Russia arrives at Versailles as a hard-line victor

Russia's historical absence from Versailles removed a power likely to be even more punitive toward Germany than France. In this scenario, Russian delegates seek modern Kaiserliche Marine cruisers such as Nürnberg, Emden, and Frankfurt as tangible rewards of victory. The regime would recast a costly and uneven war as a glorious national triumph, minimizing inconvenient defeats and British contributions to the result. That posture strengthens the Franco-Russian alignment and points beyond Germany toward the empire's wider ambitions.