The Rise Of Australasia
Chapter 571: Chapter 443: Conflict of Two Powers_2

Not only was it Germany's chance to relieve itself from fighting in multiple lines, but it was also a great opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack against the British and French forces on the Western Front.

As for Britain and France, they currently did not have enough power to interfere with the revolution in Russia. Moreover, the current Russian revolution has not affected the monarchy, but merely established a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain, which was not unacceptable.

If Russians, like the French Revolution in history, were to overthrow the monarchy and execute Nicholas II, they would certainly be held accountable by Britain, France and other monarchical countries after the war.

The European royal family could allow European monarchs to lose their power, but they would not sit idly by and let European monarchs be executed by revolutionaries.

No one can guarantee that their own country would not experience a revolution. If the arbitrary execution of monarchs was tolerated, it might one day happen in other European monarchies.

Always closely observing the situation in Russia and knowing that the Provisional Government had already gained most of the rights, Arthur heaved a sigh of relief.

At least the situation in Russia hasn't collapsed to the point of complete lack of control. Although the Provisional Government is bourgeois, it still adheres to the constitutional monarchy, and the conflict with monarchism is not severe.

If the power was seized by the Soviet regime, the concept conveyed by such a republic to neighboring countries would be terrifying and could have a huge impact on monarchies.

After the establishment of the Provisional Government, both the Allies and the Allied Powers immediately initiated bargaining with the new government in Russia.

The Allies wanted Russia to continue the war, even if it was just a small part of the German Army's force on the Eastern Front.

The Allied Nations wanted Russia to withdraw from the war, which would free up their hands to deal with the British and French forces on the Western Front.

The good news was that the establishment of the Russian Provisional Government was rather moderate, and its foundation was based on Nicholas II's appointment letter.

Additionally, the Bolshevik and Soviet regime, which truly wanted to overthrow the monarchy, had retreated to Moscow. The Provisional Government and the areas near Saint Petersburg were under the control of the royalist faction.

Although Nicholas II had been stripped of a great deal of power at the moment, he still had a certain status.

On November 25, 1916, Britain, France, Russia and Australia held an Entente Powers Conference in St. Petersburg. They discussed the French-Russian Allies' next combat plan and tried to persuade Russia to stay in the war.

For this, Britain and France spared no effort. They agreed to low-consumption loans of up to 5 billion rubles to the new Russian government, and promised to deliver ample food and winter supplies to Russia, helping the Russian government to get through the difficulties.

At the Entente Powers Conference, Britain, France and Australia repeatedly reaffirmed the relations between the Four Great Powers of the Allies, and verbally promised that they would not reduce a bit of Russia's contributions and post-war interests.

Russia, at present, is still an integral part of the Allies and one of the Four Great Powers of the Allies.

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It was clear that the terms offered by the Allies were satisfactory to the Russian government. The low-interest loans of up to 5 billion rubles, as well as a large amount of food and emergency supplies, were enough to help the new Russian government win the hearts of the people while surviving the crisis.

The distribution of interests after the war, promised by the Allies, was enough to earn these bourgeoisie and large landlords enough interests after the war.

After two days of conference, the new Russian government and the Allies reached an agreement. Russia wouldn't withdraw from the war for the time being, but also wouldn't initiate a large-scale battle actively.

Russia would take defensive measures on the front line to attract more German soldiers for Britain and France as much as possible.

Meanwhile, the loans promised by Britain and France should be disbursed on time, and all kinds of aid supplies should not be less.

A large part of the reason why people revolted was a hatred for this war. To satisfy the people, the new Russian government decided to distribute some emergency supplies to all the common people in Saint Petersburg and nearby areas for free.

These supplies included 250 kg of grain and 100 kg of coal per household, warm clothing for each person, and some medicines.

Clearly, the distribution of such supplies was satisfactory to a significant part of Russian public and also got the new Russian government accepted by the people.

This was actually a scheme of the Provisional Government. After all, there were two governments in Russia at present. The public's attitude towards the two governments would certainly be different.

It also meant that after the Provisional Government distributed supplies for free, the Soviet regime must issue the same policy immediately to satisfy the civilians who supported it.

After all, everyone supports the revolution in order to live a better life. If their own survival issue couldn't be resolved, more people would definitely change sides.

But the problem is that there's a huge difference in assets between the Provisional Government and the Soviet regime.

The Provisional Government was made up of medium and small capitalists, large landowners, old nobles, and other former middle and high-level personnel who held a great amount of land and resources in Russia.

On the other hand, while the Soviet regime also controlled the wealthy Moscow region, all the major parties that made up the Soviet regime were composed of ordinary workers and the capital they held was not substantial.

Furthermore, the Russian Provisional Government had strong support from the Allies, while the Soviet regime was hostile to all European monarchies.

In such a situation, there's no way that the Soviet regime could compete with the Provisional Government in terms of welfare policies.