A Day in July: An Early 20th Century Timeline

[Gabingston]

So war may happen between USSR and Germany?

Maybe. I could see the Soviets and the Don Republic going to war, which would draw Germany in to defend the Don Republic, as they wouldn't want the Soviets to become more powerful than they already are (and that sweet, sweet Caucasian oil).
EDIT: I checked the map, it turns out Azerbaijan is part of the Ottoman Empire, not the Don Republic. However, I checked a map of oil deposits, and Southern Russia does have some oil, so that's probably worth defending for the Germans.

 

[MonarchistCanuck]

Maybe. I could see the Soviets and the Don Republic going to war, which would draw Germany in to defend the Don Republic, as they wouldn't want the Soviets to become more powerful than they already are (and that sweet, sweet Caucasian oil).
EDIT: I checked the map, it turns out Azerbaijan is part of the Ottoman Empire, not the Don Republic. However, I checked a map of oil deposits, and Southern Russia does have some oil, so that's probably worth defending for the Germans.

About as important, if not possibly more so is the Don Republic's geography. Looking at the map, the republic will be acting as an important buffer between the Zollverein/Ottomans and the Soviets. The Don Republic also controls the Crimea, which means they control Sevastopol and whatever remains of the Black Sea Fleet, which considering their weak state effectively makes the Black Sea an Ottoman lake (which would matter to the Germans, as they have a naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean now, which is one front they don't have to worry about). The republic would also give some defence in-depth for Romania and its very important oilfields at Ploesti.

EDIT: Or does Bulgaria control Ploesti ITTL?

 

[Zulfurium]

So war may happen between USSR and Germany?

Maybe. I could see the Soviets and the Don Republic going to war, which would draw Germany in to defend the Don Republic, as they wouldn't want the Soviets to become more powerful than they already are (and that sweet, sweet Caucasian oil).
EDIT: I checked the map, it turns out Azerbaijan is part of the Ottoman Empire, not the Don Republic. However, I checked a map of oil deposits, and Southern Russia does have some oil, so that's probably worth defending for the Germans.

About as important, if not possibly more so is the Don Republic's geography. Looking at the map, the republic will be acting as an important buffer between the Zollverein/Ottomans and the Soviets. The Don Republic also controls the Crimea, which means they control Sevastopol and whatever remains of the Black Sea Fleet, which considering their weak state effectively makes the Black Sea an Ottoman lake (which would matter to the Germans, as they have a naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean now, which is one front they don't have to worry about). The republic would also give some defence in-depth for Romania and its very important oilfields at Ploesti.

EDIT: Or does Bulgaria control Ploesti ITTL?

As both @Gabingston and @MonarchistCanuck have pointed out, while a direct Soviet-German major war is unlikely, they have distinctly clashing interests when it comes to the Don Republic.

Oil wouldn't be the main impetus here, particularly following their discovery of some of the OTL oil deposits in Near Siberia, but it would certainly be a factor. More so, as long as the Don Republic remains in existence it will remain a threat to Soviet sovereignty and their claim to rule of Russia, so they very much have an interest in quashing them if they can get away with it. Additionally, there are food production issues facing the Soviet Republic which are going to get worse as the relationship with the Germans deteriorates. IOTL the Soviets sought to resolve their food production issues with forceful collectivization and dekulakization, leading into the horrors of the Holodomor. ITTL that major agricultural production undercapacity has been temporarily addressed by leaning heavily on the trade networks with the Zollverein, however with relations between the Soviets and ZV souring, the strategic impetus towards securing the vast agricultural produce of the Ukraine and Southern Russia have become ever more pressing.

For the Germans the Don Republic is a problem child which nevertheless performs the key function of providing a buffer state between the ZV proper and the Soviet Republic. It shields Romania and Bulgaria (Romania controls Ploesti, but it is run almost entirely by German expats and advisors).

 

[rommel12]

I believed that the Soviets had solved their agricultural problems.

 

[Zulfurium]

I believed that the Soviets had solved their agricultural problems.

They mitigated them significantly with domestic agricultural reforms and solved them with largescale agricultural imports from the Zollverein, but if the relationship with the ZV sours and trade relations collapse, then the Soviets would suddenly be faced with a massive hole that would need to be resolved somehow. The Soviet Republic has been a net importer of agricultural products since the late 1920s. The Soviets have been doing everything they can to reduce the capacity gap, but they would need something like the Green Revolution or a major increase in fertile agricultural lands (like those of Southern Russia and the Ukraine for example) to fully close the gap. Believe I dealt with it partly in the last Soviet update and partly in the technological section of Update 40.

 

[balllightning]

Is there any talk about re-establishing the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ITTL or not? Why hasn't Finland or Bulgaria joined the Zollverein yet despite their former participation in the wartime Central Powers?

And how is the legacy of Tsarist rule regarded throughout the Zollverein, especially in Poland, Georgia, Lithuania, Finland, Baltica and outside Europe in Khiva?

 

[Zulfurium]

Is there any talk about re-establishing the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ITTL or not? Why hasn't Finland or Bulgaria joined the Zollverein yet despite their former participation in the wartime Central Powers?

And how is the legacy of Tsarist rule regarded throughout the Zollverein, especially in Poland, Georgia, Lithuania, Finland, Baltica and outside Europe in Khiva?

The PLC's reputation and legacy was largely as a moribund hidebound state uncertain of its national identity and victim to the fancies and furies of its neighbours by the end, and I don't know of any actual movement to restore the PLC in any way, shape or form. Poland and Lithuania on the other hand very much had active and vocal nationalist movement who gained German backing ITTL.

What you need to bear in mind is that the Zollverein is very much representative of the German sphere of influence - the region in which Germany rules supreme and exercises its influence directly over governing policy and administration. This works when dealing with the empire Germany has cut out of the east, but is a far more controversial matter when you start drawing in long-time allies. Finland and Bulgaria are allies of the German Empire, but are not its clients - that is why they are not part of the Zollverein. As for Denmark's participation in the ZV, it is a very particular trade treaty which has been signed between the two, with Denmark holding a role reminiscent of that enjoyed by Norway in the modern EU. It has all of the economic benefits and largely complies with the general trade policies of the trade bloc, but it is very much still a force independent of the rest of the ZV.

The Russian Tsars are largely seen as oppressors across Eastern Europe whose overthrow have allowed for the flowering of national movements across the region and the independence of their respective national groupings. While German involvement is considerable, it is important to note that all of the ZV states of the east view themselves as independent by-and-large. As for Khiva, there is some wishing for a return to the pre-Great War years, but that is mostly because a lot of the locals are absolutely pissed at the mass influx of Armenian and Georgian settlers in the region.

 

[balllightning]

In the territory of the Polish Frontier Strip that was directly annexed by Germany from Russian Poland in 1918 during the Great War, how have the majority Papal Catholic ethnic Poles and local German natives reacted to and dealt with the replacement of the Orthodox Russian ruling elite and their reactionary policies of Official Nationality and Russification with the Lutheran-Calvinist Prussians and their own Kulturkampf measures to Germanize Posen and the Polish Frontier Strip? Speaking of which, has there been any serious post-war effort at German settlement and colonization within the Frontier Strip Area mostly populated by Poles and Jews?

And what do the Yiddish-speaking Polish Jews especially think of the end of the Imperial pogroms/Pale of Settlement and the subsequent change in their new overlords?

 

[Zulfurium]

In the territory of the Polish Frontier Strip that was directly annexed by Germany from Russian Poland in 1918 during the Great War, how have the majority Papal Catholic ethnic Poles and local German natives reacted to and dealt with the replacement of the Orthodox Russian ruling elite and their reactionary policies of Official Nationality and Russification with the Lutheran-Calvinist Prussians and their own Kulturkampf measures to Germanize Posen and the Polish Frontier Strip? Speaking of which, has there been any serious post-war effort at German settlement and colonization within the Frontier Strip Area largely populated by Poles and Jews?

And what do the Yiddish-speaking Polish Jews especially think of the end of the Imperial pogroms/Pale of Settlement and the subsequent change in their new overlords?

The German Empire's policies have proven far less restrictive than those of the Russians, so for the most part people are satisfied. There has been a good deal of migration amongst the Poles towards Poland, but nothing like the ethnic cleansing originally planned by the Germans. Effectively the Germanization campaign largely fell by the wayside under the post-war government, particularly when Zentrum were in government they weren't going to make a mess of things with the Catholic Poles. The Schism has caused similar divides in the Catholic community as elsewhere, although the PCC is more influential amongst the Poles for now. There hasn't really been any significant German settlement or colonization effort in the region, with much of that impetus shifted more towards expat work in the wider Zollverein or towards the newly opened up lands of the Junkers in Prussia. There have been a lot of younger Poles and Jews from the region who have made a go at moving to Berlin and other German major cities, particularly Hamburg and Danzig, where they have become part of the increasingly multicultural minority populations of those cities.

I mean Germany is a whole lot nicer to live in for the Polish Jews than the Russian Empire was, with significantly more acceptance and opportunity than they had prior. I mean anti-semitism is far from dead, and the rise of the Conservative Bloc does bring with it some anti-semitic elements, but honestly outside of maybe Great Britain or the United States few places are as welcoming towards Jews as the German Empire ITTL.

 

[Radek]

What might Oskar Schindler be up to these days TTL?

 

[Zulfurium]

What might Oskar Schindler be up to these days TTL?

Two options to my eyes. One is that after his family ran into financial problems and he became unemployed he could very easily have moved to search for employment opportunities in the wider ZV or have moved to Germany for business opportunities in one of the major cities. The other is that he never really finds a purpose and continues his downward spiral into alcoholism and familial collapse which characterised his post-unemployment, pre-Abwehr life. The Abwehr opportunity or the German seperatist movement wouldn't have the same sort of pull ITTL so there isn't the same sort of impetus to pull him out of his self-destructive cycle during that period.

Either way I don't think he will be in a position to do anything as noteworthy as OTL - it never really becomes necessary.

 

[balllightning]

With the German port cities of the Hanseatic League, Danzig and Trieste seeing explosive growth during the post-war era, how have the towns of Stettin and Koenigsberg fared in comparison to them?

 

[Zulfurium]

With the German port cities of the Hanseatic League, Danzig and Trieste seeing explosive growth during the post-war era, how have the towns of Stettin and Koenigsberg fared in comparison to them?

I would expect Stettin to follow a similar track to OTL, continuing its economic growth and remaining a major naval power - possibly the largest in the Baltic. Königsberg should actually be significantly larger, given the much larger grain trade running to Petrograd running through the city and its position as a trade hub for all the surrounding ZV states into Germany.

 

[balllightning]

I would expect Stettin to follow a similar track to OTL, continuing its economic growth and remaining a major naval power - possibly the largest in the Baltic. Königsberg should actually be significantly larger, given the much larger grain trade running to Petrograd running through the city and its position as a trade hub for all the surrounding ZV states into Germany.

Which towns/areas within both Germany and the wider ZV have seen noticeable population decline due to emigration out of these areas towards the more cosmopolitan/modernist port cities?

 

[Zulfurium]

Which towns/areas within both Germany and the wider ZV have seen noticeable population decline due to emigration out of these areas towards the more cosmopolitan/modernist port cities?

Vienna, Elsass-Lothringen, Saxony, southern Franconia and Swabia, Rural Prussia and Rural Bavaria probably all see some degree of drain northward. In general, the German Empire's axis is continuing to shift north and eastward. For Vienna it is mainly a matter of going from the capital of an empire to the premier city of a major German state, a considerable bureaucratic downgrade which nevertheless keeps the city significantly larger than IOTL. As for Elsass-Lothringen the region is a bit of a peculiarity. There are a good deal of business opportunities in the area and cross-border trade with the French, but as a potential battleground it is subject to a lot of the Franco-German pressures and a considerable military presence. This has led to a steady stream of French-aligned citizens migrate across the border, while others look for educational and business opportunities in the empire's other cities.

Hamburg is probably the single quickest growing city of all in the Empire, contesting for largest in the empire, with Berlin and the Ruhr - stretching towards the Low Countries also seeing continued significant growth. Prussian cities grow considerably alongside the general coastal development. A region which sees major population shifts is Austria where Trieste grows into one of the premier cities of the empire due to its key role as an access point to the Mediterranean/Adriatic as well as its position on the trade from Italy. A great deal of oil also makes its way by ship from the Mediterranean before being offloaded in Trieste, particularly from the growing oil fields of Albania but also from the Ottoman Empire, with the Baku-Berlin rail-line being a bit too congested to contain all of the oil being shipped out from the Ottomans.

There has recently been a decided growth in sea and lake-side vacation destinations coming to the fore as more people find the time and resources to enjoy their free time, and while places like Saxony and Franconia are seeing a population decline, they are often favorite destinations for city-dwelling youth and adult movements of varying sort. The Empire is getting a great deal more urbanized and city-oriented, with rural populations generally declining as tens if not hundreds of thousands stream to the cities on a yearly basis.

 

[balllightning]

What happened to the Hindenburg Line/Siegfried Position after the end of the Great War?

 

[Zulfurium]

What happened to the Hindenburg Line/Siegfried Position after the end of the Great War?

I mean they are military positions without much use after the war. Not quite sure what the question is here. There hasn't been a massive Westwall-type building program in the west if that is what you are asking about. There are significant efforts at demilitarizing the region, particularly taking care of the mines and unexploded shells which have been spread all over the place, but that will take decades if not centuries to complete.

 

[the Imperium of Canada]

I've forgotten if you have gone into detail about this or not, but how does the Soviet Russian Republic generally treat it's Jewish population compared to what happened with OTL Stalinist Russia?

 

[Zulfurium]

I've forgotten if you have gone into detail about this or not, but how does the Soviet Russian Republic generally treat it's Jewish population compared to what happened with OTL Stalinist Russia?

Jews are subject to many of the same religious laws as the rest of the populace, but their lot in Russia is significantly improved compared to Tsarist times. Jews hold an outsized level of influence throughout the Soviet bureaucracy, including at the very top, and are seen as one of the core forces behind the revolution. Crimes targeting jews are persecuted harshly and the pogroms are held up as one of the worst excesses of the Tsarist regime. There are worries in leadership that an outsized focus on Jewish issues might provoke greater antisemitism though so the government tries to keep it out of the public eye.

In contrast to OTL, the Soviet Republic doesn't have the same sort of overt focus on nationalities and minorities and doesn't try to set up an "alternate Israel" for the Jews. There are issues with Zionism, and a small but steady stream of migrants moving for Palestine, but that flow slows significantly as circumstances in the Levant worsen while life and opportunities in the Soviet Republic improve.

If we are to compare to the repression and heavy handed butchery of the Stalinist years, then the lot of the Jews in the Soviet Republic are many times better. They are a fully integrated part of the state and a favored segment of society which enjoys close connections with the upper levels of Soviet leadership. Soviet Zionism has shifted away from advocacy of Palestine, in light of the strained situation there, and has (under the influence of prominent Soviet Jews like Sverdlov) shifted towards presenting Russia as a potential homeland of the Jews.

 

[Henry Manson]

Why didn't Austria-Hungary demand Lombardy-Venetia back from Italy during the 1919-1920 Copenhagen Conference negotiating an end to the Great War? It used to be an Austrian Crown Land after the Congress of Vienna.

Also, I've read that the borders of Germany were moved up to Warta and the Narew to further secure its Eastern frontiers and avoid a repeat of the 1914 East Prussian campaign. I wonder why Austria didn't follow suit and move the Venetian border to the Adige, the Piave or the Livenza to secure their Southern borders in the event of another war.

How is the legacy of the final failure of Giolitti's Liberal State and Grand Trasformismo regarded both within Italy and Sicily-Sardinia? What reasons would academic historians give ITTL about why Risorgimento was eventually unable to reconcile legal and real Italy to each other and solve the deeply integral issues of Campanilismo and the Roman Question, whilst German unification was able to overcome Kleinstaaterei within the HRE as well as successfully reconcile the alienation between the Church and the State, as well as that of the two Germanies? How would they go on to justify the resolution of German dualism with the final unification of Germany and Austria during the 1920s, whilst on the other hand, Italy's grand designs in the form of the Mare Nostrum project completely failed?