das
Regeneration In Process
1732-1745. First Revolutionary War and Immediate Consequences.
June 18th 1732. General Golitsyn is dead, his army is in shambles, and Sikorsky stands triumphant on the field of Zhodino. The great conscript army, supported by the Republican Guard and by the light cavalry raiders, has destroyed its enemies, has wrested the initiative from them. However, Poland still has to fight a three-front war - Sweden in the west and the north (for the Swedes, alas, rule the Baltic Sea) and Russia in the east. Luckily, the Turks are too busy fighting Moroccan and Egyptian rebels to attack as well, but Sikorsky really doubts they can do anything.
So? What will he do? To ensure the safety of the Republic, the Swedes needed to be brought to the negotiating table. To do that, a significant military victory in Germany was needed, perhaps even several victories. But to allow that... The Eastern theatre-of-actions should be closed first. Luckily, Russia was the weakest link in Sweden's anti-Polish coalition - revolt-struck and ruled by an unpopular and weak-willed Tsar, Mikhail II, or rather by Berdanov, the fat old boyar chief minister who pulled all the strings behind the Russian throne. Already in 1731, aware of the recent defeats, the peasants and cossacks used the opportunity to rise up. Sikorsky has an idea...
In cooperation with the local cossack Hetman, Stepan Bulba, Polish forces in late 1732 press into Podolia. What little resistance there is, is crushed. A Swedish force tries to threaten Thorn from East Prussia, but is then faced by General Wladislaw Shmigly and his Armia Krajowa and forced to retreat in shame after several skirmishes proved Polish preparidness. In Ukraine, Polish forces stop only at Kiev; the city is besieged and a peace treaty is offered to Berdanov - secretly, ofcourse. With an even more secret protocol attached...
Russia is to withdraw from the war with Poland, to withdraw all support from anti-republican groups, to recognize the People's Republic. Russia is to cede Podolia and all other territories west of Dnieper, though as a sweetener it is allowed to keep Kiev. What does Poland do? Poland withdraws support from all rebels in Russia. Poland gives Russia monetary support and a small expeditionary corps. And within two months after the defeat of the rebels, Russia is to... declare war on Sweden. In exchange, it will get Estonia, Livonia and West Karelia. And maybe Finland.
Berdanov shakes his head. He would agree to the peace, but a war with Sweden? At least he should get logistical assisstance and two more months. Sikorsky promises to help him with supplies, and one more month.
Berdanov is hesitating, and less then a week later a (Polish-incited, probably) rebellion in Moscow takes place, it is only barely put down. Another Polish army threatens Smolensk... Berdanov agrees. Sikorsky doesn't completely trust him ofcourse, and leaves a few divisions at Minsk, under General Mieszko, to guard the region.
By the time they agree, 1733 is already on. It is a year of turmoil, and not just here in Poland. Far, far away, across the Atlantic Ocean, there are numerous revolts against the unstable Spanish rule, revolts that are eventually put down by local forces... just barely. Back in Spain, Phillip VI died and the Conservatives were on the retreat, their new leader - Phillip "VII", though not crowned formally yet - is very desperate whilst another Spanish Habsburg decides that this place is doomed and flees... somewhere. In England, things aren't better - the Scotts are on a rampage in Ireland and Wales, England itself (and most of Wales - the Scottish filibusters failed to capture much of it, only some coastal areas) is torn apart between Parliamentarists and Royalists, and the former are winning this time, led by the enigmatic Robert Blake. And in France... Louis XV continues to wage a desperate war against the Orleanists (OOC: who represent "parliamentary monarchy" and were forced by d'Arles into an uneasy coalition with the Republicans) and Republicans, but is being very uncooperative, i.e. doesn't ask his sworn enemies to save him now. In Italy, Paolo Buonoparte organizes a revolution that was declared by Louis XV to be the "worst kind of sacrilige" - he declares the Roman Republic and leads an angry mob to Vatican, forcing the Pope to flee first for Florence and then for Lisbon. The Roman Republic spreads like a disease, and the short Corsican lawyer suddenly turns out to be a very capable commander - though he had not much of a military education, he seemed to have some sort of an instinctive grasp on tactics and strategy, not to mention politics where he manages to repeat Sikorsky's Polish feat by mobilizing the population in practically all provinces he came across, destroying all princely Italian armies with great masses of peasants and citizens driven to fanaticism (OOC: basically, he's doing a form of what Fouche did in 1809 when he beat back a British invasion force with a swiftly-assembled "army" of conscripts). On April 3rd, when the Roman Revolution just begun, he holds Rome; by April 11th, the Corsican Lawyer holds all of Latium (a.k.a. western half of the Papal States); by the end of April, he is the undisputed ruler (sure, there are some national assemblies there, but that's just for the looks) of not just the former Papal States but also Tuscany and parts of Naples. Rebellions in his native Corsica and Sardinia follow soon after. Neapolitan army is routed at Caserta; San Marino surrendered without a fight, as did Lucca; Venice is paralyzed; by the end of the year, Roman Republic holds nearly a half of Italy, slightly slowing down near Milan and Venetian Padua... Denmark is filled with disorder as well, with a revolutionary government rising to power by the end of the year and pushing rather too far, not to mention being too close to Sweden.
And in Germany, as news of Sikorsky's peace with Russia and succesful capture of Elbing and Konigsberg spread, a most unpleasant situation appears, with numerous rebellions against Swedish rule. And not just some pathetic princes this time - nein, now the citizens are rebelling in the streets. At least this does have some beneficient results for Charles X - the princes fear the revolution much more then they fear Sweden, and so they, with the exception of Adolph the Mad of Darmstadt, side with the Vasa. This comes in handy in early 1734, when, having finished mopping up Courland and East Prussia, and having taken Riga, the main Polish army, led by Sikorsky personally, invaded Silesia. Meanwhile, Russia finally entered the war - in spite of some turmoil and the Swedes being not entirely surprised, the Russians managed, together with another Polish army, to overrun much of Livonia and Estonia, and Swedes, led by General Lindgren, only barely held back the Russian attack at Viborg. Problematically, ofcourse, the Russian army hardly has high morale, and still is recovering from the defeats of the war with their new allies, but they did open two new theatres, effectively, and closed one of the Swedish ones. Thus now Sikorsky needs to worry only about the German operational theatre, whilst Charles X had to fight on two, three, even four fronts. And there was no telling how events in Italy and France would come out....
It seemed as if a decisive battle would come soon, any moment now, but 1734 passed by without any such decisive, final climax.
The feeble Silesian armies were easily crushed at Waldenburg by Sikorsky; the Swedes avoided combat. Charles X was desperately strenghthening his positions and reorganizing his army, whilst Siegbahn played land for time. Another Swedish army, a rather small group actually, in cooperation with local princes was fighting the German rebellions, which were especially widespread in the northwest and the south. Talinn was the only Swedish city in Estonia that continued to resist, whilst the war in Karelia stalemated. Good news came from the sea, ofcourse, as the Swedish-Dutch fleet decimated the Polish one at Memel - but that hardly was enough.
1735 came. England and Wales were declared an United Republic, which however was clearly opposed to the Scottish Republic to the north. In France, Louis XV begun to gain the upper hand again after the Orleanists and Republicans begun fighting each other as well, after D'Arles died in the Battle at Rennes. In Spain, chaos reigned supreme, albeit in name at least the Liberals and Carlos III have triumphed. In Italy, Buonoparte's Roman Republic was by then undisputed, especially after Buonoparte succesfully got Charles X AND Louis XV to recognize the new republic - after all, neither of them were in shape to fight it. The new republic was consolidating and solidifying, albeit regretfully the attempts to take Venetian Dalmatia failed - the Turks beat the Romans to it, and to most other Venetian oversea possessions. Ah well. In a court coup, Berdanov died, and the new chief minister (and de facto ruler) was Ivan Chirikov, who hinted to Charles that he did not at all plan to oblige by the humiliating Treaty of Smolensk. Ofcourse, no blatant betrayal was being suggested, but Russia was open to peace proposals.
Charles X considered all this well, and decided that enough was enough. The troops, the Germans, everybody was restless and anxious. Well then, he will not disappoint! He will gain a position of strenght on the battlefield and use it to negotiate with Russia - and the German rebels.
There was a problem, though. Whilst Charles assembled his great army, Sikorsky already took Berlin and also managed to force Siegbahn to give battle... and won, ofcourse. Wishing to destroy the threat to his flank, Sikorsky marched out for Pommerania, for Rostock to be more precise. Swedish-German-Dutch army of Charles only barely achieved something of a numerical superiority over Sikorsky's force, whilst in quality there was no doubt that the Polish army was the best. To the south of Rostock, the two armies met to decide the fates of Europe.
The Battle at Rostock. One of the greatest battles in the history of humanity, or so many will call it. But some would also call it "decisive". It was hardly that. The Swedish army was, ofcourse, considered by all contemporaries to be the best army of Europe. But in being best, it lagged behind as far as innovation went. Gustavus Adolphus, who invented flexible formations, combined armies and linear tactics, who was the architect of the strenght of Swedish armies, was dead. His system slowly became obsolete, albeit some still did their best to reform it and to bring it up to date. But by then, a new system was needed, with a new visionary. That visionary was Sikorsky, and he won.
The Swedish forces quickly tried to seize initiative and to strike on the Polish left flank. Sikorsky pretended to strengthen said flank, but actually prepared troops in his center to outflank the Swedish flankers. Said flankers, led by Siegbahn, were not caught completely by surprise and at some point nearly broke the Polish flankers with a secondary flank attack, but by then the main portion of Sikorsky's center, held by most Swedish commanders to be "some peasants with muskets", and his right flank simply crushed the rest of the Swedish army - to be fair, this time the German troops held strong, but were eventually broken.
Sikorsky was triumphant, whilst Charles fled for Mecklenburg. Or was he? Germany was ripe for taking... or was it? Polish supplies just weren't prepared for the effort needed to overrun Germany, whilst the waves of rebellion in Germany were beginning to peter out. Sure, Sikorsky still could capture much of Germany... but soon after, Charles managed to give the majority of German rebels a convenient fig leaf out of the war. The Ausgleich which Charles wanted to proclaim as victor at Rostock he now declared, defeated, from Mecklenburg, but something of the needed effect was achieved. Germans were way too civilized, too loyal, too phlegmatic to become a nation of revolutionaries. Which was why peasants and burghers, apart from some particularily fanatical northwesterners preffered the stable, good Vasa rule over a Republic, a concept that was foreign to Germany.
The Ausgleich was not really a work of genius (though Chancellor Tingsten definitely was if not a genius then at least an outstanding statesman), but it did the job. Simply enough, German Confederation was abolished and replaced by a Kingdom of Germany, consisting of all of Germany, including Kingdom of Bohemia, save for Swedish Pommerania. Said Kingdom was in personal union with Sweden, ofcourse. Said Kingdom was a fairly loose confederation, with the surviving princes having a large amount of autonomy, and had a bicamerial Konigstag (with the princes being, naturally, much more powerful then city and province representatives). Eventually, this system of personal union transformed into the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Germany, or Sweden-Germany, or just the UK (or UKSG).
This was an immense diplomatic and political victory, but it scarcely changed the facts: what little eagerness Chirikov might still have had for peace on equal terms after Sweden's defeat at Rostock was destroyed by the humiliating annihilation of a Swedish army at Magedburg, followed up by a new republican coup in Brunswick (remember - the northwestern Germans were hardly eager to surrender even after the Ausgleich). No, now Sweden would need to make concessions. Charles hesitated, hesistated... then news came from Viborg. A great Russian fleet was assembled nearby. The Swedish ships were too far to intercept it before Russians could outflank the fortress...
Distressed, Charles thought things over and... gave Chirikov a certain generous offer, an offer that would seem fairly controversial if we a) forget Charles' situation and b) forget that he, after all, was a half-German, and held Germany to be worth much more then some silly three provinces promised to Russia...
Estonia, Livonia and Courland, where Swedish were only beginning to counterattack, were promised to Russia. Russia would renounce all claims on Swedish parts of Karelia. Sweden would recognize all of Greater Lithuania (OOC: meaning all Lithuanian lands as of 1568, which is... to put it simply a lot of land) as Russian territory if they capture it. Russia is to re-enter the war with Poland within one month...
It, perhaps, didn't seem wise for Chirikov to betray Poland and ally with a defeated foe. But Chirikov knew something else. In Poland itself, Sikorsky dismissed the counterrevolution as a "phantom" and in spite of the advice of his old friend Wladimir Krajowski he did not strenghthen surveillance over the forgiven monarchists. But the Phantom of Reaction was raising its head again whilst Sikorsky was away, and to say the truth many of the more moderate republicans begun to despise their powerful master. And the war-weariness was beginning to fill Poland once more, as economy begun to shake... Chirikov, thus, knew that for all of Sikorsky's military victories, he was beginning to lose the battle that mattered - the battle for the hearts of his people. The peasants were still fairly conservative, and albeit Sikorsky's enigmatic personality drew many to support him, the price for this support was staggering, for the "levee en masse" took an entire generation out to the battlefields of Russia and Germany. Chirikov's spies gave him correct information - indeed, all it would take is just one defeat.
It is hard to say if Sikorsky was completely ignorant of this. But by the time he, in early 1736, did order a tightening of security, it really was too late. If only because the Russian front was re-opened, and Poles were besieged in Riga. Minsk was being threatened. The war in Ukraine went better for the Poles, though - there, the cossacks remained on their side, despite all. But in the west, Sikorsky was forced to retreat - "the German revolution was betrayed from within - and we must save Poland from a betrayal from without". Germany's was not the only defeated revolution - in France, Louis XV ("the Iron-Willed" was a worthy epithet for him indeed) was indeed too strong a ruler to give up easily; in fact, he by then had forced Duc d'Orleans to renounce all claims to the throne at the point of his sword (sources disagree if this was figuratively, as Louis XV was, though strong-willed, perhaps a little too predisposed for dramatic gestures...) and crushed Republicans in most of France; they only held out in the northeast by the beginning of 1736, the last year of the French Civil War. Spain... was Spain, the Portuguese even used the occasion to conquer Galicia (the Spanish one, naturally). Buonoparte was still all-powerful in Italy - an immensely ill-planned counterrevolutionary rising in Sicily was crushed, and ambitious reforms - "The Code of Civil Laws" - standardized law and destroyed many hangovers of feudalism, especially present in southern Italy. But that was irrelevant - Italy was at peace with the monarchies, and Buonoparte was free to impose "order and freedom", a stabilized version of the early New Roman Republic. The tide of Revolution, of the excitement of the masses has reached its highest point... and begun to subside. Very fast.
When Sikorsky was strong in Poland in the wake of his victories over the invaders, he introduced many radical measures - he confiscated property left and right, he raised taxes, he conscripted, he took all priveleges from the clergy. But now, the measures undertaken to prevent a counter-revolution proved too radical for the time, whilst earlier the people would have been surprised for the mildness of it all. The amnesty was essentially cancelled, those leaders who combatted the People's Republic in its early days were, together with a few newer troublemakers, imprisoned for counterrevolutionary activity. Some of them were executted soon after. Those half-hearted measures were such to avoid reverting to "tyranny worthy of a king" as Sikorsky put it - but had he taken harsh measures he would have probably defeated the counter-revolution; with what he did, he merely created a few martyrs and drew unnecessary attention to the counter-revolutionary cause. In the powerless Zgromadzenie Ludowe, "moderation" spred - the true revolutionaries were already scared into submission by Sikorsky's seeming allpowerfullness, and none of them dared act to save the Republic.
June 18th 1732. General Golitsyn is dead, his army is in shambles, and Sikorsky stands triumphant on the field of Zhodino. The great conscript army, supported by the Republican Guard and by the light cavalry raiders, has destroyed its enemies, has wrested the initiative from them. However, Poland still has to fight a three-front war - Sweden in the west and the north (for the Swedes, alas, rule the Baltic Sea) and Russia in the east. Luckily, the Turks are too busy fighting Moroccan and Egyptian rebels to attack as well, but Sikorsky really doubts they can do anything.
So? What will he do? To ensure the safety of the Republic, the Swedes needed to be brought to the negotiating table. To do that, a significant military victory in Germany was needed, perhaps even several victories. But to allow that... The Eastern theatre-of-actions should be closed first. Luckily, Russia was the weakest link in Sweden's anti-Polish coalition - revolt-struck and ruled by an unpopular and weak-willed Tsar, Mikhail II, or rather by Berdanov, the fat old boyar chief minister who pulled all the strings behind the Russian throne. Already in 1731, aware of the recent defeats, the peasants and cossacks used the opportunity to rise up. Sikorsky has an idea...
In cooperation with the local cossack Hetman, Stepan Bulba, Polish forces in late 1732 press into Podolia. What little resistance there is, is crushed. A Swedish force tries to threaten Thorn from East Prussia, but is then faced by General Wladislaw Shmigly and his Armia Krajowa and forced to retreat in shame after several skirmishes proved Polish preparidness. In Ukraine, Polish forces stop only at Kiev; the city is besieged and a peace treaty is offered to Berdanov - secretly, ofcourse. With an even more secret protocol attached...
Russia is to withdraw from the war with Poland, to withdraw all support from anti-republican groups, to recognize the People's Republic. Russia is to cede Podolia and all other territories west of Dnieper, though as a sweetener it is allowed to keep Kiev. What does Poland do? Poland withdraws support from all rebels in Russia. Poland gives Russia monetary support and a small expeditionary corps. And within two months after the defeat of the rebels, Russia is to... declare war on Sweden. In exchange, it will get Estonia, Livonia and West Karelia. And maybe Finland.
Berdanov shakes his head. He would agree to the peace, but a war with Sweden? At least he should get logistical assisstance and two more months. Sikorsky promises to help him with supplies, and one more month.
Berdanov is hesitating, and less then a week later a (Polish-incited, probably) rebellion in Moscow takes place, it is only barely put down. Another Polish army threatens Smolensk... Berdanov agrees. Sikorsky doesn't completely trust him ofcourse, and leaves a few divisions at Minsk, under General Mieszko, to guard the region.
By the time they agree, 1733 is already on. It is a year of turmoil, and not just here in Poland. Far, far away, across the Atlantic Ocean, there are numerous revolts against the unstable Spanish rule, revolts that are eventually put down by local forces... just barely. Back in Spain, Phillip VI died and the Conservatives were on the retreat, their new leader - Phillip "VII", though not crowned formally yet - is very desperate whilst another Spanish Habsburg decides that this place is doomed and flees... somewhere. In England, things aren't better - the Scotts are on a rampage in Ireland and Wales, England itself (and most of Wales - the Scottish filibusters failed to capture much of it, only some coastal areas) is torn apart between Parliamentarists and Royalists, and the former are winning this time, led by the enigmatic Robert Blake. And in France... Louis XV continues to wage a desperate war against the Orleanists (OOC: who represent "parliamentary monarchy" and were forced by d'Arles into an uneasy coalition with the Republicans) and Republicans, but is being very uncooperative, i.e. doesn't ask his sworn enemies to save him now. In Italy, Paolo Buonoparte organizes a revolution that was declared by Louis XV to be the "worst kind of sacrilige" - he declares the Roman Republic and leads an angry mob to Vatican, forcing the Pope to flee first for Florence and then for Lisbon. The Roman Republic spreads like a disease, and the short Corsican lawyer suddenly turns out to be a very capable commander - though he had not much of a military education, he seemed to have some sort of an instinctive grasp on tactics and strategy, not to mention politics where he manages to repeat Sikorsky's Polish feat by mobilizing the population in practically all provinces he came across, destroying all princely Italian armies with great masses of peasants and citizens driven to fanaticism (OOC: basically, he's doing a form of what Fouche did in 1809 when he beat back a British invasion force with a swiftly-assembled "army" of conscripts). On April 3rd, when the Roman Revolution just begun, he holds Rome; by April 11th, the Corsican Lawyer holds all of Latium (a.k.a. western half of the Papal States); by the end of April, he is the undisputed ruler (sure, there are some national assemblies there, but that's just for the looks) of not just the former Papal States but also Tuscany and parts of Naples. Rebellions in his native Corsica and Sardinia follow soon after. Neapolitan army is routed at Caserta; San Marino surrendered without a fight, as did Lucca; Venice is paralyzed; by the end of the year, Roman Republic holds nearly a half of Italy, slightly slowing down near Milan and Venetian Padua... Denmark is filled with disorder as well, with a revolutionary government rising to power by the end of the year and pushing rather too far, not to mention being too close to Sweden.
And in Germany, as news of Sikorsky's peace with Russia and succesful capture of Elbing and Konigsberg spread, a most unpleasant situation appears, with numerous rebellions against Swedish rule. And not just some pathetic princes this time - nein, now the citizens are rebelling in the streets. At least this does have some beneficient results for Charles X - the princes fear the revolution much more then they fear Sweden, and so they, with the exception of Adolph the Mad of Darmstadt, side with the Vasa. This comes in handy in early 1734, when, having finished mopping up Courland and East Prussia, and having taken Riga, the main Polish army, led by Sikorsky personally, invaded Silesia. Meanwhile, Russia finally entered the war - in spite of some turmoil and the Swedes being not entirely surprised, the Russians managed, together with another Polish army, to overrun much of Livonia and Estonia, and Swedes, led by General Lindgren, only barely held back the Russian attack at Viborg. Problematically, ofcourse, the Russian army hardly has high morale, and still is recovering from the defeats of the war with their new allies, but they did open two new theatres, effectively, and closed one of the Swedish ones. Thus now Sikorsky needs to worry only about the German operational theatre, whilst Charles X had to fight on two, three, even four fronts. And there was no telling how events in Italy and France would come out....
It seemed as if a decisive battle would come soon, any moment now, but 1734 passed by without any such decisive, final climax.
The feeble Silesian armies were easily crushed at Waldenburg by Sikorsky; the Swedes avoided combat. Charles X was desperately strenghthening his positions and reorganizing his army, whilst Siegbahn played land for time. Another Swedish army, a rather small group actually, in cooperation with local princes was fighting the German rebellions, which were especially widespread in the northwest and the south. Talinn was the only Swedish city in Estonia that continued to resist, whilst the war in Karelia stalemated. Good news came from the sea, ofcourse, as the Swedish-Dutch fleet decimated the Polish one at Memel - but that hardly was enough.
1735 came. England and Wales were declared an United Republic, which however was clearly opposed to the Scottish Republic to the north. In France, Louis XV begun to gain the upper hand again after the Orleanists and Republicans begun fighting each other as well, after D'Arles died in the Battle at Rennes. In Spain, chaos reigned supreme, albeit in name at least the Liberals and Carlos III have triumphed. In Italy, Buonoparte's Roman Republic was by then undisputed, especially after Buonoparte succesfully got Charles X AND Louis XV to recognize the new republic - after all, neither of them were in shape to fight it. The new republic was consolidating and solidifying, albeit regretfully the attempts to take Venetian Dalmatia failed - the Turks beat the Romans to it, and to most other Venetian oversea possessions. Ah well. In a court coup, Berdanov died, and the new chief minister (and de facto ruler) was Ivan Chirikov, who hinted to Charles that he did not at all plan to oblige by the humiliating Treaty of Smolensk. Ofcourse, no blatant betrayal was being suggested, but Russia was open to peace proposals.
Charles X considered all this well, and decided that enough was enough. The troops, the Germans, everybody was restless and anxious. Well then, he will not disappoint! He will gain a position of strenght on the battlefield and use it to negotiate with Russia - and the German rebels.
There was a problem, though. Whilst Charles assembled his great army, Sikorsky already took Berlin and also managed to force Siegbahn to give battle... and won, ofcourse. Wishing to destroy the threat to his flank, Sikorsky marched out for Pommerania, for Rostock to be more precise. Swedish-German-Dutch army of Charles only barely achieved something of a numerical superiority over Sikorsky's force, whilst in quality there was no doubt that the Polish army was the best. To the south of Rostock, the two armies met to decide the fates of Europe.
The Battle at Rostock. One of the greatest battles in the history of humanity, or so many will call it. But some would also call it "decisive". It was hardly that. The Swedish army was, ofcourse, considered by all contemporaries to be the best army of Europe. But in being best, it lagged behind as far as innovation went. Gustavus Adolphus, who invented flexible formations, combined armies and linear tactics, who was the architect of the strenght of Swedish armies, was dead. His system slowly became obsolete, albeit some still did their best to reform it and to bring it up to date. But by then, a new system was needed, with a new visionary. That visionary was Sikorsky, and he won.
The Swedish forces quickly tried to seize initiative and to strike on the Polish left flank. Sikorsky pretended to strengthen said flank, but actually prepared troops in his center to outflank the Swedish flankers. Said flankers, led by Siegbahn, were not caught completely by surprise and at some point nearly broke the Polish flankers with a secondary flank attack, but by then the main portion of Sikorsky's center, held by most Swedish commanders to be "some peasants with muskets", and his right flank simply crushed the rest of the Swedish army - to be fair, this time the German troops held strong, but were eventually broken.
Sikorsky was triumphant, whilst Charles fled for Mecklenburg. Or was he? Germany was ripe for taking... or was it? Polish supplies just weren't prepared for the effort needed to overrun Germany, whilst the waves of rebellion in Germany were beginning to peter out. Sure, Sikorsky still could capture much of Germany... but soon after, Charles managed to give the majority of German rebels a convenient fig leaf out of the war. The Ausgleich which Charles wanted to proclaim as victor at Rostock he now declared, defeated, from Mecklenburg, but something of the needed effect was achieved. Germans were way too civilized, too loyal, too phlegmatic to become a nation of revolutionaries. Which was why peasants and burghers, apart from some particularily fanatical northwesterners preffered the stable, good Vasa rule over a Republic, a concept that was foreign to Germany.
The Ausgleich was not really a work of genius (though Chancellor Tingsten definitely was if not a genius then at least an outstanding statesman), but it did the job. Simply enough, German Confederation was abolished and replaced by a Kingdom of Germany, consisting of all of Germany, including Kingdom of Bohemia, save for Swedish Pommerania. Said Kingdom was in personal union with Sweden, ofcourse. Said Kingdom was a fairly loose confederation, with the surviving princes having a large amount of autonomy, and had a bicamerial Konigstag (with the princes being, naturally, much more powerful then city and province representatives). Eventually, this system of personal union transformed into the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Germany, or Sweden-Germany, or just the UK (or UKSG).
This was an immense diplomatic and political victory, but it scarcely changed the facts: what little eagerness Chirikov might still have had for peace on equal terms after Sweden's defeat at Rostock was destroyed by the humiliating annihilation of a Swedish army at Magedburg, followed up by a new republican coup in Brunswick (remember - the northwestern Germans were hardly eager to surrender even after the Ausgleich). No, now Sweden would need to make concessions. Charles hesitated, hesistated... then news came from Viborg. A great Russian fleet was assembled nearby. The Swedish ships were too far to intercept it before Russians could outflank the fortress...
Distressed, Charles thought things over and... gave Chirikov a certain generous offer, an offer that would seem fairly controversial if we a) forget Charles' situation and b) forget that he, after all, was a half-German, and held Germany to be worth much more then some silly three provinces promised to Russia...
Estonia, Livonia and Courland, where Swedish were only beginning to counterattack, were promised to Russia. Russia would renounce all claims on Swedish parts of Karelia. Sweden would recognize all of Greater Lithuania (OOC: meaning all Lithuanian lands as of 1568, which is... to put it simply a lot of land) as Russian territory if they capture it. Russia is to re-enter the war with Poland within one month...
It, perhaps, didn't seem wise for Chirikov to betray Poland and ally with a defeated foe. But Chirikov knew something else. In Poland itself, Sikorsky dismissed the counterrevolution as a "phantom" and in spite of the advice of his old friend Wladimir Krajowski he did not strenghthen surveillance over the forgiven monarchists. But the Phantom of Reaction was raising its head again whilst Sikorsky was away, and to say the truth many of the more moderate republicans begun to despise their powerful master. And the war-weariness was beginning to fill Poland once more, as economy begun to shake... Chirikov, thus, knew that for all of Sikorsky's military victories, he was beginning to lose the battle that mattered - the battle for the hearts of his people. The peasants were still fairly conservative, and albeit Sikorsky's enigmatic personality drew many to support him, the price for this support was staggering, for the "levee en masse" took an entire generation out to the battlefields of Russia and Germany. Chirikov's spies gave him correct information - indeed, all it would take is just one defeat.
It is hard to say if Sikorsky was completely ignorant of this. But by the time he, in early 1736, did order a tightening of security, it really was too late. If only because the Russian front was re-opened, and Poles were besieged in Riga. Minsk was being threatened. The war in Ukraine went better for the Poles, though - there, the cossacks remained on their side, despite all. But in the west, Sikorsky was forced to retreat - "the German revolution was betrayed from within - and we must save Poland from a betrayal from without". Germany's was not the only defeated revolution - in France, Louis XV ("the Iron-Willed" was a worthy epithet for him indeed) was indeed too strong a ruler to give up easily; in fact, he by then had forced Duc d'Orleans to renounce all claims to the throne at the point of his sword (sources disagree if this was figuratively, as Louis XV was, though strong-willed, perhaps a little too predisposed for dramatic gestures...) and crushed Republicans in most of France; they only held out in the northeast by the beginning of 1736, the last year of the French Civil War. Spain... was Spain, the Portuguese even used the occasion to conquer Galicia (the Spanish one, naturally). Buonoparte was still all-powerful in Italy - an immensely ill-planned counterrevolutionary rising in Sicily was crushed, and ambitious reforms - "The Code of Civil Laws" - standardized law and destroyed many hangovers of feudalism, especially present in southern Italy. But that was irrelevant - Italy was at peace with the monarchies, and Buonoparte was free to impose "order and freedom", a stabilized version of the early New Roman Republic. The tide of Revolution, of the excitement of the masses has reached its highest point... and begun to subside. Very fast.
When Sikorsky was strong in Poland in the wake of his victories over the invaders, he introduced many radical measures - he confiscated property left and right, he raised taxes, he conscripted, he took all priveleges from the clergy. But now, the measures undertaken to prevent a counter-revolution proved too radical for the time, whilst earlier the people would have been surprised for the mildness of it all. The amnesty was essentially cancelled, those leaders who combatted the People's Republic in its early days were, together with a few newer troublemakers, imprisoned for counterrevolutionary activity. Some of them were executted soon after. Those half-hearted measures were such to avoid reverting to "tyranny worthy of a king" as Sikorsky put it - but had he taken harsh measures he would have probably defeated the counter-revolution; with what he did, he merely created a few martyrs and drew unnecessary attention to the counter-revolutionary cause. In the powerless Zgromadzenie Ludowe, "moderation" spred - the true revolutionaries were already scared into submission by Sikorsky's seeming allpowerfullness, and none of them dared act to save the Republic.
Though I doubt NK's Mohenjo-daro would invade Persia and vassalize it.
