Reincarnated as Nikolai II

Tsar's tutor, honorary member of the Academy, various ministerial and chairmanship positions, reformer, free trade supporter, professor and chancellor of St. Vladimir Imperial University.

Though many such titles preceded Nikolai Bunge's name, he knew.

Ultimately, a failure.

His life was a failure.

Failed attempt to develop credit transactions through private banks via the Kiev Mutual Credit Association.

Failed to nurture talent as chancellor of St. Vladimir University due to educational restrictions.

Failed and was driven out as Finance Minister with incomplete national reforms.

Failed to gain anyone's support after advocating for both private property protection and free enterprise while also calling for labor rights guarantees.

Though everyone praised his great learning and called him a great scholar, when Bunge himself looked back on his life, it was that of a dropout marked entirely by failure.

He hadn't properly achieved a single thing.

Though he received nine medals, none of his awards actually changed the empire.

He was just... no different from a street intellectual boasting about what he thought was right.

As a scholar, thinker, politician, professor - in no position did he manage to produce results that could prove his words until the end.

That was how Bunge himself viewed his life in his later years. A failure.

If there was anything consoling, it was perhaps the central bank's policy of accumulating gold for over 10 years since '84.

'Thanks to that, I might live to see Minister Witte implement the gold standard.'

Well, that's something at least. Though only superficial honors remained, it was better than having his entire life negated.

In truth, he knew. That he was eating away at himself with excessive standards.

Nevertheless, he couldn't lower his standards now after falling from the empire's peak to rock bottom overnight.

So Bunge decided to remain a loser.

The Crown Prince's practical affairs manager. A teacher conducting occasional education. Just that level of position.

Last year, he began to sense that even that was becoming difficult.

His body increasingly disobeyed him and his speech and thinking slowed. Now was the time for this life too to come to a halt.

So he resigned from his vice-chairmanship and was quietly waiting for death when one day...

"The Crown Prince extracted 100 million rubles without shedding a drop of blood with his brilliant eloquence!"

"When His Highness Nikolai arrived, the war immediately stopped and everyone came to love peace!"

It sounded like Okhrana manipulating public opinion, but at the time the mood was solemn with Alexander III's passing.

Even though such third-rate manipulation should have been found and punished, the Interior Ministry just watched idly.

But that was it. Bunge thought that news had nothing to do with an old man waiting to die, regardless of how much truth it contained.

At least until the true nature of the treaty the Crown Prince secured in the Far East was revealed.

"It's exactly 95 million rubles, and that money will be used entirely by the Amur Governor-General's Office. Everyone here wasn't expecting results anyway and was skeptical about the Far East, right?"

"T-that's-"

"Tsk, if we'd moved a bit earlier we could have gotten more. Such a shame. If only someone had helped me then."

To spend all that enormous money in the Far East.

When Bunge himself became Finance Minister and reduced redemption payments for peasant welfare, causing 12 million rubles to be lost from the treasury, how much criticism did he receive?

But now eight times that budget would be rolling around in a barren field.

There was a scent. A scent so familiar and intimate.

The old man's slowing heart began to beat faster bit by bit. The day after the coronation, Bunge immediately headed to the Winter Palace.

And after hearing exactly what would happen in the Far East through the Crown Prince, Bunge realized.

That he couldn't die like this. And that he had to go to that Far East.

"Send me! Please send me!"

"No, how can someone who resigned as vice-chairman due to poor health be like this."

"Your Majesty! Please send me to the Far East, even if just for the sake of our old relationship as tutor!"

Absolute nationalist policies.

A land where anything could be done and order could be established from scratch since there were no precedents.

He vividly remembered the attacks that came at him from all directions whenever he tried to do anything in the past.

When he advocated abolishing village mutual responsibility, even the State Council that should have supported him turned its back, and when he proposed child labor restriction bills, the right wing rushed in to tear him apart.

A puppet Finance Minister attacked for changing even one tax law or labor law.

An incompetent politician who couldn't do anything freely except tasks assigned by the Tsar.

Bunge now wanted to break free from all that past and those shackles. No, furthermore, he wanted to deny all his failures.

He wanted to shout that he had been right. That all of you who opposed me were wrong.

Through that Far East.

He couldn't die like this. No matter what humiliation he suffered or how much he struggled, he had to go to the Far East.

Otherwise, this old body had no meaning in living on.

After throwing away even his dignity and lying prostrate, the Tsar finally permitted him to leave.

'The previous Tsar wished for me to stay and assist His Majesty Nikolai... but I'm sorry, I cannot.'

Those who once led national reforms with him. Scholars who advocated state-led growth. Those tired of both the corrupt right wing and the left wing that only looked at illusions.

Bunge gathered people indiscriminately and departed for the Far East without a plan.

Though the journey was rough and harsh on an old man, it was never boring. For he was no longer a failure waiting to die, but a reformer who would overturn his entire past at the end of his life.

When they arrived in the Far East after such hardships...

"When are you going to pay the construction costs! We need money upfront to buy equipment, hire workers, and break ground!"

"You think it's easy to set budgets, execute them, supervise, and report afterwards every time? Just wait!"

"If you're going to be like this, why didn't the Governor-General's Office just do it directly instead of calling us? We only came because we heard rumors about money overflowing, sheesh!"

Indeed, there seems to be overflowing work.

"Well, we'll need to establish a bank under the Governor-General first."

Bunge's eyes were gleaming.

==

Looking back at father's rule while handling daily practical affairs, the good and bad deeds become clearly visible.

Various policies and orders that clearly reveal the choices between failure and success, private interest and national interest.

If I had to pick what I'm most grateful to father for among them, I would choose this.

"Okhrana, he left me quite a necessary department."

While it would take years if I were to establish and grow a direct department to use as my hands and feet now, Okhrana has already been established for 30 years.

Starting as a small cases department under the St. Petersburg mayor in '66, it later changed to a secret investigation department and in '81, father officially expanded it into the Department of Public Safety and Order.

A secret police under the Interior Ministry, completely independent unlike before when it was just a police department.

Father gave them two main duties.

One was the function of a political investigation center.

Investigating and observing various politicians and organizations within the empire, and directly intervening if necessary.

The second was controlling labor movements.

Establishing pro-government unions to conduct operations, planting informants to dig up internal information, or manipulating from behind.

'Actually, most of the massive protests in 1905 were protests manipulated by Okhrana from behind to lower public pressure. Since it was done so secretly, the military, not knowing this, carried out bloody suppression.'

Though the bureaucrats might not know, Okhrana already knew about the previous Yaroslavl industrial complex strike and had planted sufficient informants internally.

In other words, punishment of the leaders could have been easily achieved without soldiers and workers having to kill each other.

Annual budget allocation is 3.5 million rubles.

According to their duties, the first department is located in St. Petersburg and the second in Moscow, with numerous branch offices under them.

"Okhrana's ranks are equivalent to the military and they report only to the Interior Ministry and Imperial Household. Essentially directly under me. Is that right, Colonel Sekherinsky?"

"Though my rank is colonel, we usually use titles."

"Then I'll call you Director Sekherinsky too."

Let's see, surprisingly there are many who hold concurrent positions in Okhrana though they seem to work only in the shadows. Mostly military police or security.

"Do you also plant informants in the military?"

"Not informants... just cooperation with military police."

"Well, the military wouldn't stand still if we did."

But they don't live harboring politics and ideology like political soldiers.

"It seems the military police, security forces, and security bureau somewhat overlap in duties. With over a thousand Okhrana personnel, the budget is neither insufficient nor excessive."

The only regrettable thing is they lack the secrecy and covertness of just the security bureau.

Compared to the future KGB that went beyond development, search and arrest to occasionally engage in combat, the current Okhrana is thoroughly according to father's taste.

Cleaning up leftists and restricting left-wing activities. Counterintelligence or espionage activities beyond that still seem difficult, and the only good thing is their extensive experience with informants?

"Do you know why I called you?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know."

"Right, so Okhrana's eyes and ears can't penetrate inside the Imperial Household."

"That's only natural."

I don't plan to use Okhrana only for left-wing activities. That would be a tremendous waste of talent.

"I've seen the Director's background. From a military family, worked in military police for over 20 years, with good achievements in Okhrana activities."

"Thank you."

"The empire is noisy lately with the establishment of parliament. Everyone's saying I hastily dug up a relic of the past. So I want to make some preparations."

I understand. With orders to implement unconditionally this autumn, the atmosphere is unsettled and everyone's busy digging through old documents for everything from voting to preparing the State Duma.

"If we establish the State Duma and stay still, they'll become the new power class and rot just the same."

No matter how armed with sense of mission and ideology, once they step into this political arena, they'll inevitably be tainted bit by bit under the word 'compromise'.

And grandfather's solution to this was the press.

"I plan to guarantee freedom of the press. What do you think?"

"In my limited view, I worry that press will become a new power class."

"Precisely. Just because they hold a pen, they'll quickly become drunk with power."

This is unavoidable even in the 21st century. Because the press is a group guaranteed power just by its existence, even without making profit.

"This is where Okhrana, you guardians, are needed."

So I want to add another shackle here.

If Okhrana directly investigates and arrests politicians, it will fade the meaning of parliament and draw resentful eyes to me.

But what if Okhrana controls the press that can criticize politicians?

'Just one step removed, but no cause for resentment.'

The press should already be grateful just for being revived.

"Are you saying you'll expand Okhrana?"

"Yes, hurry to establish local branches and recruit personnel. Select people to plant informants in the soon-to-be-revived press, enabling investigation, arrest, and punishment if needed."

When parliament is created, press revives, and the State Duma and local city Dumas become active, Okhrana will also become busy.

"Your Majesty, exactly how far are you planning?"

"For now, to the level where we can easily crush press agencies that violate reporting restrictions within this year. It will probably become larger than you imagine."

The press of this era often involves the literate class, so there will likely be plenty to catch ideologically as well.

'It would be nice if they just played within the area I permit... but how could they?'

Sometimes there are those who need to take visible beatings to learn 'Ah, you get hit if you cross the line.'

"Director Pyotr Vasilyevich Sekherinsky."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"I'll give you budget and authority, so grow the guardian agency."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

This is my first preparation for establishing parliament.