The Rise of Australasia

This made the Russian military urgently halt the experiments with airplanes, and the development of Russian airplanes did not receive strong support from the country.

This also led to the fact that although Russia currently has some domestically produced airplanes, as long as they are Russian-made, no one dared to board such planes other than the test pilots of the workshops that produce them.

Moreover, given the advanced performance of the airplanes exported by Australasia, the strategy of purchasing a large number of Australasian airplanes has no problem and is the only thing that the Russian Air Force can do at present.

In the end, Nicholas II nodded his head, agreeing to Alekseyev's request to purchase the equipment.

Purchasing more weapons and equipment from Australasia is not necessarily a bad thing for Russia, and since military spending must be spent anyway, it might as well be spent directly on weaponry.

Furthermore, Alekseyev's proposal on logistics problems had already left Nicholas II dissatisfied with the capitalists and logistics departments. Suppressing the arrogance of the capitalists had become a necessary task for Nicholas II as well.

Although the current situation in Russia is indeed chaotic, this does not mean that Nicholas II believes he will ultimately lose power.

In Nicholas II's eyes, beating off the capitalists and logistical officers is just something done in passing.

Even if the front line situation improves, Russia's chaos would be resolved again, and he could sleep soundly.

Even though the Tsarist government seems to be united as one, there are actually many internal struggles. Within Russian political thought, there exist two opposing ideological factions, the Unified Slavic Faction and the Western Faction.

These two factions almost cover the vast majority of Russian officials, and they also influence the highest decision-makers, that is, Nicholas II.

The Western faction is easiest to understand first.

Russia remains a powerful empire, but it must be acknowledged that Western and Central European countries, which have already undergone the Industrial Revolution and the Electrification Revolution, the second Industrial Revolution, are becoming increasingly powerful, and Russia, situated in Eastern Europe and the far north, is gradually showing signs of fatigue.

Some of Russia's intelligentsia believe that in many aspects, Russia has already lagged behind the developed Western European societies.

Russia needs to unite and learn more comprehensively from the West to close the gap with Western European countries and quickly integrate into developed Western European societies. Your journey continues with m v|l--.net

Comprehensive learning includes not only learning Western technology, techniques, and ideas, but also learning Western systems.

The Western Faction regarded Russia's Peter the Great as a hero because his learning from the West and reforms greatly increased Russia's power, defeated Sweden in the struggle for dominance, and became the northern hegemon of the Baltic Sea and one of the most powerful countries in Europe.

From Peter the Great to the reign of Alexander I, the Western Faction became the mainstream thought of the Russian ruling group, and Russia's national strength was indeed greatly enhanced during this period.

However, the Unified Slavic Faction also had a significant influence in Russia. This faction believed that Russia inherited the title and position as the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, which also represented Russia's right and obligation to govern and save the world.

It should be noted that Russia inherited the Eastern Roman Empire, which claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Roman Empire.

This gave some Russians the ambition and belief to restore the Roman Empire's former territories and unify the entire Slavic people, which also became the mainstream thought of this faction.

Russia intervened in the Balkans precisely to unify the South Slavic people in this region, and to incorporate the entire South Slavic region and its people into Russian rule.

The Unified Slav faction believed that the homogeneity of Russian society brought moral and social stability to the Russian people, which was beyond comparison with the materialistic, money-based Western capitalist society.

Therefore, the Unified Slav faction considered Peter the Great to be the sinner of the Russian nation because it was the learning and reform from the West that led to the loss of Russian societal homogeneity.

During the anti-French war era, the Tsardom of Russia's victory over Napoleon led to an unprecedented rise in national confidence, and the Unified Slav faction replaced the Western faction, becoming the mainstream ideology.

However, this good fortune did not last long, as Russia then faced the failure of the Crimean War, and Alexander II gradually realized the gap between Russia and Western European countries, gradually reemploying the Western faction.

But Alexander II chose the more moderate ideas among the Western faction, resulting in the political and economic reforms he led not being thorough, and not changing the real situation within Russia.

Even the Slav faction gradually gained a dominant position, with the Western faction being excluded from the ruling class, only joining forces with capitalists, and ironically promoting the rise of some revolutionary parties.

The merits and demerits of the Unified Slav faction and the Western faction can be seen from Russian history.

During the period of heavy reliance on the Western faction, the strength of Russia did indeed achieve considerable improvement. However, Russia cannot abandon expansion ambitions, and the Slav faction occupies a certain position, even a dominant position at any time.

Moreover, due to the rejection of the reforms, the reforms in Russian history have not been thorough, and Russia's system still has a relatively large gap with the West.

Although Nicholas II also had the idea of using the Western faction for reform, the current chaotic situation in Russia no longer allowed for reforms.

If the vested interest groups that originally supported the government are pushed to the opposite side, the collapse of the government can be imagined.

Luckily, Nicholas II was very generous when it came to procuring military equipment for the troops, including several dreadnoughts from the previous naval expansion, which Nicholas II nodded in agreement without any thought.

"I agree with the proposal to purchase aircraft, and I will coordinate with the Finance and Foreign Affairs departments to assist in your aircraft procurement plan," said Nicholas II, nodding his head, very generously.

Although the new aircraft procurement plan would cost tens of millions of rubles, it was undoubtedly worthwhile to enhance the combat effectiveness of frontline combat units and use war victories to secure domestic stability.

"As for the pilots' allocation for the fighter aircraft, domestic training is part of it, and I will ask the Foreign Affairs Department to negotiate with Australasia to dispatch a group of students for emergency training in Australasia.

General Alekseyev, I hope you can stabilize the situation of the Southwest Army and the logistics and new weapons you requested will arrive soon," said Nicholas II, looking at General Alekseyev, half-requesting and half-demanding.

"Yes, Your Majesty, please rest assured. The Southwest Army will not disappoint you. We will do our best to resist the German offensive," Alekseyev quickly nodded excitedly, answering in a high tone.

For the cleanup of logistics and procurement of equipment, these two major matters, Alekseyev thought it would be perfect if only one of them could be resolved.

But he did not expect Nicholas II to directly approve both, far exceeding Alekseyev's expectations.

Of course, this was good news for the Russian Southwestern Front Army, as the soldiers would have sufficient food and weapons and equipment to better resist the Germans.

Perhaps this was also good news for the Northwest Army. After all, after Nicholas II held the logistics department accountable, the withholding of food and supplies should not be so rampant.

If both the Northwestern and Southwestern Front Armies could receive a batch of aircraft support and have enough pilots, it would not be impossible to regain lost ground from Germany as long as the superiority in the sky is achieved.

After all, bombings from the sky are far more dangerous than those on land. Aircraft can accurately select targets for bomb dropping, but shells can only be aimed and bombarded from a long distance, which enormously tests the precision of artillerymen.

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