User:TheKnightOfOyashiro/Russia Rising

Russia Rising is a timeline created by YuriKaslov and Tywin, focusing on an alternative Europe wherein the First World War did not develop beyond Eastern Europe.

Events
Germany succeeded in largely keeping France isolated, diplomatically. By driving a spike between them and most of their neighbors, both by renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty between German and Russia in 1890 and by lucrative deals with the British, no Franco-Russian treaties came to pass and thus, despite chafing relations, the system of alliances which would have caused the First World War were never brought into play. Instead, the war which replaced the First World War became known as the Serbian War.

Serbian War
The Serbian War began following the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was visiting Sarajevo. After sending a stringent ultimatum to the Serbs, who had been implicated in the assassination, the war broke out in earnest. Serbia appealed to Russia, and Austria to Germany, and thus the Serbian War broke out.

The Russians, though saturated with excess manpower, couldn't match the combined might of Austria and Germany -- although they made some initial gains, especially in Galicia and East Prussia, they were quickly repulsed and driven out. German usage of modern technology -- especially the machinegun and poison gas -- ensured that the Russians were perpetually on the retreat.

After just two years of fighting, the heaviest of which took place in 1914, Russia was forced into a treaty between internal dissent at their army's utter defeat and the German forces which had driven almost all the way to Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The stipulations of the treaty were incredibly harsh, angled at making Russia no longer a threat to German and Austrian interests in the Balkans and elsewhere. Chief among them were the following:


 * The cessation of most non-Russian lands west of Moscow.
 * The Baltic substates were unified into a single state known as the Baltic Federation, which would be under German direction.
 * Crimea and large parts of the Caucasus region were merged into Ukraine, which became a client to Austria.
 * Some lands were ceded from Poland to Germany, although Congress Poland was released largely intact
 * Russia was forced to bear responsibility for the war.
 * Russia was required to pay some hefty sums as reparations to the victorious powers.
 * Serbia was essentially made a client state of Austria.