I offer you rice and a fox in this trying times (January-March, 1928).

Far Eastern politics]

Coming in 1928, an interesting change was seen in the Far East.

The socio-political, economic and demographic development of Inner Manchuria, Korea and Outer Manchuria (and to some extent Mongolia) brought about various changes in the local scene of the Russian Empire.

These changes required, among other developments, that the Russian government create the Tumen River Special Economic Area, located as its name indicates on the Tumen River (from the Mongolian word tümen, meaning "ten thousand").

The Russian government placed some emphasis on the Tumen River Special Economic Area or the Greater Tumen Project, because it is an important alternative (economically and militarily speaking) to the city of Vladivostok, and would allow the export of economic assets from the Mongol-Manchurian provinces and the Northern Chinese States to the Sea of Japan (and from there to Russian interests in the rest of Asia the importance of the Greater Tumen should not be ignored when we talk about the export of resources such as coal from Russia to East Asia and the Pacific).

In this Greater Tumen Project (which today has given rise to the Rason international trade zone, a regional center of exports, tourism and finances), two small towns came to play. Rajin (a fishing village) and Unggi (a small port city), both near the industrial city of Chŏngjin.

Due to the better direct access to the sea from eastern Manchuria, the authorities gave more importance to the development of this north-eastern region, and as a consequence Rajin and Unggi were united in what is now the city of Rason (라선시/Расон, although first it was called Rajin-Sŏnbong).

Naturally as expected during the Premiership of I.V. Stalin, the city fell under the administration of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and the Social Democratic Labor Party of Korea (SDLPK).

Which meant the creation of a new local leadership, with new party secretaries. While the SDLPK elected a local, the RSDLP left this task to its existing secretaries from the Far East.

Which led to the rise of Grand Duke Sergei Romanov, better known as Seryosha within the Party.

This was a significant promotion for the Grand Duke, who until then had been working in the city of Monastyrskoye (Krasnoyarsk Krai).

A complete change of environment for the Grand Duke, but one that would test much of what he learned from his stay in northern Krasnoyarsk.

Seryosha Romanov as secretary of the RSDLP in the city of Rajin-Sŏnbong, would be in charge of administrative affairs and the local development of the city-port (along with other members of the bureaucracy and the party).

This period is attributed to the construction of metallurgy, the creation of port capacities (construction of No 28 Shipyard Najin - which is a supplement to the needs of the Russian navy in Korea), creation of the energy sector with the creation of plants for oil refining and growth of local mining (coal, iron, magnesite, and clay are plentiful in the area).

This period of Rajin-Sŏnbong is more important than it seems for the career of Grand Duke Sergei, since it would set him on the path to become Governor years later, and without a doubt it verified and extended the administrative experience that he had.

Left: Main street of Rajin-Sŏnbong in the late 1920s. Right: Aerial view of the industrial district in the early 1930s. ​

*[(little) Perspective]

The railway reached its destination, but its passengers had not yet, since the city still had to be reached on foot.

"Thanks for your help". Seryosha insists to his friend Puyi, who helped him unload and leave the necessary luggage at the station.

"It doesn't matter." The Chinese man assures the Russian that he was expected by a short Korean delegation.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Seryosha asks Puyi after a few moments, after so much time together in Monastyrskoye, the parting was somewhat painful...

"In the future, but there is still a huge world to see, don't you think?" The ex-emperor of China asks his companion, who shakes his hand as an equal before leaving.

Two friends said goodbye at the train station, with Sergei heading east to reach the newly opened city of Rajin-Sŏnbong, while Puyi headed south to see a bit more of the Korean peninsula.

Their journeys wouldn't exactly be easy, but that is what growing up means...

*******

[Agriculture]

Despite a civil war in the early 1920s and the third World War (1937-1943, the late 30s and early 40s), the Russian Empire from the early 20th century -and onwards- has functioned as an indispensable part of the food market of the World.

By the 1940s, Russia was the world's largest producer and exporter of: Wheat, rye, barley, sugar beet, potatoes, sunflowers, cotton, and milk, among some other products derived from livestock such as wool (and 1# in some more lists of products).

Some two decades later, it was indisputable that Russia ranked first in the total volume of agricultural production, livestock production and grain harvesting.

And this without counting the vital role that Russia plays in similar sectors, such as the chemical fertilizer industry.

This, however, does not mean that the Russian Empire has ceased to carry out a continuous struggle to sustain its enormous population and the world, with the challenges that this poses at the geographical, economic, and scientific levels (among other fields).

In the modern world, this fundamentally requires increasing the efficiency of agriculture and increasing the yield per hectare.

*Including taking in account other associated factors (for example, as the income of the individual increases 1%, it has been found that their consumption of dairy products also increases at least by a 0.8% - reason why the developing world [India first, and later Africa] has been incrementing its consume of milk during decades).

Although the productive mammoth steppe and the green wall of Central Asia, and new agricultural revolutions (the green revolution and the use of technologies such as drones) have made advances and achievements in modern times, the Russian Empire of the early 20th century naturally did not have many of the resources or means of today (modern greenhouse technology, modern uses of plastic in agriculture, refrigeration techniques, etc).

However, we still saw important advances, such as the continued development of chemicals for agricultural use, the use of aviation for agriculture, and scientific expansion in the agricultural production of grain crops before the field of genetics.

In January 7 of 1928, agricultural aircraft began to have a boom in Russia, which would have strong implications for the future (by that time there had already been cases of agricultural aircraft before in the United States, for example, but this was a boom that gave rise to massive and more modern use).

This with the first flight of the U-2 (or later Polikarpov Po-2 / У-2 and По-2 in Cyrillic) by Mikhail Mikhailovich Gromov, the aircraft was designed by Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov during his time in the State Aviation Plant No. 1 (GAZ No. 1), and soon nicknamed 'Cornflower' (Кукурузник) by the Russians.

The trusty U-2 was designed essentially as a training-combat aircraft, but soon with its production, a new purpose was also found for this aircraft in its use for agriculture.

Agricultural aviation thus allowed to start covering hundreds to thousands of hectares of crops with chemicals useful for agriculture (especially pesticides) per day.

Starting like this, at least the pilots in the middle call it 'hedgehoping', a flight at a very low altitude that agricultural planes carry out daily (because if the agricultural aircraft flew very high, the wind would disperse the chemicals, instead of reaching the crop).

Today, the work of agricultural aviation in Russia (which started thanks to Polikarpov in 1928) is indispensable in helping to feed more than 100 million people in the country and beyond.

But that only represents a part of the agricultural sector in Russia (both historically and modernly).

Another of the important advances in the Russian Empire was the claim of land for cultivation and the advances that were made in the understanding of the crops themselves.

As we mentioned, with the green wall of Central Asia there was a large number of young people mobilized to claim different parts of the Russian territory for cultivation. Which was very important for modern geo-engineering.

But there were also other consequences in the agricultural sector, such as the beginnings of new crop varieties and the predecessors of hybrid farming (before the introduction of genetics to agriculture).

Scientists like Trofim Lysenko began working on new varieties of grain, especially wheat and rice (including trunda rice/рисом тундры, which is simply how the Russians know South American quinoa).

What later, with the construction of hydraulic projects and farms throughout Russia, would allow a massive explosion in Russian agricultural production, and therefore, in their ability to produce food for themselves and other countries.

One of the legacies of Lysenko and similar scientists is the variability in rice and quinoa that has allowed certain saline soils to be reclaimed, where farming was previously unthinkable. Increasing the arable space of certain regions.

*Fun fact: By the 1960s, the Russian diet generally consisted of 3,280 calories per day (44% from grains and potatoes, 13% from sugars, 11% from dairy and eggs, 17% from fats and oils, and 8% from meat and eggs - with 'Other products' representing the remaining 7%).

This was already a reality by 1963, which is curiously, only around these times when larger food chains began to develop nationwide.

Coke and Pepsi already existed, but they weren't really food, rather just drink chains. In the United States there were already fast food restaurant chains that are still identifiable today.

Dodo Pizza, famous pizza chain in the Russian Empire.

"Soda Stand" by Boris Yermolayev, in the 1940s. ​

*

Modern world, and the geo-politics of food.

In the 1970s, there was a certain fear of the idea of an overpopulation in the Russian Empire (a concern coming more from abroad, than from Russia itself).

Economists, naturalists, geo-engineers and other observers, such as those of the American series "Worldwatch Environmental Alert" feared and warned that Russia could lose its ability to feed itself over time due to its growth, and how this would affect the food situation worldwide.

American environmental analyst Lester Russel Brown later kind of doubled down on these claims, due to India following similar demographic trends to Russia in the 1990s.

"To feed their more than 2 billion people combined, Russia and India may soon have to import so much grain that their actions could trigger unprecedented increases in world food prices."

Claims that have since been proven unfounded, as Russia and India continue to be able to feed their populations, and remain some of the world's largest food exporters.

Both Russia and India have demonstrated their capacity for stable food production for their citizens (how much does one hectare produce to feed a certain number of people), sustainable development and use of resources, and food storage.

Although of course there are still problems in the food sector, and not everyone is happy with the policies of the Eurasian countries regarding their management of resources.

As example: There are still productive regions threatened by climate change, the consumerism of certain population-regions could pose a problem for sustainability in certain periods of time, there is a great food waste from the so-called "Industrial Food Chain", and of course there are underdeveloped population-regions in the world who experiment several levels of food crisis.

And of course there is also the geo-political and economic aspect of the global food sector.

African leader Thomas Sankara once said: "He who feeds you, controls you."

And when we have entire African countries like Sagallo that depend 100% on Russia for their grain supply (only as one example). Can we 100% deny the true in Sankara's statement?

Sometimes large parts of the world depend on the decisions of a few, those who control much of the world's resources.

We are not only talking about neo-colonialism and imperialism that certain countries can experiment/exercise, but also about the existing commercial relations between countries, the already mentioned Industrial Food Chain (the big-scale food producers, mostly food corporations) and the "Peasant Food Web" (a diverse network of small-scale producers, 'peasants').

An example of the geo-politics of food in recent times is how various countries have attacked India for its 'hoarding' of food in near-scarcity periods.

After India's ability to feed its population was doubted in the 1990s, they are also scolded for holding large amounts of food in modern times (which, in theory, would keep international market prices higher than they should be - or so argue some people).

*Fun fact: The average human needs 1.05 hectares of crops and water to have an acceptable standard of living (which is actually quite impressive, because it shows a major advance in the efficiency and production of modern agriculture).

Take into account tho, the average European consumes 2.2/2.3 hectares and the average North American consumes 5 hectares of crops and water.

The agricultural explosion and advance of the XX-XXI century has allowed the Earth to support a greater number of humans, and that the agricultural results of human activity are greater.

But it is still sad that some human populations live in miserable conditions (some argue that this imbalance in the distribution of resources is necessary, that some must go hungry so that others can have a feast - after all, there arent hectares of crops for all the people. But these seems a rather Neo-Malthusian argument, or at least one that argues in bad faith, seeing how in fact a better World is possible).

*******

[Domestic Animals?]

russian-pet-domesticated-foxes.jpg

Examples of the popular Russian domesticated fox of Novosibirsk in the mid-XX century.​

In 1875, during the rule of Tsar Alexander III, Professor Nikolai Petrovich Wagner (1829-1907) began the first experiments in the selective breeding of foxes for 'domestication'.

Half a century later (52 years, months more months less) during the rule of Tsar Nicholas II, the experiment was considered 'completed' (in a rather broad sense of the word, scientific studies continued, but the results were open to the public and to trade).

The facilities were moved to Novosibirsk (Siberia), where they would become the first 'Fox Farms' (Лисьи фермы, Lis'i fermy).

Starting with this a growing process of breeding, domestication and adoption-sale of the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes), now known as the Novosibirsk Fox or Russian Domestic Fox (which is still a vulpes vulpes, despite certain behavior and appearance traits that differentiate it from a wild red fox).

It was not sought to replace the domestic dog, of course, but another domestic canine soon began to be integrated into the repertoire of pets of human populations, especially in the Russian Empire and some adjacent countries-regions.

For the time, this was seen not as 'crazy' but a great advance for the scientific community that also was quite popular among the population.

"Arguably the most extraordinary breeding experiment ever conducted." as described by The New York Times in the 1920s.

And a 2010 article in the scientific journal of the European Socialist Union on the new domestic pets history, stated that the Russian experiment on the domestication of foxes added, decades later: "May be the experiment most responsible for our understanding of the process by which wolves were domesticated into our canine companions."

Before explaining a little more about the Russian reaction (and those close to it) to this phenomenon of domestic foxes, it is perhaps necessary to look at its bases.

Nikolai Wagner's experiments were based on a process of artificial selection, which benefited specimens less fearful of human presence and developed more 'domesticated' individuals over some generations.

This put into practice, to a certain extent, what the Russians called "domestication syndrome". A theoretical syndrome or condition, were people in favor of such a theory claim that certain traits and behaviors would begin to appear as mammals are bred for tameness only (among these traits are: smaller skull size, upright tail, and unique fur coloration).

This syndrome would explain why Novosibirsk Foxes exhibit appearance and behavior traits similar to those of domestic dogs, despite not being taxonomically related.

The Tsarist family were among the first Russian families to keep domestic foxes as pets, but this soon spread among the upper class of the Covenant of Nations and the middle class of worker-peasants.

Explaining why this happened within the upper class is simple, a new and exotic pet was rubbing shoulders with the country's elites and their allies (Ethiopia and Iran especially), and Grand Duke Cyril gifted a few to his allies within the upper classes...

Now explaining why the fox began to spread as a domestic pet among the workers of the cities and the peasantry of the countryside is a little more difficult.

It is safer to say that it was probably a multi-causal socio-economic process, where several factors would come together, such as the demographic explosion of the domestic fox, its novelty, impact with the upper classes, and its accompaniment to the repertoire of canine pets (with various uses, especially against small vermin or for hunting).

In short, the Novosibirsk fox soon found itself becoming popular throughout Russia and made some trips to the Covenant countries, where it became popular among different social classes in Russian Eurasia and its sphere of influence.

A dream of Tsar Alexander III had come true, with the successful domestication of the red fox (vulpes vulpes) and its expansion throughout the local scene (with supranational and international consequences, as will be seen later).

*A rather dark theory about why domestic foxes became popular is that after the civil war and the construction of new cities, there was an increase in families without pets, and foxes began to occupy a space in people's hearts as result, like dogs and cats.

*In recent times, it has been argued that the experiment of Wagner and his successors may not be as revolutionary as it seems, since 'Urban Foxes' have also been able to demonstrate traits of domestication and evidence provided by fur farms outside of Russia.

russian-pet-domesticated-foxes.jpg

"Rainbow" of domesticated red foxes (Vulpes vulpes).

OOC: The Little Foxes" by sea turtle is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0​

*

Similar cases.

The Novosibirsk domestic fox soon spread throughout Russia and some neighboring countries (members of the Covenant), becoming a common pet among the various social classes, but particularly with the middle class of the cities and the countryside (although of course the upper classes also wanted these pets too, but just of a higher 'pedigree').

Overseas (outside the Covenant of Nations), Novosibirsk domestic foxes, or simply Russian domestic foxes, were a complete rarity, only accessible to those with wealth who had the resources and the desire for a specimen of these 'luxury pets' of the early XX century. Just in some cases reserved as a diplomatic gift.

At some point in its export history, a domesticated Russian fox could cost up to $9,000 to its buyers.

This for a myriad of reasons, including the fact that the Covenant placed restrictions on their export and for the time the domestication process was practically unknown outside of Russia. Also, the Russian domesticated fox could only be purchased legally from the Russian province of Novosibirsk, and most were sold spayed or neutered.

A legitimate domesticated Russian fox, was an exceptionally rare pet, but soon desired in some non-Covenant countries.

Obviously there was a black market for these animals and perhaps some client with contacts or enough money for a good bribe, was able to obtain a fertile Novosibirsk fox or two, but this is unlikely to have led to sizable populations of domestic foxes abroad (as we know today).

Instead, the most likely case is that domestic fox populations unrelated to the Novosibirsk fox come from the local programs of certain fox fur farms.

Which gave rise to 'domesticated' (domesticated in the sense of, breed in fur farm conditions) foxes, as these fur farms wanted a piece of the pie which seemed to be the sale of domestic foxes.

The first programs of this type, of which there is evidence, arose in Canada (then the Imperial Federation) and shortly after the United States, which had a wealthy class, which wanted more domestic foxes.

The results of these early programs by North American fur farms are largely unknown, a result of their unscientific nature, commercial purposes, and of course World War III.

But after WW3, we see a revival and expansion of the idea of an 'American' domestic fox.

The Novosibirsk fox continued to dominate the eccentricities of wealthy Americans until the 1970s, when domestic American foxes became more viable as an option.

There were also domestic foxes for the population of the cities and the countryside, but the rich people of course had its 'high pedigree' foxes, such as the so-called 'Marble Fox'.

This explains the 'breeds' of domestic foxes in America, but still does not give us certain origins for other non-Russian domestic fox specimens.

An example of literally different breeds of foxes are the domesticated populations of fennec foxes (Vulpes zerda) or pale foxes (Vulpes pallida), which predominantly inhabit the North African continent.

*Myth vs. Reality: Domestic foxes of different colors are not really different breeds, what happens is that they come from different genetic lines.

This mean the common domesticated 'Silver Fox' (named due to its coloration) and the 'Dwarf Fox' (naturally ocurring small foxes) are not really species of foxes, but just different genetic lines of the domesticated fox (which usually comes from the Vulpes vulpes).

Where domesticated fennec and pale foxes come from is currently a subject of debate.

In the case of the fennec, it is clear that it was someone in North Africa, but it is difficult to say who. The popular myth is that its domestication began in Libya, but this is an assertion with little argument at the moment.

In the case of pale foxes, the main theory is that the first experiments in their domestication were promoted by the Ethiopian nobility and the Afro-Russian socio-commercial elite of Sagallo (Russian colony in the Red Sea).

russian-pet-domesticated-foxes.jpg

Example of a Canadian/North American domesticated 'Marble Fox', a domesticated red fox with a 'marble' fur. They have an almost-mythological status among North Americans.​

This is the particular case of North Americans and Africans, but in Western Europe, the knowledge of the domestication of the Novosibirsk fox or Russian fox, had other consequences.

There was not a wealthy or noble class that wanted a luxury pet, but there were millions of proletarians-peasants who, in their process of cultural revolution, were not afraid to carry out experiments similar to the domestication of the fox in Russia.

In the Union of Iberian Socialist Republics, the Iberians began to domesticate the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon, also called 'meloncillo').

In the rest of the Euro-Communist countries (Iberia, Ireland and Turkey being the exception), there was more furore for the ferret (Mustela furo) and the beech marten (Martes foina).

(OOC: Remember than actually OTL 'pet domesticated foxes' are rife with controversies, misinformation, and myths)

*[(little) Perspective]

Tsar Nicholas II leaned back in his chair for a moment, watching from his balcony as his son Cyril was handing out some new pet foxes to his 'friends' (rich people around him) and some Ethiopian diplomats during a rather off-the-record meeting.

Nicholas rolled his eyes and simply took some more of his drink, watching the rather snobby industrialists share a chat. The Ethiopians were harder to read, but they didn't seem displeased or angry with the gift.

Meanwhile, Nicholas's new pet leaned back at the foot of the chair, beginning to doze off.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to take a nap too." Nicholas mentions the his silver fox.

*******

[International]

January 1, the second battle of Las Cruces (also called New Year's Day Battle) takes place between the Sandinista forces of Nicaragua and the US forces in the Federation of Central America.

The American expeditionary forces and their allies (the Federation government) managed to defeat the numerically larger Sandinista force and capture their positions.

Despite this victory, Sandino reinforced his defeated troops and besieged Quilali for a few days, which forced the Marines and guardsmen to abandon the expedition to El Chipote. Thus maintaining the situation of civil war in the Federation of Central America.

One of the largest forced labor jobs in the Imperial Federation at the time occurs on this day, with around 250,000 natives working for the Imperial government projects in the Sierra Leone protectorate (the motto of this land is: "Free under the protection of Britain").

January 2, five carloads of machine gun parts falsely labeled as machine parts are shipped from Italy to northern Greece to support Balkan communist groups.

An event discovered after a leak of customs documents, causing minor diplomatic disputes in Europe (especially between communists and anti-communists in the Mediterranean world).

On January 3, the United States ordered the deployment of 1,000 Marines and five additional destroyers to the Federation of Central America to continue the campaign against the Nicaraguan-Sandinista rebels.

The Senussi surrender to the Italian officials of the Kingdom of Italy in exile (Libya-Tunisia), after for years the Italian government increased its violence against the locals and received British support to put an end to the actions of the Senussi order.

The Senussi are a kind of tariqa (Sufi order with political-religious characteristics) and clan, which until then had presented resistance to the European colonization of the Cyrenaica region.

Cyrenaica's livestock is decimated as result, a large portion of its population was interned in concentration camps, and the land is converted into new farms for Italian people.

*Between 1930 and 1931 an estimated of 12,000 Cyrenaicans were executed by the Regio Esercito of the government in exile.

*Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi, the leader of the Senussi since 1916, had been living in the Emirate of Ha'il in a form of exile for some years prior to this event.

The race for the liberation and unification of Libya would be defined by the groups that were able to overcome "ethnic and local tribal identification", gaining support especially among the Cyrenaicans and Tripolitanians (the two regions with most of the population).

Among these there were two currents, one supported by Ha'il from the East and the other supported by the ESU from the North.

*Of Libya, only the region of Fezzan, land of the Tuareg (Berber) people-clans will remain completely free from Italian control until World War III, where they will participate on both sides of the conflict.

January 4, much of England runs into some trouble as a result of regional flooding.

The next day (January 5), a 92 m.p.h. gale struck the British Isles, increasing the dangers of flooding.

January 7, the banks of the River Thames burst shortly after midnight, resulting in the deaths of at least 14 people.

Westminster Abbey, the Tate Gallery and the Tower of London were among the buildings flooded as a result.

January 9, the American aviator and officer Charles Lindbergh visits the associated state of Panama (a neo-colony of the United States) after his travel to the construction site of the Nicaragua Canal.

There the authorities of Panama receive him, awarding him decorations in the process for "establishing a basis of fraternity, and bringing together American countries on a basis of real understanding."

January 12, in the Federative Socialist Republic of Italy, the discussion about suicide in the mass media is prohibited or limited by the state.

This is at least officially, to prevent this type of events or other sensational crimes from disturbing public order.

A measure that is actually still present in several countries around the world (in theory protecting public order at the cost of limiting the free flow of information in the press, radio or television).

These measures are probably not always effective and could obviously have led to abuses of power, but it is true that suicide has been on the rise in different places (due to national, regional and global contexts) and different methods have been discussed or developed to try to deal with the issue since the 1980s-2000s.

January 13, the first stage of American television great expansion begins in the United States with the production of televisions under the General Electric company, initiating an important momentum in the country (New York soon becomes the state with the most televisions in the country during this time due to General Electric).

This was the period before the Golden age of American television (a preamble ending in 1933 and eventually continued by the already mentioned Golden Age of American Television, around the end of WW3).

*Today 96.7% of houses in the United States have at least one TV.

January 14, the U.S. government under president Henry Ford announced plans to restore Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C (infamous for being the site of the assassination of American president Abraham Lincoln on April 14 of 1865), and install a museum to president Lincoln.

January 15-16, President Henry Ford visits Cuba at the sixth Pan-American Conferences in Havana, where the countries discuss:

*Private International Law.

*Status of Aliens in the respective Territories of the Contracting Parties.

*The Duties and Rights of States in the event of Civil Strife.

*Maritime Neutrality.

*Issues and duties of Diplomatic Officers.

*The establishment of an Inter-American Commission of Women.

*Among other minor things of course.

This was essentially the last functional Pan-American conference before 1930 and 1933 (Uruguay and Argentina). Due to the deep divisions and situations that the continent was going through at that time, which put an end to many possibilities for cooperation.

Brazil was going through a difficult political-social period, Chila and Peru-Colombia were aligned with London, Mexico was divided in two and Cuba was in the middle of the Anglo-American and Anglo-Saxon Caribbean spheres, among other minor details.

Similar conferences (the most know being the Summits of the Americas) would only be held again after World War III, and we can discuss whether they are really 'Pan-American', since there has always been some absence or division among members due to the geo-political context of the region.

January 17, in the United States, the situation of the National Conventions of the American parties, which will decide the candidates for the next presidential elections of November of 1928, can already be discerned.

* Henry Ford would withdraw from the presidency, ceding the position as a candidate to William David Upshaw (a member of the Prohition wing of Herman Preston Faris, Ford's not-notorious vice president), as Fordist protégé Presscot Sheldon Bush is still too young to the presidental elections.

This necessary compromise between the Fordist, Prohitionist and Radical wings of the party eventually led to Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson being chosen as a vice-presidential candidate. Popular, but highly corrupt (literally sponsored by some media business families and crime lords of the time).

This situation is one of the reasons for the subsequent defeat of the National Republicans, who lost the popular Ford and only had one compromise candidate for the event.

*William Gibbs McAdoo Jr (KKK-supported presidential candidate and son-in-law of attorney Woodrow Wilson), will be the next Democratic presidential candidate.

*William Z. Foster was chosen as the S-CPUSA candidate as a result of the earlier defeat of the moderate wings and greater organization of the radical wings.

Foster has Theodore Roosevelt III running for vice president, then counting on the support of Progressives and Roosevelt allies like Huey Long of Louisiana (who wanted a Cabinet position in return, primarily as Secretary of Commerce).

Earl Russell Browder was in Shanghai at the time with his girlfriend Kitty Harris (member of the IWW), supporting the Chinese Communists of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union. And Norman Mattoon Thomas' faction of democratic socialists was defeated by Foster.

Explaining the absence of these two in the S-CPUSA activity of the time until 1929-1930s.

January 20, the American Federation of Labor asks the three major US parties to modify the Prohibition law and allow the manufacture of 2.75 percent beer.

The National Republicans refuse and the Democrats do not have a clear position at the time, but the S-CPUSA heeded the AFL's request.

January 21, Al Capone leaves Miami at the request of the city authorities in response to protests from civic organizations.

"If I am not wanted here I will leave immediately...Where I will go from here I have not decided."

- Supposedly said by Capone regarding the request of the city of Miami.

January 22, The Last Command is released by the Austro-American director Josef von Sternberg, starring the German Emil Jannings.

The Last Command is about the story of an old Prussian general after the German Revolution, now that he is reduced to poverty in America and is forced to work as a supporting actor in Hollywood, where he suffers some flashbacks from his past and hallucinations of WW2 until his death during a film of a old acquaintance.

January 23, Norway officially annexes by government decree the island of Bouvetøya (also-called Bouvet in english), located in the southern Atlantic Ocean (it is close to Antarctica and is one of the most remote islands in the world).

After WW3, the territories of various countries were withdrawn and put under new administration. Bouvetøya was no exception, but from 1928 to 1943 was 'de-facto' part of Norway.

Today is a uninhabited protected nature reserve.

The publication of a study by the American Society of Heating and Venting Engineers reveals the results of their research on which is the dirtiest city in the USA.

St.Louis is the dirtiest city in the study, followed by Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago.

Boston is apparently the cleanest city among all the cities studied.

January 26, volcanic activity on the Pacific island of Krakatoa caused a new volcanic cone to emerge from below sea level.

This resulted in the formation of the Anak Krakatoa ( "Child of Krakatoa").

January 27-29, Charles Lindbergh flew to Bogotá, Gran Colombia, where he was welcomed by a crowd of 15,000.

Relations between Gran Colombia and the USA during these times were tense, because the Gran Colombia of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, had proven to be more than capable of betraying allies if it suited the country (and specially this Gran Colombia had already betrayed the USA and London on some occasions).

But on the whole, Lindbergh's arrival seems to have been well received.

February 1, years after the discovery and opening of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun -whose material remains were mostly obtained and purchased by Russia-, the archeology of the Emirate of Ha'il makes an important discovery.

In one of the 'annexes' of tomb KV62, the canopic jars that contained the organs of the ancient pharaoh are discovered, among other objects.

This is to some extent another of the discussion points of museum ethics in the modern world, which resulted from the old (and unethical in many ways) archaeology. The sarcophagus and many of the main artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb are in Russia, but the 'annexes' to it are in Ha'il (and the people of the latter, specially in Egypt, struggle to retrieve such artifacts from Russia).

February 2, much of the town of Fall River in the State of Massachusetts is destroyed in the Great Fall River fire. A few people had injuries, but nobody died, still five city blocks and many businesses were completely wiped out, in a time when the city's economy was already struggling from textile plant closings and other declines.

February 4, various members of the Black-Red Front in East Germany begin a witch hunt against foreign films that feature 'harmful' material, resulting in the destruction of theaters and burning of films.

February 6, the 150th anniversary of the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778 occurs.

The United States of America and the République Populaire Démocratique de France (Democratic People's Republic of France, DPRF) make some small diplomatic gestures, but unsurprisingly, relations between France and America have been at a historic low since communism took hold in France.

There was also the French dictatorship in Chad, but nobody legitimately recognized them as France, so they were completely ignored by anyone who paid attention to this date and anniversary.

Painting of 1926 about Generalissimo Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain of Chad, whose entire foreign policy could be summed up as 'if I don't move, they won't notice me'.

February 7, on the island of Cuba, the government of the Second Mexican Empire insists on the search for an independent policy from the Anglo-Saxon powers and their spheres in the Caribbean.

Receiving bad responses from the United States and the Imperial Federation, which had great influence in the region or had growing influence in the economy of the island.

For the United States, this is just another in a long list of scars between the United States and its 'backyard'.

February 8, between his travels, Charles Lindbergh (a member of Henry Ford's National Republican Party) takes him to Cuba, where he is received by US President Henry Ford and Mexican-Cuban Emperor Augustine II.

February 11, the 1928 Olympic Games are held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, capital of the European Socialist Union.

Among the curiosities, due to these games, Switzerland obtains the record of the host country that has historically won fewer medals in its Olympic Games, since they only won a bronze medal.

February 12, from the Federative Socialist Republic of Italy, various Italian groups attempt to promote their 'dueling' tradition to other parts of the European Socialist Union.

There is some success in France (the most famous case of the late 20s being the duel between playwright Pierre Veber and author Maurice Rostand, after Rostand wrote a negative review of Veber's latest play, En Bordée), but not very much in other parts of the European Socialist Union.

During the 1920s and 1930s there is a small resurgence of dueling in France, but it is not as widespread as in socialist Italy.

February 14, civil protests in New York City occur as the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the private operator of New York's underground subway line, raises the subway fare from 10 cents to 14 cents.

The city and state authorities cannot do much about this private company decision, even if they publicly opposed this price hike. So the inhabitants took it into their own hands to try make the IRT change again the subway fare.

February 16, in the State of Canada (Imperial Federation), the government of Governor Mackenzie King projects a surplus of more than 45.8 million pounds for next year's budget.

The income tax was cut by 10 percent (as it was in the previous year), and the sales tax was cut from 4 percent to 3 percent.

February 19, the Nebraska Man (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii, "Ape of the western world" named after Harold Cook) is disproved when the tooth attributed to this supposed species of ape is identified as part of the remains of an extinct wild pig.

This is a relatively interesting story, in 1917 the rancher and geologist Harold Cook found a tooth in Nebraska, which in 1922, the paleontologist, geologist and eugenicist Henry Fairfield Osborn used to describe the so-called Nebraska Man (which, if real, would have been the first higher primate of North America).

Unlike other issues related to archeology and pantheontology at the time, the Nebraska Man was not really a deliberate forgery (nor was it widely accepted by the scientific community at the time as other hoaxes or pseudo-theories). For this reason the original classification of anthropoid ape was retracted after the discovery of the incorrect classification of the tooth found by Cook in Upper Snake Creek, without much problem fpr the scientific community.

As a curious fact, creationists of the time tried to use this as an example of the scientific errors that can undermine the credibility of paleontology and hominid evolution theories.

1024px-Forestier_Nebraska_Man_1922.jpg

This illustration of H. haroldcookii by Anglo-French artist and illustrator Amédée Forestier, modeled after the Java Man.

The Partido Comunista Paraguayo (Paraguayan Communist Party, PCP) is founded by fifty militants led by the worker Lucas Ibarrola (representative of Paraguay in the Third International, first general secretary of the PCP).

February 20, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published a 19-page essay named "A Word of Warning", recommending that Christianity should be abandoned and replaced by a new religion based on spiritualism (the religious movement based on the belief that the spirits of the dead exist and have the ability and the necessary means to communicate with the living, of which Doyle was part).

February 21-22, experiencing similar advances to the T-24 in Russia, the United States War Department announces: "Today motorized vehicles had undergone a complete transformation and while they will still, in certain circumstances, continue their roleof support to the doughboy, in the future we will find it utilized as the nucleus of the army's mechanized units."

March 1, in the parliament of the République Populaire Démocratique de France (Democratic People's Republic of France, DPRF), at that time the country's highest body of power as there was no Head of State or Head of Government, deputy Alexandre Piquemal (1891-1958) in a certain sense begins a movement calling for further unification of the European Socialist Union.

"We declare for the proletariat. We have one enemy, Capitalism, and one fatherland, the European Socialist Union. If someone declared the war on the Fatherland, we should rally the international proletariat and urge the soldiers of the proletariat to desert to our army and our fatherland."

-Alexndre Piquemal to the French parliament in 1928.

He was not the first to have similar ideas, but the words of Piquemal, which in the great scheme of things is an insignificant piece, raised enormous consequences. Among these, the first great momentum for the proposals of Federalization of the European Socialist Union (a single central government of a federated state for the whole Euro-Communist space).

A Federalist movement has since been present in parts of the Euro-communist space, especially in Western Europe. And this supposed idea of Federalism only had real problems in two eras: The first years after World War III and the decade of the 2020s (2024 in particular).

March 4, the first "Trans-American Footrace" (nicknamed the Bunion Derby), began in Los Angeles, with 199 entrants competing to run 3,523.5 miles (5,670.5 km) by foot to New York City, with a $25,000 prize for the winner.

March 5, in the United States, the rapprochement between the USA and the Imperial Federation ends with another surprising reform. During the period of 1928-1932, in some states such as New York, Canadians can work without the need for immigrant visas or other permits that other foreigners must use.

March 10, a landslide at Santos, São Paulo (Second Empire of Brazil) resulted in the death of at least 130 people.

March 11, in the European Socialist Union several support programs for newly formed families begin, through financial support from the central banks of their respective countries.

This initially adds to the list of population subsidies that exist within the European Socialist Union, and allows 2-3 years of greater financial stability for especially young families.

March 12, the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles floods San Francisquito Canyon, and results in the death of more than 400 people.

800px-Aftermath_Canyon.jpg

St. Francis Dam in the foreground.

In a single day on Wall Street, 3,909,100 shares changed hands (a new one-day record of the time).

May 13, through a new law, the United States obtains the power to 'supervise' the elections in the Federation of Central America.

A decision made by the lower house of parliament, obviously influenced by the interests of Washington.

In Nicaragua this decision is received with strong annoyance by civilians, leading many more to join the Sandinista movement.

In other parts of the Federation there is also discontent, but not as strong or disastrous as in Nicaragua.

March 15, in the late Empire of Japan, March Spring (3月の春) occurs, when the government of paramount leader Wakatsuki Reijirō released hundreds of Communists, suspected Communists, Socialists and Laborists from prison (prisoners made during the civil war).

More than 1,652 people were liberated in a single day, in what was one of the great moments of opening and reform of the late empire.

March 19, "My Old Kentucky Home" became the official State song of Kentucky, USA.

March 21, U.S. President Henry Ford presented Charles Lindbergh with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Although Lindbergh was not exactly a protégé of Ford, he was one of the NRP poster boys, probably the most successful of the first Fordism. Due to his age and position within the administrative-political-economic scale, Lindbergh did not have much influence in the Ford government, but he did have relevance in the Crack of 1933 and the following Fordists.

March 22, in Egypt, part of the Emirate of Ha'il, Muhammad Rashid Rida and Hassan al-Banna create the Islamist ideological framework of the Society of the Muslim Brothers (جماعة الإخوان المسلمين) or Muslim Brotherhood.

Rida and al-Banna believed that while the Emirate was a considerable force against foreign colonialism, its modernization and pan-Arab nationalism (with secular tendencies) was un-Islamic in nature, and also limited unity in the Islamic World. The group founded by al-Banna (which syncretized the thought of Islamist authors, revivalists and Muhammad Rashid Rida) rather supported a Pan-Islamic and 'restorationist' state.

While the Brotherhood Islamists had some heyday before and/or during WW3 (debatable depending on which author you ask), they would eventually be repressed and politically defeated by other movements during the 50s and later decades (marking the victory of secularist Arab nationalism and other tendencies over Islamism).

Because of this, the Brotherhood's idea of an Islamist revolutionary struggle was realized rather in fringe groups or in countries farther from the 'Islamic world' envisioned by its founders (see the Muslim Brotherhood in the Turkish-American community ).

March 25, in a rally in Rome (Federative Socialist Republic of Italy), 80,000 Italian youths are initiated into the Communist Party of Italy (CPI).

March 26, in the United States, violent incidents between the different parties become more common as the elections approach. During this period, the term "Pineapple Elections" was coined.

'Pineapple' being the nickname used to refer to the hand grenades that militants from across all the political spectrum used in attacks against their ideological enemies (leading to property damage, injuries and even deaths).

This was a particular period of violent pre-elections because of various reasons, in particular:

*Underlying the violent elections, was the lucrative Prohibition-era bootlegging trade and other organized crime.

*Corruption.

*Politicians with ties to organized crime, militant organizations, private capitalistic lobbies and extremists such as the KKK.

*A deep and bitter polarization and rivalry between the American people.

March 31, an earthquake in Smyrna, Aegean Anatolia, resulted in the death of sixty people.