Chapter 718 The Father of Blitz
The expos held around the New Year brought a total of more than 20 billion rubles of orders to Russia.
Witt hailed this expo as an "unprecedented" turnaround.
During the Russian Empire, Russia owed so much foreign debt that the annual interest payments alone accounted for more than 20% of the Russian Empire’s fiscal revenue. In 1916, British and French financial experts predicted that the Russian Empire’s fiscal Soon there will be a breakdown.
In fact, this is indeed the case. Financial collapse was one of the main reasons for the demise of the Russian Empire. When Nicholas stepped down, the empire was no longer able to pay the salaries of frontline soldiers.
After Nicholas stepped down, Russia fell into chaos for another year and a half. At that time, even Russia's allies believed that Russia would never recover.
What is surprising is that with the recovery of Moscow, Russia's finances began to improve in just half a year.
This has actually been foreshadowed for a long time.
As early as the imperial era, Russia was severely torn. Russia in the Russian-European region and Russia in the Far East were completely like two countries, incompatible with each other.
When the empire's finances collapsed, Amur's economy hit new highs repeatedly. In 1917 alone, Amur gained more than 10 billion rubles in profits through trade with Britain, France and other countries.
After the establishment of the Constantinople government, Russia repaid its foreign debts in kind. By the end of the world war, the total debt owed to Britain and France had dropped to less than 10 billion rubles.
The influence of the Constantinople Exposition is still gradually fermenting.
During the World War, Russia’s exports of materials to Britain and France were mainly food, weapons and ammunition, and the share of daily necessities was not high. Most British and French people were not aware of the high quality and low price of Russian goods. Not enough.
Orders generated during the Constantinople Exposition were mainly for daily necessities and building materials.
Once Europe becomes dependent on Russian industrial products, Russia will receive a steady stream of orders.
Unlike Russia, whose economic situation had completely improved, in the spring of 1920, a sudden economic crisis swept across Britain and France, catching everyone by surprise.
Like many previous economic crises, this time the economic crisis broke out from the United States.
The world war made the United States a creditor nation and also planted hidden dangers for the U.S. economy.
After the end of the World War, orders from Europe dropped rapidly, which had a serious impact on American companies that expanded wildly during the World War.
Due to the decline in European orders, U.S. small and medium-sized business owners no longer invest their profits in expanding reproduction, but invest them in the U.S. stock market. This not only fails to cool down the already artificially high stock market, but instead pushes the U.S. stock market up. A whole new level.
While small and medium-sized business owners are desperately buying stocks, Wall Street tycoons are secretly leaving the market to raise funds to invest in the reconstruction of Europe.
This drumming and flower-passing game continued until this spring, and finally became unsustainable.
In March of this year, "Washington Evening News" reporter Paul Richards published an article in the newspaper to remind investors to pay attention to the overheating of the stock market.
Although Paul Richards committed suicide the day after the article appeared in the newspaper, panic inevitably spread.
On March 23, Monday, after the New York stock market opened, almost all stocks fell off a cliff. The stock index suddenly dropped by an average of 30 percentage points from the highest point of 213 points. Thousands of Americans lost their lives. My savings were wiped out in just one day.
On the 24th, affected by the crash of the New York stock market, the stock markets in London and Paris also began to fall crazily. Europe, which had not yet emerged from the shadow of the world war, was hit hard again.
In this case, no one paid attention to Goryeo's claim against Russia.
After arriving in Geneva, little Nicholas did not go to work at the Wilson Palace immediately. Instead, he held banquets at his mansion for 10 consecutive days, once again showing the representatives of various countries the luxury of the Russian Grand Duke.
Until Deputy Ambassador Mannerheim reminded Nicholas Jr. that the League of Nations was about to review Goryeo's lawsuit against Russia, Nicholas Jr. was reluctant to go to work.
Since the United States has not joined the League of Nations and Britain and France are in the quagmire of economic crisis, Russia has become the only focus of the League of Nations in the near future.
The French ambassador to the League of Nations was Clemenceau, who had just lost the domestic election.
During the Paris Peace Conference, Clemenceau was praised as the "Father of Victory" in Europe by representatives of various countries for his tough attitude towards Germany.
After just eight months, Clemenceau lost almost all his aggressiveness, like a "tiger" with its teeth pulled out, looking very old.
After all, I am 79 years old and I cannot accept old age.
During the Paris Peace Conference, Nicholas Jr. had dealt with Clemenceau many times and they were very familiar with each other. So before the meeting officially started, Clemenceau asked Nicholas Jr. how to deal with Korea. litigation.
Nicholas Jr. was very familiar with this scene. During the Paris Peace Conference, Clemenceau often had closed-door meetings with Lloyd George and Nicholas Jr. to decide on a third party without the presence of the third party. fate.
"Russia has paid sufficient salaries and pensions to all the Korean soldiers who participated in the war. What else do the Koreans want?"
Little Nicholas was confident.
Clemenceau frowned.
In the eyes of many people, it is natural to get money for working and to eat food as a soldier.
Actually it's not.
The "Contract of Versailles" was signed on June 28 last year, marking the complete end of World War I.
Eight months have passed since June last year. Of all the countries participating in the war, only Russia has paid full retirement benefits and pensions to the soldiers participating in the war.
The League of Nations conference moved from Paris to Geneva. Part of the reason was that the streets of Paris were occupied by striking workers and homeless World War I veterans. The League of Nations continued to be in Paris, which was not good for France's image.
If Nicholas Jr. brought this up at the League of Nations meeting, the Koreans would certainly have nothing to say, but they would also be slapping the French in the face. "As for the so-called unfair treatment suffered by Korean workers in Amur, this is even more nonsense. The salary paid by Amur to Korean people is far higher than the average wage level in Korea. I would like to see what those Korean workers can do in Korea. Can’t get the same salary as Amul”
Little Nicholas himself felt that the Amur Region government gave too much.
Although Russia has abolished serfdom, Russians’ salaries are not high.
The Amur Region government has almost single-handedly raised the overall wage level in Russia, and even little Nikolai has suffered greatly.
After the civil war, the Castle government returned the property of the Nikolayevich family to Nikolay the Younger.
This was originally a good thing, but little Nicholas found out that hiring people to farm the land was not only unprofitable, but also difficult to make ends meet.
This is also thanks to Russia’s minimum wage system.
Little Nicholas did not "thank" George, because in his grandfather's generation, when he scolded George, he scolded himself.
Then thank the eight generations of Witte ancestors.
Little Nikolai had no choice but to sell the land of the Nikolayevich family to the government, and then invest the money in emerging industries.
For example, a car factory.
Another example is natural gas pipelines.
Clemenceau's brows furrowed even more.
After the economic crisis broke out, the French media received another warning and were not allowed to publish any news about Russia.
After the ceasefire is achieved, although French workers are unemployed, they can still imagine that they can resume work once the economy recovers.
After the economic crisis broke out, the situation became increasingly severe. Reporting news about Russia at this time would undoubtedly add fuel to the fire.
Geneva now has not only representatives from various countries, but also resident reporters from newspapers from various countries.
"What's going on with you? Why can't you even manage your own tributary countries?"
Clemenceau placed all the blame on Nicholas the Younger.
“What are you talking about? When did Goryeo become a vassal state of Russia!”
Little Nicholas denied it.
Korea has more than 20 million people. Russia cannot bear such a heavy population burden.
Russia doesn’t even keep people from Warsaw, so the Koreans should just go wherever it’s cool.
After the founding of Poland, Russia began a new round of population migration.
Haven’t the people of Warsaw always strived for independence and freedom? Now that Poland has been established, as long as the Warsaw people want to defect to independence and freedom, Russia will not force them to stay, but will also provide them with travel expenses and escort them all the way to Poland. This is enough to give them freedom. Bar!
Even Britain and France have to admit that Russia's move broke people's prejudice against Russia.
For most countries nowadays, population is still the most important resource.
Russia's burden seemed like pie in the sky to Piłsudski. For a while, even Warsaw couldn't care about it, and Le Diandian returned to his country to embrace his good brother.
Russia, which has been losing its labor force one after another, has not affected its domestic construction. The influx of German workers has effectively filled Russia's labor shortage.
After Karl and Witte signed the agreement, more than 500,000 German workers poured into Russia in just 3 months.
These German workers were not only veterans of the First World War, but also a large number of skilled female workers.
During the World War, German men were on the front lines. In the later period, even 12-year-old boys were drafted into the army. Most of the workers in the factories behind Germany were female workers.
These female workers were also unemployed after the end of the world war.
Accompanying the German workers to Russia were a team of German officers.
Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, who had served in the cavalry unit, came to the Vladivostok Army Academy on an exchange basis as an external instructor.
As soon as Guderian arrived in Vladivostok, he asked Andrei, who was the dean, to work in the Vladivostok Armored Division.
Andre told Guderian that the Talisman Master does not accept foreign legions, and only by becoming Russian nationality can one serve in the Talisman Master.
There is no "Von" in Guderian's name. His loyalty to the German Empire has disappeared with the demise of the German Empire.
Although Guderian was equally disappointed with the Weimar government, he did not give up his German nationality easily.
In fact, at the Army Academy, you can also come into contact with Russia’s armored force application concepts.
Guderian's first lesson was coordination in foot combat.
It’s just that he is no longer an instructor, but a student.
(End of this chapter)