Name: Viktoriya Terentiyovna 'Vika' Mikhailova
Date of Birth: 12 May 1885 (46 y/o)
Personality: A very polite (painfully so, in fact) individual who attempts to radiate competency in all her acts. Key word,
attempts. However, she can be very cold at times, especially when things do not go her way.
Leadership Style: A quiet alliance-crafter and consensus-builder, she nevertheless keeps her principles first and foremost, and knows to ensure her enemies are marginalised as much as possible if she wants as much success as possible.
Ideology: Vika Mikhailova’s ideology was once described by someone quite well when they described it quite derogatorily as ‘Marxism-Narodism’. She is a firm advocate of the rural peasantry and their interests, and blends this with a seemingly firm Marxism. However, those close to her will know that she has a deep religiosity that she keeps close to her chest. Preferring to build alliances and contacts in the shadows, she knows that any good state is built on its bureaucracy, and hence she will seek to maintain the 'shadow state' on her side, no matter what.
Brief Bio: It is undeniable that Vika Mikhailova has given her all to the revolution, both of them, for they have made her who she is now. Born in a firmly religious Orthodox peasant family originating in the fields surrounding Voronezh, she grew up with a strong religious belief in God, but grew to privately question many of the official church’s teachings when it aligned with the state. Only born twenty years after her family was freed from serfdom, the family memory left an indelible mark on her, and their continuing poverty while the nobles (still a strong presence in Voronezh) showed her that there was legal inequality and there was extralegal inequality.
Leaving her family behind once she grew dissatisfied with her lot in life and moving to the city of Voronezh, She aligned herself to the local Socialist Revolutionaries once they emerged, but as the Russian Civil War radicalised people, she grew to align herself with the Left-SR. After the SR coalitioned with liberals and then led an uprising against the new Soviet Government, she condemned it and joined the Bolsheviks in disgust at her former party.
While in her local Bolshevik circles, she grew to cultivate deep contacts and people she grew to find deeply reliable, while preferring to present herself as purely the secretary for meetings. She would find that as secretary, she would wield a lot of unofficial influences in the cliques she ran in, and as she climbed up in influence, moving from Voronezh to Moscow in the mid-20s, she would continue this ‘quiet connections’ tactic, while increasingly cultivating influence over certain people via favours.
With the fall of the Viper and the rise of Yusupov, she saw the ‘Baron of Beyond’ with a deeply-concealed distaste, especially with his hostility to religion. Still, she would maintain her contact-building strategy sure that with Yusupov oblivious to her, she would continue. A few murmurs here and there about his ‘high-handed, almost
tsarist ways, unfitting of a revolutionary’ helped the increasing tide against Yusupov, and once he was gone…
Well, she was but a humble secretary, and would accept the post of Premier in such a tone, promising to ‘let the Party lead the way’ and not run ramrod over it like Yusupov did. Nevertheless, she has plans. Big plans.
GOALS
Core Goal: “The People’s Renovation”
It is undeniable that Chairman Yusupov has made the religious situation all that more precarious. But we must study ourselves and admit one bitter fact –
The Revolution does not lead to the death of religion. While capitalism is gone for good, there are still minor ills, minor grievances, existential worries, that lead people to religion.
The solution, therefore, is to not abolish religion. It is to bring the revolution to religion. The olds must be cast out, and just as the old Empire was reshaped into our glorious Union, the old churches, temples and mosques must be reshaped, made anew for our new society. Thankfully, we are not alone in this goal, there are commendable men and women seeking to cast out the religious bourgeoisie and make their faith proletariat-led.
For Russian Orthodoxy, the one person to entrust and to support is clear – Aleksandr Vvedenskiy. Here is a firm theologian entirely willing to work with us and follow ideas for making the Church red. With the absence of a clear leader of Russian Orthodoxy with the death of that reactionary Tikhon years ago, the time is ripe to push the Living Church, Vvedenskiy’s project, into official state recognition as the
sole and
official Orthodox Church, with Vvedenskiy himself as Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. In exchange, Vvedenskiy and his allies will seek to laud the Soviet Union and the revolutionary policies we are pushing elsewhere, and push their flock to support us in all we do. We will seek to use state power to reduce the legitimacy of the
reactionaries and encourage cooperation with Vvedenskiy and the
true Orthodox Church.
But it must never be assumed that this policy is blind to the other faiths in the Union. For a revolution in Islam, we must bring in a man who we have kept out in the cold since Lenin died. Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev. The man may have his nationalistic tendencies, but he is undeniably a Bolshevik and a man Lenin trusted completely. We will entrust him with all matters Islamic with the brief to bring nothing short of a complete and utter
revolution in Islamic thought.
Regarding Buddhism, we will seek to set up a Buddhist Central Religious Board, filled with trustworthy party men who will ensure that the lamas are passing on the
correct teachings, aka ones that conform to the Board and the Party’s desires for a socialist Buddhism. Any other religions apart from Orthodoxy, Islam and Buddhism will also be considered, but the Party Committee will have final say.
To the atheists who see religion as anathema to revolution, they are free to go after the
non-revolutionary religions, the ones not following Vvedenskiy’s Living Church, Sultan-Galiev’s revolutionary Islam or Board-conforming Buddhism (and any other state-controlled/monitored faiths that may be created).
Those religions are
not to be seen as incorporated in the Party Line like Yusupov’s abhorred cult. The Party Line is still one of strict atheism and she will maintain that. There just will be a tolerance of
certain faiths that preach loyalty to the Soviet Union and to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Loyalty is necessary, and all this will be sold as sadly necessary for now.
Major Goal 1: “The Centralisation of Power and Its Consequences”
What is the Party? What is the Council of People’s Commissars? After the failure of the ‘Red Romanov’ that was Yusupov, we must seek to achieve self-criticism. A high-handed Moscow-centred regime led by an aristocrat that seeks to force his utopian ideas on the people? That is what we have became under Yusupov. The bourgeois, tsarist tendency is starting to creep inside the Council and the Party.
But it is never too late. The clear solution is to turn to our roots. For what was Lenin’s idea for the many nationalities inside our Union? It was not Yusupov’s revisionist
proletlang nor a centralisation of power back to himself. No, Lenin desired for power to the nationalities, as can be seen in his
Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia.
And of course we must seek to realise what we mean by
soviet. Have we so easily forgot the meaning of that word? The evidence are overwhelming. Bolshevism,
true Bolshevism, is not a diktat from Moscow. It is local power. But we must never go overboard and create anarchism. We are not Makhnov.
Hence there will be a system of federation inside Russia. The old Russian Soviet Republic will be dubbed the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and many oblasts will be established inside it, each with the firm hand of a loyal
Party man overseeing it as the Chairman of the Oblast Council. Not a man hostile to the Party, someone loyal to the Party and
selected by the Party. There will be no mini-Yusupovs, this Premier Mikhailova will assure the Party.
The Central Committee will act as a ‘rein’ on the local party structures, ensuring that each of them do not deviate from the party line, and will have the power to replace any council of an oblast or autonomous republic with a new trusty party-selected council. The Council of People’s Commissars, and the Chairman, has no say in this at all. The Party leads, always.
The republics will also have their own councils, with firm party men in charge. The party men will be of the utmost loyalty of course, and every selection will be up to the Central Committee of course.
As a sop to Sultan-Galiev in exchange for his collaboration on creating ‘Marxism with a Muslim face’, we will present the idea of a Turkestani Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, with the national republics firmly in it, and
all (this will be emphasised) political offices will be decided by the Central Committee. However, Mikhailova will declare her neutrality in the matter and declare that this will entirely be the Party’s choice. She is no Yusupov, she will gladly remind them.
The three federative republics (Russia, Turkestan and Transcaucasia) will provide a key level of power for the Central Committee to flex their muscles, and ensure that no Chairman can ever overrule the Central Committee on any serious matters.
The
kulak question will be decided by the Central Committee and the localities, with the Chairwoman insisting that it is ultimately up to the Party.
Major Policy 2: “The Revolution of the Mind”
Hopefully burnishing her reputation with the party, Mikhailova will now move on to her next step, that of pushing Soviet culture towards what she would prefer it to be. Religion is covered by the core goal, this is more broader culture.
As the first Chair
woman of the Council of People’s Commissars, she will seek to continue past Premiers’ efforts to politicise ordinary women and get them involved in the Soviet Union, including restating and reinforcing past guarantees of income equality. She will also use what power she has as Chairwoman to appoint more women (but of course prioritising men with key connections that she will find crucial) to key positions. She will also arrange to recognise International Women’s Day as a public holiday in the Soviet Union – March 8th is the day noted down for it.
Yusupov’s Komsomol will prove useful here, as it will be utilised to crusade for the ‘Revolution of the Mind’, namely dealing with sex discrimination at a local level and broader sexism in society. Women are as much workers as men. The Komsomol will also be utilised to ensure as much women are in the workforce as possible, declaring that ‘the age of the house-bound woman is over!’.
Regarding homosexuality, Mikhailova will gladly agree with the people that it is a bourgeois-created sickness, and will seek to, while not outright banning it (such a thing is a
Tsarist thing), officially treating it as a sickness of society, and a sickness of the mind. The ‘Revolution of the Mind’ will be extended to this, and mental care will be expanded to cover homosexuality. The policy of treating homosexuality will cover many treatments commonly available at the time, but one such permitted is encouraging the patient to ‘self-criticise’ themselves. If they desire a woman, how are they themselves a woman? If they wish to be penetrated by a man, how are they a man? As part of the ‘Revolution of the Mind’, all sorts of delusions about the individual must be thrown aside and self-criticism be intensified to make the new Soviet Man and Woman.
Sexism, racism, homosexuality, liberalism, monarchism, all are diseases of the mind, Mikhailova will maintain. And hence mental healthcare and a growth in what she calls ‘self-criticism’ is necessary. As she puts it, the absence of self-criticism and an asking of oneself – ‘Am I following the correct Party Line?’ – led to the rise of Yusupov and to the Revolution almost being compromised. No more. The Party Line (apart from necessary concessions to practicality) will be maintained no matter what.
Thus the state guaranteeing the best mental healthcare for all its comrades is upholding the
true revolutionary spirit and ensuring self-criticism and maintaining the Party Line are preserved.
Major Policy 3: “Workers of the World, Unite!”
The Soviet Union, as the bastion of the Revolution, must not close its eyes to the world. We enjoy a Comintern and many parties turn to us as the shining light. We must not squander this on micromanagement and setting a diktat to the world communist movement like we did with our internal states.
Hence the official stance of the Comintern on ideology shall be that if it is broadly within communist ideology, we shall allow them to decide what they think is best. What works for Moscow will not work for London, for Paris, for Berlin or for Washington. However, as it is within our interest to have a working relationship with the peoples of those countries, we shall encourage the communist parties to cooperate with other, less communist, parties, to ensure the broader Left has a strong voice.
Regarding the bourgeois governments, we shall once again seek to improve relationships without propping them up. We must show ourselves to be more legitimate than their own, to cut through the pathetic bourgeois lies with nothing but cold hard truth. And we will show them that we have turned black earth to red roses, showing the beauty of socialism and of our Soviet Union. If it legitimises our brethren and make us look far more human and less like a spectre, so much the better!
However, we will not seek to bail out the collapsing ‘Weimar’ government of Germany. The KPD there will be given every latitude to decide on their future trajectory, with revolution very much within possibility. Also within possibility is allying with the social-fascists to keep out the brown fascists. Such is the cruelty of necessity. It will be entirely up to Thalmann and his party, with Moscow refusing to give a diktat.
One can be forgiven for thinking this represents us abandoning the communist movement. Nothing can be further from the truth! We will continue to support our communist allies in other countries by financial and material means in order to further the world revolution by any means they so deem necessary.
Minor Policy 1: “The Question of Lenin”
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known to all as Lenin, was a great leader who led us to revolution. He was also a man. Not a God, as much as we all love and admire him. We shall not make new totems for our new revolution! So instead of embalming him or what Yusupov did by entombing him in that monstrosity of a memorial, there shall be a state funeral in his home city of Simbirsk where there shall be a quite impressive (but still modest) grave, and a far more modest, but far more sustainable memorial be built in Moscow, and be dedicated to not just Lenin, but to all those who gave their lives for the Revolution, including many sadly-deceased members of our great Party.
Minor Policy 2: “The Question of Yusupov”
Yusupov still remains alive and a pest on the future of the Soviet Union. If the Central Committee so desire to put him on trial for revisionism and for betrayal of the Revolution, the Chairwoman shall smooth the way and ensure they have every chance to. The Chairman must always be accountable to the Central Committee, for the Party leads the way, not any one person.
If the Central Committee decides that he is to be put to death for betraying the Revolution, it is to be carried out at once. His grave will be decided by his next of kin.
Minor Policy 3: “The Question of the Tsar”
TOP SECRET
The Chairwoman will privately arrange for the bones of the old Imperial Family to be retrieved from the mine and buried in anonymous graves not far off from Kostroma, where their house first started. The proceedings must be done in absolute secrecy, with not even the Council of People’s Commissars or Central Committee knowing of the matters. Only Mikhailova and a select few that she can trust absolutely.
The graves will be entirely anonymous, only noted by a gravestone above Alexei’s grave with no names on it, only an Orthodox cross. If Mikhailova is secure in power two years after the burial, she will hold a midnight journey, completely alone, to the burial site, and privately state to the dead what Lenin, Dukhanov and Yusupov could never have done, an apology for what was by all accounts a senseless murder. After that, she will consider the matter done and literally buried.
Minor Policy 4: “The Question of Mikhailova”
If all else succeeds, she will be quite comfortable as the ‘Party Woman’ and the Chairwoman of the Council of People’s Commissars. She will seek to develop a new generation of Soviet politicians with similar ideologies to her – a faction that is firmly social-conservative, deeply anti-cult of personality, yet with a boldly pragmatic streak on other matters.
If she succeeds, she will seek to step down from the post and hand over to a ‘Mikhailovite’ at some point. If there’s a war for some reason, she will state that she will serve for as long as the Central Committee desires her to, but after the war finishes, she will conclude her plans to build a clear succession, and then retire.