"Badmaev, a Russified Buriat Mongol, a recent convert to Russian Orthodoxy, whose godfather was none other than the tsar, sought to influence Russia's China policy and line his own pockets...The essence of Badmaev's missive was a fantastic proposal for acts that were intended to lead to the overthrow of the Manchu rulers of China and the subsequent voluntary submission of China and Tibet to Russian rule. The scheme, which would require covert Russian aid, called for a lengthy branch line from the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the city of Lanchow [Lanzhou] in Gansu Province. That line would confer enormous commercial benefits on Russia, and Lanchow would provide a jumping-off site for a revolt against the Manchu Dynasty led by Badmeav and his cohorts. The uprising would spread eastward, the dynasty would collapse, and a popular cry would arise for the tsar to assume dominion over China and Tibet. It was the kind of scheme which might have been hatched in a later era by the CIA. Strange though it seems, WItte endorsed Badmarv's proposal..." Sidney Harcave, *Count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia*, p. 55. https://books.google.com/books?id=42rxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55
"For example, in 1893, the Buryat Mongol physician Piotr Badmaev submitted a plan to Czar Alexander III for bringing parts of the Qing Empire under Russian sway, including Outer and Inner Mongolia and Tibet. He proposed extending the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Buryat homeland at Lake Baikal through Outer and Inner Mongolia to Gansu, China, next to the Tibetan border. When completed, he would organize, with Buryat help, an uprising in Tibet that would allow Russia to annex the country. Badmaev also proposed establishing a Russian trading company in Asia. Count Sergei Yulgevich Witte, Russian Finance Minister from 1882 to 1903, supported Badmaev’s two plans, but Czar Alexander accepted neither of them." http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/e...kra/shambhala/russian_japanese_shambhala.html
"A Buriat by birth, Badmaev was a practitioner of Tibetan medicine with excellent political connections in the courts of Alexander III and Nicholas II. Badmaev's father was a prosperous cattle farmer of Buriat stock. After early schooling in Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal, Badmaev entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University. Here he developed the interests that would provide his entrée into the upper reaches of imperial society: Russian foreign policy in East Asia and traditional Tibetan medicine. The future Alexander III served as Badmaev's godfather when he converted to Russian Orthodoxy, and Badmaev used Alexander's name for his patronymic. From 1875 to 1893, Badmaev worked in the Asiatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1893, in a memorandum sent to the finance minister, Sergei Witte, he outlined what became known as the Badmaev Plan, a project that called for railroad construction and commercial trading companies to extend Russian influence in Mongolia and as far as Tibet. Badmaev argued that the extension of the Trans-Siberian Railroad through Kiakhta and Peking to the Russian port of Vladivostok would provide Russia with the opportunity to promote rebellion among dissatisfied Chinese subjects, such as the Mongolians and Tibetans, who would appeal to the Russians for help. Badmaev's fellow Buriat Mongols of the Transbaikal region, who as Buddhists had long-standing religious and commercial interests in Mongolia and Tibet, would play a pivotal role as agents of Russian imperialism. With Russia's support of China after the Treaty of Alliance of 1896, the Badmaev plan lost its rationale, and the Trans-Siberian Railroad was completed through Manchuria..."
http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=RUS0056&DataType=WorldHistory&WinType=Free
Can anyone see a Tsar crazy enough to attempt this? (Alexander III's OTL reaction was to the point: “All this is so novel, so unusual and fantastic that it is difficult to believe in the possibility of success." ) The fact that as normally sober-minded an official as Witte backed it suggests such an attempt is conceivable... (I do not say its *success* is conceivable. At "best" it could lead to a war with Great Britain that Russia could ill afford.)
Incidentally, I first learned about the plan from a 1999 post in soc.history.what-if by a Mongolian poster who thought it actually could work:
***
"Have you heard of Badmaev plan? He was a Buryat-Mongol on Russian service who proposed an interesting and top secret plan for conquest of China or at least most of it.
His plan has interesting and sound observations. He noticed indifference of Chinese populace to its rulers, whether native or barbarian. He proposed to win Mongols, Tibetans and other nomadic peoples of Manchu empire to Russian side and organize a rebellion against Manchus.
Then, Mongol-Tibetan native forces, armed by Russian weapons and led by Russian officers, supplemented by a number of Cossack and Russian Buryat and Calmyck Mongol regiments would move towards Peking and put an end to three centuries of Manchu rule.
There, they would proclaim a new dynasty in China with White Khan (ie Tsar) as emperor. As Badmaev reasoned, for Chinese it makes no difference whether their ruler called Bogdo Khan or Tsagaan Khan.
European Great Powers reaction would be the most difficult part of the plan. Badmaev thought European intervention could be prevented by enlisting cooperation of more friendlier powers, France, Germany and United States against Britain who is guaranteed to oppose any Russian plans. In the end, once Russia is in control of China's mainland, European powers could be bought off with all sorts of concessions which Russia now can afford.
If Germany is already a Russia's ally in the Far East as in the above scenario, then Badmaev's plan has a very good chance to succeed."
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/soc.history.what-if/840RvcZh-og/_S4bCOjEBuIJ
"For example, in 1893, the Buryat Mongol physician Piotr Badmaev submitted a plan to Czar Alexander III for bringing parts of the Qing Empire under Russian sway, including Outer and Inner Mongolia and Tibet. He proposed extending the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Buryat homeland at Lake Baikal through Outer and Inner Mongolia to Gansu, China, next to the Tibetan border. When completed, he would organize, with Buryat help, an uprising in Tibet that would allow Russia to annex the country. Badmaev also proposed establishing a Russian trading company in Asia. Count Sergei Yulgevich Witte, Russian Finance Minister from 1882 to 1903, supported Badmaev’s two plans, but Czar Alexander accepted neither of them." http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/e...kra/shambhala/russian_japanese_shambhala.html
"A Buriat by birth, Badmaev was a practitioner of Tibetan medicine with excellent political connections in the courts of Alexander III and Nicholas II. Badmaev's father was a prosperous cattle farmer of Buriat stock. After early schooling in Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal, Badmaev entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University. Here he developed the interests that would provide his entrée into the upper reaches of imperial society: Russian foreign policy in East Asia and traditional Tibetan medicine. The future Alexander III served as Badmaev's godfather when he converted to Russian Orthodoxy, and Badmaev used Alexander's name for his patronymic. From 1875 to 1893, Badmaev worked in the Asiatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1893, in a memorandum sent to the finance minister, Sergei Witte, he outlined what became known as the Badmaev Plan, a project that called for railroad construction and commercial trading companies to extend Russian influence in Mongolia and as far as Tibet. Badmaev argued that the extension of the Trans-Siberian Railroad through Kiakhta and Peking to the Russian port of Vladivostok would provide Russia with the opportunity to promote rebellion among dissatisfied Chinese subjects, such as the Mongolians and Tibetans, who would appeal to the Russians for help. Badmaev's fellow Buriat Mongols of the Transbaikal region, who as Buddhists had long-standing religious and commercial interests in Mongolia and Tibet, would play a pivotal role as agents of Russian imperialism. With Russia's support of China after the Treaty of Alliance of 1896, the Badmaev plan lost its rationale, and the Trans-Siberian Railroad was completed through Manchuria..."
http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=RUS0056&DataType=WorldHistory&WinType=Free
Can anyone see a Tsar crazy enough to attempt this? (Alexander III's OTL reaction was to the point: “All this is so novel, so unusual and fantastic that it is difficult to believe in the possibility of success." ) The fact that as normally sober-minded an official as Witte backed it suggests such an attempt is conceivable... (I do not say its *success* is conceivable. At "best" it could lead to a war with Great Britain that Russia could ill afford.)
Incidentally, I first learned about the plan from a 1999 post in soc.history.what-if by a Mongolian poster who thought it actually could work:
***
"Have you heard of Badmaev plan? He was a Buryat-Mongol on Russian service who proposed an interesting and top secret plan for conquest of China or at least most of it.
His plan has interesting and sound observations. He noticed indifference of Chinese populace to its rulers, whether native or barbarian. He proposed to win Mongols, Tibetans and other nomadic peoples of Manchu empire to Russian side and organize a rebellion against Manchus.
Then, Mongol-Tibetan native forces, armed by Russian weapons and led by Russian officers, supplemented by a number of Cossack and Russian Buryat and Calmyck Mongol regiments would move towards Peking and put an end to three centuries of Manchu rule.
There, they would proclaim a new dynasty in China with White Khan (ie Tsar) as emperor. As Badmaev reasoned, for Chinese it makes no difference whether their ruler called Bogdo Khan or Tsagaan Khan.
European Great Powers reaction would be the most difficult part of the plan. Badmaev thought European intervention could be prevented by enlisting cooperation of more friendlier powers, France, Germany and United States against Britain who is guaranteed to oppose any Russian plans. In the end, once Russia is in control of China's mainland, European powers could be bought off with all sorts of concessions which Russia now can afford.
If Germany is already a Russia's ally in the Far East as in the above scenario, then Badmaev's plan has a very good chance to succeed."
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/soc.history.what-if/840RvcZh-og/_S4bCOjEBuIJ