The commie-pukes are becoming more of a threat to both NATO and the Facist-bloc. Somebody should do something about them. 
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Ah, a tripolar world! I see that Thailand is allied to the Reich! I suppose the alliance is created due to the Vietnam War, but hows their relation with the Reich, since Thailand is to only not-European or European-controlled state! Could the Islamist-Bloc form a fourth power?! This could generate many ...intresting points! Since Nazism, was very found of Islam, I suppose they will support these states! But then only Himmler and his thugs showed any support for them! And with their ideology of Paganism and the new line of goverment, the rulers of the new islamist states wouldn't be so fond of the fascists!
But I think they will take gladly any support (weapons) that the New Europe gave them! Much like the Taliban receiving US-weapons! And this could generate very intresting situations in Bosnia and Chechenya!!! Guerillia-style war against the Reich!
But I think they will take gladly any support (weapons) that the New Europe gave them! Much like the Taliban receiving US-weapons! And this could generate very intresting situations in Bosnia and Chechenya!!! Guerillia-style war against the Reich!
Thans for the feedback so far, here are some replies for your previous questions and comments.
Thailand is much more likely to end up in a war against her Maoist neighbours. I´ll have to write an additional article about political Islamism in the world of the Prisoners of Silence to cover this topic, but let´s just say that since the geopolitical situation is pretty much determined by three major political ideologies and decolonization has been swift, the rise of some form of radical islamism is quite unavoidable.
In a world where the US, Soviet Union and PRC were all more than willing to provide assistance to anti-colonialist movements in Africa it´s actually not that suprising. After fighting ten years of bitter and seemingly endless guerrilla war in Congo the Germans quietly abanoned most of their plans of "Mittelafrika" and withdrew from the region while trying to cover their defeat by stating that the autarkic economic policies of New Europe should not be based on colonial rule. The same story was basically repeated in the African colonies of Portugal and Spain as well, and Laval´s France fared no better in Algeria.
But the prize Africa payed from this change was terrible, just imagine a colonial war where historical German anti-partisan policies would still be in use ...
Are you referring to the two states that are currently in the process of becoming the most important trading partners of the Free World?
The fascist military coup in Thailand in 1960´s was most likely strongly supported by Abwehr, since the new government was so quick to leave the United Nations and sign an agreement with the Reich instead. It included notable economical assistance, shipments of modern German weapon systems and most importantly the renting of the whole Ko Tarutao Island in southern Thailand. In 1984 here lies the closely guarded and top-secret BIFROST-complex, the launching area for New Europe´s satellites.
And there never were major war in Vietnam in this timeline. Since the Vichy regime no longer had chances to restore their control over Indochina after WWII while the US was more than willing to allow the nations of the region to declare independence, Vietnam soon emerged as a new state and subsequently joined to the United Nations. Thus no historical wars against the French and the US and no German intervention either.
And in 1980´s the relations between Islamist states and the Reich are quite mixed. The German support to fascist wing of Baath in Egypt pretty much alienated the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas-movement of Palestine and the Shii´te Muslim Hezbollah-movement of Libanon are in somewhat better terms with the German government. Pakistan is one of the main buyers of weapons from New Europe, while the relations to Indonesia are quite neutral. And yes, the New Europe has it´s own problems with restless regions of Checheno-Ingushetia and the question of Nagorno-Karabakh has also forced the Eurokorps to deploy some SS-troops to Kaukasus for peacekeeping duties. Bosnia has been part of the Ustasha-led Croatia since WWII, so the situation there is quite different when compared to OTL.
Hi, it´s always nice to see new people commending to this thread. The situation of Sweden is summarized here.
rcduggan said:
Thailand is much more likely to end up in a war against her Maoist neighbours. I´ll have to write an additional article about political Islamism in the world of the Prisoners of Silence to cover this topic, but let´s just say that since the geopolitical situation is pretty much determined by three major political ideologies and decolonization has been swift, the rise of some form of radical islamism is quite unavoidable.
HKslan said:
In a world where the US, Soviet Union and PRC were all more than willing to provide assistance to anti-colonialist movements in Africa it´s actually not that suprising. After fighting ten years of bitter and seemingly endless guerrilla war in Congo the Germans quietly abanoned most of their plans of "Mittelafrika" and withdrew from the region while trying to cover their defeat by stating that the autarkic economic policies of New Europe should not be based on colonial rule. The same story was basically repeated in the African colonies of Portugal and Spain as well, and Laval´s France fared no better in Algeria.
But the prize Africa payed from this change was terrible, just imagine a colonial war where historical German anti-partisan policies would still be in use
...SeanB said:The commie-pukes are becoming more of a threat to both NATO and the Facist-bloc. Somebody should do something about them.
Are you referring to the two states that are currently in the process of becoming the most important trading partners of the Free World?
Zauberfloete said:
The fascist military coup in Thailand in 1960´s was most likely strongly supported by Abwehr, since the new government was so quick to leave the United Nations and sign an agreement with the Reich instead. It included notable economical assistance, shipments of modern German weapon systems and most importantly the renting of the whole Ko Tarutao Island in southern Thailand. In 1984 here lies the closely guarded and top-secret BIFROST-complex, the launching area for New Europe´s satellites.
And there never were major war in Vietnam in this timeline. Since the Vichy regime no longer had chances to restore their control over Indochina after WWII while the US was more than willing to allow the nations of the region to declare independence, Vietnam soon emerged as a new state and subsequently joined to the United Nations. Thus no historical wars against the French and the US and no German intervention either.
And in 1980´s the relations between Islamist states and the Reich are quite mixed. The German support to fascist wing of Baath in Egypt pretty much alienated the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas-movement of Palestine and the Shii´te Muslim Hezbollah-movement of Libanon are in somewhat better terms with the German government. Pakistan is one of the main buyers of weapons from New Europe, while the relations to Indonesia are quite neutral. And yes, the New Europe has it´s own problems with restless regions of Checheno-Ingushetia and the question of Nagorno-Karabakh has also forced the Eurokorps to deploy some SS-troops to Kaukasus for peacekeeping duties. Bosnia has been part of the Ustasha-led Croatia since WWII, so the situation there is quite different when compared to OTL.
Lurken said:
Hi, it´s always nice to see new people commending to this thread. The situation of Sweden is summarized here.
I really wonder on the situation in America, not only in the USA...Is Canada still a country or has the Quebec separated? What happen to Cuba? And south america?
General_Hoth said:
I seem to recall reading in the timeline that the communist coup in Cuba got crushed by American intervention in 1959.
General_Hoth said:
USA is pretty close to it´s OTL Cold War-era counterpart. An important difference comes from the fact that the country has been able to avoid major wars ever since the Middle-Eastern War ended. Thus limited conscription is still in use, and Selective Service System remains an active and influencial agency.
In addition the experiences from Italian Civil War, Palestine during the Middle-Eastern War and the smaller military missions and counter-insurgency operations in Southeast Asia and South America have ensured that the theories of the Small Wars Manual have become central pieces of American military doctrine. The USMC has further specialized to it´s traditional role as an "overseas police" used for power projection and military interventions in the Western sphere of interest while the Army, Navy and Air Force have focused on preparing for more "traditional" all-out war against the other hostile superpowers, namely Germany and her allies.
Politically the rest of America is firmly tied to US by economical and military cooperation, and all attempts to spread Fascism or Communism to Central or Southern America have so far been quickly subdued by US-supported governments and/or US military support and interventions (like in Cuba, Dominican Republic and Grenada.) Only Chile and Argentina remain hostile to the US hegemony in this hemisphere.
Canada is still independent (allthough even closer to US than in OTL), and only the small, extremist National Unity Party created by Adrien Arcand opposes the current situation. Quebec has become a safe haven for many anti-Vichy French émigrés, but so far the region has remained part of Canada as well.
If you want a credible anti government leader, don't choose Arcand, he was a puppet of the Conservative party. Maybe more Maurice Duplessis!
The Soviet Union after the Treaty of Kirovograd I: Preparations for revanche
"When I am gone, the imperialists will strangle all of you like a litter of blind kittens."
Part of Stalin´s speech held during the XIX Party Congress in Sverdlovsk, December 1952.
The Treaty of Kirovograd bought a peace for the Soviet Union with extremely heavy price. The Kola Peninsula, Eastern Karelia, Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, Caucasus and large parts of central Russia west from Volga fell under German occupation and Axis sphere of influence. Immediately after this treaty the European Russia was in complete chaos. Huge masses of refugees of all nationalities of western Soviet Union traveled eastwards, and the tired formations of the Red Army were struggling to retain order as discontented soldiers who felt betrayed by the new peace treaty began to desert from their units with increasing numbers. The country was also facing a threat of famine due the losses of valuable agricultural regions and because the Lend-Lease Aid shipments from US and Britain had stopped after Soviet Union withdrew from the war.
Increasingly bitter and reclusive Stalin made clear that he wanted order restored by any means necessary. The grim Generalissimus privately noted that all civilian reconstruction that would not directly serve the military industries should have to wait while the Red Army had to be brought back into fighting condition as quickly as possible. According to Stalin it was especially important that the military leadership was to be "purged from the unreliable defeatists whose incompetent solutions and mistakes have forced us to sacrifice so much."
Semyon Timoshenko managed to maintain his position as the Chief of the Army most likely because he had supported the continuation of hostilities even after it became clear that Western Allies would be unable to strike against Germany during 1943. Yet he was unable to save the Red Army from once again losing large parts of it´s high-ranking officer corps from Stalin´s purges. The bitter old Marshall would never forget the fact that Stalin had once again blamed the Soviet generals for his own mistakes.
During the first critical months Stalin was mortally afraid that things were about to get completely out of his control. He suspected that the recent separate armistrice and peace treaty had been considered as a mistake and outright treason by certain top-ranking members of the Politburo, even though no one had dared to openly challenge his final decision in the matter. Yet it seems that ever since Stalin had made the decision to avoid the fate of Tsarist Russia at all costs and concluded a separate armistice and peace treaty with Germany and her allies, he was constantly plagued by doubt that someone of his inner circle would try to kill and replace him.
Meanwhile he impatiently waited for news from Western Europe. Since summer 1941 Stalin had had doubts that Western Allies were holding their forces back from the current struggle against Hitler´s regime, waiting for the Soviet Union to exhaust and wear down the German armies. Stalin was also quick to realize that the war would cause immense damage to the Soviet Union and should therefore be ended (at least temporarily) by diplomatic means. The first Soviet negotiation terms were sent already in winter 1941 with Bulgaria acting as a mediator, and the following year was also filled with diplomatic activity as Italy and Japan tried in vain to mediate a truce between Germany and USSR. Hitler however rejected all such proposals without even considering them, since despite all the temporary setbacks the war in the East seemed to be going well for Germany. In spring 1942, after the bitter winter combat in the Caucasus and steppes near Kotelnikovo had failed to dislodge the Axis forces from from Georgia, Soviet delegation established secret contact to the German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.
In December 1942 Dr. Peter Kleist who had been visiting Sweden in a mission of Auswärtiges Amt received top-secret documents that he quickly delivered to Berlin. They contained the new Soviet terms for truce negotiations. It is unsure how the Western Allies found out about this development, but when A. M. Alexandrov, the head of the European department of Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs arrived to Stockholm in January 1943, American and British intelligence agencies were already keeping a close eye to the situation. In the following secret negotiations Mr. Alexandrov confirmed that Soviet Union was willing to negotiate about the fate of the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine. The rumors of a chances of a separate peace were quick to reach London, and the British government took them dead-seriously. Supply convoys to encircled Kola Peninsula and Murmansk were temporarily put to a halt, and Stalin knew that the defenders of the region could not hold on much longer without them.
When the Western Allies then informed the Soviet dictator that their planned invasion to Western Europe would have to be postponed for another year in 2nd of June 1943, the relations between these co-belligerent states suffered a severe hit. In 11th of June Stalin sent extremely bitter letter for Churchill and Roosevelt and accused them of trying to fight their war on the expense of Soviet Union. A day later Soviet ambassadors where called home from London and Washington, and ten days later Soviet Union had withdrawn from the war.
The news from Sicily in next July after the Treaty of Kirovograd seemed to confirm Stalin´s earlier doubts, as Western Allies now occupied the island and then begun to attack northwards in the Italian peninsula. Stalin was now impatiently waiting for the Western Allies to open a second front in Western Europe, and he wasn´t going to risk his last chance to save his reputation and regain the territories ceded to Germany and her allies until he´d be certain that Britain and USA would have gained a firm foothold from the shores of western Europe. This hope died along the thousands of Allied soldiers who perished while trying in vain to execute the ambitious invasion plan of "Operation Overlord." After the failure of Allied invasion in Normandy Stalin became convinced that Soviet Union would now have to consolidate government´s control in regions east from Volga while waiting the next move of the Western Allies. At the same time the death of President Roosevelt opened a chance for a new beginning in the Soviet-American relations.
Stalin initiated his new plan by sending his Deputy Commissar of Foreign Affairs back into Washington two years later, in summer 1945. The first visible results of this visit were the renewed Lend-Lease shipments through Persia, and they quite likely saved the Soviet Union from another major famine. Yet Mr. Maxim Litvinov, an experienced old-school diplomat who had served as an Soviet Ambassador in Washington for two years had been sent to negotiate with President Truman with greater purpose than securing humanitarian aid for the suffering Soviet people. While the actual documents from the negotiations between Truman administration and Mr. Litvinov remained unknown from the wider public, it soon became clear that Stalin had managed to strike a bargain with the new president, despite the fact that many Americans now had every reason to regard Stalin as a traitor of the Allied cause.
As a standing testament to his skills as a diplomat, Mr. Litvinov was able to convince the Truman Administration of the possible benefits of continued cooperation with the Soviet Union despite the "treason" of the Treaty of Kirovograd.
The true results of Litvinov´s visit were seen in August 1945, when Red Army once again went on the offensive. Operation August Storm contributed much to the quick surrender of Japan, but the true reasons of this operation were at the time rather unclear. The weakened Kwantung Army units defending Manchuria faced rather limited Soviet invasion - the bulk of the Red Army and their best troops were firmly stationed to new western border of the USSR, waiting in full combat readiness and offensive deployment through the autumn. Stalin had obviously hoped that Hitler would have been foolish enough to re-initiate hostilities in the East, and the renewed activity of Soviet partisans through the whole occupied region also seemed to indicate that the Soviet leader now felt that the Red Army was once again ready to challenge the German armies.
Yet the front remained silent while wider partisan uprisings were brutally repressed. Unknown to Truman and Stalin alike, Hitler had no longer been in a position to totally control the foreign policy of Third Reich ever since the bomb blast in Wolfschantze had severely wounded him in 22nd of May 1943. Uneasy coalition of other members of the top Nazi leadership were now in charge, and while their intense power struggles continued behind the scenes, they certainly weren´t willing to break the status quo in occupied Russia because of Japan.
But while Operation August Storm most likely failed to achieve the results Stalin had originally hoped for, it did enable Soviets to evaquate all important industrial facilities from occupied Manchuria, thus largely improving the economy of increasingly important Soviet Far East. And even though few realized it at the time, the facts that Chinese Communists gained control of the whole region and the Japanese weapons Red Army had captured during it´s conquest also had dramatic consequences later on. The Soviet propaganda boasted about the success of Operation August Storm while Stalin now transferred the Red Army units that had taken part to this attack back to the eastern banks of Volga. Winter 1945-1946 was especially restless along the German-Soviet border, and through the occupied Russia the Soviet propaganda boasted that "the time of reckoning will be upon the Hitlerites in next spring." But in 7th of March these plans of renewed hostilities met another severe setback - German nuclear program finally gained concrete results, and the successful nuclear test in the steppes of Astrakhan once again forced Stalin to postpone the invasion of western Russia and reconsider his position, especially when the Western Allies also withdrew from the war and signed an armistice with Germany after politicians like Churchill who still promoted the continuation of the war were voted out of office.
Stalin understood well the propaganda and terror value of nuclear weapons, and quickly dictated that Soviet Union should increase the efforts of their own nuclear program in order to be able to face Germans on equal terms. Yet this process was initially painfully slow, and while the Soviet scientists tried to solve the mysteries of atomic energy, Stalin focused on the internal situation of Soviet Union. The paranoid dictator was by now firmly aware of his own mortality and deteriorating health, and thus he now prepared to solve the matter of his succession.
"When I am gone, the imperialists will strangle all of you like a litter of blind kittens."
Part of Stalin´s speech held during the XIX Party Congress in Sverdlovsk, December 1952.
The Treaty of Kirovograd bought a peace for the Soviet Union with extremely heavy price. The Kola Peninsula, Eastern Karelia, Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, Caucasus and large parts of central Russia west from Volga fell under German occupation and Axis sphere of influence. Immediately after this treaty the European Russia was in complete chaos. Huge masses of refugees of all nationalities of western Soviet Union traveled eastwards, and the tired formations of the Red Army were struggling to retain order as discontented soldiers who felt betrayed by the new peace treaty began to desert from their units with increasing numbers. The country was also facing a threat of famine due the losses of valuable agricultural regions and because the Lend-Lease Aid shipments from US and Britain had stopped after Soviet Union withdrew from the war.
Increasingly bitter and reclusive Stalin made clear that he wanted order restored by any means necessary. The grim Generalissimus privately noted that all civilian reconstruction that would not directly serve the military industries should have to wait while the Red Army had to be brought back into fighting condition as quickly as possible. According to Stalin it was especially important that the military leadership was to be "purged from the unreliable defeatists whose incompetent solutions and mistakes have forced us to sacrifice so much."
Semyon Timoshenko managed to maintain his position as the Chief of the Army most likely because he had supported the continuation of hostilities even after it became clear that Western Allies would be unable to strike against Germany during 1943. Yet he was unable to save the Red Army from once again losing large parts of it´s high-ranking officer corps from Stalin´s purges. The bitter old Marshall would never forget the fact that Stalin had once again blamed the Soviet generals for his own mistakes.
During the first critical months Stalin was mortally afraid that things were about to get completely out of his control. He suspected that the recent separate armistrice and peace treaty had been considered as a mistake and outright treason by certain top-ranking members of the Politburo, even though no one had dared to openly challenge his final decision in the matter. Yet it seems that ever since Stalin had made the decision to avoid the fate of Tsarist Russia at all costs and concluded a separate armistice and peace treaty with Germany and her allies, he was constantly plagued by doubt that someone of his inner circle would try to kill and replace him.
Meanwhile he impatiently waited for news from Western Europe. Since summer 1941 Stalin had had doubts that Western Allies were holding their forces back from the current struggle against Hitler´s regime, waiting for the Soviet Union to exhaust and wear down the German armies. Stalin was also quick to realize that the war would cause immense damage to the Soviet Union and should therefore be ended (at least temporarily) by diplomatic means. The first Soviet negotiation terms were sent already in winter 1941 with Bulgaria acting as a mediator, and the following year was also filled with diplomatic activity as Italy and Japan tried in vain to mediate a truce between Germany and USSR. Hitler however rejected all such proposals without even considering them, since despite all the temporary setbacks the war in the East seemed to be going well for Germany. In spring 1942, after the bitter winter combat in the Caucasus and steppes near Kotelnikovo had failed to dislodge the Axis forces from from Georgia, Soviet delegation established secret contact to the German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.
In December 1942 Dr. Peter Kleist who had been visiting Sweden in a mission of Auswärtiges Amt received top-secret documents that he quickly delivered to Berlin. They contained the new Soviet terms for truce negotiations. It is unsure how the Western Allies found out about this development, but when A. M. Alexandrov, the head of the European department of Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs arrived to Stockholm in January 1943, American and British intelligence agencies were already keeping a close eye to the situation. In the following secret negotiations Mr. Alexandrov confirmed that Soviet Union was willing to negotiate about the fate of the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine. The rumors of a chances of a separate peace were quick to reach London, and the British government took them dead-seriously. Supply convoys to encircled Kola Peninsula and Murmansk were temporarily put to a halt, and Stalin knew that the defenders of the region could not hold on much longer without them.
When the Western Allies then informed the Soviet dictator that their planned invasion to Western Europe would have to be postponed for another year in 2nd of June 1943, the relations between these co-belligerent states suffered a severe hit. In 11th of June Stalin sent extremely bitter letter for Churchill and Roosevelt and accused them of trying to fight their war on the expense of Soviet Union. A day later Soviet ambassadors where called home from London and Washington, and ten days later Soviet Union had withdrawn from the war.
The news from Sicily in next July after the Treaty of Kirovograd seemed to confirm Stalin´s earlier doubts, as Western Allies now occupied the island and then begun to attack northwards in the Italian peninsula. Stalin was now impatiently waiting for the Western Allies to open a second front in Western Europe, and he wasn´t going to risk his last chance to save his reputation and regain the territories ceded to Germany and her allies until he´d be certain that Britain and USA would have gained a firm foothold from the shores of western Europe. This hope died along the thousands of Allied soldiers who perished while trying in vain to execute the ambitious invasion plan of "Operation Overlord." After the failure of Allied invasion in Normandy Stalin became convinced that Soviet Union would now have to consolidate government´s control in regions east from Volga while waiting the next move of the Western Allies. At the same time the death of President Roosevelt opened a chance for a new beginning in the Soviet-American relations.
Stalin initiated his new plan by sending his Deputy Commissar of Foreign Affairs back into Washington two years later, in summer 1945. The first visible results of this visit were the renewed Lend-Lease shipments through Persia, and they quite likely saved the Soviet Union from another major famine. Yet Mr. Maxim Litvinov, an experienced old-school diplomat who had served as an Soviet Ambassador in Washington for two years had been sent to negotiate with President Truman with greater purpose than securing humanitarian aid for the suffering Soviet people. While the actual documents from the negotiations between Truman administration and Mr. Litvinov remained unknown from the wider public, it soon became clear that Stalin had managed to strike a bargain with the new president, despite the fact that many Americans now had every reason to regard Stalin as a traitor of the Allied cause.
As a standing testament to his skills as a diplomat, Mr. Litvinov was able to convince the Truman Administration of the possible benefits of continued cooperation with the Soviet Union despite the "treason" of the Treaty of Kirovograd.
The true results of Litvinov´s visit were seen in August 1945, when Red Army once again went on the offensive. Operation August Storm contributed much to the quick surrender of Japan, but the true reasons of this operation were at the time rather unclear. The weakened Kwantung Army units defending Manchuria faced rather limited Soviet invasion - the bulk of the Red Army and their best troops were firmly stationed to new western border of the USSR, waiting in full combat readiness and offensive deployment through the autumn. Stalin had obviously hoped that Hitler would have been foolish enough to re-initiate hostilities in the East, and the renewed activity of Soviet partisans through the whole occupied region also seemed to indicate that the Soviet leader now felt that the Red Army was once again ready to challenge the German armies.
Yet the front remained silent while wider partisan uprisings were brutally repressed. Unknown to Truman and Stalin alike, Hitler had no longer been in a position to totally control the foreign policy of Third Reich ever since the bomb blast in Wolfschantze had severely wounded him in 22nd of May 1943. Uneasy coalition of other members of the top Nazi leadership were now in charge, and while their intense power struggles continued behind the scenes, they certainly weren´t willing to break the status quo in occupied Russia because of Japan.
But while Operation August Storm most likely failed to achieve the results Stalin had originally hoped for, it did enable Soviets to evaquate all important industrial facilities from occupied Manchuria, thus largely improving the economy of increasingly important Soviet Far East. And even though few realized it at the time, the facts that Chinese Communists gained control of the whole region and the Japanese weapons Red Army had captured during it´s conquest also had dramatic consequences later on. The Soviet propaganda boasted about the success of Operation August Storm while Stalin now transferred the Red Army units that had taken part to this attack back to the eastern banks of Volga. Winter 1945-1946 was especially restless along the German-Soviet border, and through the occupied Russia the Soviet propaganda boasted that "the time of reckoning will be upon the Hitlerites in next spring." But in 7th of March these plans of renewed hostilities met another severe setback - German nuclear program finally gained concrete results, and the successful nuclear test in the steppes of Astrakhan once again forced Stalin to postpone the invasion of western Russia and reconsider his position, especially when the Western Allies also withdrew from the war and signed an armistice with Germany after politicians like Churchill who still promoted the continuation of the war were voted out of office.
Stalin understood well the propaganda and terror value of nuclear weapons, and quickly dictated that Soviet Union should increase the efforts of their own nuclear program in order to be able to face Germans on equal terms. Yet this process was initially painfully slow, and while the Soviet scientists tried to solve the mysteries of atomic energy, Stalin focused on the internal situation of Soviet Union. The paranoid dictator was by now firmly aware of his own mortality and deteriorating health, and thus he now prepared to solve the matter of his succession.
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Too bad for Japan, but it seems a lot like their reluctance to attack the Soviets in 1941 for Germany.
Could you please update the links in the first post? It would be easier to keep up with this thread
ruckel said:This AAR is like OMG, very nice read. Like a book
Thanks for the compliment.
General_Hoth said:
Would Canadian authorities really tolerate credible anti-government leaders or serious fascist opposition? By channelling the potential support for fascism into a movement that will always remain small due it´s radicalism and whose leader is secretly in government´s payroll...Well, it´s not that bad idea.
SnichtheWalrus said:
It´s always nice to know that there really are people following this, even though not all of them comment. Thanks for your reply.
HKslan said:
German leadership was becoming increasingly desperate in autumn 1945, when the Allied strategic bombing campaign was most active and the threat of a new nuclear strikes against Germany itself seemed very real. Why on Earth should they have wanted to fully re-open the slaughterhouse of the Eastern Front when even the partisan warfare in occupied regions was difficult to keep in control.
Winner said:Could you please update the links in the first post? It would be easier to keep up with this thread
Good suggestion, it was about time to do that anyway.
The Soviet Union after the Treaty of Kirovograd II: Rise of Beria
Thank you, Stalin. Thank you because I am joyful. Thank you because I am well. No matter how old I become, I shall never forget how we received Stalin two days ago. Centuries will pass, and the generations still to come will regard us as the happiest of mortals, as the most fortunate of men, because we lived in the century of centuries, because we were privileged to see Stalin, our inspired leader. Yes, and we regard ourselves as the happiest of mortals because we are the contemporaries of a man who never had an equal in world history.
The men of all ages will call on thy name, which is strong, beautiful, wise and marvelous. Thy name is engraven on every factory, every machine, every place on the earth, and in the hearts of all men.
Every time I have found myself in his presence I have been subjugated by his strength, his charm, his grandeur. I have experienced a great desire to sing, to cry out, to shout with joy and happiness. And now see me--me!--on the same platform where the Great Stalin stood a year ago. In what country, in what part of the world could such a thing happen.
I write books. I am an author. All thanks to thee, O great educator, Stalin. I love a young woman with a renewed love and shall perpetuate myself in my children--all thanks to thee, great educator, Stalin. I shall be eternally happy and joyous, all thanks to thee, great educator, Stalin. Everything belongs to thee, chief of our great country. And when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be : Stalin.
O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples,
Thou who broughtest man to birth.
Thou who fructifies the earth,
Thou who restorest to centuries,
Thou who makest bloom the spring,
Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords...
Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou,
Sun reflected by millions of hearts.
---A. O.Avidenko,
"Hymn to Stalin."
The threat of German nuclear retaliation was most likely the main reason that kept Stalin from sending the Red Army back into western Russia with force in the tense international situation of the last years of 1940´s, when the impatient dictator nervously waited for the Soviet nuclear program to finally achieve concrete results. While Stalin waited, the iron-grip control of the Party was steadily restored to it´s pre-war levels. Dramatic and suprising changes were also taking place in Politburo, as many old Bolsheviks who had dissappointed Stalin lost their previous positions - and often their very lives as well. While there might have truly been some early plans of overthrowing Stalin himself among the other powerfull members of Politburo and State Defense Committee, GKO, all members of these influential organizations were too afraid of Stalin and one another to join forces against him.
Some members of the "inner circle" of Soviet leadership did indeed seek personal benefits from the new situation, and once they managed to strengthen their positions they soon began to view one another as potential rivals and enemies in the upcoming struggle of power. Stalin himself rarely left his new datcha anymore, spending whole days in drunken stupor. In other times the old Generalissimus was still his former self, and during those moments he often summoned Timoshenko or Konev to meet him, and then he would discuss for hours about the current plans of recapturing territories ceded away at the Treaty of Kirovograd. Stalin was obviously obsessed by his desire to initiate a new war against the Reich at the first possible opportunity, but at the same time the Soviet dictator feared that the the Western Allies, especially Britain, would remain neutral rather than rejoin to the war against the Nazis. Therefore Stalin insisted that Soviet Union had to have atomic weapons before it could directly engage Germany again. All these fears and hopes were known only by few men within the top Soviet leadership - and only two realized how to use them to their advantage.
Lavrentiy Beria had strong position in the government of postwar Soviet Union, and unlike many other leaders he soon managed to further increase his influence while remaining in good terms with Stalin.
It is not suprising that it was Beria who initially benefitted most from Stalin´s increasing mistrust to his former comrades, since he had always been able to skillfully manipulate his increasingly paranoid fellow Georgian to direct his vengefull hatred towards others instead of Beria himself. Beria´s position was also vastly improved due that fact that during the first months of the chaotic postwar situation it ultimately was Beria´s ruthless "private army", the NKVD, that kept Soviet Union and Red Army from breaking totally apart in a new civil war. From December 1944 onwards Beria also insisted that he should personally supervise the top-secret Soviet atomic bomb program - here he was playing an extremely risky gamble since he well knew that should Kurchatov and his team fail to achieve the desired result, a working nuclear weapon, Beria and the whole research team would face the wrath of Stalin.
When WWII officially ended after the Zürich Peace Accord was signed in 22nd of April 1946, Stalin responded to the new international situation by initiating the reorganization of the Soviet government in the next month, namely by changing the structure of previous People's Commissariats into full Ministries. Thus in May Day 1946 it was announced that the People´s Commisariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) would reorganized into a new Ministry of Internal Affairs, the MVD. Similary the notorious NKGB, the People's Commissariat for State Security would become a new Ministry of State Security, MGB. The appointment of the first head of MGB was a clear sign of Beria´s growing influence within the Soviet administration. When Vselovod Merkulov, the former chief of the NKGB was allowed to retain the leadership of the reformed secret police instead of earlier proposals that had recommended his replacement by Viktor Abakumov, Beria gained an important political victory. While Beria himself retained his position as the head of MVD, and kept his new security apparatus busy by constantly "exposing new sabouteurs, defeatists and other Enemies of the State, he now had a valuable old-time ally leading other parts of the Soviet security apparatus as well. Merkulov was also an ethnic Georgian, and together with Beria the two men made sure that their Caucasian allies within MGB and MVD were also able to keep their positions. Merkulov also gave his full support to Pavel Sudoplatov´s spying rings operating in Britain and US, and this fact gave a huge boost to struggling Soviet nuclear program.
After 1946 Vselovod Merkulov was a key ally to Beria, and together they increased the prestige of the Soviet secret police, dutifully fulfilling all tasks set by Stalin.
Beria had timed his rise through the ranks well, since Stalin´s growing paranoia made the Soviet Union a very dangerous place for scheming against the political leadership. The Red Army was suffering from new top-level officer purges while experienced members of the Party leadership had problems of their own. Many former favourites of Stalin, Zhdanov for example, had lost much of their former prestige because their former support regions had fallen under the German occupation. Other had lost their value in the eyes of Stalin because of their role during the war. Such was the case of Khrushchev, the political commissar whose career never recovered from the loss of Stalingrad. But while many former leaders failed to retain their positions, Beria certainly wasn´t the only one who knew how to deal with Stalin and use the benefits of the current situation. While the membership of Politburo was an extremely risky position, others managed to wait out the storm as well.
Before the German invasion all other members of the Politburo had always held Georgy Malenkov in contempt and despised him as a shameless and docile sycophant, a loyal lapdog of Stalin. In reality Malenkov was extremely calculative and cautious political player. Years ago he had merely realized that his position and life were totally dependant on the goodwill of Stalin. Thus he had so far been skillfull and lucky enough to retain his position. But Malenkov did not only know when to flatter and obey his current master - he could also notice that Stalin was getting older, and that he was becoming increasingly suspicious towards his former supporters as well. While he was only vaguely aware that others were allready making plans behind his back in order to prepare for the time when the Soviet dictator would finally die, Malenkov was no fool. Like many times before, he decided that now it was time to swich his allegiance if he wanted to be on the winning side in the future as well.
Malenkov and Beria had worked together before, when both men supervised certain parts of the Soviet wartime production. Now Malenkov once again contacted his former associate, and humbly suggested a deal. He reminded Beria that they both were widely hated by other remaining members of the Politburo, and suggested that in order to be able to save their skins and hold on power after Stalin´s death Beria should cooperate with him. When Beria considered Malenkov´s proposal, he came to similar conclusion. He had power, and a key ally, Merkulov, who held an influencial position as the chief of the MGB. But that would not be enough. His name was still tarnished with the latest wave of purges, and especially the remaining leadership of Red Army hated him like poison. Malenkov was right - Beria needed someone to act as a figurehead if he wanted to retain his position after Stalin´s death.
But while the Soviet leadership conspired, the situation in occupied Russia kept changing fast. In 1948 the new Duma of Reichskommissariat Moskau condemned Marxism-Leninism as a failed experiment and signed a treaty of "Eternal Friendship between the Russian people and the liberators of Russia who released our country from the shacles of Communism."As the rest of Europe began to develop closer economical and political cooperation in the form of Europäische Grossraumwirtschaftpakt, Stalin wanted to make sure that Soviet Union would be able to withstand a new prolonged war against Germany, even without Western logistical support.
Stalin viewed the loss of important agricultural territories of Ukraine as one of the most severe blows to the Soviet economy, and thus issued orders that aimed to restore the Soviet agricultural production to pre-war levels by turning large parts of the wide steppes of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic into new farmland. Malenkov was appointed to lead this program, but since new "kulak uprisings" and the separatistic sentiments in the region the situation in Central Asia was initially far too insecure for such ambitious plans.
While the Soviet Union was preparing her economy for a new war, Stalin also made sure that the anti-German propaganda directed to the local population living in occupied territories continued. During 1948 the massive partisan warfare costed the Axis forces 72 000 men per year, while the continued fighting desolated large parts of Russian countryside. Stalin watched and waited. The next year the Soviet propaganda was boasting about the success and spread of Communism. People´s Liberation Army had managed to drive the last forces of the Kuomingtang to the island of Formosa. The People's Republic of China was established, and Mao Zedong became the new Head of State of this huge new Socialist state. Stalin made early contacts to Chinese Communists, and initiated negotiations about closer cooperation between the two states.
Meanwhile the regulation of consumer goods in the German-occupied territories of former Soviet Union ended, slightly improving the standard of living of the local population. Ostministerium and Reichskommissariats also announced the beginning OSTPOL, the new economic reconstruction program for Eastern Europe.
In summer 1950 a new border agreement was signed between the Russian Duma and the Reich. Now Stalin was increasingly afraid that the German policies towards the occupied Russia would turn less harsher in the future, thus finally winning over larger parts of the local population still actively resisting their oppression. But the Soviet Union still lacked a working atomic bomb, and Stalin begun to pressure Beria for the apparent lack of progress of the Soviet nuclear program.
In the next winter Stalin was in a good mood for a first time for years, after the news from Germany reached him in 4th of January: Hitler had died! The development within Germany during the spring gravely disappointed him, though. The Third Reich was able to retain it´s internal cohesion, and the different factions of it´s government created a new coalition and shared power, while the previously strong Waffen SS became a victim of wide purges. Beria reportedly carefully followed this situation through the intelligence received from Merkulov´s MGB.
In the next February the news of the creation of Community of New Europe shocked the whole Soviet leadership. The fact that Pavlo Shandruk had signed the founding protocol as a representative of Ukraine was especially interperted as a clear signal to the Soviet Union - Germany and her allies were now determined to fully incorporate their wartime gains from the East into their new sphere of interest. The situation kept getting worse, as the new Führer Rudolf Hess then disbanded the Reichskomissariat Ostland in next June, and Belarus and the Baltic countries "regained their autonomy" as a part of New Europe. Stalin realized that the creation of ethnic Russian puppet state would be the next logical step in this new direction of German foreign policy. Time was running out.
Thank you, Stalin. Thank you because I am joyful. Thank you because I am well. No matter how old I become, I shall never forget how we received Stalin two days ago. Centuries will pass, and the generations still to come will regard us as the happiest of mortals, as the most fortunate of men, because we lived in the century of centuries, because we were privileged to see Stalin, our inspired leader. Yes, and we regard ourselves as the happiest of mortals because we are the contemporaries of a man who never had an equal in world history.
The men of all ages will call on thy name, which is strong, beautiful, wise and marvelous. Thy name is engraven on every factory, every machine, every place on the earth, and in the hearts of all men.
Every time I have found myself in his presence I have been subjugated by his strength, his charm, his grandeur. I have experienced a great desire to sing, to cry out, to shout with joy and happiness. And now see me--me!--on the same platform where the Great Stalin stood a year ago. In what country, in what part of the world could such a thing happen.
I write books. I am an author. All thanks to thee, O great educator, Stalin. I love a young woman with a renewed love and shall perpetuate myself in my children--all thanks to thee, great educator, Stalin. I shall be eternally happy and joyous, all thanks to thee, great educator, Stalin. Everything belongs to thee, chief of our great country. And when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be : Stalin.
O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples,
Thou who broughtest man to birth.
Thou who fructifies the earth,
Thou who restorest to centuries,
Thou who makest bloom the spring,
Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords...
Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou,
Sun reflected by millions of hearts.
---A. O.Avidenko,
"Hymn to Stalin."
The threat of German nuclear retaliation was most likely the main reason that kept Stalin from sending the Red Army back into western Russia with force in the tense international situation of the last years of 1940´s, when the impatient dictator nervously waited for the Soviet nuclear program to finally achieve concrete results. While Stalin waited, the iron-grip control of the Party was steadily restored to it´s pre-war levels. Dramatic and suprising changes were also taking place in Politburo, as many old Bolsheviks who had dissappointed Stalin lost their previous positions - and often their very lives as well. While there might have truly been some early plans of overthrowing Stalin himself among the other powerfull members of Politburo and State Defense Committee, GKO, all members of these influential organizations were too afraid of Stalin and one another to join forces against him.
Some members of the "inner circle" of Soviet leadership did indeed seek personal benefits from the new situation, and once they managed to strengthen their positions they soon began to view one another as potential rivals and enemies in the upcoming struggle of power. Stalin himself rarely left his new datcha anymore, spending whole days in drunken stupor. In other times the old Generalissimus was still his former self, and during those moments he often summoned Timoshenko or Konev to meet him, and then he would discuss for hours about the current plans of recapturing territories ceded away at the Treaty of Kirovograd. Stalin was obviously obsessed by his desire to initiate a new war against the Reich at the first possible opportunity, but at the same time the Soviet dictator feared that the the Western Allies, especially Britain, would remain neutral rather than rejoin to the war against the Nazis. Therefore Stalin insisted that Soviet Union had to have atomic weapons before it could directly engage Germany again. All these fears and hopes were known only by few men within the top Soviet leadership - and only two realized how to use them to their advantage.
Lavrentiy Beria had strong position in the government of postwar Soviet Union, and unlike many other leaders he soon managed to further increase his influence while remaining in good terms with Stalin.
It is not suprising that it was Beria who initially benefitted most from Stalin´s increasing mistrust to his former comrades, since he had always been able to skillfully manipulate his increasingly paranoid fellow Georgian to direct his vengefull hatred towards others instead of Beria himself. Beria´s position was also vastly improved due that fact that during the first months of the chaotic postwar situation it ultimately was Beria´s ruthless "private army", the NKVD, that kept Soviet Union and Red Army from breaking totally apart in a new civil war. From December 1944 onwards Beria also insisted that he should personally supervise the top-secret Soviet atomic bomb program - here he was playing an extremely risky gamble since he well knew that should Kurchatov and his team fail to achieve the desired result, a working nuclear weapon, Beria and the whole research team would face the wrath of Stalin.
When WWII officially ended after the Zürich Peace Accord was signed in 22nd of April 1946, Stalin responded to the new international situation by initiating the reorganization of the Soviet government in the next month, namely by changing the structure of previous People's Commissariats into full Ministries. Thus in May Day 1946 it was announced that the People´s Commisariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) would reorganized into a new Ministry of Internal Affairs, the MVD. Similary the notorious NKGB, the People's Commissariat for State Security would become a new Ministry of State Security, MGB. The appointment of the first head of MGB was a clear sign of Beria´s growing influence within the Soviet administration. When Vselovod Merkulov, the former chief of the NKGB was allowed to retain the leadership of the reformed secret police instead of earlier proposals that had recommended his replacement by Viktor Abakumov, Beria gained an important political victory. While Beria himself retained his position as the head of MVD, and kept his new security apparatus busy by constantly "exposing new sabouteurs, defeatists and other Enemies of the State, he now had a valuable old-time ally leading other parts of the Soviet security apparatus as well. Merkulov was also an ethnic Georgian, and together with Beria the two men made sure that their Caucasian allies within MGB and MVD were also able to keep their positions. Merkulov also gave his full support to Pavel Sudoplatov´s spying rings operating in Britain and US, and this fact gave a huge boost to struggling Soviet nuclear program.
After 1946 Vselovod Merkulov was a key ally to Beria, and together they increased the prestige of the Soviet secret police, dutifully fulfilling all tasks set by Stalin.
Beria had timed his rise through the ranks well, since Stalin´s growing paranoia made the Soviet Union a very dangerous place for scheming against the political leadership. The Red Army was suffering from new top-level officer purges while experienced members of the Party leadership had problems of their own. Many former favourites of Stalin, Zhdanov for example, had lost much of their former prestige because their former support regions had fallen under the German occupation. Other had lost their value in the eyes of Stalin because of their role during the war. Such was the case of Khrushchev, the political commissar whose career never recovered from the loss of Stalingrad. But while many former leaders failed to retain their positions, Beria certainly wasn´t the only one who knew how to deal with Stalin and use the benefits of the current situation. While the membership of Politburo was an extremely risky position, others managed to wait out the storm as well.
Before the German invasion all other members of the Politburo had always held Georgy Malenkov in contempt and despised him as a shameless and docile sycophant, a loyal lapdog of Stalin. In reality Malenkov was extremely calculative and cautious political player. Years ago he had merely realized that his position and life were totally dependant on the goodwill of Stalin. Thus he had so far been skillfull and lucky enough to retain his position. But Malenkov did not only know when to flatter and obey his current master - he could also notice that Stalin was getting older, and that he was becoming increasingly suspicious towards his former supporters as well. While he was only vaguely aware that others were allready making plans behind his back in order to prepare for the time when the Soviet dictator would finally die, Malenkov was no fool. Like many times before, he decided that now it was time to swich his allegiance if he wanted to be on the winning side in the future as well.
Malenkov and Beria had worked together before, when both men supervised certain parts of the Soviet wartime production. Now Malenkov once again contacted his former associate, and humbly suggested a deal. He reminded Beria that they both were widely hated by other remaining members of the Politburo, and suggested that in order to be able to save their skins and hold on power after Stalin´s death Beria should cooperate with him. When Beria considered Malenkov´s proposal, he came to similar conclusion. He had power, and a key ally, Merkulov, who held an influencial position as the chief of the MGB. But that would not be enough. His name was still tarnished with the latest wave of purges, and especially the remaining leadership of Red Army hated him like poison. Malenkov was right - Beria needed someone to act as a figurehead if he wanted to retain his position after Stalin´s death.
But while the Soviet leadership conspired, the situation in occupied Russia kept changing fast. In 1948 the new Duma of Reichskommissariat Moskau condemned Marxism-Leninism as a failed experiment and signed a treaty of "Eternal Friendship between the Russian people and the liberators of Russia who released our country from the shacles of Communism."As the rest of Europe began to develop closer economical and political cooperation in the form of Europäische Grossraumwirtschaftpakt, Stalin wanted to make sure that Soviet Union would be able to withstand a new prolonged war against Germany, even without Western logistical support.
Stalin viewed the loss of important agricultural territories of Ukraine as one of the most severe blows to the Soviet economy, and thus issued orders that aimed to restore the Soviet agricultural production to pre-war levels by turning large parts of the wide steppes of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic into new farmland. Malenkov was appointed to lead this program, but since new "kulak uprisings" and the separatistic sentiments in the region the situation in Central Asia was initially far too insecure for such ambitious plans.
While the Soviet Union was preparing her economy for a new war, Stalin also made sure that the anti-German propaganda directed to the local population living in occupied territories continued. During 1948 the massive partisan warfare costed the Axis forces 72 000 men per year, while the continued fighting desolated large parts of Russian countryside. Stalin watched and waited. The next year the Soviet propaganda was boasting about the success and spread of Communism. People´s Liberation Army had managed to drive the last forces of the Kuomingtang to the island of Formosa. The People's Republic of China was established, and Mao Zedong became the new Head of State of this huge new Socialist state. Stalin made early contacts to Chinese Communists, and initiated negotiations about closer cooperation between the two states.
Meanwhile the regulation of consumer goods in the German-occupied territories of former Soviet Union ended, slightly improving the standard of living of the local population. Ostministerium and Reichskommissariats also announced the beginning OSTPOL, the new economic reconstruction program for Eastern Europe.
In summer 1950 a new border agreement was signed between the Russian Duma and the Reich. Now Stalin was increasingly afraid that the German policies towards the occupied Russia would turn less harsher in the future, thus finally winning over larger parts of the local population still actively resisting their oppression. But the Soviet Union still lacked a working atomic bomb, and Stalin begun to pressure Beria for the apparent lack of progress of the Soviet nuclear program.
In the next winter Stalin was in a good mood for a first time for years, after the news from Germany reached him in 4th of January: Hitler had died! The development within Germany during the spring gravely disappointed him, though. The Third Reich was able to retain it´s internal cohesion, and the different factions of it´s government created a new coalition and shared power, while the previously strong Waffen SS became a victim of wide purges. Beria reportedly carefully followed this situation through the intelligence received from Merkulov´s MGB.
In the next February the news of the creation of Community of New Europe shocked the whole Soviet leadership. The fact that Pavlo Shandruk had signed the founding protocol as a representative of Ukraine was especially interperted as a clear signal to the Soviet Union - Germany and her allies were now determined to fully incorporate their wartime gains from the East into their new sphere of interest. The situation kept getting worse, as the new Führer Rudolf Hess then disbanded the Reichskomissariat Ostland in next June, and Belarus and the Baltic countries "regained their autonomy" as a part of New Europe. Stalin realized that the creation of ethnic Russian puppet state would be the next logical step in this new direction of German foreign policy. Time was running out.
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I wonder what Stalin will do.
By the way, Karelian, is there information about postwar Japan in here or is that coming up at some point?
By the way, Karelian, is there information about postwar Japan in here or is that coming up at some point?
Sorry, but I have to ask, how have things gone in the Space Race? I know the Germans probably maintain the lead in space technology, but I would like to learn more.
Also, how is Switzerland coaping in the middle of Nazi Europe?
Also, how is Switzerland coaping in the middle of Nazi Europe?
Time for some replies. Once again thanks for all the feedback.
Stalin´s deeds and their consequences will be dealth with in the next update.
And no, currently there´s no info regarding postwar Japan since their situation is almost identical to OTL. The most notable differences are the few diehard old-school militarists living in exile in New Europe and the fact that the presidency of Douglas MacArthur certainly improved the relations between Japan and USA during the 1950´s.
This update sheds some light to the Space Race.
And Switzerland is doing quite well. The Nationale Bewegung der Schweiz is a strong party in Swiss domestic politics, but after the Zürich Accord finally ended the WWII, Switzerland has benefitted from her new role as a neutral financial center in the middle of New Europe. It is however notable that Western critics often claim that after the war the country has become the most important money laundering and recycling center of international fascism.
A summary of the situation of Sweden
Nathan Madien said:
Stalin´s deeds and their consequences will be dealth with in the next update.
And no, currently there´s no info regarding postwar Japan since their situation is almost identical to OTL. The most notable differences are the few diehard old-school militarists living in exile in New Europe and the fact that the presidency of Douglas MacArthur certainly improved the relations between Japan and USA during the 1950´s.
Rekjavik said:
This update sheds some light to the Space Race.
And Switzerland is doing quite well. The Nationale Bewegung der Schweiz is a strong party in Swiss domestic politics, but after the Zürich Accord finally ended the WWII, Switzerland has benefitted from her new role as a neutral financial center in the middle of New Europe. It is however notable that Western critics often claim that after the war the country has become the most important money laundering and recycling center of international fascism.
ruckel said:
A summary of the situation of Sweden
The Soviet Union after the Treaty of Kirovograd III: Time of Troubles
Partisan unit on the move.
"...The collective farmers must drive off all their cattle, and turn over their grain to the safe-keeping of State authorities for transportation to the rear. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel which cannot be withdrawn, must without fail be destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, guerrilla units, mounted and on foot, must be formed, diversionist groups must be organized to combat the enemy troops, to foment guerrilla warfare everywhere, to blow up bridges and roads, damage telephone and telegraph lines, set fire to forests, stores, transports.
In the occupied regions conditions must be made unbearable for the enemy and all his accomplices. They must be hounded and annihilated at every step, and all their measures frustrated..."
Stalin, Soviet Premier, broadcast to the people of the Soviet Union. July 3, 1941
Resistance begins
Stalin´s historical speech marked a new era in the history of partisan warfare in Soviet Union. In a sense this speech also marked a political rehabilitation of a school of military thinking that had once been condemned as politically unorthodox. The history of Soviet partisan warfare military theory began from works of Frunze. Allready during the Civil War he had famously stated that "partisan actions could place enemy armies in a situation where even their great technical advantages would not be able help them when confronting a poorly armed but aggressive, bold and decisive enemy." The research projects initiated by him continued during the 1920s, and books like Malaia voina (Small war), Kartingin Partisanstvo: opyta analiza (Guerrilla warfare: Experience and analysis) and Malaia voina: partisanstvo i diversiia(Guerrilla war and diversionary actions) further analyzed the experiences Red Army.
During that time the RKKA was maybe the most experienced military force in the field of anti-partisan warfare as well. It had gained many hard-bought lessons from the Russian Civil War and subsequent military campaigns where it had sucesfully supressed peasant uprising against Soviet power, halted actions of armed bans which were supplied by weapons from abroad and crushed nationalistic uprisings typical of Russian Central Asia.
Yet all this knowledge became politically heretical in the 1930´s. Before the German invasion Stalin had repeatedly stated that only the losing party would resort on partisan warfare, and that the very idea of making any preparations for loosing considerable Soviet territory should be considered as defeatism. Another important factor in condemning partisan warfare was most likely Stalin´s mistrust to Soviet citizens. Fearing that any training and organisation of civilian paramilitary units might encourage anti-soviet groups and give them an easy source of organising armed resistance against the Soviet State, Stalin instead approved the theory of "deep operations" as a new official policy that aimed to fight all future wars on foreign soil.
German invasion forced the Stalinist system to quickly change the official dogmas about partisan warfare.
It is therefore not suprising the first forms of resistance against the German occupation forces during summer 1941 were rather spontaneous and improvised in nature. The few NKVD units ordered to conduct demolitions and harassment actions in the border regions simply melted away under the initial strikes of the German offensive. But as soon as the old manuals from 1920s were once again brought back to use, the Soviet system begun to fully mobilize and organize the evolving partisan movement. New propaganda campaign ordered everyone who had been "stranded behind enemy lines" to strike against the fascists. Attacks were to be conducted by demolition and mining (railroads, roads, bridges, construction works, plans of any kind,airfields, communication installations, ammunition, POL, and supply dums of all types, billets), poisoning wells and by directly attacking against individual soldiers and columns.
Later on, when it became apparent that the German occupation might last quite long, NKVD and later on SMERSH and GRU began to train small elite desant units that were paradropped into occupied regions. These units helped and re-organized the regular partisan units in the hardest sabotage and espionage missions, and preparation of landing fields for supply aircraft and airborne troops became a new, important mission of "regular" partisan units.
These fanatical volunteer units were also tasked to work as the new spearhead and method of control for the Bolshevik Party. The Soviet system slowly begun to re-assert it´s control and influence among the occupied population by conscripting locals to join the partisans and assasinating known collabolators. The partisans sought to alienate the local population from German administration, and the harsh methods of German anti-partisan warfare greatly helped them in this task.
The first partisan groups were small, poorly organized bands of former Red Army soldiers and locals.
Initial German reaction to the partisan threat
As the war in Russia dragged on, the German military machine slowly begun to adapt to the unique new situation in the Eastern Front. Ruthlessness became a basic principle in both partisan and anti-partisan warfare in Soviet Union. By savage action did the partisans seek to fight the invader and neutralize the collabolator: by savage action also did the invaders hope to rule the Russian people and defeat the partisan.
During 1942 the German troops received official instructions for fighting against the Soviet partisans. Their new official doctrine dictated that German units should never allow the partisans to divert them from their primary mission of frontline combat to the extent of weaking that front. Since partisans were estimated to have very limited combat value, German troops were instructed to react accordingly. The new doctrine emphasized that by striking hard with sufficient first-line troops, pulling to major communication axes and letting the rest go for the time being the German armies had managed to fight their way into Moscow in 1941 and to Volga and Caucasus during 1942. Meanwhile the German supply system was struggling to maintain organization and strength to clear the rear areas.
All actual German anti-partisan operations aimed for complete annihilation of targetted enemy partisan forces and especially their leadership. These operations were, if possible, led by experienced front-line commanders. Such operations were prepared as carefully as operation in the front, and Germans struggled to gain good intelligence priour to the actual operation. They also aimed to achieve complete security to preserve the element of surprise as long as possible. Since these operations typically took place in difficult terrain, units partaking to such missions were given ample signal equipment.
The actual operation usually began with encirlement that surrounded and isolated the entire target area so that it could be cleared. Then the anti-partisan units initiated a surprise attack against one part of the target zone. They carefully combed the whole region during the course of the operation and once the actual operation was over, cleared areas were secured with strong garrisons. If that wasn´t possible, everything was simply burned to dissuade the partisans from returning. As the war went on, such operations desolated wide parts of countryside, mainly in Belarus and occupied Russia.
German anti-partisan tactics caused immensive suffering to the local population caught in the middle of the the mortal struggle between the German occupation forces and the growing partisan movement.
Yet such operations failed to eradicate the partisan movement. While the early German successes in capturing Moscow and the propaganda efforts of Ostministerium had allowed them to keep Baltic region and western Ukraine under control, Belarus and occupied parts of Russia were becoming hotbeds of resistance with increasing number of local population joining to the ranks of the partisan movement.
After the Headquarters of the Partisan Movement had initiated it´s actions as a branch of STAVKA in May 1942, it had been gradually able to establish regional staffs for differents parts of occupied Soviet territory by the end of the year. The role of this strengthening organization was allready changing when it received top-secret instructions for future operations in early summer 1943. Few months later the Soviet Union withdrew from the war, and officially ceded the Kola Peninsula, Eastern Karelia, the territory of former Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, Caucasus and large parts of European Russia to Axis control.
Partisan movement fights on
"The Great Patriotic War" had been a desperate struggle since it had begun. The Soviet war effort had all too much resembled the ill-fated Eastern Front of the previous World War, with severe setbacks following one another. But even when the Red Army had been beaten to the banks of Volga and Leningrad, Moscow, Caucasus and even Stalingrad had all been lost, a negotiated solution was still something that was all too hard to accept for many common citizens after this bitter struggle. Wasn´t this treaty a direct insult to the staggering losses and the unbroken fighting spirit of the Red Army, partisan movement and the whole Soviet nation?
While the Soviet security organizations were swift to detain and silence the most vocal critics of the new situation, the Soviet propaganda apparatus was equally quick to come up with answers. By praising the new treaty as a "succesfull defense of the great October Revolution" and laying the blame of this outcome entirely on the Western powers and to their unwillingness to commit resources to the struggle against fascism the Soviet administration sought to calm down the unstable internal situation inside their new borders.
While the Wehrmacht and Red Army dug in at the opposite banks of Volga and other rivers that marked the new border, the fighting in the ceded territories continued. As a part of the protocols of the Treaty of Kirovograd Soviet administration had officially urged the partisan movement to lay down it´s weapons and stated that every former resistance fighter should "return" by moving over the new border. Soviet government also officially severed all ties to partisan organizations, and Red Army units respected the demilitarized zone set to the new border regions.
Yet the Soviet propaganda also openly referred the new peace treaty as "our current truce with the Hitlerites", and the officially disbanded Headquarters of the Partisan Movement continued it´s actions in occupied Russia, making sure that the ranks of the partisan movement held firm during the time when the promise of amnesty for surrendering partisans was still in effect. Now the partisan movement focused on improving it´s propaganda efforts and saving it´s fighting strength. New Soviet propaganda focused on the allegedly desperate economic situation of Germany, promoted the success of Western Allies and sought to portray Soviet power in new and attractive colours. This major ideological task ensured that the government retained at least some measures of control in Soviet populations behind the German lines. Yet this campaign clearly had one major, central theme above others: The Red Army would return.
Treaty of Kirovograd only temporarily demoralized the partisan movement, and it´s new propaganda efforts sought to bring hope to the population living in occupied territories.
Why the Eastern Front remained silent during 1944
By summer 1943 Stalin had been bitter and desperate enough to sign a truce with Germans. Yet from that day on the Soviet dictator had been constantly planning the way Soviet Union would be able to effectively return to the war. One of the main reasons why Stalin had "traded land for time" was the fact that the Red Army was in a desperate need of rest and re-organization. Operation Kutuzov and Operation Mercury had both become costly failures, and after the bitter fighting against the latest German offensives the Soviet military was only slowly recovering by creating new reserves and stockpiling weapons and materials. Since the number of deserters had also been raising to alarming levels during the summer 1943, it was clear that the Soviet military had to be reformed and re-armed before the country could rejoin to the war.
The Soviet infrastructure needed even more work. The loss of Moscow and Stalingrad had completely wrecked the Soviet supply system, and hundreds of kilometers of new railways had to be constructed in order to get the Soviet transport capacity "back on track." And despite the fact that Stalin most certainly wasn´t known for his soft side, even the sosiopathic dictator understood that the massive number of displaced Soviet refugees and wounded war veterans were in a desperate need of state support. Factories evaquated from lost territories had to be brough back to full production efficiency in their new locations behind the Urals, and the Soviet agriculture had to find a way to cope with the loss of Ukraine.
But as the years in Soviet Union were filled with hectic reconstruction and re-armament efforts, the war between Axis and Allies unexpectedly ented to uneasy stalemate caused by nuclear weapons. This suprised Stalin, and he was furious about the fact that his long-awaited new war against Germany would have to be postponed even further since the Soviet Union would also need a nuclear deterrent before striking against Germany in a new one-front war. The partisan movement thus became the most important way of wearing the German troops down, and the Russian countryside witnessed increasingly bitter struggles as new Einwohner-Kampf-Abteilungs of Vlasovist militias took more and more responsibilites in the struggle against their fellow countrymen.
Supporters of Marshal Vlasov had chosen a different side in this ideological struggle, and when these units fought against partisans no quarter was asked and none given.
By 1948 the partisan forces had suffered enourmous casualties, but they still managed to fight on. The leaders of remaining partisan bands punished smallest fractions by death and simply eliminated many within their own ranks from slightest suspicion of treason. In addition joint family liability was also becoming an important part of the partisan movement - members of many units were all relatives, and such close family bonds made them virtually immune for enemy propaganda attemps. Vlasovist propaganda was now trying to convince the partisans to lay down their weapons by using all possible media means. They used leaflets, posters and letters from deserters to convince the locals and partisans that they would not hold their participation in guerrilla bands agains them. The authorities of Soviet "shadow government" were increasingly hard-pressed in their efforts of keeping the tired local population in control.
1951 - Stalin makes his decision
The death of Hitler initiated dramatic changes everywhere in Europe. In Reichskommissariat Moskau it marked the beginning of decollectivization and land reforms. This was something local population had waited for years. For Soviet government these were especially alarming news. By creating a new social class of edinolichniks (yeoman farmers) the German authorities and their Vlasovist puppets could lure significant parts of local population to support the new status quo. People were sick and tired to the continued chaos and fighting, and the hopes of the return of the Red Army seemed increasingly unlikely. The hope maintained so long by the partisan warfare was finally beginning to fade.
The partisan movement was becoming increasingly marginalized, and only the most fanatical supporters of Bolshevism were still willing to fight on.
The latest news from Middle-East in August 1951 finally forced Stalin to react. Patiently the humiliated Soviet dictator had waited for the right moment for years, closely following the progress of Red Army rearmament and the rebuilding effort of Soviet society and economy. But now he was determined that Germany would be caught into a new struggle against the Western powers. Stalin carefully followed the development of the situation in Lebanese and Egyptian fronts. And in December 1952, after nervous Beria had personally promised him that the Soviet nuclear program would produce concrete results "within months", Stalin ordered that the carefully deviced plan that aimed to recapture the territories ceded by Treaty of Kirovograd should be initiated.
Operation Minin - The Last Hurrah of the Soviet Partisans
Operation Minin was the codename for the first phase of carefully prepared Soviet attack. It begun on New Year´s Eve 1953 after a total mobilization of all remaining partisan units had taken place. The plan counted on the partisans to paralyze German supply and troops movement priour to actual Red Army invasion. This task was to be completed by destroying the rail lines. By paralyzing the German transport system STAVKA calculated that the partisans would at least temporarily block the movement of German reinforcements and cut their axes of retreat. These initial attacks were made on successive nights, no more than several days apart throughout occupied Russia and in lesser extent in Belarus and northern Ukraine as well. The first blows of this operation were highly succesfull. The long period of relatively little action had lulled the Vlasovist militias guarding most of the Russian cities and towns into a false sense of security, and the Wehrmacht had allready reduced their rearguard forces into minimum garrisons and instead concentrated the occupation troops of Russia to guard the border at Volga. Befelshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebietes (Army Group Rear Areas control) was suprised by the scale of these events, and the small local garrisons in Russian countryside and cities were initially fighting for their lives instead of being able to move out to help their besieged neighbour units.
After the operation had successfully destroyed large parts of German railway network, it continued with attacks against the major cities of occupied territories. There the Soviet "urban underground" resistance cells struck coordinately against the garrisons of all major cities west from Volga. They were especially succesfull in Moscow, where large numbers of partisans had managed to infiltrate the city by using secret tunnels that connected the wide sewer systems of the ruined metropolis to outern suburbs. Here the partisans had superiour numbers and they had used their ample time to prepare well, and the local garrison was quickly surrounded and either destroyed or driven out from the city. This marked the beginning of a huge popular uprising in the Reichskomissariat Moskau. Radio broadcasts from captured Moscow played patriotic Soviet music and openly called "the mighty Soviet nation to rise as one and throw off the imperialist yoke of Hitlerite tyranny." Meanwhile the whole Reichskommissariat was in chaos, as partisan units sought to encircle and destroy isolated German and Vlasovist units one by one and the uprising kept gaining more support from the local population.
New volunteers enthusiastically joined to the ranks of the partisans as the final battle for the liberation of Russia seemed to be at hand.
Germans reacted by mobilizing large number of experienced war-time units and sending them back to East, fearful of the fact that such a major uprising was surely orchestrated by Soviet government and could only mean the beginning of a Soviet invasion that would most likely begin in a few days. But the border remained silent. It was 3rd of January, and on the previous evening suprisingly jubilant Stalin had held an all-night dinner in his bunker near Kuybyshev Square together with Interior minister Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov and Nikolai Bulganin. Now it was allready mid-day, but the Soviet dictator seemed to be still sleeping...
Partisan unit on the move.
"...The collective farmers must drive off all their cattle, and turn over their grain to the safe-keeping of State authorities for transportation to the rear. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel which cannot be withdrawn, must without fail be destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, guerrilla units, mounted and on foot, must be formed, diversionist groups must be organized to combat the enemy troops, to foment guerrilla warfare everywhere, to blow up bridges and roads, damage telephone and telegraph lines, set fire to forests, stores, transports.
In the occupied regions conditions must be made unbearable for the enemy and all his accomplices. They must be hounded and annihilated at every step, and all their measures frustrated..."
Stalin, Soviet Premier, broadcast to the people of the Soviet Union. July 3, 1941
Resistance begins
Stalin´s historical speech marked a new era in the history of partisan warfare in Soviet Union. In a sense this speech also marked a political rehabilitation of a school of military thinking that had once been condemned as politically unorthodox. The history of Soviet partisan warfare military theory began from works of Frunze. Allready during the Civil War he had famously stated that "partisan actions could place enemy armies in a situation where even their great technical advantages would not be able help them when confronting a poorly armed but aggressive, bold and decisive enemy." The research projects initiated by him continued during the 1920s, and books like Malaia voina (Small war), Kartingin Partisanstvo: opyta analiza (Guerrilla warfare: Experience and analysis) and Malaia voina: partisanstvo i diversiia(Guerrilla war and diversionary actions) further analyzed the experiences Red Army.
During that time the RKKA was maybe the most experienced military force in the field of anti-partisan warfare as well. It had gained many hard-bought lessons from the Russian Civil War and subsequent military campaigns where it had sucesfully supressed peasant uprising against Soviet power, halted actions of armed bans which were supplied by weapons from abroad and crushed nationalistic uprisings typical of Russian Central Asia.
Yet all this knowledge became politically heretical in the 1930´s. Before the German invasion Stalin had repeatedly stated that only the losing party would resort on partisan warfare, and that the very idea of making any preparations for loosing considerable Soviet territory should be considered as defeatism. Another important factor in condemning partisan warfare was most likely Stalin´s mistrust to Soviet citizens. Fearing that any training and organisation of civilian paramilitary units might encourage anti-soviet groups and give them an easy source of organising armed resistance against the Soviet State, Stalin instead approved the theory of "deep operations" as a new official policy that aimed to fight all future wars on foreign soil.
German invasion forced the Stalinist system to quickly change the official dogmas about partisan warfare.
It is therefore not suprising the first forms of resistance against the German occupation forces during summer 1941 were rather spontaneous and improvised in nature. The few NKVD units ordered to conduct demolitions and harassment actions in the border regions simply melted away under the initial strikes of the German offensive. But as soon as the old manuals from 1920s were once again brought back to use, the Soviet system begun to fully mobilize and organize the evolving partisan movement. New propaganda campaign ordered everyone who had been "stranded behind enemy lines" to strike against the fascists. Attacks were to be conducted by demolition and mining (railroads, roads, bridges, construction works, plans of any kind,airfields, communication installations, ammunition, POL, and supply dums of all types, billets), poisoning wells and by directly attacking against individual soldiers and columns.
Later on, when it became apparent that the German occupation might last quite long, NKVD and later on SMERSH and GRU began to train small elite desant units that were paradropped into occupied regions. These units helped and re-organized the regular partisan units in the hardest sabotage and espionage missions, and preparation of landing fields for supply aircraft and airborne troops became a new, important mission of "regular" partisan units.
These fanatical volunteer units were also tasked to work as the new spearhead and method of control for the Bolshevik Party. The Soviet system slowly begun to re-assert it´s control and influence among the occupied population by conscripting locals to join the partisans and assasinating known collabolators. The partisans sought to alienate the local population from German administration, and the harsh methods of German anti-partisan warfare greatly helped them in this task.
The first partisan groups were small, poorly organized bands of former Red Army soldiers and locals.
Initial German reaction to the partisan threat
As the war in Russia dragged on, the German military machine slowly begun to adapt to the unique new situation in the Eastern Front. Ruthlessness became a basic principle in both partisan and anti-partisan warfare in Soviet Union. By savage action did the partisans seek to fight the invader and neutralize the collabolator: by savage action also did the invaders hope to rule the Russian people and defeat the partisan.
During 1942 the German troops received official instructions for fighting against the Soviet partisans. Their new official doctrine dictated that German units should never allow the partisans to divert them from their primary mission of frontline combat to the extent of weaking that front. Since partisans were estimated to have very limited combat value, German troops were instructed to react accordingly. The new doctrine emphasized that by striking hard with sufficient first-line troops, pulling to major communication axes and letting the rest go for the time being the German armies had managed to fight their way into Moscow in 1941 and to Volga and Caucasus during 1942. Meanwhile the German supply system was struggling to maintain organization and strength to clear the rear areas.
All actual German anti-partisan operations aimed for complete annihilation of targetted enemy partisan forces and especially their leadership. These operations were, if possible, led by experienced front-line commanders. Such operations were prepared as carefully as operation in the front, and Germans struggled to gain good intelligence priour to the actual operation. They also aimed to achieve complete security to preserve the element of surprise as long as possible. Since these operations typically took place in difficult terrain, units partaking to such missions were given ample signal equipment.
The actual operation usually began with encirlement that surrounded and isolated the entire target area so that it could be cleared. Then the anti-partisan units initiated a surprise attack against one part of the target zone. They carefully combed the whole region during the course of the operation and once the actual operation was over, cleared areas were secured with strong garrisons. If that wasn´t possible, everything was simply burned to dissuade the partisans from returning. As the war went on, such operations desolated wide parts of countryside, mainly in Belarus and occupied Russia.
German anti-partisan tactics caused immensive suffering to the local population caught in the middle of the the mortal struggle between the German occupation forces and the growing partisan movement.
Yet such operations failed to eradicate the partisan movement. While the early German successes in capturing Moscow and the propaganda efforts of Ostministerium had allowed them to keep Baltic region and western Ukraine under control, Belarus and occupied parts of Russia were becoming hotbeds of resistance with increasing number of local population joining to the ranks of the partisan movement.
After the Headquarters of the Partisan Movement had initiated it´s actions as a branch of STAVKA in May 1942, it had been gradually able to establish regional staffs for differents parts of occupied Soviet territory by the end of the year. The role of this strengthening organization was allready changing when it received top-secret instructions for future operations in early summer 1943. Few months later the Soviet Union withdrew from the war, and officially ceded the Kola Peninsula, Eastern Karelia, the territory of former Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, Caucasus and large parts of European Russia to Axis control.
Partisan movement fights on
"The Great Patriotic War" had been a desperate struggle since it had begun. The Soviet war effort had all too much resembled the ill-fated Eastern Front of the previous World War, with severe setbacks following one another. But even when the Red Army had been beaten to the banks of Volga and Leningrad, Moscow, Caucasus and even Stalingrad had all been lost, a negotiated solution was still something that was all too hard to accept for many common citizens after this bitter struggle. Wasn´t this treaty a direct insult to the staggering losses and the unbroken fighting spirit of the Red Army, partisan movement and the whole Soviet nation?
While the Soviet security organizations were swift to detain and silence the most vocal critics of the new situation, the Soviet propaganda apparatus was equally quick to come up with answers. By praising the new treaty as a "succesfull defense of the great October Revolution" and laying the blame of this outcome entirely on the Western powers and to their unwillingness to commit resources to the struggle against fascism the Soviet administration sought to calm down the unstable internal situation inside their new borders.
While the Wehrmacht and Red Army dug in at the opposite banks of Volga and other rivers that marked the new border, the fighting in the ceded territories continued. As a part of the protocols of the Treaty of Kirovograd Soviet administration had officially urged the partisan movement to lay down it´s weapons and stated that every former resistance fighter should "return" by moving over the new border. Soviet government also officially severed all ties to partisan organizations, and Red Army units respected the demilitarized zone set to the new border regions.
Yet the Soviet propaganda also openly referred the new peace treaty as "our current truce with the Hitlerites", and the officially disbanded Headquarters of the Partisan Movement continued it´s actions in occupied Russia, making sure that the ranks of the partisan movement held firm during the time when the promise of amnesty for surrendering partisans was still in effect. Now the partisan movement focused on improving it´s propaganda efforts and saving it´s fighting strength. New Soviet propaganda focused on the allegedly desperate economic situation of Germany, promoted the success of Western Allies and sought to portray Soviet power in new and attractive colours. This major ideological task ensured that the government retained at least some measures of control in Soviet populations behind the German lines. Yet this campaign clearly had one major, central theme above others: The Red Army would return.
Treaty of Kirovograd only temporarily demoralized the partisan movement, and it´s new propaganda efforts sought to bring hope to the population living in occupied territories.
Why the Eastern Front remained silent during 1944
By summer 1943 Stalin had been bitter and desperate enough to sign a truce with Germans. Yet from that day on the Soviet dictator had been constantly planning the way Soviet Union would be able to effectively return to the war. One of the main reasons why Stalin had "traded land for time" was the fact that the Red Army was in a desperate need of rest and re-organization. Operation Kutuzov and Operation Mercury had both become costly failures, and after the bitter fighting against the latest German offensives the Soviet military was only slowly recovering by creating new reserves and stockpiling weapons and materials. Since the number of deserters had also been raising to alarming levels during the summer 1943, it was clear that the Soviet military had to be reformed and re-armed before the country could rejoin to the war.
The Soviet infrastructure needed even more work. The loss of Moscow and Stalingrad had completely wrecked the Soviet supply system, and hundreds of kilometers of new railways had to be constructed in order to get the Soviet transport capacity "back on track." And despite the fact that Stalin most certainly wasn´t known for his soft side, even the sosiopathic dictator understood that the massive number of displaced Soviet refugees and wounded war veterans were in a desperate need of state support. Factories evaquated from lost territories had to be brough back to full production efficiency in their new locations behind the Urals, and the Soviet agriculture had to find a way to cope with the loss of Ukraine.
But as the years in Soviet Union were filled with hectic reconstruction and re-armament efforts, the war between Axis and Allies unexpectedly ented to uneasy stalemate caused by nuclear weapons. This suprised Stalin, and he was furious about the fact that his long-awaited new war against Germany would have to be postponed even further since the Soviet Union would also need a nuclear deterrent before striking against Germany in a new one-front war. The partisan movement thus became the most important way of wearing the German troops down, and the Russian countryside witnessed increasingly bitter struggles as new Einwohner-Kampf-Abteilungs of Vlasovist militias took more and more responsibilites in the struggle against their fellow countrymen.
Supporters of Marshal Vlasov had chosen a different side in this ideological struggle, and when these units fought against partisans no quarter was asked and none given.
By 1948 the partisan forces had suffered enourmous casualties, but they still managed to fight on. The leaders of remaining partisan bands punished smallest fractions by death and simply eliminated many within their own ranks from slightest suspicion of treason. In addition joint family liability was also becoming an important part of the partisan movement - members of many units were all relatives, and such close family bonds made them virtually immune for enemy propaganda attemps. Vlasovist propaganda was now trying to convince the partisans to lay down their weapons by using all possible media means. They used leaflets, posters and letters from deserters to convince the locals and partisans that they would not hold their participation in guerrilla bands agains them. The authorities of Soviet "shadow government" were increasingly hard-pressed in their efforts of keeping the tired local population in control.
1951 - Stalin makes his decision
The death of Hitler initiated dramatic changes everywhere in Europe. In Reichskommissariat Moskau it marked the beginning of decollectivization and land reforms. This was something local population had waited for years. For Soviet government these were especially alarming news. By creating a new social class of edinolichniks (yeoman farmers) the German authorities and their Vlasovist puppets could lure significant parts of local population to support the new status quo. People were sick and tired to the continued chaos and fighting, and the hopes of the return of the Red Army seemed increasingly unlikely. The hope maintained so long by the partisan warfare was finally beginning to fade.
The partisan movement was becoming increasingly marginalized, and only the most fanatical supporters of Bolshevism were still willing to fight on.
The latest news from Middle-East in August 1951 finally forced Stalin to react. Patiently the humiliated Soviet dictator had waited for the right moment for years, closely following the progress of Red Army rearmament and the rebuilding effort of Soviet society and economy. But now he was determined that Germany would be caught into a new struggle against the Western powers. Stalin carefully followed the development of the situation in Lebanese and Egyptian fronts. And in December 1952, after nervous Beria had personally promised him that the Soviet nuclear program would produce concrete results "within months", Stalin ordered that the carefully deviced plan that aimed to recapture the territories ceded by Treaty of Kirovograd should be initiated.
Operation Minin - The Last Hurrah of the Soviet Partisans
Operation Minin was the codename for the first phase of carefully prepared Soviet attack. It begun on New Year´s Eve 1953 after a total mobilization of all remaining partisan units had taken place. The plan counted on the partisans to paralyze German supply and troops movement priour to actual Red Army invasion. This task was to be completed by destroying the rail lines. By paralyzing the German transport system STAVKA calculated that the partisans would at least temporarily block the movement of German reinforcements and cut their axes of retreat. These initial attacks were made on successive nights, no more than several days apart throughout occupied Russia and in lesser extent in Belarus and northern Ukraine as well. The first blows of this operation were highly succesfull. The long period of relatively little action had lulled the Vlasovist militias guarding most of the Russian cities and towns into a false sense of security, and the Wehrmacht had allready reduced their rearguard forces into minimum garrisons and instead concentrated the occupation troops of Russia to guard the border at Volga. Befelshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebietes (Army Group Rear Areas control) was suprised by the scale of these events, and the small local garrisons in Russian countryside and cities were initially fighting for their lives instead of being able to move out to help their besieged neighbour units.
After the operation had successfully destroyed large parts of German railway network, it continued with attacks against the major cities of occupied territories. There the Soviet "urban underground" resistance cells struck coordinately against the garrisons of all major cities west from Volga. They were especially succesfull in Moscow, where large numbers of partisans had managed to infiltrate the city by using secret tunnels that connected the wide sewer systems of the ruined metropolis to outern suburbs. Here the partisans had superiour numbers and they had used their ample time to prepare well, and the local garrison was quickly surrounded and either destroyed or driven out from the city. This marked the beginning of a huge popular uprising in the Reichskomissariat Moskau. Radio broadcasts from captured Moscow played patriotic Soviet music and openly called "the mighty Soviet nation to rise as one and throw off the imperialist yoke of Hitlerite tyranny." Meanwhile the whole Reichskommissariat was in chaos, as partisan units sought to encircle and destroy isolated German and Vlasovist units one by one and the uprising kept gaining more support from the local population.
New volunteers enthusiastically joined to the ranks of the partisans as the final battle for the liberation of Russia seemed to be at hand.
Germans reacted by mobilizing large number of experienced war-time units and sending them back to East, fearful of the fact that such a major uprising was surely orchestrated by Soviet government and could only mean the beginning of a Soviet invasion that would most likely begin in a few days. But the border remained silent. It was 3rd of January, and on the previous evening suprisingly jubilant Stalin had held an all-night dinner in his bunker near Kuybyshev Square together with Interior minister Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov and Nikolai Bulganin. Now it was allready mid-day, but the Soviet dictator seemed to be still sleeping...