I lied, here it is. lol
CHAPTER 45
THE MAD CZAR
Czar Viktor was quite mad, you see.
As stark raving as one could be!
He hunted the Jews, screaming "Off with their heads!"
And he murdered his rivals, right in their beds!
Mad Viktor was Czar
It was quite bizarre,
His brothers all died,
and their Mama Vicky cried,
and although he wasn't supposed to be...
He became His Imperial Accidency.
- Republican Union nursery rhyme, unknown author.
Without a doubt, the worst possible events were unfolding in the Russian Empire at the turn of the century. They simply could not have been worse. Fresh out of their undeclared loss in the Russo-Persian War, the Russian economy was suffering greatly. The humiliation of being fought to a standstill by the Persians, of all peoples, brought shame to Czar Alexander and his consort Victoria. Though when he passed in 1891 the official cause of death was declared a heart-attack, many said that Alexander had, in fact, died of a broken heart, his dreams of Russian power reaching the Indian Ocean dashed forever by the Shah. On top of this, his last actions had been a general repeal of all civil liberties after a Beutelist attempted to shoot him in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, his own capital. As his body was placed in his tomb, the eldest of his three sons, Nicholas, was working closely with his younger brother Ivan to prepare for ascending the throne. Nicholas had ambitions of avenging his father by destroying Persia while also calming the situation at home by easing restrictions on civil liberties. It was said Nicholas even had talked of abolishing serfdom. All-in-all, a nation under Nicholas would have likely been a fairly decent place to live, at least relatively and as compared to previous Russian monarchs.
The bomb explodes, killing Nicholas and Ivan
Crown Prince Nicholas is dragged from the wreckage (center) by a guard
This was not to be, however, as in late 1891, just a month after the passing of his father and just a week away from officially being crowned Czar himself, Nicholas and Ivan were riding in their carriage through St. Petersburg when a Beutelist assassin threw a bomb inside the window. Ivan was killed instantly but Nicholas lived long enough to be dragged out from the attack and bled out on the cobblestones surrounded by his guards. His last words were to tell his wife and son he loved her.
Now this was bad, really, really very bad. According to policy, the throne should have gone to Nicholas' ten year-old son Alexander, but someone else was about to step into the power vacuum: Prince Viktor.
As the Russian government reeled from the assassination and was faced with having a ten year-old become Czar, many in the government feared a Beutelist revolution. This sort of vacancy on the throne was exactly what anarchists thrived on. And in the Orient, Yankee ships were landing in Japan. The American menace was closing in. Someone had to take power quickly and show the world that Russia was still ready and roaring for any challenge it might face.
So it was that in late September Prince Viktor, the late-born child of Czar Alexander and Victoria, was summoned from his position as governor-general of Turkmenistan. Viktor was... an interesting individual, to say the least. He was, according to his own late brother Ivan, "As if Hell itself found a creature so cold and vile that it spat him forth, only for Father to send him out to the Steppes to keep him from slaughtering everyone in the capitol." Viktor had been unquestioningly loyal to his father and deeply loved his mother, yet seemed to find no love with his parents. Though they publicly doted on him as a child, he often felt an outcast in the Romanov family, as if his late birth was an accident and he was "just the by-product of a defective condom" as he so succinctly put it to one of his few friends. Though he learned English perfectly as well as German and French, this failed to impress his mother and father. He also took up fencing and horseback riding, again to no applause. Finally, with no real prospect of ever sitting on the throne and feeling his life expendable, Viktor volunteered to fight in the Russo-Persian War. When the war broke out in 1888, he was 28 and appointed to the rank of captain. He led his men into some of the thickest fighting of the conflict and was wounded twice, once in the right arm and once in the left knee.
Thought the was quickly became just a massive mess and tactics went by the wayside, Viktor always hoped for the next big breakthrough, when he would plant the Romanov banner in Tehran and finally receive the love and attention he deserved. But, alas, this breakthrough never came and the war was ended by the Treaty of Madrid on October 4, 1890, a day Viktor called "the day of national humiliation" forever after. His faith in his father had become quite shaken. Alexander had been his idol his entire life, and simply wanted to earn his father's respect. Instead, the stalemate brought anything but glory. Wanting to avoid the Imperial capital, Viktor accepted a mostly-figurehead position offer as Governor-General of the Turkmenistan. With little to do but ride through decrepit feudal communities and extort grain from local farms, Viktor quickly grew bored of this and elected to go on a trip to the Far East to see the wonders of the Orient.
This would prove to be life-changing, as Viktor eventually found his way to Mongolia, then under the control of the decrepit Qing Empire. Viktor had arrived in Mongolia because he had heard tales that Chinese explorers had located the long-lost tomb of Genghis Khan and desired to behold such a marvel. But, Viktor being Viktor, he quickly became embroiled in a rebellion of local Mongols against the Qing Empire. Joining a group of horse-mounted warriors, Viktor became well-known as a brutal fighter, dispatching foes with ease and a dead-eye with a carbine. For the one time in his life, Viktor found happiness. But it was short-lived. In December, 1891, Viktor received news from the west that his brothers had been killed by Beutelist assassins and that Prince Alexander, a ten year-old, was now expected to become Czar with no real formal training or advisory. Before his return to St. Petersburg, Viktor would finally visit the uncovered tomb of Genghis Khan, which he declared to be "life-changing and spectacular. The amount of sheer extravagance boggles the mind. The Khans of old knew how to live life, and how to take it." Shortly after leaving the tomb and beginning the return trip home, he fell ill. He was often drenched in fever sweat and seemed to be unwell most all the time. Finally, one day Viktor began riding at the head of his party, no longer collapsed in the back of a wagon. He seemed different to everyone, and much more confident in himself. As they drew closer and closer to St. Petersburg, he began assembling an army to "hunt down Beutelist anarchist scum and the plague of Jewry."
As he rode into the gates of St. Petersburg, wearing a massive bear-skin coat and Asiatic tunic, he bellowed, "Russians, your time is now! Our Empire is at its lowest point and the Romanov Dynasty is crippled. But as long as a I breathe, the Empire shall flourish! I, Viktor, Prince of all Russia, proclaim myself our champion in our country's time of greatest need!"
In short order, the government realized "champion" meant Viktor wanted to be Czar. Violence was not an immediate reaction and at first Empress Dowager Victoria attempted to mediate the mess by asking Viktor to rule as steward during the immediate crisis until Alexander would be reach the age of 16. But Victor would have no part of this, refusing his mother's offer. He would have it all, he vowed, as had the great Khans of old. And no spoiled brat offspring of his beloved brother was going to stop him. Viktor then began campaigning all across the empire for support against the "anarchistic Beutelist scum who have almost caused the collapse of House Romanov." Day after day, unceasing, Viktor began formulating a plan to overthrow his own family and nephew and install himself. At last, the June Coup of 1892 was executed, with the main force of the Army, remembering Viktor's selfless courage in Persia, decided to back his now public claim to the throne. Many of his former Mongol allies, now fleeing a recharged Qing advance in Mongolia, also rode to his side. In one night, under the cover of darkness, Prince Alexander was arrested in his bedchamber and exiled to Siberia. Victoria herself, Viktor's own mother, was also summarily exiled, but she was sent to Georgia to split her away from Prince Alexander. By morning, Viktor was master of Russia.
Within weeks of Viktor becoming Czar, he repealed even more civil liberties than his father and announced that "the pox of Judaism has been banned within the glorious borders of the Empire." Thousands of Jews suddenly found themselves on a quick train out of the country, fleeing for their lives as the Russian army began slaughtering those who refused to leave. Also on the chopping block was virtually any non-conformist in sight, with Viktor determined to not stop the killing until he was satisfied that he was opposed by no one. "For I am the Voice of God on Earth," he proclaimed, "The Alpha and Omega. Those who seek to defile our Christian kingdom will find themselves punished in this life and the next." Interestingly, many of the Russian Jews who fled Viktor's atrocities would find their way to the Republican Union, especially the newly-created city of Metropolis, Main, in the former Mexican Empire.
But Viktor wasn't your typical Orthodox Christian. During his time in Asia, he had acquired many traditions from Tibetan Buddhists and Animism. In fact, the exact nature of his beliefs was never fully explained by himself or anyone, and has forever remained a mystery. As his sanity appeared to further break down, Viktor began to see himself as the literal successor to Genghis Khan, destined to lead the peoples of the Steppes to Imperial glory the likes of which no Bonaparte could hope to match. He declared war on the Qing Empire in 1894 and announced he would "liberate" Mongolia from the Chinese menace. A war of total ethnic cleansing followed, with any Chinese found in Mongolia brutally slain and their language banned. Viktor proclaimed Urga to be "the Imperial Capital of the Orient" and soon was wreaking merry hell throughout all of Asia. The Qing finally began modernization to combat the bloodthirsty Czar and managed to hold him back. In Urga, Viktor proclaimed himself "Czar of Czars and Khan of Khans, God's Voice on Earth." At this point, many of his soldiers began to simply fear instead of adore him, and he knew he had to keep their favor. So he installed a spoils system and ordered that all cities loyal to an enemy were to be utterly destroyed if they refused surrender. Several large Qing cities along the Mongolian border were completely destroyed and their entire populations put to the sword. At last, in late 1896, the Treaty of Urga was signed, with the Qing recognizing Mongolia as a Russian domain.
Russian troops shell a Qing flotilla
Russian troops advance against Qing forces
Now Viktor was ready to turn his eyes south, to Persia and revenge. That revenge would wait, percolating in his warped mind, for the first few years of the 20th century. But at last, with the outbreak of the First Great War, the Russian Bear would assault the Persian Lion and duke it out for the final time. In the years until then, Viktor would solidify his rule over "Grand Russia." Victoria would die in 1896 of natural causes, but Prince Alexander would never be heard from again. As absolute power intoxicated the "Khan of Khans," the outside world looked on in horror. To the Nordreich, a nation which had formerly had good ties with Russia and had even discussed before joining the League of Tsars to oppose Bonapartist hegemony, Viktor was an unpredictable lunatic. At any second, he could decide to bring his new golden horde to East Prussia or Finland and slaughter every Reich citizens he could find. Indeed, the fear of having your countrymen made into a pile of skulls seemed to deter most nations from diplomatic relations with the Mad Czar. The League of Tsars held together, but only out of fear. Each member worried leaving the alliance would be seen as an act of war and would be retaliated against with extreme violence and Vlad the Impaler-level cruelty.
Inside Grand Russia, the people expressed total loyalty to the Czar. In 1900, he actually abolished serfdom. This was the start of the "Grand Purge," and followed Prince Alexander's disappearance in Siberia. This move caught everyone off guard, and no one could have predicted what happened next. In just several years, he rapidly modernized the entirety of his country and elevated the serfs to a decent minimum wage and acceptable standard of living. Factories sprang up all over Russia and trade boomed. This religion-driven social revolution was merely a cover for him massacring scores of the nobility and all who he saw as threats against his reign. By 1905, most of the Imperial aristocracy was gone, either living in exile or dead. As Yankee power expanded in the Pacific, Viktor warned his people to "Beware the Jew-run Republican Union, founded on Satanic drivel and funded entirely by the worldwide Jewish Zionist conspiracy. The subhuman Jew is a clever creature, despite its inhumanity. In its desire to dominate the world, the Jewish cockroach will do anything it has to to deceive and lead people astray and straight into Satan's waiting eternal clutches." In 1906, Viktor created the
Imperskaya Taynaya Politsiya (ITP), or "Imperial Secret Police." The ITP were one of the most effective secret police forces on the planet, arresting or killing enemies of the Crown all over the world and rounding up political enemies and Jews and anarchists at home. Viktor also began a systematic cleansing of Muslims from southern Russia and the Caucasus, especially the Chechnyans. Viktor viewed Muslims as a potential fifth column which Persia could use against him during the next go-round. Jews still inside the Empire were forced to wear a yellow star patch on their clothing, marking them as unclean. Muslims were forces to wear a crescent. Most of these "subhumans" who refused or were unable to leave were often either killed on the spot or sent to Siberia to bust rock all day. Truly, a dark time had come to Eastern Europe. And in the face of continual Russian advances and the Dutch and Americans closing in, the Qing Empire would need to reform itself quickly and prepare itself for the Great War as well. In 1908, the Qing, for the first time, opened diplomatic channels with Persia. To stand up to Russia and Viktor, a coalition would be needed...
Viktor's rule was not unchallenged, and there were many plots to remove him, but none succeeded. Every attempt at revolution was brutally crushed and all the conspirators executed, usually by either crucifixion or firing squad. This total control and iron-fisted dictatorship was best described by Viktor in his favorite saying:
"Trust no one. Not even yourself."
Russian Jews wear yellow stars to mark them as destined for Siberian work camps
One of many official portraits of Czar Viktor I
