Patience

After the Great Purge ended, the Tsarist Government devoted more of its energy to the negotiations, and the Prusso-Russian negotiations soon entered a critical stage.

The focus of the dispute between the two sides centered on territorial cessions and reparations. Compared with reparations, territorial cessions were actually easier to resolve.

The most serious Prusso-Russian dispute concerned East and West Prussia, the old stronghold of the Junker Nobility. The Berlin Government did not dare let go lightly.

But those regions were now in Russian hands. As the defeated nation, Prussia simply lacked the ability to reclaim them.

There was a kind of "territorial cession" called an established fact. This issue could be set aside for now; given enough time, everyone would grow accustomed to it.

No matter how dissatisfied the Junker Nobility might be, they could not change the fact that the Kingdom of Prussia was too weak to recover those regions.

The Berlin Government was still fighting for them now. On one hand, it held out hopes for the Great Powers, counting on international intervention to force the Russians into concessions; on the other, it was putting on a political show.

Compared with territorial disputes, reparations were the true headache. Both Prussia and Russia were short of money, and neither side was willing to yield.

The Tsarist Government wanted to demand as much in war reparations as possible to cover its fiscal deficit; the Berlin Government thought precisely the opposite. Its finances were already in dire straits, and it simply could not afford enormous reparations.

The real conflict had emerged, and it was the irreconcilable kind. No matter how great the Russians' advantage was, the Berlin Government had only two words—no money.

The Berlin Government truly had no money, not the fake kind of poverty. No matter how one squeezed,