The Young Heir and the Northern Expedition
Vladimir Kirillovich *** Kirill Vladimirovich eventually fled the Kremlin Palace as if he were being chased out. He was scheduled to be sent to Finland together with his family. But then—
“I am the boy’s biological mother. At least allow me to remain here. Please, I beg you.”
Vladimir’s mother, Victoria Melita, declared that she would stay. I might have been able to send the father away, but I couldn’t very well separate a mother from her child. I had no desire to be remembered by later generations as the Tsarina who trampled on maternal love. I didn’t want to hear that sort of thing.
“That much I can permit. However, I advise you not to entertain any foolish notions of instilling useless ideas in Vladimir. Never forget that a gun barrel is always pointed at the back of Grand Duke Kirill’s head.”
Victoria Melita accepted every condition I laid down. Was this lawful? In this place, I was the law. The members of the State Duma were either already my people or had turned their backs on the Romanov dynasty itself, so they accepted whatever I did.
When all was said and done, only Kirill had effectively been sentenced to exile in the Kingdom of Finland. To be honest, I had heard that Kirill’s wife, Victoria Melita, had once supported his claim to the throne, but since that future had not yet come to pass, it was difficult to criticize her for it. At present I was the absolute monarch, and the woman had just learned that her son would obtain the nominal position of Tsar. She would hardly continue supporting Kirill. Instead, she would likely listen only to me.
I would send word ahead to the Kingdom of Finland regarding Grand Duke Kirill, but as promised I also intended to dispatch agents of the Ohrana to keep him under surveillance. In the original history he had strutted about as head of the Romanov family while loudly proclaiming himself Tsar, but that would not be permitted here. I could understand why he had stabbed Nicholas II in the back—Nicholas II had been incompetent, and even the people had given up hope on the Romanovs and chosen the Soviets instead. But to then declare himself head of the Romanov family on top of that struck me as utterly shameless. And now he was trying to assert some new claim because he had become the father of the Tsar? Disgusting.
While the mother, Melita, would handle the boy’s upbringing, I had no intention of allowing any meddling. In addition, I decided to assign Georgy Lvov—leader of the Progressive Party and a liberal thinker—as Vladimir’s tutor. Once the boy grew older and needed to enter military service, I would also arrange for him to associate with figures from the military establishment.
“Is this truly acceptable?”
The Prime Minister seemed to be asking whether I was being too harsh with the imperial family. Yes, at first glance it might appear that way.
“He should be grateful I didn’t have him killed. Still, we cannot afford to slacken our surveillance. Since Beria of the Ohrana has proven quite capable, I’ll have him take over the watch once he finishes dealing with Trotsky.”
If anything suspicious occurred, Beria could dirty his hands a little more. Considering the man’s fate in the original timeline, he was supposed to meet a miserable end anyway. At the very least, he could handle all the dirty work so I wouldn’t have to stain my own hands.
“Understood.”
Right. In that case, since the thought had occurred to me, I might as well meet Vladimir. Since I had brought him here while he was still young, he would have received almost no influence from his father. From now on I needed to make certain he was thoroughly shaped by our side.
“Now that I think of it, I should meet with Vladimir. After all, he is my cousin once removed, isn’t he? If there is nothing else requiring my attention today, I’ll go see him.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Vladimir was still within the Kremlin Palace. To be honest, although I had ordered him brought here, I had not seen him often. That had been out of concern for the communists inside the palace; I had been protecting him. But now that the communists within Russia had been eliminated, there was no longer any reason to hide him.
Vladimir was playing with the dog that Wilhelm II had sent. He had named it Belka. They seemed to get along splendidly. Even when the dog saw me, it followed people so well that it trotted after me. If Vladimir wasn’t saddened by his father’s absence, then all the better. I could only hope Belka would do his best.
Now that I looked, the dog was quite sturdy and suited Vladimir well. I approached the boy where he was playing with Belka in the garden.
“Aunt Anastasia!”
What? No. No, that wouldn’t do. Honestly, was I really old enough to be called aunt? Even as I thought this, when I considered Vladimir’s age it did make sense. Yes, that was true. From the outside, the age gap was too large to call me his older sister. If one were to be technical, if I had given birth early, I could have a child Vladimir’s age. Still, aunt was simply wrong. We had to settle the form of address properly.
I placed both hands on Vladimir’s small shoulders, smiled brightly, and spoke in a calm voice.
“I am your older sister, not your aunt.”
“Big sister?”
That innocent, wide-eyed face only a child could make—pure and knowing nothing. I had always disliked children, yet somehow this one was cute.
“Yes, your big sister.”
Hearing myself called aunt felt strangely unpleasant. I was his big sister. Not his aunt—his big sister.
“Big sister. I heard Father has gone to Finland. Is that true?”
“Mm. Grand Duke Kirill has left for Finland for your sake.”
“Father? Why?”
Hmm. Should I embellish this in a fairy-tale style so a child could understand, or tell him the truth? I hesitated for a moment. Being caught lying to a child later and accused of deception would be unpleasant. Let’s be honest. I could tell him the truth in moderation, and if he asked about his father again later, I could simply remind him that I had already explained. By then I would have shaped him properly. For now, even if he couldn’t fully grasp it, a simple “I see” would suffice.
I crouched down and spoke gently.
“When Russia fell into chaos, Grand Duke Kirill swore loyalty to the government instead of to the Tsar. Because of that, he was branded a traitor by the Romanov imperial family.”
“Then… what happens now?”
Young as he was, he surely knew about the Tsar and the Romanov family. If he asked what would happen, it was only right to answer.
“So Grand Duke Kirill left for Finland by himself. He feared that if he stayed with you, you would be criticized too.”
“Did Father do something very wrong?”
Yes. That’s right. After betraying Nicholas and pledging loyalty to the revolutionary government, once Nicholas II was dead and the succession became unclear, he had the audacity to proclaim himself the next Tsar. If he had stopped at one thing it might have been tolerable, but the fact that he seized the moment to assert his claim to the throne was repulsive. I wondered what sort of person Vladimir would have grown into had he been raised under that Grand Duke Kirill. In the original history there had even been suspicions that Vladimir had collaborated with the Axis powers. I didn’t know the full truth of his heart.
“He committed a very grave mistake. Saving you was the best I could do. Because of your father, many people turned their backs on the Romanovs.”
“I see.”
“If you wish to honor your father, then you must learn about this Russia beneath me and strive to become capable of inheriting what comes after me.”
Work hard. At the very least, you must become the proper heir. Once you grow up and occupy a seat in the Duma, once you earn the goodwill of the Duma—Grand Duke Kirill will die. Before then, in this history, he might die at Beria’s hands.
“Yes! I’ll work hard to become like you, Aunt!”
Why was “aunt” appearing again?
“No, I told you—big sister. Big sister.”
After playing with Vladimir and Belka for quite a while, I returned to my office. Come to think of it, the Kaiser and the other nations that would join the Anti-Comintern Pact would soon be sending envoys to Russia. Józef Piłsudski of Poland might be targeted by terrorists on the way, so we ought to welcome him with considerable enthusiasm, shouldn’t we?
The Chinese Protection Government, with Russian assistance, had strengthened its army and launched a northern expedition. Gradually, Duan Qirui’s Beiyang Government began to be pushed back by the Protection Government forces supported by Russia. In particular, the army of Chen Jiongming—who served as the liaison with Russia—had indirectly absorbed the experience of the Russian Civil War through the help of White Army military advisors who had distinguished themselves in that conflict. They then taught those lessons to the Protection Army, raising the overall quality of the troops. This well-armed force performed far better than the others.
On the battlefield, the Protection Army troops armed with Russian weapons shouted “Long live the Republic of China!” and charged with both spirit and proper training. It was a charge inspired by the Russian “Ura” assault, but adapted into a distinctly Chinese “Mansei Charge.” At first glance it might appear to be nothing more than mindless human-wave tactics, yet the Mansei Charge of an army equipped with modern Russian weapons could not be ignored.
Of course, the military advisors had simply joked about teaching the “Ura Charge”—a thoughtless tactic once used by the Reds during the Russian Civil War—because the Chinese had so many men. The Protection Army had then changed it into the Mansei Charge.
“They’re actually using it.”
“With so many troops, it seems to work well. Is this really all right?”
“Her Majesty the Tsarina hopes either that the civil war drags on or that China suffers heavy losses if it does not. Leave it be.”
The military advisors decided to let it pass. Although the Beiyang Government forces under Duan Qirui had greater numbers, the Beiyang regime’s acceptance of the Japanese occupation of South Manchuria had created widespread discontent. When the Protection Government launched its northern expedition, many rebelled against the Beiyang Government or declared neutrality, rendering numbers largely irrelevant.
“As expected, the weapons sent by Her Majesty the Tsarina are superb!”
“Hahaha! It is General Chen Jiongming’s leadership that truly shines!”
Chiang Kai-shek disliked both Chen Jiongming for flattering the Russian military advisors and the advisors themselves for accepting the praise, but there was nothing he could do. After all, it was thanks to those Russian weapons that he could expand his own army.
Meanwhile, Mao Zedong of the Chinese Communist Party had grown close to Chen Jiongming around this time.
“General, do you truly believe that if China follows your vision, it can develop into a stronger nation through federal provincial autonomy?”
“Indeed. You also consider a unified China to be the root of all evil, do you not?”
“That is true, but…”
At this stage, Mao Zedong believed a unified China had no future. He therefore shared considerable common ground with Chen Jiongming, who advocated provincial autonomy.
“If federal provincial autonomy is realized, you could effectively establish your own state within China. That is how we build unified external strength.”
“Ohhh.”
Mao Zedong had founded the Communist Party, yet with the Soviet Union gone, his version of communism had become closer to anarchism. It was the sort of ideology that would have prompted Trotsky or Lenin to ask what on earth made it communism. It was an ambiguous, anarchist-leaning communism. Having lost the civil war, and having watched power immediately breed corruption that prevented them from even manufacturing proper bullets—on top of Trotsky’s escape—Mao no longer saw the Soviet Union as a useful reference. Communist armed struggle had ended in miserable failure in the Soviet case, and while the Communist state in Germany had seemed plausible, such a revolutionary method did not suit a country as vast as China. He therefore wished to establish a Soviet republic peacefully in one region rather than through armed struggle.
“Still, it is a pity. Of all things, a Communist Party.”
“Mm, but I am not a communist in the same vein as Lenin or Trotsky.”
He could not follow those two. Lenin had ultimately been defeated, and in the final stages of the civil war had even threatened and conscripted the people simply to cling to power. As for Trotsky, who had become famous by fleeing, there was no need to speak of him. People called him a major figure, but that was all.
“Then that is fortunate. The Tsar in Moscow despises communists.”
“Now that you mention it, I heard you met the Tsarina in person. Is she truly such a remarkable figure?”
“Shh.”
Chen Jiongming covered his mouth with his hand as though speaking of something taboo. Do not speak of it. Mao Zedong opened his mouth, then closed it again.
“Pardon?”
“Astonishingly, she knew every plan I have in mind and the entire situation of the Protection Government. It was as if she were a true saint.”
“Does that make any sense?”
“Think conversely. Even if that were not the case, it means the Tsar’s eyes and ears are already everywhere within the Protection Government.”
Ah. Mao Zedong’s eyes suddenly lit up with understanding. Chen Jiongming was not simply exalting the Tsarina as a saint. He was saying that the Tsar’s eyes and ears were already inside the Protection Government. Just when had they planted their agents? Moreover, there were no white people in the Protection Government. The fact that the Tsar’s eyes and ears existed within a government composed solely of Chinese meant that ethnic Russian Chinese held significant positions inside it. Who could say whether they had not also infiltrated the small communist faction that had joined the Protection Government?
Honestly, it was easier to simply believe she was a saint who knew everything.
“That may be so, but…”
In any case, Mao Zedong found that his words flowed easily with Chen Jiongming.
“Even if we tried to search the Protection Government for the Tsar’s shadow, the situation does not allow it. It is more comfortable to simply regard her as a saint who knows all.”
Yes, that seemed better. It would be difficult to identify who among them served the Tsar. It was easier to simply accept that she was a saint.
“That is true. However, I have learned that the Tsarina permitted the establishment of the Anarchist Free Territory in Ukraine.”
“Ah, I heard about that as well. So you lean that way?”
“Yes. I am not like Lenin or Trotsky.”
Why would he follow them? They were nothing but losers. The Bolsheviks themselves, sensing they would lose the civil war, had immediately revealed their true colors and begun conscripting armies purely to maintain power. He had no intention of walking their path.
“I see. In any case, I will need you to assist me greatly.”
“Of course.”
Unlike the original history, the timing of the Chinese Communist Party’s formation had shifted, and Mao Zedong’s ideology had changed considerably. He showed great interest in Chen Jiongming’s idea of federal provincial autonomy. Only through such a system could his currently weak Communist Party divide China and create a world based on his own ideology.