Peace In Their Time

The last days of the Provisional Government ticked by amidst plotting and feuding that would do its memory no favors. It also didn't do it any favors in the moment either, as the chaos swung vital public support towards the Bolsheviks. As October dawned, everything started coming together for the big revolution they had been dreaming of.    Bibliography for this episode:    Hosking, Geoffrey Russi...

Losing one major war was survivable for Imperial Russia, but damage done by WWI both militarily and socially proved too much. The Tsar would fall in 1917, but he clung to power long enough that the damage he had caused Russia would be too great for its succeeding government to deal with.    Bibliography for this episode:    Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of...

The dam starts to break for Imperial Russia as it embarked on a terribly ill-advised war on the extreme edge of its empire. Long story short, it didn't go well and all the pressures that had been building for decades broke out in a frenzy of protest and violence.    Bibliography for this episode:    Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press...

Last week I covered some of the major fixtures of the old Russia, and this week I go over their counterparts in the Russia to come. Many were not destined to last much longer than the autocracy itself, but all would have some influence on the revolutions that would lead to the USSR's formation.    Bibliography for this episode:    Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Pr...

A memorable revolution needs a cartoonishly unsympathetic adversary, and the Communists had that in the autocracy that ruled Russia up to 1917. Today I cover some of the big institutions and figures whose mismanagement made Russia such fertile ground for revolution and the establishment of a new kind of state.    Bibliography for this episode:    Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A Histor...

Fresh new miniseries this week as I get started on unpacking the Soviet Union's early years. But as you're probably familiar with by now, a topic that big deserves some setup, and today I begin a way-too-fast overview of the conditions in the Russian Empire leading up to the early 1900s. In short, the place was a mess and it turns out that an out-of-touch autocracy wasn't the best institution to f...

Today we wrap up this season's coverage on China with the early life of its eventual leader, Mao Zedong. His early years were dominated by intellectualism, but for the longest time he cast about for the proper cause to believe in. It was only after witnessing the escalating disasters that befell the nation that he came to accept Marxism, but once done he became its committed champion.    Bibliogra...

It's the return of biography episodes today and first on deck is Sun Yat-sen's unlikely successor, Chiang Kai-shek. I say unlikely because for most of his early life Chiang was a fairly anonymous foot-soldier for a failing political movement. It was only after Sun enjoyed some lucky breaks that Chiang was eventually handed the responsibility of shaping what would become the most powerful army in C...

Going back to the KMT this week, the party and NRA found themselves somewhat at a loss on how to move forward without Chiang Kai-shek. Militarily they were holding it together, but politically were splintering again. With Wang Jingwei not providing the leadership needed, it was eventually decided for Chiang to return to command. More powerful than ever, Chiang took charge of the Nationalists to co...

The CPC found itself hunted and on the run after the whole "getting purged" thing went down with the KMT. Survival was the order of the day, and only in limited instances were the Communists able to even make their presence felt. And even in their reduced state there were still inter-party squabbles. But the trials they endured would eventually pay off as the KMT's nemesis refused to give up their...

The war for China took a turn when Chiang Kai-shek and the Right KMT executed a massive backstab on the Communists and their Left KMT allies. In doing so, Chiang unknowingly established an intractable rivalry that would haunt him for the rest of his life.    Bibliography for this episode:    Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Republican China 1912-1949, P...

The decisive campaign of China's warlord era begins as Chiang Kai-shek tightens his grip on the Kuomintang and finally kicks off the Northern Expedition. Despite KMT power and influence in the south having been growing for over two years previously, the feuding warlords didn't have an answer and got routed in the first phase. The only thing that slowed the advance of the KMT was its internal divis...

The Kuomintang was going from strength to strength by the mid-20s, but in early 1925 faced a test of an unfamiliar sort when its founder, Sun Yat-sen, passed away. It would be up to his lieutenants to carry on the Nationalist cause without him. Alongside their Communist allies, the next generation of KMT leaders made their final preparations for the great Northern Expedition.    Bibliography for t...

Today we finally leave the warlords of the north behind and turn back to China's southern provinces, where Sun Yat-sen and his Kuomintang were still struggling to establish a stable base. Those efforts would be saved by the intervention of an outside party: the Soviet Union. Their aid though came at the price of allying with the tiny Communist Party of China. The partnership would change the KMT i...

The Second Zhili-Fengtian War ended in dramatic fashion. But once again, nobody left on the board was in a good enough position to claim control of China. Instead, the warlord period entered its most factionalized phase, with four major players vying for dominance in the north.    Bibliography for this episode:    Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Republ...

This week I cover the arms trade fueling the civil wars in China, and the warlords' own efforts at building native arms industries. Then for the second half, I kick off the Second Zhili-Fengtian War, as the region north of Beijing once again became a battleground.    Bibliography for this episode:    Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Republican China 191...

The wars between the Cliques kick off as the Anhui and Zhili factions go head-to-head. While their battle would be a short one, the results brought the nation no closer to peace, and only set the stage for the next round of fighting. Also, Sun Yat-sen keeps doing his thing in the country's south.    Bibliography for this episode:    Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China...

Today I take a partial step back from high politics in China. Dissatisfaction had been building over the Chinese government's failure revise the exploitive relationship the country suffered from with the great powers of the world. And it didn't help that both Yuan and Duan had been actively courting foreign support either. On May 4th 1919, the tension broke and people took to the streets, at first...

This week I give an overview of the emerging networks of Warlords that would come to dominate China. Yuan Shikai might have died, but China's troubles were far, far from over. His most powerful subordinate, Duan Qirui, attempted to fill the void left by his old master, but he didn't command the same level of prestige and fear that Yuan did at his height. Other factions began to emerge and Duan's o...

Fresh off his victory over Sun and the KMT, Yuan fell into the old strongman trap of overreaching while his regime hadn't yet found its footing. That, coupled with his regime being undermined from abroad eventually led him to make a really bad call that totally blew up in his face.    Bibliography for this episode:    Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Re...

China's decay by the end of 1911 reaches a point of no return and a revolution sweeps the country. The old Qing Empire ends in ignominious fashion as its hand-picked commander decides to parley with the revolution instead. The Qing went away, but the question of what came after would take over 35 years to be answered.    Bibliography for this episode:    Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Camb...

Today is the start of a new miniseries where I finally get to cover China. This is going to be a fun one because the history of China during this time period is one that gets left out of the vast majority of popular histories. The reason is because it's a hectic mess, which is good because hectic messes are one of the reasons I do this show. This week though we just get the table set, with the fal...

This week we wrap up Japan in the 1920s. While the nation didn't finish the decade gripped by the militarism that would drag the nation into its later disasters, warning signs were already there. The country's ruling class became fearful of the changing times, a shift reflected in the change of monarch as Hirohito takes the throne, and Japan once again had an active emperor.    Bibliography for th...

Returning back to normal episodes on Japan, the country enjoys its most democratic period of the years I'll be covering. Too bad for them, it's also the same time that the economy craters and one of the worst natural disasters in the country's history strikes.    Bibliography for this episode:    McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002 Duus, Peter The Cambridge His...

After almost a year of back and forth, Japan and the Entente launched their biggest intervention into Civil War-era Russia, the Siberian Expedition. The years-long effort was marred by muddled objectives and a hostile populace, and its long-term impact was mostly confirming the Soviet Union as an enemy and undermining the people's faith in Japan's institutions.    Bibliography for this episode:  M...