UCS Askad-Idibas

[Graham Kennedy]

The three things you see on the back are just the sublight engines. The midspace drive takes up a good chunk of the back half of
the ship.

[Mikey]

So Malenkov waas like the Alexander Kerensky of his time (except a more succesful one?)

[Graham Kennedy]

My history isn't up to knowing who Alexander Kerensky is I'm afraid!

Malenkov is a huge figure in Human history. He basically singlehandedly started the civil war, and led the forces that won it in the end.
Then he pretty much single handedly destroyed the Empire that he'd just saved. Then he saved Humanity from splintering into a hundred
different factions.

He was also an absolutely unpleasant, unlikeable, rude, difficult, cast-iron bastard of a man who drove himself and his men HARD, expected
perfection, and woe unto you if you didn't deliver it.

Some day I'll write his story...

[Mikey]

After the fall of the tsars, and before the rise of the Marxists, Kerensky was a Russian general who stepped in, unwillingly, to fill the void in the Russian government with a rather advanced socialist model. His government only lasted a few months.

[Graham Kennedy]

Well then yeah, Malenkov was a somewhat more successful version of him. But Malenkov was never the President of the Republic; that
idea would horrify him. All he really wanted was to avoid a bloodbath.

[Mikey]

It's interesting to me that in all great stories of this sort, whether fiction or fact, no matter what the scenario or technology involved it usually comes down to the efforts of one or more individuals to decide the matter.

[Graham Kennedy]

There was a quote in the West Wing once, something along the lines of "Why would you think one determined person could change the world?" - "Because it's the only thing that ever has."

[Captain Seafort]

The details may be different, but in terms of motivation to avoid unnecessary loss of life, and in taking command of the armed forces, Malenkov sounds more similar to George Monck than Kerensky.

[Mikey]

I was thinking of his motivation more in terms of trying to institute a semblance of government when there was none, rather than avoiding bloodshed.

[Captain Seafort]

True, but that desire to form a stable government, but not lead it, is still more reminisent of Monck's role in the rRestoration - he could have used his regiment to seize power had proclaim himself Protector, but instead he invited back Charles II.