Boyar Duma. Also, Fedor could rely on Ivan to crack down on the Dacha staff.
Which was, in a way, the problem. Ivan Petrovich would squeeze the golden goose all right-but he just might choke it to death. And the Dacha had been laying right well over the last couple of years. Among other things, it had laid the logistics for the dust-up with Poland. Which had put Russia in a better position than it had been for twenty years.
A lot depended on how well Leontii Shuvalov’s suit was progressing. If the Gorchakov girl, Natalia, was proving difficult, Fedor might have to go with Ivan Petrovich because he could not afford to have the Dacha or the Gun Shop running loose. He got down from his horse with difficulty and shook Leontii’s hand. “How goes your suit?”
“Reasonably well, Director-General,” Leontii said. “Princess Natalia understands the situation. I won’t say she is thrilled, but I doubt she will fight it.”
“And how do…” Fedor paused as the lady in question arrived. “We’ll talk later.”
“The letters have gone out to Poland, what’s left of the Holy Roman Empire and the Turks,” Director-General Sheremetev said. “I’m not sure of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, mostly because Wladyslaw can’t seem to get over the notion that he should be czar of Russia, but who knows? I expect to have better luck with Murad. I don’t know which way Ferdinand will jump.”
“And the riots?” Leontii asked.
“Worked quite well at distracting Mikhail’s adherents and added enough between him and the bureau men to cut off most of his information flow. They have also provided more than ample justification for cracking down on the bureaus. I think we have them put in their place for now.” Sheremetev snorted. “Button clerks, the lot of them. Self-important button clerks who have been getting above themselves since the Time of Troubles. They needed to be shown the stick. We’ll wait a few more weeks before we show them the carrot.” Sheremetev was talking about a plan to put enforcement of the ties to the land in the hands of the government.
“Anyway, you will have heard the reports by now. So what do you think of Cass?”
Shuvalov said, “He does know and understand up-timer technology. But I’m deeply concerned about his effect on the atmosphere here. I had visited the Dacha a couple of times when Bernie and Princess Natalia were in charge, and there was an openness to it. It’s hard to explain. Everyone cared about the work. Everyone, from the maids with the chamber pots to Natalia herself. All the way up and down the line, everyone was concerned with making a contribution. I’ve tried to maintain that attitude, but with Cass it’s almost impossible. He demeans everyone.”
Director-General Sheremetev laughed at the colonel. “Leontii, my boy, the up-timers would call you a boy scout. I saw the same thing you saw, my friend. But it was too free. Believe me, the Dacha will produce more with a bit more of the whip and less of the carrot.”
“Very well, sir. But I still despise that bastard. And I don’t care at all for the way he looks at Princess Natalia.”
“Is the princess interested in the up-timer?” Sheremetev gave Leontii a sharp look.
“No.” Leontii laughed. “She despises Cass even more than I do. She might be interested in Bernie, though. She’s young and inexperienced. I don’t believe she really knows her own mind.”
“And that could be dangerous.” Sheremetev nodded. “I’ll look into it.”
Director-General Sheremetev did indeed look into it. He interviewed both Bernie and Natasha and came away from those interviews uncertain. Bernie really was too valuable an asset to dispose of casually. He understood what was being built in the Dacha better than any other single person. That very knowledge made him more dangerous.
That night at dinner, Natasha asked the question that they had all been wondering about. “What is the situation in Moscow?”
The director-general looked at her then turned to Bernie. “Are you familiar with the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan?”
Natasha knew that before Bernie had come to the Dacha he would have been, at best, vaguely familiar with the history of Japan or the rule of the shoguns. However, while most of his education as a consultant at the Dacha was technical, some of it was historical, especially for what was now current history. And Bernie had ended up translating or helping to translate quite a bit of history.
“Yes, a bit, Director-General Sheremetev. The emperor is mostly a religious figurehead. He reigns, but he doesn’t rule. It’s the shogun who has the real political power.”
Sheremetev nodded. “Yes, that’s basically correct. I believe we need a similar system here in Russia, given all the problems we’ve had with our czars. I believe Russia needs a strong hand at the reins, but doesn’t need- certainly can’t afford-the sort of, ah, disruption that a dynastic squabble would produce. To provide the first while avoiding the second, I have taken on a role analogous to that of shogun. Mikhail never really wanted the power of the throne, anyway. This way Mikhail will remain safe, comfortable and secure… as long as there is no trouble.” He smiled.
It was, Natasha thought, an extremely cold smile.
“Mikhail’s limited year was a good plan, poorly executed,” he continued. “We do need more gold and silver to augment the paper money and to use in foreign trade. However, the way he did it, without properly preparing the ground, almost led to a revolution.”
Natasha didn’t snort, not even under her breath, but she wanted to. Yes, the dvoriane were upset, but they never would have rioted unless they believed that they had support in the Boyar Duma.
“He had no means in place to ensure the loyalty of the service nobility,” Sheremetev continued. “That is why I have created the post of political officer. Russia had them up-time under Stalin’s rule. They watched the service nobility, even if they called it something else in the twentieth century. Political officers will be mostly, but not entirely, deti boyar, whose job is to make sure that their charges don’t do anything stupid. I thought of using the church, but people get really upset about things like that.”
Suddenly everyone was looking at Colonel Leontii Shuvalov.
Director-General Sheremetev noticed and laughed. “Oh, not at all. Leontii is a fine man, but not nearly the right man for this. The new political officer for the Dacha is… Cass Lowry.”
Chapter 72
A hunting lodge just west of Tatarovo
Mikhail Romanov, Czar of all the Rus, bounced his daughter on his knee with a mixture of relief and profound loss. The relief was because he and his family were safe-at least for the moment. The loss was not for the loss of power, but for the loss of his father.
Mikhail had been told that his father had died of a stroke and that was entirely possible. Filaret, Patriarch of Russia, had in fact had a series of minor strokes. And, considering the rumors about the limited year and the peasants, the riots were a natural response to his father’s death.
Still, the timing was suggestive, and Fedor Ivanovich had been awfully quick to respond. Filaret would never have gone along with Sheremetev’s takeover and he had the connections to fight back. Mikhail couldn’t help the belief that one of Sheremetev’s agents had managed to get close enough to the patriarch to help the stroke along. The possibility that Filaret was still alive was no more than a fantasy.
Mikhail knew that he should be fighting “Director-General” Sheremetev because of those suspicions and for the good of Russia. But he wasn’t. He knew virtually nothing of what was going on in the wider world. He had no basis to plan and, for now at least, he and his family were being treated quite well. Also, from what he did know, Sheremetev’s plan depended on his continued safety.
Life was full of strange twists of fate and even more so when you were living in a time of miracles. The Ring of Fire had seemed a wild rumor when they had first heard of it. Sending Vladimir to confirm it-or rather, disprove it, which was the outcome they’d expected-had just been a precautionary measure. But it had all proved to be true. Vladimir had stayed in Grantville to learn the secrets of the up-timers and Boris had brought an up-timer back with
