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Out of: "The Third Revolution"
Taking a rest before the decisive strike

Although the soviet troops had been able to cut off the stalinist forces in the Caucasus by the end of July things were far from over. They had trapped roughtly 850.000 men but the planned advance of the Tank Army South into the Caucasus to link up with the pro-Temanov partisans had failed and the front was very streched.


The front and deployment of forces on 1. August 1935

The Don Front with it's 150.000 men had to hold a 700 km. front against 500.000 enemies. The only positive aspect was that these 500.000 men had to also deal with the pro Temanov partisans in the south on a front that was 1.000 km. long.

The Saratov and Astrachan Front togehter had 260.000 men. Their task was probably the most important. They had to hold a 800 km. long frontier against a enemy 350.000 men strong who would probably try to break through and relief the other forces.

Along the besiedged city of Stalingrad ran a 1.000 km. long front. Over 200.000 men of the Union were massed here to attack the 250.000 stalinists trapped in it.

The Soviet High Command was faced with four major tasks:

I.To hold the Don Front with the limited ressources available.
II.To stop the stalinists from overruning the rebels in the south and exspecially hold the important town of Baku.
III. To fight off stalinist attacks on the Astrachan Front with the aim of relieving Stalingrad.
IV. To make a sucessfull attack on Stalingrad to eliminate the stalinist forces there and free troops for an offensive against the stalinist forces in the Caucasus.

As consquence of these demands Temanov issued his first general order of the war "War Directive No.1: The War in the Caucasus":

War Directive No.1: The War in the Caucasus
From: Nicolaij Temanov, High Commander of all Soviet Forces
To: The Commanders of the Stalingrad, Saratov, Astrakahn, Don and newly formed Georgian Front

The enemies position has been deceisivly weakend by operation "Soviet Sledgehammer". If he can be stopped from escaping out of his current position victory is secure. The forces of the Saratov, Astrakahn and Don Front are therefore to dig in and withstand enemy assault at all cost!
I therfore issue the following depoyment orders:

Artillerie and Tanks

I. All Fronts, except for the Stalingrad Front *, are to transfer 50% of their artillerie to the Don Front.
II. The Don and Stalingrad Front are to send their tank deployments to the Astrakahn and Saratov Front. They will be used as mobile reserve to close any gape that an enemy offensive might open.

Offensive Planning:


Stalingrad

The army is to assemble a crack force at the Stalingrad Front ready to start an attack on Stalingrad by the beginning of September. The City must be taken within two months before winter sets in. The city has a great strategic and moral importance. Upon it's conquest depends wether any large scale offensive can be launced to destroy the remaining stalinist forces in the Caucasus.

Georgia

To reinforce our gallant supporters in the southern Caucasus imidieate action must be taken. STAVKA** has assembled 6 regular infantry divisions *** for action in this theatre in Sevastopol. They will be transported by the Navy to the Harbour of Suchumi. A part of the fleets sailors will form navy infantry brigades to further strentgthen the defense. The Navy will also stay in readiness to evacuate all forces loyal to the Union if the situation should prove unberable. Nevertheless the soldiers are to protect the important city of Baku with all possible means. If Baku falls the stalinists will have acess to considerable resources and could possibly hold out in isolation from other stalinist forces.
Therefore I give a further strategic order:

NO PROVISIONS ARE TO BE LEFT TO THE ENEMY! IF FORCES HAVE TO RETREAT THEIR COMMANDING OFFICERS CARRY RESPONSIBILITY THAT NOTHING IS LEFT TO THE ENEMY BUT BURNED SOIL! HOWEVER FAILS TO OBEY THESE ORDERS WILL BE COURT MARSHALLED AS TRAITOR!

Nicolaj Temanov
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR


The first of these orders to be carried out was the transfer of soviet forces to the souther caucasus. On the 8. August the Soviet Black Sea Fleet set sail for Suchumi.


The first world war veteran battelship "Marat", flagship of the blackseafleet, sets sail as part of the convoy to Suchumi on the 8. August.

By the 18. all units had disembarked and most of the army units made their way towards Baku which was under heavy attack by stalinist forces. The marine brigades meanwhile fortified the city of Suchumi to keep open a route of escape.


A unit of marine infantry in Suchumi. Although they lacked army training and professional officers the sailors had the reputation of beeing hardy soldiers and served with distinction throughout the campaign.

Through these quick reinforcements the situation in the southern Caucasus could be stabilized. The decisive battles however would be fought in Stalingrad and in the plains of Astrachan.


*Fronts = sov. Army Groups
**Stavka = Soviet Supreme HQ
*** A infantry division at this point of conflict in 1935 probably contained some 16.000 men. 6 Divsions therefore had up to 96.000 men. The Marine Infantry probably amounted to 500-1.000 men.
 
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I like the start, Lord V, and I'll be following along. Forgive my ignorance, but I assume that Temanov is your creation?

Vann
 
Vann the Red said:
I like the start, Lord V, and I'll be following along. Forgive my ignorance, but I assume that Temanov is your creation?

Vann
I'm glad you like it so far and yes Temanov is no historic figure. Temanov, Rychanovich and Natanjov are all my creation. I wanted to create a completly different Soviet Union and I did not find any historic figure that could have been belivable in this role.
But more about this later. There is a civil war to be won!

~Lord Valentine~
 
Out of: "The Third Revolution"
"Verdun, bloody Verdun"

While preperations for the Stalingrad offensive were on their way and soviet forces were stabalizing the georgian front the stalinists lauched an attack from the city of Dzhanybek in direction of Stalingrad. Allthough the soviet leadership had anticipated a strike in this region they were suprised by the strenght and determination with witch the attack began on the 14. August.


A crude defensive infantry position along the Astrakahn Front supported by tanks. The tanks performed a deceisiv task in holding the frontier in August 1935

Only 100km. stood between the attackers and the besiedged city of Stalingrad. In the first 48 hours stalinist advance was rapid and they coverd 30 km. At the time parts of the stalinist forces in Stalingrad broke through the soviet defensive positions pushing the front further 10 km. towards their allies.
In a furst panic reaktion STAVKA orderd the troops of the Stalingrad Front to start their offensive towards the city although preperations were not complete yet. They however still stood 350 km. from the city and it was unlikely that they would reace it in time.

It was in this tense atmosphere that the news reached the Politburo that the Pro-Temanov revolutionaries in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had capitulated to supperior stalinist forces. This seriously damaged the moral of the remaining revolutionaries. Almost everything now depended on defeating the stalinists in decisiv battles.
And in deed soviet resistance got stiffer and in the next 5 days the stalinists only advanced further 15 km. They were now only 50 km. away from Stalingrad. STAVKA however had not stayed idle. once it had become clear that the stalinists had commited most of their forces to the offensive in the Dzhanybek area with little reserves considerable forces, exspecially from the Saratov Front, were brought into position.

On the 25. August, while the stalinists where preparing their final strike for Stalingrad, nearly 100.000 soviet soldiers began their counter-attack against the enemies streched flanks.


Soviet infantry attacks across open fields during the counter-attacks of August 1935. Normaly such attacks would have lead to terrible loses but opposition was low.

The attack was a great success. The enemy had overstreched his ressources. On the 27. the stalinist leadership orderd the troops to retreat into their starting positions to avoid encirclement. The troops in Stalingrad however were not told to attempt to fight their way out of the cauldron but to dig in. The stalinists belived that beating of their offensive had consumed all reserves the Union had. They were badly mistaken.
On 30. August the Stalingrad Front began its advance on Stalingrad. At the begining progress was rapid for several reasons. On the one hand the first 280 km. were fought in the plains of the Don with no great natural obstacles. On the other hand the enemy had not had time to dig in properly because of his comitment to support the stalinist offensive.

By 10. September the troops had marched over 250 km. and had reached the suburbes. Within a further week fighting was carried into the city centre. By the 22. September the stalinist defenders had been driven back to a few footholdes on the shores of the Volga.


A small infantry unit attacks across the ruined city centre of Stalingrad. The suffering of soldiers and civilians in this bloody battle was extreme.

Loses however had strongly increased since the fighting in the city itself had begone and by the end of September the defendors had fougth the Unions troops to a stalemate. Positions were taken and retaken without either side gaining an advantage. The Baricades Factory for example changed handes 12 times during the fighting of the 2.-4. October.

A Union officer wrote home:
It's Verdun! Bloody Verdun with modern weapons! We attack during daytime and capture a positon. The stalinists counter-attack during the night and retake their position. This is how it goes day by day! Furthermore snipper parties hunt for anything that moves. We officers are their favourite prey. You must not let yourself be seen.

As it is mentioned in this letter the stalinists specialized in making night attacks to either retake positions or terrorize the enemy. Furthermore both sides defense lines were now only a grenade throw away from each other so that the Union could not exploit their advantage in artillery and aircraft out of fear of hitting their own people.


A picture of "the cauldron" taken from the other side of the river Volga.

A further alarming news was that following the surrender of the turkmenistan rebels the NKVD had fallen into a frenzy of killing. They had not only killed most of their prisoners but also taken revenge on the population plundering, murdering and deporting "counter-revolutinary ethnics" to Siberia.


Men of a NKVD unit. NKVD soldiers were not only the stalinist factions most fanatic fighters, compareable to Hitlers "Waffen SS", but also feared as instrument of terror. They commited numerous atrocities during Stalins reign and the civil war.

With Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan "pacified" in this way the stalinists would soon be able to redeploy forces to the Astrakahn Front and possibly ruin all that had been reached by Operation Soviet Sledgehammer.

The High Command took a gamble. Temanov issued a new directiv on 5. October.

War Directiv No. 2: The war on the Stalingrad Front
From: Nicolaj Temanov, High Commander of all Soviet Forces
To: The Commanders of the Stalingrad, Saratov and Astrakahn Front.

Fighting in Stalingrad has turned into a stalemate. Although this is not a positiv development it does not spell desaster on our situation. If the enemy remaines trapped in Stalingrad by the beginning of Winter he will suffer greatly due to lack of provisions, housing etc.. The main concern therefore must be to keep Stalingrad besiedged. Probably the stalinists will be ready to renew their attack on Stalingrad at the begining of November with greater forces.
Seeing that they allready poses a good position to launch this attack we must seize the initiativ. A attack must be made to take the enemies key town of Dzhanybek. This would shorten our front and make it harder for the enemy to push towards Stalingrad.
Therefore I order the Saratov Front to send 50.000 men to the Astrakahn Front to support this attack. STAVKA has prepared 3 further divisions as reserve.
Furthermore 5 Divisions have been assembled to attack the enemies position in Stalingrad from the other side of the Volga. This attack on the enemies rear could bring an end to stalininst resistance in Stalingrad.
I pray this conflict is other by Christmas.

Good luck Comerades and may your God be with you.
Nicolaij Temanov
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR


October seemed to become the month of decision...

~Lord Valentine~
 
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Out of: "The Third Revolution"
"The curtain falls"

"Operation Revenge" started on 18. October. After a short artillerie barrage armoured spearheads consisting of tanks and motorized infantry attacked. One from Kamyschin the other from the Astrakahn Front. Their aim was to trap the stalinist troops around Dzhanybek in a great pincer movement and take the city itself. Although temperatures were allready falling rapidly the operation started without any great problems. The stalinists once again had not exspected such a determind and concentrated attacked. The stalinists still hade not got behind the soviet secret of sucess, which was concentrating tanks and planes in vast forces.

Although losses were high the two pincers met on 24. October north of Dzhanybek. Two stalinist armies had been trapped. They were subjected to great aerial bombardment and massive attacks for the next week and were all but destroyed by November 7.


Stalinists POW out of the Dzhanybek cauldron.

On October 22. Temanov announced on radio that he was ready to pardon every stalinist soldier who was not part of the NKVD or involved in "crimes against the citizents of the Union". This proclamation was also dropped by planes over the stalinist lines. Incredibely enougth in the next weeks thousands of stalinist soldiers took the oportunity to switch sides. They obviously had enought of beeing forced to fight and die at gun point by NKVD thugs and hoped for better treatment with the Union forces.


Stalinist deserters wait at a muster station to give their personal informations to the military authorities. As morale collapsed in the stalinist camp at the end of October 1935 whole regiments switched sides.

With the threat of a strong stalinist offensive along the Astrakahn Front eliminated the troops of the Stalingrad Front started a new massive attack.
The planned amphibious assault from the other side of the Volga river took place 28. October. It was lead by the elite divisions "Temanov" and "16th Febuary". The stalinists were completly suprised and although they put up a fierce fight their united front was breached. Over the next few days as fighting continued to go badly for the stalinists once again a mass desertation took place.
The remaining stalinists (mostly NKVD divisions) retreated to strongpoints in the city centre and along the river and fought on to the last man.
Fighting finally ended on 11. November when the last stalinist units capitulated. The bloodiest battle of the civil war was over after 2 1/2 months of fighting. Over 90.000 soviet soldiers had died while an estimated 170.000 stalinists died. Further 40.000 deserted and 70.000 were taken prisoner.


Private Juri Servotnik waving the flag of the Union on the main square of Stalingrad on 11. November after the capitulation of the last stalinist forces in Stalingrad.

In the meantime many formerly neutral army commanders had, as a reaction of the NKVD massacres in Turkemnistan, declared loyalty to the revolution. The military situation for the stalinist was now hopeless. The partisan forces in the southern caucasus, supported by Red Army and Navy units had retaken considerable slices of land and the stalinists forces had no provisions for the winter.
Therefore the stalinist forces capitulated unconditonally on 20. November 1935.
Though Voroshilov and Jeschov (commander of the NKVD) wanted to continue the fight to the bitter end but their soldiers had had enougth. They mutinied overcame their supperiors NKVD guards and hanged Voroshilov and Jeschov.
On 2. December all stalinist forces capitulated on the condition all included in the proclamation of 22. October would receive pardons.

The civil war was over. Now Temanov was faced with the difficult task of changing the Unions political system.
 
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@Kingmbutu,threv and all others: Thanks for all the praise and encouragement. I will now probably take some time to explain the new political system of the Soviet Union and then enter into the actuall game!

~Lord Valentine~
 
Out of: "The Third Revolution"
"Explaining Temanovism"

The term "Temanovism" describes the political thinkings of Nicolaj Temanov and the political idiology of the Soviet Union from 1936 onwards. Though Temanovism claims to be a further developed step of Communism and has important marxist elements it differs greatly in other areas. Temanovism is in some areas greatly influenced by Mussolinis fascism and left-wing historians have often claimed therefore that Temanovism was simply a right-wing counter revolution. This however oversimplifies things. We therefore have to take a look at the key ingridiences of Temanovism and it's origins.
Temanovism is best explained in a spech delivered by Nicolaj Temanov on 1. January 1936:

...

There are people who say that our glorious revolution has brought facism to the Union, that we have betrayed the common workers and soldiers and sold them to international capitalism. I will not comment on these unjust and unfounded statmens. I will plainly outline what the programme and aim of our revolution is. We reject the marxist dogma that the nations and religion are simply bourgois inventions that have been created to enslave the working-class. We belive that every citizent of the Union should have the right to workship whatever diety he wants. We furthermore wish that every citizent may learn about his nation, it's culture, language and heritage and still help us make this union of nations a better place to live. We do not reject patriotism but nationalism.

Our main comitment however is to fight social inequallity. We are however no utopist dreamers. Total equality can never be reached simply because men are born differently gifted. If the gifted and ungifted or the energetic and the lazy are treated as absolute equals this would be a great injustice. Our aim is to create a society in which anyone who is capable and hard-working has golden oportunities. Therefore we do not divide mankind in proletarians and capitalist but in productiv and unproductiv elements. Workers and employers can be productiv or unproducitv. It is therefore the task of the state to support and reward the productiv elements of society and to put pressur on the unproductiv elements. We must abolish the unproductiv class war, which exsults one class at the exspense of the other, in favour of class co-operation! I therefore also declare that we will reintroduce privat possesions! It is a ground tendency of the human to try to make more out of himeself than he originally is and to collect privat possesions for which he has worked. If there is nothing to be won by working there is not reason to work!

I have to tell you though that this does not mean that we will return to a completly free market. The state will still take a great deal of influence on the economy to enshure that the productiv elements are placed in the positions they deserve.

...

As one can see there is a great deal inspired by Mussolinis fascims, such as the idea of the idea of producitv and unproductiv elements of society and abolishing class war for class co-operation. The internationalist outlook of the soviet union however and its liberalism towards other (in this case non-russian) nationalities set it apart from it. Furthermore although private initiative is possible again the economy is still greatly influenced by the state.

All of this make Temanovism something like "the third way" between fascims and Communism.

~Lord Valentine~
 
Out of: "The Third Revolution"
"A new constitution"

On 11. Feburary Temanov announced that a new constitution had been drawn up for the Union.
The Constitution stated that the Soviet Union was a "republican Union of Nations bound together by the comitment to social equality and justice". The Unions parliament would be elected every 4 years by all men and women over 21 years old. The parliament appointed the Prime Minister of the Union who was Head of State and Government in one person. The Prime Minister furthermore could declare a state of emergency which allowed him to rule without parliament for 2 months. After this period however the state of emergency had to be confirmed by 2/3 of the parliament.
The national states that were part of the Union had little effective powers. Their only autonomy was in the education and culture area. All other aspects would be deceided by the Unions Parliament. The constitution also included a large number of civil rights. They included the right to have a fair trial when arested and the possibility to appeal to a higher court after beeing condemed. Freedom of speech was also included with the major drawback that this did not allow "attacking the Unions right of exsistance or attacking the fight for social equality".

Temanov also announced that general elections would be held on 28. April. The people would have the oportunity to vote in favour or against the constitution and elect parliament. Furthermore Temanov laid down his offices as General Secretary of the Communist Party and with his comerades Natanjov and Rychanovich founded the "Union Party".

Other partys quickly formed. The "Leninist-Stalinist Party" which became the political arm of the losers of the civil wars losers. The liberal "Progress Party" , the konservativ "United Russia" , the social democratic "Workers Party" and finally there was the "Commnist Party".

The Communist Party appointed a interesting new Party Secretary. On 3. March Leon Trotzki came back out of his frensh exil and was greeted by dy hard communists with the same enthusiams that they had hailed Lenin in 1917.


Trotzki arriving in Moscow on 4. March 1936. Trotzki was the big hope of the Communist Party for the elections.

The Communist Parties concentrated on attacking Temanovs policy and constitution calling it "capitalist reaction". They urged the people to vote against the constitution and whipe away this "conarpartist coup". The conservativs and liberals were generaly in favour of the constitution but attacked its socalist components. The social democrats completly backed the constitution but complainde that the people had been excluded out of its creation.

Temanov strategy was to remaind the people of the terror they had suffered under communist reign and how he had fought for liberty at risk of his own life on Feburar 16. 1935.

During the time before the election was a incident that made it clear that the modernization of the soviet forces would have to be the top priority after the election. On 7. March german troops re-occupied the Rheinland. This was a open breach of the Versailles Treaty but the allies did nothing.


German troops march into the Rheinland on 7. March 1936. The Allies passiv reaction convinced Temanov that war against Germany was invitable.


And then finally election day came. Temanov and his supporters were anxious not only because of the question if they would stay in power but also because they feared that the constitution as a whole would be rejected and this would once again lead to communist revolution.

April 30th the offical result was finally published:

Overwhelming 71% of the population had voted in favour of the constitution!
The 450 seats in Parliament were distributed as follows:

The Union Party: 180 seats (40%)
The Communist Party: 90 seats (20%)
The Workers Party: 86 seats (19%)
United Russia: 45 seats (10%)
The Progress Party: 27 seats (6%)
The Leninist-Stalinist Party: 23 Seats (5%)

The Union Party had won the election but missed the absolute majority...

~Lord Valentine~
 
Bravo... an interesting concept of a 3rd way. Seems a bit tenuous politically; perhaps some inherent instability, but oh well. Is Temanov willing to use violence to maintain power?
 
kingmbutu said:
Bravo... an interesting concept of a 3rd way. Seems a bit tenuous politically; perhaps some inherent instability, but oh well. Is Temanov willing to use violence to maintain power?

Yes the communist (they after all got 25% of the votes) and exspecially Leon Trotzki could become dangerous. That is why Temanov gave the Prime Minister the authority to declare a state of emergency and rule without parliament for 2 months. He will shurly not hesitate to use it if the new political system is threatend. However like Mussolini he belives that violence has to be surgical and noble and not cruel and arbitrary.

~Lord Valentine~
 
Lord Valentine said:
However like Mussolini he belives that violence has to be surgical and noble and not cruel and arbitrary.

~Lord Valentine~

Surgical and noble violence... now that's an interesting idea.
 
kingmbutu said:
Surgical and noble violence... now that's an interesting idea.
It's not what you would exspect from Mussolini but reading his newspaper articles out of the years 1919-1922 is realy interesting. He quite openly attacked fascist squad violence in 1921-1922 because they as he put it didn't any longer have the character of fighting bolshevism in Italy. He urged the "squadradissmo" not to turn red violence into black violence. And in one article he actually mentioned this idea that violence had to be "noble and surgical". Perpaps I can find it again and get into more detail on or perhaps even use it for my AAR. :rofl:

~Lord Valentine~
 
Interesting AAR, Lord V. I hope that the Second Civil War between Temanov and Stalin doesn't leave the country too weakenned to deal with the German menace.
 
VILenin said:
Interesting AAR, Lord V. I hope that the Second Civil War between Temanov and Stalin doesn't leave the country too weakenned to deal with the German menace.
This will be my main concern. Winning the war was hard enought for a totalitarian dictatorship but for a democracy it should be even thoughter. Oh and I have realised that I am playing with DAIM. :eek:

Anyway I will deal with the begining of military reforms in my next post.

~Lord Valentine~
 
Out of: "The Third Revolution"
"Good coalitions, bad wargames"

Directly following the election Tamenov opend negotiations with the social democrats about the possibilty of a coalition. The terms where soon agreed upon. The most important ministaries went to the "Union".

Tamenov would become Prime Minister and Chief of Army. Joseph Natanjov would get the Ministery of Defence and Industry and Pavel Rychanovich got the office of Minister of Security. The ministry of education also went to a "Unionist".

The social democrats got the posts: Minister for Nationalities, Minister for Cultural Development, Minister of Information and the prestigous post Foreign Minister.
This post was taken by the famous ex-communist Maxim Litvinov who had joined the social democrats after the civil war. Livtinov also became vice Premier.

With a majority in parliament secured Temanov turned to the military situation .


Parts of the first Goverment of the Soviet Republic and military leaders. (OOC: Sorry that it's all in german but I suppose you know which minister is where by heart)

On 3. May a big war game was held by the Red Army followed by a week long command conference. The aim of the conferences was in how far the soviet strategy laid down by Shapshnikov in 1928 were useable.

The first war game was fought between major general Zhukov and General Dimitri Pavlov. Zhukov was the german side, Pavlov the soviet. Although Pavlov was able to bring his forces to bear on East Prussia, consistant with the strategy of massive counter-offensive, he was routed by Zhukov. In the second game the roles were reversed. This time Zhukov pushed scuccessfully pushed across the frontier into Hungary; Pavlov's weak counter-attack attempted to parry. The outcome said a great deal of Zhukov's skill but there were worrying signs for soviet strategy.
When Temanov assembled the commanders and officials after the second war game, a curious drama unfolded. The responsible deputy Meretskov was asked about the outcomes of the games he spoke hesitantly. After years of stalinist terror in the army he did not dare to speak freely. Rather than say out loud that Zhukov's Germans had won the first game, Meretskov applauded the early stages, when Pavlov with 60 divisions had overcome the 55 german divisions defending the Reichs frontier. Temanov angrily took the floor and exsposed as nonsense the view that a ratio of little more than one division to one could overcome the fixed German defences. This was allright "for propaganda purposes", he told the assembly, "but here we have to talk in terms of real capabilities". The uncomfortable Meretskov was then asked about the second war game but would not give a definite answer, which was inconclusive. When one of Timoshenko's deputies followed the disscusion by insisting on voicing his belief that infantry divisions should be horse-drawn rather than mechanized, Temanov's patience was streched to the limit.

A day after the conference Meretskov was removed from his office and Zhukov appointed "Inspector of the Soviet Army" with the task of overviewing it's modernization. At the same time Temanov declared that he would abandon the "human wave doctrin" in favour of a "armoured spearhead" doctrin which had proved itself during the civil war.


General Gregori Konstantinovich Zhukov after his appointment as "Inspector of the Soviet Army" in May 1936.


~Lord Valentine~
 
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