Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 133 >

“The Italian Civil War?”

“That’s right.”

“What… is there anything to be concerned about?”

I put the pen down.

As I looked through the Russian Empire’s administrative reform plan, I tilted my head.

To be honest, it’s hard to just accept the bullshit of Stolipin.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is overburdened with work and is making a fuss about suggesting splitting up departments and transferring authority.

To be honest, without GRU, those corrupt officials couldn’t be caught–there are many who were swept away during the purge, but there are still a lot of them–there are only nightlife and anger.

Still, Stolipin is an irreplaceable talent. There’s nothing that can’t be replaced exactly, but I don’t like it. When Stolipin comes down from that place, I’m the only one who can get in there.

Before the military administration in Central Asia is immediately terminated, Stolipin is also taking charge of the installation of the Gemstvo to replace it, and the expansion of the bureaucracy in Siberia for the management of Siberia.

A great empire can never move with one fist. If you like it, you want to grind engineers and create an ogas that can do this for you, but it’s still too early, and I don’t know if Alan Turing is kidnapped.

“I did something crazy.”

Did you feel good when you pluck the ground? It’s time to pay the price, damn it.

Originally, it wouldn’t matter. Russia is a modern medieval country.

If you eat the land, that’s it.

The problem is that what I’m doing now is changing Russia from the Middle Ages to a modern state.

“And now we have to increase the number of civil servants and raise their salaries, and there is no armament to intervene in that.”

Literally, even if it’s a cat’s hand, there’s no one in it when I filter it out with the ineligible purge.

Since we cannot wait for the recruitment of civil servants who have been slowing down, we need to streamline the bureaucracy as much as possible. Otherwise, you will die on the paperwork.

In fact, I have heard that in some regions, there are local officials who voluntarily transfer their authority to others. If the threat of overwork comes with a reality, maybe the lust for power also slows down a bit?

If there is no hand to reach out to the provinces, local affairs must be handled at the local level, and sufficient manpower is required to maintain centralization.

The military administration of the occupied areas is a pain in the ass… Like the Czech military government, you have to install Gemstvo and change it little by little. No, in fact, the military government may be more systematic than the bureaucracy in underdeveloped regions, including the Russian Far East.

“I… so…”

“How is the civil war in Italy going?”

“It is a battle between the left and the right. As you know, the left is insisting on the communist revolution, and the right is a mixture of recent kings and republicans…”

“We are looking to sell arms, we are in dire need of foreign currency right now. Sell all your decommissioning equipment.”

“All right.”

You should take this opportunity to sell your equipment and everything, clean up your inventory, and get some cash.

“And never give it away for free, you have to make sure you get the price. If you don’t have cash, take it with this coupon.”

money, money, money.

A penny of money is urgent

***

“Are you on a business trip again?”

“sorry. The economic community is still in its infancy, so I have to go around on my own.”

Dissonance erupts from all sides, and I am the only one who can fix it.

“I will go to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czech Republic, Germany in that order, it will take several months.”

“A few months…”

She wants to follow her if she wants to, but she had a reason not to leave Moscow, or, preferably, even the Kremlin.

“I’ll be back soon, at least…before the due date.”

Olga glanced at her own stomach, which, on the surface, still looked unaffected.

Doctors say it’s very likely she’s pregnant, but her belly, which hasn’t been brought in, was wondering whether she herself was right.

Actually, it’s even weirder if you’re already called in early pregnancy.

“I will go to Hungary and briefly visit Belgrade for talks, and after going to Prague, I will stop for a while in Bremen, Germany, and then I will go back to Berlin to talk about this Anschlus issue.”

“Why Bremen? Did you hide your lover there?”

“What do you mean, as an investor, we want to talk to you about the business situation, because I can’t go to Frankfurt or Bonn.”

“Yeah, I should be thankful that I didn’t even go there… No, I’m still anxious.”

“then?”

“Take Maria.”

“Are you watching?”

“You call them a counselor, and you’re not going to just stay, there must be a banquet or something like that, so you want to find a partner there?”

“….. I lost.”

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head.

“Get some rest.”

Olga pursed her lips as if something was dissatisfied, but she didn’t hold me.

‘Cause she’s sorry too

“honey.”

“yes?”

“……Tell me that I will visit you soon.”

“I think it’s still too early…”

I bowed my head for a moment.

“I’ll tell you first.”

“thank you.”

The Great Depression is approaching.

Based on the original history, the remaining time is 9 years.

In front of the timer that steadily decreased, all I could do was work on paperwork.

At the end of the paperwork was laid the bridge, the railroad laid, the telegraph laid.

The fate of hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people was decided at the end of the paperwork.

The timing was just right.

In the frenzied 20s, frugality was a sin and consumption was the only virtue.

It was also the perfect time to prepare something.

Of course, it was limited to a few countries in Western Europe. In Turkey, Greece, China, and Italy, bullets and shells were constantly flying.

Did I say that only the dead see the end of war? Perhaps even the dead will not be able to see the end of Japan’s thunderbolt. In addition to occupying North China, the Japanese Empire crawled into Shandong Province and demanded that the Republic of China give up the four provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, and Shandong.

Of course, it is not an incorporation into the territory and it seems that they are trying to establish a puppet state like Manchukuo, but no, it is not Toyotomi Hideyoshi who was talking about giving out 4 of the 8 provinces of Joseon. I don’t know if

He has a delusion of conquering China and then crossing the Himalayas into India, but what level of delusion is that of Hitler Levensraum?

Here too, Puyi is said to be the successor of the Qing Dynasty, and is about to ascend the throne as the resurrected monarch of the Qing Dynasty. Instead of Manchukuo, he was the emperor of the Qing Dynasty without Manchuria, who had four surnames… Hmm.

Well, I don’t know what kind of trouble the yangban will suffer, but in any case, there is no question in itself that Japan is running rampant with repeated thunderbolts.

Not long ago, it was said that the first navy governor-general in history was appointed, and I wondered if that might have had an impact.

America is… unexpectedly quiet. The war with Mexico is now slowly coming to an end, and Mexico, who has ripped off a vast territory following the toppling of the former Texas, must refrain from silence.

There seems to be no change in the US presidential election, and each country’s naval plans are cruising.

Domestically, reforms have worked to some extent, exporting surplus agricultural products, and various plans are being made to respond to emergencies, namely the Great Depression.

The Great Depression was essentially an extreme economic recession and deflation. collapse of the bubble economy. Prices have plummeted, not inflation.

And even the FDR’s New Deal, the most representative way to respond to the Great Depression, did not rescue the unemployed. The New Deal did not bail out the unemployed, but surprisingly, it was a policy that allowed companies to survive without going bankrupt. Although the minimum wage was enforced, there were no other safeguards for the workers.

It only prevented the increase in the number of unemployed as a result of the New Deal through large-scale public works, but had no fundamental effect in reducing the number.

‘Would it have been better if the Great Depression had happened now?’

It was a silly idea, but it made sense.

On the contrary, given the current state of the Russian Empire, if the initial shock of the Great Depression is well tolerated, it could be turned into an opportunity.

Unemployed? The manpower that I’m running out of right now is manpower.

You might be wondering what kind of bullshit it is that there is a shortage of manpower in a country that collects idiots from fields, but what I need now is not idiots, but at least people who can read and write.

I didn’t want to realize how great elementary education is in this way, but anyway, a lot of educated people will roll out, so they can absorb and use the unemployed within the economic community. Some are cherry-picking companies from other countries.

Of course, we need a lot of idiots too. Even the simple labor force is not properly laid out, and there is a lot of work to be done at home and abroad, such as the Siberian railway double track plan and canals. Even if you want to get a general education right now, do you have to have a school? To build a school, you need cement and workers…

In the original history, the prisoners of the Gulag – in fact, it was quite sluggish even after mobilizing the prisoners – laid the infrastructure while working as slaves, but here the unemployed are hired to work.

Of course, financial resources are a problem…. It is difficult to obtain gold by mining in Siberia, and as Roosevelt did, there is a high possibility that individuals will have to take extreme measures such as banning gold holdings and temporarily suspending the gold standard. Is it some kind of quantitative easing?

In any case, I have decided to spend my frantic twenties preparing for the Great Depression and the inevitable war. Germany may or may not be in power, but at least the war with Japan, followed by the war with Britain, is almost certain.

The minute hand of the gigantic brass watch, visible only to my eyes, was constantly moving towards 12 o’clock.

‘Before that, all those who can gather should be gathered.’

I was conscious of the picture of the man who decided to meet me in Bremen.

He’s still just a prospect who gets my backing, but he’s going to have his talents full bloom soon.

‘Come to think of it, did you have similar tendencies to that person, Ain Rand? It’s the same as it was and it’s not the same… It would be fun to let the two of you meet.’

After a while, I was standing in front of the gate of a mansion.

As soon as the maid saw my face, he opened the door without saying anything, and I went inside.

As I walked through the hallway and opened the door, I saw a woman sitting in an armchair.

“get on……”

“Shh.”

she said softly.

“I just fell asleep.”

Tatiana gently stroked Nikolai’s pale hair, who was now starting to walk, and covered him with a blanket.

“…… Sorry.”

“Do you have anything to be sorry for? It’s all just for more people.”

“…………”

“It would be a lie if I said no resentment, but just seeing you next to this child, how do I make that resentment melt like ice in spring?”