For Want of A Sandwich - A Franz Ferdinand Lives Wikibox TL
- Thread starter MaskedPickle
- Start date
So, what became of the PLA's Ten Marshals (Zhu De, Lin Biao, Chen Yi, Liu Bocheng, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Ye Jianying, He Long, Luo Ronghuan, and Peng Dehuai) ITTL? Any achievements they had in TTL's Chinese military?
Wait until you hear about those Bastards in south west England...
Yeah yes indeed it does, it’s quite fitting for such a guy.
Question is, what would have happened if Jean Jaures had survived IOTL? Would he have just remained a major socialist figure fighting against war and social inequality or would he have potentially led a revolution and turned France into a Marxist state like he did here ITTL?
I know nothing of value to add to your thought about that sorry señor u.u
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (born June 1, 1961 in Petrograd, Russia) is a Russian crime lord and founder and leader of the Apraksinskaya gang, one of the most powerful gangs in Russian organized crime.
The only child of a Jewish mining engineer and a Russian hospital nurse, Prigozhin was a successful junior professional skier before being forced to abandon due to an injury. While working as a fitness trainer, Prigozhin was condemned to various sentences due to facts of stealing, burglary, robbery, fraud and criminal conspiracy, spending a total of twelve years in detention.
Upon release on good behavior in 1993, Prigozhin started a fast food business alongside his family at the Apraksin Dvor open-air market in Petrograd ; his business became very successful and he was able, by 1995, to open the Contrast grocery store and restaurant chains and the Spectrum casino line, entering the list of Russian billionaires by 2000 and able to expand his business in China and Central Europe, earning him the nickname of “The Chef” and being hailed as a successful economic leader during the 1998 economic downturn.
But it quickly appeared that Prigozhin’s image as a respectable catering businessman was a front for his criminal activities : according to the Okhrana, Prigozhin started with fellow former convicts the Apraksinskaya gang, named after the place of his starting business, and started an open turf war against his competitors and later his criminal rivals, being able to flourish thanks to corruption in the chaotic time that followed the Vladivostok terrorist attack. By 1996, Prigozhin was the undisputed crime lord of the Petrograd underground and quickly expanded his operations throughout Russia, fighting the powerful Chechen and Georgian outfits, while forging alliances with foreign organized crime, in France, China and South America.
Aside from money laundering, assured by his restaurant and casino businesses, Prigozhin has versed in fraud, racketeering, burglary, arms, drug and human trafficking, murder, smuggling, kidnapping, proxenetism and massive corruption, building an intricate web of allies in politics and law enforcement, lending his support to ultranationalist circles in Russia and abroad. Considered among the wealthiest crme lords in the world, Prigozhin is also noted for the extremely violent methods of his subordinates, many being former military personnel, earning him the infamous nicknames of “Sledgehammer”, referring to the Apraksinskaya gang’s weapon of choice for executions, and “The General”, due to the quasi-military organization of his own troops.
After 2006 and the massive government-led crackdown upon Georgian organized crime, Prigozhin was reportedly the most powerful crime lord in Russia and yet he escaped prosecution from Russian authorities while being denied entry in the United States and the European Community, with 10 million dollars/reichsmarks bounties being placed for information leading to his capture by German and American law agencies. Even if he relinquished control of Contrast and Spectrum to his son Pavel by 2014, Prigozhin was nevertheless reported to live peacefully in Petrograd, free from persecution.
His fortunes however changed after the 2022 coup attempt in Russia, after he was found to have funded part of the conspiracy on his own money, resulting in being officially wanted for criminal activities and high treason by the Russian government, with a 300 million roubles bounty being offered. Prigozhin is reported to live in a secure position in Damascus and to continue his business activities, mostly in arms trafficking for the Hashemite Empire in the ongoing Second Mesopotamian War, while retaining his intact clout over Russian organized crime, with official freezing of his assets being far from being effective. His son Pavel was however arrested and his legal business placed under judicial liquidation.
Awesome stuff.
So how has Russian culture and life been affected by having the Tsar still being in power over all of these years instead of the Soviets or a Republican oligarchy?
Guess our wholesome boy is doomed no matter the TL to an untimely death.
Any more details on this failed attempt at Ukrainian independence and how long it lasted and how it ended?
I couldn't slip on the TNO reference while searching for a naval officer in Russia.
Ukraine was independent under German control from 1921 to 1944 and had an uprising in 1994 that was crushed by the military in 1995.
Shanghai is a more modern festival, devoted to independent filmmaking. Babelsberg, Hollywood, Bollywood, Pinewood and Moscow are seen as the Meccas of the movie industry, with Cinecitta running behind (but not as bad as OTL, due to the lack of Berlusconi shenanigans) and Budapest rising.
TTL assassin of Jaurès was Joseph Darnand, OTL founder of the Milice. As of Villain (it means "bad guy" or "villainous" in French, so the translation is already funny in our language as well), I could imagine he remained a nobody, dying in the Revolution or fleeing to Algiers.
As of TheDetailer's question, I doubt Jaurès would have had a very small influence on World War I, getting arrested as the war dragged on. When the scission within the SFIO happened, I think he would have been sidelined by the pro-communist faction and remain with the anti-communist one, even already been seen as a sellout due to his support to socialist governments.
Mmmmh, let me see.
Zhu De - Long and distinguished career in the Chinese Army and a hero of the struggle against the Japanese.
Peng Dehuai - Long and distinguished career, served as Chairman of the Executive Yuan from 1957 to 1959.
Lin Biao - Distinguished career, leader of the Chinese far right.
Liu Bocheng - Long and distinguished career.
He Long - Killed during the 1926 anti-Kuomintang Expedition.
Chen Yi - Has a succesful career of his own and tried to succeed Yan Xishan.
Luo Ronghuan - Purged due to his perceived leftist tendancies.
Xu Xiangqian - Killed during the 1926 anti-Kuomintang Expedition.
Nie Rongzhen - Purged due to his perceived leftist tendancies.
Ye Jiangying - Killed during the 1926 anti-Kuomintang Expedition.
Who organized this Expedition against the KMT? I assume that this was when the Federalists turned on the KMT due to their differing visions for China or was it something else?
Any reason why Lin Biao ended up a far-right political figure here and what was his brand of far-right ideology like in this timeline?
What was the independent Ukraine from 1921 to 1944 like and how close was the 1994 uprising to succeeding in creating an independent Ukraine before it was crushed? Any major figures in said uprising, both military and political?
Chloe Smith
Chloe Rebecca Smith (born 17 May 1982 in Ashford, Kent) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 23 February 2023, having served as Leader of the Conservative Party since 21 August 2021. The fourth woman and ninth-youngest Prime Minister, she previously served as a junior secretary under Prime Minister Tim Collins (2011-2013) and has been MP for Norwich North since 2007.
Born in Ashford, Kent, before her family moved to Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, when she was 3, Smith attended comprehensive schools in Swaffham and Methwold ; after working for Conservative MP Gillian Shephard during a gap year, she read English Literature at the Universty of York. After graduation, she joined Deloitte Consulting as management consultant. After being chosen to be the Conservative candidate for Norwich North, she entered the Parliament after the 2007 general election, in spite of her party’s loss, becoming the youngest member of the House.
After being re-elected in 2011, Smith entered the Collins cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, eventually moving to Business, Innovation and Skills from the 2013 election until the Tories lost their majority in 2014. The assessment of Chloe Smith during her cabinet days were of a young moderate, socially liberal (such as her support for GRSM rights and her self-professes atheism) but conservative economically, mostly against taxation. She was only noticed for a few appearances in television and seen as “fumbling, eager to please”;
During her time in the Opposition, Smith’s profile rose first during the Norman leadership, as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and then, unexpectedly, as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer when Dominic Raab became Conservative leader, owing to the bitter refusal of Sajid Javid (who Smith had supported during the 2019 leadership election) to serve in the Shadow Cabinet. Smith was seen as a token candidate, but her role as an critic of the Ali government was significantly used during the Wuchang Pneumonia pandemic, collaborating with the strict containment policies yet questioning the need for high spending. In November 2020, however, Smith would become a household name after she revealed her diagnosis with breast cancer. Continuing her functions in spite of her treatment, she was saluted from both sides of the aisle and internationally as a fierce warrior and a spokesperson for all women stricken by the disease.
Shortly after announcing her successful cure after chemotherapy and surgery in June 2021, Smith announced that she would run for Leader of the Conservative Leader following the resignation of Dominic Raab. Supported by the moderate wing of the Conservative Party, she ran as a Jagger Tory, proposing a decrease of taxes for middle and lower classes and a huge trickle-down economics stimulus : first seen as a dark horse candidate, her profile rose thanks to her name recognition and after many moderate leaders, such as Sajid Javid, Ken Clarke or Stephen Crabb, decided not to throw their hat into the ring. Chloe Smith won election as Leader on the third ballot, defeating Jacob Rees-Mogg by 66,4 %.
As Leader of the Opposition, Smith was able to unite the various factions of the Conservative Party and incarnating the face of a stable party in face of the various troubles that plagued the Ali, Buttigieg and Reeves Cabinets ; her walk to 10 Downing Street was widely seen by pollsters as a shoe-in given the growing context in the United Kingdom and she entered the 2023 election on running in favor of trickle-down economics, progressism on social issues, peace in the Middle East and Southern Africa and also promising to hold a referendum in Wales. Smith became Prime Minister after her party’s clear victory on 16 February 2023, winning 398 seats and 53,6 % of the popular vote.
The first steps of Chloe Smith as Prime Minister was to engage a massive tax reduction program for the lowest-paid classes, encouraging entrepreneurship while standing with Germany and Russia in favor for peace in the Middle East. A referendum on independence for Wales is also to be scheduled before November 2024. Her approval ratings remained consistent since entering office.
Smith married financial consultant Sandy McFadzean in 2013, with whom they would have two children : a son in 2016 and a daughter in 2019.
Smith has been hailed internationally as “a fresh face for London and a soft conservative voice that shows the ongoing shift of values in Europe” (New York Times), but criticism has been virulent at home, with The Daily Mail dubbing her “Her Accidency” : “Smith became Leader because she was a celebrity, she won an election impossible to lose after two years of chaos and now she strives to unite a deeply fragmented government and a barely holding country. She’s the face of renewal for some but she could be a footnote on the history of British decline”.
The 1926 Expedition was made by the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, as the Kuomintang remained on the left-wing and was perceived as pro-Syndicalist.
Lin Biao never entered communist politics and threw his energy on ultranationalism to criciticze Yan Xishan and his successors.
German Ukraine was a giant battleground between the Hetmanate, pro-Russians and Bandera, while the 1994 uprising didn't stand a chance against a reorganized Russia.
I assume the 1926 Expedition was a major factor as to why Chen Jiongming's Federalists and Yan Xishan's Shanxi Clique ended up the faction which won out in China with how it weakened the KMT and allowed them to become the dominant forces in the country? And on that note, what was the fate of the Anhui, Fengtian, and Zhili Cliques ITTL and all that?
How is he viewed in modern France ITTL, considering the right-wing nature of the French government, to put it mildly? Is Darnard held up as a national hero or not really that lionized?
How did he go along with the military regime that was around in China in the 1960s and 1970s? Was he a supporter of them or an opponent? And how did Lin Biao's ultranationalism develop in this timeline?
What became of the leadership of the Ukrainian People's Republic/Directorate ITTL and the question of what was the uprising's leadership like and how much of Ukraine did they control before Lebed crushed them? Any prominent Ukrainian politicians IOTL who'd be running around in the 1994 Uprising's leadership?
Also, realized that the death of Lei Chen in a military coup was on the same day as Lin Biao's plane crash IOTL? Was that deliberate? Also, who were the main ringleaders of said coup attempt and what were the main factors in their failure to overthrow the government even if they killed the President?
What are these people like ITTL? Is Kanye still a musician? What exactly is neo-Pyrism like besides obviously being an equivalent to neo-Fascism IOTL?
And on that note, what kind of regime was set up by the 1994 Uprising? Did they try to reform the Hetmanate or did they form some sort of Ukrainian (People’s) Republic?
I know i'm a bit late to mention this but ITTLs fall of Bethmann Hollweg seems a bit weird. I know that after Zabern he was no longer well regarded by the parlamentarian parties but even then he remained in the post and he had the Kaiser's trust. What was the vote of non confidence based on, failing to anticipate the Trabzon incident? A quick change in government in the middle of a crisis and the possible start of a war did not happen OTL even when it could be argued that his fuck up there was a lot greater and even then it seems the Kaiser kept him out of spite (the famous "You cooked this thing, now eat it"). Also his dismissal OTL came courtesy of Ludendorff pulling a Bismarck and threatening to resign more than the Reichstag doing something and even by then the SPD was moving back into supporting him (at least the side loyal to Ebert). On the other hand, i am not sure about Hertling becoming chancellor immediately on a coalition government. Hertling OTL was a supporter of Bethman Hollweg, Minister President of Bavaria, argued against his dismissal and even rejected the post until Michaelis also failed. i'd wager also that OTL there was 3 years of war and lot of other issues that allowed that step towards parliamentarization to be taken. Being at the start of a possible war would not be, i believe, the most advisable time to do an experiment like this unless there is no Burgfriedenpolitik and there is the possibility that the Reichstag would symbolically vote against the war so this was the compromise but even OTL most of the parties jumped into the bandwagon and the Burgfriedenpolitik was in a way good for the SPD because it lifted (or blurred a bit) the "disloyal" distinctive that the government had of them
Just my two cents on the issue.