Soviets Rising

rorlegion said:

Following with great interest!!

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tate43 said:

Subbed of course!

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Glad you guys are following!

Sandino said:

The Soviet Union's unending passion for central planning will see them through to victory.

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Hopefully!

Seelmeister said:

A very interesting looking Europe, the human influence in clear in that the borders and not too inplausible

It would seem to me that the Soviet Union is in a fairly precarious position - with little historical expansion gained and an ahistorically powerful Germany in the west, and China in the east. Looking forward to this.

PS - get this link in your signature, I wouldn't have known about this if you hadn't mentioned it in your HoI AAR!

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Germany is certainly a monster, hopefully the AI can screw it up . The USSR needs some attention, at this point I don't think I could beat Manchuria in a war.

State of The Union​

Comrades as you can imagine giving the overall status of a nation so vast, powerful, and glorious as our Soviet Union is a mighty task in and of itself. For the ease of the briefing the party has divided it into five sections; economy, technology, politics, military, and diplomacy. Some sections are interrelated and will overlap, consider it a bonus!

Military

Comrades, in all honesty, the Red Army is in need of some work. The war against the Czar pushed the Red Army to the limit. Eighteen brigades are all that remains after the war. With a war against Switzerland underway, there was little that could be done but to mobilize. The first concern will be to crush the counter-revolutionary forces that have risen.



The Red Army will be reinforced but unfortunately we have to honor an old Czar Russia treaty that forbids us to build brigades for five years.

Another concern is the capitalists’ dogs in Sweden are trying to reinstall the Czar back onto the throne, luckily we sent him deep into Siberia to count trees for the state. The Swiss have declared war on USSR in an insane attempt to increase its own power. The Red Army will crush any Swiss forces who dare enter the motherland.

The great fool, General Yevgeny Voroshilov, took his force across the Pacific to Pogobi. What his thinking was is unknown but he took a significant portion of the standing army with him. A transport fleet will need to be built to ferry the troops back.



Diplomacy

Diplomatically the USSR is in a strong position. Allied with Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom it is unlikely any foreign power would be foolish enough to challenge the might of our Soviet Union at this point. This should buy us the time needed to strengthen the military.

Unfortunately the USSR has lost all claims to Poland and it will be difficult to reintegrate them. Georgia dared to declare independence during our civil war with the Czar. They must be annexed quickly, before they can secure allies. Manchuria controls vital ports that the Czar didn’t have the courage to take. These must be seized by the Red Army to stimulate the economy. The central Asian states are numerous but are divided and weak, they should easily be incorporated into the Union.

The war with Switzerland needs to end soon, so the USSR can get some time to rebuild.



Economy

The number one priority is to stabilize the battered economy. Fortunately comrades we are masters at central planning.



The Czar damaged the budget greatly before the revolution. The people were under enormous strain paying the heavy taxes the Czar set. The middle class was hit especially hard many are not meeting their basic life needs. But since we have eliminated classes this is no longer an issue! The USSR is being crippled by the war reparations incurred from the old Russian government.

Production is dangerously low across the board. It is a priority to increase the production of all goods, in order to bring in vital currency.



We rose to power with the promises of giving the workers ownership of the factories. This rings hollow if we have no factories! We will begin with building up our glorious armament industry. The USSR needs more firearms, artillery, and ammunition. These new factories will empower the workers and give a shot in the arm to the Red Army.

Politics

Comrades we have the greatest political system in the world! This alone will be enough to carry us to victory. The people were promised healthcare, safety, unemployment and more. We will need to rally support and push these reforms through.



Diplomatically the USSR has a strong ally in Germany. This will provide a shield for the Soviet Union while the Red Army is rebuilt. Poland is also allied with Germany so reclaiming our last territory will prove difficult.



Technology

Literacy in the Soviet Union is slightly above 30% which is hampering research production. All in all the Union’s technology achievements are solid. Two areas lacking are in artillery modernization and metallurgy. These areas will receive attention and will soon even out the USSR strengths.

The state will be triumphant!

As always, thanks for reading!

Nikolai said:

That is one sorry state of the Union. But Marx will bring out the best in the great Soviet people!

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The USSR will be triumphant!

Seelmeister said:

A good overview, although it is hard to imagine that the USSR would be overly troubled by the tax burdens placed on the middle class - unless you plan to cozy up to the Kulaks already!

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I imagine not, and taxes will be high for some time so they better get use to it

DensleyBlair said:

The Union does indeed seem to be in a bad way – although it's looking very strong diplomatically. Usually I wouldn't imagine that Sweden would lose much of a threat, but 18 brigades is really quite a sorry army. That said, I have faith that the proletariat will emerge victorious over the bourgeois scum!

Also, the pictures don't seem to be working for me. I get the 'Look who's popular.' message instead of the image. If previous experience is anything to go by, I think I'll just have to wait a bit until your bandwidth resets, but I just thought I'd let you know.

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Any nation could be successful against he USSR at this point, the first priority will be to increase the size of the Red Army. Unfortunately Photobucket has maxed out already so I'll have to go with another image host. Ironically I recently recommended photobucket as an alternative to imageshack o

The issue with the images not appearing has been resolved.

The Red Army

In the summer of 1896 the Soviet Union began an extensive program to build up the Red Army which was woefully undermanned. Weakened by foreign and internal wars the USSR was extremely vulnerable. This become apparent when the Soviets were helpless when Switzerland declared war and a counter-revolutionary rebellion seized much of the interior. A massive recruiting and training program which initiated by the Central Executive Committee. Over 170 brigades would be added to the existing Red Army.


Red Army conscripts practice their marching at their Hammerfest base

With reinforcements months if not years away, the current Red Army would have to deal with the duel threats of a foreign war and an internal civil war. It was decided to ignore Switzerland unless it invaded the Union, which would be foolish of them. The Red Army would be used against the counter-revolutionary forces that seized much on the central USSR. With the country mobilized the Red Army would have additional support. The extra manpower was used to great effect. The USSR forces splintered into small quick formations that quickly overwhelmed the rebels. With the rebels dead or imprisoned it was an easy task to retake the provinces.

Switzerland made peace at the expense of Austria leaving the Red Army without an enemy and massed near the Georgian border. With a prime opportunity to bring the breakaway state back into fold the USSR declares war.





The rough terrain and lack of artillery hampered the Red Army. Still with 200,000 soldiers against the Georgian army of 44,000 proved a decisive advantage. The Georgians simply couldn’t hold back the onslaught, they were overwhelmed and defeated. The USSR paid a high price for the victory, over 40,000 causalities. The Soviet leadership cared little only bringing Georgia back into the Union mattered.



The Smirnov Plan

The ministers of the young Soviet state argued greatly and were divided on many subjects. One area that the defense, agriculture, transportation, energy, propaganda, science and education misters formed an alliance on what would become a comprehensive construction plan. The Smirnov Plan, named after agriculture minister Alexie Smirnov who spearheaded it, called for the construction of factories and railroads to be built across the Soviet Union.

To bring in the support of the defense, energy, science and education ministers several items were added to the Smirnov Plan. Firstly, eighty percent of the newly built factories would produce arms, ammunition, artillery, explosives, or steel. The energy minister was bought cheaply. Clean Coal would be researched immediately and a promise to research Cheap Iron within five years. Lastly the Science and Education minister wanted a guarantee that all reforms would firstly be used to improve the school systems.



New Friends, New Enemies

The Soviet Union wished to project its power across Asia; unfortunately the USSR lacked the strength to operate in both Europe and Asia. With the Union focusing on Europe a strong ally was needed to help in Asia. Japan was a natural choice being the most powerful nation in Asia. Negotiations initially meet with success with relations between the two nations improving but things quickly soured over Sakhalin Island. With Japanese claims on the island they refused to enter an alliance.

While the Soviets lost out on an ally in Japan they surprisingly gained one in the Ottoman Empire. The USSR was able to bring the Ottomans in their sphere of influence, bringing a strong ally that could help the Soviet Union in Europe and Asia.



In one devastating evening the fortunes of USSR reversed. The old Kaiser of Germany died and his son took the throne. The new Kaiser’s first act was to sever the alliance with the Soviets. This sent the Soviet government into a panic; the Red Army was still in process of being rebuilt.

The extreme danger was Germany’s alliance with Sweden. Sweden is still bitter from when Russia tore some of its territory from it. The worry was that now Sweden would attempt to retake its lost provinces and bring in its ally, Germany. The Soviets would embark on its first hostile action against Germany. The Union would have to wrestle control of Sweden from Germany and bring the nation into its own sphere of influence before a war occurred.



The Red Army in response to the potential threat gathers along the polish border around Minsk. The Red Army is critically short on artillery and hussars but will fight to defend the motherland nonetheless.



As always, thanks for reading!

StanislavSoltys said:

Excellent AAR and update! Can't wait to see what happens next!

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Thank you!

Nikolai said:

Oh, no more alliance with the Germans? That does not bode well...

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It was as surprising as it was unfortunate. Hopefully they keep their distance, Sweden declaring war is a genuine threat at the moment. They could drag Germany into a war to reclaim their cores.

DensleyBlair said:

If the Germans choose to attack now, I dare say things would not go too well for the Red Army. Let's hope they stay away.

That said, good to see a victory against Georgia. I imagine that would be a great boost for morale, if anything – proving that the Soviets can actually win something. Something tells me more conquest will follow once the army has been sufficiently replenished...

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With a small army made up of only infantry I'd have to agree with you. It would be safe to assume the Red Army will be exporting communism in the near future . I also wasn't aware that communist countries gain access to the install communism war goal. Might have some fun with that.

Diplomacy

Soviet Diplomats were frustrated when the alliance talks from Japan bogged down and eventually collapsed. The need for a strong Asian ally was still present but it appeared that need would go unfulfilled. However, much unexpectedly a Chinese envoy arrived in the Soviet capital to discuss the possibility of an alliance. Seeing the mutual benefit of such an arrangement the USSR and China finalize an alliance in July of 1898.



In a great struggle between Soviet and German diplomats the USSR finally managed to remove Sweden from Germany’s sphere of influence. This was the first step in ensuring Sweden would remain a peaceful neighbor. Diplomatic efforts continued well into November 1900 before Sweden was finally brought into the Soviet sphere.



The Great Game

The Czars of Russia had lost the great game to United Kingdom in Indian and Central Asia. The new Soviet leadership wanted to prove its superiority over the old government and secure Central Asia for the glory of communism.

The Red Army recruitment and modernization process is proceeding better than planned. Conscripts are arriving in droves at military bases and Soviet factories are producing enormous amount of artillery. The time seemed right for a war against Bukkhara and Kokand. The two nations were conquered swiftly and efficiently by 1900.





Only Persia remained in the region that the Soviets claimed as their rightful territory. Persia had been allowed by the weak Czar government to expand into Central Asia unopposed. The Soviets expected another quick victory. While in the midst of working on legitimizing the invasion of Persia, they entered the United Kingdom’s sphere of influence. The USSR would have to fight a war against The UK, Austria, and Persia or risk losing face on the international stage. The USSR would be put to the test.

War for the Steppes

The Austrians, stronger than Soviet intelligence believed, launched a surprise offensive to capture Odessa with 70,000 soldiers. The Red Army had grown significantly in the last few years and was ready to defend the motherland. An army group of 360,000 soldiers was sent to engage the Austrians.



The Red Army caught up to the Austrians at the Battle of Odessa and is victorious. Within the next few days the entire Austrian invasion force was killed or captured. The Soviets begin their own invasion of Austria proper.



Further East the war doesn’t go so well. A significant British invasion has come out of India. They have already engaged an isolated Soviet Corps. With over 100,000 soldiers the British invasion is significant.



The Soviet attempt to march on the Persian capital is thwarted at the Battle of Kapan.



With these recent events the Soviet Army decided to concentrate all their effort against Austria, the war leader. The immediate goal was the capturing of the Austrian capital, Vienna. At the battles of Przemysl and Olomouc the last remnants of the Austrian army are swept away, leaving the road to Vienna clear.





A heroic defense of Bukhara against a superior British army does much to boost Soviet morale in Central Asia.



By 1903 much of Austria is overrun and a favorable peace is made. While Persia still has land in Central Asia it is now separated from their capital.



No doubt the USSR will strike Persia again in five years to finally drive them out of Central Asia.



As always, thanks for reading!

sprites said:

Oh you were fighting the british AND austrians for a bit of backwater Persia? good job this border is almost historical now!

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I need some historical borders to make myself feel better

AsdfeZxcas said:

Nice AAR! I hope you can get the economy in shape, and I wasn't too suprised the Germans broke ties, although it doesn't make it any better that they did! So, build up the army! Build up the economy!

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Thank you! I usually never handle the economy myself, so it will be a good learning experience. Mainly only building factories that produce armaments. Though I put a healthy amount of Liquor factories because my people want booze. Hoping I can get profits to skyrocket once I can build late game factories.