Fall Of Giants

Fitz still struggles with the injuries he sustained at the battle of the Somme, and he works in British intelligence in London. German coded messages are intercepted, and Fitz is responsible for translating the decrypts to English. Herbert Asquith resigns as British Prime Minister. He is replaced by David Lloyd George. He is perceived as an aggressor, and many worry that peace talks will be ruled out.

Fitz takes Ethel to a beautiful home in Chelsea. He offers it to Ethel as well as a nurse for Lloyd, a car, and a housekeeper. It would be a place where Fitz could see her and resume their affair. Ethel is tempted by what would be a lifetime of ease and pleasure, but she ultimately cannot stomach being Fitz’s mistress, especially since he continues to express pro-war sentiments.

Romania joins the war effort but is defeated by Germany. The German chancellor proposes peace talks. Woodrow Wilson suggests that each country articulate what they want as a starting point, but all of the involved countries are silent. Fitz addresses the House of Commons, begging Britain not to surrender. He is invited to address a Union Meeting, where he suggests a British victory would protect Europe from German militarism. Maud stands up to suggest France’s refusal to remain neutral as well as Russia’s mobilization left Germany little choice but to enter the war. Billy, home from France for a week of leave, suggests angrily that it was the poor leadership of officers that led them to lose at the Battle of the Somme. Fitz is irate at the accusation.

Fitz, Ethel, Maud, and Aunt Hermia attend the crowded House of Commons where Lloyd George rejects the peace offer. Ethel, devastated with the decision, angrily stands to yell the names of young British men killed in France. She is dragged out by ushers. 

Walter attends a meeting with the German foreign minister, the German Chancellor, a number of senior military advisors, and the kaiser. Walter reflects that the kaiser appears to be overwhelmed and incompetent. Unrestrained submarine warfare is proposed to the kaiser by the Chief of the Admiralty. The Chancellor counsels against this, drawing the kaiser’s attention to the likelihood of American involvement in the case of unrestrained naval warfare. The Chancellor is overruled by the Admiral, and the kaiser signs a document ratifying unrestrained submarine use. Walter feels a sense of dread.

Meanwhile, Fitz continues to work for intelligence in London, translating German messages. One is intercepted intended for the German ambassador of Mexico, indicating Germany’s decision to conduct unrestrained submarine warfare on Britain and her allies. Furthermore, an alliance with Mexico is suggested by Germany in case America declares war; Germany proposes financial support and a commitment to help Mexico to recapture Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. This shocking communication, called the Zimmerman intercept (revealed to Gus by Fitz), prompts America to break off all diplomatic relations with Germany.

Gus invites Rosa, a successful journalist, to lunch. He shows her the Zimmerman telegram and invites her to publish the contents. She correctly interprets that this news will be sensational and guesses it is a calculated move by Wilson to turn public opinion toward American involvement in the European war.

Ethel and Bernie get married. Although she does not feel the passion she felt for Fitz, Ethel feels that, given their similar political values and goals, the match will bring her contentment and happiness.

War-time Russia is afflicted with famine and poverty. Vladimir becomes feverish and unwell with inflammation of his bowels; Grigori manages to nurse him back to health. Grigori waits outside a bakery for hours through the night in the cold for bread for Katerina and Vladimir, but the bakery runs out of bread before he is able to buy a loaf.

On international women’s day, women across Petrograd strike and march in protest of food shortages and poor working conditions and pay. More workers join them. Grigori’s platoon is stationed to guard a bridge from marchers, but the angry citizens bypass the bridge by walking across the frozen river. The soldiers are relieved to be rendered unnecessary. The Tsar wants to stop the strikes, so the army is instructed to use any means necessary to stop strikers from approaching the city center. Machine guns are set up on street corners, and Grigori and many other soldiers feel uneasy with the idea of opening fire on civilians. Forty people are killed when soldiers open fire on a crowd of protesters. The Tsar, trying to reclaim all control, dissolves the Duma government.

The next day, Grigori and his men are again instructed to defend the Liteiny bridge. They are accompanied by armed police and are instructed to shoot anyone who tries to cross the bridge or the frozen ice beside it. When marchers begin running across the ice, the police begin shooting at the crowd. Grigori, sympathetic to the rebelling workers rather than the corrupt police, shoots the police leader—his old nemesis Pinsky.

Grigori leads the mob back to the barracks and arms them. The group marches toward the city center, where Grigori is relieved and excited to see many other soldiers have rebelled. People wear red ribbons, and soldiers wear their uniform messily to identify themselves as revolutionaries. A police sniper shoots at the crowd from the street, so Grigori climbs up to the Church turret and kills him. Grigori is celebrated as a hero. The streets are chaotic; shops have been looted, and soldiers kiss and have sex with women openly in the street. People assault upper-class citizens and steal cars, which they drive haphazardly through the streets. A child accidentally kills people with a machine gun stolen from police. Grigori considers that there must be order rather than revolution leading to an orgy of violence and chaos.

To Grigori’s relief, a provisional Soviet of Workers is formed. A military commission is formed to defend the revolution, and a food supply commission ensures that soldiers and revolutionaries will be fed. Grigori is elected to represent his platoon. The Duma works with the newly elected factory workers and soldiers, but there is no voting mechanism and very little organization. The Tsar signs a document abdicating the throne, and his successor (his younger brother Mikhail) is likewise convinced to abdicate.

Around the world, people respond to the Russian Revolution. Walter wonders hopefully whether Russian will withdraw from the war. Similarly, Wilson asks Gus how the revolution might affect the war. Gus knows the masses want bread, peace, and land, and he guesses they will triumph over the upper classes and withdraw from the war. Billy’s platoon toasts to the revolution before they are angrily silenced by Fitz. Bea is devastated and angry at the state of her country and worries for the fate of her aristocratic family and friends. In Aberowen where Bernie and Ethel are visiting, the town toasts to the revolution. Similarly, Lev Peshkov in Buffalo remembers his parent’s deaths and his impoverished childhood and toasts the revolution.

Monica discovers a picture of Maud in Walter’s wallet, and he admits that he is married to Maud. A group of Bolsheviks, Russian socialist revolutionaries, want to re-enter Russia via Germany. Walter thinks it would be best to allow the group, including politician Vladimir Lenin, safe passage despite the controversial nature of their politics; Walter knows the Bolsheviks oppose the war with Germany.

Walter gives Lenin 100 thousand rubles to contribute toward propaganda campaigning for peace. He promises the same every month. Lenin feels conflicted receiving this money from Germany, who he perceives as a monarchical country engaged in a capitalist and imperialist war, but he ultimately accepts it. Walter promises the same amount every month until the war is concluded.

Lenin arrives in Petrograd to a hero’s welcome. Grigori is part of the delegation. Lenin pointedly ignores the Chairman of the provisional government as well as the soldiers and other leaders. Instead, he addresses the masses and condemns the provisional government as bourgeoisie traitors. He calls for private land to be confiscated by the Soviet, an overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and an end to the “capitalist, imperialist war.”

Walter, earlier on his trip to accompany the Bolsheviks to the Russian border, was able to write to Maud from neutral Switzerland. He advises her that he will be able to receive a letter from her when he is in Stockholm. Maud surprises and delights Walter by arriving at the hotel. They spend a joyful night together.

Lev, now unhappily married to Olga, continues to run the Monte Carlo nightclub. He is having an affair with a dancer named Marga. Josef Vyalov enters Marga’s dressing room while she and Lev are engaged in a sexual act and is furious at Lev for being disloyal to his daughter. Vyalov moves Lev from the nightclub to a foundry he owns: the Buffalo Metalworks. Lev is upset but comforts himself that he still lives in luxury. At the factory, Vyalov warns Lev about the local union leader who works at the factory and advocates for higher pay and safer working conditions. Lev understands that his father-in-law wants him to be tough, and he does not want to disappoint him.

The workers at the factory strike. This is brought to the attention of Wilson, as the fans and propellers manufactured at the Buffalo Metalworks are needed for the war effort. Gus is sent to Buffalo to resolve the strike. Gus meets with the union leader, Lev, and Vyalov. Gus threatens that the foundry will be taken by force by the army and filled with army engineers if they do not reach an agreement. He manages to force a compromise.

Elsewhere, Gus discusses the war with friends. He explains that Germany’s unrestrained submarine warfare pushed America towards war; America was also financially implicated, having lent a lot of money to the Allied cause.

Lev meets with Marga, they go to a park and are kissing on a bench in the sun. Olga, Vyalov, and Daisy (Olga and Lev’s 14-month-old daughter) see them. Vyalov is furious and insists that Lev join the army or he will fix the conscription to ensure he is sent away. Soon after, Lev mocks Gus at a party in Buffalo for being involved in instituting the draft but likely being exempt himself. Gus explains that he plans to sign up.

In London, Ethel is ecstatic that a free vote (where MPs are not constrained by the views of the respective parties) is being held in parliament on whether women should be given the vote. Ethel is shocked when she gets to work at The Soldier’s Wife to find that Maud opposes the bill because it excludes women under 30 and those who aren’t homeowners or the wives of homeowners. They angrily disagree and part ways. Ethel begins working at the National Union for Garment Workers. Fitz is shocked to learn that many conservatives support the bill; female homeowners over 30 tend to vote conservative. The bill on women’s votes passes by a huge majority. Fitz thinks this is an attack on traditional family values and hopes it can be voted down in the House of Lords.

Bea learns that her brother, Prince Andrei, has been injured in the war and has had his arm amputated. She convinces Fitz they should go to her ancestral home in Russia to visit him. Fitz decides he can gain some intelligence on the Russian Revolution while he is there and agrees they can go.

Walter fearfully leaves the German trenches and enters no-man's-land to assess Russian soldiers’ appetite for war after the revolution. Walter notes that Russia seems to be preparing for an offensive, with fresh ammunition and troops, but also knows Lenin and the Bolsheviks have been advertising to end the war (with German money). Walter wears civilian clothing, climbs into a Russian trench, and circulates schnapps. Walter notes the trenches are poorly constructed, and the Russians are underfed. As Walter suspected, the Russian soldiers are angry that soldiers’ committees have been banned in the army and that Russia is still fighting in the war at all. Meanwhile, Grigori finds out that an order for Lenin’s arrest has been issued, but he manages to warn Lenin in time to allow him to go into hiding.

Walter dresses as a Russian peasant and hides 10,000 rubles in a bag of onions. He takes a series of trains to Petrograd, where he meets with his contact, Grigori. They go into a cafe, where Grigori assures Walter the Bolsheviks have a good chance of winning the election (when it is eventually held).

Walter notes Petrograd locals look like they are starving, which further confirms his hope that Russia will likely withdraw from the war. Walter notices a man following him on his way back to the train station. Walter manages to outrun and then shoot the man, who is likely a member of the Russian police.

Word reaches Petrograd that counter-revolutionary armed forces are approaching the city. Grigori, as delegate of the first machine-gun committee, organizes an armed resistance, mobilizing Petrograd’s army and nearby sailors as well arming and training factory workers. Grigori is aware it will be difficult for the provisional government to disarm this force once it's mobilized and hopes this will work in the Bolshevik’s favor. Grigori leaves the city limits and manages to find one of the forces. The soldiers in it were told they were fighting to defend the revolution. Grigori calls the Colonel (a traditional, aristocratic officer rather than a revolutionary committee member) a liar and kills him.

Fitz and Bea go to Bea’s childhood home. Fitz notes the peasants are surly and disrespectful, and Andrei explains he accidentally killed a man in a dispute over grazing cattle on Andrei’s land. An angry, armed mob of 100 peasants come to the house and strike and beat Andrei to death. Fitz instructs his valet and Bea toward their carriage, picking up his sister-in-law Valeria on his way out. Fitz shoots two pursuers, and they manage to escape the now burning home. Fitz and Bea realize that Valeria was shot and is dead. 

The German military had hoped the British army would have already starved after Germany’s decision to engage in unrestrained naval warfare on Allied vessels. Fourteen thousand Americans land in Europe to support the Allies. Walter is furious with older German military advisors who assured the kaiser the Americans would not get involved in the war. He blames Germany’s situation in part on the arrogance of the older generation. Walter concludes that everything depends on the Bolsheviks and whether they manage to gain power and thereby withdraw Russia from the war.

Meanwhile, in Petrograd, Katerina is heavily pregnant. A counterrevolution is crushed; train workers in support of the revolution stop soldiers before they can reach Petrograd. In other cases, soldiers were being tricked into thinking they were defending the revolution when they were actually being taken to attack it. Officers involved in this conspiracy are executed by pro-revolutionary soldiers. Kerensky, the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, orders all the Petrograd garrisons to the eastern front in an attempt to undermine the Soviet. Lenin calls for an armed uprising to defeat the Provisional Government. The army declares their loyalty to the Bolshevik Committee rather than the Provisional Government and is deployed to capture a number of key locations around the city. Kerensky flees the city. After many delays, Grigori conducts the Red Guards (the Bolshevik loyal army) and a group of sailors to take the Winter Palace and arrest the remainder of the Provincial Government. The more conservative Menshevik and Social Revolutionary parties condemn the coup. This ends up working in the Bolsheviks favor because these groups angrily leave the conference after the coup, which means the Bolsheviks have the parliamentary majority and can take control. Katerina gives birth to a girl and is angry at Grigori for not being present.