Home of the Many Revolutions
EDIT: This is my first timeline ever, so any feedback would be really, really welcome. Thanks guys.
Home of the Many Revolutions
When did the 20th century truly start?
Some say on the 28th of January 1919, when the First World War ended. The world would find that the German, Austrian, Ottoman and Russian Empires; once fearsome powers that loomed large over the world, had existed no longer.
Some say on the 1st of May 1920, when the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialist state was founded. Once only regarded as the dream of utopian revolutionaries and disillusioned proletarians, the declaration of the Soviet Union would forever alter the course of human history.
Some say on the 11th of November 1928, when the German Dual Power collapsed. The proceeding Civil War between the Fascists and the Spartacists would forever galvanize both of their totalitarian ideologies onto the modern world.
Some say on the 16th of July 1947, when the Second World War ended and the Cold War began. The plurality of great powers and civilizations of the world would see themselves reduced to their allegiance in the binary dichotomy of American Liberalism or Soviet Socialism.
But perhaps the most unexplored, and in hindsight the most accurate answer would be that the 20th century started on the 30th of October 1905.
Having just capitulated to Imperial Japan in the Russo-Japanese War; being the only European empire to lose to an Asian nation in war had been a humiliation that was too much to bear for Russia, and the widespread social unrest caused due to the growing need for reform in virtually all aspects of its ossified society eventually erupted into a mass movement on the 22nd of January 1905. There were demands for democracy, liberty, equality, and an end to the Romanov dynasty. Worker strikes, military mutinies and peasant unrests were common across the Russian Empire, and the fate of the Romanov dynasty looked to be extremely precarious.
Nicholas II had considered publishing a precursor document to a national constitution called "The Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order" drafted by Sergei Witte (later known to be called the October Manifesto), in order to please the populace. The October Manifesto was designed to be an early framework for a liberal democratic government down the line. Tsar Nicholas himself did not think highly of the reforms, seeing it as a bastardization of centuries of enlightened autocratic rule that had been tradition since Kievan Rus’.
What he actually wanted was to establish a military dictatorship with Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich as its head, the one man Nicholas II saw as possessing the prestige and popularity to keep the allegiance of the Army in this proposed coup. But this plan did not entice the Grand Duke, as his reaction to the Tsar’s suggestion was pulling out his pistol and threatening to shoot himself in the head if the Tsar did not publish the Manifesto. The pleads fell on deaf ears, as the Tsar simply told the Grand Duke that he would simply have to find someone else instead.
As motivated as the Grand Duke was, he eventually dropped the gun, knowing full well that the Russian Army would sooner mutiny than find themselves taking orders from an up-jump general, seconds after hearing the news of their dear Grand Duke’s protest suicide. He found himself in the duty of not only having to spare the Empire’s subjects from Nicholas’ iron will, but a potential slaughter of thousands brought forth by a vengeful and rebellious Imperial Army. With a long look down at the floor of the Winter Palace in the midst of silence that stretched into discomfort, he accepted the Tsar's offer.
The military junta was established on October 30th 1905. It’s initial goal was to quash the revolutionaries, bring back order and stability, and remove agitators from the Empire that threatened its political security. With Tsar Nicholas II serving as the head of state and supreme authority, and Grand Duke Nicholas serving as military strongman under his new rank of Generalissimo of the Imperial Russian Army; the junta came to be known as the Twin Nicholas Dictatorship, or the Twin Nicholas Regime.
What was initially seen as only a provisional measure to stabilize the Empire soon became one of the most studied and analyzed periods of Russian history; not just for its governance and brutality, but the consequences it had for the rest of global politics that only came to be recognized decades after its downfall. While the Twin Nicholas Regime was founded long before the terminology was coined, and it only began indulging in its characteristically totalitarian excesses in the later half of its existence, it is now commonly accepted by historians that the Twin Nicholas Dictatorship was functionally the first fascist state in modern history.
Home of the Many Revolutions
Some say on the 28th of January 1919, when the First World War ended. The world would find that the German, Austrian, Ottoman and Russian Empires; once fearsome powers that loomed large over the world, had existed no longer.
Some say on the 1st of May 1920, when the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialist state was founded. Once only regarded as the dream of utopian revolutionaries and disillusioned proletarians, the declaration of the Soviet Union would forever alter the course of human history.
Some say on the 11th of November 1928, when the German Dual Power collapsed. The proceeding Civil War between the Fascists and the Spartacists would forever galvanize both of their totalitarian ideologies onto the modern world.
Some say on the 16th of July 1947, when the Second World War ended and the Cold War began. The plurality of great powers and civilizations of the world would see themselves reduced to their allegiance in the binary dichotomy of American Liberalism or Soviet Socialism.
But perhaps the most unexplored, and in hindsight the most accurate answer would be that the 20th century started on the 30th of October 1905.
Having just capitulated to Imperial Japan in the Russo-Japanese War; being the only European empire to lose to an Asian nation in war had been a humiliation that was too much to bear for Russia, and the widespread social unrest caused due to the growing need for reform in virtually all aspects of its ossified society eventually erupted into a mass movement on the 22nd of January 1905. There were demands for democracy, liberty, equality, and an end to the Romanov dynasty. Worker strikes, military mutinies and peasant unrests were common across the Russian Empire, and the fate of the Romanov dynasty looked to be extremely precarious.
Nicholas II had considered publishing a precursor document to a national constitution called "The Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order" drafted by Sergei Witte (later known to be called the October Manifesto), in order to please the populace. The October Manifesto was designed to be an early framework for a liberal democratic government down the line. Tsar Nicholas himself did not think highly of the reforms, seeing it as a bastardization of centuries of enlightened autocratic rule that had been tradition since Kievan Rus’.
What he actually wanted was to establish a military dictatorship with Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich as its head, the one man Nicholas II saw as possessing the prestige and popularity to keep the allegiance of the Army in this proposed coup. But this plan did not entice the Grand Duke, as his reaction to the Tsar’s suggestion was pulling out his pistol and threatening to shoot himself in the head if the Tsar did not publish the Manifesto. The pleads fell on deaf ears, as the Tsar simply told the Grand Duke that he would simply have to find someone else instead.
As motivated as the Grand Duke was, he eventually dropped the gun, knowing full well that the Russian Army would sooner mutiny than find themselves taking orders from an up-jump general, seconds after hearing the news of their dear Grand Duke’s protest suicide. He found himself in the duty of not only having to spare the Empire’s subjects from Nicholas’ iron will, but a potential slaughter of thousands brought forth by a vengeful and rebellious Imperial Army. With a long look down at the floor of the Winter Palace in the midst of silence that stretched into discomfort, he accepted the Tsar's offer.
The military junta was established on October 30th 1905. It’s initial goal was to quash the revolutionaries, bring back order and stability, and remove agitators from the Empire that threatened its political security. With Tsar Nicholas II serving as the head of state and supreme authority, and Grand Duke Nicholas serving as military strongman under his new rank of Generalissimo of the Imperial Russian Army; the junta came to be known as the Twin Nicholas Dictatorship, or the Twin Nicholas Regime.
What was initially seen as only a provisional measure to stabilize the Empire soon became one of the most studied and analyzed periods of Russian history; not just for its governance and brutality, but the consequences it had for the rest of global politics that only came to be recognized decades after its downfall. While the Twin Nicholas Regime was founded long before the terminology was coined, and it only began indulging in its characteristically totalitarian excesses in the later half of its existence, it is now commonly accepted by historians that the Twin Nicholas Dictatorship was functionally the first fascist state in modern history.
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