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The White Giant || Part 1 || 1930s RP

In 1896, the coronation celebration went to one of jubilation to devastation, cutting short the lives of many in the stampede for free pretzels. Instead of staying to pray, the Tsar was pressured by his ministers to attend a party with the French, bringing hate by a populace which had suffered so long under Autocracy.

The early reign of Tsar Nicholas II was not just a bad start, but the beginning of a reshaped Russian Empire.

In the following years Nicholas would stumble again so often, such as the failed war with Japan, the 1905 Revolution and Gregori Rasputin, but with the assistance of his Prime Ministers the Tsar’s rule stayed afloat. Sergei Witte in the 1890s made financial reforms to begin industrializing Russia, which continued after his 1905 resignation. From 1906 to 1911, the 3rd Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin initiated agrarian reform, in hopes of forming a conservative class of land owners known as Kulaks, simultaneously Stolypin launched a wave of repression with secret police and executions.

In the course of the interruptions was a Revolution in 1905 which forced concessions to a constitution guaranteeing basic liberties and the creation of a Duma, or parliament. While frequently snubbed by the Tsar, who still held wide powers, a number of significant reforms were still implemented, improving the economy and quality of life, but gradually the influence of the lower, and only elected assembly, the State Duma was reduced in power, as Nicholas II and his conservative Prime Ministers filled it with sympathetic groups such as large land owners.

With Tsarist control being reasserted future legislation was made to further modernize the military, particularly in concern to railways to allow quick transportation of men and resources around the empire. Reactionary ideology began to show more and more, as while the Autocrats were happy to let the economic and industrial reforms continue, as they kept the populace content, they were still opposed to a Duma even existing as there were still significant liberal and socialist leaders in the State Duma who if removed when their were still influential they might cause instability, indeed they started to as in a game against law enforcement workers former Labor Unions, while state authorities attempted to crack down on Labor Union, a struggle that ended with state authorities victoriously crushing strikes and arresting union leaders.

There was further trouble in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which from 1899-1905 had resisted Russification policies, and then again stating in 1908. This resistance infuriated the Tsar, and the Grand Duchy government was effectively given absolute power, then in 1914 a series of legislation brought limits to Finland’s previously respected autonomy.

The political instability caused by the Russification policies soon erupted in all out protest and riots across Finland which inspired other groups undergoing Russification on a smaller scale. More significantly however the alliance between the Finnish Resistance and the Social-Labor Coalition between the two remaining Russian leftist parties in the Duma, the Mensheviks and the Labor Group/Trudoviks, in addition with leftist Octoberists and non-Russian left parties.

Seeing the way the wind was blowing, and how eventually the left would be pushed out they resolved to retake the initiative by creating a crisis as a last ditch effort. However many Left Octoberists got cold feet about undertaking such a endeavor and wrote about it in the newspapers, which ended up in the hands of the government.

In lightning quick speed the members of the coalition and the entire Octoberist party were put under house surveillance and it was demanded that the Duma release them of Parliamentary Privilege and allow their arrest, which was opposed by many in the center as the Octoberist was not seen at fault, but justified by somewhat popular patriotic fervor, aside from the workers and large parts of the intelligentsia the former was made reality anyway, however only a few arrests were made as Ivan Goremykin, 5th Prime Minister of Russia feared of provoking some Russian sailors sympathetic to leftism too early.

Yet the Duma was enraged and the anti-autocrat elements organized into the Progressive Bloc of Russia, led by the Octoberists who among others who supported a constitutional monarchy feared that further rule of Tsar Nicholas II endangered the monarchy.

This faction was in stalemate with the government for weeks until violent resistance began to appear in Finland, with weapons arriving from unknown cities origin, thus the demands from the government were made heard once again leading to weeks more of stalemate until Goremykin and the Progressive Bloc made a comprise that the Duma would under imperial oversight investigate and suspend the accused until said investigations were over, and all reactionary policy passed in the two years would be appealed, in turn the Progressive Bloc would agree to throw their support behind the suppression in Finland until the crisis was over and they were to dissolve upon then.

The Tsar of course had no plans to hold up the agreement in the long term, but was convinced to honor it for now in order to end the stalemate, thus in February of 1915 the Grand Duchy of Finland was authorized to declare martial law to end the resistance.

In that month and the next secret police throughout the Duchy shut down resistance cells en masse, and any public demonstrations and the press were severely limited, among other policies that violated civil rights. Through this a war in Finland was barely avoided, and martial law lifted after 5 months, though there wouldn’t be a return to the autonomy and rights of pre-crisis Finland, however neither would the Tsar push anymore into the affairs, at least publicly, as the situation was still tense.

Back in the Capitol of St. Petersburg the reactionary policies of the last 2 years were gradually being repealed, and by the end of the year most investigated were found to be guilty and were sentenced to at least 7 years time to death, but alas not all was fine again, as that progress was so gradual that it wasn’t finished until early 1916. In the compromise deal, under the assumption that it would only take a short amount of time it was not specified that “last” was as in from mid 1912 to late 1914, but instead as the 2 years before the repeal.

Using this loophole most reactionary legislation was not repealed, angering the Progressive Bloc who until the agreement was fully met refused to disband.

Having enough trouble of dealing with the Tsar Nicholas II on April 15th, 1916 decided to suspend the Duma, with guards posted in great numbers in the building.

This so called “Coup of 1916” damaged the reputation of the conservative government, allowing liberal Georgy Lvov to begin organizing civil disobedience with marches, boycotts, printing illegal pamphlets and so on and so on.

Fearing this would boil over into Revolution the Tsar and Goremykin returned to the hardcore version of the repressionist policies of Stolypin in a attempt to eliminate the liberal-moderate opposition’s leadership as had been done to the left. Throughout city after city military police raided on every street, secret police were listening everywhere, and every day and night there was a noose ready for a man, as bullets were decided to be too expensive for these men.

This began to have the desired effect of decapitating the opposition’s leadership, but also public opposition grew more and more in response to the terror sweeping the streets that killed thousands, but as many leaders were dead, imprisoned or fled to Europe they were eventually crushed with brutality, but as all seemed to be going well they mutinied.

In June, enraged at the coup, the crackdown and slaughter of their countrymen many ships and sailors in the Baltic and Black Sea fleets mutinied, seizing control of their base cities of Tallin and Helsinki for the former and Sevastopol, Feodosia, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Temryuk, Taganrog for the latter, joined together with defective units of the army. Helsinki was quickly retaken due to the concentration of Finnish-Russian troops even with several units defecting, same with Sevastopol. In the other cities there was a few days for the mutineers to entrench themselves before sufficient troops arrived by rail, which by that point rebellion has broken out across Crimean and Estonia, which spread into Ukraine proper, Latvia, Finland and Georgia, thus began the Russian Civil War.

With Finland falling into civil war and portions of the Baltics rebelling the Tsar fled St. Petersburg, leaving Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia on the front against Estonia and north Latvia, while Mikhail Alekseyev and Governor-General of Finland, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim fought against the ill equipped Finnish People’s Resistance Army.

In Georgia there was Nikolai Yudenich, who was familiar with the land, next in Ukraine there was Aleksei Brusilov, with many forces in other separatist regions to prevent further uprisings. In assistance of the conflict against the rebel groups was Admiral Andrei Eberhardt, head of the Black Sea Fleet, his inferior Alexander Kolchak, Admiral Nikolai Ottovich von Essen, commander of the Baltic fleet, Major Generals Lavr Kornilov and Anton Denikin under Brusilov, Mikhail Diterikhs as a General in Finland and Nikolai Iudovich Ivanov as Chief of Staff. All in all 280,000 men were on the fronts, 100,000 in Finland, 80,000 in the Baltics, 60,000 in the Caucuses, 50,000 in Crimea and 90,000 in Ukraine proper around a week or two after the beginning of the conflict that would only spiral from there.

I will never forget the day I saw Morbius for the first time. Firstly, I had to book my ticket several months in advance due to the extreme demand to see the movie. When I arrived at the theatre, it was absolutely packed to the brims. People were fist fighting each other to get spots in line. A few people died I think. When I sat down, the entire theatre was crammed and people were even sitting in the aisles and on the rafters, desperate to see the movie. Before the movie began, everyone stood up and applauded for a good ten minutes before we finally sat down for the film. For the next 5 and a half hours, I was enthralled at the beauty that was unraveling before my very eyes. This was not just your typical piece of cinema, but a beautifully crafted slice of certified kino on bar with other cinematic masterpieces like Citizen Kane, The Ten Commandments and Son of the Mask. When the film ended, the crowd burst into applause which lasted at least 3 hours. Roses were thrown at the screen, people broke down in tears at what they had just witnessed. I felt born again, my life prior to viewing Morbius stripped away. Then, someone came up and stood before the screen. It was Martin Scorsese. The crowd watched in hushed tones before he calmly said, with tears in his eyes: “the king is dead. Long live the king” before he pulled out a handgun and blew his brains out there and then. We all cheered before the lights dimmed once more and the cinema played the movie for a second time and then a third time. Three days later, I emerged from the cinema a changed man, and that was only after ushers had to physically drag me and the rest of the audience from our seats. God bless Dr. Michael Morbius and God bless Jared Leto for his cultural defining acting. It truly is Morbin’ time

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Snas