Ridiculous as it sounded, the most anti-Russian people in the entire Austrian Empire at this moment were the Galicians in the north and the Croatians in the south—and they were all supposedly Slavs.
There was no need to mention Poland and Croatia, which had long been the rebels among the Slavs due to religious issues. At this time, the Rusyns (Ukrainians) in fact also bore a deep-seated hatred for the Russians.
Historically, the Polish lords had wanted to turn the Rusyns into Poles. After defeating Poland, Russia had likewise wanted to turn the Rusyns into Russians, and its methods were every bit as crude—neither was any better than the other.
The most absurd proof was that after occupying Galicia, the Austrian Empire imposed what it believed to be a stringent censorship system on books and newspapers, only for Rusyn culture to revive instead.
The Rusyns under Russian rule even frequently crossed the border into Austria to publish books in order to preserve their culture, then smuggled them back in the other direction to export their culture to Russia.
Franz's first step in Moldavia was to announce the abolition of slavery. Though Grigore Alexandru Ghica was an enlightened ruler in Moldavian history, even he had not dared to rashly lay hands on a long-standing entrenched ill.
On one hand, it could easily provoke a backlash. On the other, Grigore had only recently ascended the throne and had yet to gain a firm foothold.
In fact, he abolished slavery in 1853, then rode Russia's favorable wind in 1859 to abolish serfdom as well.
But this time, Grigore had no such chance.
Backlash? Insufficient strength? Franz had no such concerns. He was practically worried that no one would stand against him.
The slaves who were freed and granted land would become diehard loyalists