Chapter 3:

Action

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Justas Paleckis speaks before the delegates of the International

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Steponas Kairys, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lithuania (1936-)​

April sees the conclusion of one conflict and the beginning of another. At the beginning of the year, the death of King George V and increasingly common skirmishes on the Indian-Afghani border led to the monarch of Afghanistan rallying his nation to war in order to try to repeat the success of 1926 and gnaw away even more territory from the Dominion of Delhi. However, Afghanistan must have forgotten that their success only came as the result of the Indian Civil War which took place as the aftermath of the British Revolution during that time, and eleven years later, they were facing an organized, rearmed and strengthened opponent. The result of the war was thus fairly obvious.Somewhat more to the north, a series of border conflicts and incursions led to the warlord Ma family in northwestern China lose their cool and declare war against the Mad Baron's, Roman Ungern von Sternberg's, fief in Mongolia. With Russia looking inward due to the instability after Kerensky's assassination, the reactionary Baltic German warlord is able to expand his realm unabated, for now. In fact, the millenarian stronghold in Shaanxi, the Shangqing Tiangguo, even took this as an opportunity to strike the Ma family in the back and claim the city of Lanzhou.Somewhat closer to home, two major geopolitical events take place in May of the year. Sensing weakness in the Ottoman Empire and its continued strangle hold over the Middle East, Egypt invites representatives from other Arab countries such as the Hashemites in Mecca, Yemen, Oman and Tripolitania, as well as from the Arabs living under various colonial powers, to Cairo in what is dubbed as the Arab Congress. Though officially merely a cultural event, celebrating renewed Arab traditions and cultural life in the post-Weltkrieg era, tensions are in the air, and these tensions are directed towards the Ottomans. As instability continues to reign the Middle East, the possibility of an outright war breaking out between the vestigial empire and a coalition of Arab states draws closer.Meanwhile, in Paris, delegates from Syndicalist parties across the entire planet gather in the First Congress of the Third International, organized by the Commune of France and the Union of Britain, the two premier powers in the International. During the following weeks, the Syndicalist representatives will decide on the policy line of the Third International for years to come.The chairman of the Comite de Salut Public, Sebastien Faure, opens the Congress with a speech calling for the use of any possible action to overthrow the international bourgeoisie - especially that of the Germans, whose influence continues to reign over millions of proletarians across the planet. Immediately when the press reported on the resolution of the Congress, disgust and uproar broke out among the German population.The Lithuanian syndicalist movement, small but vocal, was represented by the journalist and left-wing ideologist Justas Paleckis, who had been residing in exile in Denmark at the time of the Congress. Before the Syndicalists of the rest of the planet, Paleckis briefly summed up the situation in the Kingdom of Lithuania, the struggles of the Lithuanian worker and called for the International to cooperate with the left-leaning Russians and work for an overthrow of the puppet regimes in the eastern Mitteleuropa.What Paleckis spoke of might not be as far from reality as we might want it to be.Having safely entrenched themselves in power, the Russian popular front under Nikolai Bukharin continues to reform the Russian nation towards revolutionary Syndicalist lines. With workers openly protesting in the streets and calling for an end to the "Kerenskite bourgeoisie regime", the political capital is there to pressure the Duma into following the will of the socialists. The Senate has been forced to acquit and elect Nikolai Bukharin as the new President of the Russian Republic, while Irakliy Tseretliy of the Mensheviks has assumed his former position of Prime Minister. The Soviets and village communes have been legalized and openly recognized as legitimate forms of political expression, while the rest of the world, and especially the Mitteleuropa, watch with worry over a possible second front against the Syndicalists.Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Liberal government of Mackenzie King in Canada is going through troubles of its own. Guided by the new revanchist monarch, Edward VIII, the Parliament begins draft a bill of national mobilization, Bill C-7, to prepare the remnant of the British Empire for a final struggle with the Syndicalists in the British Isles - however, several concerns over proposed conscription laws, protests from the French-Canadian parliamentarians, and partisan struggles have led to the bill being killed in the House of Lords.Having lost the faith of both the King and the Parliament, the government of Mackenzie King opted to resign and a snap election was called, which saw the legislature sharply lurch to the right. The Liberals have ended up in the minority and the Conservatives, in a coalition with the right-wing Social Credit Party, espousing a radical new economic policy of a "National Dividend", have emerged victorious. King Edward VIII has congratulated the leader of the Conservatives, R.B. Bennett, and given him the right to form a new cabinet.Significant political changes take place in our German neighbour and suzerain, too. The increasing activity of the suffragist movement due to the developing Black Monday recession has led to the government of Franz von Papen to make a few concessions, despite protests from the conservatives in the Reichstag, and allow women citizens to vote in all local assembly elections.The Kingdom of Lithuania can only wave on to its western neighbour from their plateau, as the right of women vote had been enshrined in the Constitution of 1920, sixteen years before Germany finally took steps in the right direction. Despite this, however, female electoral turnout in Lithuania has always been considerably lower than male electoral turnout due to the highly conservative countryside.1936 seems to be a year of political realignments. The years of military authoritarianism in the French republican remnant in North Africa seem to be over, as in a surprising act, the Lion of Verdun, Philippe Petain, has made the decision to dismiss his Prime Minister, Alphonse Juin, and replace him with the more liberal Paul Reynaud, while also declaring the restoration of the suspended Constitution, much like Lithuania had a few months prior.Of course, sometimes these realignments can be the last thing which we might want to see. Facing public pressure due to the declining economy after Black Monday, an agricultural crisis in the countryside due to a sharp fall of demand for local produce, and the growth of the local Syndicalist movement, King Vasily I of Ukraine has opted to dismiss the long time Prime Minister of the country, Pavlo Skoropadsky, and replace him with the leader of the Ukrainian syndicalists, Nikita Khrushchev, immediately implementing sweeping economic reforms and enabling Syndicalist movements in the rest of the Mitteleuropa, while remaining under Germany's wing.All while Germany seems to be completely unaware of what's taking place, more interested in trying to bite Japan by supporting Korean rebels rather than intervening in Russia or Ukraine.A few days after Khrushchev's assumption of power in July, the Lithuanian working classes organize several protests in support of Ukraine's path towards Syndicalism and call for similar reforms to be implemented in the Kingdom as well. Fearing an even worse rebellion breaking out, the Voldemaras government opts to not make military action against the protesters and they eventually disperse.The situation in Lithuania calms down a few days later once news break out about the release of a new hit book. The "History of Lithuania", edited by the young historian Adolfas Šapoka, is considered to be the cornerstone work of the Lithuanian nationalist movement, their 'bible', glorifying the ancient Lithuanian grand dukes and kings and portraying the conflict with the Teutonic Order as a heroic struggle against a Germanic threat.Just a time for the public anger to pick up yet again once the Lithuanian press publicizes news about an another major German settlement campaign in Samogitia, drawing the ire of the same nationalists who had just been calmed down by the release of the book.At least one place on this entire planet sees the Syndicalists face a strong opponent. The ongoing instability in the United States of America, stretching for the past eleven years, ever since the beginning of the Great Depression, has led to the government of Herbert Hoover to grab onto the last straw and cancel the elections of 1936 entirely, instead inviting the military under Douglas MacArthur to assume power and bring stability to the state. For now, MacArthur's authoritarian regime seems to have control of the situation, organizing crackdowns on the Combined Syndicates and the America First Party, but who knows how the situation will develop in the future.Meanwhile, an another nation does hold elections during this time - the Union of Britain, whose annual Trade Union Congress sees a victory for the radical, centralist Maximist faction, espousing the recent ideology of Totalism and under the wing for former Minister of Economy Oswald Mosley, who has now been elected the new Chairman of the TUC.And this is the background for the election to the Lithuanian Seimas in 1936, the first free election to the legislature in the last eight years, the campaign starting on October of 1936.Immediately, an issue arose - the election may be already planned and the campaign already taking place, but what should be done about the parties of the radical left? Though the Morning Star movement and their magazine remain banned and their leaders facing a crackdown, it is an open secret that parties such as the Lithuanian Labour Federation are at least influenced by the radical Syndicalist movement, if not outright serve as their legal arm. The tide of Syndicalism waving across Europe, naturally, made the incumbent Voldemaras government highly wary about the possibility of something similar taking place here, even if it meant violating the same Constitution which he had just reestablished.However, this is where the moderate wing of the National Conservative Party, under Leonas Bistras, made an argument which convinced the unsure dictator for the other direction. At the end of the day, the radical socialists and the more mainstream Social Democratic Party compete for the same urban, labourer, minority and non-religious peasant voter base - if the LSDP targets that demographic alone, they are sure to overwhelm the National Conservatives and assume power after the election, while the radical socialists would be able to afflict a spoiler effect and thus pave the way for a Conservative victory.However, the National Conservatives underestimated two things - the amount of hatred and dissatisfaction which the Lithuanian voters feel towards the incumbent government, and the fact that the Social Democrats knew very well about the possibility of a spoiler effect dooming them in the election itself. Orchestrated by the leader of the LSDP, Steponas Kairys, the Social Democrats and the Labour Federation formed an electoral pact and swept the urban districts and eventually the entire lower house of the Seimas.With 69 of the 150 seats in the newly formed parliament held by the LSDP, it was obvious that the gambit was successful, and the hopes of the National Conservatives left for naught. From there, the choice of a coalition partner was obvious - styling themselves after the popular fronts of Ukraine and Russia, the LSDP and Kairys at the forefront presented their proposal for a few cabinet for the Kingdom, with the veteran politician as the new Prime Minister and several seats in the cabinet given to the radical left. The possibility of moderating and joining forces with their longtime partners, the liberal "Santara" party, was swept across the window during the high of victory.Only one last challenge stands in Steponas Kairys's way. King Mindaugas III.In accordance to the Constitution of 1920, any new cabinet of ministers in the Kingdom of Lithuania needs to be approved by the King of Lithuania to operate - for the first time in Lithuanian history, the King has withdrawn this assent, declaring that he will not work with a political party which threatens the fabric of the state as a whole, immediately sending the Kingdom careening towards a political and constitutional crisis.Steponas Kairys, however, declined offers to moderate and remove the Labour Federation from the cabinet to instead run a minority government with the backing of independents, minority representatives and Santara. In response to Mindaugas III's denial of royal assent, the left-leaning Seimas released an act declaring that assent to an incumbent government can be granted either by the King or by a majority vote in the parliament, which the Seimas promptly granted - causing unforseen uproar among Lithuanian society and especially the conservatives.But for now, the Popular Front stands.