Calm seemed to have returned to Petersburg at the beginning of January 1918. Unlike the Brest peace talks, which had dragged on for a long time in history, Comrade Trotsky signed the treaty of "loss of power and humiliation of the country" at the end of November 1917 under the desperate wave of Hesmann's butterfly wings.

Russia lost Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Livland, Estonia, and Livonia, ceding almost 260,000 square kilometers! At the same time, Ukraine has also achieved "autonomy of a broad national territory" and more or less "approximate national independence".

The situation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (consisting of nine former Russian provinces and the Kuban region, proclaimed on December 27, 1917, but not an independent state and not implying secession from Russia) is at first glance similar to that of Russia before the August Revolution - there were two governments, similar to the Central Rada and the Soviets of Engineer and Soldier Deputies of the Provisional Government.

At the helm of the Central Rada are the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party and the Ukrainian Social Revolutionary Party - which are not branches of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (the party before the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks separated) and the Russian Social Revolutionary. Their political views are almost identical to those of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Mensheviks) and the Russian Social Revolutionaries, but they are clearly divided on the Ukrainian issue.

The Ukrainian Soviets of Sapper and Soldier Representatives were controlled by the Bolsheviks, although the Ukrainian Soviets were not as powerful as the native Soviets in Russia. The Central Rada was supported by the vast majority of Ukrainian peasants and some workers, and also enjoyed the allegiance of quite a few former Russian troops (mainly Ukrainian Cossacks).

The power of the Soviets of Engineer and Soldier Deputies in Ukraine was limited to a few industrial cities. Before the August Revolution, they had created a certain number of Red Guards. However, when the Bolsheviks captured Petersburg, they suffered defeat in Ukraine - the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government in Ukraine, and then the Central Rada defeated the Bolshevik army.

However, the Central Rada of Ukraine has no intention of making Ukraine independent - the Ukrainians have a strange idea, not to secede from Russia but to transform it. The Central Rada wants to turn Russia into a federation of equal and free peoples. Negotiations were therefore opened with Petersburg, and Lenin did not dare to use force for the time being because of the German and Austro-Hungarian support for the Central Rada in Ukraine. So the Ukrainian regions are still tense and peaceful.

As for Finland, the opposite is the case in Ukraine, which of course also surprised Hersmann and the other Germans.

Although under Hersmann's influence, Germany did not entangle with the Bolsheviks on the Finnish question. But Finland became independent, not a province of Tsarist Russia (which is clearly different from Ukraine), but a state with a tsar as its monarch. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the Finnish parliament assumed the power to govern the country. After the August Revolution, the Finnish parliament declared independence (by adopting the constitution of an independent republic). The Bolshevik government led by Lenin recognized Finland's independence 25 days after its declaration, followed by Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, Denmark and other countries.

But it didn't end there, Lenin recognized Finland's independence and supported a Finnish Central Revolutionary Committee aimed at overthrowing the government and replacing it with a Marxist "new order"! By the end of 1917, the new Republic of Finland was already showing signs of civil war! Both the Red Guards, controlled by the Central Revolutionary Committee, and the government forces organized by General Mannerheim have sharpened their knives.

However, the tense peace in Ukraine and the eve of the civil war in Finland did not affect Russia. After the successful conclusion of the Brest negotiations, the demobilization of the army and the forthcoming Constituent Assembly seemed to be the whole of Russian political life.

……

The Europa Hotel on Nevsky Prospect is the Russian headquarters of the Russian-German Economic Promotion Company. The entire fourth floor of the hotel has been taken down by this very small company with a big business, and it has become a place where idlers should not be disturbed. On the roof of the hotel, a telegraph antenna was even erected to keep in touch with the German "head office"!

The Europa Hotel is probably the best hotel in the whole of Petrograd, and the lobby is more elaborate than any of the most exclusive luxury hotels in Berlin. A wide staircase of brown and white marble leads to the entrance, where you can see gilded or gilded decorations everywhere.

Chloe, the accountant of the Russian-German Economic Promotion Company. Feng. Ms. Heinsberg got out of a Mercedes-Benz car, carried a handbag of fine workmanship, and wore a mink coat that shimmered like satin, and walked briskly to the door of the hotel. The doorman, who had been waiting there for a long time, flatteringly opened the wide glass door for her, and opened his mouth in fluent German: "Ma'am, please come in." ”

Ms. Heinsberg, who had always been generous in the past, today did not know what was going on, and seemed to be preoccupied, and neither gave a charming smile nor a ten-kopeck of silver as a tip. Instead, he frowned and trotted all the way into the elevator to the fourth floor.

The elevator soon led her to a dimly lit hallway with a fluffy carpet on the floor and walls inlaid with precious wood. This is the fourth floor of the Grand Hotel Europa, with a total of 30 rooms, arranged in a hollow shape - the second to fourth floors of the Grand Hotel Europa are hollow in a hollow layout - Hersmann, Chloe, Ettel, Stockhausen and others have their own rooms here. The remaining rooms, most of which were used as offices, and a few others were used for "company employees" who came to work in Petrograd temporarily. Coming to Petersburg from Berlin during this time was Hersmann's friend, Major Kesselring, who was the company's deputy manager in charge of the arms trade. Now he was in Hirschman's office, smoking his pipe and talking to Hirschman.

"By the end of December, we had supplied more than eight hundred artillery pieces to Petersburg, including the Type 1906/09 76mm Mountain Cannon, the Type 1904 76mm Mountain Cannon, the 1 Cannon and the Type 1902 76mm Field Cannon, as well as a number of older models. All of them are models captured from the Russian army over the years, and each cannon comes with at least 200 shells...... These artillery pieces can equip at least 20 artillery regiments and can provide fire support to an army of several hundred thousand people. Ludwig, I guess this means that the Bolsheviks planned to arm an army of several hundred thousand people? ”

"Surely there is more than that," said Hersman, who looked like a millionaire in a well-made suit, shaking his head and smiling, "they have demobilized hundreds of divisions in the past few months...... Well done! While the election of the Constituent Assembly is being held, the time for the convening of the Constituent Assembly is constantly delayed; On the one hand, they demobilized all the troops left behind by the Tsar (and some of the troops refused to carry out the order, and they would become the backbone of the White Army) in order to obtain their weapons and ammunition, soldiers and officers, and use them to form their own army. At the same time, they exchange heavy weapons with us for grain and coal collected from Ukraine and other parts of Russia. Before the Russian civil war began, they were already undefeated. ”

Kesselring hesitated for a moment, then asked: "Well, you can be 100% sure that the Bolsheviks will start a civil war?" If they don't, those who want to fight us will make a comeback. ”

He was justified in saying this, because the Bolsheviks lost an election. Although they produced a far better report card in the peace negotiations with Germany than in history. But the results of the Constituent Assembly elections were still not in favor of the Bolsheviks - in fact, it cannot be said that the Bolsheviks lost, the Bolsheviks won 195 of the 707 seats (20 more than in history), and the **** Social Revolutionaries on the side of the Bolsheviks won 40 seats. The total number of seats is 215. And the Social Revolutionaries (excluding ****) won 354 seats, which is already more than half! However, considering that the Bolsheviks had gathered only a few thousand members a few months earlier, and that they had only 10 per cent of the seats in the Petersburg Soviet, the election was not a defeat for the Bolsheviks.

But in the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks were still in the minority! Theoretically, they will lose power tomorrow when the Constituent Assembly officially opens......

Hersmann was about to speak when there was a knock on the office door and Chloe's voice came from outside: "Ludwig, it's me." ”

"Please come in."

The door was pushed open, and Chloe, who was gasping softly, walked quickly to Hersmann, and without even greeting Kesselring, said quickly and urgently: "Ludwig, something seems to have happened...... The streets were full of soldiers, and it seemed that Petersburg was under martial law! ”

――

Rollo begged for collections and recommendations

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