Hello everyone! I am Firefly, a somewhat fresh DD developer of the Kaiserreich project. and I bring you the 2nd Developer diary. This one, however, is a work by Nijato and Levi, the 2 developers working on the Russia and tags associated with it. Enjoy!
Hi everyone and welcome to another development diary about Kaiserreich for HOI4, the subject of today’s DD will be Russia and the Soviets, two faces of the same country. To talk about that I will invite Nijato and Levi, the two co-modders of the country.
-Hi I’m Nijato and I’m pretty much the first modder of Russia, I’m responsible for the history (leaders, parties, generals...), the Russian civil war, the Russian focus tree and the Russian foreign events, so pretty much everything related to Russia.
First a bit of KR history for those that aren’t familiar with it : in this timeline the whites, helped by the Germans after the promise they would respect the Brest-Litovsk treaty, won the civil war against the Bolsheviks and instituted a republic with president Alexandr Kerensky at its head. 15 years after the official foundation of the republic in 1921, Kerensky is still the president of Russia but has become unpopular. But despite this fact he is still the only thing left that keeps the coalition of the social-revolutionary party and the Kadets in place and his sudden death could well shaken the fate of Russia for the years to come...
Now I will outline to you the main possible paths Russia can take based on its focus tree.
The Political tree
So, this is no mystery to anyone know but Kerensky gets assassinated in the first days of 1936, consequently 4 political forces can take control of the country: The Senate, dominated by a coalition of social-revolutionaries and Mensheviks in the Duma, Marshall Denikin who imposes a military junta on the country, General Anton Wrangel the national-populist leader and the aristocrat Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, named president by the senate.
After one year to consolidate the new power the focuses representing the available political choices unlock, evidently you won’t be able to take any focus you want as the available ones will be determined by the guy in power. The Senate, depending on the prime minister you chose can only take the democratic republic, the constitutional monarchy or the proletarian dictatorship, the last one forming the Soviet Union. Denikin can choose between inviting the legitimate tsar and forming an absolute monarchy or forming a constitutional monarchy or just waiting if you don’t consider the time to be right. Wrangel can choose between the wrangel path, setting him as a new leader or inviting either the legitimate tsar or Dmitri to be a puppet head of state ŕ la Mussolini. Finally Dmitri can either continue with a republic of aristocrats dominated by the senate or install a new tsar, either him or the legitimate one as an absolute or constitutional monarch.
The economical trees
Your political choice will also reflect on your economic policy as this choice will unlock one of the economic paths, these paths being either forming a corporate state leading to an autarky, forming a new bureaucracy and continuing in the path of imperial Russia, reinstituting the zemstvos and giving more power to local governments or relying on the existing village communes, inspired by the soviets.
The military trees
The Okhrana will be the first focus you will be able to take in February 1936 and it forms an efficient secret service to help you fight the partisans and... maybe, other countries, who knows
Russia begins with a “divided staff” national spirit that gives +75% land doctrine cost, this malus can however be removed by choosing between the four plans to reform the army: Denikin and his mass assault doctrine, Wrangel and his grand battle plan doctrine, Shatilov and his grand battle plan doctrine and bonuses to generals and Markov and his mobile warfare doctrine.
Finally Russia also starts with a similar “Divided naval staff” national spirit that also gives +75% naval doctrine cost and that is also removed by choosing one of the three naval plans: Berens and his carriers, Wiren and his battleships and Bostrem and his submarines.
Note that these two military paths can only be taken after august of 1936.
The diplomatic tree
Now we’re getting into the real thing, after April 1937 you’ll be able to begin the diplomatic focuses by choosing between real politik and expansionism. Expansionism will unlock more options in the events but will also add world tension and will anger your neighbours. After that there are 5 directions from which to choose, however, at the start, only the Caucasus and central Asian ones will be unlocked, and you will have to finish them to unlock the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Far East ones. Furthermore when you take a direction you have to finish it before taking another one as explained by the tooltip on the screen so choose wisely!
But don’t think that the focuses are only soulless “give a wargoal” focuses; no they come with a whole bunch of event chains and possibilities, being coups, German protection on the Caucasus, plebiscites, interventions in wars, non aggression pacts and more!
Now I will talk a bit about the second Russian civil war, during the first year of the game if you country is unstable enough you have a chance to get a second civil war with a rise up of the Bolsheviks in the industrial heart of Russia. You’ll have to take care of them but beware, your neighbours are hungry, Karelia is right here for Finland to take it and the Cossacks or Alash Orda are looking for ways to expand... Or will it be the independence of Siberia that will sound the death knell of the Motherland? The future is full of surprises.
Finally I will finish my part of the DD with some events you could possibly get while playing Russia:
Thanks for reading! I will now let you in the skilful hands of Levi.
-So yeah, Levi here, the second developer for Russia. Since in Kaiserreich Russia is the most content-heavy country (at least in terms of different possibilities) we decided it would be best to split up the workload between the two of us. I did some of the Civil war events as well as the whole of the domestic events for Russia. As mentioned before, Russia is going through a difficult time at the start of the game, with economic and political strife threating to tear the country apart, and with talks of a second civil war being heard in the streets of the major cities
Should you survive or avoid the civil war however, various paths for the future of Russia will be opened to you, and various events will follow depending on your initial choices. For example, should you maintain the republic or create a constitutional monarchy you will have elections for the Duma every 5 years, in which you will decide the ruling party, and presidential elections for the republic in which you will elect your country leader.
We decided to get rid of some of the political branch choices present in the DH version. It was always kind of strange when suddenly in 1947, after being a peaceful democratic regime for the whole game suddenly a military coup will turn the country into a pseudo-fascistic warmongering horde.
Should Russia choose to recreate the proletarian dictatorship or should the reds win the second Russian civil war, a new tag will take over the lands of Russia and the Soviet state will be reborn. Once the white forces are dealt with, the first Soviet general elections will begin , and through a national focus you will be able to choose one of three different factions, each with a different idea for how to implement socialism in Russia.
The three different factions and what unites them
After choosing a ruling faction, the rest of the tree will be unlocked, with each faction offering a different set of bonuses and creating a new story for the domestic happenings in the soviet state, which was mostly lacking in the DH version of Kaiserreich. The HOI IV focus system allows us to lay the foundations for a rework of the Soviet story and mechanics, as well as expanding the economic and foreign policy aspects of the Soviet playthrough
The political and economical trees
After sorting out the initial political matters for the Soviet regime, you will be able to either look into the Soviet state and enact economical reforms, or look outwards for expansion in various directions (please note these are not mutually exclusive, and you'll be able to move between the two to your own desire)
The foreign policy is mostly based on events from the DH version of the mod, reworked and rewritten to fit the focus tree system, in a way that would allow you to choose the paths of expansion on your own schedule. Using a vast networks of contacts and supporters you will be able to spread the ideals of Lenin throughout Eurasia once again, and even beyond.
We also began planning an expansion for the Soviet intervention in China and the middle east, going beyond what is already present in the DH version.
The diplomatic tree
If you have any questions you can ask us anything on the reddit thread of the DD ! Also I want to remind everyone that the team is open for people to join and that we always need more hands ! If you want to help us with KR4 go on the forums at
http://cs.servegame.com/kaiserreich/index.php or join us on discord !