Montovsky was a senior engineer at a mechanical plant in St. Petersburg, who was paid twice as much as an ordinary worker, and who enjoyed various allowances and holidays, and was a proper middle and upper class before the war.

But the good days were only before the war. After the outbreak of the war, prices in Russia rose at an alarming rate, and Montovsky's vaunted salary barely fended to feed himself and his family.

You know, it was only possible to do it under the premise that Montovsky's wife also worked in a machine factory.

If only one person had an income, I am afraid that the standard of living of the Montovsky family would drop by one notch.

On a not sunny morning, Montovsky arrived at the factory early and went to his station.

As a senior engineer at a machine factory, Montovsky's status was somewhat higher than that of ordinary workers, but only a little higher.

Except for problems with the factory machinery, or when new machinery is installed, Montovsky's status is a little higher, and in other cases he is no different from ordinary workers.

It is also necessary to work overtime continuously, and it is also necessary to work on the production line, and it is necessary to deduct wages for various reasons, or even directly deduct most of it.

But it can't be helped, Montovsky needs to live, he can't give up this job that is several times higher than the per capita income.

As soon as I arrived at my station, the factory management issued a message that the factory needed to work another two hours tonight.

Overtime in this era is different from later generations, not only is there no overtime allowance, but even overtime is unpaid.

But there was no way, no one dared to refuse the overtime offered by the factory manager, unless he wanted to lose his job.

What's worse is that these capitalists who set up factories have some rights and connections in the local government.

If you offend your boss to death, not only will you not find a job in the whole region, but you will even be targeted by those capitalists, and your family will be ruined, your wife will be separated, and your family will die without a place to bury, becoming another wisp of the soul in the chaos of Russia.

In this era of cannibalism, money and power are the most important things. If you have money, you have power, and if you have power, you have money.

Both the capitalists and the high-ranking officials and aristocrats have unparalleled power in Russia. Ordinary people are like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, and in addition to enduring exploitation by the government and capitalists, their lives are in danger at any time.

In particular, some capitalists and local officials colluded to charge anyone with the crime of deliberately sabotaging the production of war materials in times of war.

This crime is a capital crime for ordinary people, and the fate depends on the mood of the capitalists.

Montovsky sighed quietly, but was helpless in the face of the demands of the factory managers.

Ironically, Russia ostensibly operates an eight-hour workday, which is a far cry from the actual working hours of Montovsky's factory.

Montovsky's normal working hours are about 12 to 14 hours, and if you count overtime, the working hours are at least about 14 hours.

This level of working hours is almost double that of the Russian working time system.

This also means that most Russian workers will have to "voluntarily" work more than six hours of unpaid overtime on the premise of completing the standard eight-hour workday.

In fact, this is nothing, at present, there is a high intensity of overtime in the major participating countries in Europe, and the average working hours per person are more than 11 hours.

But the problem is that European countries will pay at least a little symbolic overtime for overtime, rather than the mandatory unpaid overtime as in Russia.

Even a little distribution of subsistence or food is enough to calm the hearts of the restless workers. It is a pity that the Russian capitalists do not see the current situation of the workers at all, and even if they do, they do not care in the slightest.

"Hey! Montovsky, will you take part in the run the day after tomorrow? The middle-aged man next to Montovsky cautiously asked Montovsky when he saw the factory managers walking away.

"Run? What is that? Montovsky had a question mark on his face, when was this time, and who was in the mood to run?

"It was a general strike organized by the Workers' Union. This is extremely confidential information, man, and you must not give it to anyone. The middle-aged man looked around cautiously again, and then whispered.

Although general strikes and demonstrations are everywhere in Russia, this does not mean that they are legal.

With the previous czarist government's tough crackdown on several demonstrations, the current crowd of people participating in the march, especially those who organized the march, will be sentenced to death.

Even ordinary workers who participated in the march faced jail time. If you are found by the management of the factory, not only will you lose your job, but you will also be in danger of your own life and your family.

"Workers' Union? Is this a new party? Montovsky asked curiously.

Although Russia is a tsarist autocracy, there are not many political parties in Russia, and they can even be called diverse.

Of course, a considerable number of political parties are illegal, and their members are also subject to government encirclement.

"Actually, it's the Bolshevik Party, you know." The man explained with a smile.

Although Arthur had already sent the Royal Security Intelligence Service to a certain purge of political parties in Russia, it was impossible to completely eliminate these revolutionaries.

These political parties also thought that the tsarist government had cleared themselves, so they chose to carry out their activities incognito and new party names.

The workers' party, headed by the Bushvik Party, still has a considerable place in the hearts of the majority of workers in Russia.

Not only Montovsky, but also a large number of Russian workers were quietly drawn into the march, and even spread beyond St. Petersburg.

And while the undercurrents were surging, in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II was also carrying out his own plans.

Since Nicholas II became commander-in-chief of Russia, the offensive of the Russian army has achieved nothing, and the situation on the Russian front and at home has become worse and worse.

The army and the people pointed the finger at Nicholas II, after all, he was the supreme leader of the army and a well-deserved bearer.

Although Nicholas II was not very talented in military affairs, in terms of political ability, Nicholas II was definitely a qualified monarch.

In order to minimize one's own responsibility, it is necessary to look for those who are responsible.

On October 19, 1916, in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II convened a military conference in the name of studying the plans for the Russian offensive for the next year.

The meeting attracted a large number of high-ranking Russian military leaders, including the commander-in-chief of the Russian Southwestern Front and the Northwestern Front.

Instead of taking place as imagined by the Russian military leadership about the battle plan for the next year, at the very beginning of the meeting, Nicholas II loudly questioned the two commanders-in-chief of the Russian front about the reasons why the Russian army had not achieved much success so far.

The two commanders-in-chief immediately broke into a cold sweat, and they already understood at this time that Nicholas II was going to let the two of them take the blame.

Before the two commanders-in-chief could make a defense, Nicholas II looked at the other military leaders and asked with a little meaning: "Ladies and gentlemen, are you determined to seek justice for the dead soldiers, your brothers, subordinates, and comrades-in-arms, and investigate the reasons for the real defeat of the war?" ”

"Yes!"

The answer from the top brass of the military was very prompt, albeit a little uneven.

In fact, this is the time for the military top brass to take sides. Nicholas II's attitude was obvious, wanting to put the blame on the two commanders-in-chief and shift the responsibility for the defeat of the war on the previous Russian commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, and the two commanders-in-chief of the front.

Others had only two options, either to become an accomplice of Nicholas II and to help Nicholas II convict the two commanders-in-chief of the front.

Either the military will unite against Nicholas II's dumping of the pot, but it is quite possible that Nicholas II will be deposed.

Their own position or the lives of their colleagues, these Russian military top brass quickly made a choice.

Soon, all kinds of reasons were thought up by these military high-ranking officials, not only the two front-line commanders were charged with ineffective command, but even the logistics department, which had been cleaned up before, was also charged with withholding materials and colluding with domestic and foreign capitalists.

In the announcement given by the Russian government the next day, it can be seen that Nicholas II and the Russian government shifted most of the responsibility for the disadvantage of the war, and threw all the blame on the front commanders and logistics departments.

Because the government proclamation stated that the logistics department colluded with capitalists at home and abroad, many Russian factories were also the targets of investigation, and the owners of these factories were all well-known Russian capitalists and the main culprits of collusion with the Russian logistics department.

But in this way, the workers in those factories suffered. Because the factory where they worked was investigated, they were temporarily out of work.

Greedy capitalists do not pay workers when they can't go to work, which has caused about 10,000 workers to be affected by this and temporarily lose their source of income.

Although the government announced that the investigation of these factories and capitalists would only take a short time, it would not be long before the factories would reopen.

The lack of a source of income for a long time still causes panic among many Russian workers, who do not go to work for a day and their wives and children do not have enough to eat.

At such a moment, the Workers' Union took the opportunity to introduce a rule that all workers participating in the march would distribute a certain amount of food for free.

This was the solution to the urgent needs of the workers, and in a very short period of time, it attracted more workers to participate in the mass march that was about to break out.

Attracted by the food, many workers enthusiastically signed up, and the number of people expected to participate in the march soon exceeded 100,000.

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)