Tsar's tutor, honorary mber of the Academy, various ministerial and chairmanship positions, reforr, free trade supporter, professor and chancellor of St. Vladimir Imperial University.
Though many such titles preceded Nikolai Bunge's na, he knew.
Ultimately, a failure.
His life was a failure.
Failed attempt to develop credit transactions through private banks via the Kiev Mutual Credit Association.
Failed to nurture talent as chancellor of St. Vladimir University due to educational restrictions.
Failed and was driven out as Finance Minister with incomplete national reforms.
Failed to gain anyone's support after advocating for both private property protection and free enterprise while also calling for labor rights guarantees.
Though everyone praised his great learning and called him a great scholar, when Bunge himself looked back on his life, it was that of a dropout marked entirely by failure.
He hadn't properly achieved a single thing.
Though he received nine dals, none of his awards actually changed the empire.
He was just... no different from a street intellectual boasting about what he thought was right.
As a scholar, thinker, politician, professor - in no position did he manage to produce results that could prove his words until the end.
That was how Bunge himself viewed his life in his later years. A failure.
If there was anything consoling, it was perhaps the central bank's policy of accumulating gold for over 10 years since '84.
'Thanks to that, I might live to see Minister Witte implent the gold standard.'
Well, that's sothing at least. Though only superficial honors remained, it was better than having his entire life negated.
In truth, he knew. That he was eating away at himself with excessive standards.
Nevertheless, he couldn't lower his standards now after falling from the empire's peak to rock bottom overnight.
So Bunge decided to remain a loser.
The Crown Prince's practical affairs manager. A teacher conducting occasional education. Just that level of position.
Last year, he began to sense that even that was becoming difficult.
His body increasingly disobeyed him and his speech and thinking slowed. Now was the ti for this life too to co to a halt.
So he resigned from his vice-chairmanship and was quietly waiting for death when one day...
"The Crown Prince extracted 100 million rubles without shedding a drop of blood with his brilliant eloquence!"
"When His Highness Nikolai arrived, the war imdiately stopped and everyone ca to love peace!"
It sounded like Okhrana manipulating public opinion, but at the ti the mood was solemn with Alexander III's passing.
Even though such third-rate manipulation should have been found and punished, the Interior Ministry just watched idly.
But that was it. Bunge thought that news had nothing to do with an old man waiting to die, regardless of how much truth it contained.
At least until the true nature of the treaty the Crown Prince secured in the Far East was revealed.
"It's exactly 95 million rubles, and that money will be used entirely by the Amur Governor-General's Office. Everyone here wasn't expecting results anyway and was skeptical about the Far East, right?"
"T-that's-"
"Tsk, if we'd moved a bit earlier we could have gotten more. Such a sha. If only soone had helped then."
To spend all that enormous money in the Far East.
When Bunge himself beca Finance Minister and reduced redemption paynts for peasant welfare, causing 12 million rubles to be lost from the treasury, how much criticism did he receive?
But now eight tis that budget would be rolling around in a barren field.
There was a scent. A scent so familiar and intimate.
The old man's slowing heart began to beat faster bit by bit. The day after the coronation, Bunge imdiately headed to the Winter Palace.
And after hearing exactly what would happen in the Far East through the Crown Prince, Bunge realized.
That he couldn't die like this. And that he had to go to that Far East.
"Send ! Please send !"
"No, how can soone who resigned as vice-chairman due to poor health be like this."
"Your Majesty! Please send to the Far East, even if just for the sake of our old relationship as tutor!"
Absolute nationalist policies.
A land where anything could be done and order could be established from scratch since there were no precedents.
He vividly rembered the attacks that ca at him from all directions whenever he tried to do anything in the past.
When he advocated abolishing village mutual responsibility, even the State Council that should have supported him turned its back, and when he proposed child labor restriction bills, the right wing rushed in to tear him apart.
A puppet Finance Minister attacked for changing even one tax law or labor law.
An incompetent politician who couldn't do anything freely except tasks assigned by the Tsar.
Bunge now wanted to break free from all that past and those shackles. No, furthermore, he wanted to deny all his failures.
He wanted to shout that he had been right. That all of you who opposed were wrong.
Through that Far East.
He couldn't die like this. No matter what humiliation he suffered or how much he struggled, he had to go to the Far East.
Otherwise, this old body had no aning in living on.
After throwing away even his dignity and lying prostrate, the Tsar finally permitted him to leave.
'The previous Tsar wished for to stay and assist His Majesty Nikolai... but I'm sorry, I cannot.'
Those who once led national reforms with him. Scholars who advocated state-led growth. Those tired of both the corrupt right wing and the left wing that only looked at illusions.
Bunge gathered people indiscriminately and departed for the Far East without a plan.
Though the journey was rough and harsh on an old man, it was never boring. For he was no longer a failure waiting to die, but a reforr who would overturn his entire past at the end of his life.
When they arrived in the Far East after such hardships...
"When are you going to pay the construction costs! We need money upfront to buy equipnt, hire workers, and break ground!"
"You think it's easy to set budgets, execute them, supervise, and report afterwards every ti? Just wait!"
"If you're going to be like this, why didn't the Governor-General's Office just do it directly instead of calling us? We only ca because we heard rumors about money overflowing, sheesh!"
Indeed, there seems to be overflowing work.
"Well, we'll need to establish a bank under the Governor-General first."
Bunge's eyes were gleaming.
==
Looking back at father's rule while handling daily practical affairs, the good and bad deeds beco clearly visible.
Various policies and orders that clearly reveal the choices between failure and success, private interest and national interest.
If I had to pick what I'm most grateful to father for among them, I would choose this.
"Okhrana, he left quite a necessary departnt."
While it would take years if I were to establish and grow a direct departnt to use as my hands and feet now, Okhrana has already been established for 30 years.
Starting as a small cases departnt under the St. Petersburg mayor in '66, it later changed to a secret investigation departnt and in '81, father officially expanded it into the Departnt of Public Safety and Order.
A secret police under the Interior Ministry, completely independent unlike before when it was just a police departnt.
Father gave them two main duties.
One was the function of a political investigation center.
Investigating and observing various politicians and organizations within the empire, and directly intervening if necessary.
The second was controlling labor movents.
Establishing pro-governnt unions to conduct operations, planting informants to dig up internal information, or manipulating from behind.
'Actually, most of the massive protests in 1905 were protests manipulated by Okhrana from behind to lower public pressure. Since it was done so secretly, the military, not knowing this, carried out bloody suppression.'
Though the bureaucrats might not know, Okhrana already knew about the previous Yaroslavl industrial complex strike and had planted sufficient informants internally.
In other words, punishnt of the leaders could have been easily achieved without soldiers and workers having to kill each other.
Annual budget allocation is 3.5 million rubles.
According to their duties, the first departnt is located in St. Petersburg and the second in Moscow, with nurous branch offices under them.
"Okhrana's ranks are equivalent to the military and they report only to the Interior Ministry and Imperial Household. Essentially directly under . Is that right, Colonel Sekherinsky?"
"Though my rank is colonel, we usually use titles."
"Then I'll call you Director Sekherinsky too."
Let's see, surprisingly there are many who hold concurrent positions in Okhrana though they seem to work only in the shadows. Mostly military police or security.
"Do you also plant informants in the military?"
"Not informants... just cooperation with military police."
"Well, the military wouldn't stand still if we did."
But they don't live harboring politics and ideology like political soldiers.
"It seems the military police, security forces, and security bureau sowhat overlap in duties. With over a thousand Okhrana personnel, the budget is neither insufficient nor excessive."
The only regrettable thing is they lack the secrecy and covertness of just the security bureau.
Compared to the future KGB that went beyond developnt, search and arrest to occasionally engage in combat, the current Okhrana is thoroughly according to father's taste.
Cleaning up leftists and restricting left-wing activities. Counterintelligence or espionage activities beyond that still seem difficult, and the only good thing is their extensive experience with informants?
"Do you know why I called you?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know."
"Right, so Okhrana's eyes and ears can't penetrate inside the Imperial Household."
"That's only natural."
I don't plan to use Okhrana only for left-wing activities. That would be a trendous waste of talent.
"I've seen the Director's background. From a military family, worked in military police for over 20 years, with good achievents in Okhrana activities."
"Thank you."
"The empire is noisy lately with the establishnt of parliant. Everyone's saying I hastily dug up a relic of the past. So I want to make so preparations."
I understand. With orders to implent unconditionally this autumn, the atmosphere is unsettled and everyone's busy digging through old docunts for everything from voting to preparing the State Duma.
"If we establish the State Duma and stay still, they'll beco the new power class and rot just the sa."
No matter how ard with sense of mission and ideology, once they step into this political arena, they'll inevitably be tainted bit by bit under the word 'compromise'.
And grandfather's solution to this was the press.
"I plan to guarantee freedom of the press. What do you think?"
"In my limited view, I worry that press will beco a new power class."
"Precisely. Just because they hold a pen, they'll quickly beco drunk with power."
This is unavoidable even in the 21st century. Because the press is a group guaranteed power just by its existence, even without making profit.
"This is where Okhrana, you guardians, are needed."
So I want to add another shackle here.
If Okhrana directly investigates and arrests politicians, it will fade the aning of parliant and draw resentful eyes to .
But what if Okhrana controls the press that can criticize politicians?
'Just one step removed, but no cause for resentnt.'
The press should already be grateful just for being revived.
"Are you saying you'll expand Okhrana?"
"Yes, hurry to establish local branches and recruit personnel. Select people to plant informants in the soon-to-be-revived press, enabling investigation, arrest, and punishnt if needed."
When parliant is created, press revives, and the State Duma and local city Dumas beco active, Okhrana will also beco busy.
"Your Majesty, exactly how far are you planning?"
"For now, to the level where we can easily crush press agencies that violate reporting restrictions within this year. It will probably beco larger than you imagine."
The press of this era often involves the literate class, so there will likely be plenty to catch ideologically as well.
'It would be nice if they just played within the area I permit... but how could they?'
Sotis there are those who need to take visible beatings to learn 'Ah, you get hit if you cross the line.'
"Director Pyotr Vasilyevich Sekherinsky."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I'll give you budget and authority, so grow the guardian agency."
"Understood, Your Majesty."
This is my first preparation for establishing parliant.
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