Chapter 12 Hirschman in 1918

In early January 1918, calm seemed to have returned to Petersburg. Different from the long-delayed Brest-Litovsk peace talks in history, with Hessmann's butterfly wings desperately waving, Comrade Trotsky signed his name on the treaty that "lost his power and humiliated his country" at the end of December 1917. .

Russia lost Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Livland, Estonia, and Livonia, and ceded almost 260,000 square kilometers! At the same time, Ukraine also achieved “extensive national territorial autonomy” and more or less “approximate national independence.”

The situation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (composed of nine former Russian provinces and the Kuban region, proclaimed on December 27, 1917, but is not an independent country, nor does it mean to break away from Russia), at first glance looks similar to the August Revolution Former Russia - there were two governments, the Central Rada, which was similar to the Provisional Government, and the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

The Central Rada is run by the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party and the Ukrainian Social Revolutionary Party - these two parties are not branches of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (the party before the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks split) and the Russian Social Revolutionary Party. Their political views are almost identical to those of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Mensheviks) and the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party, but they have obvious differences on the Ukrainian issue.

The Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in Ukraine was controlled by the Bolsheviks, but the Soviet in Ukraine was not as powerful as the Soviet in Russia. The Central Rada has the support of the vast majority of Ukrainian farmers and some workers, and also has the loyalty of many former Tsarist Russian troops (mainly Ukrainian Cossacks).

The power of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in Ukraine was limited to a few industrial cities. Before the August Revolution, they established a certain number of Red Guards. But when the Bolsheviks captured Petersburg, they suffered a defeat in Ukraine - the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government in Ukraine, and then the Central Rada defeated the Bolshevik troops.

However, Ukraine's Central Rada has no intention of making Ukraine independent - the Ukrainians have a strange idea, not to break away from Russia but to transform Russia. The Central Rada wanted to transform Russia into a federation of equality and freedom for all nationalities. Therefore, negotiations were launched with Petersburg, but Lenin did not dare to use force for the time being because of Germany and Austria-Hungary's support for the Ukrainian Central Rada. Therefore, the Ukrainian region still maintains tense peace.

As for the situation in Finland, it was the opposite of Ukraine, and certainly beyond the expectations of Hersmann and other Germans.

Although under the influence of Hersmann, Germany did not entangle with the Bolsheviks on the Finnish issue. However, Finland still achieved independence. Finland was not a province of Tsarist Russia (this is obviously different from Ukraine), but a country with the Tsar as its monarch. After Nicholas II was overthrown, the Finnish Parliament assumed the power to govern the country. After the August Revolution, the Finnish Parliament declared independence (by adopting the Constitution of an Independent Republic). The Bolshevik government led by Lenin recognized Finland's independence 25 days after Finland declared its independence. Subsequently, Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, Denmark and other countries also recognized Finland's independence.

But the matter did not end there. While recognizing Finland's independence, Lenin also supported a Finnish Central Revolutionary Committee that aimed to overthrow the government and replace it with a Marxist "new order"! By the end of 1917, signs of civil war had appeared in the newly born Republic of Finland! The Red Guards controlled by the Central Revolutionary Committee and the government troops organized by General Mannerheim have both sharpened their knives.

However, the tense peace in Ukraine and the eve of civil war in Finland did not affect Russia. After the successful conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, the demobilization of the army and the upcoming Constituent Assembly seemed to have become the entirety of Russian political life.

…

The Europa Hotel on Nevsky Prospekt is the Russian headquarters of the Russian-German Economic Promotion Company. The entire fourth floor of the hotel was bought by this company with a huge business at a very low price, making it a place where no one can disturb them. There was even a telegraph antenna set up on the roof of the hotel - used to keep in touch with the "head office" in Germany!

The Europa Hotel is probably the best hotel in Petrograd. The decoration of the front lobby is more exquisite than the most upscale luxury hotels in Berlin. The wide brown and white marble stairs extend all the way to the entrance, and you can see gold-plated or gold-filled decorations everywhere.

Ms. Chloe von Heinsberg, the accountant of the Russian-German Economic Promotion Company, got out of a Mercedes-Benz car, carrying a beautifully crafted handbag and wearing a mink coat that shone like satin. , quickly walked towards the hotel door. The doorman who had been waiting there for a long time opened the large glass door for her and said in fluent German: "Madam, please come in."

Ms. Heinsberg, who had always been generous in the past, seemed to be preoccupied today for some unknown reason. She neither responded with a charming smile nor took out a ten-kopeck silver coin as a tip. Instead, he frowned and trotted all the way into the elevator that went straight to the fourth floor.

The elevator quickly brought her to a dimly lit corridor with soft carpets on the floor and precious wood on the walls. This is the fourth floor of the Europa Hotel, with a total of thirty rooms arranged in a U-shaped layout - the second to fourth floors of the Europa Hotel are U-shaped hollow layouts - Hersman, Chloe, Ettel, Stockhausen and others all have their own rooms here. Most of the remaining rooms are used as offices, and a few others are for "company employees" who come to Petrograd temporarily to work. The one who came to St. Petersburg from Berlin during this period was Hersman's friend Major Kesselring, who was the company's deputy manager in charge of arms trade. Now he is in Hersman's office, smoking his pipe and talking to Hersman.

"As of the end of December, we have provided more than 800 artillery pieces to St. Petersburg, including 1 mountain gun, 1 mountain gun, 1 cannon and 1 field gun, as well as some older models of artillery. They are all models captured from the Russian army over the years, and each cannon comes with at least 200 shells... These artillery pieces can equip at least 20 artillery regiments and can provide fire support for an army of hundreds of thousands of people. Ludwig, I wonder if this means that the Bolsheviks plan to arm an army of hundreds of thousands of people?"

"Definitely more than that," Hessman, who was wearing a well-made suit and looked like a millionaire, shook his head and said with a smile, "They have demobilized hundreds of divisions in the past few months... It's really a great job! While holding elections for the Constituent Assembly , and kept delaying the convening of the meeting; on the one hand, they demobilized all the troops left by the Tsar (some troops refused to follow orders and would become the backbone of the White Army) in order to obtain their weapons, ammunition, soldiers and officers to form their own army. At the same time, they also exchanged heavy weapons with us using food and coal collected from Ukraine and other parts of Russia. The Russian Civil War has not yet started, and they are already invincible. "

Kesselring hesitated and asked again: "So, you can be 100% sure that the Bolsheviks will definitely start a civil war? If they don't do this, those who want to fight with us will come back again."

He had a basis for saying this, because the Bolsheviks lost an election. Although they had a much better record than in history in the peace negotiations with Germany. But the results of the Constituent Assembly election were still unfavorable to the Bolsheviks - in fact, it cannot be said that the Bolsheviks lost. The Bolsheviks won 195 of the 707 seats (20 more than in history), and the Left-Yi Socialist Revolutionary Party on the side of the Bolsheviks won 40 seats. The total number of seats added up was 215. The Social Revolutionary Party (excluding the Left Yi) won 354 seats, more than half! However, considering that the Bolsheviks had only a few thousand members a few months ago and only 10% of the seats in the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies in St. Petersburg, this election was not a failure for the Bolsheviks.

But in the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks are still a minority! In theory, they will lose power after the official opening of the Constituent Assembly tomorrow...

When Hersman was about to speak, the door of the office was knocked, and Chloe's voice came from outside: "Ludwig, it's me."

"Come in."

The door was pushed open, and Chloe came in, panting lightly. She walked quickly to Hersman, and without even greeting Kesselring, she said quickly and anxiously: "Ludwig, it seems something has happened... There are soldiers everywhere on the street, and Petrograd seems to be under martial law!"

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