Socialist Republic of Russia

The **Socialist Republic of Russia**, or Red Russia is a European Kollontist country within the global socialist bloc. Born out of a botched communist takeover of the Russian Republic in 1925, the Reds have effectively been reduced to Leningrad for the latter half of a decade. Despite this, the Republic has done exceptionally well, beating most beliefs that the socialists would not survive into the 30s. While they have been able to rebuild and militarize, it has come at a price of economic independence, as their economy is now intrinsically tied to Berlin’s, for better or for worse.

# History

## Prelude: Communism in Russia

Communism had always been a stronghold in the Russian Republic. It was mostly due to the unpopularity of the Russian Tsar and the still feudal system Russia contained since it couldn’t industrialize effectively. When the Tsar was disposed of in 1917, and the Russian Republic was declared in Petrograd, support for the Russian government came back. But even when the Great War ended and the Russians remained victorious, they still had to deal with industrial problems and anti-Russian nationalism. But the support for the republic largely diminished due to the arrival of Lenin and his writings became massively popular across Petrograd Moscow and Tsaritsyn. But due to Lenin’s assassination it only caused more problems for the republic as it made him a martyr and due to impressive propaganda it swayed even more people to the leftist side of things. Before 1925, support for leftism slowly grew across the country to the dismay of the Republican government.

## 1925-1927: The Russian Civil War and the Red Uprising

(Main article: Russian Civil War )

With the Russian Civil War in full swing, the bloated and overextended Russian Republic began to rapidly collapse in on itself, as years of anti-Russian nationalism in the Baltics, Ukraine and Poland finally mobilized the people against Moscow.

As province after province fell into open revolt and war, the quite popular Russian Bolsheviks saw an opportunity to rise to political prominence and take control of Russia. In Petrograd, a city already teeming with Bolshevik influence and sympathies planned a massive revolution in as the Russian Civil War expanded. Months after the war initially began, Moscow suffered a grave blow to its ambitions as Bolshevik militias after days of intense warfare seized Petrograd and declared the Russian Socialist Republic.

With large support from the general Russian populace, the RSR were greeted as liberators by many within Central Russia. Over a period of one month, Moscow and Tsaritsyn rapidly collapsed into Red hands which became the height of any possibility of Petrograd winning the civil war.

However, their initial victories were plagued by a lack of supplies, morale and overextension, something the White Russians took advantage of. By December, only 2 months since the rapid communist expansion into Central Russia, the Reds due to Operation Kornilov were routinely forced to retreat, at first back to Moscow and back to Petrograd.

Soon they lost Tsaritsyn, and after a long bloody battle they lost Moscow, a plundering defeat. By 1927, after a year of seemingly non-stop defeats, it seemed that the Red cause was lost. As the Reds evacuated city after city, town after town, the Bolsheviks realized drastic measures had to be taken to protect the revolution. Petrograd was, by this point fighting a two-front war against Moscow's forces and Finnish guerrillas. After much debating back and forth between party members, Leon Trotsky, then leader of the Republic, hesitantly agreed to meet the Finnish rebels for a possible peace agreement.

his decision was widely unpopular but in the end it was a factor that won them their full independence without collapse. In the town of Imatra, the president of Finland and Trotsky slowly went through peace negotiations. It was decided that Trotsky would force the Red Army to leave Murmansk and Onega, and in exchange Finland would guarantee an “indefinite” non-aggression pact, and send in some of their own supplies to aid against the white's offensives. At the same time the Imatra Compromise was signed and war with Finland ended, the whites were approaching Petrograd. If the city was captured it would mean the end for the Communist uprising as everyone knew it. But the new men and supplies brought into the city by the Reds after being relocated from the Finnish front caught the Whites off guard in the Second Battle of Petrograd, and just a few days later Moscow ordered a general retreat from the city.

With a failed counteroffensive into Petrograd, and with mutinies spreading amongst a tired and hungry Russian army, all sides realized that fighting to the very end would be almost impossible, and begrudgingly moved towards peace. In the Ceasefire and Treaty of Petrograd, the Reds would keep their territory intact, while the Whites were forced to leave the border demilitarized.

## A fragile democracy

(Main article: Communization in Russia)

Peace was finally secured, but at a major cost. Much of the country was devastated in the fighting. A significant amount of the population was homeless and demoralized. The provisional government shortly after the 1927 peace agreements were signed disbanded, and Leon Trotsky, the chairman of the Bolshevik Party was sworn in as the first president of the Republic, who immediately began to consolidate his rule over the new state.

After the war, Russia’s population, combined with many refugees fleeing towards Moscow resulted in a drastic drop of the new Republic’s population. To combat this, propaganda was made, with slogans such as “Unite against the Bourgeoisie” and “Break your chains, help the rebuilding process!”. Several cities were renamed, such as Petrograd to Leningrad to honor Lenin. Women’s Suffrage was passed in March of 1929. Thousands began to join the ranks of the army in 1929, but rebuilding was far from over. The Republic also embraced pro-natalist policies in the latter half of the 20s, and eased limits on outside immigration, attracting workers from across Europe and even parts of Asia.

## 1931-1935: Change for the better

In 1931, the first general elections were held to great fanfare. In the end, Lev Kamenev was elected as the second President of Red Russia, to the dismay of running president Leon Trotsky, who declared the elections “illegitimate”. Despite this, he was forced to hand down his position to Lev. Lev’s ideals of “Socialism in one country” helped build the country up, but in turn it somewhat isolated them from international affairs.

As the 30s continued onward, the Reds began to be a forced to be reckoned with. They invested into a new navy and air force, the first battleships and submarines were built in 1934 while the first fighter was built 1 year earlier. Lavr Kornilov’s coup in Russia helped bring new opposition parties against Lev, arguing for socialist unity and a stronger militaristic economy.

The main opposition was Joseph Stalin, who believed the state should become more authoritative and centralized. Whereas others like Alexandra Kollontai were more unionist communists. Alexandra was a traditional Marxist with Syndicalist sympathies, who believed partial economic management should be given to the trade unions instead. In 1935 during the second general election, she made history as she became the new president, being the first ever woman to be elected in a socialist country. Although a year has passed into her presidency, she has created several reforms which has given more power to trade unions, decreasing centralization in the country while also bringing the Reds into the international world stage.

# Economy

The Russian economy is based around the tenants of Marxism-Kollontism, and that has had a big implication for how the Russian economy has functioned. First and foremost, the Russian working class is not forced to unionize like in the German Union. Instead, Leningrad uses a planned economy, and wages are set by the type of skills and the type of work any working person can perform within the national economy.

While the government is in favor of rapid industrialization, it lacks the means, tools and manpower necessary to bring the country into the modern world. Collectivization was underway nearly immediately when the Russian Civil War ended, but it yielded very different results than what the people were expecting. While the hope was for all privatized assets and businesses in Russian agriculture to be forked over, nationalized and integrated into a state-controlled farms and holdings.

While in the past landlords and landowners were cleansed from Russian society, agricultural industry remained privatized, and even years after trying to nationalize their assets has led to growing discontent among the peasant population in various cities and rural provinces. As a result, technically, Russia still is privatized to an extent.