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27-July-1920
''Keep it simple. I do not want anything exaggerated, only the simple and pure truth'' I said, looking at the writer I had hired to draft my biography in the form of a book.
''I understand that you want me to modify the wording and make it entertaining, but on many occasions you mention events that went well by a very narrow margin. Would you like me to give them a nuance related to the help of the Almighty?'' the writer asked while organizing the numerous pages he had written based on everything I had done for Germany.
''No. They were acts carried out by me and by my men, not by the intervention of anyone else. So do not try to adorn them with religious tones. Limit yourself to using what I wrote, but with better wording and more appropriate words. Nothing more'' I replied while watching the writer begin to take notes on my instructions.
''Good, understood. Then, in your biography, we must point out that it was Germany that betrayed you and not you who betrayed Germany. Also that the war was lost because of a considerable number of officers in the OHL and the Junkers. According to you, had that not been the case, the war could have been won. The Kaiser and his son were victims of having trusted an army that was meant to serve them, but which ended up stabbing them in the back while they fought desperately to save Germany'' the writer summarized.
''Yes. Also emphasize greatly the fact that Hindenburg imposed impossible quotas on me in Ukraine during my time as Minister of Agriculture. Even so, I managed to meet them at the cost of the suffering of the Ukrainian people so that the German troops and population could eat. As long as the food reached Germany, Hindenburg cared little or nothing about what happened to the Ukrainians'' I said, nodding.
''Of course… I will get to work on it and try to have it finished as soon as possible so it can be published'' the writer replied.
''In any case, wait until I give the order before sending it to the presses. First, I have to make sure all the necessary elements are prepared for the political chaos we are going to hand to the Kaiser. I will not allow those sons of bitches in the OHL to try to blame a civilian government, the socialists, the communists or the Jews for their own mistakes. Nor will I allow the Kaiser to continue ignoring reality simply because the army is his main support at the moment'' I said seriously.
''Understood. I will wait for your order. I will prepare several versions of the same story so you can choose between different approaches and do not have to settle only for a first edition'' the writer replied while beginning to withdraw with the pages.
As soon as he left the room, I passed both hands over my face.
Things in Europe remained far too unstable for my liking.
The army had begun to state on the radio and in the newspapers that the war had been lost, despite Germany having managed to survive as a State, because the civilian government had betrayed them. They also blamed the socialists and spoke of a supposed Jewish betrayal, claiming that the Jews had sabotaged production and that soldiers of that origin had not contributed enough during the war.
They cherry-picked the figures showing that Jewish soldiers had suffered a large number of wounded, deliberately ignoring that many of those troops had been used in vanguard operations. Instead, they tried to associate them with the image of soldiers who shot themselves in the foot voluntarily to avoid combat.
That was the first step toward the German totalitarian regime I wanted to prevent at all costs.
We would have to fight tooth and nail to prevent the army from washing its hands and presenting itself as completely free of blame for the defeat. And there was no better way to do it than to reveal all the shit they had done to me through a book, trying to give it the greatest possible publicity inside Germany.
Perhaps I would have to collect every favor owed to me by the people I had helped or who, at the very least, felt some sympathy toward me.
Fortunately for me, I had a Nobel Prize winner who owed me several favors and I had already begun collecting on them. I wanted the book, when it went on sale, to be distributed massively and sold at the lowest possible price so it could be read by the entire population. I also intended to publish fragments in the newspapers to give it even more publicity.
I could not allow that lie to consolidate itself.
However, there was another major problem I could not ignore either: the Austrian elections had ended very badly.
The results had not been even remotely what was expected. Although the coalition favorable to the Habsburgs had managed to come out relatively well, it began to disintegrate rapidly because there was no true support for the political project of the Austrian Kaiser.
He intended to keep the old system intact, now without the Hungarian problem, and refused to carry out important reforms.
The conservatives wanted Austria to assume even greater control over the government and reduce the political representation of the other cultures, especially that of Bohemia.
The coalition had won the elections by a very narrow margin and the conservatives wanted to prevent that from happening again. The number of representatives had been maintained according to the old distribution, adapted to the lost territories and to the territories under plebiscites, which ended up provoking the rupture of the government, as it did not wish to oppress the other cultures of the Empire.
And the worst part was that demonstrations were already taking place in the streets against the Austrian Kaiser.
Austria seemed to be approaching collapse once again, even after having exploded once already and lost a good part of its territories. Now it gave the impression that the country would not even manage to rise again.
Since the government refused to release Bohemia due to its enormous industrial importance, it seemed inevitable that instability would continue spreading through Austria.
The number of people defending the Anschluss solution had also begun to grow: that Austria, together with Bohemia or at least a part of it, should integrate with Germany within a single German Empire.
Those who supported that idea usually opposed the Austrian Kaiser remaining in power, since his presence would make integration into the German political system enormously difficult. It would be complicated to justify the existence of two dynastic houses with imperial rank inside the same State.
Although a possible annexation had never been mentioned during the peace treaty negotiations, it could cause enormous problems in the future.
The German elder brother would be absorbing his younger brother and the new Empire would have a population of more than eighty million inhabitants. That would make France and the United Kingdom extremely nervous, as they watched their main European rival become considerably stronger.
But that would be a problem for later, since for the moment I could not do too much about it.
We had tried to replace the Hungarian food the Austrians had previously received with grain from the Baltic and Ruthenia, but that did not seem to have helped much. The Austrian government gave the impression of being doomed to fall no matter how much help it received.
For my part, I had focused on establishing myself temporarily in Minsk.
Within our alliance, Ruthenia was the State falling the furthest behind. Beyond some investments in resource extraction and the mechanization of agriculture, the country was advancing far too slowly compared to Ukraine, where dams, factories and new cities were already being built.
Ruthenia, on the other hand, was accumulating a good part of its economic resources because it lacked the necessary foundations to invest them properly.
Some Ruthenian construction companies were working on the Soligorsk mine, whose facilities were practically finished. Potash salts were already being extracted, then processed to produce fertilizers and sold according to our trade agreements. Most of the production was being purchased by neighboring countries.
However, Ruthenia barely had the capacity to build anything else.
We had not adopted sufficiently radical measures to modernize its infrastructure. In essence, we had limited ourselves to maintaining the status quo.
That was why I took advantage of the fact that a considerable part of the Baltic Construction Company was with me in Ukraine because of the fortification works. Once the Russian crisis ended, we moved a good part of those resources toward Ruthenia.
We began an enormous program of city construction and infrastructure modernization in the main Ruthenian urban centers.
My intention was to integrate Ruthenia much more deeply into the economic and logistical system of the three countries that, for the moment, formed our alliance.
And for that reason we had brought several architects from Germany, to whom Ferdinand had offered generous and lucrative contracts to attract relatively important figures dedicated to building new cities, where a good part of the Ruthenian population would be moved while the old cities were remodeled or directly demolished and built again from scratch.
Ruthenian infrastructure, beyond some roads, rails and certain buildings we had constructed, still left much to be desired, and we could not waste those seven million Ruthenians who could be working.
So we had begun an enormous process of industrialization and urbanization in many of the most important cities, as well as taking the first step to include them within the Ostsiedlung system, which continued growing with each passing day, since migrants of all nationalities kept arriving. We could also establish colonies in Ruthenia so that the tiny German population in the region would increase, allowing us to count on future German recruits in the area.
On the outskirts of Grodno there was an enormous concentration of workers, since a large part of the delegation of architects had gathered there, and some had even brought their work crews with them.
The city had around thirty thousand people and, for the most part, had been rebuilt under the efforts of Waldemar's government. But now we wanted to change much of that construction, since it was very common for houses to have been built without toilets, something fairly usual and something we had to deal with. To solve it, it was almost necessary to remake the cities from scratch in order to introduce all the services, and it was something we would have to do more often than we had expected, since practically every city had to be rebuilt.
As I walked through the city observing the landscape, I noticed that not a trace remained of what it had once been, since the city had been completely demolished with explosives. In addition, all the rubble had been removed, leaving a leveled area where many workers were already digging tunnels for the sewer system and basic services.
Work was also being carried out on a dam on the Neman River to electrify the city. That project represented the first step in a process of between two and five years, during which Ruthenia would end up fully integrated into the Duchy's system.
''So… the entire city was destroyed?'' Waldemar asked while looking in every direction, observing the construction work and the excavations of the diversion channels for the Neman River.
''Yes. The Russian construction system is far too outdated. I do not know whether this also happens in Russia or whether it was simply part of their Russification policies: forcing people to live without bathrooms or true urban planning by the State. A good part of the city's growth depended on the local authorities and was carried out without much planning''.
I observed the workers for a few moments.
''With this project, we will try to turn it into one of the first fully modernized cities in Ruthenia. Although the investment will be considerable, it should begin paying for itself relatively quickly'' I explained.
''Then how long will you remain in Minsk handling the duties of the regency?'' Waldemar asked while adjusting his glasses.
''Probably for what remains of the year. I will work to leave everything organized. We have to build cities, create the necessary conditions to develop industry and make sure there are enough available workers'' I replied while walking and observing the works.
''And what did you need me here for?'' Waldemar asked, narrowing one eye.
''For nothing. I only wanted to get you out of the palace and make sure you went to my wedding. I did not want you using one of your numerous illnesses as an excuse not to attend'' I replied with a slight smile.
''Ha, very clever. But I do suffer from a dangerous condition, so do not abuse it either. My wounds do not close properly and I could die from fairly simple things, especially when surrounded by people carrying hammers, boards and bricks'' Waldemar replied.
''Yes, hemophilia is a piece of shit. I have several doctors researching some solution or, at the very least, trying to make sure you do not have to depend permanently on blood transfusions. Apparently, a good part of Queen Victoria's descendants inherited that condition'' I commented while we advanced toward the works of the future dam.
''Good, and when will this farce in which I am supposedly king end? Because, in reality, I am not. I am only a puppet who shows his face to the newspapers, but does nothing more than breathe, eat and sleep'' Waldemar said, visibly annoyed.
''In about five years. Then you will abdicate and be free to do whatever you want. Naturally, your pockets will be quite full as a reward for your collaboration, so it is not such a terrible situation either'' I replied with a slight smile.
''I suppose. I thought I would use my knowledge to rule as a true king, but here I am, watching them build a dam I never ordered beside a city I also never ordered rebuilt, while someone else pulls all the strings'' Waldemar said, shaking his head.
''Those are the circumstances of life. If Germany had won the war, perhaps you would have been a real king, because Berlin would have been able to keep you on the throne. But Ruthenia depends on me and Vasyl to survive''.
I put my hands in my pockets before turning my gaze back toward the works.
''Return to the train and prepare for the journey to Riga''.
Soon we will have to depart. I must get married, publish my book and begin a media and political war against the German army.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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