Chapter Twenty-Seven (Patreon)

The doors were locked. The windows were shuttered. Even the servant’s entrances were closed. What remained–a simple office, decorated with a handful of paintings and comfortable furniture–was lit by a single kerosene lantern. Within this dark and dingy room the Tsarevich reviewed his notes. Written decades ago when he was a small child and still reeling from his transplantation. Before the memories of this knew life began to overshadow memories of the old.

1841: Peasant uprising in Guria due to taxation in specie. The rebellion had begun on time, once more caused by the greed of local officials. Unfortunate, but not something Alexander could manage. The East was where he could currently rule. The west would need to wait.

1842:

End of the First Opium War

General Strike in England! Take advantage!!

How exactly his younger self wanted to ‘take advantage’ of such a strike Alexander wasn’t sure. He wasn’t in a position to attack Britain, and neither was his father. Perhaps the note meant to take over the British export markets? Even if he lacked the ability to do so in foreign markets, Siberian goods could certainly replace British ones within Russia. Alexander made a note in the margins. If they lowered prices at the same time the British goods disappeared, they might not need protective tariffs the following year.

1842: Fire of Perm destroys the city center. Alexander frowned. A fire could be devastating for the new arrives. And what was the cause? Was it mere happenstance, or was it a particularly dry and warm summer? Alexander made a note to hold more grain in reserve than normal. The last thing he needed was a famine.

1843: Overthrow of King Otto of Greece. Who cares?

1844/1845: Start of the Great Hunger begins in Ireland. Recruit fleeing people to immigrate–Siberian farms? That, at least, remained a good plan. Even with the upcoming influx of Koreans, Siberia could always use more people. Agvan’s latest estimate showed a practical maximum of sixty million desyatina of farmland in Siberia and the conquered east. Then there was pasture land, the future conquest of Mongolia and Central Asia, and even the lands of southern Alaska. The only issue would be convincing his father that the extra labor was worth inviting more Catholics into the country.

1846: Mexican-American War. If Mexicans win, prevents US from getting California’s gold. Possible to send aid? Unlikely. California would soon have more Americans than Mexicans. Texas already did. Perhaps someone could win despite such disadvantages, but by all accounts that person was not Santa Anna. Forcing history onto a different path meant getting involved personally, and Alexander was not yet Tsar. Nor was Siberia stable or strong enough to launch an attack across the entirety of the Pacific–yet.

1846: Minor uprisings in Austrian Galicia, Poland. Put down before end of year–no concern

1848: Communist Manifesto. Alexander stared at the letters. He knew the Manifesto. Twenty-three pages of easy prose. Twenty-three pages that explained historical materialism, Hegelian dialectics, and the necessity of change to the masses. Once it had been the core of his philosophy. The driving force behind his every action. Now?

Alexander sighed. He didn’t know what to think of it. Of Communism, of Marxism-Leninism, even of his own Stalinism. He still believed in its thesis, that the greatest of human accomplishments occur not by the force of oppression but by the voluntary nature of collective purpose. He still believed that people were fundamentally entitled to what they created. Yet he had been put here. Not reborn into his old body, to restart the revolution on firmer footing. Not reborn as a worker, nor a revolutionary. He was a Grand Duke, a future Tsar, and Alexander did not believe this was done without purpose.

Alexander grabbed a stack of papers. He dipped his pen into the ink and let it settle, before beginning to write. He scrawled out the principles of Tsarism. Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality as the Minister of Education put it. He scrawled out the principles of Communism. Solidarity, Equality, and Justice. Beneath them he began to write. Solidarity in Empire must replace Nationality and Orthodoxy. Russia is not a place of a single people or religion, but of dozens that only grow more numerous as we expand. Both will need to be carefully weaned of their power. The Pan-Slavists and the Orthodox are in close alignment in both politics and ignorance, ignoring both the Catholic and Protestant slavs of Poland and the Baltics and the non-Slavic Orthodoxy of the Greeks, Armenians, and Ethiopians. Together they are too powerful to refuse without risking war. Crimea will be an opportunity to purge rogue elements from the military and–if we succeed–banish others to the far reaches of the Empire. Those too important to purge or exile will need to be turned against each other. Elements must be planted in the Pan-Slavists calling for the better treatment of Poles and Ruthenians as a Slavic people. Elements must likewise be planted within the Church to push for Pan-Orthodoxy, aligning for a union with the Armenians and (most importantly) the Ethiopians–something the pan-slavists will no doubt fiercely oppose with their liberal opinions on ‘race science.’ Crimea will be used to weaken them, Ethiopia and the Armenians to break them. Hyacinth and Palladius can be used to learn of more church members. The pan-slavists . . . Alexander grimaced. He knew of no pan-slavists he could easily turn. But perhaps he did not need to turn them. He only needed an opening in their movement, and there were plenty of panslavists who would gladly speak a few words in exchange for debt relief. The only issue was making sure it could not be traced back to him. If Alexander’s father learned he was trying to foment division in the pan-Slavists–or worse, if the Tsar thought Alexander was honestly favoring Catholic equality–he could easily find himself out of favor. Certainly out of Siberia, and perhaps even disowned.