Ch.54Interesting Thought

# * * *

“Yeah. I mean, I led the war. I expected this.”

Still, this is just…

Logically speaking, it’s quite amusing to see middle-aged men seeking permission from a 20-year-old Tsarina who’s mostly just a symbol.

“What happened to Nikola Tesla from the Ministry of Science and Technology?”

“I understand that Duke Yusupov has invested in Technical Director Nikola Tesla’s new Wardenclyffe Tower, and it’s currently making progress.”

I heard about radar coming out recently, but is he already developing something else?

Wardenclyffe Tower, huh.

Wasn’t that originally a failure because Morgan withdrew his investment, thinking it wouldn’t be profitable since it didn’t show clear results?

Is it okay to let him continue with that?

If it succeeds, it could be a huge breakthrough in wireless transmission technology. That would be quite beneficial for this vast Russian territory, wouldn’t it?

Was Yusupov that wealthy? Well, Wilson has been pouring America’s tremendous imperial grace into Russia to celebrate White Russia’s victory, and the Romanov Dynasty has quite a bit of gold bullion too, so there should be some financial leeway until the Great Depression.

“Has there been any progress?”

“He’s apparently invented something called a wireless image transmitter.”

“Incredible.”

Wasn’t that invented in America in 1924?

But you know what?

It’s not just State Duma exam papers needing grading that come across my desk.

Today, a letter containing General Ungern’s complaints arrived as well.

“By the way.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Why is Patton still hanging around in Russia instead of going back? Lieutenant General Ungern seems quite angry about it.”

He says Drozdovsky is only taking Patton’s side, making his life miserable.

They seem to be arguing a lot about armored doctrine.

“He says America seems to have forgotten about him. He plans to stay in Russia for a while longer.”

“Hmm, I don’t want to deal with that man either, so let’s leave him to Lieutenant General Ungern. And although we’ve signed a non-aggression pact with Japan, we mustn’t let our guard down. We need to remain vigilant in managing the Far East.”

Those guys made treaties to reassure us and clearly defined their spheres of influence, but can we really trust them?

Moreover, to effectively strike Japan in World War II, the Far East must always be prepared for war.

Fortunately, we’ve been able to station troops in the Far East under the pretext of responding to Chinese forces, so deceiving Japan is no challenge at all.

“Improved Fedorov Avtomat rifles are rolling off the production lines daily. Troops in the Far Eastern Military District will soon be armed with these rifles.”

“Good. We must never neglect weapons development. We must always be prepared for the next war by improving the quality of our weapons. What about tanks?”

“Tank development continues as well. German technicians who were dispatched are helping with this. They say we’ve already surpassed British tanks.”

“They’re here?”

They didn’t return to Germany but stayed here?

Doesn’t this mean Russia is overwhelmingly superior just in terms of tanks?

“They couldn’t go to Communist Germany, and they’ve lost their attachment to Kaiser to go to East Prussia.”

That makes sense.

Even if they went to East Prussia now, they’d just be worked like slaves to reclaim the mainland.

When you think about it…

“I suppose that’s true.”

German technicians, huh.

In actual history, didn’t Germany with its technology and the Soviet Union with its resources exchange with each other?

The situation now is actually much better than it was then.

We’re absorbing all of Germany’s technology in advance.

Russia has no intention of providing resources to Communist Germany.

This will make things even harder for Communist Germany.

A much weaker Germany than Nazi Germany, fighting against Russia, which is united in anti-communist spirit and has improved its resources and technology.

Communist Germany will probably have a tough time.

I wonder how it will turn out?

Originally, even Nazi Germany got lucky with some fortunate breaks that allowed them to devour Europe and aim for the German-Soviet war.

Resources are certainly important in this scenario.

We need to increase our oil reserves to deal with the Great Depression as well.

So whenever I get the chance, I suggest to the Duma that we should conduct explorations, and the Duma has sent exploration teams to extract resources due to Russia’s economic issues.

The oil problem is a national issue.

Russia is now thinking of using internal resources as a way to deal with the Great Depression. That’s only natural.

So…

“How is the resource exploration in Siberia and Northern Manchuria progressing?”

“It’s ongoing, so I expect we’ll find something.”

Is the Daqing oilfield too much to hope for?

We already have oil, but more would be better. In original history, even Japan explored near Daqing in the 1930s with drilling technology imported from America, but failed.

It seems we need some help from America, but I’m not sure if America has such technology at this point.

We should at least try.

I didn’t want to do this kind of thing, but what choice do I have?

I might as well use the knowledge I gained from the library.

Thinking about it now, maybe the reason that old man sent me here was because I had this knowledge in that terrible world.

I wiggled my finger as if drawing in the air.

“Western Siberia. Dig in Western Siberia. The Surgut area would be good.”

“Pardon?”

“For some reason, I feel oil will be found there. And if our technology isn’t sufficient, let’s approach American oil companies.”

Surgut.

A city in Western Siberia where oil fields are located.

They were discovered in the 1950s and weren’t really known during World War II, but we should try to extract what we can.

This feels like I’m in some territory-building novel.

It feels like I’ve become the protagonist of a territory-building novel with resource cheat keys.

“Understood.”

“We should also dig in Manchuria. I’ll need to get Duke Yusupov’s help to invest there.”

We’ll need to extract carefully so Japan doesn’t notice.

Or maybe later we could sell some fuel to Japan and force China and America to suffer in the Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War. That wouldn’t be bad.

If I’m going to be a stand-in anyway, it wouldn’t be bad for White Russia to lead during the Cold War era.

And when everyone is exhausted, we strike Japan from behind.

If we, whom they consider allies, attack them, Japan won’t be able to withstand it.

And if China suffers more damage than in actual history, neither Chiang Kai-shek nor Mao Zedong will be able to unify it, and it might end up in the warlord era.

They must never be unified.

Even though Chiang Kai-shek helped the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, he still had Sinocentrism and thought of Korea as a satellite state. If Chiang had unified China and China had opened up, Korea might have become just that.

As White Russia, we cannot tolerate the Communist Party, so China should just remain in a warlord state.

I know better than anyone how the future of Communist China that unified under the Communist Party turns out.

To prevent that terrible future, the Chinese Communist Party must disappear too.

Sometimes in alternate history novels, they either let Communist China unify to prevent China’s growth, or divide China between the Communist Party and the Republic of China. Why bother?

Just break them up into warlords. You can’t give the Reds even the slightest opening.

It’s not yet time to tell the Duma about this; right now, we should focus on Europe.

I’m just the figurehead Tsar after all.

But before that, there’s something I’m curious about.

“By the way.”

“Please speak.”

“What are General Gajda and the Czechoslovak Legion doing?”

I said I would actively support General Gajda and the Czechoslovak Legion as the military of the new Czech state. I wonder how that’s going.

Czech territory is still under Austrian rule. Defeated Austria can’t do anything about General Gajda, but Czech independence doesn’t seem likely either.

But if we grant Czech independence and tear Austria apart further, our mustached soldier will completely lose his ability to hold back Communist Germany.

If I say I’m going to tear off Czech territory, the great powers will foam at the mouth.

Communist Germany will also covet Czech territory.

Then General Gajda’s position becomes dangerous either way. I wonder what the Duma plans to do with General Gajda and the Czechoslovak Legion.

“Wouldn’t it be better to have Austria accept General Gajda and the Czechoslovak Legion?”

“Yes. Austria needs military power to hold back Communist Germany, but the currently fragmented Austria has military reduction clauses making it difficult, so it would be better to have them accept the elite Czechoslovak Legion.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Right. For example…

What would happen if we dropped him into Austria along with Hitler?

* * *

Around this time, complaints and dissatisfaction were erupting among the Czechoslovak Legion under General Gajda.

It was natural, as some time had passed since the end of the Russian Civil War, but they still couldn’t return home.

“General, when will we return to our homeland?”

“Hmm, it seems we’ll have to stay in Russia a while longer.”

Gajda tried to suppress his subordinates’ complaints.

He too was equally dissatisfied with the current situation, but he couldn’t express his discontent and go against the White Army faction of the United States of Greater Russia.

Above all, he had a cold understanding of reality.

“I heard that Britain and France did not allow Czech independence. What should we do now?”

“Even if we gained independence, with Communist Germany’s claws, we would be exposed to danger again.”

General Radola Gajda had developed good instincts through World War I and the Russian Civil War.

Russia, which nearly became communist, and Grand Duchess Anastasia, who grabbed it by the collar and pulled it up.

Czech territory is still under Austrian rule, but even if it became independent, war clouds would gather over Czech lands due to Communist Germany.

Austria, busy making ends meet, wouldn’t support Czech lands that had become independent in such an annoying way, and if they faced Communist Germany alone, it was obvious they would collapse. Russia too would find it difficult to fight Communist Germany right now while supporting Czech lands.

It might be good to join the Russian White Army like their former commander Mikhail Diterikhs, but that would negate the meaning of their hard fight as the Czechoslovak Legion.

And…

Just then, a new option appeared.

“Then what should we do?”

“It seems the Russian Duma is thinking of sending us to the Austrian Empire.”

Yes, the Russian Duma wants to send them to Austria.

“Isn’t that different from what was promised?”

“Well, perhaps due to the Tsarina’s opinion, they say they’ll try to coordinate for us to become part of the Austrian Empire’s military force, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

That might be better.

Radola Gajda hoped the Duma’s negotiations with Austria would go well.

If Czech couldn’t manage on its own, it might be good to take control of the military within Austria with Russian support, even if Austria was only slightly more substantial.

The problem was that he alone couldn’t do it as he was leading the Czechoslovak Legion. He might manage with an army, but to lead in politics, he needed to work with someone else.

At that moment, someone approached Gajda.

“Who are you?”

“German Corporal Adolf Hitler. Are you General Radola Gajda of the Czechoslovak Legion?”

Adolf Hitler.

Come to think of it, I heard he recently received the Tsarina’s favor? and was tasked with designing the New Moscow city.

But what is he doing here?

“If you go to Austria, could you possibly help me?”

This was the meeting between Radola Gajda and Adolf Hitler.

* * *

Around this time, Turkey, apart from having a smaller territory, was able to have Mustafa Kemal Atatürk take power as in the original history.

And Atatürk worked hard to improve relations with Russia.

At this point, among the Turkish people’s feelings toward foreign countries, Russia was in the best position.

Thanks to the Okhrana being dispatched to prevent anti-Russian sentiment from growing, they spread propaganda that Russia occupied Constantinople and parts of Eastern Thrace to block Greek advances, claiming they couldn’t stand by and watch the Entente tear apart the Ottoman Empire.

And…

Conversely, Britain and France were branded as the worst countries in Turkey.

The bastards who dragged the Ottoman Empire into war and destroyed it.

And those Greek bastards who sided with those two and advanced into Anatolia.

Even if they had to accept that Pontic Greeks were in the Russian sphere of influence, those Greek bastards must be dealt with someday.

Until then, they had to govern the country diligently and build it up.

Stimulated after meeting Anastasia, Atatürk was working hard to raise his country in this way.

Since a promise had been made, Russia would support Turkey in whatever it did as long as it didn’t target the Eastern Roman region, including Constantinople.

“Weapons are being supplied from Russia.”

“The Grand Duchess, no, the esteemed Byzantine Emperor is keeping her promise.”

As promised, they’re sending weapons too.

They’re not going to war right now, but the newly established Turkish army had just emerged from war and had almost nothing left since they fought with Italian supplies.

In this situation, the weapons sent by the Russian army were quite helpful.

The Turkish National Army, born this way, raised its military based on the experience of the Russian Civil War that the White Army went through, influenced by Russia.

After building up the military, Turkey clearly developed pride in the Turkish nation.

All ethnic groups living in current Turkish territory were Turkey itself, that nation.

While embracing various ethnic groups, adopting a federal system was somewhat contradictory.

Atatürk was determined to develop the country while renovating it in this way.

At the very least, he would reclaim Syria and Iraq, which Britain and France had taken, and advance to Egypt.

Definitely.