Struggle in Russia

With the destruction of Maganov's rebel group, Ukraine's counter-insurgency has entered the final stage, and it can be directly declared that the counter-insurgency war has been won.

However, the price of victory was somewhat heavy. This counter-insurgency battle, which lasted for about half a year, consumed a large amount of Russia's funds and worsened the already moderate financial situation.

Not only the property losses, but also the human casualties were heavy. Incomplete statistics show that almost a quarter of Ukraine's young and middle-aged people were lost, about one million people died, and more than 100,000 people were disabled.

There are countless others who have been displaced. Almost ten houses in Ukraine are empty. Those who are lucky enough to survive are either struggling in the cold winter or begging everywhere.

Li Xiao did a simple calculation and found that the loss was as high as tens of billions of rubles. This was still a visible loss, and there were countless other invisible losses.

In short, this rebellion has severely damaged Ukraine's vitality, and I am afraid it will not be able to recover within ten or eight years.

But when Dmitry sent a preliminary damage report to St. Petersburg, it triggered another storm.

Conservatives and reformists quarreled again, with the former accusing Dmitry's statistical report of being too broad and failing to show the true losses in Ukraine.

They believe that the heaviest losses in the Ukrainian rebellion were the aristocratic landowners. A large number of nobles were physically destroyed by the rebels, and their property was also looted. It can be said to be an out-and-out human tragedy.

But Dmitri was talking more about the losses of the Ukrainian serfs, only how many slaves died, and how miserable the slaves who were lucky enough to survive were in such miserable condition. There is not much written about the tragic experiences of the aristocratic landowners, as if those aristocratic landowners whose entire family died and all their property was looted did not exist at all.

Conservatives are quite indignant about this. They believe that the miserable situation of serfs in Ukraine is entirely their own fault, and they even think that they deserve it. If they hadn't rebelled, would this have been their fate?

They strongly demanded that more attention be paid to the losses of the noble landowners and that the rebellious serfs were punished, otherwise the tragedy in Ukraine would happen again.

Of course, the reformists supported by the conservatives have to oppose it. Although they expressed sympathy and condolences for the fate of the noble landowners who were killed in Ukraine, they changed the subject and began to talk about the root causes of the rebellion.

If it weren't for the fact that these aristocratic landowners were greedy and wantonly exploited the serfs, causing the serfs to take desperate risks because they couldn't survive, would things have turned out like this?

The only way to avoid a recurrence of the tragedy in Ukraine is to completely abolish the serfdom system and grant freedom to the majority of serfs. Only in this way can the problem be fundamentally solved.

And severe punishment of Ukrainian serfs, as demanded by conservatives, simply adds fuel to the fire and will only lead to Ukraine falling into turmoil again!

This debate involved the entire St. Petersburg aristocracy and intellectual community, and the quarrel lasted for a full week. Naturally, there was no result. However, judging from the momentum, the reformists clearly had the upper hand.

They had more supporters and almost pushed the conservatives to the ground. If Alexander II had not expressed his attitude, the reformers had restrained themselves, otherwise the conservatives would have been defeated in this war of words.

So what is the attitude of Alexander II? Of course he supports conservatives out of personal feelings and the need to protect his own rights.

But he also saw how powerful the reformists were. If he had to side with the conservatives, it would mean that a large number of powerful reformers would stand against him, which would mean that his throne was very unstable. .

So although he didn't like the reformists, he didn't dare to personally help the conservatives regain their respect. He could only hide in the Winter Palace and pretend to see and hear nothing.

However, this self-deceptive ostrich policy could not last long. Soon, as the trend of the great discussion in St. Petersburg spread across the country, voices supporting the reformists emerged one after another from all over the country. There was a vague trend that a storm was coming.

Alexander II, who had a sharp nose, immediately smelled the danger, and he immediately called Count Rostovtsev to discuss countermeasures.

"Count, you must have discovered that there is a wave brewing. They are powerful and destructive. If we cannot find a way to contain them, Russia's traditional order will collapse and our lives will be destroyed!"

The more Alexander II talked, the more anxious he became. He asked anxiously: "If the consequences of allowing them to develop are unpredictable, I would consider whether it would be safer to send an additional army to St. Petersburg to maintain order!"

Rostovtsev understood Alexander II's worries very well. Tsars throughout the ages did not have much sense of security. Once they discovered a threat to their existence, their first choice was to find the army.

It's just that the current situation is quite special, and calling the army may not necessarily be useful. What's more, as the leader of the reformist group with deep lurk, he would not allow Alexander II to use the army~www.readwn.com~ He replied calmly: "Your Majesty, I think it is better to be more cautious. As you can see this The momentum of this wave is too great and can destroy everything. If you mobilize the army now, it is very likely to stimulate them. It would be bad if someone wants to imitate the Decembrists... In addition, the army is not necessarily reliable. , According to the investigation of the third department, those who support the reform in the military also have an advantage. If the troops you mobilized to fight back..."

Alexander II automatically gave up the idea of ​​mobilizing the army without saying the rest. If he really got a group of die-hard supporters of the reformists, wouldn't he be shooting himself in the foot?

This made him very frustrated. Could he just do nothing?

Count Rostovtsev shook his head and said: "Of course we can't do nothing, Your Majesty! Judging from the current situation, we must agree to some conditions for those liberal elements, and appeasing them and dividing them is the best policy!"

Alexander II pursed his lips: "Do you promise them to abolish serfdom? Then they are satisfied, but..."

Count Rostovtsev immediately said: "You have misunderstood. Agreeing to abolish serfdom does not mean that it will be abolished immediately, and agreeing to do it does not mean that it will be done immediately!"

Alexander II was stunned. He somewhat understood what Count Rostovtsev meant, which was to first agree to the demands of the reformists and verbally agree to abolish the serfdom system, but in fact he was not in a hurry to take action and just continued to delay.

But can the reformists agree to this?

Count Rostovtsev smiled and said: "Of course they can't agree, so this requires some strategy. You can agree to pilot the abolition of serfdom in certain areas first, such as Ukraine, which is very suitable..."