Chapter Summaries

Grand Duke Mikhail pressed his attack on Kazan while Grand Duke Nicholas’s forces failed to break General Brusilov’s defenses. Seeing the Russian civil war as an opportunity, Abdul Hamid II sent an Ottoman army into the southern Caucasus, but the news from the battlefield left the Ottoman leadership stunned.

• General Brusilov reported that his troops were surrounded and had shifted to defensive operations, while remaining confident they could hold out.
• Grand Duke Mikhail ordered reinforcements into the attack on Kazan and demanded the city be taken within three days.
• The forces defending Kazan suffered mounting losses and were driven back by Grand Duke Mikhail’s troops.
• Grand Duke Nicholas committed troops from several military districts and the Guards against General Brusilov, but they made no progress against his defenses.
• Abdul Hamid II ordered Kör Ahmed Pasha to lead 100,000 men into the southern Caucasus and mobilized another 500,000 for the war.
• News from the battlefield shocked the Ottoman leadership and left Abdul Hamid II feeling publicly humiliated.

The Ottoman Empire’s invasion of the southern Caucasus was repelled by Russian forces, while Germany supported the Ottomans and backed rebellions in Poland and the Baltic coast to weaken the Tsarist Russian Empire. Grand Duke Mikhail was reassured that the Ottoman threat was limited and remained focused on reclaiming the throne.

• Kör Ahmed Pasha led a hundred thousand Ottoman troops into the southern Caucasus, where Mikhail Belyayev’s force and later Russian reinforcements stopped their advance and drove them back.
• Abdul Hamid II ordered more troops assembled, requested German weapons and instructors, and continued the failing campaign to protect his prestige.
• The German Empire supported the Ottoman war effort and supplied Polish and Baltic resistance forces to stir rebellions against Tsarist Russian rule.
• Grand Duke Mikhail learned that the Ottoman offensive had been repelled and concluded the Ottomans posed little immediate danger.

Grand Duke Mikhail’s forces pressed their advantage in Kazan as he ordered troops toward Moscow, but reports warned that the Ottomans, Germany-backed resistance groups, and Japan were exploiting the civil war. He accelerated preparations for an Ottoman invasion and resolved to focus on winning the civil war before addressing threats elsewhere.

• Major General Viktor Sakharov reported that Mikhail’s troops were breaking enemy lines in Kazan and receiving increasing numbers of surrenders, and Mikhail ordered the 8th Cavalry Brigade and the 10th Brigade to advance toward Moscow and secure railway positions.
• Major General Vasily warned Mikhail that the Ottomans were mobilizing and buying German arms after General Belyayev repelled their attack in the southern Caucasus.
• Mikhail ordered mobilization accelerated and told Yakov to prepare the Black Sea Fleet for a possible attack on Istanbul, while noting that such an action could provoke wider consequences.
• Major General Vasily reported that Germany was supporting resistance in Poland and the Baltic region, where reduced imperial forces were struggling to contain unrest.
• Major General Vasily reported that Japan was increasing its presence in Korea and interfering in the Kingdom of Korea’s internal affairs, and Mikhail said he would address the Far East after winning the civil war.

With the Tsarist Russian Empire consumed by civil war, Itō Hirobumi’s government exploited its weakness to test Russia’s resolve in Korea. Speyer yielded to Japan’s military pressure, allowing Japanese influence to grow and Russian interests on the peninsula to suffer.

• Itō Hirobumi told senior officials that Russia’s civil war offered Japan a chance to avenge its lost influence in Liaodong and Korea.
• Nishi Tokujirō reported that the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets wanted Japan to take a firmer stance in Korea, while Saigō Tsugumichi warned that Japan still needed British support and a stronger navy.
• Itō Hirobumi proposed sending more troops to Korea and replacing some Korean officials to test Russia’s reaction, and the cabinet agreed.
• Japan used alleged threats to its nationals as a pretext to send a mixed brigade to Korea and dispatch warships to southern ports.
• Speyer yielded to Japan’s provocation because Russia was occupied with civil war, and Japan then intervened more deeply in Korean affairs and appointed officials friendly to Japan.

Mikhail focused on winning the civil war while the Battle of Kazan ended in the surrender of the Kazan and Orenburg forces. With Kazan under his control, the road to Moscow lay open.

• Mikhail set aside Japan’s provocations and planned to prepare for a future war with Japan after winning the civil war.
• As the Caucasus Military District captured more than half of Kazan, Generals Afanasiy Klyuchin and Vladimir Kosel said their forces could not keep fighting without reinforcements.
• Afanasiy Klyuchin and Vladimir Kosel asked Mikhail to let them surrender while retaining their positions, but Mikhail required all generals to leave their posts and made other soldiers pass an assessment to remain in the army.
• Afanasiy Klyuchin and Vladimir Kosel accepted Mikhail’s terms and surrendered the remaining Kazan forces on May 12.
• Mikhail gained control of all Kazan, opening the road to Moscow.

After defeating the forces at Kazan, Grand Duke Mikhail ordered his army to advance on Moscow while planning to use captured prisoners for military service and railway construction. At Ryazan, Grand Duke Nicholas’s attacks on General Brusilov’s defenses failed disastrously, leaving his commanders to consider abandoning the siege and returning to defend Moscow.

• Major General Viktor Sakharov reported that Mikhail’s forces had captured more than 120,000 enemy soldiers at Kazan, and Mikhail ordered the army to advance west toward Moscow.
• Yakov told Mikhail that General Brusilov’s troops were holding off the enemy siege with limited pressure on their defenses.
• Mikhail planned to recruit the strongest prisoners into his army and send the rest to build railways and roads after the civil war.
• Grand Duke Nicholas and General Nikolai Obruchev watched Russian troops suffer heavy losses attacking Brusilov’s defenses, where superior artillery and machine guns routed them.
• General Nikolai Obruchev urged Grand Duke Nicholas to lift the siege and return to reinforce Moscow against Mikhail’s advancing army.

Grand Duke Nicholas and General Nikolai Obruchev decided to make Moscow the decisive battleground and ordered their forces to withdraw there while delaying General Brusilov at Ryazan. Brusilov prepared to attack the next morning and march on Moscow to join Grand Duke Mikhail.

• General Nikolai Obruchev warned Grand Duke Nicholas that the weakened Mosk Military District could not hold Moscow against Mikhail's army.
• Grand Duke Nicholas resolved to fight Mikhail at Moscow, hoping to end the civil war before foreign enemies could exploit it.
• Grand Duke Nicholas ordered the Guards Army and Petersburg Military District troops to return to Moscow, while Generals Paul Shuvalov and Alexander Dobrorozhsky held Ryazan against Brusilov.
• On May 13, the Petersburg troops and Guards Army disengaged and moved toward Moscow as Shuvalov and Dobrorozhsky's forces shifted to defense.
• General Brusilov ordered his troops to rest and attack at dawn, aiming to defeat the enemy at Ryazan within three days and march on Moscow.

General Brusilov’s forces renewed their offensive at Ryazan while Grand Duke Nicholas prepared Moscow’s defenses by sending the Guards Army to Noginsk. The Guards Army attacked the arriving 7th Cavalry Brigade, leaving it to defend against a much larger force.

• On May 14, General Brusilov’s artillery battered the Russian defenses at Ryazan, inflicting heavy casualties and shifting the battlefield advantage toward Grand Duke Mikhail.
• Grand Duke Nicholas, General Nikolai Obruchev, and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich discussed the approaching rebels, and General Nikolai Obruchev proposed attacking their vanguard at Noginsk.
• Grand Duke Nicholas ordered General Alexei to lead the Guards Army to Noginsk, where it deployed with fewer than fifty thousand troops.
• On May 17, the Guards Army bombarded the arriving 7th Cavalry Brigade, and Brigadier General Andrei withdrew his troops beyond the artillery’s range and reported the attack.
• General Alexei ordered the Guards Army’s infantry and cavalry divisions to attack, and tens of thousands of troops advanced against the 7th Cavalry Brigade’s hastily built defenses.

The Guards Army besieged the Caucasus Military District's 7th Cavalry Brigade at Noginsk and attacked it with heavy artillery, cavalry, and infantry, while the brigade's modern firepower inflicted severe losses. After Yakov reported the siege to Grand Duke Mikhail in Nizhny Novgorod, Mikhail ordered the nearest unit to reinforce the brigade.

• The Guards Army bombarded the 7th Cavalry Brigade, whose artillery returned fire but could not match the enemy's firepower.
• The Guards Army's cavalry charged from two directions and suffered heavy losses from the brigade's mortars, machine guns, and light machine guns.
• General Alexei ordered the Guards Army to continue attacking despite the heavy casualties suffered by Major General Pavel's cavalry divisions.
• Yakov told Grand Duke Mikhail that the Guards Army had surrounded the 7th Cavalry Brigade at Noginsk.
• Grand Duke Mikhail ordered the nearest unit to hurry to Noginsk as reinforcements.

Mikhail ordered the 10th Cavalry Brigade to relieve the besieged 7th Cavalry Brigade and planned a coordinated assault on the Guards Army at Noginsk. Reinforcements and heavy artillery surrounded and battered the Guards Army, leaving it trapped and facing eventual annihilation.

• Mikhail ordered the 10th Cavalry Brigade to attack the Guards Army from the flank while the 7th Cavalry Brigade held its positions, and he planned a larger counteroffensive with arriving infantry and cavalry units.
• The 10th Cavalry Brigade reached the battlefield toward evening and attacked, forcing the Guards Army to divert troops and abandon its attempt to destroy the 7th Cavalry Brigade.
• After nightfall, General Alexei halted the Guards Army's attacks and ordered defensive lines built in Noginsk.
• On May 18, the 1st Infantry Division joined the counteroffensive alongside the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Cavalry Brigades, while artillery shelled the Guards Army's defenses.
• The 3rd Infantry Division arrived on May 19, and on May 20 seventy-two 152 mm heavy howitzers began bombarding Noginsk as Caucasus Military District cavalry cut off the Guards Army's retreat.

Mikhail’s forces crushed the Guards Army at Noginsk while Brusilov defeated the Huasha and Vilna Military Districts and advanced toward Moscow. With Moscow’s allies unwilling or unable to help, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich believed Nicholas’s side had already lost the civil war.

• Mikhail’s forces besieged the Guards Army at Noginsk, while reinforcements moved toward Moscow and the defenders there dared not intervene.
• General Alexei ordered the surrounded Guards Army to fight on despite its losses and the lack of reinforcements, but many soldiers surrendered.
• The Caucasus Military District captured Noginsk on May 23, killing Alexei and taking twenty thousand Guards Army troops prisoner.
• General Brusilov defeated the Huasha and Vilna Military Districts and two Moscow Military District divisions, then advanced rapidly toward Moscow.
• Nicholas urged his commanders to gather more troops, but General Nikolai Obruchev warned that the remaining forces and neutral districts were unlikely to help.
• Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich concluded that the outcome of the civil war was already decided against Nicholas.

With his forces depleted and Moscow surrounded, Grand Duke Nicholas refused to surrender and prepared for a final stand against Mikhail. As Mikhail’s artillery battered Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich secretly sent a trusted guard to negotiate his defection, leaving the city’s defenders’ loyalties uncertain.

• Grand Duke Nicholas insisted that his remaining elite troops could still defeat Mikhail at Moscow, while Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich questioned whether Mikhail had murdered Tsar Nicholas II.
• On May 29, Mikhail’s and General Brusilov’s forces closed in on Moscow ahead of the decisive battle.
• On May 31, Mikhail ordered a massive artillery bombardment that devastated Moscow and overwhelmed the defenders’ guns.
• Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich secretly sent his guard captain Ivan out of the city to contact Mikhail and discuss surrendering the Mosk Military District.

Mikhail offered Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich the post of minister of war in exchange for his help in taking Moscow and ending the civil war. Sergei accepted, ordering the Mosk Military District troops to cooperate with Mikhail.

• Ivan conveyed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich’s request to defect and remain commander of the Mosk Military District, but Mikhail rejected that condition.
• Mikhail said Moscow would become the empire’s capital and offered Sergei the post of minister of war instead.
• Mikhail explained to General Brusilov that military reforms would limit the minister of war’s power and give operational command to the General Staff.
• Ivan reported Mikhail’s offer to Sergei, who accepted and ordered the Mosk Military District troops to cooperate with Mikhail.

Grand Duke Nicholas’s forces collapsed as the Mosk Military District turned against them and troops surrendered across Moscow. Refusing to flee after his defeat, Nicholas sat on the tsar’s throne and shot himself, after which General Nikolai Obruchev ordered the remaining defenders to surrender.

• On June 1, the Caucasus Military District attacked Moscow while the Mosk Military District opened its defensive lines and turned its guns on the Petersburg Military District.
• Petersburg Military District troops surrendered in large numbers, and the rebels overwhelmed the remaining units loyal to Grand Duke Nicholas.
• General Nikolai Obruchev told Nicholas that Moscow’s defenses had collapsed and urged him to escape to Petersburg or go into exile.
• Nicholas refused to flee, sat on the tsar’s throne, and shot himself.
• General Nikolai Obruchev ordered the soldiers still resisting to lay down their weapons and surrender.

After winning the civil war, Grand Duke Mikhail took control of Moscow and prepared to become tsar while moving troops to secure the empire’s vulnerable northern and western regions. As news of his victory spread, his opponents in Petersburg began preparing to flee, while his supporters anticipated promotion.

• Grand Duke Nicholas committed suicide, General Nikolai Obruchev surrendered, and most troops in the Petersburg Military District laid down their arms.
• Grand Duke Mikhail entered Moscow, ordered the tsar’s throne replaced, and sent General Viktor Sakharov north with troops to protect Petersburg and contain the Finnish independence movement.
• General Brusilov recommended sending General Paul von Plehve west, and Mikhail ordered him to suppress resistance in Poland and along the Baltic coast and reorganize the Huasha and Vilna Military Districts.
• News of Mikhail’s victory spread across the empire, and officials who opposed him, including Sergei Witte, began preparing to flee while his supporters welcomed the outcome.

After Mikhail won the civil war, Russian ministers moved to secure their positions under his rule and arrested Sergei Witte, whose fortune was seized. On June 18, 1898, Mikhail was crowned tsar, leaving hostile powers to reconsider their plans against a Russia no longer consumed by civil war.

• Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Vyacheslav Plehve, and Lobanov-Rostovsky agreed to travel to Moscow and align themselves with Mikhail after his victory.
• Vyacheslav Plehve reported that Sergei Witte was selling his property to flee, and Konstantin Pobedonostsev urged his arrest.
• The Ministry of Internal Affairs' secret police arrested Sergei Witte on suspicion of treason and seized his family's property.
• Mikhail welcomed the news of Witte's arrest and prepared to ascend the throne despite the Ottoman Empire's invasion.
• On June 18, 1898, Vasily Bogoyavlensky presided over Mikhail's coronation, and Mikhail swore to lead the Tsarist Russian Empire to glory.
• The German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Japanese Empire, Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets, and Ottoman Empire reconsidered their plans after Russia's civil war ended.

After becoming tsar, Mikhail II began sweeping reforms, starting with moving the capital from Petersburg to Moscow and restructuring the imperial cabinet. He appointed Plehve as prime minister, while Pobedonostsev was left disappointed.

• Mikhail II summoned senior officials and declared that he would move the empire's capital from Petersburg to Moscow.
• Plehve proposed a gradual transition with both cities serving as capitals, but Mikhail II firmly rejected the suggestion.
• Mikhail II announced plans to create the posts of imperial prime minister and deputy prime minister while allowing ministers to report directly to him.
• Mikhail II appointed Plehve as imperial prime minister, and Plehve pledged to manage administrative affairs.
• Pobedonostsev showed disappointment because he had wanted the prime minister post.

Mikhail announced a reshaped imperial cabinet, placing trusted officials in key posts and creating a Ministry of Supervision to purge corruption. The chapter left Pobedonostsev tasked with cleaning up the bureaucracy while Stolypin was ordered to hunt Bolsheviks and support the purge.

• Mikhail appointed Rostovsky imperial finance minister and made Pobedonostsev deputy prime minister and minister of the newly created Ministry of Supervision.
• Pobedonostsev pledged to purge corrupt officials, whom Mikhail planned to punish by confiscating their property and sending them to forced labor.
• Mikhail appointed Stolypin imperial minister of internal affairs and ordered him to arrest Bolsheviks and assist the Ministry of Supervision.
• Mikhail appointed Muravyov foreign minister, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich army minister, and Admiral Pavel Tyrtov navy minister.
• Mikhail announced further cabinet appointments and created the ministries of Trade and Industry, Agriculture, and Health.

Mikhail II ordered a gradual campaign to root out corruption across the Tsarist Russian Empire, beginning with reforming the police and gathering evidence. He decided to put Sergei Witte on public trial and offered officials a chance to avoid punishment by confessing and returning most of their stolen funds.

• Mikhail II told Plehve, Pobedonostsev, and Stolypin that corruption had rotted the empire's officialdom and had to be rooted out.
• Stolypin proposed replacing corrupt police with former army officers and soldiers, and Mikhail approved the plan for after the war with the Ottoman Empire.
• Mikhail instructed the Ministry of Supervision to gather evidence and prepare carefully before launching a nationwide purge.
• Mikhail ordered Sergei Witte to face a public trial as a warning to other officials.
• Mikhail offered officials immunity for past offenses if they confessed to the Ministry of Supervision and returned eighty percent of their embezzled funds, while warning that future offenses would receive maximum punishment.

After Sergei Witte was executed for treason and corruption, Mikhail’s anti-corruption campaign pushed officials to surrender stolen funds while promising higher salaries. He then ordered his ministers to build a comprehensive industrial system and expand the empire’s transportation network, leaving them tasked with accelerating modernization.

• Sergei Witte was found guilty and hanged in Red Square, prompting officials across the empire to fear for their own safety.
• Pobedonostsev offered officials a chance to surrender most of their embezzled money, while Mikhail announced substantial salary increases and harsh penalties for those who concealed their crimes.
• Many officials turned themselves in, and Finance Minister Rostovsky welcomed the recovery of funds as imperial revenue rose.
• Mikhail summoned Plehve, Rostovsky, Duke Khilkov, Kokovtsov, and other ministers and ordered the government to establish a complete industrial system within ten years, with the imperial family and Ministry of Finance funding heavy industry.
• Mikhail also ordered greater investment in railways and roads to support economic growth and speed military mobilization and supply.