Ch.61Alisa Rosenbaum

# “The Tsarina has come to the university!”

“Wow, is it true that she fought against the Reds with that delicate body?”

“I heard she’s a saint who can heal illnesses just by touching someone’s hand!”

Yes. I had arrived at Moscow State University.

I couldn’t just bring the Okhrana with me here. So I came with Georgy Lvov, a member of the Progressive Party of the Russian United States who works in the Education Department.

They told me he was an alumnus of this university.

I had known him as one of the civilian representatives who joined the Provisional Government in Yekaterinburg, and he was also a liberal-minded individual.

Moreover, he had apparently surprised women’s rights activists regarding women’s suffrage.

Well, I wasn’t aware of that part.

He’s someone who I suspect would have accomplished quite a lot in the actual history.

If he had joined somewhere in the original timeline, I think he might have worked in Kolchak’s government. That seems likely.

“You know about Alisa Rosenbaum?”

“Yes. She was invited to the university after the civil war ended. I felt she had potential when I saw her then.”

“Hmm. So it was your personal influence rather than anything related to the Education Department’s work.”

That’s right.

It seems that in these difficult times, it becomes easier to be influenced by someone.

Right now, Russians are being influenced by the Duma that follows my inclinations, including myself.

It would be similar for Alisa Rosenbaum, who’s going through the elite course at Moscow State University after nearly dying.

Given that she wrote this book “Towards the Annihilation of Communism.”

She must be a talent who will work hard for Russia’s anti-communist cause in the future.

“Well, if it’s about anti-communism, why not? But in the end, it’s all thanks to Your Majesty. After all, the spirit of this United States system can be seen as Your Majesty herself.”

He’s praising me too much.

I’m merely a monarch who grades papers.

“Very well. Let’s see her.”

Anyway, she was a famous thinker and writer in America in the actual history.

I wonder if she can achieve the same fame in Russia in this altered history.

The female student named Alisa Rosenbaum whom I met seemed far too young to be the author of a book called “Towards the Annihilation of Communism.”

I suppose it would be more accurate to say she already shows promising signs.

“Alisa Rosenbaum.”

“Your Majesty personally knows my name! You’ve summoned me!”

Alisa Rosenbaum stared at me with an ecstatic expression, like a devout Muslim worshipping Allah.

Is that really something to be so excited about?

“There’s no need to be so surprised. I’ve come to observe talented individuals from all walks of life.”

Because nameless nobodies who might have already died in the Soviet Union should be proudly alive in White Russia.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You wrote a book called ‘Towards the Annihilation of Communism’?”

“Yes. I wrote it.”

She pounded her chest, declaring that it was none other than herself who wrote this masterpiece.

Then she actually handed me the book she had been carrying.

While I hadn’t properly read our Austrian Führer Adolf’s precious work, I did read this one from Ayn Rand. It was quite impressive.

It’s a proper work that cultivates the spirit of anti-communism.

Why communism is destined to fail. Why communism is thoroughly authoritarian. Even about the future of communism.

She had written diligently about all of it.

“Impressive. I liked how the hatred and anger toward communism, and the flaws of communism, were thoroughly exposed. I was moved.”

“Communism is an ideology that must disappear.”

Yes. That’s exactly it.

Alisa Rosenbaum is quite unique.

“Ah, that’s a secondary issue. From the beginning, Russians have suffered greatly because of communism, so hatred and anger toward communism are natural. But you didn’t write this book while losing your rationality, did you?”

“Of course not. Your Majesty’s Russian United States is a successful case that has defeated all the disadvantages of communism and combined only its advantages with existing liberalism. Communism, which is all about authoritarianism and violence—those Bolsheviks—is merely an ideology for gaining power.”

Yes. She caught on well.

Who would have thought that Alisa Rosenbaum, famous under the pen name Ayn Rand in the actual history, would turn out like this.

At this point, I think it’s fair to say that my desperate attempts to change the history of this era have achieved their intended results.

“That’s right. That’s right. That’s exactly it.”

“I saw it. They raided my father’s pharmacy, claiming the supplies would be distributed to the people, but they just divided the medicine among themselves.”

That’s the essence of it.

To be precise, it was just the Red Army in the Russian Civil War that descended into the worst when the situation became difficult.

Communism is a bastard that gives human rights to dogs.

It’s just a sweet fruit at first. When things get tough, nothing is more miserable than communism.

Our Miss Alisa Rosenbaum knows that.

“That’s the essence of communism. From the beginning, they incite the people but then only benefit themselves—that’s exactly what communism is.”

“They’re even trying to copy Your Majesty’s policies. How incompetent can they be?”

Actually, those were policies that Lenin and his gang were going to implement.

But I did it first.

So from Alisa Rosenbaum’s perspective, she must despise communism much more than in the original history.

She was a woman who disliked communism from the beginning and thought it was hopeless.

If she was negative about the communist social system before, now she must be even more angry about the incompetence of communism.

Such a woman has witnessed the incompetence of communism again. Well.

Is it just my imagination that she seems like my follower?

“What do you think of Russia now?”

“It’s accelerating, to say the least.”

For a moment, I was bewildered.

I thought I understood Russian pretty well by now, but did I mishear?

“Huh?”

Accelerating?

Why is acceleration suddenly being mentioned?

Certainly, what I’ve advocated was just made up on the spot, putting together whatever sounded good. While it’s not bad for “anti-communism,” expressing it as acceleration is interesting. Ayn Rand seems to have felt a lot in this Russia in her own way.

“Modified capitalism. In my view, Russia is now pursuing even more radical changes than this modified capitalism.”

“Hmm.”

Alisa Rosenbaum seems a bit strange too.

Well, let’s hear her out.

I nodded slightly, as if telling her to continue.

“This is acceleration. This country, Russia, is trying to change. It’s trying to go much further than those so-called colonial empires, Britain and France. It’s accelerating. Russia is like a chrysalis before becoming a butterfly. Accelerationism—moving forward faster than anyone else—isn’t this the Russia that Your Majesty is creating?”

“Well. You’re not wrong.”

Honestly, there was a slight hint of madness in her words.

She must have really suffered under the Red Army.

I implemented various policies before Lenin did, and on the other hand, as I pressured the Red Army, the areas under their control experienced great changes due to that snowball effect.

Alisa Rosenbaum must have been caught up in that flow of change.

“When my father was shot on the spot by the Bolsheviks for allegedly hiding more medicine, I felt it to my bones. This system must never be maintained.”

“Shot, you say?”

“It was practically just them venting their frustration. As they were being pushed back by the White Army, those cockroaches plundered everything. That’s when my father fell victim.”

Was this the case in the original history too?

Or is it just another snowball I set rolling?

But even taking that into account, she’s quite rational. Given that, I would think she’d hate the White Army that drove the Red Army to such extremes just as much.

It didn’t seem like something I should bring up.

I deliberately cleared my throat, pretending not to know.

“I’m sorry about your father.”

“Didn’t Your Majesty experience even worse? Oh, I apologize. I seem to have been disrespectful to Your Majesty.”

Ah, that’s right.

From others’ perspective, I’m someone who directly witnessed my parents and siblings being shot, violated, and even burned alive by the Bolsheviks, and then went berserk and wiped out all the Bolsheviks.

No wonder many people sympathized with me.

Especially seeing how nobles and royals accepted Anastasia’s transformation, it seems the complete annihilation of Nicholas’s family played a part.

Having experienced such things while already viewing communism negatively, my anti-communist spirit would certainly be more extraordinary than others’.

“Did you get the pharmacy back?”

“Yes. Thanks to Your Majesty defeating all the Bolsheviks, it was returned. I was able to safely get my father’s pharmacy back.”

That makes sense. To restore public sentiment, we returned everything the Bolsheviks had taken, or for those who died, we distributed their possessions to people who suffered greatly due to the civil war.

So, what is Alisa Rosenbaum’s dream?

“That’s good. What is your dream?”

At this point, I can provide some conveniences for her.

Like using her as an anti-communist propaganda model later.

Anyway, by implementing policies to support writers, I can naturally help Alisa Rosenbaum too.

In fact, the reason Alisa Rosenbaum was able to publish her book was because the department in charge of anti-communist propaganda provided conveniences for her.

“I want to continue writing as an anti-communist author and eventually enter the Duma to engage in anti-communist movements and stand against communist countries!”

Alisa Rosenbaum clenched her fists tightly.

So tightly that her veins were visible.

“Do you dislike Germany and Italy?”

“Germany and Italy will certainly challenge Your Majesty’s Russia. I believe we must thoroughly crush them to prove that Your Majesty is right!”

“I see.”

She has an accurate view of the world.

Yes. Germany and Italy will challenge us.

They will certainly want to bring down the Russian United States that opposes communism. Even if we don’t like it, they will come.

“Of course, I mean this in terms of system competition. War involves a lot of bloodshed.”

It’s good that she at least expresses a desire to avoid war.

While I hope she continues her work as a writer, it might also be interesting to see a woman like Alisa Rosenbaum enter the Duma.

So I decided to encourage her.

“I support your eventual entry into the Duma.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

She’s impressive in many ways.

Indeed, people seem to be greatly influenced by the environments they’ve experienced.

I feel like I’ll see Alisa Rosenbaum in the Duma someday. I look forward to that time.

“Your Majesty. We must go now.”

“Ah, yes.”

This is enough for today.

Come to think of it, isn’t it about time for Beria to bring something?

There’s something I gave him to work on before crossing the Atlantic, and since it’s half a gamble, I hope it helps.

If not, I’ll have to find someone interested in rockets within Russia.

Hmm. Now that I think about it.

It would be good to promote the Volga Germans and recruit more people from Germany, especially technicians.

We can’t just accept those who flee due to ideological enmity after Communist Germany is established, so we need to do this.

* * *

Around this time, Beria crossed the Atlantic to the United States to advance into the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

While asking the Okhrana agents who accompanied him to help find Trotsky’s whereabouts, he approached a man named Goddard whom the Tsarina wanted.

He actually knew about rockets.

How could the Tsarina know about such a person?

If he was someone the Okhrana had already investigated, she wouldn’t have assigned Beria himself to the task.

She must have been raised like a flower in a greenhouse. Though he briefly had such doubts, this was the path Beria had already chosen.

If the Tsarina says jump, he must jump, and if she says die, he must at least pretend to die.

Even if she asked him to find Goddard for no reason, he just needed to find him.

“Hmm. Go to Russia?”

“The Tsarina values your abilities very highly.”

Unlike Beria, who approached Goddard secretly, Goddard himself didn’t understand the current situation.

His plan to research rocket technology had been halted midway.

Then suddenly one day, men in black appeared and approached him.

And their master knew about rocket technology and also knew that Goddard was researching it.

The Russian in front of him was blurting all this out.

As if trying to get his attention.