Russian Revolution, the Cossacks, and Independence Movements

After the 1905 Revolution in Russia, Nicholas II establishes a two-house Duma with an upper house composed of hereditary nobles and a lower house of elected representatives, two per oblast, but with greater powers than the OTL Duma.

The new Duma renames the country the Federative Union of All the Russias, promotes capitalism through economic reforms in Russia with land reforms that enable a more successful peasantry, with the peasants now able to buy and sell land as well as take out mortgages. Noble-class landowners are allowed to sell peasants any amount of land, and the price is fixed by legislation so that it is both affordable and with guaranteed loans for purchase. While some peasants revolt and loot nobles' homes, the unrest is brought under control through the intervention of the Cossacks, who still are at the behest of the Russian government, albeit the new Duma and premiere. By 1908, agricultural production begins to improve, and the Chernozem region's output increases due to mechanization and increases in peasant ownership as well as bringing additional acreage into production.

Additional legislation guarantees workers' rights with a minimum wage comparable to other European nations, a 10 hr. work-day, at least one day off per week, the right to form unions, the right to strike, a ban on child labor, and other reforms necessary to quell unrest. The military is restructured, and officers with a predilection for mutiny are dismissed from the forces. Nicholas II also steps down as an autocratic ruler, and restructures the government with a constitution as well as an elected premiere. Russia is restructured as a constitutional monarchy similar to Great Britain by late 1906 and investor confidence leads the economy out of the slump that had begun in Europe in 1899.

By 1915, the Russian economy has grown by nearly 7-8% per year through the expansion of railroads and heavy industry, but Bolshevik agitators continue their work, inciting workers to desire better conditions, prodding the peasantry with ideas of debt-free land, and instigating students to question their country's policies on Russification of of the various nationalities in the empire, to reject national ambitions of expansion, and to embrace Marxist ideals. Just as in the original timeline, Russia had expanded its imperial holdings with the same series of conquests, ruling Poland, Belarus, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.

WWI begins much as in the OTL, but as Russia has stronger armed forces due to the military reforms and economic stabilization of the country in the years after 1905, it is better prepared. The Triple Entente, composed of Britain, France, and Russia, enters the war against Austria, Germany, the Ottomans, and Italy. Fighting on two fronts against Germany and Austria and the Ottomans, Russia's strategy is offensive, and in 1916 they invade Istanbul and take the territory surrounding the Bosporus and well as the Dardanelles. They suffer great losses on the European front in Galicia initially, but Nicholas II travels to the front where he takes command and replaces incompetent generals who had been unwilling to take the risks needed. By the war's end, as defeated Austria and Germany languish in treaty negotiations, Russia begrudgingly agrees to Polish independence ( territiory includes OTL 1917 borders AND 1939 OTL borders). Further, European Turkey and the area around Istanbul are given to Greece.

By the end of WWI, in late 1918, Bolsheviks attempt to incite a coup in the government, with Vladimir Lenin at the command of the revolutionaries. The coup fails due to a lack of interest from the general populace, due to the reforms previously enacted. Further, since Russian territory was not devastated from the war due to its offensive posture, the general peasantry and workers throughout Russian territory were little affected during the war, unlike most of the rest of Europe. On December 25, 1918, Lenin was captured in St. Petersburg and shot by a Cossack officer whose name remains unknown, only memorialized and remembered as a "Hero of the Don"--some later reported that the officer was a Don Cossack. Bolshevik supporters and agitators are arrested throughout Russia and exiled to the gulag. At least 10,000 Bolsheviks are exiled while Lenin's inner circle is executed summarily after a public trial back in Moscow.

Dekulakization and decossackization never take place in Russia due to the earlier reforms which precluded the OTL 1917 revolution, but the Cossack nationalism movement grows as well as unrest in areas of Russia such as the Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states. Just as other European powers, the alternate timeline Russian nation in the 1920's and 1930's is unwilling to allow its nineteenth-century conquests independence and remains bent on maintaining its empire since areas such as the Ukraine contribute vastly to the state's success as a food exporter and world-wide leader in heavy manufacturing. Extensive petroleum deposits are discovered in the Caspian basin in the early 1930's. By 1935, as the Cossack independence movement grows stronger in the lower Don region, Nicholas II, by now 67, falls ill with emphysema and dies in November 1936.

Nicholas II's son, Alexei, is crowned Tsar Alexei II January 6, 1937, and despite his hemophilia, he had grown into a strong and handsome young man with good prospect for a royal match. After Nicholas had stepped down and the royal family had taken on the role of figureheads, they had become the darling and delight of the people, receiving ebullient accolades of praise at public appearances and the like. Alexei had studied extensively in Western Europe and lived amongst his British royal cousins, and some even styled him as a second Peter the Great due to his affinity for all things western. He could speak English as well or better than Russian, and he had also traveled extensively in the United States and witnessed what a lightly regulated capitalist system could achieve.

The Duma, especially the upper noble house, was rather taken aback at Alexei's first address to them on May 1, 1937. After news of the Anschluss had reached Russia, it was evident what Germany's goals were. Alexei suggested nothing less than a military alliance with the United States and Great Britain in the event of any outbreak of war due to German aggression. The ruling premiere at that time was Ivan Ivanovitch Antonov, a former army general from Yekaterinburg who had been crucial in the defeat of the Austrians at Lvov in 1918, and he had been in power since the elections of 1930, now in his third term. Antonov fully supported Alexei's suggestion of an alliance, and the Russo-American treaty was formally signed by Antonov, Franklin Roosevelt, and Neville Chamberlain--who had been advised by George V, Nicholas II's cousin, not to placate the Nazis in Germany in any way.

WWII breaks out in 1939 as the Third Reich invades Poland (Sept. 1, 1939 as in OTL), but the Russian forces quickly intercede along with the Polish Army, or the New Hussars as they styled themselves. Since Polish independence, Poland had entered into a defense treaty with Russia that ensured protection from invasion in exchange for economic benefits for Russia. As Russia had steadily built up its army since the close of WWI, its manpower stood at almost 15 million, and the air force as well as the army was comparable to that of Germany. In a stunning defeat, the combined Russo-Polish forces stopped the Germans just 20 miles east of the Oder River by September 20. The German invasion was crushed, the German army demoralized at defeat by their old foe.

While the Nazis regrouped and reanalyzed their eastern strategy, events in Russia fomented unrest. Due to weather conditions, the last three years had seen decreased in production of agricultural foodstuffs in the Ukraine, and under Sergei Alexievitch Kornilov, the Cossack independence movement had gained strength. Food prices had skyrocketed, and the Don was in turmoil. Several Cossack atamans were vying for power among the Don Host, and the Ural Cossacks had issued the government an ultimatum just as had several other hosts. The Ural Ultimatum stated that the Cossack areas desired independence outright from Russia. The most ambitious of Cossack movements, the Ural Host desired full independence whereas other hosts, such as the Don, had desired a return to their semi-autonomous status they had enjoyed under Nicholas II during the last days before the 1905 revolution.

The news of unrest in Russia of course reached Europe quickly, causing the Germans to plan a new offensive against Russia. In May 1938, the Nazis rolled into Belarus and had almost reached Minsk before they were successfully stopped by the Russians. As the war continued on in the main of Europe unabated, Russia maintained a presence on the German front and made some advances against the Nazi forces in Slovakia and Austia, but Russia largely had to turn inward after defeating Nazi advances for the second time, with the Germans delaying in further invasions. As the Cossack movement grew stronger--at least half of the Russian forces were Cossacks, Civil War seemed eminent. If the Cossacks won, the lower Don Basin, parts of the Caucasus, and even the Ural region might cease to be a part of Russia.

Antonov's strategy for dealing with the Cossacks as premiere was unwise in hindsight. The Black Sea Fleet sailed up the Don to Rostov November 17, 1938 and disembarked Russian troops intending to take Rostov, one of the Cossack seats of power. The war was on. This Russian Civil War dragged on for several years until 1942 when the Cossacks and the Russians reached a cease-fire agreement. The Cossacks had taken Moscow and Kazan, and the Russian government feared a Cossack victory was becoming more of a reality every day. The loss of life was mostly among the soldiery and much less in comparison than Russian losses suffered in OTL WWII. Most of the fighting had been confined to several cities, although some of Russia's manufacturing might had been destroyed during Cossack bombing campaigns.

The Cossacks were granted an independent state at the close of the war that compromised the Lower Don Region, the Black Sea region formerly known as Circassia, and the Terek region of the Caucasus.