Oblast, while "Yellow" secessionists would begin nationalist rebellions in Finland, Ukraine and Central Asia.
The speed with which the state collapsed would catch the leaders of the URP completely off-guard, and would force them to engage in a catch-up haphazard exercise of state building. By sheer necessity, the would be forced to retain the remains of the post-February Constitutional Monarchy, with the party apparatus of the URP filling the gaps. The Glavnyy Sovet would split the cabinet ministries between themselves as necessary. The Interior, Justice and Transport industries would be combined into the Ministry of Order, which would be taken by Vladimir Purishkevich. Alexander Trishatny would become his deputy and lead the restored Okhrana and Special Gendarmes Corps in conjunction with the Black Hundreds. Alexander Dubrovin would become Minister of the National Economy, a consolidation of the trade & transport, finance, communications, agriculture, and food ministries. Georgiy Dolganyov, better known as Bishop Hermogenes, who become the Ober Procurator of the Holy Synod, and the recently released rehabilitated Sukhomlinov would become Minister of War. The Education and Labour Ministries would be abolished for the time being. Finally, Tsar Mikhail would be dethroned in in absentia after he fled south, and next in line Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich would be crowned as Tsar Kirill I, with him accepting due to his reactionary politics.
The conditions of civil war would force the freshly proclaimed "Holy Russian Empire" to adopt a decentralized structure built on three pillars: the Party, the Orthodox Church and the Imperial Army. Immediately following the coup in the capital, local Black Hundreds Druzhinas would bring the Kornilovschina to the rest of Russia. With many of their members being privileged members of the Ancien Régime that had been dispossessed by the February Revolution, they would violently reassert the Old Order in a campaign of extreme ruthlessness and wanton cruelty, using the nationwide regime of martial law as pretext to settle old scores. This "Black Terror", though demonstrably ineffective at killing Bolshevik revolutionaries, was successful in terrorizing the population into submission. The established of reactionary authority would follow, with each locality being governed by a local Glavar' or "leader". These Glavari would typically be the most vicious and sycophantic member of the URP branch, and they would be permitted to rule with unlimited authority provided they could maintain order and extract the necessary supplies from the population under the policy of Razverstka or "requisitioning", often being used to legitimize banditry on an unseen before scale.
While the Party would form the basis of the administrative apparatus, its ideological glue would come from the Orthodox faith. Tsarism had lost much of its appeal in the URP due to Nicholas' failures, let alone the universal derision it faced from the broader public, while Russian society as a whole remained intensely religious. With much of the clergy already either being members or supporters of the URP, Ober Procurator Hermogenes would begin the transformation of the Russian Orthodox Church into the propaganda arm of the Empire, starting with the appointment of a new extremely reactionary Most Holy Governing Synod. It would instruct priests to take an explicitly agitational role, promoting ultranationalism and anti-Semitism (encouraging the use of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion), and order them to actively participate in the "purification" of their communities by inciting and leading pogroms against Jews, ethnic minorities, communists and other enemies of the state. The importance of religion in this new regime would be reflected in its official name, the Holy Russian Empire.
Ever since the turn of the century, the idea of convening of an Empire wide Holy Council to update Church doctrine for the 20th century had become increasingly popular amongst the clergy. With the February Revolution sharply increasing the urgency of reform, the All-Russian Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church would gather shortly before Kornilov's Putsch to answer organizational and ecclesiastical questions and determine the role of the Church in a post-revolution Russia. While the decade long ties between the Black Hundreds and the Church had resulted in ultraconservative sentiments to become widespread and gave the council a highly reactionary character, the extent to which Hermogenes sought to overtly politicize the church proved to be highly controversial. Further, many nationalist clergymen objected to the UPR's perceived betrayal of Russian interests to Germany, while others refused to recognize the coronation of Kirill I, still viewing Mikhail II as the rightful Tsar. The combination of these opposing views would lead to the Council to narrowly refuse to recognize Hermogenes' actions as legitimate, though stopped short of condemning him.
To Hermogenes this would be enough to brand the Council as treasonous, and he would denounce the council as anti-Russian heretics. The Dormition Cathedral would be stormed by Black Hundreds, who would disband the council by force, beating and imprisoning many of the dissident priests. This action would turn what were simple divisions in the Church into a raw and gaping schism between the Black "Imperial Orthodox Church" the White "Genuine Orthodox Church". In the short life of the Holy Russian Empire, the Imperial Orthodox Church would became omnipresent in all aspects of Imperial society, arguably turning it into a theocratic state in the latter stages of its existence. While the Imperial Orthodox Church would survive past its patron state and operate in exile, primarily in Zheltorossiya and later supported by the Fascist Germany, it would fade into extinction shortly after the Second World War.
The final pillar of the Holy Russian Empire would be its military. While the Imperial government would be forced to rapidly demobilize most of its regular army to honor its treaty obligations with Germany, this would turn out to be of great benefit into molding the carcass that was the Russian Imperial Army into a semi-competent fighting force. The inherent nature trench warfare condensed thousands of young men in tight proximity with each other, placing them in miserable conditions in isolation from society, exposed them to unimaginable torment and brutality, while giving them ample time to ponder political questions of the day. It is not surprise then that the frontline proved to be fertile ground for radicalism, and while some soldiers adopted ultranationalist beliefs, for every new member of Black Hundreds fifty joined Bolshevik military organizations. Disbanding regular military formations, at least in the short term, dispersed the most concentrated ideological opponents of the Imperial government, and partially helped deradicalize returning soldiers as most would adopt the more conservative politics of their peasant villages.
Only the "elite" the Battalions of Death would remain mobilized. Establish in 1916 as shock units, they would consist the most reliable soldiers, and would be largely responsible for Russia's limited successes during the war. By virtue of the most "reliability" often meaning loyalty to the Tsar, the soldiers of these units would be the most traditionalist in the Army, and agreed with the ideological programme of the URP. These Battalions would serve as the nucleus of the new Imperial Army, and would become the most professional force of the Holy Russian Empire, used to crush revolts beyond the capabilities of the Black Hundreds. Leadership of this new army would mostly draw from diehard monarchist officers that had fallen victim to the revolutionary purges of the Liberal Duma, with the new Supreme Commander being a General Vasily Gurko, a noted monarchist and who had tried to convince Tsar Nicholas to crush the February Revolution, being imprisoned by the new government for his troubles..
The Holy Russian Empire would be blessed with a few months of relative calm to solidify their control as their opponents built up their forces, but by late January of the new year, this "peace" would come at an end. In the village of Khitrovo in the Tambov Oblast, the peasantry's boiling resentment would erupt into a rebellion, sparked by community outrage over a rape committed by a Black Hundredsman. This revolt would rapidly engulf the local region, and turn into a general uprising led by Bolshevik Aleksandr Antonov. While this insurrection by itself was a minor threat, it would cut off the only railway routes to the Caucasus, where a 60,000 strong White "Volunteer Army", led by Lavr Kornilov himself began a northern expedition with the goal of taking Moscow, with the International Corps marching from Eastern Ukraine to aid him. In response, Gurko would begin marshalling a 100k strong force near Moscow, drawing an almost all Imperial troops in North Russia and leaving Petrograd with a skeletal garrison. Christened as the "Spear of St Peter", it began its march south under the command of General Mikhail Diterikhs.
The day of reckoning had arrived...
This history of the Union of Russian People would begin at its founding in 1905 by Alexander Dubrovin and Vladimir Purishkevich, as one of the multitude of ultranationalist and monarchist organizations that formed in the tumultuous aftermath of the abortive 1905 Revolution. Dissatisfaction had steadily grown over the years to the spread of Western ideals like Liberalism, Capitalism and Marxism, and would erupt in a wave of reactionary backlash. Uniting under the banner of the Black Hundreds - a reference to the "Dark Masses", a derisive term used to describe the rural peasantry - these groups claimed to represent the authentic will of the Russian masses and pledged their loyalty to upholding the official Tsarist doctrine of Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. The Tsarist Regime would gladly throw its repressive machinery behind the Black Hundreds, aggressively using them as a sledgehammer against revolutionary groups and "disloyal elements", with the Black Hundreds becoming responsible for immeasurable suffering in their pogroms against the Jewish population.
However, as the Russian military won a series of triumphs and eventually achieved victory in the Russo-Japanese War, patriotic fervor would quell public discontent and the state's need for a loyal paramilitary would wane. This and the need to coordinate ideological and practical efforts would lead to the All-Russian Congress of Russian People being called in early 1906, with three more Congresses occurring in the following fifteenth months, and would quickly show the rapid growth of the URP. While only one of a dozen organizations present at the first Congress, they could come to dominate the fourth, effectively absorbing almost all other Black Hundredist groups. The reason behind their success was twofold; firstly, unlike other groups which restricted themselves to either propertied classes or the nobility, the URP was open to all regardless of economic origin, gaining supporters from a broad segment of society and transforming the URP into one of Russia's first mass parties. Secondly, some of the party's earliest members were senior clergymen and government officials, such as Bishop Hermogenes and Minister of War General Vladimir Sukhomlinov, leading it to receive the lion's share of Black Hundreds funding and even the public praise of Tsar Nicholas II.
While the accession of Pyotr Stolypin in 1906 would pose a roadblock to the URP, for Stolypin was a known critic of the Black Hundreds and reduce support to a trickle, his actions would paradoxically strengthen the party. The party would be forced to painfully transition to self-fundraising, achieving organizational independence from the state, something its remaining rival ultranationalist groups could not do, leading to their absorption into the URP, consolidating it as the sole force of the far-right. Additionally, it would help the organization avoid a schism - a leadership dispute between Dubrovin and Purishkevich threatened a party split, but the sudden external threat would compel them to resolve their differences and adopt a form of (unequal) collective leadership via the Glavnyy Sovet or "Head Council". This restructuring would also concide with the rise of Alexander Trishatny, who would oversee the formalizing of the Black Hundreds as the URP's paramilitary, and have it adopt a standardized decimal organization. The party would steadily grow over the years, participating in Stolypin's downfall in 1911, winning a respectable 59 seats in the 1912 legislative election, and demonstrating its political influence by successfully petitioning the Tsar to overturn the Holy Synod's 1913 decision banning the clergy from participating in politics.
By 1914, the URP had reached the zenith of its influence, having thousands of sympathizers in the military and bureaucracy and effectively co-opting state institutions like the United Gentry Council and Russian Orthodox Church to such an extent that places of worship would be the most common recruiting ground for the party. The start of the Great War would bring catastrophe for the URP. Riding the initial wave of nationalism to one million members, the party's ardent support for the war would lead to it being caught in the public backlash to the military disasters at the front. The party's popularity would suffer another crippling blow when the Imperial government, looking for someone to blame, would scapegoat several prominent URP members such as General Sukhomlinov, who would be imprisoned, and Colonel Sergey Myasoedov, who would be executed on dubious charges of espionage. Already viewed with suspicion by the Imperial Court, Nicholas's departure for the front would allow to Grigori Rasputin, former-ally turned bitter enemy of the Black Hundreds, to reach the peak of his power, and he would convince Empress Alexandra to direct public hysteria against the URP, resulting in state repression against many of their members.
By the 1917, the party's situation was calamitous. Haemorrhaging supporters left and right, the hardcore loyalists found themselves in a crisis of faith. While their belief in Tsar Nicholas had only slightly wavered when he issued the October Manifesto, his incompetence and willingness to scapegoat his most loyal supporters would destroy whatever goodwill they had left. The Emperor had clearly been seduced by the International Liberal Marxist Freemason Jewish conspiracy, and had willingly participating in their scheme to destroy Russia. Why else would the Empire fight against their fellow German and Austro-Hungarian autocracies and the side of the Liberal Entente? Why else was Russia shouldering the burden of fighting for the liberal ambitions of France, Britain and the United States? It was clear - Russia's salvation could only come via separate peace with the Central Powers and the restoration of absolute rule under a Tsar who was not Nicholas. Nikolai Markov, a noted Germanophile within the party, would rise to lead the URP, and would begin to advocate for these views in the Duma, though to little success. The February Revolution, as shocking as it was for many, would end up merely confirming the preexisting fears of the URP, leading to them fully embracing a defeatist position.
Narrowly escaping a proposed ban, the party would quietly establish ties with Germany's foreign intelligence Abteilung III b, who would begin covertly supplying the party with funds and weaponry, which would be used to quietly rebuild the Black Hundreds and the party's apparatus across Russia over the following months. In a manner most hypocritical, the URP would be the loudest voice in denouncing its left-wing opponents as German spies, and would be one of the main instigators of the mass hysteria after the unsuccessful Guchkov offensives that would force the Liberal Government to arrest Generals Alexei Brusilov and Carl Mannerheim, two of its most competent officers. It is all but confirmed that this was done at the behest of Germany, and their arrests would weaken the Russian Army at the most inopportune time, but would allow the URP to wash away their traitorous image amongst the Russian establishment. In an ironic twist, the height of their perceived patriotism would coincide with the height of their treason. Invited to participate in Kornilov's counterrevolutionary conspiracy, the collapse of his support would allow them to seize power for themselves.
While the disintegration of the Russian Empire had begun with Kornilov's Putsch, the signing of the Treaty of Pskov would accelerate it into complete collapse. The Russian establishment that supported the coup was fanatically jingoistic, demanding a victory to justify the sheer sunk cost of the war effort and saw the Pskov Peace as a grave betrayal, and while the Russian public was bitterly opposed to the war, the vast majority were cognitively dissonant Defencists, simultaneously calling for an expeditious end to the war while opposing any territorial or economic concessions to secure this peace. Most would react to the peace with either apathy and anger, the latter of which would join the ranks of seditious organizations. The new regime had grossly miscalculated and, starting with the formation of the Transcaucasian Commissariat, the country would descend into Civil War. Soon two rival governments would be proclaimed: a "Russian Federative People's Republic" from Finland by the exiled Red Petrograd Bolsheviks, and a "Kingdom of Russia" in the former Don Host Oblast, while "Yellow" secessionists would begin nationalist rebellions in Finland, Ukraine and Central Asia.
The speed with which the state collapsed would catch the leaders of the URP completely off-guard, and would force them to engage in a catch-up haphazard exercise of state building. By sheer necessity, the would be forced to retain the remains of the post-February Constitutional Monarchy, with the party apparatus of the URP filling the gaps. The Glavnyy Sovet would split the cabinet ministries between themselves as necessary. The Interior, Justice and Transport industries would be combined into the Ministry of Order, which would be taken by Vladimir Purishkevich. Alexander Trishatny would become his deputy and lead the restored Okhrana and Special Gendarmes Corps in conjunction with the Black Hundreds. Alexander Dubrovin would become Minister of the National Economy, a consolidation of the trade & transport, finance, communications, agriculture, and food ministries. Georgiy Dolganyov, better known as Bishop Hermogenes, who become the Ober Procurator of the Holy Synod, and the recently released rehabilitated Sukhomlinov would become Minister of War. The Education and Labour Ministries would be abolished for the time being. Finally, Tsar Mikhail would be dethroned in in absentia after he fled south, and next in line Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich would be crowned as Tsar Kirill I, with him accepting due to his reactionary politics.
The conditions of civil war would force the freshly proclaimed "Holy Russian Empire" to adopt a decentralized structure built on three pillars: the Party, the Orthodox Church and the Imperial Army. Immediately following the coup in the capital, local Black Hundreds Druzhinas would bring the Kornilovschina to the rest of Russia. With many of their members being privileged members of the Ancien Régime that had been dispossessed by the February Revolution, they would violently reassert the Old Order in a campaign of extreme ruthlessness and wanton cruelty, using the nationwide regime of martial law as pretext to settle old scores. This "Black Terror", though demonstrably ineffective at killing Bolshevik revolutionaries, was successful in terrorizing the population into submission. The established of reactionary authority would follow, with each locality being governed by a local Glavar' or "leader". These Glavari would typically be the most vicious and sycophantic member of the URP branch, and they would be permitted to rule with unlimited authority provided they could maintain order and extract the necessary supplies from the population under the policy of Razverstka or "requisitioning", often being used to legitimize banditry on an unseen before scale.
While the Party would form the basis of the administrative apparatus, its ideological glue would come from the Orthodox faith. Tsarism had lost much of its appeal in the URP due to Nicholas' failures, let alone the universal derision it faced from the broader public, while Russian society as a whole remained intensely religious. With much of the clergy already either being members or supporters of the URP, Ober Procurator Hermogenes would begin the transformation of the Russian Orthodox Church into the propaganda arm of the Empire, starting with the appointment of a new extremely reactionary Most Holy Governing Synod. It would instruct priests to take an explicitly agitational role, promoting ultranationalism and anti-Semitism (encouraging the use of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion), and order them to actively participate in the "purification" of their communities by inciting and leading pogroms against Jews, ethnic minorities, communists and other enemies of the state. The importance of religion in this new regime would be reflected in its official name, the Holy Russian Empire.
Ever since the turn of the century, the idea of convening of an Empire wide Holy Council to update Church doctrine for the 20th century had become increasingly popular amongst the clergy. With the February Revolution sharply increasing the urgency of reform, the All-Russian Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church would gather shortly before Kornilov's Putsch to answer organizational and ecclesiastical questions and determine the role of the Church in a post-revolution Russia. While the decade long ties between the Black Hundreds and the Church had resulted in ultraconservative sentiments to become widespread and gave the council a highly reactionary character, the extent to which Hermogenes sought to overtly politicize the church proved to be highly controversial. Further, many nationalist clergymen objected to the UPR's perceived betrayal of Russian interests to Germany, while others refused to recognize the coronation of Kirill I, still viewing Mikhail II as the rightful Tsar. The combination of these opposing views would lead to the Council to narrowly refuse to recognize Hermogenes' actions as legitimate, though stopped short of condemning him.
To Hermogenes this would be enough to brand the Council as treasonous, and he would denounce the council as anti-Russian heretics. The Dormition Cathedral would be stormed by Black Hundreds, who would disband the council by force, beating and imprisoning many of the dissident priests. This action would turn what were simple divisions in the Church into a raw and gaping schism between the Black "Imperial Orthodox Church" the White "Genuine Orthodox Church". In the short life of the Holy Russian Empire, the Imperial Orthodox Church would became omnipresent in all aspects of Imperial society, arguably turning it into a theocratic state in the latter stages of its existence. While the Imperial Orthodox Church would survive past its patron state and operate in exile, primarily in Zheltorossiya and later supported by the Fascist Germany, it would fade into extinction shortly after the Second World War.
The final pillar of the Holy Russian Empire would be its military. While the Imperial government would be forced to rapidly demobilize most of its regular army to honor its treaty obligations with Germany, this would turn out to be of great benefit into molding the carcass that was the Russian Imperial Army into a semi-competent fighting force. The inherent nature trench warfare condensed thousands of young men in tight proximity with each other, placing them in miserable conditions in isolation from society, exposed them to unimaginable torment and brutality, while giving them ample time to ponder political questions of the day. It is not surprise then that the frontline proved to be fertile ground for radicalism, and while some soldiers adopted ultranationalist beliefs, for every new member of Black Hundreds fifty joined Bolshevik military organizations. Disbanding regular military formations, at least in the short term, dispersed the most concentrated ideological opponents of the Imperial government, and partially helped deradicalize returning soldiers as most would adopt the more conservative politics of their peasant villages.
Only the "elite" the Battalions of Death would remain mobilized. Establish in 1916 as shock units, they would consist the most reliable soldiers, and would be largely responsible for Russia's limited successes during the war. By virtue of the most "reliability" often meaning loyalty to the Tsar, the soldiers of these units would be the most traditionalist in the Army, and agreed with the ideological programme of the URP. These Battalions would serve as the nucleus of the new Imperial Army, and would become the most professional force of the Holy Russian Empire, used to crush revolts beyond the capabilities of the Black Hundreds. Leadership of this new army would mostly draw from diehard monarchist officers that had fallen victim to the revolutionary purges of the Liberal Duma, with the new Supreme Commander being a General Vasily Gurko, a noted monarchist and who had tried to convince Tsar Nicholas to crush the February Revolution, being imprisoned by the new government for his troubles..
The Holy Russian Empire would be blessed with a few months of relative calm to solidify their control as their opponents built up their forces, but by late January of the new year, this "peace" would come at an end. In the village of Khitrovo in the Tambov Oblast, the peasantry's boiling resentment would erupt into a rebellion, sparked by community outrage over a rape committed by a Black Hundredsman. This revolt would rapidly engulf the local region, and turn into a general uprising led by Bolshevik Aleksandr Antonov. While this insurrection by itself was a minor threat, it would cut off the only railway routes to the Caucasus, where a 60,000 strong White "Volunteer Army", led by Lavr Kornilov himself began a northern expedition with the goal of taking Moscow, with the International Corps marching from Eastern Ukraine to aid him. In response, Gurko would begin marshalling a 100k strong force near Moscow, drawing an almost all Imperial troops in North Russia and leaving Petrograd with a skeletal garrison. Christened as the "Spear of St Peter", it began its march south under the command of General Mikhail Diterikhs.
The day of reckoning had arrived...
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