Chapter 482: Russia Is in Turmoil Again

In February 1919, when the pandemic was still mildly raging around the world, Russia's situation finally took a step ahead of Germany and exploded like a powder keg.

The disputes between the three major forces in Russia naturally need no elaboration, and the cause of the explosion of this powder keg was naturally the military equipment that Nicholas II exchanged from Australasia.

The Russian capitalist government is the real power in Russia, the Moscow region controlled by the Workers' Union is the local government, and Tsar Nicholas II is the representative of the aristocratic forces.

These three major forces all control a considerable part of the army, among which the capitalist government nominally controls all the troops of the original Tsarist government, and even more than 7 million during the war.

Of course, the Tsarist government's statistics on the number of soldiers are also very exaggerated. According to the actual statistics of the capitalist government, the Russian army on the front line has only more than 5 million people, but this is definitely not a small number.

After the armistice, the Russian government urgently cut down the army of more than 5 million.

To be honest, there are also reparations from Germany, and the Russian government cannot support such a large number of troops.

After a considerable amount of streamlining, the army controlled by the Russian government was only over 1 million, which can be said to have restored the size of the army of the Tsarist government before the war.

However, this also led to a problem, that is, the Russian government did not properly resettle the soldiers who were laid off.

The war was a huge devastation to Russia and caused great damage to Russia's economy.

As a result, the Russian government did not have enough jobs for these retired soldiers, and the retired soldiers could only go back to their old jobs and become farmers again.

The problem is that a considerable number of these retired soldiers live in Eastern Europe. Their homes have suffered a lot of damage, but they have not received corresponding compensation.

The Russian government only paid a small pension for the disabled and the dead, and the amount of this pension was not even as high as the soldiers' salary.

This is not a big deal. The important thing is that a considerable number of soldiers who participated in World War I for the Russian government were dismissed by the government without receiving enough salary.

This also led to a large number of Russian soldiers being dissatisfied with this way of handling the situation. Many soldiers even took to the streets to protest and demanded that the government give them enough salary and compensation.

The conflict between the government and the soldiers gave Nicholas II and the Workers' Union an opportunity.

The two major forces began to frantically absorb these dissatisfied soldiers, waiting to give him a fatal blow when the Russian capitalist government was at its most vulnerable.

Soon, Nicholas II and the Workers' Union got their chance.

With the outbreak of the flu, the Russian government obviously did not take any preventive measures, and hundreds of thousands of deaths occurred within a few months.

This was not the worst, because the flu caused a large amount of supplies to be unable to be transported to the city.

The workers and civilians in the city suffered from severe famine and chaos due to lack of supplies.

These famines and chaos further affected the order of the city, making it more difficult for supplies from other regions to enter the city.

Under the influence of one ring after another, the order in Russia was close to collapse.

Although the official Russian statistics showed that the number of deaths due to the flu was less than one million, the number of people who starved to death had already exceeded one million.

Even if the Russian government imported a large amount of food from Britain, France and Australasia, there was no sufficient manpower to transport it to major cities and put it in the hands of the people suffering from famine.

The people could not get food and emergency supplies, and they became more angry with the government. They began to take to the streets, which exacerbated the outbreak of the flu.

Although Nicholas II and the Workers' Union were keenly aware that the opportunity had come, it was obvious that they did not dare to launch any action when the flu was raging.

Regardless of whether the action was successful or not, the flu would cause huge casualties to the people, which might even directly make their actions fail.

After all, the reason why the Russian people were dissatisfied with the capitalist government was that the capitalist government did not guarantee the rights of soldiers and people, and the government's negligence caused a large number of casualties among the people.

If Nicholas II and the Workers' Union could not put an end to this, they would be no different from the capitalist government, and naturally they would not be supported by the people.

Both forces were waiting for a more suitable opportunity, an opportunity when the flu was not so serious.

As time entered 1919, the flu was actually not so serious. Although it is not possible to say that the second wave of flu has completely ended, the number of people infected in Europe has dropped below 1 million, and the number of people infected in Russia has added up to less than 500,000.

And most of the infected people at this time have mild symptoms, which also means that the current flu is not so deadly.

After careful consideration, Nicholas II decided to take the lead in launching an action, first to regain power from the capitalist government, and then to wipe out the workers' union in the Moscow area and rebuild Russia into a great Tsarist Russia.

Before the action, Nicholas II contacted several generals in the army who were loyal to the royal family, and controlled hundreds of thousands of Russian troops through these generals.

These troops will be the guarantee for Nicholas II to regain power, and after regaining power, Nicholas II also intends to rely on the weapons and equipment of Australasia to quickly expand his army to more than 1 million, and maintain absolute suppression of the capitalist government and the workers' union.

Nicholas II's fantasy was actually very good. After all, the bourgeoisie government was no longer popular among the people. Nicholas II felt that he would be able to gain the loyalty of a large number of Russian people with a wave of his arm.

With hundreds of thousands of Russian troops and a large amount of weapons and equipment, it was not difficult for the bourgeoisie government to seize power and successfully eliminate the Workers' Union.

On February 15, 1919, a Russian army raided St. Petersburg and quickly controlled the government seat and the Winter Palace.

The people of St. Petersburg watched this plot that was exactly the same as two years ago, and they were so scared that they returned to their houses in a panic and locked the doors and windows and dared not make a sound.

The Russian bourgeoisie government naturally remembered the way it seized power and was always on guard against similar ways to seize its power.

But the problem was that the bourgeoisie government's attitude towards pensions chilled the soldiers, and the flu inevitably affected the families of some soldiers, resulting in a significant reduction in the loyalty of the troops stationed outside St. Petersburg to the bourgeoisie government.

In addition, the army was a surprise attack, and the capitalist government had no time to react before the army took control of the government and the Winter Palace, and Nicholas II also regained his power.

The news of Nicholas II's actions soon reached Moscow, and the Workers' Union made a decisive decision to expand its territory to Ukraine and the Caucasus, forming a situation of north-south division with St. Petersburg.

In fact, this is also a helpless choice. After all, St. Petersburg, the center of Russia's current political power, has been controlled by Nicholas II. The difficulty of the Workers' Union to seize St. Petersburg is no less than occupying the entire Russia at this moment.

Compared with the heavily guarded Poland and St. Petersburg in the north, Ukraine and the Caucasus in the south are the areas that the Workers' Union can better control.

On February 17, the Workers' Union launched an action. The Bolshevik Party publicly criticized the government for withholding military salaries and pensions, and accused the government of inaction during the flu.

In order to make its actions look less like a rebellion, the Workers' Union officially announced that it would break away from the rule of the Russian Provisional Government and form Soviet Russia with Moscow as its capital.

The Workers' Union announced to the whole of Russia that it would establish a truly fair and just country, bring democratic ideas to all Russians, and protect Russians from oppression by all classes.

Along with the newly established Soviet state, the Workers' Union also promoted what it did during the flu.

It must be praised that the Workers' Union had very good control over the Moscow region.

This led to the Workers' Union establishing a fairly reasonable material distribution system just after the flu broke out.

Although it was inevitable that a considerable number of citizens in the Moscow region were infected with the flu, this centralized material distribution system ensured that almost all people in the Moscow region could get enough food to fill their stomachs and would not cause too serious famine in the area.

Although it was nothing compared to the free and sufficient food supply in Australasia, compared with the chaotic management of the Russian government, the system of the Workers' Union during the flu was still quite excellent.

It was also the Workers' Union's external achievement, which was widely publicized by the Workers' Union and regarded as the absolute fairness and justice standard of the new Soviet Russia.

After all, during the flu, the proportion of material distribution between the top leaders and the people of all parties in the Workers' Union was the same, and there was no distinction between the top leaders of the government and the people.

Compared with the luxurious banquets held by the Russian government during the flu, the Workers' Union was indeed fair and just.

But it was inevitable that special treatment and exceptions would occur, but overall it was not biased, at least the people had enough to eat.

Thanks to this achievement that was all supported by its peers, the Workers' Union was still very popular in the areas around Moscow.

Although the Ukrainian region was not so welcoming to the Workers' Union, compared with the Workers' Union with a larger army, Ukraine's strength did not allow them to resist, or they could not resist for too long.

By the time European countries and Arthur received the news, the Workers' Union and Nicholas II had successfully completed the division of the north and the south, and Russia had instantly changed from a three-legged tripod to a two-power confrontation.

In addition to the Baltic coast, the control of Tsarist Russia also included the entire Polish region and Eastern Europe north of the Volga River.

The Soviet Russia controlled by the Workers' Union controlled the southern part of Eastern Europe south of the Volga River, including most of Ukraine.

Although the Workers' Union had not yet reached the west bank of the Dniester River, this was inevitable.

The Siberian region outside Eastern Europe has not been affected by the separation of powers for the time being.

After all, the Russian region outside Eastern Europe is too desolate and has no decisive role in Russia's civil strife.

What Nicholas II and the Workers' Union valued each other was the competition with each other. Whoever could control the entire Eastern European region also represented who had the initiative to rule the entire Russia.

Nicholas II, who had experienced a huge setback, also understood the importance of winning the hearts of the people.

Under the premise that the Workers' Union was trying to win over the civilian class, Nicholas II also announced that he would reissue pensions to all soldiers who had contributed to World War I. This move immediately won the favor of a large number of soldiers, and even shouted "Long live Nicholas II" in the army!

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