Love the threadmarks. In relation to this thread itself, may Trotsky bring the peoples of Eastern Europe to a new age of prosperity.
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So an early war ... and Trotsky's back.
*grabs snacks and drinks* Time to settle down. Things are about to very interesting indeed!
I was surprised about the war too. First time I've seen the Little Entente form and fight! So it will be interesting indeed, we now see a totally accurate deciption of what would happen if the French resisted Germany.. and what would happen if Stalin didn't do the purges. Totally accurate!
Ah good that you like them
I just added them, so good it is of use. And Trotsky will of course And here's the current plan. Either tommorow or on thursday there will be an update on the events leading up to the coup and the coup itself. Then it will be an update on the civil war, or beginning of it, if it is time on thursday. If I don't squeeze the latter in on thursday it will come out next week sometime due to I'm having an exercise over the weekend.
Chapter 4.
Chapter 4: Communism needs Democracy, like the Human Body needs Oxygen.
Trotsky on his vacation in Spain, making links with the POUM and PCE and budding up with disloyal NKVD agents.
August of 1938 a bombshell would be dropped in Spain, its effects would be felt throughout Spain and most importantly in the Soviet Union - specifically in the Kreml. NKVD troops and agents had since the civil war in Spain been stationed in wartorn country officially to observe the peace and give the people a time to heal. In reality it was to enforce the policies of Stalin. But the three socialist parties of Spain soon found themself in unity and the PCE General Secretary and leader of Spain José Díaz soon publically condemned Stalin and his purges. He published the book "The Teachings of Stalin, a Luminous Guide for the Spanish Communists" which was highly critical of Stalin and said that Spain needed a new course. Naturally Stalin was incensed and ordered the NKVD to get rid of this "capitalist lackey". But nothing happened. It was then the bombshell came, Trotsky revealed himself in Barcelona. There he declared the USSR had to learn from Spain and their social revolution. The NKVD in Spain had openly defected to Trotsky and there seemed to be peace between the PCE and POUM, under the leadership of Trotsky.
Trotsky covering his face in Paris, appereantly trying to mimick Lenin or himself during the Russian Revolution.
It was clear the permament revolutionary was back. But he was quick on his feet. Stalin ordered sanctions and even aired military action against Spain, but was mostly ridiculed internally and in the international community. Stalin was having someone who was openly opposed to him in France. France had initially kicked Trotsky out of France, but the left-wing Popular Front government there became increasingly radical. The social-democrats was inflitrated by Trotskyists and the French Communist Party got training (military and ideologically) and arms from the now largely Trotskyist NKVD and Republican Spain exported from the Pyreneenes. The socialists and the communists in the government also became increasingly popular among the population, and it was hoped that by inviting Trotsky, and put him in power, the USSR might be forced to join in the war they were involved in and put an end to it. It was in Paris Trotsky declared, with the eyes of the entire world watching him: "Communism needs democracy, like the human body needs oxygen".
The phrase went all over the world. Democrats hoped for a democracy to finally come to the USSR. While in the USSR many saw Trotsky as the return to Leninism, who was under the leadership of Stalin worshipped as a demi-god. But what Trotsky really meant with democracy was uncertain and if he was another Lenin, especially with his history in mind. Still one thing was clear: Stalin's archenemy and worst nightmare had returned.
This really gotta be the last international!
When Trotsky returned to Paris he would not only make alot of speeches, but the Fourth International was held. Here many communists and leftist revolutionaries from North America and Europe joined together to make an international to replace the Third International as they believed USSR and the Communist Parties under the leadership of Stalin had strayed too far away from Marxism, Socialism and so on. The International also came to common programs and solutions for the Permament Revolution to happen. They cited that Trotsky had predicted the war that was raging between Germany and France (one of many really) and this would lead to many new social revolutions. Stalin on the other hand was diving further into his own madness, and it was now becoming clear for many in the USSR a new leadership was required.
The bitter fighting of Transylvania and Slovenia, German, Romanian, Yugoslav, Croat and French troops alike suffered.
But the fighting of words between the two revolutionaries in Paris and Moscow might have seem childish compared to the actual fighting that took place in the Balkans. By September the German troops invaded Romania from Slovakia, taking the Little Entente yet again by surprise. The Panzer divisions quickly eclipsed the Romanian and French forces in the Carpathians and Transylvanian Plateau. The Little Entente forces there retreated slowly toward the mountain ranges hoping to form a lasting defensive line there. The fall of '38 in Transylvania proved to be especially harsh as the temperature was around 0 celsius with constant changes between snow and rain. That kind of climate was the worst type for the physical health of the individual soldier, but the soldiers of all sides did their duty and fought bravely under horrifying conditions. Meanwhile in Yugoslavia the government forces surprised the Germans and French as they managed to break through Croatian lines and establish a tiny corridor to Slovenia. This prevented the small province from falling to the Germans. French soldiers and equipment was pouring into Yugoslavia and Romania for every day, they "only" needed to do what the Czechoslovaks couldn't.
Stalin loses his mind, and Trotsky lecture him safely from Paris.
Stalin responded to the return of Trotsky with mass paranoia. The Great Purge he had set in motion years earlier had mostly targeted the common man and the intellectuals. This time around it would revolve around much more profilic persons. A series of trials against the "Anti-soviet Trotskyist Center" took place and its victims seemed random. The three first victims was Kalinin, his wife and Krushchev. Kalinin had remained loyal to Stalin throughout the purges, despite several personally petitioning him to escape the arbitrary justice of the NKVD. Still his loyalty didn't pay off. His house was constantly monitored by the NKVD and he and his wife was arrested for "Trotskyism". His wife was sentenced to death in a short trial, and Kalinin suffered the same faith. The Russian people had lost their beloved "All-Union headman". This farce of a trial was soon the followed up by another one, that of Nikita Kruschev. Another man who had been genuinly loyal to Stalin. His only crime was his increased loyalty and his wish to abolish the cult of the individual. The collective ethos and worker's culture was now labeled by Stalin as a "Trotskyist-imperialist-capitalist-jewish" plot. Kruschev was executed the very same day his trial ended, with no proof of disloyalty.* Yet another beloved figure fell victim to Stalin.
Former partner of Stalin, Zinoviev.
It was clear among the population and political leadership of the USSR that noone was safe under Stalin and a new course of leadership was needed. The last of the trials was the one against Karl Radek, the former German revolutionary. Under most dubious conditions he "confessed" to several people being a part of this Trotskyist Center. Among them was the two former members of the Troika; Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Borisovich Kamenev. A paralell trial would take place, this time against Bukharin (who also made doubtful confessions) and the Right Opposition. It was appereant Stalin was removing everyone who took part in the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union through these show trials.
Long live the Permament Revolution!
It was here the great irony of the theater Stalin directed showed itself. The Fourth International ushered the Union into unprecedented terror and paranoia, and this pushed many within the government, army, navy, NKVD and populace against the dictator. A clique was formed, one that was detirmined to get rid of Stalin and get Trotsky back. An invitation was sent to the former leader of the Red Army. Many did it over ideological persuasion, but many also did it to personally survive or to put an end to the madness of Stalin. The NKVD members who was responsible for executing many of the 16 victims of the showtrials would instead put them into safehouses falsely reporting their deaths.
Who said a trial needed to be fair? And the movember contest by the marshals have a clear winner.
But the gun barrels from the executions wouldn't turn cold as new showtrials was held in Moscow. Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov was three of the five Marshals and was all sentenced to death under doubtful circumstances. Tukhachevsky at least had some "proof" against him as he had vocally been critical to Stalin, but his reforms of the Red Army was welcomed by most, and what was wrong in wanting to spread the revolution and aid the Balkans in their war against Nazism? Many started to fear for their lives, but it wasn't only the Marshals who would fall victim to the purges. The generals who was trialed, and sentenced to death in short time, was all picked randomly it seemed. But the ever popular Rokossovsky, the hero from the Spanish Civil War was also arrested for Trotskyism and he too made a confession to his crimes, appereantly missing most of teeth. This created an outrage among the population and the Army. Stalin was now linked to National Socialism. He was moving on against heroes of the October Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. And documents was spread where it was made clear Lenin dismissed Stalin and wanted Trotsky as his follower (with his critique of Trotsky being redacted) and that Stalin had used anti-jew sentiments against Trotsky to expell him. Then another document was leaked that Stalin prior to Rokossovksy left for Spain intented to purge him due to his Polish heritage. This toupled with Trotsky's work on the degenerate workers's state and Stalin's deisre for Socialism in One Country and unwillingness to take the war to Germany led to many to associate him with National Socialism.
The Russian Liberation Army under General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov.
This proved to be the final drop for many. General Vlasov soon took his Leningrad garrison and 99th Rifle Divison and created the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). He openly declared he wanted to liberate the Russian workers from the despotism of Stalin. A large number of generals soon joined ranks with Vlasov and they operated under the slogan of "all power to the workers!" a clear refference to the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Naturally Stalin ordered the Red Army to this new frontline to confront the ROA, but then entire divisions in Ukraine defected aswell fueled by their hatred against Stalin. The Ukranian SSR soon had a coup, which was potrayed by the propagandists as a massive popular uprising, and denounced Stalin and recognized Trotsky as the true leader of the USSR. The Byelorussian SSR soon followed, along with most of western Russia. The Far East refused to lose their general Timoshenko and was in open rebellion too.
The NKVD is having enough of their goldenboy.
Stalin then had to entrust the NKVD to install order. The NKVD units was mobilized to take control of important railroads (and to sabotage the ones of the rebels), chokepoints and government institutions while the secret police rounded up the fifth columnists. But the leader of the NKVD Nikolay Yezhov was soon taken by the NKVD themself and faced their "justice" for his crimes against the Soviet people. Stalin had lost control of parts the NKVD and the Red Army.
The German advance seem to have come to an end, but for how long?
In the Balkans the war had come to a halt. The Little Entente was holding their ground despite losing the Transylvanian Plateau. Most of the Independent State of Crotia was retaken by the Yugoslav security forces, and with Slovenia reconnected with Yugoslavia the Germans didn't push into Slovenia. The war had lasted for three months and had claimed over 256.000 casualties of the armed forces involved. But for now it seemed unlikely the UK would intervene as Chamberlain put it "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing". And the USSR had troubles of its own. For now the war was regional.**
The Glorious Red Army and Red Fleet.
The military of the Soviet Union had grown in the past two years. It had a massive force of 164 divisons in the field and many more to come. Still they weren't as modern as the western powers. The airforce counted now 1711 fied wings, with new close air support bombers and upgraded tactical bombers underway. The Red Fleet consisted of an impressive submarine fleet as was slowly building up its destroyer fleet.
Now the killings and unrest in Russia will come to an end!
Then it happened. The 11th of October. The Trotskyist Coup, the Second October Revolution, the Permament Revolution or Political Revolution. The ROA and the rebellion of the Ukranian and Byelorussian SSRs was nothing but a ruse. Large swaths of divisions under the leadership of competent generals such as Zhykov was pulled out to the open. There they would face a crippling defeat at the hands of their enemies, but also many of their own divisions defecting. Rokossovsky and the other generals who was sentenced to death had instead been hidden by NKVD officers and they drew back the Stalinist offensive. Zhukov would perish in the battle. But the most important battle took place in Moscow. Later Soviet propaganda would decipt it was a mass uprising as Trotsky returned. It pictured Trotsky returning to Moscow and making the masses revolt under the phrases of "all power to the workers" and so forth. Then Trotsky would personally lead thousands of workers into the Kreml and overthrow comrade Stalin. But Trotsky wasn't in Moscow, he had just made it to Leningrad almost being shot down by German fighters. Instead it was a coup carried out by Red Army and NKVD officers. The Kreml was quickly seized only with sporadic fighting in the offices. Meanwhile the streets of Moscow was locked down by several motorised infantrist units and armored vehicles and tanks. Most of Moscow was already empty of Stalin-loyal troops and those who returned from their battle in the west soon defected to Trotsky or joined forces with Ivan Konev to fight for Stalin. But Stalin perished, in the middle of the night he was assassinated with an icepick. He would die instantly, a faith many of his victims wouldn't get. One of the most hated and feared men was gone. Killed.. by an icepick.
Or perhaps not.
Trotsky was soon proclaimed the General Secretary of the USSR and its head of government aswell as head of state. After many speeches promising this and that and denouncing him and her he would prepare the USSR for war. He would prepare them to crush the enemies of the revolution once and for all. The Red Army was reduced in numbers, but the strategical situation was obviously in the favor of Trotsky. During this time Trotsky and his supporters also bade their time to remove themself of those who could be associated with Stalinism or enemies of the revolution. The officer corps of the Red Army would get a cladenstine and largely ignored purge as the nation was united against their common enemy; Ivan Konev.
Trotsky was right, the supporters of Stalin is really just capitalists!
The Stalin loyal elements of the Red Army, Fleet and NKVD linked up in southern Russia. Shocked by the events that had taken place and the death of their leader they rallied under General Konev. Konev was a warhero from the Russian Civil War and had led the repression of the Kronstadt rebellion under the orders of Trotsky. Now he hd the impossible task of leading his massively undermanned "White Army" as it was dubbed by Trotsky and hold out the regions around Stalingrad - which now was the capital of the Stalinist-Russia. But without any government apparatus, who had been purged or defected to Trotsky, there was a hard time for Konev to keep the economy going and he had to liberalise the economy and open up the markets, hoping to attract foreign aid and investments. Trotsky used this as a proof that Stalin's degenerate workers's state would either degenerate further into capitalism or needed a political revolution to stay alive. Death or salvation. Konev or Trotsky.***
After 15 years of peace, but with great political brutality, was again in Russia. The Second Russian Civil War had started. How much suffering can one people take?
War will set ablaze Mother Russia.
-----
*So I wanted to take on the Great Purge focus as I did it in a testrun. But then I thought anti-fascist diplomac was for 70 days, while in fact it was 210... So well in game these events didn't fire, but they did so in the narrative, with Kalinin and Kruschev being executed in addition to the historical outcome. For the generals they were saved, but trialed and sentenced as in real world.
**I just took the screenshot from the perspective of the French, nothing more.
***I also here took the screenshot from the perspective of "Russia" (tried to explain why it suddenly turned to an oligarchy aswell) but didn't look at it while I was actually playing the game.
Trotsky on his vacation in Spain, making links with the POUM and PCE and budding up with disloyal NKVD agents.
August of 1938 a bombshell would be dropped in Spain, its effects would be felt throughout Spain and most importantly in the Soviet Union - specifically in the Kreml. NKVD troops and agents had since the civil war in Spain been stationed in wartorn country officially to observe the peace and give the people a time to heal. In reality it was to enforce the policies of Stalin. But the three socialist parties of Spain soon found themself in unity and the PCE General Secretary and leader of Spain José Díaz soon publically condemned Stalin and his purges. He published the book "The Teachings of Stalin, a Luminous Guide for the Spanish Communists" which was highly critical of Stalin and said that Spain needed a new course. Naturally Stalin was incensed and ordered the NKVD to get rid of this "capitalist lackey". But nothing happened. It was then the bombshell came, Trotsky revealed himself in Barcelona. There he declared the USSR had to learn from Spain and their social revolution. The NKVD in Spain had openly defected to Trotsky and there seemed to be peace between the PCE and POUM, under the leadership of Trotsky.
Trotsky covering his face in Paris, appereantly trying to mimick Lenin or himself during the Russian Revolution.
It was clear the permament revolutionary was back. But he was quick on his feet. Stalin ordered sanctions and even aired military action against Spain, but was mostly ridiculed internally and in the international community. Stalin was having someone who was openly opposed to him in France. France had initially kicked Trotsky out of France, but the left-wing Popular Front government there became increasingly radical. The social-democrats was inflitrated by Trotskyists and the French Communist Party got training (military and ideologically) and arms from the now largely Trotskyist NKVD and Republican Spain exported from the Pyreneenes. The socialists and the communists in the government also became increasingly popular among the population, and it was hoped that by inviting Trotsky, and put him in power, the USSR might be forced to join in the war they were involved in and put an end to it. It was in Paris Trotsky declared, with the eyes of the entire world watching him: "Communism needs democracy, like the human body needs oxygen".
The phrase went all over the world. Democrats hoped for a democracy to finally come to the USSR. While in the USSR many saw Trotsky as the return to Leninism, who was under the leadership of Stalin worshipped as a demi-god. But what Trotsky really meant with democracy was uncertain and if he was another Lenin, especially with his history in mind. Still one thing was clear: Stalin's archenemy and worst nightmare had returned.
This really gotta be the last international!
When Trotsky returned to Paris he would not only make alot of speeches, but the Fourth International was held. Here many communists and leftist revolutionaries from North America and Europe joined together to make an international to replace the Third International as they believed USSR and the Communist Parties under the leadership of Stalin had strayed too far away from Marxism, Socialism and so on. The International also came to common programs and solutions for the Permament Revolution to happen. They cited that Trotsky had predicted the war that was raging between Germany and France (one of many really) and this would lead to many new social revolutions. Stalin on the other hand was diving further into his own madness, and it was now becoming clear for many in the USSR a new leadership was required.
The bitter fighting of Transylvania and Slovenia, German, Romanian, Yugoslav, Croat and French troops alike suffered.
But the fighting of words between the two revolutionaries in Paris and Moscow might have seem childish compared to the actual fighting that took place in the Balkans. By September the German troops invaded Romania from Slovakia, taking the Little Entente yet again by surprise. The Panzer divisions quickly eclipsed the Romanian and French forces in the Carpathians and Transylvanian Plateau. The Little Entente forces there retreated slowly toward the mountain ranges hoping to form a lasting defensive line there. The fall of '38 in Transylvania proved to be especially harsh as the temperature was around 0 celsius with constant changes between snow and rain. That kind of climate was the worst type for the physical health of the individual soldier, but the soldiers of all sides did their duty and fought bravely under horrifying conditions. Meanwhile in Yugoslavia the government forces surprised the Germans and French as they managed to break through Croatian lines and establish a tiny corridor to Slovenia. This prevented the small province from falling to the Germans. French soldiers and equipment was pouring into Yugoslavia and Romania for every day, they "only" needed to do what the Czechoslovaks couldn't.
Stalin loses his mind, and Trotsky lecture him safely from Paris.
Stalin responded to the return of Trotsky with mass paranoia. The Great Purge he had set in motion years earlier had mostly targeted the common man and the intellectuals. This time around it would revolve around much more profilic persons. A series of trials against the "Anti-soviet Trotskyist Center" took place and its victims seemed random. The three first victims was Kalinin, his wife and Krushchev. Kalinin had remained loyal to Stalin throughout the purges, despite several personally petitioning him to escape the arbitrary justice of the NKVD. Still his loyalty didn't pay off. His house was constantly monitored by the NKVD and he and his wife was arrested for "Trotskyism". His wife was sentenced to death in a short trial, and Kalinin suffered the same faith. The Russian people had lost their beloved "All-Union headman". This farce of a trial was soon the followed up by another one, that of Nikita Kruschev. Another man who had been genuinly loyal to Stalin. His only crime was his increased loyalty and his wish to abolish the cult of the individual. The collective ethos and worker's culture was now labeled by Stalin as a "Trotskyist-imperialist-capitalist-jewish" plot. Kruschev was executed the very same day his trial ended, with no proof of disloyalty.* Yet another beloved figure fell victim to Stalin.
Former partner of Stalin, Zinoviev.
It was clear among the population and political leadership of the USSR that noone was safe under Stalin and a new course of leadership was needed. The last of the trials was the one against Karl Radek, the former German revolutionary. Under most dubious conditions he "confessed" to several people being a part of this Trotskyist Center. Among them was the two former members of the Troika; Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Borisovich Kamenev. A paralell trial would take place, this time against Bukharin (who also made doubtful confessions) and the Right Opposition. It was appereant Stalin was removing everyone who took part in the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union through these show trials.
Long live the Permament Revolution!
It was here the great irony of the theater Stalin directed showed itself. The Fourth International ushered the Union into unprecedented terror and paranoia, and this pushed many within the government, army, navy, NKVD and populace against the dictator. A clique was formed, one that was detirmined to get rid of Stalin and get Trotsky back. An invitation was sent to the former leader of the Red Army. Many did it over ideological persuasion, but many also did it to personally survive or to put an end to the madness of Stalin. The NKVD members who was responsible for executing many of the 16 victims of the showtrials would instead put them into safehouses falsely reporting their deaths.
Who said a trial needed to be fair? And the movember contest by the marshals have a clear winner.
But the gun barrels from the executions wouldn't turn cold as new showtrials was held in Moscow. Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov was three of the five Marshals and was all sentenced to death under doubtful circumstances. Tukhachevsky at least had some "proof" against him as he had vocally been critical to Stalin, but his reforms of the Red Army was welcomed by most, and what was wrong in wanting to spread the revolution and aid the Balkans in their war against Nazism? Many started to fear for their lives, but it wasn't only the Marshals who would fall victim to the purges. The generals who was trialed, and sentenced to death in short time, was all picked randomly it seemed. But the ever popular Rokossovsky, the hero from the Spanish Civil War was also arrested for Trotskyism and he too made a confession to his crimes, appereantly missing most of teeth. This created an outrage among the population and the Army. Stalin was now linked to National Socialism. He was moving on against heroes of the October Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. And documents was spread where it was made clear Lenin dismissed Stalin and wanted Trotsky as his follower (with his critique of Trotsky being redacted) and that Stalin had used anti-jew sentiments against Trotsky to expell him. Then another document was leaked that Stalin prior to Rokossovksy left for Spain intented to purge him due to his Polish heritage. This toupled with Trotsky's work on the degenerate workers's state and Stalin's deisre for Socialism in One Country and unwillingness to take the war to Germany led to many to associate him with National Socialism.
The Russian Liberation Army under General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov.
This proved to be the final drop for many. General Vlasov soon took his Leningrad garrison and 99th Rifle Divison and created the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). He openly declared he wanted to liberate the Russian workers from the despotism of Stalin. A large number of generals soon joined ranks with Vlasov and they operated under the slogan of "all power to the workers!" a clear refference to the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Naturally Stalin ordered the Red Army to this new frontline to confront the ROA, but then entire divisions in Ukraine defected aswell fueled by their hatred against Stalin. The Ukranian SSR soon had a coup, which was potrayed by the propagandists as a massive popular uprising, and denounced Stalin and recognized Trotsky as the true leader of the USSR. The Byelorussian SSR soon followed, along with most of western Russia. The Far East refused to lose their general Timoshenko and was in open rebellion too.
The NKVD is having enough of their goldenboy.
Stalin then had to entrust the NKVD to install order. The NKVD units was mobilized to take control of important railroads (and to sabotage the ones of the rebels), chokepoints and government institutions while the secret police rounded up the fifth columnists. But the leader of the NKVD Nikolay Yezhov was soon taken by the NKVD themself and faced their "justice" for his crimes against the Soviet people. Stalin had lost control of parts the NKVD and the Red Army.
The German advance seem to have come to an end, but for how long?
In the Balkans the war had come to a halt. The Little Entente was holding their ground despite losing the Transylvanian Plateau. Most of the Independent State of Crotia was retaken by the Yugoslav security forces, and with Slovenia reconnected with Yugoslavia the Germans didn't push into Slovenia. The war had lasted for three months and had claimed over 256.000 casualties of the armed forces involved. But for now it seemed unlikely the UK would intervene as Chamberlain put it "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing". And the USSR had troubles of its own. For now the war was regional.**
The Glorious Red Army and Red Fleet.
The military of the Soviet Union had grown in the past two years. It had a massive force of 164 divisons in the field and many more to come. Still they weren't as modern as the western powers. The airforce counted now 1711 fied wings, with new close air support bombers and upgraded tactical bombers underway. The Red Fleet consisted of an impressive submarine fleet as was slowly building up its destroyer fleet.
Now the killings and unrest in Russia will come to an end!
Then it happened. The 11th of October. The Trotskyist Coup, the Second October Revolution, the Permament Revolution or Political Revolution. The ROA and the rebellion of the Ukranian and Byelorussian SSRs was nothing but a ruse. Large swaths of divisions under the leadership of competent generals such as Zhykov was pulled out to the open. There they would face a crippling defeat at the hands of their enemies, but also many of their own divisions defecting. Rokossovsky and the other generals who was sentenced to death had instead been hidden by NKVD officers and they drew back the Stalinist offensive. Zhukov would perish in the battle. But the most important battle took place in Moscow. Later Soviet propaganda would decipt it was a mass uprising as Trotsky returned. It pictured Trotsky returning to Moscow and making the masses revolt under the phrases of "all power to the workers" and so forth. Then Trotsky would personally lead thousands of workers into the Kreml and overthrow comrade Stalin. But Trotsky wasn't in Moscow, he had just made it to Leningrad almost being shot down by German fighters. Instead it was a coup carried out by Red Army and NKVD officers. The Kreml was quickly seized only with sporadic fighting in the offices. Meanwhile the streets of Moscow was locked down by several motorised infantrist units and armored vehicles and tanks. Most of Moscow was already empty of Stalin-loyal troops and those who returned from their battle in the west soon defected to Trotsky or joined forces with Ivan Konev to fight for Stalin. But Stalin perished, in the middle of the night he was assassinated with an icepick. He would die instantly, a faith many of his victims wouldn't get. One of the most hated and feared men was gone. Killed.. by an icepick.
Or perhaps not.
Trotsky was soon proclaimed the General Secretary of the USSR and its head of government aswell as head of state. After many speeches promising this and that and denouncing him and her he would prepare the USSR for war. He would prepare them to crush the enemies of the revolution once and for all. The Red Army was reduced in numbers, but the strategical situation was obviously in the favor of Trotsky. During this time Trotsky and his supporters also bade their time to remove themself of those who could be associated with Stalinism or enemies of the revolution. The officer corps of the Red Army would get a cladenstine and largely ignored purge as the nation was united against their common enemy; Ivan Konev.
Trotsky was right, the supporters of Stalin is really just capitalists!
The Stalin loyal elements of the Red Army, Fleet and NKVD linked up in southern Russia. Shocked by the events that had taken place and the death of their leader they rallied under General Konev. Konev was a warhero from the Russian Civil War and had led the repression of the Kronstadt rebellion under the orders of Trotsky. Now he hd the impossible task of leading his massively undermanned "White Army" as it was dubbed by Trotsky and hold out the regions around Stalingrad - which now was the capital of the Stalinist-Russia. But without any government apparatus, who had been purged or defected to Trotsky, there was a hard time for Konev to keep the economy going and he had to liberalise the economy and open up the markets, hoping to attract foreign aid and investments. Trotsky used this as a proof that Stalin's degenerate workers's state would either degenerate further into capitalism or needed a political revolution to stay alive. Death or salvation. Konev or Trotsky.***
After 15 years of peace, but with great political brutality, was again in Russia. The Second Russian Civil War had started. How much suffering can one people take?
War will set ablaze Mother Russia.
-----
*So I wanted to take on the Great Purge focus as I did it in a testrun. But then I thought anti-fascist diplomac was for 70 days, while in fact it was 210... So well in game these events didn't fire, but they did so in the narrative, with Kalinin and Kruschev being executed in addition to the historical outcome. For the generals they were saved, but trialed and sentenced as in real world.
**I just took the screenshot from the perspective of the French, nothing more.
***I also here took the screenshot from the perspective of "Russia" (tried to explain why it suddenly turned to an oligarchy aswell) but didn't look at it while I was actually playing the game.
Yes I'll continue as the USSR. Just wanted to show the opposing army. Unfortunately the civil war wasn't that big. The "unthinkable" option made half of the USSR split into rebellion. Unfortunately Stalin would be in power against some Neutral leader then..
Glad you're excited. It's good to get rid of Stalin
Civil War OOB.
Okay so this update is really not necessary to read. That's why I'll put it into a spoiler. It will just show the Soviet OOB in the form of the various armies and the generals. Each of these generals and admirals again will have short explenation around them. It is very technical and likely not that interesting, but it also show that the choice of OOB is from a roleplay/narrative one and not gameplay (you'll see that most armies have 5-8 divisions in them, with some having poor generals). It will also showcase the enemy Russia's generals and the ones who was purged. Again this is not necessary and if you aren't interested it is just to skip it alltogether. Now depending on the schedule, I actually might be able to make an update about the civil war tommorow. No promises tho
Trotskyist OOB.
The Belarus Front, spearheaded by Rokossovsky and commanded by Tukhachevsky.
The Belarus Front was stationed in Belarus and had the task of strking from the west from Belarus and the north from Russia into the rebel lands. It was lead by Marshal Tukhachevsky a well known figure by now. It was believed to be one of the most impactful forces on the leadup to the war, with the bold Tukhachevsky in lead and the famous armored leader Rokossovksy spearheading his way to the city of Stalin.
Armored assault from the Ukraine and from Crimea.
The Ukraine Front would take the brunt of the invasion and mostly attack from the west by land. Timoshenko lead the Front with a substantial reserve force by his side. Meanwhile due to the purges and hasty retreat of the Stalinist forces Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsk was made the commander of the 5th Army and he was tasked with leading the main armored force toward Stalingrad from the west (linking up with Rokossovky striking from the north). The commander of the 6th Army was the young General Golikov (38) who would prove his worth by striking from Crimea and forming a second front in Stalinist-Russia before strking toward the Caucasus. This was essential in order to relieve the Transcaucasian Front and to gain some needed oil.
Leningrad Front commanded by Mr. Movember, and not exactly attacking from Leningrad.
The Leningrad was the most curious one. They were originally tasked with protecting the Baltic approaches and the Finnish border from foreign powers, but Trotsky wanted to go all in. They would be sent to the steppes of Asian Russia (faraway from their arctic original AO) and would strike down south, linking up with the Turkestan Front, gain some needed resources and cut off Stalingrad from the east, preventing reinforcements to arrive and the divisions around Stalingrad to retreat eastward. Andrey Vlasov gained his fame when he bravely organised the armed opposition to Stalin, making it possible for the NKVD and Red Army to take power. At the time he was the commander of the 99th Rifle-Division, but due to his bravery in the Trotskyist Coup and the fact that Timenshenko remarked the 99th was the most disciplined division in the entire army, the 37 year old general was given command of the 8th Army and had much to prove.. Its commander was Marshal Semyon Budyonny who would be the only one actually present in Leningrad.
The Moscow Front.
The Moscow Front was made from the garrisons around Moscow. The reserves had a large contigent of mountaineers and the 10th Army's main purpose was to assist Rokossovsky's thrust toward Stalingrad.
Striking at their soft underbelly.
The Turkestan Front was taken from the garrisons in the Central Asian parts of Russia. These parts hadn't really been subjucated by Stalin and it was with great risk the forces was detached to strike on the southern part of Stalinist-Russia. It was hoped they would gain the resources in this area, link up with the Leningrad Front and block off Stalingrad from the east.
Just hold out comrades!
The Transcaucasian Front had lost most its divisions to the Stalinists. This was in many regards Stalin land by its close proximity to Stalingrad and Georgia. The two lone mountaineer divisions there was completely reliant on supplies from their airport and that the 6th Army could break its way to the south from Crimea and end their encirclement.
They should protect against any surprise assault.
The Far East would continue as usual with the two Red Banner Armies garrison the area against a potential Japanese assault with the Front itself having a sizable reserve. Many had deserted however to Stalinist-Russia due to Ivan Konev being the previous commander of the Front. As such it was even more imperative for the fronts in the west to close the east road to Stalingrad so that more troops would not rally to their former commander.
Traitors of the USSR or fanatically loyal?
The main opposing generals, beside Konev himself, was the troika of Malinovsky, Shaposhnikov and Vatutin. Malinovsky grew up as an orphaned peasant and would join the Imperial Army during WWI and soon be sent to the westfront. There he served with distinction, which he continued to do when he returned home to Russia and fought for the Bolsheviks. When the civil war in Spain broke out he left to fight the Republican cause and advise their military officers, taking the Stalinist side in the war and not the Trotskyist. Upon his return he was made a political commissar in Stalingrad and would be one of the leading figures in what he percieved as an imperialist conspiracy against the socialist state. Shaposhnikov was of Cossack origin and due to that he managed to make most of the Cossacks flock to Stalingrad in support of the "true USSR". He had was the Chief of Staff of the Red Army, mostly thanks to the politicking of Stalin and was loyal to Stalin and had from before on a strained relationship toward Tukhachevsky. Vatutin was an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine. From there he would soon be promoted to the Chief of Staff in the Kiev Military District. He was one of the few Ukranians who was loyal to Stalin and tried to persuade his Ukranian divisions to crush the ROA. Instead they would face mutiny, defeat and the death of Zhukov. They retreated back to Stalingrad where Vatutin, Malinovsky and Shaposhnikov would organise the defences against the Trotskyist under the leadership of Ivan Konev.
The true Soviet Navy shall be the masters of the Black Sea.
The strategic situation in the Black Sea became appereant when the civil war broke out. Under British pressure Turkey closed off the Bosphorous, threating to go to war if Soviet warships passed through. The Black Sea had lost many ships to the enemy as ships and submarines mutinied and left for Odessa. The mainfleet would search for enemy ships and hunt them down, while the submarines would patrol the merchant lines sinking any non-Soviet ship passing through.
Sealing off the Black Sea.
On the opposite side of the Bosphorous the Baltic and Arctic fleets would sail down to the Mediterranean and prevent anyone from entering or leaving the Bosphorous openly questioning the neutrality of Turkey.
You chose the wrong side it seems.
The Soviet Navy suffered purges following the coup by Trotsky. Golovky was the rising star in the Soviet Army, but during the coup he did his duty as an officer. Attending to the Naval Warfare School the cadet, and veteran from the Spanish Civil War, refused to swear allegiance to Trotsky saying it was treason. Instead he organised a revolt with his fellow cadets and managed to take several destroyers and submarines. He would stay behind, caught and executed at the age of 32. Following the mutiny of several Black Sea ships and the Naval Warfare School in Leningrad, Segey Gorshkov was one of the victims of the purges that took place. The 28 year old cadet was trialed only for the crime of being in a surface ship. The Trotskyists took no risk of treason, so it was better to get rid of suspects than let them be free. And these was just two of the many officers from the naval arm and the army that would be forever lost when the Trotskyists took power.
Let's bail.
The Trotskyist Order of Battle was set. They only needed the codeword and they would start their massive invasion of Stalinist-Russia. Soviet would be set up again Soviet, brother against brother. Another chapter in the history of the Soviet Union was to be written in the blood of its people.
The Belarus Front, spearheaded by Rokossovsky and commanded by Tukhachevsky.
The Belarus Front was stationed in Belarus and had the task of strking from the west from Belarus and the north from Russia into the rebel lands. It was lead by Marshal Tukhachevsky a well known figure by now. It was believed to be one of the most impactful forces on the leadup to the war, with the bold Tukhachevsky in lead and the famous armored leader Rokossovksy spearheading his way to the city of Stalin.
Armored assault from the Ukraine and from Crimea.
The Ukraine Front would take the brunt of the invasion and mostly attack from the west by land. Timoshenko lead the Front with a substantial reserve force by his side. Meanwhile due to the purges and hasty retreat of the Stalinist forces Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsk was made the commander of the 5th Army and he was tasked with leading the main armored force toward Stalingrad from the west (linking up with Rokossovky striking from the north). The commander of the 6th Army was the young General Golikov (38) who would prove his worth by striking from Crimea and forming a second front in Stalinist-Russia before strking toward the Caucasus. This was essential in order to relieve the Transcaucasian Front and to gain some needed oil.
Leningrad Front commanded by Mr. Movember, and not exactly attacking from Leningrad.
The Leningrad was the most curious one. They were originally tasked with protecting the Baltic approaches and the Finnish border from foreign powers, but Trotsky wanted to go all in. They would be sent to the steppes of Asian Russia (faraway from their arctic original AO) and would strike down south, linking up with the Turkestan Front, gain some needed resources and cut off Stalingrad from the east, preventing reinforcements to arrive and the divisions around Stalingrad to retreat eastward. Andrey Vlasov gained his fame when he bravely organised the armed opposition to Stalin, making it possible for the NKVD and Red Army to take power. At the time he was the commander of the 99th Rifle-Division, but due to his bravery in the Trotskyist Coup and the fact that Timenshenko remarked the 99th was the most disciplined division in the entire army, the 37 year old general was given command of the 8th Army and had much to prove.. Its commander was Marshal Semyon Budyonny who would be the only one actually present in Leningrad.
The Moscow Front.
The Moscow Front was made from the garrisons around Moscow. The reserves had a large contigent of mountaineers and the 10th Army's main purpose was to assist Rokossovsky's thrust toward Stalingrad.
Striking at their soft underbelly.
The Turkestan Front was taken from the garrisons in the Central Asian parts of Russia. These parts hadn't really been subjucated by Stalin and it was with great risk the forces was detached to strike on the southern part of Stalinist-Russia. It was hoped they would gain the resources in this area, link up with the Leningrad Front and block off Stalingrad from the east.
Just hold out comrades!
The Transcaucasian Front had lost most its divisions to the Stalinists. This was in many regards Stalin land by its close proximity to Stalingrad and Georgia. The two lone mountaineer divisions there was completely reliant on supplies from their airport and that the 6th Army could break its way to the south from Crimea and end their encirclement.
They should protect against any surprise assault.
The Far East would continue as usual with the two Red Banner Armies garrison the area against a potential Japanese assault with the Front itself having a sizable reserve. Many had deserted however to Stalinist-Russia due to Ivan Konev being the previous commander of the Front. As such it was even more imperative for the fronts in the west to close the east road to Stalingrad so that more troops would not rally to their former commander.
Traitors of the USSR or fanatically loyal?
The main opposing generals, beside Konev himself, was the troika of Malinovsky, Shaposhnikov and Vatutin. Malinovsky grew up as an orphaned peasant and would join the Imperial Army during WWI and soon be sent to the westfront. There he served with distinction, which he continued to do when he returned home to Russia and fought for the Bolsheviks. When the civil war in Spain broke out he left to fight the Republican cause and advise their military officers, taking the Stalinist side in the war and not the Trotskyist. Upon his return he was made a political commissar in Stalingrad and would be one of the leading figures in what he percieved as an imperialist conspiracy against the socialist state. Shaposhnikov was of Cossack origin and due to that he managed to make most of the Cossacks flock to Stalingrad in support of the "true USSR". He had was the Chief of Staff of the Red Army, mostly thanks to the politicking of Stalin and was loyal to Stalin and had from before on a strained relationship toward Tukhachevsky. Vatutin was an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine. From there he would soon be promoted to the Chief of Staff in the Kiev Military District. He was one of the few Ukranians who was loyal to Stalin and tried to persuade his Ukranian divisions to crush the ROA. Instead they would face mutiny, defeat and the death of Zhukov. They retreated back to Stalingrad where Vatutin, Malinovsky and Shaposhnikov would organise the defences against the Trotskyist under the leadership of Ivan Konev.
The true Soviet Navy shall be the masters of the Black Sea.
The strategic situation in the Black Sea became appereant when the civil war broke out. Under British pressure Turkey closed off the Bosphorous, threating to go to war if Soviet warships passed through. The Black Sea had lost many ships to the enemy as ships and submarines mutinied and left for Odessa. The mainfleet would search for enemy ships and hunt them down, while the submarines would patrol the merchant lines sinking any non-Soviet ship passing through.
Sealing off the Black Sea.
On the opposite side of the Bosphorous the Baltic and Arctic fleets would sail down to the Mediterranean and prevent anyone from entering or leaving the Bosphorous openly questioning the neutrality of Turkey.
You chose the wrong side it seems.
The Soviet Navy suffered purges following the coup by Trotsky. Golovky was the rising star in the Soviet Army, but during the coup he did his duty as an officer. Attending to the Naval Warfare School the cadet, and veteran from the Spanish Civil War, refused to swear allegiance to Trotsky saying it was treason. Instead he organised a revolt with his fellow cadets and managed to take several destroyers and submarines. He would stay behind, caught and executed at the age of 32. Following the mutiny of several Black Sea ships and the Naval Warfare School in Leningrad, Segey Gorshkov was one of the victims of the purges that took place. The 28 year old cadet was trialed only for the crime of being in a surface ship. The Trotskyists took no risk of treason, so it was better to get rid of suspects than let them be free. And these was just two of the many officers from the naval arm and the army that would be forever lost when the Trotskyists took power.
Let's bail.
The Trotskyist Order of Battle was set. They only needed the codeword and they would start their massive invasion of Stalinist-Russia. Soviet would be set up again Soviet, brother against brother. Another chapter in the history of the Soviet Union was to be written in the blood of its people.
Chapter 5/Civil War 1.
Chapter 5: The Second Russian Civil War.
The city of Stalin turned into ruins.
The Second Civil War would be opened with an act of sheer brutality. Nearly one thousand Soviet fighters would block out the sun and foreshadow the impending doom. The fighter quickly established total air superiority shooting down the few Stalinist fighters who dared to take to the skies. The shadow of doom was followed up by the roaring sounds of 416 bombers who would fly day and night on constant sorties for the next days. Enemy troops would be bombed, enemy communication lines and supplies. 90 naval bombers would in addition to this strike at the harbors in the Black Sea denying the enemy any chance of supply. The bombers would strike the few remaining airplanes stationed on the ground effectively knocking out the Stalinist-Airforce. This was all in accordance to Deep Operations. The planes would operate behind the enemy lines and strike those who were out of reach of artillery. But the 118 long range bombers would strike deep behind enemy lines. The industrial and political heart of Stalingrad was the target. Strategic bombing would follow up for days and nights, the city was in ruins. Despite the lessons from the Spanish Civil War it was still believed an enemy could be bombed into submissions, and the city of Stalin was the target. At the very least the Stalingrad tractor factory was in ruins, proving to be a vital blow to the Stalinist armor production.
The Soviet Union modernised under Trotsky; waging war for oil.
Industry and resources would prove to be an important aspect of the war. The oil rich Caucasian region had defected to the Stalinists. Most important of them was Baku which held major oil reserves. This was a crisis for the Soviet government who needed oil to literally fuel their war machine. An emergency plan was set up to import oil from the United States of America. This deal was not in the favor of the USSR who needed to spend vast resources, and also lost vast profits from their oil exports, to import the American oil and had to use up their entire merchant fleet. Despite the significant Soviet-American trade deal the Soviets didn't get enough oil to their industry and the Red Army. General Golikov had now a new priority: Strike from Crimea into the Caucasus, and take control of the oilfields.
The hunters are the hunted.
Two days into the war the first battle, except for the airoffensives, took place in the war. 20 Soviet submarines had been waiting in ambush for a Stalinist merchant convoy. Instead two Leningrad destroyers the most advanced naval craft in all of Russia, cut off the submarines causing panick with their depth charges and torpedos. Despite the submarines's numerical advantage they would turn around, submerge and flee. The destroyers took up the chase but soon found themself attacked by a squadron of naval bombers. In the chaos a group of submarines split off and engaged the two destroyers. 622 sailors would drown in the Black Sea.
This go well, we will soon take over the Caucasus.
Five days following the start of the civil war the 6th Army got their troops into position. They would be the first army to get their troops into position and was quickly ordered to assault. Across the Crimea only one undersupplies division held the beaches led by Vatutin. The Stalinists was caught by complete surprise as they didn't believe the Soviets could muster an assault this quick. This led to the false belief that the rest of the Red Army was in position only waiting for the signal to attack.
The Black Death.
Spearheading the assault across Crimea was the Russian Naval Infantrists also called the "Black Death" due to their black berets. They had been taken away from their ships who had either deserted or been scrapped. The lessons from these naval infantrists led to an interest from the Red Army and Fleet alike to establish naval infantrist regiments to ease amphibious assaults in the future - such as an assault on Turkey*.
They seem a tad more resilient now..
By midnight of the 20th the assault force managed to cross the Kerch strait with relative ease. It was believed before hand this would be one the most hardfought battles of the war. But it took only a little over four days to establish a bridge head. With their confidence at an all time high the 6th Army ordered a rapid assault toward Krasnodar to take the industry and most importantly the oilfields there. It was believed the forces under Vatutin would quickly succumb. But they did not. It seemed as if the enemy had dug in properly. Moreover the Soviets had to cross over a marshland where the infantrists would sink into the marshes and the trucks and armor get stuck. To make matters worse the open fields of the marsh had offer little to no protection against enemy fire. This led to the assault coming under heavy fire and the Soviets had to dig trenches in the wet and dirty marshes, increasing the risk of trench foot and other diseases. The Soviets then put most of their forces to the south to cross the river leading to Krasnodar. The marshes outside of the defenses would still be an issue, but the front would be widened giving greater room for manuever.
Around this time research by th PCDI began to look into developing a new type of armor. An armor that had the advantages of both light and heavy tanks, but no the disadvantages. The border war with Japan had led to the Soviets realising their gas engines easily burst into flames, and the T-26s and BT-7s quickly burst into flames and was easily penetrated by 37mm gunfire. A new tank was needed in case of a war with Germany, Japan, UK or France. The result was the A-32 prototype, perhaps its greatest improvement was its sloped armor, diesel engine, wider tracks and a 76.2mm main cannon.
A hard fought victory.
During the 22nd of October a large Stalinist raid on Sevastopol took place. They hoped to take out the essential Soviet port and launch an amphibious assault. Several submarines nd 60 naval bombers fired at will into the port. However they hit nothing as the Red Fleet was out on a search and destroy mission. The fleet caught up with the raiders and sunk six of their subs. However the Chervona Ukraina cruiser would be hit by several bombs from the naval bombers. The ship didn't sink, however it had to be abonded and scuttled the next day. The Stalinist raiders had been driven away, but the Soviets lost one of their four cruisers. A devastating blow to the Black Sea fleet.
A little masquerade.
The Soviets implemented Maskirovka ("masquerade") to full effect during the civil war. Several tanks, artillery and fixed positions was concealed with camoflague with the airforce doing recon missions to find their own forces. This led to the enemy being unable to predict where the Soviets would strike from. The Soviets would also add on the confusion by putting up several phoney armor and positions luring the enemy to believe that attacks would come from other places than they should, and believing others would be left open. Seeing most Soviet forces would take days, perhaps weeks, to get to the frontlines several mock positions was also made to lure the enemy to believe they were already in position Along their borders with Germany, Poland and Romania they would falsify their positions hoping the Germans wouldn't invade them. Russian deception was also implemented behind enemy lines with several NKVD operatives being delployed to wage electronical warfare, spy, make acts of sabotage and propaganda and recruitment. The Soviet command hoped this would spread chaos behind the Stalinist lines. This would be combined with the airforce striking at enemy positions behind the lines, logistics etc. This Russian miltiary deception was already formulated in the Art of War "I will force the enemy to take our strength for weakness, and our weakness for strength, and thus will turn his strength into weakness" and being further elaborated by the Soviets "based upon the principles of activity, naturalness, diversity, and continuity and includes secrecy, imitation, demonstrative actions, and disinformation".
For the motherland!
Afternoon of the 23rd most of the Soviet forces was in position. By Trotsky's orders a codeword was sent across the radios of the Soviet Union. It said "all power to soviets" and then the entire Soviet Red Army started on their offensive from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and even Kazakhstan. The civil war had truly begun. Thousands of artillery shells would be plunged into the enemy lines with bombers and fighters taking out reinforcements coming to the frontlines. Several Stalinist divisions would defect to the Soviets or be confused as to where the attacks actually came from due to the Maskirovka doctrine. By the looks of it Stalingrad would soon fall and the revolution would be triumphant. The architect behind the invasion would be Marshal Tukhachevsky. His aggressive spirit was proven in one of his most famous quotes of the war: "The fate of world revolution is being decided in the steppes: the way leads over the corpse of Stalin to a universal conflagration.... On to Stalingrad, Baku and Tbilisi -- forward!"
The assault had to be put to a halt.
In the south the offensive had been called off. The lone Stalinist division proved to very resilient and refused to give any ground to the advancing Soviet army. The situation was reminiscent of the Great War. The Soviet troops had to cross a large area of unfavorable terrain. Meanwhile the enemy was protected in their trenches and unleashed machine gun fire and artillery barrages on the advancing forces. Attack after attack was repulsed and the 6th Army had no choice but to call off the attack and restitute and fin alternative paths to Krasnodar. Golikov questioned if effectiveness of the Red Army was significantly weaker due to the last purges of Stalin and Trotsky leaving out many experienced junior and senior officers. In their place several officers had come, only out of ideological persuasion and not competence. Of course he didn't say this openly as to not be purged himself - something he risked if he didn't take Krasnodar. Defeat meant incompetence in the Red Army. And incompetence was a crime.
Trotsky is even more modern now, being against oil.
The Soviet Airforce realised they needed to deprive their enemy of resources in order to win. Realising they would not get to the oilfields of the Caucasus in a short period of time as previously anticipated, the strategic bombers would be directed from bombing the urban industrial complexes and instead direct their bombs on the oil refineries. The sky would be blackened with thick smoke and smog from the burning oil, in addition to the bombers the NKVD had several operatives behind enemy lines, sabotaging their industries and infrastructure while also recruiting several local villagers and workers to their cause as partisans**.
How much longer can they hold out?
Despite Golikov arguing he needed to have a combat pause for his men to restitue and recover Trotsky personally demanded that the 6th Army was to resume their attack. Hard pressed two infantry divisions and a mechanized corps*** crossed the river hoping to take the defenders by surprise. Instead their assault was put to a halt. The BT-7s and T-26s was easily destroyed by enemy AT guns who took them out as they drove themself into the marshes. It was here the A-32 was used for the first with great success, but they didn't manage to tip the battle to their favor. Days later snow fell and the marsh froze. This lead to several infantrist lines managing to cross the line with heavy casualties. Close quarter combat ensued where the bayonet, shovels and fist was the weapons of choice. The riflemen managed to take the Stalinist lines, but was fatigued and was soon driven back by a Stalinist counterattack. The assault had once again been blown off to a halt. Golikov and his 6th Army was starting to become desperate. But the supply situation of the enemy was critical and it was decided they would wear them out and let them succumb to the cold and diseases before they would roll over them with their armor.
The Battle of Kursk, one of the defining battles.
On the Belarus and Ukranian Fronts things was going well. The material destruction the Stalinists faced was tremendous. The "Moscow's Proletarian Motorised Rifle Division" managed to cut through the enemy lines in tandem with other mechanized corps and motorised divisions. The city of Kursk was taken with just under 50.000 Stalinist troops being encircled. If these divisions would fall it would be a tremendous blow to the Stalinist war effort. The trapped Stalinist divisions hoped for their fellow brethren to break the encirclement, which was not likely at all due to the main force retreating eastward. Still they dug in and fought with tooth and nail and wouldn't surrender until they was faced with a total destruction. Trotsky announced this news with great anticipation claiming the Russian people had risen up against their capitalist oppressors, and now that Kursk was taken the road to Stalingrad was open.
The situation as of the 1st of November 1938. The eastern front is doing much poorer than anticipated.
The month turned into November and general winter had joined the war. The Ukranian, Moscow and Belarus Front saw great successes, but the assault from Crimea was assaulted. The Leningrad Front didn't fare much better with facing a wall of entrenched enemies. Meanwhile the Turkestan Front was out of supplies and was unable to move into the enemy territory. But perhaps greatest factor of the minor successes was the general lack of equipment in the Red Army and the poor leadership. Many Soviet soldiers had to go out to war without a rifle or without ammunition and had to wait for their brother in arms to fall to pick up his rifle. And the purges of both Stalin and Trotsky had left a major hole in the Soviet officer corps leading to many incompetent officers taking command and leading to poor coordination between them. Even Soviet radios proved to be in a poor state, and those who had them relied upon a too complex coding system which lead to more disadvantages than advantages. The Soviets also suffered high losses and desertion to the Stalinists, this led to many new recruits with minimal training joining the ranks only to be mowed down by machine guns. The war had raged on for 21 days and thousands had fallen on both sides and entire areas had been level by armored advances, machine gun fire, artillery and strategical bombing. It was now appereant for the whole world that the Soviet Armed Forces had suffered under the many purges and overexpansion. The question remained on how long the war would continue and if Germany or Japan would take advantage of the internal strife - afterall Trotsky had personally made the large gamble to leave the western borders defenseless. But the war had just started and many more would be sacrificed for Trotsky and the Permament Revolution.
A new batch of recruits blissfully ignorant of the realities of war.
-----
*There is no marines soldiers ingame, so it is just fantasy that naval infantrists participated, but there might be formations marines to be created in the future.
**Again not rooted out in game, simply narrative.
***Mechanized Corps is the ingame armored divisions, and not necessairly two or more ingame mechanized infantry units.
The city of Stalin turned into ruins.
The Second Civil War would be opened with an act of sheer brutality. Nearly one thousand Soviet fighters would block out the sun and foreshadow the impending doom. The fighter quickly established total air superiority shooting down the few Stalinist fighters who dared to take to the skies. The shadow of doom was followed up by the roaring sounds of 416 bombers who would fly day and night on constant sorties for the next days. Enemy troops would be bombed, enemy communication lines and supplies. 90 naval bombers would in addition to this strike at the harbors in the Black Sea denying the enemy any chance of supply. The bombers would strike the few remaining airplanes stationed on the ground effectively knocking out the Stalinist-Airforce. This was all in accordance to Deep Operations. The planes would operate behind the enemy lines and strike those who were out of reach of artillery. But the 118 long range bombers would strike deep behind enemy lines. The industrial and political heart of Stalingrad was the target. Strategic bombing would follow up for days and nights, the city was in ruins. Despite the lessons from the Spanish Civil War it was still believed an enemy could be bombed into submissions, and the city of Stalin was the target. At the very least the Stalingrad tractor factory was in ruins, proving to be a vital blow to the Stalinist armor production.
The Soviet Union modernised under Trotsky; waging war for oil.
Industry and resources would prove to be an important aspect of the war. The oil rich Caucasian region had defected to the Stalinists. Most important of them was Baku which held major oil reserves. This was a crisis for the Soviet government who needed oil to literally fuel their war machine. An emergency plan was set up to import oil from the United States of America. This deal was not in the favor of the USSR who needed to spend vast resources, and also lost vast profits from their oil exports, to import the American oil and had to use up their entire merchant fleet. Despite the significant Soviet-American trade deal the Soviets didn't get enough oil to their industry and the Red Army. General Golikov had now a new priority: Strike from Crimea into the Caucasus, and take control of the oilfields.
The hunters are the hunted.
Two days into the war the first battle, except for the airoffensives, took place in the war. 20 Soviet submarines had been waiting in ambush for a Stalinist merchant convoy. Instead two Leningrad destroyers the most advanced naval craft in all of Russia, cut off the submarines causing panick with their depth charges and torpedos. Despite the submarines's numerical advantage they would turn around, submerge and flee. The destroyers took up the chase but soon found themself attacked by a squadron of naval bombers. In the chaos a group of submarines split off and engaged the two destroyers. 622 sailors would drown in the Black Sea.
This go well, we will soon take over the Caucasus.
Five days following the start of the civil war the 6th Army got their troops into position. They would be the first army to get their troops into position and was quickly ordered to assault. Across the Crimea only one undersupplies division held the beaches led by Vatutin. The Stalinists was caught by complete surprise as they didn't believe the Soviets could muster an assault this quick. This led to the false belief that the rest of the Red Army was in position only waiting for the signal to attack.
The Black Death.
Spearheading the assault across Crimea was the Russian Naval Infantrists also called the "Black Death" due to their black berets. They had been taken away from their ships who had either deserted or been scrapped. The lessons from these naval infantrists led to an interest from the Red Army and Fleet alike to establish naval infantrist regiments to ease amphibious assaults in the future - such as an assault on Turkey*.
They seem a tad more resilient now..
By midnight of the 20th the assault force managed to cross the Kerch strait with relative ease. It was believed before hand this would be one the most hardfought battles of the war. But it took only a little over four days to establish a bridge head. With their confidence at an all time high the 6th Army ordered a rapid assault toward Krasnodar to take the industry and most importantly the oilfields there. It was believed the forces under Vatutin would quickly succumb. But they did not. It seemed as if the enemy had dug in properly. Moreover the Soviets had to cross over a marshland where the infantrists would sink into the marshes and the trucks and armor get stuck. To make matters worse the open fields of the marsh had offer little to no protection against enemy fire. This led to the assault coming under heavy fire and the Soviets had to dig trenches in the wet and dirty marshes, increasing the risk of trench foot and other diseases. The Soviets then put most of their forces to the south to cross the river leading to Krasnodar. The marshes outside of the defenses would still be an issue, but the front would be widened giving greater room for manuever.
Around this time research by th PCDI began to look into developing a new type of armor. An armor that had the advantages of both light and heavy tanks, but no the disadvantages. The border war with Japan had led to the Soviets realising their gas engines easily burst into flames, and the T-26s and BT-7s quickly burst into flames and was easily penetrated by 37mm gunfire. A new tank was needed in case of a war with Germany, Japan, UK or France. The result was the A-32 prototype, perhaps its greatest improvement was its sloped armor, diesel engine, wider tracks and a 76.2mm main cannon.
A hard fought victory.
During the 22nd of October a large Stalinist raid on Sevastopol took place. They hoped to take out the essential Soviet port and launch an amphibious assault. Several submarines nd 60 naval bombers fired at will into the port. However they hit nothing as the Red Fleet was out on a search and destroy mission. The fleet caught up with the raiders and sunk six of their subs. However the Chervona Ukraina cruiser would be hit by several bombs from the naval bombers. The ship didn't sink, however it had to be abonded and scuttled the next day. The Stalinist raiders had been driven away, but the Soviets lost one of their four cruisers. A devastating blow to the Black Sea fleet.
A little masquerade.
The Soviets implemented Maskirovka ("masquerade") to full effect during the civil war. Several tanks, artillery and fixed positions was concealed with camoflague with the airforce doing recon missions to find their own forces. This led to the enemy being unable to predict where the Soviets would strike from. The Soviets would also add on the confusion by putting up several phoney armor and positions luring the enemy to believe that attacks would come from other places than they should, and believing others would be left open. Seeing most Soviet forces would take days, perhaps weeks, to get to the frontlines several mock positions was also made to lure the enemy to believe they were already in position Along their borders with Germany, Poland and Romania they would falsify their positions hoping the Germans wouldn't invade them. Russian deception was also implemented behind enemy lines with several NKVD operatives being delployed to wage electronical warfare, spy, make acts of sabotage and propaganda and recruitment. The Soviet command hoped this would spread chaos behind the Stalinist lines. This would be combined with the airforce striking at enemy positions behind the lines, logistics etc. This Russian miltiary deception was already formulated in the Art of War "I will force the enemy to take our strength for weakness, and our weakness for strength, and thus will turn his strength into weakness" and being further elaborated by the Soviets "based upon the principles of activity, naturalness, diversity, and continuity and includes secrecy, imitation, demonstrative actions, and disinformation".
For the motherland!
Afternoon of the 23rd most of the Soviet forces was in position. By Trotsky's orders a codeword was sent across the radios of the Soviet Union. It said "all power to soviets" and then the entire Soviet Red Army started on their offensive from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and even Kazakhstan. The civil war had truly begun. Thousands of artillery shells would be plunged into the enemy lines with bombers and fighters taking out reinforcements coming to the frontlines. Several Stalinist divisions would defect to the Soviets or be confused as to where the attacks actually came from due to the Maskirovka doctrine. By the looks of it Stalingrad would soon fall and the revolution would be triumphant. The architect behind the invasion would be Marshal Tukhachevsky. His aggressive spirit was proven in one of his most famous quotes of the war: "The fate of world revolution is being decided in the steppes: the way leads over the corpse of Stalin to a universal conflagration.... On to Stalingrad, Baku and Tbilisi -- forward!"
The assault had to be put to a halt.
In the south the offensive had been called off. The lone Stalinist division proved to very resilient and refused to give any ground to the advancing Soviet army. The situation was reminiscent of the Great War. The Soviet troops had to cross a large area of unfavorable terrain. Meanwhile the enemy was protected in their trenches and unleashed machine gun fire and artillery barrages on the advancing forces. Attack after attack was repulsed and the 6th Army had no choice but to call off the attack and restitute and fin alternative paths to Krasnodar. Golikov questioned if effectiveness of the Red Army was significantly weaker due to the last purges of Stalin and Trotsky leaving out many experienced junior and senior officers. In their place several officers had come, only out of ideological persuasion and not competence. Of course he didn't say this openly as to not be purged himself - something he risked if he didn't take Krasnodar. Defeat meant incompetence in the Red Army. And incompetence was a crime.
Trotsky is even more modern now, being against oil.
The Soviet Airforce realised they needed to deprive their enemy of resources in order to win. Realising they would not get to the oilfields of the Caucasus in a short period of time as previously anticipated, the strategic bombers would be directed from bombing the urban industrial complexes and instead direct their bombs on the oil refineries. The sky would be blackened with thick smoke and smog from the burning oil, in addition to the bombers the NKVD had several operatives behind enemy lines, sabotaging their industries and infrastructure while also recruiting several local villagers and workers to their cause as partisans**.
How much longer can they hold out?
Despite Golikov arguing he needed to have a combat pause for his men to restitue and recover Trotsky personally demanded that the 6th Army was to resume their attack. Hard pressed two infantry divisions and a mechanized corps*** crossed the river hoping to take the defenders by surprise. Instead their assault was put to a halt. The BT-7s and T-26s was easily destroyed by enemy AT guns who took them out as they drove themself into the marshes. It was here the A-32 was used for the first with great success, but they didn't manage to tip the battle to their favor. Days later snow fell and the marsh froze. This lead to several infantrist lines managing to cross the line with heavy casualties. Close quarter combat ensued where the bayonet, shovels and fist was the weapons of choice. The riflemen managed to take the Stalinist lines, but was fatigued and was soon driven back by a Stalinist counterattack. The assault had once again been blown off to a halt. Golikov and his 6th Army was starting to become desperate. But the supply situation of the enemy was critical and it was decided they would wear them out and let them succumb to the cold and diseases before they would roll over them with their armor.
The Battle of Kursk, one of the defining battles.
On the Belarus and Ukranian Fronts things was going well. The material destruction the Stalinists faced was tremendous. The "Moscow's Proletarian Motorised Rifle Division" managed to cut through the enemy lines in tandem with other mechanized corps and motorised divisions. The city of Kursk was taken with just under 50.000 Stalinist troops being encircled. If these divisions would fall it would be a tremendous blow to the Stalinist war effort. The trapped Stalinist divisions hoped for their fellow brethren to break the encirclement, which was not likely at all due to the main force retreating eastward. Still they dug in and fought with tooth and nail and wouldn't surrender until they was faced with a total destruction. Trotsky announced this news with great anticipation claiming the Russian people had risen up against their capitalist oppressors, and now that Kursk was taken the road to Stalingrad was open.
The situation as of the 1st of November 1938. The eastern front is doing much poorer than anticipated.
The month turned into November and general winter had joined the war. The Ukranian, Moscow and Belarus Front saw great successes, but the assault from Crimea was assaulted. The Leningrad Front didn't fare much better with facing a wall of entrenched enemies. Meanwhile the Turkestan Front was out of supplies and was unable to move into the enemy territory. But perhaps greatest factor of the minor successes was the general lack of equipment in the Red Army and the poor leadership. Many Soviet soldiers had to go out to war without a rifle or without ammunition and had to wait for their brother in arms to fall to pick up his rifle. And the purges of both Stalin and Trotsky had left a major hole in the Soviet officer corps leading to many incompetent officers taking command and leading to poor coordination between them. Even Soviet radios proved to be in a poor state, and those who had them relied upon a too complex coding system which lead to more disadvantages than advantages. The Soviets also suffered high losses and desertion to the Stalinists, this led to many new recruits with minimal training joining the ranks only to be mowed down by machine guns. The war had raged on for 21 days and thousands had fallen on both sides and entire areas had been level by armored advances, machine gun fire, artillery and strategical bombing. It was now appereant for the whole world that the Soviet Armed Forces had suffered under the many purges and overexpansion. The question remained on how long the war would continue and if Germany or Japan would take advantage of the internal strife - afterall Trotsky had personally made the large gamble to leave the western borders defenseless. But the war had just started and many more would be sacrificed for Trotsky and the Permament Revolution.
A new batch of recruits blissfully ignorant of the realities of war.
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*There is no marines soldiers ingame, so it is just fantasy that naval infantrists participated, but there might be formations marines to be created in the future.
**Again not rooted out in game, simply narrative.
***Mechanized Corps is the ingame armored divisions, and not necessairly two or more ingame mechanized infantry units.
The offensive is off to a good start - and I guess from what you said earlier it turned out much easier than expected.
I would hate to be in their strategic situation.
I would hate to be in their strategic situation.
Yeah it is going well, but not as good as I expected it to. But I suppose that is what happen when I choose rp/historical armies, but we should be able to crush our enemies soon.
Also for the civil war it will be monthly updates, then yearly ones. And I can say that some pretty weird shit will happen im the future
Chapter 6/Civil war 2.
Chapter 6: The End may Justify the Means, as long as there something that Justifies the End.
Soviet Mountaineers holding off the armored assault.
As October had turned into November General Gorbatov came under the attack of a Stalinist Mechanized Corps. Gorbatov had served with distinction during the First Russian Civil War being awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Following the war he would become a calvary officer, but was convicted as being an "enemy of the people" during the Great Purge. Following the Second Russian Civil War he was given command of the two remaining mountaineer divisions in the Caucasus. His two divisions would be undersupplied, but they managed to hold the lands in the Caucasian mountains. The mountains of Armenia proved to be unfavaroble for the tank formations that assaulted their positions. The men of the 47th mountain division held their ground even pushing forward at several occasions. The assault by the mechanized corps would last for about a week. The 47th Division inflicted great casualties upon their attackers despite their precarious supply situation. The Transcaucasian Front was holding for now.
They way to Krasnodar finally opened up!
By the the onset of November the Stalinist rifle division that held the marches outside of Krasnodar finally withdrew. They had retreated to take part in the defense of Rostov. Early morning of the fourth of November the 6th Army could finally advance. The 3rd Calvary Division would take control of the nearby port while the rest of the army fanned out to advance on Krasnodar. The Soviets had weak intel on the nearby area and didn't know if Krasnodar was abandoned or fortified by other divisions. Still it was a great relief for the men of the 6th Army that the marches of Krasnodar was no longer contested.
Machinegunners overlooking no man's land.
A conscripted lmg shooter of the DP-27 was relieved as he wrote in his diary about the marches "the dead marshes have opened up. It was hellish terrain to fight in. Day after day we would be positioned behind our brink. It was fortified with mortars and heavy machine guns, before each attack artillery would bombard the enemy positions, but to little effect. The marches absorbed the firepower and the enemy knew we would be coming. When the whistle blew we all vaulted over the brink with our support weapons spraying out their death loads. But to little effect. We had to cross the marches and after a certain point we could no longer be covered by our support weapons, it was then the enemy fired. It was randomnized who got shot at and who didn't. It was by chance who got stuck in the mud and was a living target. It was hell, we had to keep ourselves moving for three seconds of a time. That was the time the enemy needed to find us, aim and fire in the open terrain. I had to lay down in the freezing water that emerged from all the gunshots and artillery shells, in turn the constant crawling around tore up my uniforms and then my skin and flesh. I fired a few rounds before I in return had massive fire directed at me. We gained ground, but every assault we was called back. We didn't manage to hold the marshes, meanwhile the enemy had fortified themself in the trenches by the tree line. Every attack was pointless and futile, I have no idea why they chose to give up this death zone, I am only relieved they did so".
We're closing in on Stalingrad in winter, what can go wrong?
In the north the many Soviet armies gained massive ground. Winter set it on the steppes around Stalingrad and the Stalinist armies was undersupplied as their port near Krasnodar fell and Rostov was under siege. As the snow fell and temperatures reach sub-zero the Stalinist had little equipment to deal with the cold. Those who didn't fall to Soviet bullets did so to frostbite and hypothermia. Men in tanks would be heated up to extreme temperatures in their machines, but if they broke down or got shot at or had to vacate, the extreme cold turned their sweat to ice. The soldiers marching wasn't doing much better. Being only outfitted with cotton and thin boots their uniforms would be soaked in sweat, blood and snow. Their hands wasn't always covered a great disadvantage when handling weapons made of iron and steel. The Stalinist suffered hellish conditions undersupplied and many defected to the Soviets, deserted or committed suicide. Meanwhile the plains near Stalingrad proved to be to a great advantage of the Soviet bombers, Mechanized corps and motorised rifle divisions. Several pockets was created by the aggressive armored and motorised divisions who exploited holes in the enemy lines. The Stalinist forces caught in these pockets would face fates worse than death. The Soviets also used the doctrine of maskirovka to great effect by employing white camoflague, blending into the natural enviorment. In the opening days of November thousands of Stalinists would lose their life, not to speak of the around 50.000 who were caught in the Kurks pocket. The road to Stalingrad was opened, and the Moscow Front reached the Volga river itself.
Calvary fighting calvary in the streets of Krasnodar. With helpful support of machine guns and armor of course.
On the evening of the 7th the 6th Army reached Krasnodar. The lone calvary division holding the city was helplessly undermanned, supplied and isolated. In an effort to break out the siege and inevitable onslaught they launched a surprise attack across the river toward the 3rd Calvary Division. Their commander wanted to die with honor and dignity in what he believed would be an epic clash between calvary as in the days of the old. But the Soviet calvarists withdrew. Instead a Rifle Division took position across the river and fired with massive fire from their artillery, machine guns and even anti-aircraft guns. The anticipated calvary charge was consumed by industrial warfare, meanwhile two other rifle divisions attacked the city itself. The Stalinists who held the city was in great disarray and would fall to the advancing forces. A Soviet commander noted "praise the higher powers for the defenders choosing a reckless attack. We could now almost parade into the city instead of being bogged down in close quarters, the worst nightmare of every soldier". But the city would not fall so easily. A prolonged urban battle commenced that would put both sides to their limits.
Encirclements seem to be a thing on the Russian steppes, and bitter urban combat.
Another 11 days went by and the Soviets advance seemed unstoppable. The Soviets and Trotsky himself said it was evidence of the moral superiority of the Soviet Union and their operational prowess. It is a grain of truth in this, but the Soviets made several blunders during their advance, mostly due to a politicalization of the army and many purges. But the greatest contributor to the collapse of the Stalinists was their logistical situation. The Black Sea was dominated by the Soviets with the entire Stalinist merchant fleet being sunk, furthermore one of their two ports had fallen and their second one wa sunder siege. It didn't help much by the Soviets having air superiority. These conditions was perfect for the Soviet concept for deep battle and the flat terrain was taken advantage of. Many more pockets were created isolating several Stalinist divisions. Village after village was taken and the Stalinist soldiers cut off found themself in a hopelss situation. One of them wrote "it was hopeless. The constant shelling and weeks of killing and death was making us tired of life and turned us to shells. We only waited for the Trotskyist to take us, but they never came. Constant mock attacks, constant shelling or bombs being dropped down from the skies. It was driving us mad. Yet we held our ground, we heard stories of what they did to the "enemy of the workers" as they named us and our villages was lost to the Trotskyists. We merely existed and waited until we were either killed or relieved. Whatever happened didn't matter, we merely wanted to end our suffering one way or the other".
The Germans most be thrilled.
While the fighting raged on in Russia another war took place in the Balkans. Italy had close bonds with Germany and saw their war against the Little Entente as a threat to their sphere of influence, but also as an opportunity. Italy and Germany formally created an alliance and Italy was gearing for war. It was only a matter of time before Italy joined the war against the Little Entente to take their claimed territory - and to be the bulwark against what they deemed the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy.
Bombs away.
The Soviet siege of Rostov created a few interesting issues. First of was a refugee crisis as people all over Stalinist Russia, especially those who could be associated with the new oligarch elite, traveled down the Volga hoping to flee. In addition the government of Konev saw the futility of their situation and started a campaign of bombing Iran and Turkey and released propaganda and documents detailing Soviet plans of invading and controlling the middle east. They hoped this would provoke said nations to intervene in the war against the USSR, but most importantly the UK and her allies, Poland counting among them. They hoped for an invasion in the soft underbelly of the USSR and from Poland into Ukraine and Belarus. Instead the plan backfired. British and French bombers based in the middle east bombed the Stalinist oilfields crippling their economy and war effort. Their pretex was to stop Russian oil exports to Germany. Trotsky condemned this action strongly officially, but was likely to be content on his enemies industry being crippled.**
The reclamation of Rostov.
Around the 16th the port city of Rostov fell after heavy fighting. The city itself had been encircled for about a week and was bombarded from land, sea and air. The Stalinists tried to break out of the encirclement, but the Soviet armored units pushed them back and into the city. Days of brutal streetfighting took place, but the defenders eventually gave up. Starved, tired and out of ammunition. This was a major blow to Ivan Konev and the Stalinist loyalists. Their country was now completely isolated.
Soviet forces on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
Meanwhile the spearheads of Rokossovsky and Vasilevsky linked up outside of Stalingrad. The City of Stalin had been under daily and nightly bombing since the onset of the war, now the Red Army was just outside preparing to attack. The armored divisions would take on the fields of Stalingrad facing off the remaining Stalinist armors and enplacements and scouting the area for weak points. The motorised infantrists poured into the trenches to take control of the surrounding areas. The Stalinists meanwhile fought with tooth and nail for the city of their martyred leader. Knowing this would likely be their final stance they gave everything they had, the opposition was stiff and Stalingrad proved it would not fall so easily.
The Eastern Front had to be given up, will purges of incompetence follow?
On the eastern front the advancing armies had come to a standstill. The divisions there had much greater logistical problems and the communication lines wasn't that developed in this farway land. Instead attack after attack failed as they Soviets went straight into Stalinist defensive lines with bad intel and little ammunition. A Stalinist soldier wrote in his diary "the Trotskyists must have been blinded or driven to insanity by their despot. They just came onto us, wave after wave. We mowed them down without any effort". By the 19th Trotsky understood the futility of the situation and called for a pause in the offensive to let the Leningrad Front be replenished. He also gave them a warning "fail the revolution again and we might suspect your loyalties".
With Rostov and Krasnodar taken, all we're needed to do is to walk straight to the Caucasus..
Early morning of the 21st Krasnodar fell. What seemed to be a walk in the park following the calvary attack prove to be just another mass grave. The defenders of Krasnodar was reinforced by one infantry division and one mechanised corps. For the first time in the war armor went against armor in urban enviorment. The tanks proved to be able to pin down several infantry formations in the streets acting as mobile machine gun nests. But they had little control of the surrounding areas and buildings and would often be set ablaze by molotov cocktails or by flanking anti-tank teams. The disadvantages of armor in urban enviorments was showcased firsthand by both sides, but both refused to learn from their lessons and kept on the attacks. By the 21st the Stalinists retreated toward the Caucasus while the Soviets pursued them. The entire city was razed turned into smoldering ruins.
Russian forces mounting a desperate defense of Stalingrad, against the Soviets.
Five days following the conquest or liberation, depending on who you ask, of Krasnodar the Soviet forces was progressing toward Stalingrad. The city itself could be seen in the horizon along with the smoke from the numerous fires in the city. The Stalinist defenders, who was called the "White Army" by Soviet propaganda, had dug in around their provisional capital. However most of these defenses were static and proved to be of little match of Soviet armor, guns and the newly developed close air support bombers. The static lines soon collapsed from the accurate firepower of the Soviet forces and Ivan Konev called this collapse for "elastic defense". In truth it was just a coverup. A Stalinist soldier said to his captors "they named it elastic defense and tactical withdrawals to make it look like we were still in control. But we knew we were losing on every front, and you took advantage of it. By the front we were under fire from machine guns, by our flanks armor penetrated the lines and in our rear your bombers hit us. We were trapped and we knew it". Soviet forces would battle fiercly with their fellow countrymen over the outskirts of Stalingrad - both believed it would lead to a close end to the war. But the fights for the trenches outside of Stalingrad would take several days. The fixed positions proved to be of no match of the cordinated attacks by the Soviet, but the remnants proved to be deadly. They was equiped with anti-tank rifles and recoiless rifles. These were out of sight and knocked out a tank or two before being taken out themself. Others were pretending to be dead before setting off several grenades or mines. There was also plenty of marksmen taking out exposed and lone men, causing chaos amidst Soviet ranks. The Soviets called them cowards, the Stalinist themself said it was necessairy in their defense. It would be a forewarning on what was to come.
Battered Romanian troops give up after a long trial. And the rightful territory of Bessarabia is in Nazi Hands!
During November the worn out Romanian forces finally collapsed. Since the Germans took the mountains of Transylvania the Romanians lost their natural defenses. The Romanians launched many attacks to retake those mountains, but persistence proved to not be the key to success. The Romanians lost to superior positions and firepower and became worn out. For every battle they lost they became more demoralised and soon members of the Iron Guard was appointed to the government to prevent a fascist coup. It was hoped this would still the fascist elements in the population, but it only emboldened them. The Germans launched a new and deadly offensive in mid of November. In mere hours thousands of Romanians perished to German MG34, Panzer IIIs and Stukas. When the Germans neared the capital the Iron Guard took power and forced King Carol II. to abdicate. Most of the military failures was blamed upon the now unpopular king and the French. The Romanin troops defending the capital was simply ordered to not do so and Romania capitulated. This put them at a crisis with the Soviet Union who saw the Germans sharing a direct border with them and especially the new naval bases in Bessarabia as a threat. Trotsky wanted to liberate Romania, but the realities of the civil war came into play and an invasion of Romania was called off. Instead several NKVD agents inflitrated Hungary to support the communists there with arms, weapons and men. The Hungrians found themself isolated after they faile to support Hitler in his conquest of Czechoslovakia and Romania. The Germans refused to grant the Hungarians the land they coveted and the popularity for Horthy plummeted while the Germans was seen as a threat.*
We got some obstacles on our walk to the Caucasus.
With the areas fully secured around Krasnodar the 6th Army was again on the offensive with five full days of rest. Two major battles ensued, one nortwest of Krasnodar and one on the southwest. The former would be easily won, but the latter was against a well entrenched mechanized corps. The mechanized corps was blocking the way toward the Caucaus Front and the oil. The 6th Army would either need to wait for northern forces to relieve them or sacrifice several waves of men in the Caucasus.
The bitter streetfights of Stalingrad.
The first Soviet forces also entered Stalingrad on the 26th. They believed they was to face little opposition and that the civilians would embrace their liberators. Instead they was treated as occupiers and conquerers. The city itself was unrecognizable, nothing but ruins and despair. Horrible close quarter combat took place amidst the severe winter. An entire city was to be cleared where the enemy was deeply entrenched and the locals was opposed to the Red Army. A late private wrote in his diary "it was nervewrecking. Everywhere we went we feared to be hit by a sniper or find come under fire from machine guns. And the odds was massively against us. If we was to take out a building with only three enemies we needed 30 or more. They knew we were coming in and directed the guns straight at us. It was claustrophobic and hellish. The other day we stormed an office complex, but the main hall was dominated by a lone machine gun. It spread out its fire in long bursts and many good men fell to the bullets who went through the walls and ricocheted. The enemies was trapped and fought like feral animals. Around 14 men died taking out only one man, and we had to fight our way through the entire city. Room by room. Corridor by corridor. Building by building.."
Perhaps they will be able to break out?
While the Stalinists was occupied holding off the 6th Army and coming to the defense of Stalingrad the Caucasus Front was ordered to make their advance toward Baku and Tbilisi. It was of outmost importance to take the oilfields, and a major propaganda victory to take the homeland of Stalin. But where Trotsky and the brass of the Red Army ordered an offensive, the men in Armenia was unable to move forward. Out of fuel and horses it was difficult to advance. The 47th Division had also for almost a month been under attack from a mechanized corps and was fatigued. The order was given, but the divisions was unable to carry them out.
Stalingrad is taken, the city of Stalin has fallen. Is this the end of the Stalinists?
On the 29th just before the month was to turn the Soviet forces declared victory. Stalingrad was taken. The city Stalin had defended and got named after himself had faced complete destruction. Thousands of both sides perished and would forever be buried by the rubble or deep snow. Outside of Stalingrad horrible sights awaited those who ventured there, thousands of corpses laid strewn around frozen to ice. A testimony to the horrors of war and brutality of men. But the capitulation of the Stalinists did not come. Konev and his government had fled days prior to the city of Uralsk in Kazakhstan. There they would continue the fight and even ordered a general assault to push the Soviets back over the Volga. The assault itself would be futile, but it would stall the Soviets from advancing.
No need for submarines when you got a whooping number of three bombers!
Stalingrad fell and 6 Stalinists submarines sunk. With no port to locate to the subs had no means of supply and chain of command. The few remaining subs dared to attack a handful of merchant ships. It would have been a walk in the park, but only three Soviet naval bombers managed to take out 6 of 10 submarines. It showed just how low the Stalinist fleet had sunk, and that it had no hope of reover.
Soviet forces fighting in December.
November ended. The sins was washed away, and the blood covered up by the snow. But where one might have hoped for an end to the war it continued. The Stalinist mounted a desperate attack upon the Soviets, but the Soviets stayed in their trenches. Thousands had already died, and thousands more would die as the Soviets advanced toward Kazakhstan. But Trotsky spoke to his people on the 1st of December: "The end may justify the means, as long as there something that justifies the end. And that is where Stalin failed us all. His cause was himself. Not the Soviet Union or the welfare of the workers, but the welfare of himself. The injustice caught up with him. Let Stalingrad be a testimony of his hubris. Ruined by his personal ambitions where thousands suffered needlessly. I only ask you all to continue a little longer. To march toward Uralsk to cleanse us of degenerate workers. We will endure this trial. Just as we endured the Tsarist Regime. As we endured the February and October Revolutions. As we endured the Civil War together, and now we will endure and overcome this civil war. It is all soon over and we will come into a new age, an age of true socialism in all of the world. Let us march toward Uralsk and victory, for a better tomorrow".
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*I started to boost party popularity in hungary. And they haven't joined the Axis - yet.
**Of course this didn't happen. But the allies did have a plan to bomb Soviet oilfields. So here they did it against the Stalinists. Poland did join the Allies which is the British Empire.
Soviet Mountaineers holding off the armored assault.
As October had turned into November General Gorbatov came under the attack of a Stalinist Mechanized Corps. Gorbatov had served with distinction during the First Russian Civil War being awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Following the war he would become a calvary officer, but was convicted as being an "enemy of the people" during the Great Purge. Following the Second Russian Civil War he was given command of the two remaining mountaineer divisions in the Caucasus. His two divisions would be undersupplied, but they managed to hold the lands in the Caucasian mountains. The mountains of Armenia proved to be unfavaroble for the tank formations that assaulted their positions. The men of the 47th mountain division held their ground even pushing forward at several occasions. The assault by the mechanized corps would last for about a week. The 47th Division inflicted great casualties upon their attackers despite their precarious supply situation. The Transcaucasian Front was holding for now.
They way to Krasnodar finally opened up!
By the the onset of November the Stalinist rifle division that held the marches outside of Krasnodar finally withdrew. They had retreated to take part in the defense of Rostov. Early morning of the fourth of November the 6th Army could finally advance. The 3rd Calvary Division would take control of the nearby port while the rest of the army fanned out to advance on Krasnodar. The Soviets had weak intel on the nearby area and didn't know if Krasnodar was abandoned or fortified by other divisions. Still it was a great relief for the men of the 6th Army that the marches of Krasnodar was no longer contested.
Machinegunners overlooking no man's land.
A conscripted lmg shooter of the DP-27 was relieved as he wrote in his diary about the marches "the dead marshes have opened up. It was hellish terrain to fight in. Day after day we would be positioned behind our brink. It was fortified with mortars and heavy machine guns, before each attack artillery would bombard the enemy positions, but to little effect. The marches absorbed the firepower and the enemy knew we would be coming. When the whistle blew we all vaulted over the brink with our support weapons spraying out their death loads. But to little effect. We had to cross the marches and after a certain point we could no longer be covered by our support weapons, it was then the enemy fired. It was randomnized who got shot at and who didn't. It was by chance who got stuck in the mud and was a living target. It was hell, we had to keep ourselves moving for three seconds of a time. That was the time the enemy needed to find us, aim and fire in the open terrain. I had to lay down in the freezing water that emerged from all the gunshots and artillery shells, in turn the constant crawling around tore up my uniforms and then my skin and flesh. I fired a few rounds before I in return had massive fire directed at me. We gained ground, but every assault we was called back. We didn't manage to hold the marshes, meanwhile the enemy had fortified themself in the trenches by the tree line. Every attack was pointless and futile, I have no idea why they chose to give up this death zone, I am only relieved they did so".
We're closing in on Stalingrad in winter, what can go wrong?
In the north the many Soviet armies gained massive ground. Winter set it on the steppes around Stalingrad and the Stalinist armies was undersupplied as their port near Krasnodar fell and Rostov was under siege. As the snow fell and temperatures reach sub-zero the Stalinist had little equipment to deal with the cold. Those who didn't fall to Soviet bullets did so to frostbite and hypothermia. Men in tanks would be heated up to extreme temperatures in their machines, but if they broke down or got shot at or had to vacate, the extreme cold turned their sweat to ice. The soldiers marching wasn't doing much better. Being only outfitted with cotton and thin boots their uniforms would be soaked in sweat, blood and snow. Their hands wasn't always covered a great disadvantage when handling weapons made of iron and steel. The Stalinist suffered hellish conditions undersupplied and many defected to the Soviets, deserted or committed suicide. Meanwhile the plains near Stalingrad proved to be to a great advantage of the Soviet bombers, Mechanized corps and motorised rifle divisions. Several pockets was created by the aggressive armored and motorised divisions who exploited holes in the enemy lines. The Stalinist forces caught in these pockets would face fates worse than death. The Soviets also used the doctrine of maskirovka to great effect by employing white camoflague, blending into the natural enviorment. In the opening days of November thousands of Stalinists would lose their life, not to speak of the around 50.000 who were caught in the Kurks pocket. The road to Stalingrad was opened, and the Moscow Front reached the Volga river itself.
Calvary fighting calvary in the streets of Krasnodar. With helpful support of machine guns and armor of course.
On the evening of the 7th the 6th Army reached Krasnodar. The lone calvary division holding the city was helplessly undermanned, supplied and isolated. In an effort to break out the siege and inevitable onslaught they launched a surprise attack across the river toward the 3rd Calvary Division. Their commander wanted to die with honor and dignity in what he believed would be an epic clash between calvary as in the days of the old. But the Soviet calvarists withdrew. Instead a Rifle Division took position across the river and fired with massive fire from their artillery, machine guns and even anti-aircraft guns. The anticipated calvary charge was consumed by industrial warfare, meanwhile two other rifle divisions attacked the city itself. The Stalinists who held the city was in great disarray and would fall to the advancing forces. A Soviet commander noted "praise the higher powers for the defenders choosing a reckless attack. We could now almost parade into the city instead of being bogged down in close quarters, the worst nightmare of every soldier". But the city would not fall so easily. A prolonged urban battle commenced that would put both sides to their limits.
Encirclements seem to be a thing on the Russian steppes, and bitter urban combat.
Another 11 days went by and the Soviets advance seemed unstoppable. The Soviets and Trotsky himself said it was evidence of the moral superiority of the Soviet Union and their operational prowess. It is a grain of truth in this, but the Soviets made several blunders during their advance, mostly due to a politicalization of the army and many purges. But the greatest contributor to the collapse of the Stalinists was their logistical situation. The Black Sea was dominated by the Soviets with the entire Stalinist merchant fleet being sunk, furthermore one of their two ports had fallen and their second one wa sunder siege. It didn't help much by the Soviets having air superiority. These conditions was perfect for the Soviet concept for deep battle and the flat terrain was taken advantage of. Many more pockets were created isolating several Stalinist divisions. Village after village was taken and the Stalinist soldiers cut off found themself in a hopelss situation. One of them wrote "it was hopeless. The constant shelling and weeks of killing and death was making us tired of life and turned us to shells. We only waited for the Trotskyist to take us, but they never came. Constant mock attacks, constant shelling or bombs being dropped down from the skies. It was driving us mad. Yet we held our ground, we heard stories of what they did to the "enemy of the workers" as they named us and our villages was lost to the Trotskyists. We merely existed and waited until we were either killed or relieved. Whatever happened didn't matter, we merely wanted to end our suffering one way or the other".
The Germans most be thrilled.
While the fighting raged on in Russia another war took place in the Balkans. Italy had close bonds with Germany and saw their war against the Little Entente as a threat to their sphere of influence, but also as an opportunity. Italy and Germany formally created an alliance and Italy was gearing for war. It was only a matter of time before Italy joined the war against the Little Entente to take their claimed territory - and to be the bulwark against what they deemed the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy.
Bombs away.
The Soviet siege of Rostov created a few interesting issues. First of was a refugee crisis as people all over Stalinist Russia, especially those who could be associated with the new oligarch elite, traveled down the Volga hoping to flee. In addition the government of Konev saw the futility of their situation and started a campaign of bombing Iran and Turkey and released propaganda and documents detailing Soviet plans of invading and controlling the middle east. They hoped this would provoke said nations to intervene in the war against the USSR, but most importantly the UK and her allies, Poland counting among them. They hoped for an invasion in the soft underbelly of the USSR and from Poland into Ukraine and Belarus. Instead the plan backfired. British and French bombers based in the middle east bombed the Stalinist oilfields crippling their economy and war effort. Their pretex was to stop Russian oil exports to Germany. Trotsky condemned this action strongly officially, but was likely to be content on his enemies industry being crippled.**
The reclamation of Rostov.
Around the 16th the port city of Rostov fell after heavy fighting. The city itself had been encircled for about a week and was bombarded from land, sea and air. The Stalinists tried to break out of the encirclement, but the Soviet armored units pushed them back and into the city. Days of brutal streetfighting took place, but the defenders eventually gave up. Starved, tired and out of ammunition. This was a major blow to Ivan Konev and the Stalinist loyalists. Their country was now completely isolated.
Soviet forces on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
Meanwhile the spearheads of Rokossovsky and Vasilevsky linked up outside of Stalingrad. The City of Stalin had been under daily and nightly bombing since the onset of the war, now the Red Army was just outside preparing to attack. The armored divisions would take on the fields of Stalingrad facing off the remaining Stalinist armors and enplacements and scouting the area for weak points. The motorised infantrists poured into the trenches to take control of the surrounding areas. The Stalinists meanwhile fought with tooth and nail for the city of their martyred leader. Knowing this would likely be their final stance they gave everything they had, the opposition was stiff and Stalingrad proved it would not fall so easily.
The Eastern Front had to be given up, will purges of incompetence follow?
On the eastern front the advancing armies had come to a standstill. The divisions there had much greater logistical problems and the communication lines wasn't that developed in this farway land. Instead attack after attack failed as they Soviets went straight into Stalinist defensive lines with bad intel and little ammunition. A Stalinist soldier wrote in his diary "the Trotskyists must have been blinded or driven to insanity by their despot. They just came onto us, wave after wave. We mowed them down without any effort". By the 19th Trotsky understood the futility of the situation and called for a pause in the offensive to let the Leningrad Front be replenished. He also gave them a warning "fail the revolution again and we might suspect your loyalties".
With Rostov and Krasnodar taken, all we're needed to do is to walk straight to the Caucasus..
Early morning of the 21st Krasnodar fell. What seemed to be a walk in the park following the calvary attack prove to be just another mass grave. The defenders of Krasnodar was reinforced by one infantry division and one mechanised corps. For the first time in the war armor went against armor in urban enviorment. The tanks proved to be able to pin down several infantry formations in the streets acting as mobile machine gun nests. But they had little control of the surrounding areas and buildings and would often be set ablaze by molotov cocktails or by flanking anti-tank teams. The disadvantages of armor in urban enviorments was showcased firsthand by both sides, but both refused to learn from their lessons and kept on the attacks. By the 21st the Stalinists retreated toward the Caucasus while the Soviets pursued them. The entire city was razed turned into smoldering ruins.
Russian forces mounting a desperate defense of Stalingrad, against the Soviets.
Five days following the conquest or liberation, depending on who you ask, of Krasnodar the Soviet forces was progressing toward Stalingrad. The city itself could be seen in the horizon along with the smoke from the numerous fires in the city. The Stalinist defenders, who was called the "White Army" by Soviet propaganda, had dug in around their provisional capital. However most of these defenses were static and proved to be of little match of Soviet armor, guns and the newly developed close air support bombers. The static lines soon collapsed from the accurate firepower of the Soviet forces and Ivan Konev called this collapse for "elastic defense". In truth it was just a coverup. A Stalinist soldier said to his captors "they named it elastic defense and tactical withdrawals to make it look like we were still in control. But we knew we were losing on every front, and you took advantage of it. By the front we were under fire from machine guns, by our flanks armor penetrated the lines and in our rear your bombers hit us. We were trapped and we knew it". Soviet forces would battle fiercly with their fellow countrymen over the outskirts of Stalingrad - both believed it would lead to a close end to the war. But the fights for the trenches outside of Stalingrad would take several days. The fixed positions proved to be of no match of the cordinated attacks by the Soviet, but the remnants proved to be deadly. They was equiped with anti-tank rifles and recoiless rifles. These were out of sight and knocked out a tank or two before being taken out themself. Others were pretending to be dead before setting off several grenades or mines. There was also plenty of marksmen taking out exposed and lone men, causing chaos amidst Soviet ranks. The Soviets called them cowards, the Stalinist themself said it was necessairy in their defense. It would be a forewarning on what was to come.
Battered Romanian troops give up after a long trial. And the rightful territory of Bessarabia is in Nazi Hands!
During November the worn out Romanian forces finally collapsed. Since the Germans took the mountains of Transylvania the Romanians lost their natural defenses. The Romanians launched many attacks to retake those mountains, but persistence proved to not be the key to success. The Romanians lost to superior positions and firepower and became worn out. For every battle they lost they became more demoralised and soon members of the Iron Guard was appointed to the government to prevent a fascist coup. It was hoped this would still the fascist elements in the population, but it only emboldened them. The Germans launched a new and deadly offensive in mid of November. In mere hours thousands of Romanians perished to German MG34, Panzer IIIs and Stukas. When the Germans neared the capital the Iron Guard took power and forced King Carol II. to abdicate. Most of the military failures was blamed upon the now unpopular king and the French. The Romanin troops defending the capital was simply ordered to not do so and Romania capitulated. This put them at a crisis with the Soviet Union who saw the Germans sharing a direct border with them and especially the new naval bases in Bessarabia as a threat. Trotsky wanted to liberate Romania, but the realities of the civil war came into play and an invasion of Romania was called off. Instead several NKVD agents inflitrated Hungary to support the communists there with arms, weapons and men. The Hungrians found themself isolated after they faile to support Hitler in his conquest of Czechoslovakia and Romania. The Germans refused to grant the Hungarians the land they coveted and the popularity for Horthy plummeted while the Germans was seen as a threat.*
We got some obstacles on our walk to the Caucasus.
With the areas fully secured around Krasnodar the 6th Army was again on the offensive with five full days of rest. Two major battles ensued, one nortwest of Krasnodar and one on the southwest. The former would be easily won, but the latter was against a well entrenched mechanized corps. The mechanized corps was blocking the way toward the Caucaus Front and the oil. The 6th Army would either need to wait for northern forces to relieve them or sacrifice several waves of men in the Caucasus.
The bitter streetfights of Stalingrad.
The first Soviet forces also entered Stalingrad on the 26th. They believed they was to face little opposition and that the civilians would embrace their liberators. Instead they was treated as occupiers and conquerers. The city itself was unrecognizable, nothing but ruins and despair. Horrible close quarter combat took place amidst the severe winter. An entire city was to be cleared where the enemy was deeply entrenched and the locals was opposed to the Red Army. A late private wrote in his diary "it was nervewrecking. Everywhere we went we feared to be hit by a sniper or find come under fire from machine guns. And the odds was massively against us. If we was to take out a building with only three enemies we needed 30 or more. They knew we were coming in and directed the guns straight at us. It was claustrophobic and hellish. The other day we stormed an office complex, but the main hall was dominated by a lone machine gun. It spread out its fire in long bursts and many good men fell to the bullets who went through the walls and ricocheted. The enemies was trapped and fought like feral animals. Around 14 men died taking out only one man, and we had to fight our way through the entire city. Room by room. Corridor by corridor. Building by building.."
Perhaps they will be able to break out?
While the Stalinists was occupied holding off the 6th Army and coming to the defense of Stalingrad the Caucasus Front was ordered to make their advance toward Baku and Tbilisi. It was of outmost importance to take the oilfields, and a major propaganda victory to take the homeland of Stalin. But where Trotsky and the brass of the Red Army ordered an offensive, the men in Armenia was unable to move forward. Out of fuel and horses it was difficult to advance. The 47th Division had also for almost a month been under attack from a mechanized corps and was fatigued. The order was given, but the divisions was unable to carry them out.
Stalingrad is taken, the city of Stalin has fallen. Is this the end of the Stalinists?
On the 29th just before the month was to turn the Soviet forces declared victory. Stalingrad was taken. The city Stalin had defended and got named after himself had faced complete destruction. Thousands of both sides perished and would forever be buried by the rubble or deep snow. Outside of Stalingrad horrible sights awaited those who ventured there, thousands of corpses laid strewn around frozen to ice. A testimony to the horrors of war and brutality of men. But the capitulation of the Stalinists did not come. Konev and his government had fled days prior to the city of Uralsk in Kazakhstan. There they would continue the fight and even ordered a general assault to push the Soviets back over the Volga. The assault itself would be futile, but it would stall the Soviets from advancing.
No need for submarines when you got a whooping number of three bombers!
Stalingrad fell and 6 Stalinists submarines sunk. With no port to locate to the subs had no means of supply and chain of command. The few remaining subs dared to attack a handful of merchant ships. It would have been a walk in the park, but only three Soviet naval bombers managed to take out 6 of 10 submarines. It showed just how low the Stalinist fleet had sunk, and that it had no hope of reover.
Soviet forces fighting in December.
November ended. The sins was washed away, and the blood covered up by the snow. But where one might have hoped for an end to the war it continued. The Stalinist mounted a desperate attack upon the Soviets, but the Soviets stayed in their trenches. Thousands had already died, and thousands more would die as the Soviets advanced toward Kazakhstan. But Trotsky spoke to his people on the 1st of December: "The end may justify the means, as long as there something that justifies the end. And that is where Stalin failed us all. His cause was himself. Not the Soviet Union or the welfare of the workers, but the welfare of himself. The injustice caught up with him. Let Stalingrad be a testimony of his hubris. Ruined by his personal ambitions where thousands suffered needlessly. I only ask you all to continue a little longer. To march toward Uralsk to cleanse us of degenerate workers. We will endure this trial. Just as we endured the Tsarist Regime. As we endured the February and October Revolutions. As we endured the Civil War together, and now we will endure and overcome this civil war. It is all soon over and we will come into a new age, an age of true socialism in all of the world. Let us march toward Uralsk and victory, for a better tomorrow".
----
*I started to boost party popularity in hungary. And they haven't joined the Axis - yet.
**Of course this didn't happen. But the allies did have a plan to bomb Soviet oilfields. So here they did it against the Stalinists. Poland did join the Allies which is the British Empire.
It help to define falsehoods when you got the biggest army?
Expect December ipdate tommorow or on tuesday
I also forgot to say that I started to boost party ideology in France since the Fourth International Event fired. But in case of "revolutions" I will go deeper into it in posts or chapters of its own. And I mixed stuff up, the actual boosting of commies in Hungary isn't until January 1939, but it can be seen as the events leading up to it. So for now France is being boosted.
Chapter 7/Civil War 3.
Chapter 7: I like my Beer cold, my Coffee hot, my Revolution - Permament.
Surely the Japanese will fall soon?
While the eyes of the world was fixed on Europe and in Russia the Japanese advanced during the western distractions. When the Japanese took the Chinese capital of Nanjing (Nanking) they committed unspeakeble acts for six weeks. These events unfolded itself while the entire international community stood by and watched. It shook the world to its core and the US would soon embargo the Empire of Japan depriving them of oil supplies. Trotsky and the Politburo was concerned with Japan growing in strength and that the Chinese Soviet Republic would fall. They wanted to help out the Chinese with arms and troops, but was afraid it would lead to a general war with Japand and Germany - the Red Army was simply not capable of fighting a civil war and the Wehrmacht and Imperial Army of Japan at once. A high ranking official would later remark "my greatest remorse is that we failed to act during their time of need". China seemed to be on its own.
The glorious Kazakhstan offensive.
The 10th of December Lieutenant-General Yakov Cherevichenko finally* managed to launch his assault into Kazakhstan. This was his trial of fire as a commanding general and he had high motivations and expectations. The men of the Turkestan Front was predominately of central-Asian ethnicity and had been indotrinated by the collectivist propaganda and hoped Trotsky and his democracy meant for a new era for their people, one that wasn't dominated by what they deemed the Russian-centrist policies of Stalin. The general offensive was promising and it was hoped the combined southern (Turkestan Front), northern (Leningrad Front) and western (Moscow, Ukraine and Belarus Fronts) offensives into Uralsk would result in the complete destruction of the forces of Ivan Konev.
Row row row your boat. Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
The Stalinist navy grew desperate and disregarded the naval and aerial Soviet supremacy. The Stalinists managed to sink the Kharkov destroyer of the Leningrad-class. Despite the Red Fleet suffering the loss of its top of the line destroyer, the Stalinists lost seven submarines, having only a few submarines to threaten Soviet ship lines.
Close contact between Trotskyists and Stalinists.
The offensive of the Turkestan Front marked the start of a general offensive by all other fronts. Trotsky, who had made himself Marshal of the Soviet Union with political functions, gave out the order following the end of the Stalinist Offensive that the Red Army deserved a pause. The soldiers would restitute and recieve enough munitions and food for the next weeks. By the 10th a general offensie was ordered with the Stalinist losing ground on every front. The Soviets had renewed strength from their battle pause and the news of the fall of Stalingrad. The forces of Ivan Konev on the otherhand was exhausted from constant battle, lack of supply and their failed offensive. The lines broke down all over the war and while they still maintained officially the doctrine of elastic defensive it was in reality a disorderly retreat. Still the Stalinist forces fought to the bitter end, often without ammunition which lead to outright brawls.
The Frenchies stand alone, are they to be fried next?
During December the situation of the Yugoslavs deteriorated. Following the fall of Romania the Germans started to Blitz their way into Serbia proper and headed toward the capital of Belgrade. In addition the German troops stationed in Austria was given the green light to invade Slovenia and liberate Crotia. This naturally spread the Yugoslav forces out thin and their fate was sealed when Italy invaded the Dalmatian coast and Slovenia. In just two weeks the entire Yugoslav Army and the impressive French expeditionary force fell to the Axis aggressors. The Little Entente was no more, the Balkans had been tamed - France was now on her own.
Italian troops assaulting the French alps.
Following the successes in the Balkans the Italians invaded France. France had neglected (but built an impressive fortification system) their Italian border as they believed Germany would invade France through Belgium as during the Great War. Instead two hours past midnight local time during the 17th of December the Italians started their invasion of France. 300.000 Italians would scale the French alps and the Battle of the Alps had started. The French was taken by complete surprise, not only because they anticipated a German assault, but it was illogical to assault the Alps during winter. But the Germans had proven in their "Blitzkrieg" that doing the unexpected and illogical was the key to success. France had now lost her allies, thousands of troops in the Balkans and faced an invasion from the south. Meanwhile the Germans threatened her eastern borders. France looked toward Britain for help, but Chamberlain refused to participate in the war they had eagerly jumped into. France was truly alone.
Russian soldiers who simply had gotten enough.
The winter of 1938 was harsh for the undersupplied Stalinist forces. The rapid and ruthless Soviet offensive inflicted defeat after defeat upon the forces of Ivan Konev. The Soviets would also inflitrate the enemy with several NKVD agents who would spread propaganda and bombers would drop propaganda leaflets aswell. One of them read "why fight against your fellow countrymen? Do your patriotic duty and return safe to your family, with your belly full of meat in front of a warm fireplace". Stalinist soldiers simply deserted or surrendered in the thousands to the advancing Soviet forces. Some even took up arms in open rebellion and setting up Soviets of their own - heavily influenced and armed by Soviet agents. The war would soon come to an end.
The battleships still reign supreme.
For the first time of the war the Soviet battleships would engage in open combat. The result was two minor skirmishes that sunk the last of the Stalinist submarines. This was used in Soviet propaganda films showing the might of her battleships. The Battle of teh Black Sea had come to an end.
The Leningrad Front during the final offensive for Uralsk.
By the 18th the city of Uralsk ws completely surrounded from all sides. The provisional capital was attempted to be reinforced by the Stalinist forces in the east, but they were eaten destroyed by the Leningrad and Turkestan Fronts or simply refused to move** and threw away their arms, returning to their farms and towns. Rokossovsky would be granted the honor of spearheading the assault on the city itself. The battles were tough and the winter was harsh. But in two days the city was taken. The Soviets lost several men and tanks in the attck, but it was nothing compared to Stalingrad in terms of neither ferocity nor defensive capabilities. When Rokossovky and Tukhachevsky reached the headquarters of the Stalinist they found that Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Boris Shaposhnikov and Nikolai Vatutin had all committed suicide. The last bastion of the Stalinist was taken.
Trotsky chilling with a comrade upon hearing the news of the victory. Soon he inspected his troops by the front.
Trotsky was on a trip in the more temperate zones in the Caucaus when he was given the news: the war is over. He soon took the trip over to Uralsk and inspected the troops there who had taken the city and accepted the surrender of the Stalinist government. The last officials in the Stalinist camp was trialed for treason and crimes against the workers. The war was over. Trotsky reigned supreme.
The remnants of the war.
The war was over and much of Russia laid in ruins. The two armies alone suffered over 162.000 casualties, the civilian population many more. Before the war the USSR had 111 Rifle Divisions, 22 Calvary Divisions, 11 Mechanized Corps, 13 Mountaineer Divisions and 7 Motorised Rifle Divisions. Alltough the losses had been replinished by the recruitment of several new units the Red Army lagged behind their pre-war strenght. The Red Fleet had also suffered with losing many of its submarines to desertion along with their destroyers. War was creeping in on the USSR from the east and west and Trotsky would need to re-arm at haste.
At least we can agree upon beer and coffee.
The guns stilled and the sun rose anew over the USSR coming with promises of a better future. But Trotsky and the Red Army warned that this was only the beginning. They claimed the revolution would be spread all over the world by the tip of the Soviet bayonet. Trotsky also made the ironic remark of "I like my beer - cold. My coffee - hot. And my revolution - permament". This all signalled a new and more aggressive Soviet Union who was not afraid to export their ideas. Since the Fourth International the Trotskyist had already inflitrated the French socialists and communist from Spain and training them for an eventual revolution. A new era came with Trotsky. But for now he had to solve the last of the internal problems, such as rehabilitating the purged officer corps.
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*The AI never managed to move their troops there, so I had to micromanage them in the end.
**Some of the Russian troops was just sitting on the eastern border the whole time, not going to the defense of its fronts nor attacking me.
Also the screenshots of the offensives was lost. But basically the forces from Ukraine was split between going to Uralsks and the Caucasus. By the 18th (around the time of the last sea battle) the Soviet troops of Armenia and Ukraine linked up. The Leningrad/Eastern Front also managed to make gains and Uralsk was attacked by the Belarus, Ukraine, Moscow and Leningrad fronts and all of December was basically a walk in the park.
Surely the Japanese will fall soon?
While the eyes of the world was fixed on Europe and in Russia the Japanese advanced during the western distractions. When the Japanese took the Chinese capital of Nanjing (Nanking) they committed unspeakeble acts for six weeks. These events unfolded itself while the entire international community stood by and watched. It shook the world to its core and the US would soon embargo the Empire of Japan depriving them of oil supplies. Trotsky and the Politburo was concerned with Japan growing in strength and that the Chinese Soviet Republic would fall. They wanted to help out the Chinese with arms and troops, but was afraid it would lead to a general war with Japand and Germany - the Red Army was simply not capable of fighting a civil war and the Wehrmacht and Imperial Army of Japan at once. A high ranking official would later remark "my greatest remorse is that we failed to act during their time of need". China seemed to be on its own.
The glorious Kazakhstan offensive.
The 10th of December Lieutenant-General Yakov Cherevichenko finally* managed to launch his assault into Kazakhstan. This was his trial of fire as a commanding general and he had high motivations and expectations. The men of the Turkestan Front was predominately of central-Asian ethnicity and had been indotrinated by the collectivist propaganda and hoped Trotsky and his democracy meant for a new era for their people, one that wasn't dominated by what they deemed the Russian-centrist policies of Stalin. The general offensive was promising and it was hoped the combined southern (Turkestan Front), northern (Leningrad Front) and western (Moscow, Ukraine and Belarus Fronts) offensives into Uralsk would result in the complete destruction of the forces of Ivan Konev.
Row row row your boat. Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
The Stalinist navy grew desperate and disregarded the naval and aerial Soviet supremacy. The Stalinists managed to sink the Kharkov destroyer of the Leningrad-class. Despite the Red Fleet suffering the loss of its top of the line destroyer, the Stalinists lost seven submarines, having only a few submarines to threaten Soviet ship lines.
Close contact between Trotskyists and Stalinists.
The offensive of the Turkestan Front marked the start of a general offensive by all other fronts. Trotsky, who had made himself Marshal of the Soviet Union with political functions, gave out the order following the end of the Stalinist Offensive that the Red Army deserved a pause. The soldiers would restitute and recieve enough munitions and food for the next weeks. By the 10th a general offensie was ordered with the Stalinist losing ground on every front. The Soviets had renewed strength from their battle pause and the news of the fall of Stalingrad. The forces of Ivan Konev on the otherhand was exhausted from constant battle, lack of supply and their failed offensive. The lines broke down all over the war and while they still maintained officially the doctrine of elastic defensive it was in reality a disorderly retreat. Still the Stalinist forces fought to the bitter end, often without ammunition which lead to outright brawls.
The Frenchies stand alone, are they to be fried next?
During December the situation of the Yugoslavs deteriorated. Following the fall of Romania the Germans started to Blitz their way into Serbia proper and headed toward the capital of Belgrade. In addition the German troops stationed in Austria was given the green light to invade Slovenia and liberate Crotia. This naturally spread the Yugoslav forces out thin and their fate was sealed when Italy invaded the Dalmatian coast and Slovenia. In just two weeks the entire Yugoslav Army and the impressive French expeditionary force fell to the Axis aggressors. The Little Entente was no more, the Balkans had been tamed - France was now on her own.
Italian troops assaulting the French alps.
Following the successes in the Balkans the Italians invaded France. France had neglected (but built an impressive fortification system) their Italian border as they believed Germany would invade France through Belgium as during the Great War. Instead two hours past midnight local time during the 17th of December the Italians started their invasion of France. 300.000 Italians would scale the French alps and the Battle of the Alps had started. The French was taken by complete surprise, not only because they anticipated a German assault, but it was illogical to assault the Alps during winter. But the Germans had proven in their "Blitzkrieg" that doing the unexpected and illogical was the key to success. France had now lost her allies, thousands of troops in the Balkans and faced an invasion from the south. Meanwhile the Germans threatened her eastern borders. France looked toward Britain for help, but Chamberlain refused to participate in the war they had eagerly jumped into. France was truly alone.
Russian soldiers who simply had gotten enough.
The winter of 1938 was harsh for the undersupplied Stalinist forces. The rapid and ruthless Soviet offensive inflicted defeat after defeat upon the forces of Ivan Konev. The Soviets would also inflitrate the enemy with several NKVD agents who would spread propaganda and bombers would drop propaganda leaflets aswell. One of them read "why fight against your fellow countrymen? Do your patriotic duty and return safe to your family, with your belly full of meat in front of a warm fireplace". Stalinist soldiers simply deserted or surrendered in the thousands to the advancing Soviet forces. Some even took up arms in open rebellion and setting up Soviets of their own - heavily influenced and armed by Soviet agents. The war would soon come to an end.
The battleships still reign supreme.
For the first time of the war the Soviet battleships would engage in open combat. The result was two minor skirmishes that sunk the last of the Stalinist submarines. This was used in Soviet propaganda films showing the might of her battleships. The Battle of teh Black Sea had come to an end.
The Leningrad Front during the final offensive for Uralsk.
By the 18th the city of Uralsk ws completely surrounded from all sides. The provisional capital was attempted to be reinforced by the Stalinist forces in the east, but they were eaten destroyed by the Leningrad and Turkestan Fronts or simply refused to move** and threw away their arms, returning to their farms and towns. Rokossovsky would be granted the honor of spearheading the assault on the city itself. The battles were tough and the winter was harsh. But in two days the city was taken. The Soviets lost several men and tanks in the attck, but it was nothing compared to Stalingrad in terms of neither ferocity nor defensive capabilities. When Rokossovky and Tukhachevsky reached the headquarters of the Stalinist they found that Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Boris Shaposhnikov and Nikolai Vatutin had all committed suicide. The last bastion of the Stalinist was taken.
Trotsky chilling with a comrade upon hearing the news of the victory. Soon he inspected his troops by the front.
Trotsky was on a trip in the more temperate zones in the Caucaus when he was given the news: the war is over. He soon took the trip over to Uralsk and inspected the troops there who had taken the city and accepted the surrender of the Stalinist government. The last officials in the Stalinist camp was trialed for treason and crimes against the workers. The war was over. Trotsky reigned supreme.
The remnants of the war.
The war was over and much of Russia laid in ruins. The two armies alone suffered over 162.000 casualties, the civilian population many more. Before the war the USSR had 111 Rifle Divisions, 22 Calvary Divisions, 11 Mechanized Corps, 13 Mountaineer Divisions and 7 Motorised Rifle Divisions. Alltough the losses had been replinished by the recruitment of several new units the Red Army lagged behind their pre-war strenght. The Red Fleet had also suffered with losing many of its submarines to desertion along with their destroyers. War was creeping in on the USSR from the east and west and Trotsky would need to re-arm at haste.
At least we can agree upon beer and coffee.
The guns stilled and the sun rose anew over the USSR coming with promises of a better future. But Trotsky and the Red Army warned that this was only the beginning. They claimed the revolution would be spread all over the world by the tip of the Soviet bayonet. Trotsky also made the ironic remark of "I like my beer - cold. My coffee - hot. And my revolution - permament". This all signalled a new and more aggressive Soviet Union who was not afraid to export their ideas. Since the Fourth International the Trotskyist had already inflitrated the French socialists and communist from Spain and training them for an eventual revolution. A new era came with Trotsky. But for now he had to solve the last of the internal problems, such as rehabilitating the purged officer corps.
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*The AI never managed to move their troops there, so I had to micromanage them in the end.
**Some of the Russian troops was just sitting on the eastern border the whole time, not going to the defense of its fronts nor attacking me.
Also the screenshots of the offensives was lost. But basically the forces from Ukraine was split between going to Uralsks and the Caucasus. By the 18th (around the time of the last sea battle) the Soviet troops of Armenia and Ukraine linked up. The Leningrad/Eastern Front also managed to make gains and Uralsk was attacked by the Belarus, Ukraine, Moscow and Leningrad fronts and all of December was basically a walk in the park.
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First he will celebrate with a cold beer (or rather vodka and polka). The next morning he will get ready with some coffee and then make the ŕevolution permament
On a more serious note to spread communism as much as possible before Barbarossa
I have honestly no idea if I will survive that.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 8: The Revolutionary Fires will reach the entire Continent.
Trotsky planning his next steps.
On New Year's Eve Trotsky held a public speech in Leningrad and laid out his plans for all of Russia and the world to hear. He urged reconciliation and wanted the nation to start a process of national healing. The leader of the USSR continued with laying out his agenda to decentralise the Soviet Union, remove the tsarist bureaucracy founded by Stalin and bringing welfare and prosperity to the workers of the Union. He announced that the 8 hour workday would again be in effect and that peasants was now allowed to be given passports and to leave their farms. He then made vague promises of democrcy in the USSR. This led to left leaning western commentators and jouranlists praising him for his move toward an open society. However most were concerned by his other part of the speech. That of the promises of a world revolution. The talk of the Red Army would spread socialism by the tip of their bayonets concerned many - especially the Polish who had already been under attack by the Soviet Union mere two decades earlier. It didn't help much when Tukhachevsky made the announcement that "with Comrade Trotsky once more behind the helm the revolutionary fires will reach the entire continent". This was of obvious concern to democrats and fascists alike.
Trotsky saw much potential in Vershinin.
One of the first things on the agenda of Trotsky was to reform the military. He saw great potential of the commander of the 4th Air Army. On the 9th of January Konstantin Vershinin was made the Chief marshal of aviation. Quite a step from his humble origins of working at a sawmill.
The despot is gone and nowTrotsky the people are truly in power!
By the end of January major efforts was made to make Trotsky look like the hero of the revolution, heir of Lenin and liberator of Europe. Emphasis was put on Stalin being a pseudo-Tsar and gravedigger of the revolution was removed from power, and that Trotsky and his supporters had restored true power to the people of the Soviet Union. Beside this cult of personality, ironic as that was one of the main critics against Stalin, the Soviet people was braced upon their eventual role in spreading socialism and true democracy (whatever that is) to the rest of Europe. And so was the workers of the world.
Workers of the world wanna join in on the revolution.
Italy, Hungary, France, the Benelux, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom and Ireland saw large amounts of uprisings following the ascension of Trotsky. The Fourth International absorbed the Third International and the Soviet Union dictated the communist parties of Europe to take a more aggressive stance toward their governments and pursuing a revolution. USSR also ordered the Trotskyists of Europe to inflitrate the many social-democratic parties and trade unions to radicalise them further. This led to many strikes and unrest all of over Europe, but France and Hungary was hit the hardest and the situation was getting out of hand in these nations.*
Mussolini's first step on recreating the Roman Empire.
By the 26th of January Italy launched a surprise attack on Albania. King Zog I. was alerted that an attack might happen, but didn't know when. The Italians positioned a fleet by the coast of Albania on the 26th and invaded the small nation. It took less than 24 hours for Italy to submit Albania to their imperial ambitions. The Italians wanted to acquire Albania for strategical and ideological reasons. First off Albania held the coveted port of Vlorë and the island of Sazan to dominate the Adriatic Sea. Secondly Italian nationalism and irredentism demanded that Albania should be united with Italy on the vague grounds of the area once being part of the Roman Empire. Lastly Italy saw itself becoming the junior partner of the Pact of Steel (alliance with Germany) after Germany annexed Austria, Yugoslavia and Romania who Italy had enviosened as being part of their sphere of influence and having liberated Crotia - who again held the coast of Dalmatia who Italy laid claims on. This led to the Italian invasion and subsequent annexation of Albania where the latter would nominally become a seperate kingdom in a Union under Italy.
German and Japanese imperalists conspiring against the free people of the USSR.
The Anti-Comitern Pact had been signed on the 25th of 1936. The Pact was mainly between Germany and Japan and was meant to be a defensive pact against the Comitern in general and the USSR specifically. This pact would later merge with the Pact of Steel to create the Axis. Other nations soon followed. Those nations was basically the ones occupied by Germany, Japan and Italy but Hungary under Horthy soon joined due to the growing communist threat they faced.**
Expansion in the Baltics suddenly became... complicated.
But following the rise of Trotsky to power and the increasing aggressive rethorics by the Soviet government and Red Army the governments of Germany and Japan decided to formalise the Anti-Soviet Agreement. This was basically an extension of the Anti-Comitern pact to the Baltic nations and to specifically mention the USSR and not just communism as a whole. Despite the Nazis having aggressively expanded through Europe the Baltic nations held the opinion that France had a shared responsibility in that great tragedy. Moreover they saw Trotsky as the continuation of Lenin. A man who was not afraid to expand through force and disregard to international laws - something they had proven before. The nations of Finland, Latvia and Estonia joined together with Japan and Germany and their occupied territories to sign the Anti-Soviet Pact. This promised that if one of the nations was attacked or invaded by the USSR they would count it as being an attack on them all. Japan and Germany was the protector against communism. Lithuania was also invited to the Pact, but they said they didn't want to provoke the USSR into action and instead relied on diplomacy. This Anti-Soviet Pact was seen as a direct attack against the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union subsequently announced their efforts to open up Soviet society needed to come to a halt, a war time dictatorship as being introduced by Lenin needed to be enforced until the enemies of the workers had been dealt with.
First they take Luxembourg, then Paris.
In early February the Italians broke through the Alpine-Lines of France. The French was certain history would repeat itself and positioned a large concentration of troops along the Maginot-Line and the newly created Belgian-Line. Despite the Italians advancing through the usually idyllic French Riviera the French committed their troops along the German borders and around the major urban centers to prevent communist uprisings. While all this happened the Germans invaded Luxembourg. The tiny nation stood no chance and was conquered in 12 hours. France was now pressured on two fronts, in the south and in the east.
The Nazis was greedy this time, taking all of Poland by themself.
During February a crisis was set in motion between Poland and Germany. Germany and Poland had over the years developed several friendship treaties, but the Germans seemed bent on reclaiming their lost territory. First they offered to trade Slovakia and the Polish claimed areas in Czechoslovakia for Danzig promising to give up their other claims. But Poland refused. Poland had been given reassurance by Britain than in case of war they would come to their aid. Furthmore the Polish believed that Germany had to be incapable of fighting a two front war after their bloody conquest of the Balkans. The Germans then outright demanded Danzig or else they would declare war. The Polish declined this too. Then just two hours past midnight of the 1st of March the Germans invaded Poland. 1.5 million Germans would assault Poland by the two army groups of north and south led by Fedor von Bock and Gerd von Rundstedt respectively and composed of seasoned troops from the conquests of the Little Entente. Days later the UK held true to their guarantee and declared war on Germany. What started as a regional war had now truly escalated into the Second World War. The Germans needed to desperately take Poland and France before Britain landed their forces.
Keep them coming.
By March the purged officer corps of the Soviet Union was slowly recovering. New cadets and officers joined the ranks of the Red Army, but the Soviet forces still suffered from their purges and the Soviet command was getting worried of a new war. Some had pressed the Red Army and Trotsky to come to the aid of Poland during their assault, or at least to reclaim the Belarussian and Ukranian lands lost to Poland. Trotsky answered that they would stand in solidarity with the workers of the world and not capitalists and cater nationalism. In truth Trotsky, the Red Army and the Soviet government knew they couldn't afford a war with Germany and Japan at the moment. Those who was publically opposed to this.. disappeared..
Posen-East Prussia exchange?
The German invasion of Poland apperead to stagnate. Posen fell relatively quickly, but the British managed to run through to strait of Denmark and land several troops in Danzig. The British reinforcements was tasked with holding the Danzig corridor, this lead to the Polish being able to more effectively protect their land areas and even pushed into East Prussia. Furhter troops could be sent to the western front as the Soviets assured the Polish they would not assault the young state. Had Hitler been too greedy?
The taint of Stalinism you mean?
With Trotsky's position as the true leader of the USSR and the ideology of the Permament Revolution imprinted among the Soviet people efforts was made to rehabilitate the armed forces of the Soviet Union. Some wanted the NKVD to purge the uncertain elements of the Red Army and to keep them under a watchful eye. Trotsky replied "then we would be no better than Stalin". This meant officers such as Marshal Voroshilov who had been key supporters of Stalin and even participated in the purges would be rehabilitated and forgiven for their crimes. Other generals such as Aleksandr Vasilevsky would be rewarded for their loyalty and their prowess during the civil war. He would also become a member of the high command of the Red Army proving to be a capable reformer.
Some of the victims of Trotsky - and Stalin.
That isn't to say the hands of Trotsky and his supporters was without blood. Several generals and politicians had been purged or fallen in battle. Among them several capable officers and reformers, they would have been a welcome addition to the Red Army, Fleet and Air Force but was deemed to risky. As the worst elements had been removed, it was believed the remainder of the Soviet Armed Forces could be rehabilitated
Hopefully the new divisions will get their supplies in time.
The Red Army also saw the need of further reforms. The Rifle Divisions would now be supported by a full artillery regiment and a brigade of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. Moreover they would be supported by engineer and sapper battalions, recon, signal and medic battalions. The Rifle Divisions was planned to be supported by a further Artillery Regiment and Anti-Tank Battalion in the future, but the current ranks needed to be filled first. The Motorised Rifle Divisions would be granted a regiment of light and calvary armor, in addition to engineer and sapper battalions, recon, signal and medic battalions and an artillery battalion. The paratrooper regiments would be expanded to brigade size complemented with recon and engineer battalions. However most of the equipment was not yet produced, so for the time most of these divisions were undersupplied.***
With commanders like these we will take the world by storm.
For his efforts in the Civil War Vladimir Kasatonov was made part of the Naval General Staff and made several reforms to further the Soviet submarine arm. Sergei Khudyoakov was of humble origins and worked on the Armenia oilfields before the first civil war. In '36 he graduated from the Military Air Academy and wold in '38 serve as Chief of Logistics Management Air Force. During the Second Civil War he would accelerated rapidly in the Soviet airforce and by April of 1939 he was made chief of staff of the Air Force and commander of the Western Air Force.
German panzers rolling over Poland.
Despite the Polish and British successes in Poland the German war machine could not be stopped. The plains of Poland was perfect for their armored formations, and due to the desperation of their situation many of the German generals acted indepedently of what the German High Command actually wanted. Had they followed their conservative WW1 approach they would have likely lost the war to British and Polish. Instead they adopted the tactics and operations they had made during the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Balkns and made significant gains in western and southern Poland. The Blitzkrieg myth grew for every campaign.
Poland falls, are Greece to fallow?
While the British and Polish forces managed to hold the Danzig corridor and advance into East Prussia, they had completely neglected their southern front and Warsaw herself. By the 18th of April Warsaw fell. The Allies soon found their gains to be of little worth as they were encircled by the German forces who now advanced from the south. As that happened the Germans in East Prussia and around the Danzig corridor made significant advances. Appereantly the British and Polish successes was nothing but a ruse to lure them out of their defensive postures. In the exposed terrain the Allies was attacked from all fronts and soon fell to the sheer pressure from the Germans. Poland had fallen, and a month before its fall Italian, German and Crotian troops invaded Greece.
The race for France between Germany, Italy and Russia.
In June when the French believed the Germans was occupied taking on Poland and the British having their troops in Poland the Wehrmacht did the unexpected; they attacked the Maginot Line head on. The fortifications proved to be impressive, but the defenders proved to be inflexible and the Maginot line was broken the second of June. The French was in complete disarray, wasn't the Germans meant to come through from Belgium as in 1914? Instead the Germans had sent several of their divisions to the southern front and spearheaded the Italian invasion while they also attacked the Maginot Line. France was about to fall. This lead to panick not only among the French population but also the Soviet government. Significant resources had been put into raising the support for socialists and communists in France. Now the NKVD was tasked with working with the French communists in the pyrenees and the urban center to pull off a coup and lead the masses to victory over the borgouise before the Germans occupied all of France. The French communists and social democrats then announced that they wanted peace with the Germans, prepared to give up Alsace-Lorraine and leave the Little Entente to the Axis. This was of great irony as it was the French communists who had pushed the French Popular Front to war. Who would take control of France, the Axis or the Communists?****
Germany stand ready to conquer all of Europe.
It was six months into 1939. The world had changed in many ways. Trotsky came to power, but most importantly the Axis had formed an Anti-Soviet Pact in the Baltics, meanwhile they subjucated nation after nation under their rule. Would Germany be stopped in France, or would they proceed to take on all of Europe and perhaps the USSR itself?
-----
*This is of course all fantasy. But Hungary and France is hit "especially hard" due to me boosting the ideolgoy there. I also decided not to boost the ideologies of the allies or the axis, to make it more interesting.
**The anti-comitern pact really isn't anything in the game. But it was the foundation of the Axis. Hungary don't have the Anti-Soviet Pact.
***In HOI4 each of the support companies are really support battalions. The artillery/AA/AT battalions also have enough guns to be regiments and not battalions. I also try to create my divisions as according to historical divisions and not what is best game wise. After the new templates the divisions have massive deficits of support equipment, arty, AA and AT weapons. Hopefully they will be supplied before the war.
When the divisions get enoguh arty and AT guns I will complement them with an extra ing-game arty battalion and AT support company. Hopefully those guns will be able to hold off the Panzers. I also want to mimick the motorised divisions with the infantry ones, of course with self-propelled arty, tank killers etc instead. Same goes for mountaineers and armored divisions. But for now the artillery, AT/AA weapons and support companies are prioritized to the Rifle Divisions.
****So we now support a coup in France. This is a drastic measure that won't be abused. But it will be interesting to see if the French Communists rise up before they are conquered by Italy and Germany!
Trotsky planning his next steps.
On New Year's Eve Trotsky held a public speech in Leningrad and laid out his plans for all of Russia and the world to hear. He urged reconciliation and wanted the nation to start a process of national healing. The leader of the USSR continued with laying out his agenda to decentralise the Soviet Union, remove the tsarist bureaucracy founded by Stalin and bringing welfare and prosperity to the workers of the Union. He announced that the 8 hour workday would again be in effect and that peasants was now allowed to be given passports and to leave their farms. He then made vague promises of democrcy in the USSR. This led to left leaning western commentators and jouranlists praising him for his move toward an open society. However most were concerned by his other part of the speech. That of the promises of a world revolution. The talk of the Red Army would spread socialism by the tip of their bayonets concerned many - especially the Polish who had already been under attack by the Soviet Union mere two decades earlier. It didn't help much when Tukhachevsky made the announcement that "with Comrade Trotsky once more behind the helm the revolutionary fires will reach the entire continent". This was of obvious concern to democrats and fascists alike.
Trotsky saw much potential in Vershinin.
One of the first things on the agenda of Trotsky was to reform the military. He saw great potential of the commander of the 4th Air Army. On the 9th of January Konstantin Vershinin was made the Chief marshal of aviation. Quite a step from his humble origins of working at a sawmill.
The despot is gone and now
By the end of January major efforts was made to make Trotsky look like the hero of the revolution, heir of Lenin and liberator of Europe. Emphasis was put on Stalin being a pseudo-Tsar and gravedigger of the revolution was removed from power, and that Trotsky and his supporters had restored true power to the people of the Soviet Union. Beside this cult of personality, ironic as that was one of the main critics against Stalin, the Soviet people was braced upon their eventual role in spreading socialism and true democracy (whatever that is) to the rest of Europe. And so was the workers of the world.
Workers of the world wanna join in on the revolution.
Italy, Hungary, France, the Benelux, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom and Ireland saw large amounts of uprisings following the ascension of Trotsky. The Fourth International absorbed the Third International and the Soviet Union dictated the communist parties of Europe to take a more aggressive stance toward their governments and pursuing a revolution. USSR also ordered the Trotskyists of Europe to inflitrate the many social-democratic parties and trade unions to radicalise them further. This led to many strikes and unrest all of over Europe, but France and Hungary was hit the hardest and the situation was getting out of hand in these nations.*
Mussolini's first step on recreating the Roman Empire.
By the 26th of January Italy launched a surprise attack on Albania. King Zog I. was alerted that an attack might happen, but didn't know when. The Italians positioned a fleet by the coast of Albania on the 26th and invaded the small nation. It took less than 24 hours for Italy to submit Albania to their imperial ambitions. The Italians wanted to acquire Albania for strategical and ideological reasons. First off Albania held the coveted port of Vlorë and the island of Sazan to dominate the Adriatic Sea. Secondly Italian nationalism and irredentism demanded that Albania should be united with Italy on the vague grounds of the area once being part of the Roman Empire. Lastly Italy saw itself becoming the junior partner of the Pact of Steel (alliance with Germany) after Germany annexed Austria, Yugoslavia and Romania who Italy had enviosened as being part of their sphere of influence and having liberated Crotia - who again held the coast of Dalmatia who Italy laid claims on. This led to the Italian invasion and subsequent annexation of Albania where the latter would nominally become a seperate kingdom in a Union under Italy.
German and Japanese imperalists conspiring against the free people of the USSR.
The Anti-Comitern Pact had been signed on the 25th of 1936. The Pact was mainly between Germany and Japan and was meant to be a defensive pact against the Comitern in general and the USSR specifically. This pact would later merge with the Pact of Steel to create the Axis. Other nations soon followed. Those nations was basically the ones occupied by Germany, Japan and Italy but Hungary under Horthy soon joined due to the growing communist threat they faced.**
Expansion in the Baltics suddenly became... complicated.
But following the rise of Trotsky to power and the increasing aggressive rethorics by the Soviet government and Red Army the governments of Germany and Japan decided to formalise the Anti-Soviet Agreement. This was basically an extension of the Anti-Comitern pact to the Baltic nations and to specifically mention the USSR and not just communism as a whole. Despite the Nazis having aggressively expanded through Europe the Baltic nations held the opinion that France had a shared responsibility in that great tragedy. Moreover they saw Trotsky as the continuation of Lenin. A man who was not afraid to expand through force and disregard to international laws - something they had proven before. The nations of Finland, Latvia and Estonia joined together with Japan and Germany and their occupied territories to sign the Anti-Soviet Pact. This promised that if one of the nations was attacked or invaded by the USSR they would count it as being an attack on them all. Japan and Germany was the protector against communism. Lithuania was also invited to the Pact, but they said they didn't want to provoke the USSR into action and instead relied on diplomacy. This Anti-Soviet Pact was seen as a direct attack against the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union subsequently announced their efforts to open up Soviet society needed to come to a halt, a war time dictatorship as being introduced by Lenin needed to be enforced until the enemies of the workers had been dealt with.
First they take Luxembourg, then Paris.
In early February the Italians broke through the Alpine-Lines of France. The French was certain history would repeat itself and positioned a large concentration of troops along the Maginot-Line and the newly created Belgian-Line. Despite the Italians advancing through the usually idyllic French Riviera the French committed their troops along the German borders and around the major urban centers to prevent communist uprisings. While all this happened the Germans invaded Luxembourg. The tiny nation stood no chance and was conquered in 12 hours. France was now pressured on two fronts, in the south and in the east.
The Nazis was greedy this time, taking all of Poland by themself.
During February a crisis was set in motion between Poland and Germany. Germany and Poland had over the years developed several friendship treaties, but the Germans seemed bent on reclaiming their lost territory. First they offered to trade Slovakia and the Polish claimed areas in Czechoslovakia for Danzig promising to give up their other claims. But Poland refused. Poland had been given reassurance by Britain than in case of war they would come to their aid. Furthmore the Polish believed that Germany had to be incapable of fighting a two front war after their bloody conquest of the Balkans. The Germans then outright demanded Danzig or else they would declare war. The Polish declined this too. Then just two hours past midnight of the 1st of March the Germans invaded Poland. 1.5 million Germans would assault Poland by the two army groups of north and south led by Fedor von Bock and Gerd von Rundstedt respectively and composed of seasoned troops from the conquests of the Little Entente. Days later the UK held true to their guarantee and declared war on Germany. What started as a regional war had now truly escalated into the Second World War. The Germans needed to desperately take Poland and France before Britain landed their forces.
Keep them coming.
By March the purged officer corps of the Soviet Union was slowly recovering. New cadets and officers joined the ranks of the Red Army, but the Soviet forces still suffered from their purges and the Soviet command was getting worried of a new war. Some had pressed the Red Army and Trotsky to come to the aid of Poland during their assault, or at least to reclaim the Belarussian and Ukranian lands lost to Poland. Trotsky answered that they would stand in solidarity with the workers of the world and not capitalists and cater nationalism. In truth Trotsky, the Red Army and the Soviet government knew they couldn't afford a war with Germany and Japan at the moment. Those who was publically opposed to this.. disappeared..
Posen-East Prussia exchange?
The German invasion of Poland apperead to stagnate. Posen fell relatively quickly, but the British managed to run through to strait of Denmark and land several troops in Danzig. The British reinforcements was tasked with holding the Danzig corridor, this lead to the Polish being able to more effectively protect their land areas and even pushed into East Prussia. Furhter troops could be sent to the western front as the Soviets assured the Polish they would not assault the young state. Had Hitler been too greedy?
The taint of Stalinism you mean?
With Trotsky's position as the true leader of the USSR and the ideology of the Permament Revolution imprinted among the Soviet people efforts was made to rehabilitate the armed forces of the Soviet Union. Some wanted the NKVD to purge the uncertain elements of the Red Army and to keep them under a watchful eye. Trotsky replied "then we would be no better than Stalin". This meant officers such as Marshal Voroshilov who had been key supporters of Stalin and even participated in the purges would be rehabilitated and forgiven for their crimes. Other generals such as Aleksandr Vasilevsky would be rewarded for their loyalty and their prowess during the civil war. He would also become a member of the high command of the Red Army proving to be a capable reformer.
Some of the victims of Trotsky - and Stalin.
That isn't to say the hands of Trotsky and his supporters was without blood. Several generals and politicians had been purged or fallen in battle. Among them several capable officers and reformers, they would have been a welcome addition to the Red Army, Fleet and Air Force but was deemed to risky. As the worst elements had been removed, it was believed the remainder of the Soviet Armed Forces could be rehabilitated
Hopefully the new divisions will get their supplies in time.
The Red Army also saw the need of further reforms. The Rifle Divisions would now be supported by a full artillery regiment and a brigade of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. Moreover they would be supported by engineer and sapper battalions, recon, signal and medic battalions. The Rifle Divisions was planned to be supported by a further Artillery Regiment and Anti-Tank Battalion in the future, but the current ranks needed to be filled first. The Motorised Rifle Divisions would be granted a regiment of light and calvary armor, in addition to engineer and sapper battalions, recon, signal and medic battalions and an artillery battalion. The paratrooper regiments would be expanded to brigade size complemented with recon and engineer battalions. However most of the equipment was not yet produced, so for the time most of these divisions were undersupplied.***
With commanders like these we will take the world by storm.
For his efforts in the Civil War Vladimir Kasatonov was made part of the Naval General Staff and made several reforms to further the Soviet submarine arm. Sergei Khudyoakov was of humble origins and worked on the Armenia oilfields before the first civil war. In '36 he graduated from the Military Air Academy and wold in '38 serve as Chief of Logistics Management Air Force. During the Second Civil War he would accelerated rapidly in the Soviet airforce and by April of 1939 he was made chief of staff of the Air Force and commander of the Western Air Force.
German panzers rolling over Poland.
Despite the Polish and British successes in Poland the German war machine could not be stopped. The plains of Poland was perfect for their armored formations, and due to the desperation of their situation many of the German generals acted indepedently of what the German High Command actually wanted. Had they followed their conservative WW1 approach they would have likely lost the war to British and Polish. Instead they adopted the tactics and operations they had made during the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Balkns and made significant gains in western and southern Poland. The Blitzkrieg myth grew for every campaign.
Poland falls, are Greece to fallow?
While the British and Polish forces managed to hold the Danzig corridor and advance into East Prussia, they had completely neglected their southern front and Warsaw herself. By the 18th of April Warsaw fell. The Allies soon found their gains to be of little worth as they were encircled by the German forces who now advanced from the south. As that happened the Germans in East Prussia and around the Danzig corridor made significant advances. Appereantly the British and Polish successes was nothing but a ruse to lure them out of their defensive postures. In the exposed terrain the Allies was attacked from all fronts and soon fell to the sheer pressure from the Germans. Poland had fallen, and a month before its fall Italian, German and Crotian troops invaded Greece.
The race for France between Germany, Italy and Russia.
In June when the French believed the Germans was occupied taking on Poland and the British having their troops in Poland the Wehrmacht did the unexpected; they attacked the Maginot Line head on. The fortifications proved to be impressive, but the defenders proved to be inflexible and the Maginot line was broken the second of June. The French was in complete disarray, wasn't the Germans meant to come through from Belgium as in 1914? Instead the Germans had sent several of their divisions to the southern front and spearheaded the Italian invasion while they also attacked the Maginot Line. France was about to fall. This lead to panick not only among the French population but also the Soviet government. Significant resources had been put into raising the support for socialists and communists in France. Now the NKVD was tasked with working with the French communists in the pyrenees and the urban center to pull off a coup and lead the masses to victory over the borgouise before the Germans occupied all of France. The French communists and social democrats then announced that they wanted peace with the Germans, prepared to give up Alsace-Lorraine and leave the Little Entente to the Axis. This was of great irony as it was the French communists who had pushed the French Popular Front to war. Who would take control of France, the Axis or the Communists?****
Germany stand ready to conquer all of Europe.
It was six months into 1939. The world had changed in many ways. Trotsky came to power, but most importantly the Axis had formed an Anti-Soviet Pact in the Baltics, meanwhile they subjucated nation after nation under their rule. Would Germany be stopped in France, or would they proceed to take on all of Europe and perhaps the USSR itself?
-----
*This is of course all fantasy. But Hungary and France is hit "especially hard" due to me boosting the ideolgoy there. I also decided not to boost the ideologies of the allies or the axis, to make it more interesting.
**The anti-comitern pact really isn't anything in the game. But it was the foundation of the Axis. Hungary don't have the Anti-Soviet Pact.
***In HOI4 each of the support companies are really support battalions. The artillery/AA/AT battalions also have enough guns to be regiments and not battalions. I also try to create my divisions as according to historical divisions and not what is best game wise. After the new templates the divisions have massive deficits of support equipment, arty, AA and AT weapons. Hopefully they will be supplied before the war.
When the divisions get enoguh arty and AT guns I will complement them with an extra ing-game arty battalion and AT support company. Hopefully those guns will be able to hold off the Panzers. I also want to mimick the motorised divisions with the infantry ones, of course with self-propelled arty, tank killers etc instead. Same goes for mountaineers and armored divisions. But for now the artillery, AT/AA weapons and support companies are prioritized to the Rifle Divisions.
****So we now support a coup in France. This is a drastic measure that won't be abused. But it will be interesting to see if the French Communists rise up before they are conquered by Italy and Germany!
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Good luck French Communists!
So Trotsky appoints a somewhat competent military it seems. Hope he does not regret that.
So Trotsky appoints a somewhat competent military it seems. Hope he does not regret that.
Thank you and welcome, hope you enjoy it
Hopefully they'll win. France is a good ally, on paper that is
Chapter 9.
Chapter 9: 1871 all over again.
Soon we will have all the doctrines.
Pressured from all fronts Trotsky and the Red Army saw the need to reorganize the military. It had started slowly after the civil war, but it would now start in earnest. Several top to bottom restructures were started and many manuevers and exercises was organized. The purpose was to create a more effective and flexible military while developing and adopting new doctrines.
As long as they leave some for us.
In the midst of their invasion of France, "Fall Gelb", the Third Reich positioned several divisions along the border of Lithuania. The small nation was pressured not only by the German troops, but the Anti-Soviet Pact to give up Memel to Germany. The result was given beforehand. Lithuania stood no chance against the might of the Reich and had to give up Memel. Would this be the final revision of the Versaille Treaty and the final territorial exchanges in the Baltics?
This should catch the Germans off guard.
The 27th of June saw the finalization of Project-26 or the Kirov Class Cruiser. It was a vast improvement over the lone Chervona Ukraina cruiser that was sunk during the civil war. One Kirov Class cruiser was ordered to replace the lost cruiser, while four more was ordered to bolster the Red Fleet. During the last wars and the reogranization of the military the A-32 medium tank concept was looked further into. It was decided the tank was to be developed further, especially in light of the relative poor performance of Soviet armor and the awesome display of armored warfare the Germans showed in France, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Several tests was conducted and the A-32 prototype was improved along with other versions. The medium armor concept would eventually be developed into what would be known as the T-34/76A which had a 76.2mm main gun, but lacked the diesel engine and had inferior clutches and transmissions due to shortages of said materials. Still it was an overall improvement over the current Soviet tank force.
The race for Paris intensifies.
By mid of July the remaining French forces around the Maginot Line was about to be enrcicled, while the Axis made massive gains in Metropolitan France. By the 23rd Italian and German forces reached the outskirts of Paris battling their way into the suburbs of the great metropolis. Meanwhile the French communists was gaining ground and the social-democrats was being radicalised. The population was literally split in half in the support of the Third Republic and the war. The communists and socilists advocated an immidiate end to the war and anti-war slogans such as "Why die for Sudetenland?" was heard in the streets of Paris. While the French soldiers was barely holding the lines against the ever advancing invaders, the streets of Paris and other urban centers sw a surge of violent protests, strikes and riots. The question remained if the Third French Republic would fall to the fascists or the communists first.
We welcome everyone who can the ranks of the cannonfodders.
The rehabilitation of the military and its ongoin reorganization proved to have measureble effects. New classes of competent and talented officers graduated and filled the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces. Leon Trotsky himself attended to one of the graduation ceremonies and spoke highly of the new officers and how they were to be the spearhead of the new age. One of the cadets noted in his diary captivated by the oratory skills of Trotsky: "Never have I heard a more captivating speaker, rarely a more eloquently use of Russian than when he impressed the cadets. I am just a man, but what is comrade Trotsky? He is beyond question a great man, perhaps the greatest politican of them all". Trotsky had the absolute loyalty of the remaining old officer corps and the new officers.
France surrendering? Totally unexpected.
By the 10th of August German and Italian troops had completely surrounded the French capital. They prepared for a bloody and prolonged urban combat and several Heinkels and Stukas was on their way to pulverize the capital. Meanwhile countless of artillery guns had their guns directed at the capital, with SS troops and panzers ready to take the streets. Instead the French government surrendered. They would grant the Italian and German troops free passage into Paris and was ready to sign a peace treaty.
The Axis are suprisingly modest.
The Italians and Germans set the terms of the negotiations. The Armistice of 10th of August 1939 was signed in the same railwagon as where the Germans had to sign the Versaille Treaty. The Germans rose above their own humiliation by publically humiliating the French. In France proper they would give up the region of Alsace-Lorraine, or Elsass-Lothringen as it would be named once more, to the Germans. The Italians would be given the territories of Savoy and Corsica. However the latter two areas would be under a demilitarized zone before being handed over to the Italians the following year. Initially the Germans and Italians demanded a lot harsher terms to the French, where all of the former Holy Roman provinces of France was to be given to Germany. But the French representatives argued that doing so would only light up the revolutionary flames that was present in France and needed a stable government to combat these threats. The Pact of Steel reluctantly agreed to this. However France was to disarm itself and conscription was to be made illegal, in addition they would not be allowed to have a standing military force of more than 50.000 men and had to pay back all the war reperations the Germans had - and more. Germany had exacted her revenge over France.*
The great German Colonial Empire grows at the expense of the so called Roman Empire.
The Germans also pressed on to take all of the colonies that France had in Africa, the Middle East and Indochina. This upset the Italians, but they were promised control over Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Transjordan from the British. Germany had once more colonies, and this time one of the greatest colonial powers on earth - alltough these colonies was for now vacant of German officials and tropps. The French had been humiliated and the German pride restored. Germany now had only one power left to correct all the wrongs from the Versaille Treaty, the British Empire. To reclaim her former colonies. After that it was only one goal left for Germany to fulfill; Lebensraum. It apperead the Germans was destined to total domination.**
At least the Balkans will be quiet. For now.
The Balkans was partioned among the victors. The Indepeden State of Crotia would become, well, independent. Yugoslavia itself would lose Slovenia and Central Macedonia to Italy, Germany would rule Bosnia-Herzegovina as a protectorate and Serbia and Montenegro was made independent states aswell. Romania didn't face any revisions on her borders. However the remnants of Yugoslavia and Romania would for almost a year be under direct German occupation. Following the occupation period they was released as nominally indepeden states. However they had governments handpicked by the Germans and was in all but name dependant on the Germans and most of policies was dicated by the Reichskommissariats while the foreign policies was dictated by Berlin entirley. All of Czecoslovakia was annexed by Germany with Sudetenland being part of Germany proper and Bohemia-Moravia and Slovakia becoming two separate protectorates under Germany ruled by a German elite - in effect annexed.***
Sorry Italy, but you can't get it this time either.
The Armistice of Compiègne also showed the German domination in the Pact of Steel. The Italian nationalist had now, as during the Great War, hoped to gain all of the Dalmatian Coast. Germany on the other hand had other plans, Croatia was to be granted the Dalmatian Coast. Both Germany and Italy also coveted Slovenia, both seeing them as a natural part of Austria and Italy respectively. The Germans then forced through a "compromise" where Italy was given Slovenia and Croatia (who was again a German puppet) was given Dalmatia. Italy had again won the war, but lost the peace. But this time il Duce loyally bent his knees to the Führer.
Horthy what can you possibly gain from this?
Hungary hoped to sow discord in the Pact of Steel. The proto-fascist government under Miklos Horthy was deeply disillusioned they could not get a piece of the cake and was afraid of another Soviet Revolution. They reached out to Italy about renewing the Rome Protocols. The Rome Protocols was signed in 1934 between the three states of Italy, Austria and Hungary. It was mainly economical, but was also a means to contain German and Yugoslav revisionism and also to promote Italian and Hungarian revisionism. Hungary hoped Italy would leave the Pact of Steel and instead enter into a Pact of Rome following their own disillusion regarding the peace. Instead the Italians only agreed to the trade agreements and wouldn't aid the Hungarians in gaining any lands in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. Mussolini was firmly on the side of Hitler, and Horthy found himself isolated torn apart by monarchists, fascists, democrats and communists alike.****
Now the Germans will never be able to take on us!
Work on the Stalin Line first began in the 1920s. It was made out of several bunkers and gun emplacement, but was not a continuous line of fortification such as the Maginot Line. Instead it was more of a network of fortified areas meant channel a defender into designated corridors. Following the Fall of France and especailly Poland the Soviets saw the need to expand on this network of fortifications. Most of the line was by the Soviet-Polish border which was now in fact Soviet-German border and along the Anti-Soviet Pact members. The line would see a major expansion and would be used in propaganda as a proof of how the USSR provided work to all, and of course the Stalin Line was renamed to the Trotsky Line.
Denmark gets invaded, give up and France are once more at war.
The 26th of August German plans was leaked that they would soon strike Denmark. France, being threatened internally by communists and nationalists, guaranteed the indepence of the small nation. Germany obviously didn't take this seriously and invaded the small nation. Denmark itself gave up without a fight. France on the other hand still declared war and even sent the Foreign Legion to Norway, who was expected to be the real target, and hoped to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine, Savoy and Corsica. This time around the British sent an expeditionary force to France seeing that if France fell to Germany again, the treaty would be a lot harsher this time around. France who had already surrendered once found itself in the middle of a war yet again.
The Germans are blitzing toward France again.
France wasn't ready for the war at all. Commentators all around the world asked the question "what on earth are they doing?" and some even speculated it was a desperate attempt to get rid of the communists, some sort of suicide with dignity. The Germans fanned out of Elsass-Lothringen taking advantage of the lessons they learned from the previous campaign a mere month earlier and without having to take on the dreaded Maginot Line. This time however they faced opposition from the British Empire. But like in Poland they proved to be able to breakthrough the staunch British. Thousands would die on all sides, but the Germans proved to have superior arms and tactics and one and a half month after the second invasion of France they found themself on the outskirts of Paris. This time they didn't accept a surrender and bombarded Ville des Lumières, showing no mercy nd compassion. After days of non-stop bombardments, firing thousands of shells per minute, the German soldiers entered the city ready to subdue the French once and for all.
All in the name of the liberation of the workers of course..
By November the expansion of the Trotsky Line was finished (for now) and the Baltics was now in the focus. Specifically the Soviets argued to its own people and on the foreign arena that they had legitimate claims on the Baltics. The two Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia was under a direct threat from the Nazis, and only the USSR could save them. Lithuania had been forced to give up Memel or else they would face the same fate as Poland and the Little Entente. Latvia had been forced to sign the Anti-Soviet Pact in order to provoke a conflict with the USSR - on they were bound to lose. The Soviets also made arguments that the Baltics had always been a part of the Russian Empire and was populated by several Russians. Trotsky also made more ideological approaches by claiming the Baltic states had a large communist voterbase and an oppressed workforce that needed to be liberated. But the claims on these young nations was perhaps mostly for the Soviets to gain a buffer zone in the inevitable war against the Germans and acquire several hot water ports.
Very well, the Germans looks to have beaten us again.
The 10th of November the Germans started their attack unto Paris. They hoped for the French to give up as they in August. Instead the people of Paris rose up, took to arms and battled the Germans proclaiming the capital to be the Paris Commune, mirroring the German siege of Paris in 1871. In turn Paris was reinforced by several British brigades. The battle for Paris had just started. The fighting lasted for one week. It traumatized and wore out troops on both sides of the conflict. Paris fell, but France did not surrender this time. By the rest of November the French Army and Communists (supported by Spanish Republicans and International Brigades) and British alike fought around Paris trying to reclaim it from the advancing Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. Despite numerous bombings from the German Stukas, the unlikely alliance did not waver for weeks. They found a common cause in opposition against the Germans. French, British and Communists alike. But the idyll didn't last. The French and British troops, and especially not the Communists was prepared for the winter of '39. By the onset of December the Germans managed to beat back the counterattck toward Paris and drove their panzers at full speed toward Calais. The British was ordered to retreat to Dunkirk and be evacuated. Faith saved these British men as the German army and Wehracht ordered their troops to halt before Dunkirk not to overextend their lines. This angered generals such as Guderian, but the Luftwaffe was to finish off the British. It was still believed the air forces could win wars alone. But the deteriorating winter weather made it difficult for the Luftwaffe to carry out their orders, and in an impressive act of solidarity numerous British sailors of all kinds came to the rescue of their countrymen. France was now on her own again. The path to Calais and total defeat was at hand.
This suddenly became very interesting!
But then French workers and farmers rose up in the thousands in southern and centrl France. The French police forces and army units there surrendered to the French Communists. In German and Italian occupied France the communists seized power in the vaccuum that was created by the advancing forces. What looked like a spontanous uprising was actually a wellplanned one. Since the end of the Spanish Civil War the French veterans from there had trained and armed communists in France. Trotskyists had even before that inflitrated the socialist party in France. The NKVD had also armed and trained French communists for years. They had built an army, and the army of the people now rose up in what remined of France led by Maurice Thorez. Promising an end to the war, poverty and employment for all.
Vive la révolution!
The Germans's and Italians's first instincts was to continue the war and treat the French communists as their enemy. But the Soviet Union was quick to make an alliance with the French Commune, in homage to the Paris Commune, and was the first nation to recognize the new French government. Soon Spain followed up declaring that they would come to the aid of their brothers and sisters if it was needed. The Soviet Union followed this up by mobilizing its forces and ordering them to their common borders with Germany and Romania. The Germans and Italians was now threatened by war from the USSR and Spain and risked an invasion from Great Britain. Neville Chamberlain was pleased, with the Soviet Union in the war the overall situation would be much more tolerable. But Germany and Italy backed down. Early morning of the 13th they withdrew their troops and respected the borders of France. In exchange the French Commune gave up their claims in Italian, German and colonial territories. Peace was achieved. For now.
TheNKVD Belgian workers are ready to prove to domino theory.
The Soviet government found no time to rest on its laurels and recent developments. The Communist Party of Belgium was ordered to take a more aggressive stance and the inflitrators in the Belgian Workers' Party (social-democrats) took gradual control of the party and steered it toward radicalism. Furthermore NKVD agents, volunteers and French and Spanish agents inflitrated Belgium, spreading propaganda, organising strikes and trained, armed and funded Belgian revolutionaries. During Christmas of 1939 Trotsky held a speech where he said "the fires of revolution spread from Spain and cleansed it off the stank of fascism. It spread from Spain to the broken country of France and finally liberated the workers of France, and warded off the Nazi disease. It will now spread to the Low Countries who may at any moment be invaded by the Nazis or the Imperialists. Let this be a testimony of the Permament Revolution. Workers of the world, unite!" This was met by cheers from the Soviets who listened to it and revolutionaries all over the globe, but it led to Trotsky being the most feared person on earth, perhaps only surpassed by Hitler.
The Soviet industry are gearing towards war..
The fireworks on the Red Square stilled. The new year had been welcomed, a new year of hope and a promised red dawn. The Soviet Armed Forces was slowly pulling itself together and the industry had been booming under the emerging worker's culture and the more relaxed Five Years Plan. Was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ready to wage a war to spread Socialism or against Nazi aggression? Only time would tell, but optimism was an alltime high in the vast nation. Optimism that they were no longer alone, and that workers all over the world would unite.
-----
*France proper was left very much intact except for Alsace. I later gave Italy Savoy and Corsica through console commands, make no sense that they would not take these areas.
**The Screenshot is from a later date, so that is why some of the areas are occupied. Now Germany basically took all of the French colonies.
***Italy have claims on Dalmatia, but soon Croatia is an ally they kept it. At least they got Slovenia. Now Germany naturally annexed all eastern Europe. But I made the call it would be more realistic for these nations to be puppets instead. But this was after a while, so Germany had direct access to the factories and resources of these nations for a long time. But on the longterm I suspect having a German puppeted Great-Romania is more dangerous in the coming war..
****So the Rome Protocols was basically made so that Germany wouldn't annex Austria, but we all know how that went. Now Hungary can choose to go down the path to align themself with Germany and join the Axis or the Rome Protocols path. They chose the latter, and ingame it give Hungary better trade relations and relations in general with Austria and Italy. Later on it will lead to Hungary guaranteeing the indepence of Austria and then make a faction named the Pact of Rome composed of Hungary, Austria and Italy. Naturally that won't happen, so the whole thing about Hungary wanting to split Italy away from Germany and reclaiming territories in Romania and former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia is purely narrative.
Soon we will have all the doctrines.
Pressured from all fronts Trotsky and the Red Army saw the need to reorganize the military. It had started slowly after the civil war, but it would now start in earnest. Several top to bottom restructures were started and many manuevers and exercises was organized. The purpose was to create a more effective and flexible military while developing and adopting new doctrines.
As long as they leave some for us.
In the midst of their invasion of France, "Fall Gelb", the Third Reich positioned several divisions along the border of Lithuania. The small nation was pressured not only by the German troops, but the Anti-Soviet Pact to give up Memel to Germany. The result was given beforehand. Lithuania stood no chance against the might of the Reich and had to give up Memel. Would this be the final revision of the Versaille Treaty and the final territorial exchanges in the Baltics?
This should catch the Germans off guard.
The 27th of June saw the finalization of Project-26 or the Kirov Class Cruiser. It was a vast improvement over the lone Chervona Ukraina cruiser that was sunk during the civil war. One Kirov Class cruiser was ordered to replace the lost cruiser, while four more was ordered to bolster the Red Fleet. During the last wars and the reogranization of the military the A-32 medium tank concept was looked further into. It was decided the tank was to be developed further, especially in light of the relative poor performance of Soviet armor and the awesome display of armored warfare the Germans showed in France, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Several tests was conducted and the A-32 prototype was improved along with other versions. The medium armor concept would eventually be developed into what would be known as the T-34/76A which had a 76.2mm main gun, but lacked the diesel engine and had inferior clutches and transmissions due to shortages of said materials. Still it was an overall improvement over the current Soviet tank force.
The race for Paris intensifies.
By mid of July the remaining French forces around the Maginot Line was about to be enrcicled, while the Axis made massive gains in Metropolitan France. By the 23rd Italian and German forces reached the outskirts of Paris battling their way into the suburbs of the great metropolis. Meanwhile the French communists was gaining ground and the social-democrats was being radicalised. The population was literally split in half in the support of the Third Republic and the war. The communists and socilists advocated an immidiate end to the war and anti-war slogans such as "Why die for Sudetenland?" was heard in the streets of Paris. While the French soldiers was barely holding the lines against the ever advancing invaders, the streets of Paris and other urban centers sw a surge of violent protests, strikes and riots. The question remained if the Third French Republic would fall to the fascists or the communists first.
We welcome everyone who can the ranks of the cannonfodders.
The rehabilitation of the military and its ongoin reorganization proved to have measureble effects. New classes of competent and talented officers graduated and filled the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces. Leon Trotsky himself attended to one of the graduation ceremonies and spoke highly of the new officers and how they were to be the spearhead of the new age. One of the cadets noted in his diary captivated by the oratory skills of Trotsky: "Never have I heard a more captivating speaker, rarely a more eloquently use of Russian than when he impressed the cadets. I am just a man, but what is comrade Trotsky? He is beyond question a great man, perhaps the greatest politican of them all". Trotsky had the absolute loyalty of the remaining old officer corps and the new officers.
France surrendering? Totally unexpected.
By the 10th of August German and Italian troops had completely surrounded the French capital. They prepared for a bloody and prolonged urban combat and several Heinkels and Stukas was on their way to pulverize the capital. Meanwhile countless of artillery guns had their guns directed at the capital, with SS troops and panzers ready to take the streets. Instead the French government surrendered. They would grant the Italian and German troops free passage into Paris and was ready to sign a peace treaty.
The Axis are suprisingly modest.
The Italians and Germans set the terms of the negotiations. The Armistice of 10th of August 1939 was signed in the same railwagon as where the Germans had to sign the Versaille Treaty. The Germans rose above their own humiliation by publically humiliating the French. In France proper they would give up the region of Alsace-Lorraine, or Elsass-Lothringen as it would be named once more, to the Germans. The Italians would be given the territories of Savoy and Corsica. However the latter two areas would be under a demilitarized zone before being handed over to the Italians the following year. Initially the Germans and Italians demanded a lot harsher terms to the French, where all of the former Holy Roman provinces of France was to be given to Germany. But the French representatives argued that doing so would only light up the revolutionary flames that was present in France and needed a stable government to combat these threats. The Pact of Steel reluctantly agreed to this. However France was to disarm itself and conscription was to be made illegal, in addition they would not be allowed to have a standing military force of more than 50.000 men and had to pay back all the war reperations the Germans had - and more. Germany had exacted her revenge over France.*
The great German Colonial Empire grows at the expense of the so called Roman Empire.
The Germans also pressed on to take all of the colonies that France had in Africa, the Middle East and Indochina. This upset the Italians, but they were promised control over Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Transjordan from the British. Germany had once more colonies, and this time one of the greatest colonial powers on earth - alltough these colonies was for now vacant of German officials and tropps. The French had been humiliated and the German pride restored. Germany now had only one power left to correct all the wrongs from the Versaille Treaty, the British Empire. To reclaim her former colonies. After that it was only one goal left for Germany to fulfill; Lebensraum. It apperead the Germans was destined to total domination.**
At least the Balkans will be quiet. For now.
The Balkans was partioned among the victors. The Indepeden State of Crotia would become, well, independent. Yugoslavia itself would lose Slovenia and Central Macedonia to Italy, Germany would rule Bosnia-Herzegovina as a protectorate and Serbia and Montenegro was made independent states aswell. Romania didn't face any revisions on her borders. However the remnants of Yugoslavia and Romania would for almost a year be under direct German occupation. Following the occupation period they was released as nominally indepeden states. However they had governments handpicked by the Germans and was in all but name dependant on the Germans and most of policies was dicated by the Reichskommissariats while the foreign policies was dictated by Berlin entirley. All of Czecoslovakia was annexed by Germany with Sudetenland being part of Germany proper and Bohemia-Moravia and Slovakia becoming two separate protectorates under Germany ruled by a German elite - in effect annexed.***
Sorry Italy, but you can't get it this time either.
The Armistice of Compiègne also showed the German domination in the Pact of Steel. The Italian nationalist had now, as during the Great War, hoped to gain all of the Dalmatian Coast. Germany on the other hand had other plans, Croatia was to be granted the Dalmatian Coast. Both Germany and Italy also coveted Slovenia, both seeing them as a natural part of Austria and Italy respectively. The Germans then forced through a "compromise" where Italy was given Slovenia and Croatia (who was again a German puppet) was given Dalmatia. Italy had again won the war, but lost the peace. But this time il Duce loyally bent his knees to the Führer.
Horthy what can you possibly gain from this?
Hungary hoped to sow discord in the Pact of Steel. The proto-fascist government under Miklos Horthy was deeply disillusioned they could not get a piece of the cake and was afraid of another Soviet Revolution. They reached out to Italy about renewing the Rome Protocols. The Rome Protocols was signed in 1934 between the three states of Italy, Austria and Hungary. It was mainly economical, but was also a means to contain German and Yugoslav revisionism and also to promote Italian and Hungarian revisionism. Hungary hoped Italy would leave the Pact of Steel and instead enter into a Pact of Rome following their own disillusion regarding the peace. Instead the Italians only agreed to the trade agreements and wouldn't aid the Hungarians in gaining any lands in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. Mussolini was firmly on the side of Hitler, and Horthy found himself isolated torn apart by monarchists, fascists, democrats and communists alike.****
Now the Germans will never be able to take on us!
Work on the Stalin Line first began in the 1920s. It was made out of several bunkers and gun emplacement, but was not a continuous line of fortification such as the Maginot Line. Instead it was more of a network of fortified areas meant channel a defender into designated corridors. Following the Fall of France and especailly Poland the Soviets saw the need to expand on this network of fortifications. Most of the line was by the Soviet-Polish border which was now in fact Soviet-German border and along the Anti-Soviet Pact members. The line would see a major expansion and would be used in propaganda as a proof of how the USSR provided work to all, and of course the Stalin Line was renamed to the Trotsky Line.
Denmark gets invaded, give up and France are once more at war.
The 26th of August German plans was leaked that they would soon strike Denmark. France, being threatened internally by communists and nationalists, guaranteed the indepence of the small nation. Germany obviously didn't take this seriously and invaded the small nation. Denmark itself gave up without a fight. France on the other hand still declared war and even sent the Foreign Legion to Norway, who was expected to be the real target, and hoped to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine, Savoy and Corsica. This time around the British sent an expeditionary force to France seeing that if France fell to Germany again, the treaty would be a lot harsher this time around. France who had already surrendered once found itself in the middle of a war yet again.
The Germans are blitzing toward France again.
France wasn't ready for the war at all. Commentators all around the world asked the question "what on earth are they doing?" and some even speculated it was a desperate attempt to get rid of the communists, some sort of suicide with dignity. The Germans fanned out of Elsass-Lothringen taking advantage of the lessons they learned from the previous campaign a mere month earlier and without having to take on the dreaded Maginot Line. This time however they faced opposition from the British Empire. But like in Poland they proved to be able to breakthrough the staunch British. Thousands would die on all sides, but the Germans proved to have superior arms and tactics and one and a half month after the second invasion of France they found themself on the outskirts of Paris. This time they didn't accept a surrender and bombarded Ville des Lumières, showing no mercy nd compassion. After days of non-stop bombardments, firing thousands of shells per minute, the German soldiers entered the city ready to subdue the French once and for all.
All in the name of the liberation of the workers of course..
By November the expansion of the Trotsky Line was finished (for now) and the Baltics was now in the focus. Specifically the Soviets argued to its own people and on the foreign arena that they had legitimate claims on the Baltics. The two Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia was under a direct threat from the Nazis, and only the USSR could save them. Lithuania had been forced to give up Memel or else they would face the same fate as Poland and the Little Entente. Latvia had been forced to sign the Anti-Soviet Pact in order to provoke a conflict with the USSR - on they were bound to lose. The Soviets also made arguments that the Baltics had always been a part of the Russian Empire and was populated by several Russians. Trotsky also made more ideological approaches by claiming the Baltic states had a large communist voterbase and an oppressed workforce that needed to be liberated. But the claims on these young nations was perhaps mostly for the Soviets to gain a buffer zone in the inevitable war against the Germans and acquire several hot water ports.
Very well, the Germans looks to have beaten us again.
The 10th of November the Germans started their attack unto Paris. They hoped for the French to give up as they in August. Instead the people of Paris rose up, took to arms and battled the Germans proclaiming the capital to be the Paris Commune, mirroring the German siege of Paris in 1871. In turn Paris was reinforced by several British brigades. The battle for Paris had just started. The fighting lasted for one week. It traumatized and wore out troops on both sides of the conflict. Paris fell, but France did not surrender this time. By the rest of November the French Army and Communists (supported by Spanish Republicans and International Brigades) and British alike fought around Paris trying to reclaim it from the advancing Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. Despite numerous bombings from the German Stukas, the unlikely alliance did not waver for weeks. They found a common cause in opposition against the Germans. French, British and Communists alike. But the idyll didn't last. The French and British troops, and especially not the Communists was prepared for the winter of '39. By the onset of December the Germans managed to beat back the counterattck toward Paris and drove their panzers at full speed toward Calais. The British was ordered to retreat to Dunkirk and be evacuated. Faith saved these British men as the German army and Wehracht ordered their troops to halt before Dunkirk not to overextend their lines. This angered generals such as Guderian, but the Luftwaffe was to finish off the British. It was still believed the air forces could win wars alone. But the deteriorating winter weather made it difficult for the Luftwaffe to carry out their orders, and in an impressive act of solidarity numerous British sailors of all kinds came to the rescue of their countrymen. France was now on her own again. The path to Calais and total defeat was at hand.
This suddenly became very interesting!
But then French workers and farmers rose up in the thousands in southern and centrl France. The French police forces and army units there surrendered to the French Communists. In German and Italian occupied France the communists seized power in the vaccuum that was created by the advancing forces. What looked like a spontanous uprising was actually a wellplanned one. Since the end of the Spanish Civil War the French veterans from there had trained and armed communists in France. Trotskyists had even before that inflitrated the socialist party in France. The NKVD had also armed and trained French communists for years. They had built an army, and the army of the people now rose up in what remined of France led by Maurice Thorez. Promising an end to the war, poverty and employment for all.
Vive la révolution!
The Germans's and Italians's first instincts was to continue the war and treat the French communists as their enemy. But the Soviet Union was quick to make an alliance with the French Commune, in homage to the Paris Commune, and was the first nation to recognize the new French government. Soon Spain followed up declaring that they would come to the aid of their brothers and sisters if it was needed. The Soviet Union followed this up by mobilizing its forces and ordering them to their common borders with Germany and Romania. The Germans and Italians was now threatened by war from the USSR and Spain and risked an invasion from Great Britain. Neville Chamberlain was pleased, with the Soviet Union in the war the overall situation would be much more tolerable. But Germany and Italy backed down. Early morning of the 13th they withdrew their troops and respected the borders of France. In exchange the French Commune gave up their claims in Italian, German and colonial territories. Peace was achieved. For now.
The
The Soviet government found no time to rest on its laurels and recent developments. The Communist Party of Belgium was ordered to take a more aggressive stance and the inflitrators in the Belgian Workers' Party (social-democrats) took gradual control of the party and steered it toward radicalism. Furthermore NKVD agents, volunteers and French and Spanish agents inflitrated Belgium, spreading propaganda, organising strikes and trained, armed and funded Belgian revolutionaries. During Christmas of 1939 Trotsky held a speech where he said "the fires of revolution spread from Spain and cleansed it off the stank of fascism. It spread from Spain to the broken country of France and finally liberated the workers of France, and warded off the Nazi disease. It will now spread to the Low Countries who may at any moment be invaded by the Nazis or the Imperialists. Let this be a testimony of the Permament Revolution. Workers of the world, unite!" This was met by cheers from the Soviets who listened to it and revolutionaries all over the globe, but it led to Trotsky being the most feared person on earth, perhaps only surpassed by Hitler.
The Soviet industry are gearing towards war..
The fireworks on the Red Square stilled. The new year had been welcomed, a new year of hope and a promised red dawn. The Soviet Armed Forces was slowly pulling itself together and the industry had been booming under the emerging worker's culture and the more relaxed Five Years Plan. Was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ready to wage a war to spread Socialism or against Nazi aggression? Only time would tell, but optimism was an alltime high in the vast nation. Optimism that they were no longer alone, and that workers all over the world would unite.
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*France proper was left very much intact except for Alsace. I later gave Italy Savoy and Corsica through console commands, make no sense that they would not take these areas.
**The Screenshot is from a later date, so that is why some of the areas are occupied. Now Germany basically took all of the French colonies.
***Italy have claims on Dalmatia, but soon Croatia is an ally they kept it. At least they got Slovenia. Now Germany naturally annexed all eastern Europe. But I made the call it would be more realistic for these nations to be puppets instead. But this was after a while, so Germany had direct access to the factories and resources of these nations for a long time. But on the longterm I suspect having a German puppeted Great-Romania is more dangerous in the coming war..
****So the Rome Protocols was basically made so that Germany wouldn't annex Austria, but we all know how that went. Now Hungary can choose to go down the path to align themself with Germany and join the Axis or the Rome Protocols path. They chose the latter, and ingame it give Hungary better trade relations and relations in general with Austria and Italy. Later on it will lead to Hungary guaranteeing the indepence of Austria and then make a faction named the Pact of Rome composed of Hungary, Austria and Italy. Naturally that won't happen, so the whole thing about Hungary wanting to split Italy away from Germany and reclaiming territories in Romania and former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia is purely narrative.