Part 74: Green and Blue (1915-1916)
...no matter what it costs, the Empire of Lithuania was not willing to let it's territories get away. But were the people of Lithuania willing?
The Council of Lords, now pretty much a rubberstamp organization for Chancellor Vincentas Jonas Čepukas, the true leader of the country, gave the military a new order - crush the Russian rebellion as quickly as possible. Even though peace had been signed and the Empire was no longer officially at war, the people of Lithuania didn't feel any changes - the army was still mobilized, the economy was still in shambles and fully geared towards military production, hunger and poverty was widespread and people were still dying at the front. In fact, the Imperial government pressed it's population even more than before, collecting additional taxes and conscripting even larger masses of young and old men, even though officially the Empire was declared to be at peace - and this created a feeling of betrayal within the population.
Did the ethnic Lithuanians care about losing Russia? Maybe some did, but the absolute majority were much more bothered by the fact that they had no food to eat, their fathers and brothers were dying in droves, they were forced into battle under awful conditions...
Still, even though the nation was at it's last breaths, it received some military successes during the beginning of 1915. Returning Lithuanian armies from the Eastern Front bore holes into Russian defenses and, despite wavering morale, overpowered the poorly trained and poorly equipped militias along the front, dealing a few decisive blows to the Army of Russian Liberation and recapturing Smolensk in May. In the far north, Lithuanian
šauliai battalions, returning from Sweden and led by General
Lukas Šinkevičius, quelled the uprising in Ingria after two weeks of warfare in marshes and forests, taking the strategically important Karelian Isthmus and successfully denying Russia sea access. Mass anti-partisan operations took place in Latgalia and Estonia, resulting in hundreds of arrests and hundreds more killed in battles across the countryside. Despite fierce resistance from all three of these Baltic nations, they just didn't have the strength to resist superior enemy numbers without any foreign support.
For some time, it looked like Russia was going to go down the same way as the Baltic States. Grand Hetman
Jogaila Aukštaitis led a large Lithuanian offensive, with two Imperial armies participating, towards the Volga, heading towards the main prize - the city of Tver'. The Grand Hetman believed that if Tver' were to fall, then the rest of Russia would follow suit, and he was sure in his army's chances to deal a decisive victory in this campaign. However, while the Lithuanians had been followed by fortune at the start, they had really stretched themselves out by now, the soldiers were tired out by constant forced marches, and the Army of Russian Liberation, having been pushed into a corner, had a definite advantage in morale. Alexei Krutov commanded a Russian army in the
Battle of Mednoye, a mere 20 miles away from Tver', where his forces delayed, then eventually stopped the Lithuanian advance - thanks to a combination of weak Lithuanian leadership, exhaustion, defensible terrain and a lot of luck for the Russians (for example, they found the plans for the offensive, including Lithuanian army composition, numbers and planned tactics, on the corpse of a dead Imperial officer two days before the battle) - and eventually even surrounded and destroyed one of the two Imperial armies, after forcing the surviving one to flee.
The Battle of Mednoye was a massive boost to Russian morale, and, by some officer accounts, even "salvaged the Russian Democracy, which had become severely overstretched". Not only that, but it prompted Vladimir Ulyanov's Volga-Russia to declare war on the Empire of Lithuania in June of 1915. The Volgaks focused themselves on the Lithuanian steppe - formerly a part of the Volgak nation, it fell under Lithuanian control, and in the War of Russian Independence, it held out as an Imperial stronghold surrounded from two sides by rebellious Russian and Circassian forces. Now, they had to face a small, but fresh and prepared Volgak invading army alongside the two - which, unfortunately to Ulyanov, the invasion was not as easy as he wanted. The main problem they faced was the lack of infrastructure in the region, which made large troop movements impossible, as well as a general lack of experience in modern war. In some cases, their cavalry even rushed against entrenched enemy positions, only resulting in dead cavalrymen. However, they soon got the hang of the basics, and by June, Volgak cavalry reached the shores of the Azov Sea. Now cut off from the Empire they sought to rebel against, Crimea and Circassia pretty much acquired the status of independent nations.
After the defeat in Mednoye, the Russians went on an offensive of their own, despite having been severely weakened and exhausted themselves - the Northeast Campaign ended as a success, most of the important towns and fortresses in the north came under Russian control, while in the east, they pushed the Lithuanians out of the Tver Region and even begun to advance further. However, here they were greeted with a chain of events some anticipated, many wished, but none expected.
The fall of a regime.
The trigger came in the very beginning of July, in Vilnius, with the abolishment of the city council with a decree by the Council of Lords, who perceived the institution as infiltrated by dangerous organizations and incapable of securing order in the city. The prompted large protests by the city population, which the local Unitarian Party, led by Vincas Kudirka, hoped to use to trigger a revolution similar to one in Turkey.
Blue militias arose from the underground and organized a large rally on the 5th, campaigning against the war and the monarchy, which ended with an attack on the Cathedral of the Theotokos and prompted a military response. Vilnius soon erupted into chaos and street fighting, and for some time, it appeared as if Lithuania was about to fall into the same Unitarian revolution that Turkey went through only a year ago.
However, unlike in the southern empire, popular support for the Unitarians was too weak in Lithuania to trigger a revolution, and it was an another organization, or rather a group of organizations, which seized the opportunity. As Vilnius itself was too chaotic, Trakai was chosen as the location for a secret congress of underground democratic organizations, which founded the
Union of National Salvation, a cabinet of Republican leaders led by the professor and leader of the underground "Christian Democratic Party",
Antanas Virbalas. Citing the incapability of the Imperial government to stabilize the country and end the war, the UNS declared itself to be the lawful government of Lithuania and released the
Declaration of the Rights of the Lithuanians, where it stated it's goal of founding a free democratic republic in place of the old empire, ending all hostilities with foreign nations and returning economic prosperity to the nation. Yet another enemy for the Council of Lords to deal with - and this one was a lot more life-threatening. Much of the administration and the military defected to the UNS, including the garrison in Vilnius, which prompted the Imperial government to flee from the capital to
Švenčionys, about 30 miles to the north, where the Emperor had a manor.
For the following period, known simply as
21 Days, Lithuania stood on the edge of civil war. Two governments claimed complete rule over the nation - the Imperial government and the Union of National Salvation. Military campaigns against Russia ceased,many soldiers returned from the front to be stationed across the nation in preparation for conflict. The country had pretty much split, and all that was needed was a trigger...
But a trigger never came. Both sides knew that Lithuania has suffered enough.
On August 1st, Emperor Žygimantas IV Gediminaitis first dismissed Vincentas Jonas Čepukas from his position as Grand Chancellor, then abdicated from his throne and declared the abolition of the 700 year old Lithuanian monarchy. All the power in the nation now fell into the hands of the UNS and it's chairman Virbalas, which immediately declared the foundation of the
Republic of Lithuania. The Empire was no more.
Meanwhile, in Russia, people cheered for the end of the Russian War of Independence, ended with peace accords in Tver between the Russian and Lithuanian democratic representatives. While not all of the territory they claimed was liberated, the mere fact that Russia could now enjoy freedom after 500 years of oppression was exciting in of it's own.
The Union of National Salvation (Virbalas is first from the left)
That was not the only war which ended in this time period, either. After the Peace of Kiev, France found itself alone fighting against all of Europe, and the odds were not stacked against them. And the people knew that. Support for the Pro-War Coalition fell drastically, not good with the elections coming up... Still, Eugene Franchet d'Esperey had hope - not hope to win, of course, but to at least hold out long enough and push away Coalition attacks in order to acquire a more favorable truce. Luck was not on France's side, however, as their attempts at offensives in the Netherlands and the Rhineland were repulsed without a problem, and the Germans even managed to execute
Operation Storm Soldier, a large scale offensive against the French perimeter in Darmstadt, which, after to months of bloody combat, was successfully destroyed and the remainders of the French forces retreated across the Rhine. Now it was the Coalition which was making amphibious attacks across the river. Spain used this opportunity to their advantage, too, securing French Basque Country once again.
The war had become one of movement once again, but not because technology or tactics had changed, but because one of the sides had such a massive advantage in strength that they could ignore both. Of course, this overconfidence caused the Coalition to make mistakes, too - for example, they lost their best chance to break into French Wallonia by deciding to take a rest and make a few military parades after capturing Antwerp instead of advancing. However, overall, 1915 was the Coalition's best year, and this was the deciding factor in the
1916 French general election. The Pro-War Coalition collapsed, and the only force opposing the pacifist movement were a few nationalist and Protectionist parties.
Francois Chirac became the new Director of the Estates-General of France, and his first act of business was to call for an armistice with the Coalition, which eventually resulted in the last treaty of the Great European War - the
Paris Peace Accords.
The Republic of France found itself humbled by the war. It had to concede a number of colonies to the powers of the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition, as well as return Alsace to South Germania. War reparations were also placed on the nation, to be paid over a period of 50 years to the main powers of the Coalition or their successors. The Peace Accords also set an end to the Concert of Africa by putting in regulations and set zones of domination in the continent. The treaties of Tirana and Kiev were determined as valid by the representatives, and both Visegrad and Germania were allowed to keep the territories tbei gained. A problem arose with the Netherlands - the Germans wished to annex it, or at least take the border territories closest to German on linguistic terms, the Dutch hoped to stay free, the French didn't want an enlarged Germania on their border, and the entire argument threatened to shut down the debates, until the Germans finally conceded - of course, only on paper. Their army never actually left Friesland, a region of the Netherlands, and the German occupying authorities orchestrated a Frisian "declaration of independence". The
Frisian State lasted for three months before voting to join Germania as an integrated region.
Both France and the Netherlands protested this land grab, but neither one had the power to really do anything about it. With some final touches, the Paris Peace Accords were signed and the war came to a close.
Some countries, like South Germania - which was joined by the North to form the
Kingdom of Germania with the Act of Union in 1916 - and Visegrad, were delighted by the results.
Others, like Spain, were iffy on some places, but overall returned satisfied.
Some others, like Sweden, were furious.
And the defeated - France and the Netherlands - had no option but to shut up and agree.
They didn't really have any other option.
French amputees in Orleans, 1916
The greatest conflict in the history of Europe thus far was over. Millions of lives lost, many more injured or homeless. Two empires turned to ashes. The Great European War was one of the most defining events of the 20th century, and in many ways, it set the motion for many of the developments afterwards.
It gave the world a bloody introduction to modern warfare. Landships, chemical weapons, aeroplanes and modern tactics would change the face of conflict forever.
It tore down the fortresses of old and gave rise to new ideas and new ideologies. Unitarianism has now established itself in one state - the Turkish Civil War resulted in a Unitarian victory against both the royalists and the Arabian nationalists, and Akarsu Kubilay now stood as the leader of a vanguard nation, with ambitions never before seen in world history. In the West, ideas of gender equality and universal suffrage began to take firm hold, even in countries which fought against democracy in the first place.
Veterans returned from the front to see their societies changed forever. Some tried to adapt, some tried to fight.
The story of the world was about to reach a very critical stage.
And the future... the future was going to see a lot of
blue...
...and
green.
The map of the world in 1916
(I have decided to move to a more "claim" based format, because marking only actually controlled territories, rather than claims, has gotten confusing to some people, and also because I don't want to add tiny increments of land to each colonizing nation at every update)
Congratulations to everyone with the end of the Great European War. The story is definitely not over yet, but this is still a very important milestone to remember.
I also have an interesting proposition to you guys.
We have gone through this TL for an entire year and seen over 550 years of action, wars, conflicts and developments. I have tried to do my best to make the world of TSK interesting not just within Lithuania's borders, but also far outside it - and judging from how far we've gone, it doesn't look like I failed completely. However, now that we have reached the 20th century, there are so many countries to keep up with, so many concepts to explore and so little time to do it all that I just don't have the capability to do it all myself.
I declare that I open this TL to reader contributions, in a similar vein to such successful TLs like Twilight of the Red Tsar. Simply message me on what you would be interested in writing about, and we'll work it out - don't worry, you'll have plenty of artistic freedom, just make sure to keep the lore in mind. Of course, not everything in this TL is open to contributions - I'm referring to countries which will play an important role in future storylines, obviously - but even then, perhaps we'll be able to work it out.
Have a nice day, good luck to future contributors, and I hope you enjoy this TL just as much as I do!
