Revolution!: A 1917 Russia Game (Gameplay Thread)

[Devout Centrist]

'Peace and Land'

J. Martov

There is a new spirit that grips the streets of Russia's cities, towns and villages today. It is the spirit of liberation, manifested as freedom from Tsarist oppression and reactionary violence. The people, united by their humanity, have rejected the old order in striking fashion. No longer will the abuses of the past nor the neofeudalist tyranny of the capitalist age be tolerated by the Russian people. From every public square and meeting house, there are cheers of jubilation as the solidarity of the working classes is plain for all to see.

But these cries will go unanswered without progressive and revolutionary action against the elements that seek to maintain the status quo. We are in the midst of an illegal and a destructive capitalist war that threatens to kill an entire generation of Russian men and leave their widows, children, and mothers destitute. There are palatial manor houses that oversee the serfdom of entire villages in the Russian countryside, extracting obscene value from the fruit of the working man's labor in the fields. We have miners, soliders, and industrial workers who have no food to eat and who have no means to provide for themselves as a result of the dastardly capitalist class.

We must not waste a moment in ensuring the full liberation of the people, in providing true democracy and liberty for our citizens, and promoting socialist values of brotherhood and solidarity among our people.

The war must end. Immediately. There are those who say such an action would be dishonorable. To them I say, is it not dishonorable to leave a child fatherless? Is it not dishonorable to kill a mother's son? Is it not dishonorable to strip a wife of her husband? It is true that the Russian people have lost a great deal in the Great War, which was fueled by imperial ambitions, Tsarist incompetence, and capitalist greed. But we cannot hope to regain our honor through the slaughter of our own people. The bloodthristy war machine has stolen millions of our men from our streets and towns. They were our brothers, our fathers, our sons, and our husbands. Every death represents a person lost to the dragon of war, a man who had responsibilities and duties to his family, his household, and his country. Our leaders have thrown away those responsibilities in favor of callous murder in the West. The Tsarist oppresors squandered their trust in the protection of our Motherland, and we must never forgive them for that.

The people must have bread. The price of commodities, particularly food, has tripled recently as a result of greed and rapacious capitalists. The workers of this nation starve as the merchants and businessmen in Petrograd, New York, and London eat to theur heart's content. We must secure our national food supply, to feed the growing working class in our cities and villages, so that everyone from peasant to soldier to worker, may have enough to eat. The strangulation of our nation's wheat by speculators must be put to an end by the government immediately.

The peasants must have land. Fifty years ago, the Tsar issued a proclamation to end serfdom in our nation. This did not fix the problem. Our brothers and sisters in the fields toil ceaselessly for ambivalent landlords, many of which rule over their plantation estates from faraway places. They allow their subordinates to abuse and rape their tenants, pushing them further into debt slavery as they accumulate bigger and bigger bills from capitalist firms. Without land to control and till, a farmer has no means to care for himself. He is at the mercy of wolves and weather, forced to cede his honest labor to the extraction of capitalist landlords and their eager overseers. Land reform must be the first priority of the government and we will not rest until these reforms are enacted. No government can garner our support without starting the process as soon as possible.

Comrades, brothers and sisters, this revolutionary spirit of our age must not go to waste. We have a sacred obligation to protect the people of our nation from imperialist hawks or capitalist raptors. This opportunity must be used to secure the rights and liberties of the Russian people, without which there is no Motherland.

[Devout Centrist]

On Conflict

J. Martov

In modern times, we often think of war and violence as artifacts of the frontier, destined to remain separate and distinct from the lives of the citizenry. There is always much discussion of 'the front', an imaginary line dug in the soil from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Some military men have coined the term 'home front' to describe those people who serve their nation in factories or in farms during wartime. These people, it is said, enjoy a privilege by providing service through labor rather than force of arms.

What is the nature of conflict? Some say that humans have been in a constant state of struggle. In the past, our forefathers endured forms of warfare that we may find difficult to comprehend - tribal violence that was so ferocious in its intensity that it wiped out entire cultures and groups of people. The great competition over power, resources, and territory consumed the lives of innumerable men. Leaders, in their capacity as guides of the tribe or city state, would tell their people that such sacrifices were necessary. Conflict, they argued, was necessary to rid the world of lesser peoples. Without the broadsword of violence, there would be too many people and too little food for them to share. Violence, then, was a tool to support the strength of strong cultures and people. The weak would die, and the strong would live. Some modern scholars, though I hesitate to use the term, have come to consider our conflict as a similar struggle between different peoples and races, one that will only be resolved by the total anhiliation of the other.

This interpretation of violence relies on the notion that humans are in a constant state of competition. It assumes that men are not capable of reason or cooperation. It presumes that every man, woman, and child is born an automaton, designed to carry out directives from more reasoned leaders and superiors. There is no room for questions about their motives or their place in the cycle of violence - the titanic clashes between cultures is unavoidable and thus, desirable.

But these ideas stem from a fundamental misreading of history. Our ancestors were not inclined to fight and kill on gargantuan scales. They defended what belonged to them, yes, but conquest did not interest ordinary men and women, save for the few.

No. It was the powerful men of old who wanted violence, craved violence. From the priestly class of Babylon to the Emperors of Rome. From the Mongol invaders to the feudal lords of old - it was their bloodlust that the common people fulfilled. War benefitted them. It brought them unimaginable riches, luxuries that were reserved for their tables and their hosts. It filled their desire for more, their noxious greed and their desire to dominate others.

Ordinary men did not benefit from war. Ordinary men have never benefitted from war. We see the true value of their arguments today. We have lost millions of men because of one man's ambition. One powerful man commanded our brothers to die fighting for his glory. We have traded the ploughshare for the sword, but we have gained neither. Every day we continue to fight, another ten thousand men are condemned to their deaths for nothing.

Which brings me back to the concept of the home front. For those who live away from the front, the war is never far away. Wives and widows, grandmothers and child, are forced to carry on the dangerous work of fueling the war machine. Each day that passes, we lose their souls to the mechanized abomination that consumed their brothers, husbands, and fathers. They are taken captive for the glory of the powerful. They toil day after day for the enrichment of the powerful. This injustice defines modern conflict and places the working men and women of Russia in cruel bondage. The family itself has been sacrified at the altar of modern warfare, a conflict that inevitably benefits the rich and the powerful.

This government, led ostenibly by liberal men, has claimed that it intends to end the war in an honorable manner. The dishonor brought by peace would irreparably scar the living, they say. And of course, we must not forget about the valuable land and wealth that must be reclaimed for the benefit of the landlords and the factory owners.

Prince Lvov, acting in our best interest of course, argues that we must trust his judgement. He is, after all, an honorable man. Of noble blood and privilege, who better to lead the people of our nation to victory? We must admire his wealth, of course, and his status as a honorable man set above us as a new leader of the nation.

It would seem sacrifice is meant for the commoners, not for honorable men. The Provisional Government, which is made up of honorable men, understands the complexities of geopolitical conflict. It is natural to think that we must defer to their judgement on these affairs.

I do not intend to instruct the government on its course of action, but I must speak to what I know: our men are dying. Our women and children are starving. We are creating a generation of widows for the sake of your pride and your greed. Every day we prolong this war in defense of your power and your privilege, our people suffer and our men die.

The war must end - immediately.