Chapter 303: The Bureaucratic Approach
Chapter 293 – The Bureaucrat’s Way of Dealing
Winter Palace
Receiving the news of Bismarck’s assassination, Nicholas I was instantly enraged. The assassination of a country’s minister in St. Petersburg was a slap in his face.
“Investigate, give me a full investigation, the murderer must be found for me!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” The police minister hurriedly replied
After a pause, Nicholas I asked, “Is Bismarck dead yet?”
Because of the cold relations between the two countries, Bismarck’s face Nicholas I had not even seen, naturally it was not a matter of caring if he was dead or alive.
However, the situation is different now, if Bismarck is not dead, then there is still room for things to maneuver, as long as the murderer is caught.
If he was dead, then the Russians would be an international laughing stock again. The British were probably not going to give up on falling on their sword when they couldn’t even protect a foreign envoy.
Police Minister Dumanov replied, “Bismarck was shot three times and is being resuscitated. Because of the long delay, the chances of survival are not good.”
……
Obviously, this is getting ready to be dumped. Dumanoff was also very angry about Bismarck’s assassination, and to him it was simply an unmitigated disaster.
If the assassination had taken place in another area, then it would have been a law and order problem and he would have recognized it. But in front of the Prussian embassy, the situation was different, the police of the Tsarist government usually did not hang around in front of embassies.
Out of his bureaucratic nature, he also had to push out the blame. The excuses had been made, the security of the Prussian embassy was their own responsibility, and it was incompetence on the part of the guards not to have reacted to this turn of events.
A little unscrupulous thought, this could also be an internal power struggle in the Kingdom of Prussia, or it could have been orchestrated under Bismarck’s enemies. If it was collusion between inside and outside, then it makes a lot more sense.
In that case, his responsibility would be much lighter. Everyone’s attention was diverted to the internal struggle within the Kingdom of Prussia, and there was less international pressure on the Tsarist government.
Aside from the palace, Margrave Dumanoff set about finding evidence to back up his excuses.
He had just returned to his office when he received the news of Bismarck’s untimely death. This was followed by the good news that the suspect had been caught.
Margrave Dumanoff asked with concern, “Has the suspect been identified?”
The aide replied in a serious manner, “The preliminary judgment is that they are members of the Polish Independence Organization, and the type of bullets that appeared at the crime scene is the same as the ones searched at the residence of the captured suspects.
These weapons and ammunition are all handmade, not mechanically produced, and are commonly used equipment by the Polish Independence Organization.
On the basis of preliminary examination, they admitted that they had infiltrated into St. Petersburg on this occasion in order to assassinate high-ranking officials of our country to create chaos and an opportunity for Polish independence.
It is said that there is more than one such action group. With the Kingdom of Prussia also occupying Polish territory, it is not surprising that Bismarck was targeted for murder.”
After thinking for a while, Margrave Dumanov said seriously, “The pressure of public opinion is now very unfavorable to us, immediately inform the information we have in our hands, and remember that the murderer is the Polish Independence Organization.
Also tell the press that there may be a mole in the Prussian Embassy, and that it was by their internal and external collusion that Minister Bismarck was assassinated.
And because of the traitor, Bismarck was not taken to the hospital in time after the assassination, which led to his death.
Let the reporters make up the specific details, anyway, we have no right to ask about the internal problems of the Prussian Embassy, inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send them a letter to let the Prussians investigate themselves.”
It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not anymore, this is a responsibility Marquis Dumanov himself doesn’t want to carry, the results of the investigation are enough for now.
It was not a day or two since the Polish Independence Organization had been making trouble in the Russian Empire. In normal times they were messing around in the Polish region, and now it was no surprise that they had run to St. Petersburg.
In this day and age there weren’t that many detective tools, and it was very difficult to find out what was going on. A single bite that it was the Poles who did it, and an inside job to go along with it, would then bring the Prussian government down.
If they continued to bite the problem, then they themselves could not escape the blame, the Berlin government did not dare to continue to expand the problem.
This is related to the national problem in the country, after all, the number of Poles in the Kingdom of Prussia is quite large, close to four layers of the total population.
It is hard to assimilate away, continue to make trouble on this issue, it is easy to provoke national conflicts.
Margrave Dumanoff thought that he had considered all aspects, and that if you are good and I am good and everyone is good, the matter will be over.
BERLIN
Received the news of Bismarck’s assassination, the regent Wilhelm Frederick Ludwig did not feel much, anyway, everyone is not on good terms, sadness is non-existent.
He even had a few snickers, taking the opportunity to make Russia bleed. After all, the victims also need to be appeased, without their cooperation, this matter is not so easy to finish.
Foreign Minister Andrea said grimly, “Your Highness, we just received a case report from the Russians, the murderer is said to be a Polish independence organization, and they believe that it has something to do with the political struggles in the country, and asked us to conduct a self-investigation of the embassy. Here are the details, please take a look.”
The same words, interpreted by people with different identities, naturally had different meanings.
There were dark currents within the Kingdom of Prussia now, and with Frederick William IV falling ill, there was a round of reshuffling within the government.
Once it was proved that someone in the Prussian Embassy had colluded with the assassins, there was another political earthquake, which was very unfavorable to the newly regent Wilhelm Frederick Ludwig.
The principle of political struggle is to fight but not to break, and the struggle within the governments of European countries is seldom characterized by the nasty incident of buying and killing. Once it happened, it was to be resisted by all.
Now the Russians’ dumping action was obviously not acceptable to Wilhelm Frederick Ludwig, which meant that the political struggle in the Kingdom of Prussia had broken the bottom line.
The more he looked at it, the angrier he became. Biting off the idea that there was a mole in the Prussian embassy based on mere speculation, it was clear that the Russians were being perfunctory.
The assassination of Bismarck is the Polish independence organization, this argument is barely acceptable, at least caught a few suspects, the recovery of special weapons and ammunition can be considered evidence.
This was the scapegoat chosen by the intelligence organization under Franz, and naturally there were traces left behind. In order to quickly close the case, the Tsarist government bureaucrats naturally will not let go of these “evidence”.
The so-called untimely rescue and the existence of a traitor is pure bullshit.
The assassination of the minister was such a big deal that there would have been chaos at the scene, and it would have taken time for everyone to react and then be sent to the hospital for treatment.
In fact, the delay was only ten minutes, including the time to simply bandage the wounds, how can it be regarded as a deliberate delay in the rescue time?
With this presumption that there is a traitor in the Prussian Embassy, is even more bullshit. In his opinion, this is the Russians intentionally provoking the Prussian Kingdom internal conflict.
The assassination of Bismarck by an independent Polish organization was not a big problem, but if assimilated Poles were also involved, and they were also officials in the government, then it would be a big problem.
It meant that the assimilated Poles, who had not yet given up their independence, were involved with the Polish Independence Organization. If the problem was amplified, it would have centrifuged the Poles and the government.
Wilhelm Frederick Ludwig exasperatedly said, “Tell the Russians that we need an explanation. Don’t gloss over it with such probable, possible reasons; the Kingdom of Prussia will not accept such bullshit.”
Foreign Minister Andrea objected, “Your Highness, it would be better to investigate ourselves first! We are not sure of the accuracy of the Russians’ claim that they still have members of the Polish Independence Organization on their hands.
If it is true that someone is colluding with the Polish Independence Organization, and the evidence is still in the hands of the Russians, then it will have to be watered down.”
The Kingdom of Prussia had assimilated the Poles in the country, and Andrea didn’t think they would get mixed up with the Polish Independence Organization, and even if they did it would only be a very small number, not representative of everyone.
In contrast, it was still more likely that someone in the government was involved in the operation and took the opportunity to take out Bismarck.
Political struggles were brutal, and it was no big deal to play the borrowed knife once in order to strike at your opponents.
It is important to know that the Prussian government and the Polish Independence Organization had always been connected, and the anti-Russian faction during the Revolution advocated supporting Polish independence to hold the Russians at bay and focus on unifying the German region.
Although it did not succeed in the end, this connection has never been broken. Now the anti-Russian faction in the country, colluded with the Polish independence organization to kill Bismarck, to prevent the two countries from getting closer to each other.
Because of the national conflicts involved, the government was destined to just downplay it. To investigate can only go on in secret, and the risk of everyone being exposed is lowered again.
Moreover, Prussia still has Bismarck’s enemy in the country, and it is not strange to use this opportunity to kill him. This “enemy” was not only a political enemy, but also a personal enemy, which added to the complexity of the matter.
What appeared to Prince Wilhelm Frederick Ludwig to be a very falsehood on the part of the Russians, became the truth in the eyes of Andrea.
There were so many places where the assassination could have been carried out, why did it have to be at the entrance of the embassy? If there was no one to cooperate, how could they leave the scene quickly after the murder?
(End of chapter)