Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 123 >

While the purge’s blades were raging in distant Russia, a small movement was also starting on a peninsula facing the eastern edge of the Russian Empire.

First, the naval cabinet that had seized power in the Japanese Empire was being tested for its leadership.

Despite winning the war with China, the navy was unable to do anything after occupying Hainan Island.

If he had done anything at sea beyond that, it was obvious that he would directly touch the hearts of the British, Americans, and Germans.

Of course, Germany is in a situation where its naval power evaporates and rebuilds from scratch.

Thanks to this, only the victory of the army was reported in the newspapers.

With the navy’s diminished presence, the British had been putting pressure on them and, crucially, the war brought problems.

When the Japanese army dispatched troops to North China, rice prices skyrocketed due to collusion among rice wholesalers who predicted that a large amount of rice would be consumed.

The angry crowd began to protest, which soon escalated into riots. All sorts of chaos ensued, including arson at rice shops and distribution companies, and the Navy’s cabinet tried to suppress it.

But there was a problem. Currently, most of the Naval Land Squadron troops were deployed to Hainan Island, and the Navy’s cabinet did not want to even die to open their hands to the army.

The idea that came from there was the Interior Army. What was the original purpose of the existence of the Internal Affairs Force, was it not to suppress riots?

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Moreover, although the Interior Ministry replaced the Russian Army this time, the Navy remains the same. What does this mean?

Wouldn’t it be better to create an internal military force to suppress the rebellion first, then gradually grow it, get rid of the unsightly army guys, and complete the internal affairs army filled with naval personnel?

It was such a perfect plan.

To this end, instructors and officers were called out, and in addition, a plan was drawn up to merge police forces, including the Special High Police of the Ministry of Home Affairs, based on the fact that the original internal affairs army was a police force.

It started with distributing military firearms to the police. Police officers, who were provided with simple military ranks and equipment such as rifles and machine guns provided by the Navy, were sent to quell the unrest after brief mental training.

The way was simple. As they saw in Central Asia and St. Petersburg, they were just shredded with guns, and they brought artillery and aircraft with them when things got bad.

Is there anything strange about it? The Russian Ministry of Interior, the originator of all interior forces, poured poison gas on the rebels and suppressed the coup with bombers and naval artillery fire.

Grinding a machine gun is enough, compared to international standards, isn’t it too much freedom?

It was self-evident how much unarmed citizens could stand against a situation in which biplanes were sharply descending, sharpening their machine guns, and the police, who were led by mounted police officers, were wearing gas masks and rushing at them.

The major cities of the Japanese archipelago became a sea of blood, and the rice riots in the inner land were put to an end after being suppressed by fierce tyranny.

on the inside, that is.

In Korea, the story was different. Although it is the territory of the army, the price of rice also skyrocketed in Joseon, and the Japanese Government-General of Korea was unable to come up with any countermeasures.

There, the Sierra Leone flu (Spanish flu) was the highlight.

The Sierra Leone flu, which devastated all of Europe from Russia to Britain, the United States, and China, causing massive casualties, did not go unnoticed by Japan and Korea.

The problem was that the Japanese Government-General of Korea had neither the will nor the ability to take quarantine measures. It was in contrast to the fact that the Russian Empire, which immediately bordered on the border, took emergency measures such as distributing masks and making it mandatory to wear them.

In this process, the number of people who crossed over to Russia has increased compared to the original history. Anyway, if you go to Manchuria, it is the same Japanese territory, but it was because of the expectation that the Russian Empire would be something different.

If there was one thing that fueled the movement even more, it was because of the legend that spread among Koreans.

It is said that there is a Joseon general who is the son-in-law of Emperor Arrasa and a master of undiscipline.

Isn’t the country where he lives different from the place where there is no hope?

Of course, Moscow gave clear instructions to the Far Eastern Military District in this regard.

If the refugees are willing to follow the laws of the empire and settle down, you can accept them, settle them, go through screening and accept them as citizens. Burn it and send it to Chechnya.

Of course, forced migration has already been made against ethnic minorities causing problems, but the fact that a special order has been issued to the Korean community has also seriously recognized this problem in Moscow, and there is no discrimination and it is ordered again to deal with the principle and principle. that was one

Thanks to this, not only did those who suddenly started a new life in Chechnya, and those who frequently crossed the border and were taken to Ohrana for being suspected of being Japanese spies – were turned out to be real spies and taken to the Gulag, where they were taken to the aristocracy and gangsters. There were quite a few cases where I got to pick a pickaxe in – The Korean Liberation Army Government (established in Vladivostok in 1914, an organization separate from the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea established by the March 1st Movement, originally collapsed under the pressure of the Russian Empire immediately after the start of World War I) Again, although not at the level of being oppressed, local officials felt uncomfortable with them, which led to an order to keep the armed forces in the Russian army arsenal.

In fact, this was also the case throughout Russia.

In the midst of the military and administrative reforms accompanied by the purge, the principle established in Moscow was that ‘all armed forces are monopolized by the state’.

Of course, it didn’t regulate the hunter’s shotguns or the shotguns that people living in the backcountry had for self-defense. The disarmament of the armed ‘group’ was swift.

The justification was enough. It was said that among the white soldiers who rebelled in the last St. Petersburg Incident, there was a militia, in fact, a private enlisted of nobles.

Of course, as the coup failed, they became manure piles for St. Petersburg, and their combat power was at a level lower than that of the Interior Army in the first place, but it was just right to use it as a justification.

And it was only natural that the independence forces who fled to Russia were asked to choose whether to disband or retain their weapons.

In any case, civilians are not allowed to possess automatic weapons, so automatic weapons and heavy weapons of a certain caliber are confiscated, and the rest of the armaments are kept by the Russian Army and, of course, the independence army resisted the request to hand them over if they judged it was okay to give them.

It was also true that a significant number of people thought that Russia was not on very good terms with Japan, and that the commander of the army was the Grand Duke of Vostok, who would help them fight for their country’s independence.

However, he was the national leader of Russia before he was born in Joseon.

And, of course, for him, the reform-purge work in progress was more important than support for the independence movement.

Although it was a milder method than the purge, an administrative vacuum and national chaos could not be avoided, and in the meantime, it was virtually impossible for the independence forces of Manchuria and Gando to flee and accept their demands for recognition.

Simply put, Russia was not in a situation to clash with Japan.

***

Vladivostok. Russia.

“Last warning.”

“……”

“The Russian Empire has so far been very tolerant of you, allowing you to possess weapons, and protecting you in your own country at the risk of armed conflict with a foreign country.”

Suddenly, someone woke up.

“Wow!”

But immediately after that, his mouth was covered with his hand. A middle-aged man nearby had urgently covered the young man’s mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

“We clearly sympathize with your situation, and I can understand the great sorrow of losing your country, but that sympathy cannot immediately lead to the tolerance of lawlessness.”

Of course, he didn’t really sympathize at all. I just left it alone.

Of course, there was an official notice saying that it should be executed according to the law, but it was handled in a moderately judo-ri manner. If I made a book for nothing, it would be a pain, so local officials buried the work as much as possible.

But it was also to a degree.

“If you want to establish a base in the territory of the Empire, obey the laws of the Empire. This is my last warning, and I will not come personally next time, armed gendarmes will come.”

Russian officials slammed the door and left.

The young man, who was only then released, turned around and stared at the middle-aged man who had his mouth covered and forcibly sat him down.

“Why did you stop me!”

“Don’t scratch it and make it crumble.”

“Why is it against the law to fight him and punish traitors!”

In fact, it was not that Russia did not intend to use the forces of the independence army.

If guerrilla forces who are well aware of the topography of Manchuria and Primorsky Krai continue to exist, they can gain an advantageous position in the inevitable future war, thus providing their base in Primorsky Krai, supporting them in preparation for future war situations, and There was a proposal from the military to use them during wartime.

But then was then, and now is now.

The present state of the Russian Empire did not allow it to be left in the present chaos for future gain.

Numerous projects, including large-scale economic development and infrastructure development, were being conceived. To this end, the Kremlin office was first integrated into the countryside of the Far East, a naval base in Finland, an army base in Central Asia, an administrative office in Constantinople, and so on. The reality is that the establishment of a mechanical bureaucracy that can be controlled like this should be prioritized.

Whereas other countries took centuries to transform from feudalism to an administrative monarchy, the Russian Empire was ordered to catch up and outperform some in 10 years.

Even if it was a situation where he had the power to kill all those who resisted, and made others shut their mouths in fear, it was tight. There was no circumstance where exceptions could be made.

“Why on earth did he persecute us when he inherited the blood of Joseon?”

The fact that they had not yet been subjected to forced dissolution, let alone persecution, was a great mercy, but not from their point of view.

Shouldn’t it be necessary to supply weapons and funds, and furthermore, draw the Russian army and liberate Joseon?

It sounded stupid. Even if he doesn’t know the duke’s biggest secret right now, he has no contact with Joseon except for his bloodline.

At the very least, it is highly probable that they were very young, who had been there for a short time, or who had never been born in Joseon at all.

Growing up, he fought the war with Germany and traveled back and forth between France, England, and the Netherlands, never set foot in Japan or Joseon, and married a Russian.

If you ask him who he thinks he is, everyone knows, unless you are an idiot, that it would be more natural for him to reply that he is Russian among Russians and Koreans.

Sadly, many of these people were the idiots.