Struggle in Russia

Alexey looked at Li Xiao with some surprise and sighed: "I heard Vishniak and Leonid say that you value education earlier, but I didn't take it seriously. Now it seems that you really value education. , I simply regard it as the first priority!”

After thinking for a while, he asked: "I understand the importance of education, but if we really launch reforms, do we really need to spend so much money to improve our basic education?"

Li Xiao nodded firmly and said: "It's very worthwhile and very necessary! If we can't open up the people's wisdom, then our reforms will be just a flash in the pan, and Russia's backwardness cannot be fundamentally changed!"

"Only by opening up people's wisdom and letting everyone understand the importance of reform and the necessity of reform can reform be maintained!"

Alexey nodded: "It makes some sense, but I think there are probably very few people who agree and understand you now!"

Li Xiao was not surprised. If everyone agreed with him, or even as long as the majority of people in Russia agreed with him, let alone reform, it would be easy to catch up with France and surpass England.

It is a pity that Russia is now not only poor and backward, but also very ignorant. It is not only the ignorant serfs but also the ignorant and powerful class. It is simply hopeless.

Li Xiao sometimes admired how the Bolshevik mentors had the courage to fight and change the world after seeing such a country.

To be honest, he felt that the mentors were very lucky, and their victory was really just a temporary fluke. Otherwise, how could the descendants of the mentors have perished in just over half a century?

Should I say that the mentors are too powerful, or that their juniors are too useless?

Alexey suddenly said: "I heard that Count Rostovtsev and Count Nikolai Milyutin's hope for reform is to completely abolish the serf system, initially realize the free liberation of serfs, and let every serf have his own Field, you can live freely..."

Li Xiao listened quietly, not surprised by this, because this was the ideal of generations of Decembrists, who only wanted freedom and nothing else.

As for whether they can lead Russia towards modernization, they actually don't think that much. After all, fighting for freedom is extremely difficult, and they don't even know how long it will take to achieve this small goal.

Alexei continued: "In addition, Count Nikolai Milyutin believes that it is necessary to introduce some advanced Western concepts, such as advanced industry. After all, if we fall behind, we will be beaten. The last war has shown that if we do not catch up quickly, , I am afraid that in the face of provocations and insults from Britain and France, they will not be much better than the Turks."

Turks?

Li Xiao sighed again. Turkey in this era is actually almost the same as the Qing Dynasty later. It is almost a tool of imperialist proxy rule, and it can also be regarded as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

In any case, it is just meat on the chopping board, an existence that can be slaughtered by foreign powers at will.

Is it possible for Russia to become like Turkey? It's really hard to say. After all, Russia has unique geographical advantages and its support should be stronger than Turkey.

Of course, if you really don’t want to make progress, you will be done with it sooner or later. But listening to Alexey, Nikolai Milyutin just felt that the current crisis could be solved by introducing some advanced technology.

What is the difference between this and the Qing Dynasty’s Westernization Movement?

Has Russia introduced advanced technology? It should be said that it has always been there, but it is not a system or a routine. I treat my head and feet with a hammer and a stick. In the end, it seems that I can do everything, but when I actually do it, I find that everything is a little bit worse.

If you look at Russia's performance in World War I, it couldn't even produce rifles to fully meet demand, and had to buy them from abroad. As for cannons and warships, especially those warships that had the technological commanding heights back then, the Russian shipbuilding industry was just making do.

After several entry-level dreadnoughts received foreign technical support and purchased a considerable amount of technical finished products, the production process was stumbling, and the quality was not to say a mess, but it was worrying enough.

There is almost no difference from the third brother in later generations. He only has to go back and forth to the launching dock and squat in the dock for more than ten years.

Why is this the result?

It’s not just because the foundation is weak. The foundation is obviously in a mess, and many basic things cannot be produced and developed, but due to external pressure, we have to rush to put them on the shelves. This results in a heart that is higher than the sky and a life that is thinner than paper.

To put it bluntly, Russia is a hollow imperialist, with great ambitions but empty hearts. It can usually show off its power and scare the children around it who are worse than it, but once it fights against the real powers, its true colors will be revealed in minutes.

This was especially evident in World War I. The first great power that could not hold on was him, and he fell faster than Turkey. Do you think he is hollow or not?

But now Nikolai Milyutin obviously still wants to follow this old path. He was severely beaten by Britain and France in the Crimean War. He felt tremendous pressure and immediately wanted to make up for his shortcomings.

As a result, after looking at myself, I found that there were too many shortcomings, and the cost of making up for them was too high. I simply didn’t have the determination or will.

But you can’t just do nothing, right?

So I picked some that had quick results and looked bluffing and improved them first, such as introducing some military industries so that the Russian army would not look too backward.

Is this okay?

If there were no problems just to solve the urgent needs, Li Xiao would even praise him for knowing his priorities clearly.

But Li Xiao knew that the Russian tradition was to lie down as soon as the urgent need was solved. Without external pressure or the external pressure was not strong enough, these idiots would lose their enterprising spirit in minutes.

It is very possible that once the military seemed to be doing well again, they immediately felt that it would be too expensive to continue in-depth reforms and lay a solid foundation, and simply stopped doing it. It wasn't until I received external stimulation again later that I got excited again.

He was tossing back and forth between lying down and pretending to be dead, and in the end he lost precious time and missed the opportunities of the times. Then he blindly took on a century-old gamble and finally lost even his underpants and had to declare bankruptcy.

Not surprisingly, this is the result of the reforms led by Nikolai Milyutin and the others, you're a paper framer! Don't expect them to actually push the house to rebuild.

Although Li Xiao has no intention of pushing back the rebuilding, he is not a decorator, he is a decorator. He hopes to remove all the outdated things and create a new decoration that is in line with the development of the times.

It may not be able to solve the fundamental problem, but the foundation is still more or less solid, so that it won't reveal its original shape when it comes to getting serious, at least it can't lose to the stupid little devil again!

After thinking for a while, he said to Alexei: "Can you come forward and advocate that national basic education must be strengthened? We urgently need talents and fresh blood!"