Siberian General Governorate

The Siberian General Governorate is an autonomous region of the Russian Empire held together by force of the black hundreds and regional fringe movements.

## History

Siberia is a land of untold wealth and a territory where contrasts abound; it is both a land where peasants have never lived under serfdom, and which has been a hub of forced labor and political exile since the XVI century. Siberia is also a treasure hoard eager to be exploited - Or so the Russians see it. For those who consider this land their own, however, Siberia’s recent history has been one of continuous suffering. Ironically, the movement calling for Siberia’s self-determination arose in the XIX century far away from the native land of its creators - in Saint-Petersburg, where the first Autonomist thinkers were students. Of course, the movement was suppressed, but since then new generations of Autonomists have grown up, evolving from a kind of regionalist ethnographers into a democratic political movement.

The first real action these revolutionaries saw followed immediately after the Velikaya Voyna, when Siberia proclaimed its self-government following the Russian Empire’s descent into civil war. However, cracks in the movement appeared when certain radicals (such as Kolosov) decided that Siberian self-government depended on the success of socialist revolution, while moderates tactically supported Kolchak. They hoped the Russia of the future would be reorganized through a Constituent Assembly, potentially giving Siberia an extended autonomous status - or even independence.

Nonetheless, these aspirations were crushed when, following the victory of Kolchak, the Irkutsk General-Governorate was reduced in size, its administration given over to Monarchist hardliners, and the leadership of the Autonomist movement was discouraged from any further attempts at achieving real self-governance. The situation worsened when, in 1927, a far-left uprising rocked the General-Governorate, forcing the administration to evacuate from Irkutsk and utilize troops from Omsk and Orenburg military districts to crush the rebellion. With the new status quo established after Kolchak’s allies won, the remnants of previous administration were reformed into Siberian General-Governorate, led by Alexei Grishin-Almazov, a general formerly sympathetic to the Autonomist cause, whose de facto deputy Ivan Mikhailov was once an active member of the movement. But Mikhailov proved to be an opportunist when Kolchak won, and together with General Krasilnikov brought the gravest threat yet to Siberia - the Black Hundreds, an organization vehemently opposed to any attempts to divide Russia any further and even more vehemently opposed to democracy.

One last check remained on the Black Hundreds’ reign of terror - for in order to appease the Autonomists, Kolchak allowed Grishin-Almazov to form a regional parliament, the Siberian Duma. The Autonomists and the fringe Solidarists are able to work freely in Russian Siberia, even having their own factions in the Siberian Duma, a liberty made possible thanks to their anti-Zheltorossiyan attitudes, along with the aid they lent to Kolchak’s in his rise to power. It is not just the Autonomists who enjoy these privileges, but also the Solidarists, who are led by people who were once ministers and advisors to the Admiral.

But this mix of autocracy and democracy is hardly a recipe for stability, and as the hardliners push for Siberia’s total integration into Russia, the Autonomists remain skeptical about Duma’s real authority. And it only gets worse…