Chapter 22: The End of the Romanov Dynasty
Princess Dagmar, a native Dane, rarely returned to her home country after marrying Alexander III, and stayed in Russia to help her husband take care of state affairs. After the death of Alexander III, Princess Dagmar began to run for Nicholas II. After Nicholas II succeeded to the throne, the Romanov Dynasty, which was already in the twilight of the sun, experienced a crushing defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, and the southward expansion of the east was blocked, so it had to turn its energy back to the west. But after the outbreak of the First World War, Nicholas II regretted it a little, but the countries that were already fighting in full swing had no intention of stopping, and there was a life-and-death attitude. But Tsarist Russia, which did not seem to be on his side, lost the capital to fight again after several defeats and heavy losses.
On March 17, 1917, Moscow's Hedon Square was overcrowded with excited Russian people, and the police, who were supposed to maintain law and order, joined the demonstration, holding different placards and shouting slogans demanding that Nicholas II end the war, while asking him to atone for the dead and prisoners. The royal nobles, who were also trapped in the official residence, also persuaded Nicholas II to comply with the will of the people and voluntarily abdicate.
The next day, riots broke out in Moscow, Petersburg and other major cities of Tsarist Russia, and within a few days spread in major cities in the west, and a revolt that swept the whole country intensified. He was determined to suppress the rebellion by force, but no one responded at all, and Russia, which had lost the front line and was always at risk of being invaded by the German army, needed someone who could be accepted by Germany and enter the peace talks. It was clear that Nicholas II could not do this, and as the supreme leader of the country that initiated the war, he would certainly not be accepted by Germany. A relatively mild-mannered man who was friendly with Wilhelm II, Grand Duke Mikhail became everyone's first choice. But when Nicholas II decided to give the throne to Grand Duke Mikhail, the latter refused after careful consideration, and for a time, Russia without the tsar fell into turmoil again. When the Russian aristocracy began to circumvent these old rules and look for someone who could temporarily replace the tsar to lead the peace talks, the domestic riots intensified and there was already a revolutionary atmosphere. The insurrection gradually formed a relatively unified action with the bourgeois faction as the main force, and the aristocracy also organized a limited force to contend with it in order to ensure the existing rights, and the territory of Tsarist Russia without the restraint of the government was suddenly fragmented, and various power collectives sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and no one had the ability to put the other party to death in one fell swoop, and no one could negotiate with Germany on behalf of everyone. Representatives of various Russian forces received an invitation from Eric Adrian, commander-in-chief of the German Eastern Front, an invitation to peace talks.
Alexander Vdolovich Kerensky was one of the participants in the peace talks with the Germans, representing a force dominated by workers and soldiers in the occupation of Petersburg. Before the invitation letter was sent, he was the Minister of Justice in the cabinet of the temporary formation of Lyvof, and after the invitation letter was sent, he also served as the post of foreign minister, representing Lyvov with full powers to negotiate with the German army, and the bottom line was that Russia must conduct peace negotiations with the German Empire with the cabinet led by him.
With this mission, Kerensky and other representatives of various powers who had also been invited to Brest, and by this time Eric Adrian had already awarded medals to the soldiers of the Panzer Division who had taken the place, including those who had been buried in the ground, on the square of Brest. The generals of the Eastern Front who participated in this battle were basically promoted to a greater or lesser extent, which made the German generals on the Eastern Front grateful to Eric Adrian. In order to make great contributions to these soldiers who had made great contributions and let the soldiers of the German Eastern Front get the rewards they deserved, he sent telegrams of more than a dozen pages to Moltke's chief of general staff, Quartermaster General Hindenburg, and Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin. As the greatest hero of this battle, he was of course favored by everyone, and his request was also carefully considered. At this time, Eric Adrian had a high reputation at home and abroad, and some people even erected a statue of him in the middle of the square to show respect and contribution to him.
While everyone was still celebrating his achievement, a group of Russians were in a conference room accusing each other, insulting each other, and even punching and kicking each other, and if it weren't for the fact that no weapons could be carried here, Adrian would not suspect that there was only one one standing here, or that they were all lying down.
At this meeting, he did not expect these people to be able to agree and sign a treaty with Germany. What he wanted was not for Russia to sign a treaty, but to drive a wedge between them, to deepen the contradictions between them, and preferably leave no room for relaxation at all. What he did was very correct, they rarely had diplomatic contacts when they were attacking each other, but they would not do such things to increase the prestige of others, they all thought that they were orthodox and the best choice to save Russia, and as for asking them to give up, they couldn't do it.
Adrian had no intention of obstructing the quarrel for several days, but would sit in the conference room every day and listen to repeated accusations and insults. Finally, after a few more days, some of the representatives of the forces found it pointless to continue, and returned to their sphere of influence after bidding farewell to Adrian. Gradually, the originally lively conference room was empty, and only the Germans remained. The Russians, who returned to their sphere of influence, did not stop and resolve the contradictions through peaceful means, but increased the strength of the attack, which made Russia, which was already lacking men, fall into endless misery again, and the anti-war voices rose higher and higher, and finally everyone reached a verbal agreement to armistice. It was at this time that representatives of Eric Adrian reappeared and invited them to reopen the discussion on the peace talks.
When he received a call for peace and a call for a war from the major powers in Russia, he thought that the time had come to sign an agreement with the major powers, which would be tantamount to recognizing their vested spheres of influence. He was not an optimist, nor was he naïve enough to think that the Russians were stupid enough to ignore this vital link, but the situation in Russia at this time did not allow them to continue the war, even if they were ostensibly twisted into a rope to continue the war with Germany. It has also lost the capital and strength to resist, and no force will abandon its previous suspicions and give the enemy unreserved support. Scattered Russia is far less threatening than the original reign of Nicholas II, not to mention that the German army has now been forced on their doorstep during their infighting. If he really refused to sign the agreement, Adrian would not mind letting the Germans continue to advance and then get them to sign the agreement with armed intervention.
Adrian only appeared on the first day after the expiration of the delegates, and then did not participate in the negotiation of specific terms, and the official who negotiated on behalf of the German and Russian forces was Chancellor Wilhelm II of the Second German Reich, Holwig. The meeting did not go well at first, and Holwig even felt that such a scattered Russia was not suitable for peace talks, and under Adrian's explanation, Holwig agreed to stay here. The day after the exchange with Holvig, Adrian threatened with force and sent the German Army Group North in Estonia to attack in the direction of Petersburg, which made everyone present, especially Kerensky, because Lvov's regime was centered on Petersburg, and the main direction of the German attack was to target them. As soon as the embarrassing meeting dissipated, Kerensky confirmed the authenticity of the news after communicating with Li Wolf by telegram many times, and also received the adjusted bottom line, Li Wuov's existing sphere of influence was self-contained, and he signed a peace agreement with Germany alone, recognizing Germany's existing vested interests. But it cannot be signed publicly, but secretly. Delegates like Kerensky received similar adjustments, and Holwig, after meeting with them, did not rush to agree to the terms they had renegotiated, but sent the strange phenomenon and content of the negotiations back to Berlin. At the beginning, Berlin did not accept such a situation, but the current situation of the German army was not good, the seemingly aggressive German army was very similar to the Russian army that was about to collapse at the beginning, and the German army without sufficient supplies was a show, zombie the ability to attack the Russian belly. After considering the actual situation, Berlin reluctantly agreed.
With Holwig secretly signing agreements with representatives of various powers, the Romanov dynasty was finally a thing of the past.