Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Socialisme - French Communist AAR

[DarthJF]

Prologue​

The French Third Republic emerged from the Great War victorious, but deeply damaged. War had torn deep scars on the nation and it saw little peace after the wars end. Many French thought that the sacrifices of the nation had been too great, and that they had been made only to help Britain maintain her hegemony in Europe over Germany. Large part of her youth had disappeared in the trenches of Western front, and army found it difficult to recover the strength they had lost in the war. With Germany re-emerging as a continental power together with Fascist Italy, France found herself greatly weakened, while the enemy that had been supposed to be defeated for forever seemed to have only risen stronger than ever.

While external enemies rose to surround France once more, the country found it impossible to unite. Left, right and moderates were fighting for power inside the nation. Protesters on the streets of Paris were common sight, as were news of strikes around the country. Many were disappointed with the Republic, and were looking to either Rome, Berlin or Moscow for a better model for their country. As socialist movement harnessed more support, vocal opposition started to demand an end for the alliance with the British, and co-operation with the Stalins Soviet Union in order to contain the external threat of newly risen Germany.

With the start of 1936 the establishments of the Third Republic had started to crumble and very few believed it would last for long.

Shall France face revolution once again as the Third Republic starts to fall apart?​

---

I've for a while meant to try a communist campaign as France, and having now started it I also decided to share it with you as an AAR.

I'm going to play with ARMA 1.2 and with normal settings. For most part there will be no cheating or editing, but at some points I intend to dismiss this rule in favor of what I would consider to be more realistic option. Hopefully the quality of my work will statisfy you readers and comments are more than welcome.

 

[TheHyphenated1]

Looks interesting, DarthJF! Good luck with this.

 

[General_Hoth]

I shall certainly follow this, i'm suscribed. Do you speak French? I could help with that if not, and for real history too!

But please, do it on hard agressive at least!

 

[Mico94]

socialist france?
sounds nice, i will follow this one

 

[son of liberty]

Interesting choice. I have done it as a pa france, never commie though. Can you show your government with traits? Will you leave allies and join comintern? Or go it alone? Alone is best, imo anyway.

 

[likk9922]

Huh, interesting. I like where this can go.

 

[unmerged(115311)]

Cool, count me in.

 

[DarthJF]

TheHyphenated1: Thank you for your support. Hope you'll enjoy this.

General_Hoth: Nice to have you following. I don't speak French myself, nor am I well aware of real life French history of this period, so I'm glad you offered to help. I'll be sure to pm you if I have something bothering my mind.

But I'm afraid I'm going to stick with normal/normal. I aim to roleplay instead of using best possible strategies, so with normal I can be relatively sure not to get my butt kicked even if I don't do everything optimally.

Mico94: Good to hear that. Hope you like it.

son of liberty: I'm not going start as communist, but rather I start with historical setting and try to move in that direction through events and slider moves. I doubt I can get communist this way in time though, so I use cheat console to fire the revolution myself at suitable situation, but I haven't yet decided when. After that I'll be sure to post some info of all the ministers and other results of the revolution. Regarding the alliances I leave the one with Britain as soon as I've turned communist, but I decide later if I'm going to join Comintern or not.

likk9922: Yes, there's a lot of possibilities with this route.

Storm501: I will.

The first update should be up in an hour or two. Just wanted to answer all the replies first.

 

[General_Hoth]

On normal normal, the problem is that even if you ARE trying to get your ass kicked, it will not work

 

[DarthJF]

Chapter 1:
​

1936 started with international turmoil. On March 5 Italy finished its conquest of Ethiopia, while on the next day German armies marched on to demilitarized area of Rheinland.

German troops marching in the now re-militarized Rheinland.​

French and British governments responded with diplomatic condemnations and proclaimed to increase their military spendings. In truth both governments realized they couldn’t do much about the increasingly aggressive actions of Germany and Italy, which greatly frustrated people on both countries. With situation in Europe growing more threatening discussion started in France of the usefulness of committing sizeable part of military forces into the defense of her colonies. Radical left demanded full withdrawal from French colonies and granting them independence or full autonomy, and while such radical steps were shunned by others, there was agreement that the defense of French mainland should be prioritized and involvement in colonies reduced. So later in the year it was announced that most French troops in colonies were to be deployed back in France, while only minimal involvement would be left there. This was followed with plans of granting local authorities more autonomy.

French goverment increased it's military spending while tensions rose again in Europe. It also decided to concentrate it's military wholely in the defense of French mainland, while colonies were left more or less defenseless.
​

During May government announced large public investments and plans for new factories in Orléans and Limoges, with promises of future projects after the elections. Elections were close victory for the sitting left-wing government, but also for the radical left, that was not included in the government however. Decision not to include radical left caused much controversy among their supporters, and the early days of new goverment showed it would not have an easy job to keep the nation together.

Elections ended to victory for the ruling moderate left, but also for the communists and radical left. Many were certain that next elections could very well see communist victory.​

1936 saw new crisis in Europe when the long lasting unstability in Spain broke into an all out civil war between fascist nationalist forces and socialist republicans. Nationalist forces led by Francisco Franco received strong support from fascist Italy, while communist forces received equipment and volunteers from Soviet Union. Germany and Britain however refrained from involving themselves with the situation in Spain, while opinion in France was strongly divided. In the end the government promised some military aid to republican side, while it allowed the recruiting of French volunteers. Thousands of French men joined the communist forces in fight against fascism in Spain, and these men would have great impact on French policies after they returned to France later.

Spanish civil war proved to be the first armed confrontation between communist and fascist ideologies in Europe, and lessons lerned in it were going to be utilized later.​

 

[likk9922]

Mmm, intervention in Spain. Perhaps this means France will be a bit more proactive later on?

 

[Jape]

Ah I can see were this is heading, Republican victory over Nationalists in Spain, not only bolster anti-fascist and leftwing movements but leads to a strong, confident stream of returning veterans to France, a leftwing 'positive' Freikorps of sorts?

After seeing the glorious social revolution in Spain I doubt they're going to be happy with the weak moderate government in Paris

 

[son of liberty]

Will you provide "active support" to spain?

 

[tedescooo]

The dissent of this 'Spanish Help' sux. ;(

 

[unmerged(62478)]

Nice idea for an AAR.

 

[Milites]

Viva la France! Onwaards for the home of the Commune and true socialism!

 

[Xesan]

Nice!

Réveillez les hommes et les femmes de France!
La République socialiste mondiale a besoin de vous!

 

[DukeWilleo1630]

Looks very interesting. Hopefully you can turn commie quick enough and then start building up for the showdown in time.

 

[Olaus Petrus]

Socialist France sounds like a nice idea.

Hopefully the Republicans win the civil war, so when the Fascist attack comes you don't have to worry if Spain is going to join to Axis or not.

 

[stian1986]

ah this one will be interesting to follow, hoping for some interesting leftish alternate history. :droll: