Chapter 444: Two Powers in Opposition

The news of the success of the St. Petersburg uprising quickly spread throughout Russia, and incited more cities to hold strikes and demonstrations.

In these cities where strikes and demonstrations were held, it can be clearly seen that the demonstrators were divided into two factions, the working class and capitalism.

After St. Petersburg, it was Moscow, followed by the surrounding major cities and important constructions. Moscow's Red Square, the Kremlin, and the Moscow Arsenal were occupied by the uprising team in just a few days. This great uprising has spread to the entire European region of Russia.

Before World War I, Russia was an extremely large country. The westernmost part was the Polish region divided with Germany, and the easternmost part reached the Asian border, and it was separated from the United States by the Bering Strait.

Therefore, Russia is a thorough cross-continental country, not only occupying a large area of ​​Eastern Europe, but also owning a huge land in North Asia.

Although Russia's land area is very large, the real core of Russia is still Eastern Europe.

The impact of this great uprising covers the line from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In addition to the front-line areas, almost half of the western region of Russia was affected, which can also be understood as directly affecting half of Russia.

The two most important cities in Russia are the current capital, St. Petersburg, and the former capital, Moscow.

The area between these two cities is also the essence of Russia in Eastern Europe, and is currently occupied by the uprising.

The Workers' Union and capitalism incited the surrounding cities to strike and march, and took the opportunity to insert their own people into them, intending to control these cities where the strikes occurred.

Under the premise that the capitalist group and the workers' group have obvious differences in interests, who can control more power and the initiative of the future government depends on the number of cities controlled by everyone.

On November 15, 1916, the uprising team instigated the Baltic Fleet, and a considerable part of Russia's military strength was in the hands of the uprising team.

This is not over yet, the front-line soldiers also welcome the uprising. Even the front-line soldiers quickly set up a soldier committee to supervise the officers of the army.

A large number of Russian civilians also welcome this revolution. They need to overthrow the tsarist system to bring them political liberation, and divide the landlords' land to bring them economic liberation.

Under the premise that all Russian civilians were hungry, as long as the insurgents could give them food, they would unconditionally support these uprising teams.

On November 16, the Soviet regime was formally established and accommodated the vast majority of workers' parties and the Bolshevik Party and the Menshevik Party.

On the day when the Soviet regime was announced, the bourgeoisie found the arrested Nicholas II and asked Nicholas II to sign the appointment letter.

In this appointment letter, the Constitutional Democratic Party Duke Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Nicholas Nicholas was appointed as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia.

At the same time as receiving the appointment letter, the bourgeoisie immediately announced the establishment of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma to seize power from the Soviets established by the workers' party.

The Soviet regime has the support of a large number of workers, and the Provisional Committee of the Russian State Duma has won the support of the old nobles including Nicholas II.

For a while, Russia became more chaotic after the victory of the revolution. The two major regimes coexisted, but their administrative concepts were opposed to each other.

Nicholas II did not sign the historical abdication declaration. After all, the old aristocracy and the royalists still had considerable power at that time, and the Soviet regime and the bourgeois regime had not yet formally determined the primary and secondary positions.

Compared with the State Duma Provisional Committee, which was composed entirely of the bourgeoisie, the Soviet regime was more decentralized and included most of the working class parties, the largest of which were the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

These two parties also had certain conflicts, and both wanted to gain the leadership of the Soviet regime.

Unlike the Bolsheviks, who were determined to establish a republican regime, the Mensheviks pursued a capitulationist line, attempting to limit the scope of the revolution, and believed that the only legitimate owner after overthrowing the tsarist system could only be the bourgeoisie.

With the help of the Mensheviks, the State Animation Provisional Committee quickly replaced the Soviet regime and gradually gained more power in Russia after the revolution.

On November 20, 1916, the first bourgeois provisional government of Russia was established. This was a constitutional monarchy provisional government. Nicholas II still maintained the status of tsar, but lost all administrative and military rights.

The big landowner, Duke Georgy Lvov, became the Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the first Provisional Government, and other positions were divided up by the major bourgeois parties.

But at the same time, the Soviet regime did not lose all its power. Although a large number of revolutionary areas, including St. Petersburg, were controlled by the Provisional Government, Moscow and surrounding areas were still under the control of the Soviet regime.

However, the nominal Soviet regime still depended on the rule of the Provisional Government, but the Provisional Government had no real power over the Moscow region.

The Russian Revolution was watched by countries around the world, especially the Allied Powers led by Germany.

For Germany, the Russian Revolution was great news. The Russians were trapped in civil strife and certainly did not have enough strength to continue the war.

It was not only an opportunity for Germany to get rid of multi-line operations, but also a good opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack against the British and French forces on the Western Front.

As for Britain and France, they do not have enough power to interfere with the Russian revolution. Besides, the current revolution in Russia has not affected the monarchy, but has established a constitutional monarchy similar to that of Britain, which is not unacceptable.

If the Russians overthrow the monarchy and hang Nicholas II as they did in the French Revolution, they will definitely be liquidated by Britain, France and other monarchies after the war.

European royal families can allow European monarchs to lose their power, but they will not sit idly by and watch European monarchs being executed by revolutionaries.

Because no one can guarantee whether a revolution will occur in their country. If the arbitrary execution of monarchs is tolerated, perhaps this step will happen to other monarchies in Europe in the future.

This is also paying close attention to the situation in Russia. After learning that the provisional government has mastered most of the power, Arthur was relieved.

At least the situation in Russia has not collapsed to the point where it is completely out of control. Although the provisional government is a capitalist country, it is still a constitutional monarchy, and the opposition to the monarchy is not serious.

If the Soviet regime seizes power, the ideas conveyed by such a republic to neighboring countries are terrible, and it can have a huge impact on the monarchy.

After the establishment of the provisional government, both the Allies and the Allies immediately started negotiations with the new Russian government.

The Allies wanted Russia to continue the war, even if it was just to tie down part of Germany's forces on the Eastern Front.

The Allies wanted Russia to withdraw from the war so that they could free up their hands to deal with the British and French forces on the Western Front.

The good news is that the establishment of the Russian provisional government was relatively mild, and the basis for the establishment of the provisional government also came from Nicholas II's appointment letter.

In addition, the Bolsheviks and Soviet regimes that really wanted to overthrow the monarchy had retreated to Moscow, and the provisional government and the vicinity of St. Petersburg were under the control of the royalists.

Although the current Nicholas II was deprived of a lot of rights on the surface, he still had a certain status.

On November 25, 1916, Britain, France, Russia, Australia and Italy held the Allied Conference in St. Petersburg, on the one hand to discuss the Allies' next battle plan, and on the other hand to try to win over Russia to stay in the war.

To this end, Britain and France agreed to a low-interest loan of 5 billion rubles to the new Russian government, and promised to deliver enough food and winter supplies to Russia to help the Russian government overcome difficulties.

At the Allied Conference, Britain, France and Australia constantly reaffirmed the relationship between the four major powers of the Allied Powers at that time, and promised in person that they would not reduce Russia's contribution and the distribution of benefits after the war.

At present, Russia is still an important part of the Allied Powers and one of the four major powers of the Allied Powers.

Obviously, the conditions offered by the Allies still satisfied the Russian government. A low-interest loan of 5 billion rubles, as well as a large amount of food and emergency supplies, are enough for the new Russian government to overcome this difficulty while winning the hearts of the people.

And the distribution of benefits promised by the Allies after the war is enough for these bourgeoisie and landlords to obtain enough benefits after the war.

After a two-day meeting, the new Russian government and the Allies reached an agreement that they would not withdraw from the war for the time being, but would not take the initiative to launch a large-scale campaign.

Russia will take defensive measures on the front line to try to hold back more German troops for Britain and France.

At the same time, the loans promised by Britain and France must be issued in a timely manner, and all kinds of aid materials must not be lacking.

Because a considerable part of the reason why the people launched the uprising was that they hated this war. In order to satisfy the vast majority of civilians, the new Russian government decided to distribute some emergency materials to all civilians in St. Petersburg and surrounding areas for free.

This part of the materials includes 500 kilograms of food per household, 200 kilograms of coal, a set of warm clothes for each person and some medicines.

Obviously, such distribution of materials still satisfies a considerable number of Russian people, and also makes the new Russian government accepted by the Russian people.

This is actually the conspiracy of the Provisional Government. After all, there are currently two governments in Russia at the same time, and there must be a gap in the attitudes of the people towards the two governments.

This also means that after the Provisional Government distributes materials for free, the Soviet regime must immediately promulgate the same policy in order to satisfy the civilians who support the Soviet regime.

After all, everyone supports the revolution in order to live a good life for themselves. If they can't even solve their own food and clothing problems, there will definitely be more people who will jump ship and turn against the revolution.

But the problem is that the gap in assets between the Provisional Government and the Soviet regime is a world of difference.

The composition of the Provisional Government is composed of small and medium-sized capitalists, large landowners, old aristocrats and other former middle and high-level people, who control a large amount of Russian land and resources.

On the Soviet side, although they also control the wealthy Moscow region, the major political parties that make up the Soviet regime are all composed of ordinary workers, and the capital they hold is not strong.

In addition, the Russian Provisional Government has strong support from the Allied Powers, while the Soviet regime is hostile to almost all European monarchies.

In this case, if the welfare policy is compared, the Soviet regime is impossible to beat the Provisional Government.

And those civilians are easily affected by these small welfare policies and food distribution initiatives. If the Soviet regime does not have a certain response, the advantages of the Provisional Government will become greater and greater.

The Germans obviously could not offer the generous conditions of the Allies at this time. The Germans were severely exhausted by the war and naturally could not use a large amount of funds and resources to support Russia.

This also strengthened the confidence of the Russians to continue the war in disguise. Anyway, there was financial and material support from Britain and France, and Russia only needed to take a defensive posture on the front line.

Because the Soviet regime could not offer the same welfare benefits as the Provisional Government, the voice of the Russian people obviously shifted to the side of the Provisional Government.

In order not to lose the support of the working class and civilians, the Soviet regime could only use the fact that the Provisional Government was unwilling to withdraw from the war.

Because most Russian people had received practical benefits, their desire to withdraw from the war was not so strong.

In fact, the people were not against this war, but against the Tsarist regime at that time, which ignored the lives of Russian civilians in the country for this war.

If Nicholas II could distribute materials to workers and civilians earlier and control the prices of Russian goods as much as possible, perhaps this great revolution would not have happened.

Unable to offer practical material benefits, the Soviets could only think of other ways, such as promulgating the eight-hour work system that the working class paid close attention to.

Of course, this is not really a promulgation. The previous Tsarist Russia also had an eight-hour work system.

But the eight-hour work system in Tsarist Russia was more like a superficial effort. Before the war, the average working hours of Russian workers had exceeded ten hours, and after the outbreak of the war, it generally exceeded 12 hours.

The Soviet regime announced that it would protect the eight-hour work system. The Moscow region strictly implemented the eight-hour work system and eliminated all requests for unpaid overtime.

If it is to exceed eight hours, it is also possible, but the additional working hours must be given double overtime pay, and the total working time per day must not exceed ten hours, and the weekly working time must not exceed sixty hours.

The promulgation of this system still won the favor of many workers. After all, for the workers as a whole, working hours and wages are what workers value most.

In addition to the eight-hour work system, the Soviet regime also established a food distribution system to centrally distribute food, livestock and various materials in the Moscow region to ensure that all civilians can get a certain amount of materials.

The impact of the war on Russia was huge.

The important reason why the bourgeois provisional government was able to gain ultimate power was that a large number of rural population and working class were conscripted into the army and sent to the front line.

Those who stayed behind St. Petersburg and Moscow were middle and high-level people headed by large and small factory owners and nobles, who successfully obtained the rights of the revolutionary government.

It was precisely because a large number of rural population and workers were conscripted that Russia's agricultural production was seriously affected.

According to previous statistics from the Russian government, Russia's cultivated land area decreased by at least 10 million Russian acres, the number of livestock decreased from 18 million before the war to about 13 million, and the total grain income decreased by about a quarter.

The Soviet regime established a centralized distribution system as a last resort. If the resources in the Moscow area were not centrally distributed, there would still be a large number of civilians who could not be allocated materials, and they would not firmly support the Soviet regime.

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