Ch.46Madman (Map Included)

* * *

One day, as I was busy making my rounds through the regions once controlled by the Reds, trying to manage public sentiment.

Someone came looking for me.

“My granddaughter has grown so much. *Sob*. It really is my granddaughter.”

It was Dagmar of Denmark.

That is, Maria Feodorovna, the Empress consort of Alexander III, the previous Tsar and father of Nicholas II, had come all the way to Moscow.

This woman’s nephew was George V of England.

I heard she had mistaken me for Nicholas II because of our resemblance.

In actual history, she escaped Russia with British help during the civil war, but in this altered timeline, she was able to visit Moscow while it was being rebuilt.

She came in person, crying and holding my hand.

I should have run to Yekaterinburg sooner.

“G-Grandmother?”

“Yes. I am your grandmother. You poor child, you must have suffered so much. *Sob*. Your father died, your mother died, and you witnessed the deaths of your sisters and brother. How difficult it must have been.”

But I’m actually fine.

I never saw the bodies myself.

Those reformed Bolsheviks took care of everything so I wouldn’t have to see.

After everything is settled, we’ll decide whether to relocate them from Yekaterinburg to somewhere else.

The real Anastasia would have been shocked, but I’m not her.

“Grandmother, I’m fine.”

“You poor child, how much resentment must you have harbored to fight the Bolsheviks with your fragile body? *Sob*. I persuaded George to help you.”

“Is that so?”

So that was one of the reasons England helped us.

Well, I suppose that makes sense. This feels a bit strange though.

Despite appearances, I’m actually a completely different person inside.

I’m not even the real Anastasia, so this feels wrong. It’s like my conscience is being pricked.

“Have you thought about marriage?”

“Marriage? Russia’s situation isn’t good enough for such things yet.”

Well, a business marriage might be worth considering.

But there isn’t anyone suitable.

There’s the divorced Joachim in Germany, but he’s much older. And England doesn’t have any particularly good candidates either.

Even for a business marriage, I can’t have a groom who would lower the Tsarina’s dignity.

“Then what are your plans for succession?”

“There’s Vladimir, the son of Grand Duke Kirill.”

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich.

After Nicholas II died, Mikhail was assassinated, and Alexei was executed, he was the closest in the line of succession among the surviving royals.

Things changed significantly with Anastasia’s survival.

According to the history I know, he has a son named Vladimir Kirillovich.

Of course, he’s still a child now.

It would be better to name the young Vladimir as the next successor.

In this situation where the succession has been thrown into chaos after a revolution that killed so many, who would oppose if I, the Saint of All Russia and Tsarina, named him as successor?

I could marry into a noble family rather than another royal house if necessary, but I’m not exactly in a great position.

I was just trying to end the civil war and slip away, but they made me Tsarina. And we even recaptured Constantinople.

Perhaps in peacetime it would be different.

I need to prepare for the Great Depression and make many changes to establish a constitutional monarchy.

We’ve come this far only because the civil war between the Reds and Whites turned everything upside down.

“You don’t need to take responsibility for everything your father couldn’t do. But why—”

“If I have the ability, I should do it. I won the civil war, but they could turn red again at any time. If not now, when would I be able to control this?”

Now is definitely the time to solidify the constitutional monarchy.

If I flee while everyone reveres me as Tsarina, Trotsky, who escaped somewhere, might reappear.

Or if not him, a second Lenin or Stalin might emerge.

So I need to stay here.

Besides, I’m not even the real Anastasia.

“Is there anything this old woman can do to help?”

“Please work on maintaining relations with England. And since we need to establish a constitutional monarchy, we could use England’s help.”

“Very well. I’ll go to England and speak to them directly.”

Grandmother left for England again, promising to do anything for her granddaughter.

The British may be islanders, but they’re a constitutional monarchy, aren’t they?

I think it’s fine to model that aspect after the British.

At least that’s what Russia needs right now.

For now, I sent word to Grand Duke Kirill in Finland that I was considering Vladimir as a successor candidate.

And I informed him to return once the domestic situation stabilized.

Now, the next issue is the coronation.

Along with the Manchurian partition agreement, the coronation was one of the most pressing matters for Russia now.

“How should we proceed with the coronation?”

“Shouldn’t it naturally be held in Constantinople?”

The royal family and nobles are returning to Russia, so…

It’s because of them that the coronation is taking so long.

We can’t hold a coronation in a place with only military presence. On the surface, we need to restore the proper imperial splendor.

“Yes. I’ve heard that General Anton Denikin has already ordered his White Army to clear out the Ottoman presence in Constantinople.”

“Is that so?”

That man is really working hard.

He seems somewhat bothered about being overshadowed by Pyotr Wrangel, who was under his command.

He wants to clear out the Ottomans from the Second Rome.

“We’ve decided to abolish the name Istanbul and call it Constantinople again.”

That place the Ottomans called Istanbul.

Constantinople, Konstantiniye, Constantinopolis, and so on.

It’s called by many names, but in Slavic languages, it was also known as Tsargrad, meaning “Emperor’s City.”

“What about calling it Tsargrad, the Emperor’s City, in keeping with Slavic tradition?”

“Wouldn’t Constantinople sound better? After all, we call the Tsaritsa the Tsarina.”

It’s best to use names that are easy to pronounce.

Honestly, doesn’t Constantinople have that Roman feel to it?

“Great Khan.”

Only one person in this assembly addressed me as Great Khan.

Grigory Semyonov.

He was boldly participating in the Duma discussion about the coronation issue, but his eyes now looked like those of someone high on drugs.

There he goes again.

“What is it?”

“O incarnation of Tengri and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.”

I wonder what kind of groundwork he’s trying to lay.

Grigory Semyonov is currently the most extreme Russian nationalist and Mongolian empire enthusiast in Russia.

Unlike in actual history, he didn’t side with Japan, but with the White Army’s victory, the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, and the recapture of Constantinople, his eyes have twisted in a peculiar way.

His focus is off, and his eyeballs are rolling up and down.

He’s emanating an unsettling aura.

In alternative history novels, Ungern is portrayed as the mad baron, but how is it that Ungern is sane while Grigory has become such a deranged lunatic?

“Speak. What is it?”

It’s scary when he gets like this.

“The title of Tsar is derived from Caesar, meaning heir to the emperor. It doesn’t mean emperor itself. Thus, the Tsar of the Russian Empire is not truly a title signifying the master of an empire!”

Oh. Something. Something is coming.

This Grigory Semyonov seems about to say something insane.

“Has this man gone mad?!”

“Gentlemen of the Duma, please hear me out. Now that we have reclaimed the lands of the old Eastern Roman Empire, I believe that with the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church, you should rightfully be called Imperator, the all-powerful Emperor of the Roman Empire!”

If we’re talking in those terms, since we’ve only recaptured Eastern Roman territory, wouldn’t Basileus be more appropriate? No, well, strictly speaking, he’s not wrong.

If we were to adopt the old titles outside the Slavic tradition, that would be the case.

“Ah, well, I suppose we could say I hold the Byzantine Emperor title concurrently, like the Mongol Great Khan position. Hmm.”

Yes. Let’s just do that.

Russian Tsar, Mongol Great Khan, and Byzantine Emperor.

I’m most curious about Greece’s reaction.

If we were to debate Roman legitimacy in the current situation, it would come down to Greece and Russia, but what do I know?

Even if I set aside my Korean origins, I question whether Russia can truly claim to be Rome’s successor and assert the Roman imperial title.

“Kuk kuk kuk. Then all that remains is the Chinese Son of Heaven. The position of the Qing Emperor, who once held the title of Great Khan, is now meaningless. Korea, which claimed to inherit the legitimacy of China and became the Korean Empire with its king ascending to the position of Son of Heaven, has now been annexed by Japan. So naturally, by gathering the Korean refugees in Manchuria, their emperor should—”

I stopped thinking.

Because if I continued to engage with him, who knows what else he might try to add next.

It seems he’s gone even more insane than in actual history because he’s been given free rein.

But he also has military talent, repelling Chinese incursions into Mongolia, so we can’t just lock him up as a lunatic. When did he even learn Korean history?

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to also hold the title of Roman Emperor. Since you’ve transferred power to the Duma as part of becoming a constitutional monarchy, it’s necessary to elevate the imperial reputation by holding multiple all-powerful emperor positions.”

“Is that so?”

There is some logic to it.

Having relinquished power, there’s a need to create a sacred, inviolable domain. The position of Roman Emperor would fill that role.

It’s not just nationalist fervor; there’s reason to it.

Rome. Who would dare challenge that name?

“As it happens, the Japanese Foreign Minister, Uchida Kōsai, has come to Moscow to negotiate the Manchurian partition agreement. Wouldn’t it be good to let him witness the Roman Emperor coronation as well?”

“Uchida Kōsai?”

“Yes. He came directly to Yekaterinburg as the head of Japan’s Foreign Ministry to discuss the Manchurian agreement.”

This must be about wanting to create an alliance.

Prime Minister Hara Takashi might be under pressure from right-wingers.

In the original timeline, Prime Minister Hara Takashi would have been assassinated by those right-wingers, but he survived.

Perhaps this is because an opportunity to take Southern Manchuria has presented itself.

“Japan seems quite eager to form an alliance with us.”

“Well, we’re the only country that can exert influence in the Far East, so that must be why.”

They’re very suspicious.

I wonder if they’re planning to stab us in the back someday.

The Great Kanto Earthquake, was it?

Wasn’t there a massacre of Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake?

Hmm, knowing the future, I’d like to help the Koreans who will die if I can. But not being of Korean origin myself, I don’t have a way to help.

I’d need to be an independence activist rather than Anastasia to be able to extract them.

It might be good to find a way to get them out.

This is making me feel uneasy. I wish I had been reincarnated in Korea rather than Russia.

“Well, please let the Duma handle that issue. I’m going to distribute food to orphans who have come from villages burned by the Bolsheviks.”

“You’ll do this personally, Your Majesty?”

“Not yet. This is before the coronation. Besides, the Bolsheviks burned villages to gather manpower and supplies to fight us. We should take responsibility for that much.”

Yes. There’s no need for me to be present for the agreement with Japan.

It’s better to work on winning the people’s hearts.