The Iron Prince

USA

1921-1929

First Term of President Butler.

President butler set to work imposing regulations on Wall Street, such as creating the Federal Trade Commission (OTL SEC). While there was a lot of grumbling in Wall Street over the caps on how much stock can be sold at one time, the Stock Exchange did not descend into the gambling den of OTL. There was one bill President Butler got a lot of Flak for however, when he vetoed the volstead act banning alcohol arguing in a 29 page essay that "while there is a need to regulate alcohol, banning it outright will only make the situation worse." However, the veto was overridden and Butler was forced to sign it anyway.

Smedley also began making bilateral trade agreements with Russia as part of the Arctic Circle Agreement, which Canada would join in 1914. His work in the white house would win him a second term by a landslide of 41 states.

Second Term

Butler had already made trade agreements with Germany, which reduced Reparations payments and increased loans for Germany. However, this led to a cycle of debt (loans from USA paying reparations which were used to pay war debts to the USA) led Gustav Stresemann to declare that "Germany was dancing on a volcano".

Butler also began putting money into American Infrastructure leading to roads from San Francisco to NYC being created. As well as that, the Federal Education act of 1926 was passed in his time in office.

However, there were greater concerns for Alexei and Butler. Japan had been acting belligerently in the East, occupying manchuria in 1927. The Kellog Briand pact forbade the US and Russia from intervening as Japan was not a signatory as well as there being a prohibition of "aggressive wars".

Near the end of 1928, Al Smith was elected president in a photo finish, leading Butler to warn Smith that he fears that despite all that he could do, that there will be an economic crisis in the future, with grave ramifications.
 
William Blum in his essay on relations between Japan and Russia before 1938

Tsar Alexei was showing significant concern in the Kremlin with the annexation of Manchuria by Japan in 1928 as part of the brieft manchuran-Japanese war. His generals including Voroshilov calculated that Japan would need 3 years in a pacification campaign before they could march on China. Alexei then asked whether "the rising sun will defeat us again like with my father before me". He considered solutions to the Asian crisis such as getting the LoN to expel Japan from membership, but since Japan was one of the high ranking members in lieu of America, they managed to block any action as Russia had only joined the League in 1925.

Daniel Pipes on the Russian Middle east between 1921 and 1932

Russia's policy in its new colonies was mixed. The Kurds and Armenians were given autonomy the same way with the Sami in Sweden. However, Syria and Mesopotamia came under Martial law and were subject to direct rule from Moscow, with Russians sent to administrate the new provinces. This led to a resentment to the Russians that would come to ahead in later years
 
The Bigger they are...

4 March 1929

It was a crisp March Afternoon. President Smith's inauguration had been going smoothly. The Secret Service had been making sure nothing much was happening. His predecessor had managed to improve American Infrastructure and achieve good relations with Russia and Central America. It seemed like the Sun had risen on the United States.

But President Butler was worried. He was worried about relations with Japan since the annexation of Manchuria in 1928. Because of Japan's proximity to the philippines, Butler had given Smith instructions in a letter which was on the president's desk. This would remain classified to the present day.

Another worry was the economy. In spite of there being a safety net, wall Street was still pretty much a gambling den, and no-one knew what would happen if the economy were to falter. The crash came on 8 August 1929, otherwise known as Black Thursday. This sent ripples across America with people becomign bankrupt overnight. It did not help that Gustav Stresemann, the renowned German economist, was murdered by KPD terrorists the month before the crash.

In America, Smith set to work restoring the economy with various stimuli and works projects, including industrialising the South, which had led to some opposition.

In Germany, the Nazi Party, who had been setting up their infrastructure across years in planning, made massive gains in the elections, with 25% in the reichstag by 1931 in response to failures by the weimar government to handle the crisis, and t. By 1932, Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany. This was bad news for Russia, who were in a terrible economic State. The news of Russia's economy imploding and Adolf Hitler's election forced Alexei into drastic measures, including rearmament.
 
I think Russia taking Middle Eastern territories is rather ASB. I could imagine them extending their reach further into the Caucasus and even taking Constantinople (though the British would be mightily vexed), but getting into Mesopotamia and the like would be really difficult.

Also, the Russian army had problems besides poor morale (which Alexei would fix) and poor generalship (provided by Nicolas, who lacked the experience). They also didn't have the necessary equipment.

Also, the revolution that forces Nicolas to resign would not come as it did in OTL without Alexei having hemophilia, since a lot of the problems were caused by Rasputin, who gained the influence he did because of Alexei's hemophilia.

Out of curiosity, is the William Blum who is writing the books the same William Blum who wrote "Rogue State" and "Killing Hope" in OTL?
 
I think Russia taking Middle Eastern territories is rather ASB. I could imagine them extending their reach further into the Caucasus and even taking Constantinople (though the British would be mightily vexed), but getting into Mesopotamia and the like would be really difficult.

Also, the Russian army had problems besides poor morale (which Alexei would fix) and poor generalship (provided by Nicolas, who lacked the experience). They also didn't have the necessary equipment.

Also, the revolution that forces Nicolas to resign would not come as it did in OTL without Alexei having hemophilia, since a lot of the problems were caused by Rasputin, who gained the influence he did because of Alexei's hemophilia.

Out of curiosity, is the William Blum who is writing the books the same William Blum who wrote "Rogue State" and "Killing Hope" in OTL?

Yeah, but he's in an alternate world and a major historian on Russia ATL. Why do you Ask?

The February revolution OTL IIRC was caused by a bread strike in Petrograd which spread to Moscow. Mikhail was unwilling to take the throne and Alexei was too sickly, hence the revolution.

ITTL, Mikhail assumes regency for Alexei.

Well, this is my first major project at a plausible TL.

More: I was thinking of actually starting all over and maybe we could write a joint TL on a Victorious Russian Empire.
 
Attention: This will be the final edit for the Iron Prince, as i will be writing a second version.

A Glimpse into the Future...

The sky was bloody, and the buildings were burning but not consumed. Corpses were strewn all over moscow of soldiers. Women and children were being dragged out by faceless shades. They were all peaking an alien dialect. He tried to speak, but couldn't. Then he heard roars in the background. It looked like the Dragons on the soldiers' Standards were coming to life and coming for him. His armies were beaten and broken, now he was to die.

then he woke up, screaming. He remembered that he was in the Kremlin. His wife, Giovanna, castigated him for waking Fyodor up.

"How dare you wake Fyodor up at a time like this! It's 3 AM!"

"sorry dear, just had a nightmare."

"What was it about?"

"Fire. Moscow was burning, everyone was being killed. It was just horrible"

"just get back to sleep"

Alexei woke up at 6 AM for his usual 1 hour jog. He picked up the Moscow Daily, the main newspaper of Russia, which had on it's front page the news that Alexei had been dreading for the past several months.
 
Top