Imperial Russia's WW1 war aims

I think what Tsarist Russia would have wanted if it had won World War I would have been domination over the other Slavic peoples, since the Tsars had been pursuing a pan-Slavic policy. So all the Slavic states in eastern Europe would probably have been annexed by the Tsar if Russia had won or at least reduced to pro-Russian puppet states or protectorates.
 
I think what Tsarist Russia would have wanted if it had won World War I would have been domination over the other Slavic peoples, since the Tsars had been pursuing a pan-Slavic policy. So all the Slavic states in eastern Europe would probably have been annexed by the Tsar if Russia had won or at least reduced to pro-Russian puppet states or protectorates.

I really cant see them annexing all the way to the Italian border TBH, but yeah, the slavic remnants of AH would likely have become Russian puppets
 
Russia's aim in the Bosporus was I believe to colonize the area with Cossacks and turn it into a neo-byzantine puppet state. Here is a map that you are thinking of?

Wow, thats a very cool map. Authentic too?

Whats the context though...Russia has lost a lot.
And I love the Breslan micro state..So much explaining needed!
 
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Wow, thats a very cool map. Authentic too?

Whats the context though...Russia has lost a lot.
And I love the Breslan micro state..So much explaining needed!

Well, as the date up there shows it's an OTL map drawn in 1919, after the Treaty of Versailles was signed (June) but before the treaties of Trianon and Saint-Germain fixed the things in former Austria-Hungary. As you can expect Russia is a total mess because of the civil war and the cartographer has done his best effort to reflect the situation there whithout going insane. The Straits area in Turkey is provisionally occupied by the British and will continue to do so till the Cannakale crisis in the early 20s.

Back in topic, well, nothing more to say, just that Britain did accept to cede the Straits to Russia once they and the Ottomans were in the war, and that such a clause was approved by Karl I during the negotiations of the Sixtus Affair, even after Nicky II had been overthrown. So a victorious Russia is going to receive it yes or yes.

Another likely seizure is that of Galitzia. Before the war, a lot of young Poles that detested russification went there to study in their language, especially after the revolts of 1905. By taking it Russia makes her position in Poland less vulnerable and weakens the Polish nationalists. Gainings from Germany, however, are going to be minimal.

Over time, though, I think that Britain and France will resent these concessions, and they will be the main reason for the break up of the Entente.
 
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Back in topic, well, nothing more to say, just that Britain did accept to cede the Straits to Russia once they and the Ottomans were in the war, and that such a clause was approved by Karl I during the negotiations of the Sixtus Affair, even after Nicky II had been overthrown. So a victorious Russia is going to receive it yes or yes.

That's what I was thinking I remembered hearing/reading. I was under the impression that the straights were definitely going to be under the Czar after the war. Whether that's just controlling the territory or some kind of outright annexation or puppet state installation doesn't matter too much.



Over time, though, I think that Britain and France will resent these concessions, and they will be the main reason for the break up of the Entente.

I too think that Britain would have to come to that conclusion as she would begin to see the Russian bear growing much too strong too fast. (On a side note, would a victory and spoils such as this squelch internal dissent for a while too?) Much like after Napoleon's defeat. A second Crimean war is out of the question, so politics and alliances would be the UK's only weapons. Would or could Russia have a reunion of sorts with Germany? The UK's newfound ties to France probably eliminates any chance of them wooing Germany anytime soon.
 
The big question is however how GB will handle a victorious Russia. Russia only was displaced as "Primary threat to the Empire" because Germany worked hard on being worse. With Germany, at least for some time pacified, Russia will not only be back as a power on collision course with the Empire, but with access to the high seas to be so.

The Russian industrialization, which in OTL had the biggest growth rate pre-WWI also must be expected to carry on, and a glance at the pre-WWI Russian naval plans will reveal that the Russian Navy would reveal that it would not be much short of the Kaiser’s navy in challenging the Royal Navy.

I was wondering about how Russian industrialization would fare if the empire had survived WWI. On the one hand, not having to go through the Revolution and the Civil War (both intensely disruptive and damaging to industry) would probably put Russia in a stronger position in the immediate post-war world. However, Russia would also be saddled with all the internal disruptions caused by WWI itself, and all the problems that contributed to the revolutions in OTL would still be there. We could end up with a situation where the Russian Empire survives, only to fall into a revolution in 1920 anyway (and given the number of veterans wandering home after 1918, I wouldn't want to speculate on this revolution being much nicer than 1917-1922 was).

One of my favorite pieces of online AH speculation, Jay Allman's A Different Struggle for Mastery in Europe, takes this idea and runs with it, imagining the Brits and French backing Germany in a bid to contain Russia, resulting in a big-ass war in the 1940s fought across Eastern Europe that just seems to make things worse.
 
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