What if Napoleon had truly won-& a new nation rose from the ashes of empire?
In this gripping alternate history, the Peace of Warsaw (1812) reshapes Europe. A humbled Tsar Alexander surrenders vast territories, & the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is reborn under King Józef Antoni Kossakowski-with French bayonets monitoring. But fragile peace brings new dangers: Russian subversion, ethnic tensions, noble resentment, & the shadow of old betrayals.
Enter Błażej Radziwiłł-the young "Panicz," heir to a powerful Lithuanian estate. Privately feeding intelligence to Russian agents while managing his family's lands, Błażej walks a knife's edge between loyalty & deception. When the cost of his double life becomes unbearable & a visionary mentor opens his eyes to a bolder dream, he undergoes a profound transformation.
Guided by the wise Witold Tyszkiewicz & grounded by peasant leader Tadas Balčiunas, Błażej turns from spy to architect of something revolutionary: a voluntary federation of seven nations-Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & Slovakia. Drawing inspiration from the American Constitution & Swiss cantons, this Concordia promises equal representation in a bicameral Diet, local autonomy, shared defense & trade, religious freedom for all faiths, & the gradual end of serfdom.
But powerful enemies-ruthless Tsarist agents like Frol Kamieniev & Sergey Karenin, conservative magnates clinging to the old order, & even internal doubts-will stop at nothing to crush the vision. Assassination attempts, political purges, secret societies, multi-ethnic negotiations, & battlefield tests of unity push Błażej & his allies to their limits.
A sweeping tale of redemption, political intrigue, & audacious hope, The Federation Builders explores what happens when divided peoples choose strength through cooperation rather than conquest. Rich in historical detail yet boldly imaginative, this is alternative history at its most compelling-where personal metanoia forges a new destiny for nations.
Perfect for fans of The Years of Rice & Salt, Fatherland, or 1632, this epic asks: Can a better world be built from the ruins of the old?
(This is a work of fiction. While real historical figures & events anchor the story, many post-1812 developments are invented. AI assisted with the cover & parts of the writing process, but the vision, research, & narrative are the author's own.)
Gerald was born in 1937 in Chicago. As a child he was an avid reader of How to Draw books. One day at age 11 he wandered over to the Grown-up Books section of the public library and pulled down a picture-book of gothic cathedrals. He fell in love with their beauty. His mother used to give him the white paper in which the butcher had wrapped meat. Finding a large piece of plywood, he became "the only kid on his block" who used to sketch up gothic cathedral façades. He began studying Architecture in 1955 and worked his way thru college, earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois in 1966. He is proud to say that he never took a penny of student loans. He received an Illinois license in 1972. Sometime after that he began conducting genealogical research on his ancestors. He speaks Polish, German, and Spanish to some extent. He has a gift for language.
Gerald has undergone three intensifications of faith in his life: one at age fourteen, when, as a child prodigy he became the object of three years of abuse by his classmates. He endured and graduated. The second was at age twenty-two, when it appeared he was about to die. He told himself, "If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go out in a blaze of glory", and joined volunteer groups that kept him active every night of the week. The third was in 1982, when a concurrence of events, including the loss of a job, left him "down and out", and God gave him a new image of Himself as a very loving Father.
After this last intensification in 1982 began to feel the call to do something more directly to promote Jesus' kingdom on earth. He began to explore religious life. It saddened him to see the majority of adult Catholics coasting thru life on a few simplistic ideas that they picked up in early life. In 1992 he sold a condo in Chicago and used the money from the sale for education. He entered Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio in September, 1992. Once there he responded to a call by Fr. Michael Scanlon TOR and entered Holy Apostles Seminary for older men in Cromwell, CT. in fall, 1993. He spent 3 1/2 months doing door-to-door evangelization in Ceres and Modesto, CA in summer, 1994 while on assignment at St. Jude's parish, Ceres. He concluded that religious life was not for him and returned to Franciscan U. and earned a Master of Arts degree in Theology and Christian Ministry in 1996.
Unable to find work with his degree, and running out of money, he found a job as an archit...
