Methamphetamine or Vitamin? (5)

"The Tsar has drawn his sword."

The leader of the liberals, Prince Georgy Lvov, calmly laid out the situation before several figures in the Democratic Party who followed him.

"I've also found out that the Land Survey Committee didn't start with a nationwide survey, but began investigating specific provinces."

"Then does this mean the Tsar never intended to delegate reform to the Duma from the beginning?"

"That I don't know."

No one here knows exactly when or why the Tsar's mindset changed.

It could really be as rumored - that he stepped forward himself because he was extremely disappointed in the Duma, or perhaps as he learned more, he became afraid of losing initiative to the Duma.

What's important is that now all reforms are being carried out from that Summer Palace.

And that the empire's people aren't loudly opposing this.

"It seems the entire Summer Palace has become the headquarters for this reform."

"Not moving even as seasons change - the Tsar and officials are really determined."

Change had to start from the Duma. These achievements should have been carried out by this Duma that represents the true imperial citizens, not the traditional ruling class.

How much could things change when those who refuse to give up what they hold claim they'll make changes?

Though his family fell in the previous generation, Georgy, who graduated from Moscow University and worked in local zemstvos, accurately grasped the key issues of this reform.

"This is both crisis and opportunity. Emperors always try to overturn the country once. However, they had to bear the aftermath until the day they left the throne."

Just as the aftermath of Alexander II's premature abolition of serfdom still eats away at the entire empire today.

His family that fell due to serfdom and he himself are living proof.

"Representative Lvov, what happens if the mir really dissolves and farmers' lives improve?"

"Don't worry. That won't happen."

Only those who don't understand the mir think of it as just a plantation that concentrates labor - the true value of the mir isn't just that.

'The mir is like this government's fingers and toes.'

It is the lowest end of administrative power, welfare for those at the bottom, and a stone firmly embedded in the empire itself.

"I'm not sure if our young Tsar understands the gravity of the situation, but since he's stepped to the forefront, he must take responsibility."

All the problems that will arise when the mir disappears overnight - that responsibility clearly lies with the Tsar.

Prince Lvov, who had even pushed out Pavel Milyukov, the founder of the Democratic Party, quickly made his judgment amid the rapidly changing situation.

"Recently, it's been confirmed that the Labor Party has allied with those calling themselves Populists."

"You mean those who say they'll make social revolution through the mir?"

"Those ones are worse reds than the Labor Party!"

The Labor Party believes they can bring tens of millions of dissatisfied farmers to their side amid the mir's dissolution.

The merger of the left and the further left.

'The Labor Party may be in the light, but not the Populists.'

Then the alliance between the Labor Party and Democratic Party ends here.

Even if the mir dissolution fails, it won't bring down this Tsarist Russia's system and government. Now the Labor Party has become a huge bomb.

Although achieving a majority in the Duma would be impossible once the alliance ends, Prince Lvov was fine with that.

'When they crack down on the Populists, they'll catch the Labor Party too. Then we can spin it as Duma suppression.'

Reform failure and Duma suppression.

What better justification could there be?

Thinking this far, Prince Lvov found it difficult to believe this reform was prepared from the beginning.

If the Tsar was thorough enough to prepare to that extent, he wouldn't have shown his claws so early.

Well, what would a Tsar not even thirty know? It must be that Witte fellow beside him who's the real culprit.

Remembering even his resignation as Finance Minister, it's now hard to hold back a sneer.

While the Democratic Party quietly waited for their time like this.

"Agricultural reform? Who cares! What matters is money's flowing to the countryside!"

"My god, this country's getting a domestic market? Just make it first! Just make plows or whatever!"

"Check how much policy funding has been released too!"

The bourgeoisie rejoiced at the fact that the Peasant Land Bank, the empire's greatest vault, was releasing money.

On the other hand, there were those walking a path completely opposite to the Democratic Party.

"...We are the only ones in the Duma who have supported His Majesty the Tsar's will."

It was the Monarchist Party, the conservative party that recognized the need for a monarch.

"Will we join, or will we too turn away."

"...If it fails, our place in the Duma might become worse than even Beren Volkov's supporters from the Far East."

"Representative Guchkov, what should we do?"

Though they say Witte prevented his subordinate officials from touching the Duma, he couldn't control all officials.

Alexander Guchkov of the Conservative Party, who had support from some reform-minded officials.

He viewed the current trend from a slightly different perspective.

"If... it succeeds, what do you think will happen?"

"The mir would be finished."

"Just the mir?"

Will only the mir be destroyed and that's it? Will this accelerating reform quietly die out in just the countryside?

No, that's absolutely impossible. If that were the case, things wouldn't have grown so noisy.

How much money went into dissolving the mir in just five provinces, and how many human and material resources were invested?

If he were Witte, he wouldn't end it just there.

Surely, he'd want to press down on the Duma at least once.

Eventually, if the Labor Party and Democratic Party unite, the Duma will forever be theirs.

Then... might it not be worth trying? Representative Beren Volkov must have something he believes in to declare full support for this reform.

Especially the atmosphere among the officials who used to just commute with dead fish eyes is different.

They're so full of life they seem to be burning through their lifespans - to the point where you wonder if they're really this country's officials.

"Let's support His Majesty the Tsar for now."

The Conservative Party is the third party anyway.

Even if it fails, it will end with just replacing Witte and other reform officials.

The Conservative Party tentatively turned toward supporting the reform.

The Tsar's decision.

Different choices following it.

'98 dawned as the year to confirm the winner.

==

The government had once confirmed how important the mir's administrative power was during the census process.

Rather than sending lower officials or security forces to count people one by one, they conducted the census based on working men currently in the mir.

In this way, the mir had permeated into various areas including conscription, self-welfare, regional development, public building construction, and road maintenance.

Of course, there's no way it was operating well, but the Russian government was grateful just for them handling things on their own.

But what does it mean to delegate so many roles to a single rural entity without even an audit system?

"It means it's completely rotten."

Director Sekerensky, who believed corruption becomes possible the moment humans are given positions, muttered as if for others to hear while scanning the documents in his hand.

"The mir's joint responsibility for taxes, only those who don't want to get fucked will pay."

Instead of the poll tax collected per person, the empire had received taxes from the mir.

The conscription system was similar too.

"They reported adult males registered in the mir and sent soldiers for annual service to the military district."

This also means only poor farmers without money go to the military.

Director Sekerensky spoke as if acknowledging the importance of the mir to those who had been the ruling class within it - those who had overseen land redistribution and managed the mir.

"But Deputy Kokovtsov said that actually, the mir's administrative power is so trashy and outdated it's practically unnecessary."

The census conducted for two years is already nearing its end. Now conscription can be based on this information.

The most important thing, taxes? Who do you think is distributing land now? If you collect taxes based on distributed land, there's no need to impose guilt through joint responsibility.

"Hmm, did you understand what I'm saying?"

"P-please spare me..."

"I'm saying it's hard for you to survive here. Because you're useless."

To those swinging like pendulums while hanging bloodied, Sekerensky calmly pronounced their fate.

"You've been eating away for generations, there's nothing for me to investigate. Maybe the class system is more serious here than in the capital."

"I-I was wrong. Please, please. Just spare my-"

"Shh."

The director put his finger to the mir tax collector's lips, smashed beyond filthiness.

"Want to live?"

"Ye! Ye! If you spare me I'll do anyth-"

"Then, can you testify about the mir elders (Starosta)?"

"...Ah."

"Oh my, seems you need to think about it. Alright. I'll give you more time. I'll be back later. Just stay alive."

"Ah! Ah! No! Aaaargh!"

The mir elders - those at the truly corrupt end of the mir.

They send young men to the military, control forests, appoint tax collectors, and directly investigate and punish crimes.

"They're truly kings of the countryside."

Leaving the sealed room, the director wiped the blood from his fingers with a handkerchief.

While the clever official gentlemen wrestled with land documents and past mir records, the Okhrana was working elsewhere.

"The elders must have been impressive. Everywhere we go, when we mention mir elders, all mir members fear them."

"They're ones who haven't received a single audit or investigation from '61 until today. It'd be stranger if they weren't corrupt."

The elders and their families don't go to the military, don't farm, and don't pay taxes. Anyway, others can handle taxes and military service, and since they use the shared funds as practically their own pocket money, they don't need to work.

The reason why the security forces, military police, and Okhrana work together searching throughout the countryside.

It was to remove all shackles from the farmers' feet.

"The next Duma regime, central officials' necks, and His Majesty the Tsar's reform hang on those farmers."

That's not all. Recently, the Populists spreading strange ideologies while visiting the unstable mir have increased significantly.

These cockroach-like bastards, not content with lies and false rumors, claim the mir is already the essence of socialism itself.

"Really, this country has so many people who need to be caught and crushed."

Come to think of it, His Majesty's insight in expanding the Okhrana to a size of three thousand shows true foresight.

Without such massive personnel reinforcement, they couldn't even investigate, let alone catch people.

"If he doesn't open his mouth by today, kill him through trial, and scare the elders into running away. Then we can catch them again for the crime of fleeing."

"Understood, Director. Should we link the elders with the Populists?"

"That's a bit early. I'd like to see headlines like 'Shocking Reality of Corrupt Mir' in the newspapers next week."

"I'll prepare that."

"Good."

Director Sekerensky departing with light steps, hands behind his back.

A lifelong soldier, he doesn't know about agricultural reform or land redistribution.

But what he knows for certain is that the country is overflowing with traitors and revolutionaries.

Those first caught spit and curse, calling them the Tsar's dogs and butchers, but in the end it's clear who holds state authority.

He is justice following the Tsar's orders.

Those caught by him are injustice not following the Tsar's orders.

Looking at people with such dichotomous thinking.

"Hmm, the day I face our Duma representatives isn't far off."

There were still too many people to meet.