Or you know, China.
The Sons of Heaven were every bit as deified as Japanese emporers and yet they were deposed still.
The Silver Knight, a Lithuania Timeline
- Thread starter Augenis
- Start date
The Sons of Heaven were every bit as deified as Japanese emporers and yet they were deposed still.
The Yamato could be deposed by the Shogunate, but put simply why and how?
Remember that there was an Imperial Restoration in the 1300s-ish and the following Shogunate kept them around despite their obvious potential threat.
And China is different from Japan, in that Chinese Imperial Dynasties changed and thus there was a need for a concept of "Why" invented after the fact of numerous depositions. The Imperial Household in Japan held no real political role for the most part, hence why there were occasionally woman emperors for a short while due to the literal powerlessness of the title of Emperor/Empress.
And just as the Western Monarch draws legitimacy from God (or later the people), the Shogun is theoretically still an appointment by the Emperor, a divine being. For the Shogun to depose the Emperor would be akin to a European Monarch declaring (and pardon the allusion) "God is dead, and I have killed him.". You just don't remove your own source of legitimacy without bringing in another, and even that is very difficult.
Also, why does the Shogun remain just Shogun? If the Emperor is gone, why doesn't he declare himself the new Emperor of a new dynasty and marry an Imperial princess for legitimacy or something. Shogun after all merely means "Commander of the Armed Forces"*. Also considering that apparently there is a Toyotomi Shogunate, which is also odd and makes little sense. Hideyoshi ruled as "Imperial Regent" and "Chancellor", and so if his succession was successful there would be no Shogunate to speak of anymore. Hideyoshi was also famous for his hardcore reactionarism, compared to Nobunaga and Ieyasu. Why would such a government founded by a man who scorned social mobility, make the ultimate step in social mobility by declaring themself above God?
The House of Yamato can and could be deposed, but it wouldn't be by any Shogunate. Even a republic without explicit atheism might attempt to just make them "Emperor Spiritual" rather than "Emperor Temporal". I can see Unitarians deposing the Imperial family, but you'd need some ASBs with Theological training to depose the Imperial Family as a religious symbol.
I also just don't understand the nature of the Imperial Family in the "Blue Sun" update, there is not a single mention of any of them by name and so I assume there is no Emperor and yet there is still a Kyoto Imperial Palace? Again, I reiterate, for the Unitarians to be other throwing both the Temporal and Spiritual order of things would prompt a reaction that made the Catholic and Royal Army and the Vendee look like 23-F. Put simply, a Japan even vaguely like OTL as the Shogunate seems just wouldn't have a revolution like that.
That's also ignoring how poorly the Russian Revolution copypasta maps onto Japan, how a pseudo-monarchist Unitarian state a la the early Derg would have been more original and interesting.
* Not literally, but essentially.
(Sidenote : The Shogunate isn't really the Japanese Monarchy, and it is silly to refer to it as such.)
This is patently untrue.
There was a divine mechanism to unseat the Son of Heaven, no such mechanism existed for the Shinto faith and for the Imperial household.
Please don't accuse me of Orientalism and then spread blatant lies and falsehoods in this manner.
The Emperor was still around but was so insignificant that I didn't bother giving him a name but now that you noticed that, I'll add a reference to an unnamed Emperor in the update.
To say that the Emperor would ever be that insignificant, even as wholly religious figure, shows just how little you seem to understand of Japan.
Legacy of the Dashing King
Legacy of the Dashing King: The Rise of Shun China
The Empire of the Great Shun (or Shun Dynasty China) was founded in the 17th century when Li Zicheng (the Yongchang Emperor) or the "Dashing King" as he was known, overthrew the Ming Dynasty in a massive peasant uprising and the Shun Dynasty has ruled China ever since then. The Shun Dynasty was considered by many to be a sleeping dragon, content to live in it's own world but if aroused, could become a major power. Under the Yongwu (Li Heng) and Shangwu (Li Xun) emperors, China started industrializing as foreign trade was allowed to commence and foreign investment began to pour into the Chinese Empire. In aiddition to a more open approach to trade, the Yongwu and Shangwu Emperors promoted Chinese industry via giving Chinese industrialists loans to help them set up their factories and companies. During the Great European War, the Shangwu Emperor had joined the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition and so received Taiwan when the BAC won the war. The future Jiaqing Emperor also served as a "volunteer" fighting on the Western Front. After the war, Prince Li Xiu became a prominent leader of progressive forces within the Chinese court as his father, the Shangwu Emperor, grew more and more ill until on November 27, 1916, the Shangwu Emperor died. Li Xiu was formally proclaimed the Jiaqing Emperor the next day. His reign would be marked by many reforms which would turn the Shun Empire into one of the world's great powers.
Li Xiu, the Jiaqing Emperor
From the start of his reign, the Jiaqing Emperor would prove to be a great ruler and a progressive man who would steer China to new heights of power, wealth, and prestige in what became known as the "Chinese Decade". He began his reign by adopting new economic policies designed to strengthen the Chinese economy. Said economic reforms enabled China to industrialize quickly and allowed China to grow wealthier in the next few years as Chinese capitalists could freely do about their business with little interference from the Chinese government. In 1919, the Shun Empire started expanding into Xiboliya after a war with Mongolia which left Mongolia a shell of it's former self. The Shun Empire saw Xiboliya as a source of potential natural resources for the industrialization of China and gradually pushed north with Sinicized Jurchens providing most of the settlers for Xiboliya. In 1927, the Shun Empire formally claimed all of Xiboliya not claimed by anyone else after annexing the rump state of Mongolia. While there were large-scale diplomatic protests by Volga Russia on the proclamation by Shun China proclaiming that all unclaimed areas of Xiboliya were now formally part of the Shun Empire, such a move proved to be very popular with the Chinese people and the vast resources of Xiboliya helped fuel Shun China's industrialization. China was now wealthier than it had ever been at any point of history and a middle class was growing in Shun China with said middle class demanded a say in political affairs, which led to the creation of a nascent constitutional monarchy in China.
The first step towards the creation of a (limited) constitutional monarchy in China was the creation of regional and municipal councils in 1920 which gave the Chinese people a say in local government. This caused large-scale grumbling among the Chinese bureaucracy, as they were unhappy with having to share their power with peasants and merchants as they felt that the power of officials that were appointed by the Mandate of Heaven should be absolute. In 1921, Li Xiu appointed Fu Yuhan, a respected statesman and diplomat who had served as Ambassador to Visegrad from 1912 to 1916 and Ambassador to France from 1918 to 1920, as Grand Chancellor to assist him with his program of radical administrative reforms which would help modernize Shun China. Fu Yuhan set about eliminating corruption in the Chinese civil service, which had the convenient side-effect of removing many reactionary-minded civil servants and bureaucrats who would have otherwise obstructed the Jiaqing Emperor's reforms. In addition, Fu Yuhan enacted a reform of the provincial administration which would streamline local government as well by removing many offices which gave the holder a fancy title and a nice salary but had little purpose. By 1926, the Jiaqing Emperor felt secure enough in his position as Emperor to start drafting with his allies in the bureaucracy a new constitution for the Shun Empire which would establish a (limited) constitutional monarchy in China. Over the next year, a council of 200 men, 100 appointed by the Jiaqing Emperor and the other half elected by the provincial assemblies wrote a new constitution for the Chinese Empire/Shun China. Said constitution gave China a bicameral legislature with a lower house of 684 delegates elected via universal suffrage and an upper house of delegates partly appointed by the Emperor and partly appointed by provincial governments. While said constitution gave China an elected legislature, the Emperor still retained large amounts of power like the right to appoint the Chancellor (who was accountable only to him although in practice, the Emperor decided to pick a candidate from the largest party (or coalition of parties)), declare war (and make peace), conclude treaties and alliances, enact Imperial Edicts, command the military without the authorization of the legislature, dissolve the lower house, and so forth. Despite the strong powers the constitution gave the Emperor, the 1927 Constitution was still a step towards democracy.
Fu Yuhan, Chancellor of China (1921-1933)
The 1927 Constitution was formally approved on March 1, 1927 with elections for the first National Assembly scheduled for September 21. In the meantime, nascent political parties started emerging in China in preparation for the elections. The Constitutional Protection Alliance (Xianfa Baohu Lianmeng), comprised of moderate Protectionists and supported by the Jiaqing Emperor and Chancellor Fu, was the party of progressive members of the Chinese elite and of protectionist elements of the middle class. The Alliance for Democracy and Progress (Minzhu Yu Jinbu Lianmeng) was comprised of Republicans who wanted a true constitutional monarchy where the Emperor had relatively little power like with Germania or Visegrad and more guarantees of freedoms and had their base among the middle class. In addition to the two major parties, two prominent minor parties developed in China as well. These were the Democratic Union Party (Minzhu Lianmeng Dang), which adhered to Democratic Unitarianism, and the National Salvation League (Jiuguo Lianmeng), which were comprised of hard-core ultra-nationalists and reactionaries. The elections of September 21, 1927 saw the CPA win 313 seats while the ADP won 208 seats while the DUP won 95 seats and the NSL won 68 seats. The Jiaqing Emperor kept Fu Yuhan in his post as Chancellor after the election as the CPA formed a coalition with a faction of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress.
As China was reforming itself internally and expanding north, one must not forget that China was also flexing it's muscles in Southeast Asia during this time as well. Victory in the Great European War for the BAC along with the Indian Revolution meant that Chinese influence in Southeast Asia increased during this period as well. After the rise of the Unified Indian State, Assam broke free from Indian rule and sought protection from China, which the Shun Chinese accepted. In addition to this, Burma, Dai Viet, Siam, Lan Xiang, and Cambodia fell under China's sphere of influence during this time due to China's victory in the Great European War as a member of the (defunct) Baltic-Adriatic Coalition and the fall of the Mughal Empire. The Unitarians in India were certainly not happy with this state of affairs of losing their sphere of influence in Southeast Asia and this set the stage for the rivalry between Shun China and the Unified Indian State which would define Sino-Indian relations for decades to come.
China was less heavily affected by the French Flu than most countries in Europe or the Vespuccias but still, the French Flu claimed 200,000 lives in China, mainly in the coastal cities like Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Xiamen. The economic depression caused by the French Flu around the world also affected Shun China as well as the Shun economy lost major markets for Chinese goods in the west with the economic collapse and the border shutdowns with growth in China slowing down (although not stopping entirely with the exploitation of Xiboliya's resources). The economic slowdown in China, as it did in the wider world, led to fringe political movements gaining strength in Shun China with both the Democratic Union Party and the National Salvation League gaining popularity. During the Japanese Revolution, the Chinese government backed a nationalist uprising in the Ryukyu islands which resulted in an independent republic arising in the Ryukyu islands with said "Republic of Ryukyu" being a Chinese client state with a Chinese naval base in Okinawa and a referendum scheduled in 1934 to decide whether it stays independent or becomes part of China (albeit with some autonomy). The new Unitarian regime of the Union of Japan, more concerned with putting their house in order, could do little more than fume and give speeches blasting "Chinese imperialism" to their people. In addition, Shun China increased the amount of troops and bases it had in Korea as well to counterbalance the new militarist nature of the Unitarians in Japan. In the 1931 elections, the Democratic Union Party won 257 seats while the Alliance for Democracy and Progress won 176 seats and the Constitutional Protection Alliance won 144 seats. In the meantime, the National Salvation League won 107 seats as well. A "grand coalition" of the ADP and the CPA was formed with Fu Yuhan continuing in his role as Chancellor of China until January 30, 1933, when Fu Yuhan, who was by now 67, announced his retirement from politics. His post as Chancellor had spanned the last years of the absolute monarchy of Shun China and the first years of the nascent (if limited) constitutional monarchy in Shun China. With Fu Yuhan now retired, it was up to the Jiaqing Emperor to appoint a new Chancellor. On February 2, 1933, Yang Long, a member of the progressive wing of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress who would be acceptable to the DUP, was named Chancellor of Shun China and given the role of forming a new Grand Secretariat, which was the de facto cabinet of China under the 1927 Constitution. With Yang Long as Chancellor, who knows what the future holds for Shun China?
Yang Long, Chancellor of China (1933-?)
The Empire of the Great Shun (or Shun Dynasty China) was founded in the 17th century when Li Zicheng (the Yongchang Emperor) or the "Dashing King" as he was known, overthrew the Ming Dynasty in a massive peasant uprising and the Shun Dynasty has ruled China ever since then. The Shun Dynasty was considered by many to be a sleeping dragon, content to live in it's own world but if aroused, could become a major power. Under the Yongwu (Li Heng) and Shangwu (Li Xun) emperors, China started industrializing as foreign trade was allowed to commence and foreign investment began to pour into the Chinese Empire. In aiddition to a more open approach to trade, the Yongwu and Shangwu Emperors promoted Chinese industry via giving Chinese industrialists loans to help them set up their factories and companies. During the Great European War, the Shangwu Emperor had joined the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition and so received Taiwan when the BAC won the war. The future Jiaqing Emperor also served as a "volunteer" fighting on the Western Front. After the war, Prince Li Xiu became a prominent leader of progressive forces within the Chinese court as his father, the Shangwu Emperor, grew more and more ill until on November 27, 1916, the Shangwu Emperor died. Li Xiu was formally proclaimed the Jiaqing Emperor the next day. His reign would be marked by many reforms which would turn the Shun Empire into one of the world's great powers.
Li Xiu, the Jiaqing Emperor
From the start of his reign, the Jiaqing Emperor would prove to be a great ruler and a progressive man who would steer China to new heights of power, wealth, and prestige in what became known as the "Chinese Decade". He began his reign by adopting new economic policies designed to strengthen the Chinese economy. Said economic reforms enabled China to industrialize quickly and allowed China to grow wealthier in the next few years as Chinese capitalists could freely do about their business with little interference from the Chinese government. In 1919, the Shun Empire started expanding into Xiboliya after a war with Mongolia which left Mongolia a shell of it's former self. The Shun Empire saw Xiboliya as a source of potential natural resources for the industrialization of China and gradually pushed north with Sinicized Jurchens providing most of the settlers for Xiboliya. In 1927, the Shun Empire formally claimed all of Xiboliya not claimed by anyone else after annexing the rump state of Mongolia. While there were large-scale diplomatic protests by Volga Russia on the proclamation by Shun China proclaiming that all unclaimed areas of Xiboliya were now formally part of the Shun Empire, such a move proved to be very popular with the Chinese people and the vast resources of Xiboliya helped fuel Shun China's industrialization. China was now wealthier than it had ever been at any point of history and a middle class was growing in Shun China with said middle class demanded a say in political affairs, which led to the creation of a nascent constitutional monarchy in China.
The first step towards the creation of a (limited) constitutional monarchy in China was the creation of regional and municipal councils in 1920 which gave the Chinese people a say in local government. This caused large-scale grumbling among the Chinese bureaucracy, as they were unhappy with having to share their power with peasants and merchants as they felt that the power of officials that were appointed by the Mandate of Heaven should be absolute. In 1921, Li Xiu appointed Fu Yuhan, a respected statesman and diplomat who had served as Ambassador to Visegrad from 1912 to 1916 and Ambassador to France from 1918 to 1920, as Grand Chancellor to assist him with his program of radical administrative reforms which would help modernize Shun China. Fu Yuhan set about eliminating corruption in the Chinese civil service, which had the convenient side-effect of removing many reactionary-minded civil servants and bureaucrats who would have otherwise obstructed the Jiaqing Emperor's reforms. In addition, Fu Yuhan enacted a reform of the provincial administration which would streamline local government as well by removing many offices which gave the holder a fancy title and a nice salary but had little purpose. By 1926, the Jiaqing Emperor felt secure enough in his position as Emperor to start drafting with his allies in the bureaucracy a new constitution for the Shun Empire which would establish a (limited) constitutional monarchy in China. Over the next year, a council of 200 men, 100 appointed by the Jiaqing Emperor and the other half elected by the provincial assemblies wrote a new constitution for the Chinese Empire/Shun China. Said constitution gave China a bicameral legislature with a lower house of 684 delegates elected via universal suffrage and an upper house of delegates partly appointed by the Emperor and partly appointed by provincial governments. While said constitution gave China an elected legislature, the Emperor still retained large amounts of power like the right to appoint the Chancellor (who was accountable only to him although in practice, the Emperor decided to pick a candidate from the largest party (or coalition of parties)), declare war (and make peace), conclude treaties and alliances, enact Imperial Edicts, command the military without the authorization of the legislature, dissolve the lower house, and so forth. Despite the strong powers the constitution gave the Emperor, the 1927 Constitution was still a step towards democracy.
Fu Yuhan, Chancellor of China (1921-1933)
The 1927 Constitution was formally approved on March 1, 1927 with elections for the first National Assembly scheduled for September 21. In the meantime, nascent political parties started emerging in China in preparation for the elections. The Constitutional Protection Alliance (Xianfa Baohu Lianmeng), comprised of moderate Protectionists and supported by the Jiaqing Emperor and Chancellor Fu, was the party of progressive members of the Chinese elite and of protectionist elements of the middle class. The Alliance for Democracy and Progress (Minzhu Yu Jinbu Lianmeng) was comprised of Republicans who wanted a true constitutional monarchy where the Emperor had relatively little power like with Germania or Visegrad and more guarantees of freedoms and had their base among the middle class. In addition to the two major parties, two prominent minor parties developed in China as well. These were the Democratic Union Party (Minzhu Lianmeng Dang), which adhered to Democratic Unitarianism, and the National Salvation League (Jiuguo Lianmeng), which were comprised of hard-core ultra-nationalists and reactionaries. The elections of September 21, 1927 saw the CPA win 313 seats while the ADP won 208 seats while the DUP won 95 seats and the NSL won 68 seats. The Jiaqing Emperor kept Fu Yuhan in his post as Chancellor after the election as the CPA formed a coalition with a faction of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress.
As China was reforming itself internally and expanding north, one must not forget that China was also flexing it's muscles in Southeast Asia during this time as well. Victory in the Great European War for the BAC along with the Indian Revolution meant that Chinese influence in Southeast Asia increased during this period as well. After the rise of the Unified Indian State, Assam broke free from Indian rule and sought protection from China, which the Shun Chinese accepted. In addition to this, Burma, Dai Viet, Siam, Lan Xiang, and Cambodia fell under China's sphere of influence during this time due to China's victory in the Great European War as a member of the (defunct) Baltic-Adriatic Coalition and the fall of the Mughal Empire. The Unitarians in India were certainly not happy with this state of affairs of losing their sphere of influence in Southeast Asia and this set the stage for the rivalry between Shun China and the Unified Indian State which would define Sino-Indian relations for decades to come.
China was less heavily affected by the French Flu than most countries in Europe or the Vespuccias but still, the French Flu claimed 200,000 lives in China, mainly in the coastal cities like Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Xiamen. The economic depression caused by the French Flu around the world also affected Shun China as well as the Shun economy lost major markets for Chinese goods in the west with the economic collapse and the border shutdowns with growth in China slowing down (although not stopping entirely with the exploitation of Xiboliya's resources). The economic slowdown in China, as it did in the wider world, led to fringe political movements gaining strength in Shun China with both the Democratic Union Party and the National Salvation League gaining popularity. During the Japanese Revolution, the Chinese government backed a nationalist uprising in the Ryukyu islands which resulted in an independent republic arising in the Ryukyu islands with said "Republic of Ryukyu" being a Chinese client state with a Chinese naval base in Okinawa and a referendum scheduled in 1934 to decide whether it stays independent or becomes part of China (albeit with some autonomy). The new Unitarian regime of the Union of Japan, more concerned with putting their house in order, could do little more than fume and give speeches blasting "Chinese imperialism" to their people. In addition, Shun China increased the amount of troops and bases it had in Korea as well to counterbalance the new militarist nature of the Unitarians in Japan. In the 1931 elections, the Democratic Union Party won 257 seats while the Alliance for Democracy and Progress won 176 seats and the Constitutional Protection Alliance won 144 seats. In the meantime, the National Salvation League won 107 seats as well. A "grand coalition" of the ADP and the CPA was formed with Fu Yuhan continuing in his role as Chancellor of China until January 30, 1933, when Fu Yuhan, who was by now 67, announced his retirement from politics. His post as Chancellor had spanned the last years of the absolute monarchy of Shun China and the first years of the nascent (if limited) constitutional monarchy in Shun China. With Fu Yuhan now retired, it was up to the Jiaqing Emperor to appoint a new Chancellor. On February 2, 1933, Yang Long, a member of the progressive wing of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress who would be acceptable to the DUP, was named Chancellor of Shun China and given the role of forming a new Grand Secretariat, which was the de facto cabinet of China under the 1927 Constitution. With Yang Long as Chancellor, who knows what the future holds for Shun China?
Yang Long, Chancellor of China (1933-?)
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Note: If you're wondering why it refers to "Jurchens" and not to "Manchu", well, Hong Taiji never existed ITTL, so they are still called Jurchens ITTL.
I'm loving all this attention Asia has got to you lately thanks to you! Canonized!
Why doesn't the Shun dynasty just annex the Ryukyu islands? With the Unitarian revolution and fall of the PJA the international community are hardly going to protest that a strong non-Unitarian power is doing things to limit its spread.
And if the Chinese there are the ones revolting, why aren't they choosing to become part of a larger state themselves for the protection being part of the Shun would offer?
And if the Chinese there are the ones revolting, why aren't they choosing to become part of a larger state themselves for the protection being part of the Shun would offer?
I wonder what thoughts @darthfanta has regarding TTL's China due to his view on the Shun Dynasty?
Well if the Chinese are getting/helping to them to rebel, why don't the local people annex themselves to China? What gripes do the Okinawans with such a pre-eminent power to not re-enter the Mandate of Heaven's reach proper "as in old"?
It just seems like the logical choice to "ensure" they never live under Unitarianism.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it, even though this is a small thing combined with your Japan update this does make me yearn for a dose more of logic and understanding of Ryukyu, their culture,
If you say so, I'll add something about a referendum on union with China or remaining independent.
Chapter 81: Reign of Terror
Part 81: Reign of Terror (1929-1934)
And one more. Perhaps the most awful option Lithuania could possibly take in this crossroad - Revivalism, the ideology of the growing Revival Front and it's leader, Augustinas Stankevičius. It is hard, perhaps even impossible, to place Revivalism into the standard red-blue political spectrum, where red is Protectionism and blue is Unitarianism. Stankevičius presented his party as the "third way", separate from both the "rotting corpse of democracy" and the "degenerate idiocy of Unitarianism" - instead, it's primary feature was extreme nationalism, to the point where even the most reactionary monarchists of the Imperial period would step back and say "that's crazy". Lithuania should be for Lithuanians, and yet at the same time, it must expand to regain it's rightful territory across Eastern Europe. All semblances of democracy and "mob rule" needed to be vanquished and instead, all rule must be concentrated in the Party and it's leader - the Vadas ("leader"). And that was only the moderate wing of the Revival Front - this doesn't even take into account the Sarmatist wing of the party, successors of the fringe 19th century National Lindemanist movement, which declared the Lithuanians to be the "Sarmatians", an ancient nation which supposedly ruled over the Slavs - as such, it is the Lithuanian nation's birthright to rule over and colonize Eastern Europe.
And yet, despite their extremism, the Revivalists were a genuine power in post-Šinkevičius Lithuania, thanks to two of their features. The first one of them was the Green Berets - the official paramilitary of the Revival Front, composed of young and loyal members of the party and tasked with entrenching it within Lithuanian society. It gave the Revivalists a form of "power projection" within the population, giving them a tool which allowed them to eliminate, fight and attack dangerous political opponents. The only other movement within Lithuania which had something like that was the Unitarians - and they had been banned since 1917. The second was the reason why the Revival Front was even invited to the government in the first place - their ties with the Jewish minority. Believe it or not, but while claiming that all minorities within Lithuania must become second class citizens and bend their knee to the Sarmatian master race, the Revival Front was sure to exclude the Jews from the negative rhetoric. A lot of it came due to personal preference - Augustinas Stankevičius had a Jewish grandmother and had lived among the Litvaks for a considerable amount of time in his early life. In addition, although it may seem unbelievable, portions of the Lithuanian Jewish population were genuinely in favor of the Revival Front - this support stemmed from traditional Jewish loyalty to the Lithuanian state, as well as Russia's and Krajina's treatment of their Jewish minorities. The Russians remembered well that the Jews formed militias to stand against them during their War of Independence, and as a result, Jewish rights were severely curbed in their Democracy.
Soon after Šinkevičius's death, a provisional interim government was formed in the Council of Hetmans - but it was merely a smokescreen for the vast political battles, alliances and intrigue happening behind the scenes.
Perhaps, if history had gone differently, this period of "interregnum" would have ended as soon as it began. From the start, the Restorationist faction had a headstart above the others, and they could have potentially secured a majority, had they drawn a powerful figurehead to their disunited movement. Artūras Vitalgas proposed Silvestras Žukauskas, the famous hero of the Great European War, one of the most talented and competent leaders in that entire conflict - and he certain wasn't reactionary enough to fall to the Hetmanists or Reformists. However, Žukauskas could tell which way the wind was blowing, - perhaps even towards a civil war - and thus, instead of meddling in the politics he disliked so much, he ditched his wagons and moved West, to France. This gave enough time for the Revivalists to outmaneuver the disunited monarchist faction, and soon, the stage was set for the Stankevičius-Dirmantas Concordat in late 1929 - the Revivalists and Hetmanists forged an unofficial political alliance (one which a number of Hetmanists opposed, in fact, but Dirmantas himself ended up persuaded that perhaps he would be able to keep the Revivalist extremism in check), and, in the beginning of 1930, when the Green Berets executed the Purge of the Prezidiumas and either killed or kicked out over 80 of the 150 members of the symbolic parliament, the opposition to the inevitable was over.
Augustinas Stankevičius had become the undisputed ruler of post-Šinkevičius Lithuania, the head of the Council of Hetmans (half Revivalist and half Hetmanist), and, unofficially, the Vadas.
Augustinas Stankevičius (right) and Stasys Dirmantas, the leader and second-in-command of Revivalist Lithuania, respectively
The Revivalist and Hetmanist response to the economic crisis was quite unique when compared to their neighbors. Stankevičius personally placed one of his longtime friends, the economist and businessman Vladas Požela, as the chief of economic affairs, and his solution to the brewing recession was to dramatically increase government spending to compensate for the loss of trade and private consumption. This aligned closely with the interests of the Party, which sought to transform and remilitarize the nation as quickly as possible. Large scale public works were organized throughout the country - most notable of them was the Amelioration Campaign, a vast array of land improvement campaigns to drain the hundreds of miles of swamps across the country and turn them either into farmland or into useful peat plantations. Within a few years, hundreds of kilometers of swamps practically disappeared from the map, endangering dozens of rare marsh species of animals and plants, to the point where an association of biologists in Vienna even sent a letter of protest to the Vadas (it was ignored). Military construction and factory conversion also took place, although here, the Lithuanians were faced with a problem - lack of resources. Lithuania lacked reserves of such vital resources as iron or coal, both important for militarization - that was something Lithuania had to keep in mind...
To fund all this massive spending, especially for purchasing needed resources, Lithuania had to think creatively. One of the ways the Revivalists helped fund their programs was by establishing a National Lottery, running every month. All of the profit from the lottery went into government spending - and to maximize it, the Party was sure to establish purchasing tickets as a "patriotic endeavor" for the good of the country. The totalitarian state also found a couple of cordial trade partners - most important of them being, interestingly enough, India and Turkey. They both supplied the Lithuanians with cheap coal, iron and oil, sometimes only for credit - after all, how could you miss the opportunity to prop up a potential enemy to Visegrad and Germania on their border?
Jonas Pakalka, one of the figureheads of the Sarmatist movement within the Revival Front, was placed as the chief of internal and education affairs, and he soon began to apply his views into the system. He was one of the men responsible for running the Saugumas and it's terror across the country, and for that, he earned the nickname "Pakarka" ("The Hanger"). Under his and the Vadas's command, the National Commission on the Lithuanian Language (Valstybinė lietuvių kalbos komisija) was founded - and it was an institution whose purpose was to "clean the Lithuanian language of any Slavic or Germanic impurities", in a similar manner as the English language and it's Purification of the Mother Tongue. A number of new letters were introduced and thousands of words were replaced with "Lithuanized" synonyms, all government and major private commissions were provided with updated dictionaries and use of the new Lithuanian language was made mandatory. Pakalka is also famously quoted as having said "History is a set of lies which people agree on", and this view was put in place in his reforms to the education system - the humanitarian sciences from pre-school to university had to unilaterally tow the party line. Old textbooks and "unpatriotic" literature was being thrown out and burned, to be replaced with government organized and assigned "historically accurate literature". Here is an example from a 7th grade history textbook in 1932:
Perhaps the culmination of the transformations which happened to the Lithuanian state took place in 1932, when, under the orders of the Vadas, the Republican flag and coat of arms of the Lithuanian state were replaced with the banner of the Revival Front.
Flag of Revivalist Lithuania (1932-???)
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It's the symbol in the flag of the OTL Romuva neopagan movement:
The swastika (called "Saulės ratas" - "Wheel of the Sun") is an important part of Baltic folklore and design, it can be found in a number of artwork, jewelry pieces and symbols until as late as the Commonwealth period in OTL. I figured it would be a fitting symbol for a radical nationalist movement, one which is only a step away from full neo-paganism.
Aside from India and Turkey, what other countries are cordial trade partners with the nutjobs in Lithuania?
Not all that many. Britannia and Sweden are ones. Countries in the New World and in the Far East, who don't really care all that much about what happens in Europe anyway, also don't see a problem in continuing to trade with the Lithuanians.