Chapter 992: Chapter 743: 1930
Australasia’s National Day celebrations have become increasingly subdued, seldom organizing significant parades unless there’s a major event.
After all, the country’s strength had already been established through previous wars, and with Australasia’s current standing, there was no need to bolster its prestige and status with such ceremonies.
As time entered 1930, there were still some points of interest in the government’s annual report.
First was the population, which Arthur regarded with great importance, having made a substantial leap to over 37.55 million people.
In the economic crisis, Australasia was unique in achieving significant population growth.
ful, Australasia has involuntarily found itself in opposition to them.
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Unless Arthur is willing to give up everything and content to be Britain’s subordinate, this major trend is unavoidable and signifies that relations between Britain and Australasia could never return to what they were.
As 1930 approached, a piece of news shook the whole world and affected the situation in Europe.
War had broken out again in Russia Nation.
Yes, after many years, Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia had reignited war.
Several years had passed since the last civil war, and both Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia had taken a breather.
However, the arrival of the economic crisis had brought significant changes to the situation in Russia Nation.
As Tsarist Russia had evolved from a capitalistic government into an autocracy, the economic crisis had a substantial impact on it.
But it was different for Soviet Russia. Historically, Soviet Russia was not severely impacted by economic crises due to the combination of political and economic factors.
In the entirety of 1929, Australasia’s annual steel production was close to 13 million tons, of which the annual steel production was 4.705 million tons, and the pig iron output was 8.277 million tons.
Such figures are already quite impressive, and when looking at the entire world, they could definitely be considered a steel production giant, a true industrial powerhouse.
Yet Soviet Russia, in just a few short years, had increased its steel production to 5 million tons, of which steel output had already surpassed 2 million tons, exceeding Tsarist Russia’s steel production of 4 million tons.
What level is a yearly steel output of 2 million tons for Soviet Russia? Compared to other major countries around the world, Soviet Russia’s steel production had already exceeded the Island Nation and Italy, ranking sixth in the world.
When compared like this, the advancement in the industrial sector of Soviet Russia was indeed quite astounding. More importantly, due to the large-scale expansion of industry, Soviet Russia had hardly any unemployment; people were fighting hard at their posts for the country’s future.
Moreover, Soviet industry was relatively scarce domestically, so there was no need to worry about market issues.
The steel and other industrial products they produced would be transported all over the country to be consumed in this great construction.
For these reasons, compared to Tsardom of Russia, Soviet Russia’s economy and industry were healthier, signifying a changing of the guard.
The war was started by the Soviet side.
For Nicholas II and Tsarist Russia, they certainly did not want to ignite another conflict and add fuel to their fragile economy.
But there were huge political differences between the two nations, and they had originally been one; conflict was thus inevitable.
The issue began with some Soviet political parties going into Tsarist Russian territory to attract rural populations to join them and secretly arranging for their transfer to Soviet Russia.
Soviet Russia, able to arrange work and provide food, quickly became an object of desire for a large number of the Russian rural populace.
After all, if they stayed in Tsarist Russia, the government would offer them no relief; they would have to fend for themselves.
However, Soviet Russia’s actions soon caught the attention of Tsarist Russia. The economic crisis had caused famine and chaos, leading to the deaths of millions of people.
Even after the loss to Soviet Russia, the population of Tsarist Russia was no longer over a hundred million, but approximately 87 million.
In contrast, the population of Soviet Russia was continuously growing; now approaching 30 million and still drawing people incessantly from the rest of Russia.
The constant drain on the population naturally hit a sore spot for Russian capitalists. After all, in the midst of the economic crisis, they relied on these common people. Without the continuous labor of the common people to create wealth and resources, where would the capitalists obtain sufficient supplies?
Keep in mind, once the people moved to Soviet Russia, they would become extremely hostile towards capitalism, in other words, they would become the enemy of capital.
This was something the Russian capitalists did not wish to see, and it naturally pushed the Russian Government to prevent Soviet Russia from attracting the people.
Having already experienced a civil war, the efforts to prevent such movement could not possibly be peaceful.
e, there was only a several-hundred-kilometer-long band of connecting territory.
This connecting band was at its narrowest just a few tens of kilometers wide and at its broadest not more than a hundred kilometers, and its shape was long and narrow, like the throat of Tsarist Russia.
If cut swiftly at its narrowest point, the Ukraine region would lose its connection with Tsarist Russia, becoming like an exclave hundreds of kilometers away.
This exposed Soviet Russia’s intentions: to quickly take over Ukraine to secure a very reliable port of access to the sea, and incidentally split Tsarist Russia in two, from north to south.
Of course, this was just the first strategic move revealed by Soviet Russia. If unification were possible, Soviet Russia’s ultimate goal was definitely to rebuild Russia.