2nd Russian Empire

The 2nd Russian Empire, or most commonly Russia, is a large and powerful nation, stretching from Europe to Asia. It is the biggest and leading nationalist nation in the world.

## **Backround to the establishment of the 2nd empire: The Monarchy and the Great War start**

Despite how the first Russian empire was emerging as a world power it had continual problems. The popularity of the monarchy only steadily decreased, especially after the Russo-Japanese war. Not to mention ethnic conflicts. But, like the other states in the Great War, it was hoped that this war would be a minor one and that, for the Russians, it can receive more governmental support, but this wasn’t the case. The war dragged onward for years, until a major shift in Russia began in 1917.

## **First Russian Republic**

In 1917, due to immense backlash and fear of a Russian collapse, the Tsar Nicolas II abdicated, and the aftermath would see the first Russian republic declared in Moscow, becoming its new capital. Although the sudden shift had made the Germans hope the republicans would give up fighting, it didn’t. The republicans knew they had a lot to gain if they defeated Germany, and German time was running out. They began to push the Germans back as Austria collapsed, and several months later, German ultimately surrendered after the Russians were able to even capture Danzig. This victory caused celebration in Russia, but it was short lived. Russia becoming a republic would only stop the inevitable collapse of greater Russia. In the following Treaties, parts of Germany, including eastern Prussia and Danzig. This annexation caused displacement of the German peoples, but as a result polish people began to move into the regions that the Germans left. In the years after the war, stability returned for a limited time only. By the 1920s, it was clear that russia was going onto a downward spiral. Little change came. The non Russian minorities originally hoped the republicans in charge would treat them better, but they were proven wrong, only increasing the popularity of non Russian nationalism.

## **Lenin And Marxism**

It didn’t help that suddenly in 1922 Russia saw the rapid spread of Marxism. Many considered the newly established syndicalist germany to be the culprit, but it was never proven. From August to December, pamphlets, writings, and articles were printed pushing the people to rebel. For those 4 months, Russian authorities slowly tracked down the people responsible for these writings, and traced them to one man: Dmitri Turgenev. On the night of December 12th, his small apartment was raided by police, who, upon seeing him he was immediately recognized as Lenin. He was arrested, and though the authorities tried to keep it a secret. But Lenin was spotted with the police and quickly word got out. Many quickly drew connections to “Dmitri”’s work and Lenin’s drawing the conclusion that they were the same people even though the Russian authorities never issued any sort of statement. It was spreading quickly and the Russian authorities needed to figure out what to do. His true identity had already drew more people to pressuring the Russian authorities drop any charges. They knew anything they did would only draw more people to his cause. But on December 16th, a mere 4 days after Lenin’s arrest, his prisoner guard Maxim Ivanov, a staunch anti-communist decided to assassinate him while he was the only man watching Lenin. While Lenin was sleeping, Maxim drew his gun and shot him cleanly in the head. The shot was heard outside with the protestors outside. Maxim was arrested on the spot, but for the people outside, they broke into the prison, knowing well what could have happened. The guards controlled the crowd, but inside the prison from a distance Lenin was seen by the protestors. When the morning on the 17th came, the news spread like wildfire. The protestors from the night before were mass arrested for breaking in, but a few escaped, one of which was a leftist Ukrainian journalist called Igor Nadiya. Although backup was called, they knew some protestors escaped from the crowd. Igor managed to hide from the authorities for the day, before he went to the Leninist Part of Moscow and delivered the news there. From that point onward, the Russian authorities no longer had control over the situation. This event only deepened hatred for the Russian government. The Leninist, Marxist and communist parties would begin to grow throughout Russia, especially in urban cities.