Great Atamanate of Siberia Великий Атаманат Сибири Velikaya Atamanat Sibir' Eastern Russian Republic Восточно-Русская Республика Vostochno-Russkaya Respublika |
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| Motto: "Великий восточный рубеж" "Velikiy vostochnyy rubezh" ("The Great Eastern Frontier") |
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| Anthem: "Великий казачий боевой клич" "Velikiy kazachiy boyevoy klich" ("The Great Cossack's Battle Cry") |
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| Capital | Novosibirsk | |||
| Official languages | Russian Japanese (until 1933) |
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| Leaders | ||||
| - | President | Grigory Semyonov (first) Sergey Taskin (last) |
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The Great Atamanate of Siberia (Russian: Великий Атаманат Сибири, Velikiy Atamanat Sibiri, Japanese: シベリアの偉大なアタマナテ, Shiberia no idaina atamanate), later known as the Eastern Russian Republic (Russian: Восточно-Русская Республика, Vostochno-Russkaya Respublika), East Russia, the Russian Far East was a country covering what is today the Russian Grand Duchies of Siberia and the Far East.
It was the largest White Russian republic after the White victory over the Bolsheviks.
The republic was formed as a unification of the Trainsbaikal Cossacks and the Eastern Okraina in 1921, with Gregory Semyonov as its ataman. who declared his domain separate from Admiral Kolchak's government in the Urals, Siberia was aligned with the Empire of Japan, who supplied its military with much-needed resources, up until the overthrow of Semyonov by Sergey Taskin, who abolished the Ataman title, and replaced it with a President.
President Taskin, was an ethnic Russian nationalist, who inherited much of the previous Russian Empire's motives, namely in forming a Christian state in the East, and putting ethnic Russians on top, subsequently ordering the Siberians to attack the Japanese in the 1934 Battle of Nanjing, followed by more border skirmishes against the Japanese in the 1937 Sibero-Japanese border conflicts.
President Taskin re-adopted the use of the Russia name.
History[]
Establishment - Great Atamanate[]
Life in Siberia was for the most-part, sub-par. Siberian leaders, who were Cossacks were often known to be egocentric, without much care for the well-being of the people. Looting, anarchy, drug abuse, rape and warlord culture was rampant in Siberia, and Japanese authorities seemingly did not care either.
Grigory Semyonov rule as the Great Ataman, a quasi-monarchic-like position.
Sergay Taskin, who served as the Interior Minister, had an avid hatred of Cossack culture, and consequently, despised Semyonov. General Sergey Rozanov too, had a huge hatred of Semyonov, and the two, along with many East Russian generals and authorities, plotted the overthrow of Semyonov and the Japanese. Taskin, Rozanov, Leonid Ustrogov, and other Siberian generals went to form the East Russian Council (Восточно-Русский Совет), a secretive militant cult that plotted the overthrow of Semyonov and the Japanese. Ustrugov went to go serve as Siberia's Interior of Industry, due to his experience as a railway engineer, and oversaw the industrialization of Siberia.
The East Russian Council sent its members to high positions in the Siberian military and economy.
Taskin and Rozanov remembered Russia's loss at the hands of Japan in the Russo-Japanese war, and was content with being a puppet state of a historical adversary of Russia.
Overthrow of Semyonov - 1937[]
In 1937, soldiers from East Russia found out of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanjing. Sergey Taskin, and the secretive East Russian Council, overthrow the Great Ataman in 1937 and siezed control of Transbaikal. Taskin and Rozanov never liked the Japanese.
Taskin created the President position, with Sergey Rozanov as his War Minister, for the most part, since Taskin was not of military background, Rozanov controlled the East Russian military forces as the Commander-in-Chief while Taskin took care of civil matters. General Rozanov became infamous for the Trainsbaikal confrontation with Japanese troops, which ended up in an East Russian victory.
Therefore, the 1937 Russo-Japanese war begins. Unlike the Sino-Japanese wars however, the East Russians were much more successful in fighting the Japanese. However, Japan had its own ambitions in the central and south Pacific, leading Emperor Hirohito to attempt negotiating with Rozanov and Taskin. Rozanov demanded that Emperor Hirohito surrender all of Japan's military assets in Siberia to the East Russians, and give the East Russians the plans and blueprints.
Emperor Hirohito eventually decided to pull Japanese forces out of Siberia and Central Asia. After Japanese forces emptied from Central Asia, East Russian troops marched in to occupy the void, thus giving Asian Russia a semblance of its pre-civil war past.
Taskin officially renamed Siberia to "East Russia" and embraced its Russian identity, leading to a severe response from the Japanese, once an ally of Siberia. President Taskin forced the Japanese to use the Siberian ruble to continue exploiting Lake Baikal's resources, which the Japanese reluctantly agreed to, as long as East Russia remained Japanese-aligned, to which infuriated Semyonov, and he too, found out that Japan truly did not see him as a valuable leader. President Taskin officially strengthened East Russian ties to the western Russian states, who were well-funded by the Western powers, officially making Siberia a Western ally.
World War II against Japan and Mongolia[]
With Emperor Hirohito's South Pacific plans, the Japanese abandoned Siberia, instead, clinging onto their Chinese and Korean strongholds for their Pacific invasion. However, with the alliance with Mongolia, Emperor Hirohito argued that Khan Naran could "...take care of the Russians". The Mongolians carried out Japan's intentions to restore the Great Ataman as East Russia's head of state, however, Semyonov was anything but interested.
President Taskin was not at-all surprised, and had already prepared East Russian defenses and attempted to ramp up military production in Central Asian and Siberian factories, and ordered General Rozanov to carry out the mass-evacuation of citizens from Port Arthur, only leaving the city of able-bodied defenders. However able-bodied citizens in the mainland were being trained, in-knowing that conscription was unavoidable fate.
Khan Naran, like in his tactics in Central Asia, promised the non-Russians their own Khanate, and to revive the Khanate of Sibir, which had been the ruling state in Siberia prior to Ivan IV's conquests.
"Brothers and sisters of Siberia, I understand your plight at the hands of the oppressive Russians, who want nothing but your destruction, fear-not, for the Heavenly Hordes shall liberate you from pain and suffering!" - Khan Naran to the non-Russians of Siberia
However, unlike their successes in northern China, the Great Mongol Ulus was not successful in their Buryatia offensive, failing to take Buryatia and Tuvan. The East Russians however, struggled greatly against the Japanese. Therefore, General Rozanov was forced to release Cossack prisoners, and re-use them as penal troops in the Siege of Port Arthur.
In addition, Japanese troops suffered from the harsh Siberian winters, just as the Germans of our OTL.
Like elsewhere in the former Russian Empire, ethnic Russians living in its territories felt that the various wars waged by the Eastern Axis was specifically aimed towards the Russian people, restoring the need and the urge to re-unite the country. President Taskin then announced his intentions to re-unite Siberia with the rest of the Russian states.
Siberia re-joins Russia, 1945[]
There were contemplations of turning East Russia into a "Grand Atamanate", akin to how South Russia became a Grand Baronate, rather than a Grand Duchy under the figurative rule of a Romanov, but was decided that Siberia would become a Grand Duchy within the resurgent Russian Empire. This also soured any hopes for the Ukrainians to have their own "Otamanate". However, changes were made, namely in that Manchuria was made to become part of a different Grand Duchy, namely one that included Outer Mongolia.
As Taskin was not of military background, he was not legible to become its Governor-General, however Sergey Rozanov,, was allowed by the Tsar to become its Governor-General. Taskin felt that his role as a leader was finished, and would live out the rest of his career as a lecturer at universities across Russia. Leonid Ustrugov would become the Vice Chairman.
Military forces[]
Of the entire former Russian Empire, East Russia had contained the largest military, a largely Cossack military. Its total personnel count totaled 3,500,320 personnel. The East Russians also produced one of the former Russian Empire's largest tank forces, thanks to a large number of Japanese battle tanks being used in Siberia, and the East Russian seizure of tank-producing factories in Siberia, once owned by the Japanese.
Economy[]
Petrol was East Russia's main commodity. After the formation of the Great Atamanate, Siberian and Japanese worked closely to build pipelines that would deliver much-needed oil to Japan. After Taskin overthrow Semyonov however, as the President of the East Russian Republic, he forced the Japanese to use the Siberian ruble to continue petrol operations in East Russia and by 1935, the East Russians took full control.
Taskin giving control of East Russia's oil commodities to Boris Galanos, a Russian-American businessman who was forced to flee when the civil war started, as well as Ilya Prigogine, Russian-Belgian chemist. This had given birth to Petrol-Galanos, eastern Russia's most powerful petrol company.