Chapter 442 Parade

Montovsky was a senior engineer at a machinery factory in St. Petersburg. He earned a salary twice as high as that of ordinary workers, and also enjoyed various subsidies and vacations. Before the war, he was in the upper middle class. new

But the good times were just before the war. After the war broke out, prices in Russia rose at an alarming rate, and Montovsky's proud salary could barely sustain himself and his family.

You know, this can only be done under the premise that Montovsky's wife also works in a machinery factory.

If only one person has an income, I am afraid that the Montovsky family's living standard will drop by another level.

On a morning when the sun was not shining brightly, Montovsky came to the factory early and headed to his work station.

As a senior engineer in the machinery factory, Montovsky's status is higher than that of ordinary workers, but only a little higher.

Except when there was a problem with factory machinery or when new machinery was installed, Montovsky's status would be higher. In other situations, he was no different from an ordinary worker.

You also need to work overtime constantly, you also need to work on the production line, and your wages will be withheld for various reasons, or even half of them will be deducted directly.

But there is no way, Montovsky needs to live, and he cannot give up this job that is several times higher than the per capita income.

As soon as he arrived at his work station, the factory manager issued a message that the factory would need to work for another two hours tonight.

Overtime work in this era is different from that in later generations. Not only is there no overtime subsidy, even overtime work is free.

But there is no way, no one dares to refuse the overtime proposed by the factory management, unless he wants to lose his job.

What's even more terrible is that these capitalists who open factories have some rights and connections with the local government.

If you offend your boss to death, not only will you not be able to find a job in the entire region, you will even be targeted by those capitalists. At least your family will be destroyed, your wife and children will be separated, or at worst, the whole family will die without a burial place, becoming another person in the chaos of Russia. Wisps of dead souls. new

In this era of cannibalism, money and power are the most important things. If you have money, you have power, and if you have power, you have money.

Whether they are capitalists or high-ranking officials and nobles, they all have unparalleled rights in Russia. Ordinary people are like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. In addition to enduring exploitation by the government and capitalists, their lives are in danger at any time.

In particular, some capitalists colluded with local officials. During the war, anyone could be charged with the crime of deliberately sabotaging the production of war materials.

This crime is a capital crime for ordinary people, and the fate of it depends on the mood of the capitalist.

Montovsky sighed quietly, but was helpless in the face of the factory management's requirements.

Ironically, Russia officially implements an eight-hour work system, which is very different from the actual working hours of Montovsky's factory.

Montovsky's normal working hours are about 12 to 14 hours, and including overtime, his working hours are at least about 14 hours.

Compared with Russia's working time system, this level of working hours is nearly twice the gap.

This also means that, on the premise of completing the standard eight-hour working day, most Russian workers have to "voluntarily" work more than six hours of unpaid overtime.

In fact, this is nothing. At present, high overtime intensity is common in major European countries participating in the war, and the average working hours per capita exceeds eleven hours.

But the problem is that European countries will at least give a symbolic overtime pay for overtime work, rather than mandatory unpaid overtime like Russia.

Even a small amount of daily necessities or food is enough to calm the restless workers. It is a pity that Russian capitalists cannot see the current situation of workers at all, and even if they see it, they will not care at all.

"Hey! Montovsky, will you participate in the run the day after tomorrow?" The middle-aged man next to Montovsky asked Montovsky cautiously after seeing the factory management staff walking away. new

"Running? What is that?" Montovsky asked with a question mark on his face. How long has it been? Who is still in the mood to run?

"It's a general strike organized by the workers' union. This is extremely confidential information, man, you must not reveal it to others." The middle-aged man looked around again with a cautious expression, and then whispered.

Although general strikes and demonstrations are common across Russia, this does not mean that they are legal.

As the Tsarist Russian government severely suppressed several demonstrations in the past, those who participated in the demonstrations, especially those who organized the demonstrations, will be sentenced to death.

Even ordinary workers who take part in demonstrations face jail time. If discovered by the factory management, not only will you lose your job, but your life and that of your family will be in danger.

"Workers Alliance? Is this a new political party?" Montovsky asked curiously.

Although Russia is a tsarist autocratic country, there are many political parties in Russia, and they can even be called diverse.

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Of course, a considerable number of parties are illegal, and members of these parties will also be subject to government encirclement and suppression.

"Actually, it's the Bolshevik Party, you know." The man explained with a smile.

Although Arthur has already asked the Royal Security Intelligence Service to conduct a certain cleanup of political parties in Russia, it is impossible to completely eliminate these revolutionary elements.

These political parties thought that the tsarist government had cleared them, so they chose to carry out their activities incognito and under new party names.

The workers' parties headed by the Bushviks still hold a considerable place in the hearts of most workers in Russia.

It was not just Montovsky, a large number of Russian workers were quietly drawn into this march, and it even spread to other areas outside St. Petersburg.

While the undercurrent was surging, Nicholas II was also making his own plans in St. Petersburg.

Since Nicholas II assumed the post of commander-in-chief of Russia, the Russian army's offensive has made no achievements, making the situation on the Russian frontline and at home getting worse and worse.

The army and the people pointed their fingers at Nicholas II. After all, he was the supreme leader of the army and the well-deserved scapegoat.

Although Nicholas II's military talents were not high, in terms of political ability, Nicholas II was definitely a qualified monarch.

In order to minimize your own responsibility, it is necessary to find someone who takes the blame.

On the 1st, in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II held a military meeting in the name of studying Russia's offensive plan for the next year.

This meeting attracted the participation of a large number of high-level Russian military officials, including the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Southwest Front and the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwest Front.

The discussion about the next year's combat plan as imagined by the Russian military's top brass did not take place. Instead, at the beginning of the meeting, Nicholas II loudly questioned the two commanders-in-chief on the Russian front, asking why the Russian army had not achieved greater results so far. reason.

The two commanders-in-chief immediately broke into cold sweats. They already understood at this time that Nicholas II was going to let them take the blame.

Before the two commanders-in-chief could defend themselves, Nicholas II looked at the other senior military officials and asked with some depth: "Everyone, are you determined to save the lives of the dead soldiers? Brothers, subordinates, and comrades seek justice and investigate the true reasons for the failure of the war?"

"have!"

The responses from military brass were swift, if somewhat mixed.

It's actually time for the military's top brass to take sides. Nicholas II's attitude was obvious. He wanted to let the two commanders-in-chief take the blame and shift the responsibility for the failure of the war to the previous Russian commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, and the two frontline commanders-in-chief.

Others have only two choices, either to become Nicholas II's accomplice and help Nicholas II to convict the two frontline commanders-in-chief.

Or, the military unites as one and opposes Nicholas II's blame-shifting behavior, but it is very likely that Nicholas II will be removed from office.

Whether it was their positions or the lives of their colleagues, these top Russian military officials made a choice quickly.

Soon, all kinds of reasons were thought up by these military leaders. Not only were the two frontline commanders accused of poor command, but even the logistics department, which had been cleaned up before, was also accused of withholding supplies. , charged with colluding with domestic and foreign capitalists.

It can be seen from the announcement issued by the Russian government the next day that Nicholas II and the Russian government shied most of the responsibility for the disadvantages of the war, placing all the blame on the frontline commanders and logistics departments.

Because the government announcement stated that the logistics department had colluded with domestic and foreign capitalists, many Russian factories were also targets of investigation. The owners of these factories were all famous Russian capitalists, and they were also the main culprits in colluding with the Russian logistics department.

But this will cause hardship to the workers in those factories. Because their factory was inspected, they temporarily lost their jobs.

Greedy capitalists will not pay workers wages when they cannot go to work. This has also resulted in approximately tens of thousands of workers being affected by this and temporarily losing their source of income.

Although the government's announcement states that the investigation of these factories and capitalists will only take a short time, it will not take long for the factories to reopen.

The temporary lack of income still makes many Russian workers panic. If they don't go to work for a day, their wives and children will not have food to eat.

At such a moment, the workers' union took the opportunity to introduce a rule that all workers participating in the demonstration would be given a certain amount of food for free.

This can be said to have relieved the urgent needs of those workers, and in a short period of time, it attracted more workers to participate in the large-scale demonstration that was about to break out.

Attracted by the food, many workers enthusiastically signed up, and the number of people expected to participate in the parade soon exceeded 100,000.

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