History Learner
Well-known member
Only marginally less batshit than Tsar Paul's lunatic plan to invade India. Badmayev was a crank. Not an incapable man, but his pet obsession was cmpletely impractical. Tsar Alexander's response to the plan says it all: "All this is so novel, so unusual and fantastic that it is difficult to believe in the possibility of success."
If the Tsar happens to hit his head really hard and becomes brain-damaged enough to sign off on it, the result is a 100% chance of war with Britain. Germany thanks you for this wonderful opportunity, as you have effectively turned Britain against you. This means France can either forget about the Entente, or has to break ties with Russia. Either way, Germany wins.
If you want Russia to be a superpower, the main trick is to delay war, not to hasten it with crazy stunts. Time favours Russia. The earlier any Great War starts, the more Russia is screwed. The later it starts, the stronger Russia will be.
Sergei Witte definitely was none of those things, and his endorsement I think speaks volumes. I'd agree trying to take in all of China and Tibet was out of the question, which is why there was two proposals and the later one took the far more modest goal of Northern China, rather than all of it. In 1893, the Entente between Russia and France had already been signed while the lapse between Germany and Russia was extremely recent and had not yet decisively driven a wedge between the powers; just a few short years later you saw the Triple Intervention against Japan by Paris-Berlin-Moscow.