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Russia

From Turtledove

(Redirected from Russia (Southern Victory))
The Russian Federation is a presidential republic extending over much of northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia together). It comprises 83 federal subjects, and is the largest country in the world in terms of geographical borders.

At one point, Russia was the center of a substanial land-empire under the rule of the tsar. However, after is disasterous defeat in World War I, Russia fell into revolution in 1917, and then a civil war that raged into the 1920s that saw the fall of the monarchy and the rise of a communist state. In short order Russia became the leading constituient of the Soviet Union, which emerged from World War II as one of two global superpowers.

The Soviet Union fell in 1991. Russia became the center of a democratic federation.

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[edit] Russia in Curious Notions

Russia and its allies Britain and France were defeated by Germany in the brief war of 1914. France and Britain went to war with Germany in the late 1930s, but were again defeated, which cleared the way for Germany to take full control of Europe. Russia, which had been in a perpetual state of civil war since 1914, did not join in that war.

[edit] Russia in The Disunited States of America

Russia was one of the world's great powers.

[edit] Russia in Southern Victory

Russia was a member of the Entente. Tsar Nicholas II entered the Great War by pledging to protect Serbia when that country refused Austria-Hungary's ultimata relating to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

However, Russia proved poorly prepared for such a war militarily. Although the country did not lack for manpower, it did lack for adequate supplies. Consequently, when Russia clashed with Germany, Russian troops suffered horrendous casualties. The lack of support for the war in Russia combined with German gains forced Russia to lead to the Russian Revolution and the country's withdrawal from the War in 1917. The Kingdoms of Poland and Ukraine were carved out of former Russian territory. Russia's withdrawal presaged the eventual collapse of the Entente war effort.

For the next ten or so years, Russia was embroiled in a bitter civil war between communists and Tsarists. Nicholas was killed early in the revolution. However, the Tsarists won and installed Nicholas's brother Mikhail II on the throne. Mikhail's revanchism was a good match for his Entente allies, as Britain slid towards absolutism, France itself restored its monarchy under Charles XI, and the Confederate States elected Jake Featherston president-for-life. Mikail rejoined the Entente upon consolidating his own power, which included renewed persecution of the Jews. When German Kaiser Wilhelm II died in 1941, Russia joined the Entente in pressing Germany for the return of their lost territory. When the new kaiser, Wilhelm III, refused, Russia followed its allies into the Second Great War.

Despite some initial gains in Poland and Ukraine, where the populations were split in support of Germany and Russia, in 1943 the Germans defeated Russian in the Ukraine. Russian factories and railroads in Petrograd, Minsk, and Smolensk were heavily damaged by German bombers. The remaining Reds from the Russian Civil war adopted the Mormon people bombing tactic against the Tsar's government by 1943.

Early in 1944, Germany warned Russia to withdraw from the war with a vague threat of destruction. When Russia did not withdraw, Germany destroyed Petrograd, the national capital, with a superbomb. The tsar's government survived, and retreated to Moscow. While initially defiant, Russia's ability to prosecute the war was badly hampered by the loss of Petrograd. It sued for peace shortly after Petrograd was destroyed. Almost immediately, Russia's one time ally Japan began making territorial demands in Siberia.

After the Second Great War, Russia started up a superbomb project, much to Germany's chagrin.

It is somewhat ironic that Russia became an ally of the Confederacy. During the War of Secession, Russia was the only major European power to favor the United States. After the war, the United States attempted to buy Alaska from Russia, but the price of $7 million was too high for the U.S.'s depressed economy.

[edit] Russia in The Two Georges

The Russian Empire, along with the British Empire and the Franco-Spanish Holy Alliance were the three major powers in the mid-1990s. The Russian Empire bordered on the German States and Austria to the east and spread across Eastern Eruope and Asia north of the Ottoman Empire, India and China to the Pacific Ocean (exluding the Empire of Japan) and included Alaska on the North American continent.

[edit] Russia in "Uncle Alf"

Russia made brief territorial gains against Germany in late 1914, but once Germany defeated France, Russia was quickly beaten. In 1916, Germany helped Russia put down a communist revolt.

[edit] Note

The flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the dominant SSR of the Soviet Union.
See Soviet Union for Russia's role in Worldwar, in In the Presence of Mine Enemies and in A World of Difference.