[center][h2]Rostov-Tsaritsyn Provisional Government[/h2][/center]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/3zTRpOy.png[/img][/center]
[center][i]Green Claim[/i][/center]

[center][h2]History:[/h2][/center]
Rostov, ‘the forgotten stepping stone’.  Or at least, that was what many came to see their home as.  In the Great War armies had rallied there, and left, and so too was this the case when the Tsar looked to stamp out the communist menace.  No matter the destruction around it the valuable port was left, more or less, unmolested to profit from the drunken soldiers and sailors that stopped there for a nights rest. It was, in the end, a fond saying.  

Or perhaps it is only remembered that way.  Decades of the relative prosperity that accompanied peace came to a screeching and abrupt halt upon the death of the Tsar all those years ago.  The chaos that followed consumed the country and its people, but perhaps nowhere was it more evident than that once forgotten stepping stone on the sea of Azov.  Anarachy came in the form of Cossacks, Communists, and worse.  Rostov was besieged within months of the Tsars death, set upon by a sundry of enemies all hungering for its meagre riches.  In the first year alone thousands died in the fighting, and thousands more starved when the cities remaining authorities failed to secure a consistent source of aid.  The cities defenders were stalwart and without qualms when it came to demonstrating their mettle, but the wretches that came screeching from the Caucuses outnumbered them badly.

Rostov burned for two years before hope came, and when it did it came from a place none expected.  For in the northeast the city of Tsaritsyn a man had risen to forge order from the chaos that threatened to consume the shattered remains of his erstwhile homeland.  Vasily Sokolovsky, Tsaritsyns former chief of police, had repulsed the forces that sought to annex that city and now looked to do the same in the south, sending word that his army was coming to all who would carry it.  Compared to the forces of the would be Tsars his was a motley army, composed of old soldiers and battle hardened peasants, but in spite of this it fought with a ferocity that overwhelmed those that stood in its way.  It took a month before the army of Tsaritsyn cleared a path to Rostov, but and in a matter of weeks it beat back the communists who’d held the cities outskirts for years. Praised as saviours the men from Tsaritsyn were honoured with what little Rostov had left to give, and those who’d held the city for so long declared their loyalty to the man who’d risked so much to relieve them.

In the years to come the communists would try again, and again, but with the populations of two true Russian cities united behind a man some considered a more worthy ruler than the coward who'd failed to protect his own family the new southern state prevailed each time.  A few short years ago the steel foundries were burning again and the mines were running alongside them.  Fields were plowed without fear of their destruction.  Hunger gave way, slowly and arduously, but with certainty.  The people of Rostov and Tsaritsyn were no longer merely surviving, but working towards a brighter future under the direction of a man they trusted implicitly.

When the provisional government was declared many questioned why Vasily had not made himself the southern Tsar, but those who knew him only scoffed at the idea.  He was a leader because his people had cried out for one, a general because his people had demanded one, but he would not be a Tsar even if they chained a crown to his head.  While his public speeches are rare they have always echoed this sentiment, that he and all in his domain are Russians.  To hell which Tsar is winning, or what the quarrelling dictators are calling their little fiefs, those who live under his protection need only work to the best of their ability, rebuild as much as they are able, and remember that when the day comes they are Russians above all else.  In the end it matters not who rules her, for the spirit of Russia lives in the people of Rostov and Tsaritsyn as it does in the men and women of every Russian city.





Other: WIP