Victoria 3 – Dev Diary #187 - State and Revolution

There is a question in the air - I've heard it asked time and time again. It is the burning question of our time: What is to be played?

Привет! Welcome all to the first dev diary for State and Revolution, the upcoming Immersion Pack all about Russia, states, and revolutions! Releasing October 22nd, alongside free Update 1.15, you can pick it up as part of Volume 3

• and you can already check the full list of included content on our Steam page. In the meantime, please join me, Mike, a designer who likes trains too much, as we go over what a state is, what a revolution is, and what a Russia is.

Ah! That's Russia. Cool, dev diary over, let's- wait, there's more??

Let's go over the historical background briefly. Russia in 1836 is a conservative empire, still shaken by the Napoleonic Wars. Moscow burned in defiance of Napoleon's occupation of the city just twenty-four years earlier- as far back from the present as 2002 is for us in 2026. The shocks of that war, the ideas spurred on by it, and the further surprise of the Decemberist revolt of 1825 all reinforced an arch-conservatism in the Russian court, a fear of any whiff of liberalism and a deep-seated commitment to a paternalistic vision of autocracy, of a Tsar that is Russia's head and its heart.

Tsar Nicholas I has gotten a bit of a glow-up. And hey, what's with two portraits below him?

This vision of Russia would be severely challenged over the course of the 19th century. The viability of the old order was challenged by military defeats in the 1850s and diplomatic and economic failures; the state had to change if it wanted to survive. Reactionary Nicholas I was succeeded by his son, Alexander II, a tsar who believed that Russia needed to reform in order to prosper. Revolutionary sentiment was already beginning to brew, however, and despite the passage of some reforms, notably including finally emancipating the serfs of Russia, and victories abroad such as the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War, he was eventually assassinated by revolutionaries in 1881. That caused his son and successor, Alexander III, to reaffirm his belief in the old conservative order and the failure of reformism. Alexander III would do all he could to assert his autocratic vision of Russia, and succeeded in impressing his idea of what Russia should be and what a tsar should be onto his son, the future Nicholas II, but he failed in passing on the lessons of rulership and governance. Under Nicholas II, Russia lost the Russo-Japanese War and experienced a great upheaval in 1905 which many at the time thought was the Revolution, but they didn't know what was to come in 1917…

Russia, then, is an empire committing itself to a vision of a tsar-led empire, an imperial realm which seeks to push back the obscene ideas of the French Revolution- but there's no guarantee it will maintain that vision, or even maintain its empire. It won't help that the Tsar doesn't rule entirely alone, even as an autocrat- he might have a court favorite by his side, advising him about industrial policies, paths to reform, or how the favorite can magically heal the crown prince.

There's revolutions, and then there's the Revolution. Before it happened, it was a phantasm that haunted the minds of rulers for a century. It wasn't always destined to be an uprising draped in red - the revolution the crowned heads of Europe feared in the 1800s was a repeat of the French Revolution, of national assemblies, phrygian caps, and the tricolor flags. When Russians took to the streets in 1905, many of them sang the Marseillaise, not the Internationale. The shape of the Revolution was always in flux, reacting to the direction of the Russian Empire's policies, influenced by mass movements and charismatic individuals, changing as exiles stewed on ideas in Siberia and Switzerland. The Revolution only became one solid thing when the Revolution actually happened, and even then people argue over its causes and its goals to this day. 

What does State & Revolution contain?

• Emperor and Autocrat: The Tsars of Russia have unique agendas based upon their ideologies and historical personalities, directing the state according to their own visions of what the empire should be. From Nicholas I to Nicholas II and even beyond, each Tsar has his own particular ambition he wants to achieve, and helping him achieve his goals allows the emperor to pass through decrees- ukases- which allow him to manipulate the levers of government in powerful and unique ways.

• The Russian Revolution: As the pressures of the Victorian era mount, dissidents whisper a word among themselves that stirs their hearts- Revolution. The revolution itself, the Revolution, builds up in reaction to the tsars and the Russian state, defining itself in opposition to the established order. A rigid autocracy will cause liberals and socialists alike to yearn for the Revolution, but a reformist turn might upset conservatives in Russia even as it placates liberals.

• Favorites: Even the autocratic tsars rarely worked entirely alone. Every tsar has the ability to appoint favorites, figures who can influence the shape of government, the passage of laws, and even provide unique agendas for tsars to pursue. Favorites can be almost anyone, from well-educated nobles eager to industrialize the empire to wild-eyed peasant holy men with the remarkable ability to inspire, generations later, the creation of one of the best Eurodisco songs to come out of Germany.

• The other Reds & Whites: Before the Russian Revolution, there was the January Uprising. Try to preserve a crumb of Polish autonomy, either by currying the favor of the Russian government or silently preparing to stage an uprising which gambles everything for Polish independence.

• **Ukrainian and Belarussian cultural Renaissances: **The 19th century was a pivotal time in the development of national identities across the Russian Empire, and many modern elements of Ukrainian and Belarussian identity have their roots in ideas established during this time. Populations satisfied with Russian rule in 1836 may become less compliant over time as nationalist ideas develop, a growing corpus of poets and journalists write works in their own tongues, and peasants move to cities to find better work in Russia's growing industrial sector and find themselves exposed to new concepts and new ways to express themselves.

• The evolution of Socialist politics: As the socialist movement develops in a country, the shape of socialism will become informed by choices made by the state and the socialist movement. Will socialists become reformists committed to electoralism or die-hard revolutionaries? In Russia, a radical group of communists might show up and declare themselves 'the majority'- will these Bolsheviks end up heading the radical left wing, or will Mensheviks or Social Revolutionaries lead the way?

Over the next two months we will go over more of State and Revolution, from tsars to exiles, old empires crumbling and new nations rising, and the fantastic work our team has done in every discipline. See you next week!

Now an interjection from Pelly. 

Yesterday Martin talked about the AI update and 1.14 - and above you will have seen mention of 1.15. This is *not *a typo, the AI update, when it is in the Open Beta will be 1.14, but when we publicly release it, it will be **rolled into the 1.15 update and **released on the 22nd of October. 

This is for versioning reasons and because 1.14 is a special beast, so please don’t be confused when the update coming alongside* State and Revolution* is 1.15.