Is it theoretically possible for populist or traditionalist party to become ruling party of Roman Reich?
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I think if the Emperor has those leanings he would allow it
I also enabled equalists to become ruling party if possible, but there's no way they're going to get the numbers to do so...for now.
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Chapter 411: Iconoclasm
After Scheel had gracefully conceded the examination and the last of the BoQ's results came in, on 3 July Adenauer declared victory from the steps of Bukoleon Palace, the chancellor's estate near the Great Palace. The CMU had been deemed the best choice for the Reich moving forward and had been given a mandate to govern in the Kaiser's name for the next five years. And yet, while the chancellor was privately sworn in for a second term inside Bukoleon, his governnment remained on shaky foundations. Due to the weak showing of the CMU itself in the results, the Kaiser only allowed Adenauer to form a majority government if the CMU entered into a coalition with the CSU, the SPR, HF, and all of the socialist parties. The socialists then had the opportunity to bring down Adenauer's government at will if their demands weren't met. Fortunately, the SPR, the largest and most influential of the socialist parties, only made very moderate demands of the CMU and CSU, forcing the newer parties (and the noble-dominated Schweinfurt Faction) to fall into line.
Adenauer's first order of business was to invest in the State of Siam, which had suffered the worst in the collapse of Indochina. Malaya had been the richest part of Indochina and the most insurgent free, while the north was mostly Seri Thai-infested jungle and swamp. Corruption was rampant in the Siamese government, despite King Bhumibol's efforts to stamp it out. The military wielded significant power over the civilian government, though not to the same degree as the Seri Thai-led junta in Thailand. Seri Thai insurgents rampaged through the countryside, harassing both the few Roman settlers who remained in Siam and native Siamese farmers. In the north, the junta issued propaganda and official press releases condemning the Bangkok government as an illegitimate state. The Athanatoi reported that the Thai Army had conducted a higher than usual number of military exercises near the border in June, possibly a prelude to invasion. Chancellor Plaek Phibunsongkhram, a staunch nationalist with ties to the Reich, appealed to Adenauer to invest in the Siamese economy more and help it stand up to the illegitimate Chinese puppet in the north. Adenauer obliged, authorizing an aid package intended to finance the development of the military and the construction of roads, bridges, airfields and ports. While this was a welcome investment, it was the beginning of a worrying trend as the Siamese economy became increasingly reliant on foreign aid.
Back at home, the socialists made their first demands to Adenauer's new government in late August. Several SPR members began arguing for mandatory association of all Roman public employees with a government trade union to ensure that their rights are respected. Five prominent trade unions immediately endorsed their suggestion, followed by most of the SPR members in Adenauer's cabinet. A vote taking place the following day failed to pass mandatory trade union membership (thanks to opposition from the KRA and FMP), but it managed to pass promotive gender equality rights (whereby all employers were to ensure their employees were paid at the same rate regardless of gender), reduce the workday to six hours, and mandate paid sick leave.
(Accidentally deleted the six hour workday reform screenshot)
With the socialists and social meritocrats satisfied, Adenauer turned back to foreign policy, formally admitting India into the Central Powers on 27 August and approving an aid package intended to finance the rebuilding of India's industry and military.
It became clear that Molotov did not want Adenauer in power. In several interviews with Pravda, Molotov said that if he were a Roman (he shuddered as he said that), he would have voted for Scheel, as Adenauer was an imperialist who oppressed his people, while Scheel was willing to work with the CSSR as an equal instead of arrogantly claiming the moral high ground. After launching into a tirade about Roman human rights violations, racial discrimination, and colonial oppression of the Neurhomanians and Africans, Molotov said that giving Adenauer a second term would be a bad idea for the Reich. Of course, since no sane Roman (or even any Russian) read Pravda, nobody cared about Molotov's thinly veiled threats.
So when Adenauer was reappointed for a second term, Molotov decided to make good on his threat and punish the Reich as a whole. He wouldn't deploy any troops or nukes, but he would make them hurt. Soon after Adenauer's victory was announced, Molotov called up Walter Ulbricht.
The equalist regime installed in East Berlin had previously declared Brandenburg Palace a symbol of Roman militarism, capitalism, and imperialist oppression, although at that time its presence was tolerated, even if that meant having artillery shells fired at it. Some parts of the palace remained in use as an exhibition space. A secret 1950 DDR Ministry of Construction report, only rediscovered in 2016, calculated that reconstruction of the damaged Palace could be achieved for 32 million Volksmarks. (The average monthly salary of an East Berliner in 1950 was 265.25 Volksmarks.) However, on 2 July 1950, Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, announced the complete demolition of the palace. Despite objections from nearly everybody in the Occupied Territories, East Germany, East Berlin, his own cabinet, and hundreds of millions in the Reich and around the world, the destruction of Brandenburg Palace commenced on 7 October 1950, the process taking four months and consuming 19 tons of dynamite. So solid was its construction that the dome and its entire mount remained intact even after it fell to the ground, and it took another month for the dome to be blown to pieces. Only one section was preserved, a portal from the balcony of which Karl Liebknecht, a prominent social meritocrat and friend of Adenauer's during the 1926 general strike, had once stood (though ironically it was to call on his fellow trade unionists to stop striking and get back to work; he was then killed by a mob of equalists, which turned public opinion firmly in favor of the Kaiser). It was later added to the Council of State building (Staatsratsgebäude), with an altered cartouche, where it forms the main entrance. The empty space where Brandenburg Palace had stood was renamed Marx-Engels-Platz and used as a parade ground, where every day East German troops stomped over the spot where Kaiser Otto once reigned from.
Destruction of Brandenburg Palace
Everybody in Ulbricht's government who previously opposed the demolition immediately hailed it as a "great victory for the people of Germany over the Roman oppressors," while dissenters in the general population were "silenced." Otto Grotewohl, Minister-President of the DDR, said, “My conscience is at peace. For the moment everyone is crying out, but once the Palace is gone, not one voice will be heard thereafter.” Another equalist argued that the only other alternative was to destroy Berlin Cathedral, which would have provoked the Church into declaring a crusade against the CSSR. Ulbricht himself said, “The center of our capital city, the Pleasure Garden and the area of the present Palace ruins, must become a great square for demonstrations in which the fighting spirit and the will to rebuild of our people can be expressed.”
"Exhibition Space" where the former Brandenburg Palace sat
Molotov went on the radio, broadcasting a warning to the people of Rome: "You brought this upon yourselves. You wrapped yourselves so firmly in chains you don't want freedom. If you continue to delude yourselves with the fiction that the Kaiser is not a tyrant, you will suffer more. Brandenburg Palace is just the beginning. We will destroy more of your precious chains, and there is nothing your false Kaiser and Chancellor can do about it. When this is all over, you will be thanking us."
The Hohenzollern Faction attempted to get approval for a week of mourning pushed through the Diet, only for the Spartacus League to burst into laughter over an attempt to mourn an inanimate building. The League said that while it was a tragedy such an important landmark was gone, it was just a building, and the space it sat on should be put to good use. In the streets, royalists and equalists cried and celebrated as news of the palace's destruction spread. Brandenburg Palace wasn't just any old palace; it had lasted for many centuries in various forms and had become a symbol of the Reich, a cornerstone of Roman culture. Its destruction was an affront to civilization, an appeal to barbarism, and an attack on the Roman people.
But for Molotov, it was just another day as General Secretary. It was just another victory for the cause of world equalism. Nothing the Romans could do would bring back their precious palace. Like the Kaisers, it was mortal and redundant. Now the land could be put to good use for the benefit of all people.
Life moved on without Brandenburg Palace. Adenauer couldn't spare that much time on the destruction of the imperial palace. The war in West Africa continued to flare up, and although all of eastern and southern Senegal had fallen, Mali still struggled to advance further. Senegalese troops put up significant resistance to the Malian Federal Army. Both sides committed horrible atrocities against local populations, and Adenauer ordered a small division of about nine thousand men to be deployed to Dakar to protect Roman interests in the city.
The costs of the Marshall Plan started to be felt in November. While the Roman economy had started to recover, it still relied heavily on government grants and subsidies to maintain its momentum. Most money invested as part of the Marshall Plan was in the form of grants that did not need to be repaid (though many recipients still did so to show their thanks). The government made long-term loans at low interest rates to finance major purchases across the Reich, all of which were repaid. Yet there was a limit to how much the government could spend while tax rates were this low. The SPR suggested to Adenauer that a tax hike was necessary to maintain economic growth, and the chancellor obliged, slightly raising taxes on all citizens. But the new revenue was barely enough to pay for the investment into the Roman economy, let alone those of the Nordics, UPM, Persia, Afghanistan, India, Siam, Malaya, and Nusantara. As a result, the Kaiser passed an agreement which reduced the repayable amount by half to about 15 billion marks and spread it out over 30 years, by which point the Roman economy should have returned to its pre-war growth levels.
On 23 November 1950, Malian troops entered the Senegalese capital of Dakar, and the remaining members of the Senegalese government surrendered. Bamari granted the nationalists amnesty and agreed to let them participate in the Malian government to work on the reintegration of Senegal into the Malian Federation. This angered many Malian nationalists, who saw the Mansa as selling out to the Senegalese even when it was clear that Mali won the war and was the only state that should dictate terms. To prevent further unrest, Adenauer ordered all Roman troops in West Africa to be deployed to major Malian cities to maintain order.
As Christmas came and passed, an influenza epidemic swept through the Reich, particularly in areas where the Marshall Plan hadn't finished rebuilding local industry and infrastructure yet. Despite the initial wide spreading of the flu, prominent doctors from the Bureau for Disease Control announced that it was just a seasonal occurrence, and vaccines were ready to be distributed and administered.
Die Zeiten won some awards for its coverage of this influenza epidemic, and they would have won more if they hadn't published an article about the Eimerican Commune wanting to align with the Reich.
Despite the conservative victory in the examinations sweeping the CMU/CSU/SPR coalition to power in the Reichstag, the conservatives continued to lose ground in the Reichsrat, losing over six percent of their seats to the traditionalists, populists, liberals, and socialists. The conservative-socialist coalition in the Reichsrat was forced to invite the progressive senators into their ranks to maintain their majority.
In Persia, meritocratic examinations concluded in January with the Persian National Front, a social meritocratic party, being granted a majority in the Majlis. The Shah appointed Mohammad Mossadegh, a (Zoroastrian) former anti-fascist opposition leader whose father was a former finance minister and whose mother was a minor noble, as Chancellor on 11 January, aware of his popularity and influence among the people rivaling that of Reza Khan.
Chancellor Mossadegh
Despite his popularity, demonstrations erupted in Isfahan after Mossadegh's appointment, with crowds invigorated by socialist-leaning speeches made by NF members. There was a special focus on the Imperial-Iranian Oil Company, a mostly Roman-owned company through which the Reich controlled most of the oil extracted from the Persian Gulf, and the heavy involvement of the Reich, India, and China in Persian internal affairs.
Mossadegh's new administration introduced a wide range of social reforms: unemployment compensation was introduced, factory owners were ordered to pay sick leave benefits, and the last serfs and indentured servants were legally freed. Mossadegh also passed a land reform act which forced landlords to turn over 20% of their revenues to tenants to pay for public works projects.
But it was Mossadegh's plans to nationalize Persia's oil industry, in which the Persian government had previously granted concessions to the Reich, that angered thousands of Persians. Opposition parties attempted to delay the nationalization process, to which in early April 1951 the party organised nationwide strikes and riots in protest against delays in nationalization of the oil industry along with low wages and bad housing in the oil industry. Many in Adenauer's cabinet became concerned over Mossaddegh's reforms, worried that he may be a Soviet agent. The Shah, though, called up Adenauer, saying that he had the situation under control and Persia was in no danger of becoming a Soviet satellite.
As tensions rose in Persia over a suspected equalist sympathizer, an actual equalist sympathizer was caught in the Reich. After almost seven years on the run, Julius Rosenberg turned himself in to Roman authorities. Rosenberg had previously worked with the Roman nuclear program during the war, but when it came close to completion, Rosenberg fatally sabotaged the program, setting it back years, and delivered almost all of its information to the NKVD. Rosenberg and his wife Ethel, who was charged with typing up notes with classified information, fled to the UPM, where they hid in the jungle (though they could never cross the border into the UoM) until turning themselves in to authorities. Their trial began on 6 March, with the prosecution's primary witness claiming he saw Julius handing over sketches of a nuclear bomb to a suspected Soviet spy, while Ethel typed notes with nuclear secrets on them and handed them to the NKVD. Both Rosenbergs asserted their Augustinian Code rights and pleaded not guilty, but that didn't stop them from being convicted of conspiracy to transmit to a foreign goverment information relating to national defense. On 29 March, the jury unanimously delivered a guilty verdict. Both Rosenbergs claimed that they had been framed by the Soviets, but that didn't change anything. On 5 April, the courts sentenced them to death (the death penalty was reserved for traitors, war criminals, and other extreme cases), with the judge blaming them for causing millions of Romans to suffer under equalist oppression in the Occupied Territories. The Kaiser ended up commuting the death penalty to life imprisonment with no possibility of rehabilitation and parole, arguing that it was necessary to show mercy to set the Romans apart from the Soviets, who sent all dissenters to gulags or just shot them in the back.
(Yeah...so I wrote the description a little too long)
Adenauer's investment in India paid off in March as Indian industry took off, no longer needing Roman assistance. In just months, India's industry had overtaken that of the Shogunate and the CSSA, and its military had overtaken that of Tawantinsuyu. By the end of March, it was clear that the Shogunate geopolitical clout had been overshadowed by that of both China and India. At the end of the month, the Security Council unanimously voted to give the Shogunate's seat to India and to make India's seat permanent. The Indian Empire, after forty years of chaos and instability, was once again a world power, ready to participate in global affairs again.
With the addition of India as the world's newest great power, the Security Council was now evenly divided between the equalists and capitalists (the Shogunate didn't count as its seat wasn't permanent). But the Reich's industry and military alone outnumbered that of all four equalist members combined, giving the capitalists an advantage in the UN. The Soviets, though, still wielded veto power over many UN resolutions.
Finland lost a great leader when Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, a former Chancellor and founding father of Finland after the collapse of Yavdi, passed away on 3 April 1951 in a hospital in Vienna. He was buried on 4 May 1951 in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki in a state funeral with full military honors which Adenauer and Simo Hayha attended. He was remembered as Finland's greatest statesman, who helped the Toghorilids escape the Soviet invasion of Yavdi and organize the Kingdom of Finland. This may be partly due to his refusal to enter partisan politics (although his sympathies were more right-wing than left-wing), his claim to always serve the fatherland without selfish motives, his personal courage in visiting the frontlines (where he worked with Simo Hayha), his ability to work diligently into his late seventies, and his foreign political farsightedness in preparing for the Soviet invasion of Finland years before it occurred. While the Soviet invasion did succeed, it came at a high cost for the equalists and ended in Finland regaining independence after the war. Mannerheim would be greatly missed by all Finns.
Mannerheim
Mannerheim's funeral
Another railway strike in Penglai was broken up that month.
Over in Neurhomania, nationalist tensions continued to rise as the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the colony approached. Colonial Day was traditionally celebrated on 8 April, the day that the city of New Berlin, the first Roman city in the New World, was founded in 1551. Usually the day featured displays of Roman patriotism, including parades down Mese Street in downtown New Berlin, fireworks in the evening, and the raising of the national flag at the spot where Kristoff Eimerich first landed in South Eimerica in 1476. After the First World War, in which over half of Neurhomania was occupied by Tawantinsuyu, and the Second World War, in which all of Neurhomania was occupied by Tawantinsuyu, nationalists hijacked the celebrations to promote an independent Neurhomanian national identity, separate from the Reich. After all, they claim, it was Neurhomanians who fought against the Tawantinsuyuans in both world wars while the Roman troops were all killed or withdrawn to Europe. Quechua nationalists in the formerly Tawantinsuyuan south and west only made things worse, giving the Neurhomanians a scapegoat on which to build their identity in opposition to. The postwar economic crisis in Europe only made things worse, and as Europe suffered, Neurhomania prospered, but the nationalists were angry that many of their goods and taxes were being shipped over to Europe. Tensions finally boiled over when Colonial Day began in 1951. Adenauer was due to speak in New Berlin at the flag-raising ceremony, accompanied by a heavy police presence. That didn't deter the nationalists, though, and just a few minutes into Adenauer's speech they launched an all-out attack on the police, provoking a huge urban battle that raged through the boroughs of New Berlin for the next week and killed dozens of civilians. As Adenauer was evacuated from New Berlin, the Viceroy declared martial law, but that only caused more nationalists to launch an insurgency in the interior, using the vast Amazon jungle to attack colonial offices and government strongholds with impunity. If the Indochinese Emergency was already a disaster for the Reich, a Neurhomanian Emergency would be a nightmare. The General Staff knew full well the dangers of fighting a war in the Amazon, especially against a guerrilla force. Adenauer tried his best to negotiate with the more moderate nationalists, offering to dissolve the colonial government and replace it with full Lander with equal representation in Constantinople. While some factions agreed and handed over their weapons, the more radical factions used the opportunity to attack and destroy them, resuming the conflict. As a result, Adenauer declared martial law in the entire colony and ordered the Heer sent in to destroy the most radical of the nationalist factions. It was going to be a long war in South Eimerica.
In Persia, Mossadegh finally got around to targeting the Imperial-Iranian Oil Company (IIOC). Under the 1933 agreement with Reza Khan, IIOC had promised to give laborers better pay and more chance for advancement, build schools, hospitals, roads and telephone system; this promise was renewed after the war and Reza's deposition. IIOC did not fulfill these promises, Mossadegh alleged.
IIOC in Abadan, Persia
Following World War II, nationalistic sentiments remained on the rise in Central Asia, the most notable movement being Persian nationalism, which despite its association with Reza Khan's fascism remained popular. IIOC and the first postwar Persian government led by Chancellor Ali Razmara initially resisted nationalist pressure to revise IIOC's concession terms still further in Persia's favor. In May 1949, the Reich offered a "supplemental oil agreement" to appease unrest in the country. The agreement guaranteed royalty payments would not drop below 4 million marks, reduced the area in which it would be allowed to drill, and promised more Persians would be trained for administrative positions. The agreement, however, gave Persia neither a "greater voice in company's management", nor the right to audit the company books. In addition, Persian royalties from oil were not expected to ever drop to the proposed guarantee of 4 million marks and the reduced area covered all of the productive oilfields. When Ali tried to argue with IIOC head Baron Wilhelm Frauser, Frauser "dismissed him" and flew back to the Reich.
In late December 1950 word reached Isfahan that the Roman-owned Imperial Indonesian Oil Company had agreed to share profits with Nusantara on a 50-50 basis. The Foreign Bureau rejected the idea of any similar agreement for IIOC, saying that Persia's oil was necessary to help stabilize the Roman economy. Adenauer, though, ordered the IIOC to review itself and ensure better rights for its workers. The company did not respond to his order.
By 1951 Persian support for nationalization of the IIOC was intense. Grievances included the small fraction of revenues Persia received. In 1947, for example, IIOC reported after-tax profits of 112 million marks, but the contractual agreement entitled Persia to just 7 million marks from Persian oil; the Reich was receiving more from IIOC than Persia, where the money could be used to help bring down poverty and get the Persian economy back on track. In addition, conditions for Persian oil workers and their families were very bad. The director of Persia's Petroleum Institute wrote:
In May 1951, despite warnings from the Reich not to do it, the Majlis approved of Mossadegh's decision to nationalise the IIOC and its holdings.
(They should have picked the other option)
Die Zeiten didn't write about the nationalization of the IIOC, instead publishing an article on India's seat in the UNSC and friendship with the UPM.
Meanwhile, PARA suprisingly entered into an alliance with Tawantinsuyu. If the alliance with the UPM and intervention against Kantunil Kin two years ago had caused its expulsion from Equintern, this now caused the CSSR and its allies to sever all ties with PARA, imposing heavy sanctions on it and condemning the Mexican politburo as traitors and closet fascists.
The nationalization of the IIOC led to the Abadan Crisis, in which, under Roman pressure, foreign countries agreed not to purchase Persian oil, and the Abadan refinery was closed. The IIOC withdrew from Persia and increased the output of its other reserves in the Persian Gulf.
Mossadegh broke off negotiations with the IIOC in June 1951 when the IIOC threatened to pull its employees out of Persia and the Reich warned tanker and caravan owners that "the receipts from the Persian government would not be accepted on the world market." The Reich ratcheted up the pressure on the Persian government and drew up a detailed plan of an invasion to occupy Adaban, a contingency plan known by the code name "Bucephalus." That plan was ultimately rejected by Adenauer and the Kaiser. The Kaiser himself opposed intervention in Persia but would support Adenauer's decision regardless of if it called for intervention.
The Reich was also opposed to nationalization of the IIOC, because of the fear that the idea of nationalization would spread to other places, but the Reich believed it would be possible to reach a face-saving agreement with Mossadegh, under which actual control and management of the organisation would remain under the IIOC. The Reich sent Albrecht Harriman to Persia to convince Mossadegh of such a scheme. Arriving in Isfahan, Harriman claimed that the Reich accepted nationalization, yet insisted on having "a foreign-owned company to act as an agent of IIOC in conducting operations in Persia." Mossadegh adamantly opposed the plan, because he thought it would only "revive the former IIOC in a new form." Mossadegh's opposition caused the Romans to conclude that he had to go. Officials at the Bureau of Energy wrote in July 1951:
In August 1951, Mossadegh paid a visit to the Reich, after the Roman embassy in Isfahan had accidentally invited him (the invitation was actually meant for the Shah). There, in discussions with Adenauer, Mossadegh surprisingly agreed to a complex settlement, under which Persia would own the refinery in Kermanshah and administer the oilfields, and the much larger Abadan Refinery would be sold to a Chinese company. The money from that sale would go to the IIOC as compensation. Furthermore, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) would sell a minimum of 30 million tons of crude oil annually to the IIOC for the next fifteen years. Its board would consist of three Persians, two Romans, and two Chinese, and the transactions of the NIOC would mostly remain in marks. Adenauer accepted the deal, and while the transactions were completed, the Majlis continued to insist on the IIOC's complete nationalization and the end of all oil concessions to the Reich. In response, Adenauer ordered sanctions reimposed on Persia. No foreign country was to buy Persian oil, and all shipments of Persian oil were to be confiscated by Roman and Indian authorities.
The rhetoric coming from the northern Thai government based in Sukhothai grew in intensity as the summer of 1951 continued. Almost every day, Thai propaganda denounced the "false" government in Bangkok, which had "imprisoned" King Bhumibol. In another sign that tensions weren't going to die down, Chiang informed Chancellor Pridi Panomyong of Thailand that if he were to go to war with Siam, the Chinese government would make sure the north would win.
Not to be deterred, Adenauer announced he would be firmly bringing Abyssinia into the Central Powers, though how that would protect Siam was beyond comprehension.
Die Zeiten wasn't helping. A month later, it ran an article detailing how Laos feared a Roman intervention and Cambodia was taking steps to align closer to China.
But what really drove up tensions around the world was an announcement issued by Chiang on 3 November 1951, where he declared that China's nuclear weapons program had succeeded.
Soon after the end of the war, the Chinese Empire had also begun its nuclear weapons program. On 9 November 1944, Chiang Kai-Shek went to Constantinople to confer with Adenauer about future cooperation in developing nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The two leaders agreed that there would be full and effective cooperation on atomic energy, but the Chinese were soon disappointed; the Romans made it clear that cooperation was restricted to basic scientific research. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended technical cooperation. Its control of "restricted data" prevented the Reich's allies and China from receiving any information.
Chiang set up a military sub-committee, the Gen 75 Committee (known informally as the "Atomic Bomb Committee"), on 10 August 1944 to examine the feasibility of a nuclear weapons program. In October 1944, it accepted a recommendation that responsibility be placed within the Ministry of Supply. The Tube Alloys Directorate was transferred from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to the Ministry of Supply on 1 November 1944. An Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) was established at a Chinese military airbase in Guangzhou. Hu Changrao agreed to oversee the design, construction and operation of the new atomic weapons facilities. These included new uranium metal plants in Baotou and Lanzhou, and nuclear reactors and plutonium processing facilities at Jiuquan and Lop Nur. Hu established his headquarters in a former Imperial Ordnance Factory in Guangzhou on 4 February 1945.
In July 1946, the Chiefs of Staff Committee recommended that China acquire nuclear weapons. They estimated that 200 bombs would be required by 1957. Despite this, and the research and construction of production facilities that had already been approved, there was still no official decision to proceed with making atomic bombs. The Gen 75 Committee agreed to proceed with the development of atomic bombs. IThe bomb development effort was codenamed High Explosive Research. Chiang contended that "the discriminative test for a first-class power is whether it has made an atomic bomb and we have either got to pass the test or suffer a serious loss of prestige both inside this country and internationally."
Implicit in the decision to develop atomic bombs was the need to test them. Lacking thinly-populated but easily accessible and open areas in mainland China, Chinese officials considered locations overseas. As a fallback, sites in Fusang and Penglai were considered.
The first test would probably be a ground burst, but consideration was also given to an explosion in a ship to measure the effect of a ship-borne atomic bomb on a major port. Such data would complement that obtained about an underwater explosion by the Soviet Operation Perekrestok nuclear test in 1946. Seven Fusang sites were assessed, the most promising being the Black Sands Rocket Range in the province of Pueblo, but it was far from any major body of water capable of carrying a large warship.
In September 1947, Admiral Hong Liao, who had by now been promoted to Chiang's cabinet, suggested that the uninhabited Meishan Islands in northwestern Penglai might be suitable, so Chiang ordered the colonial administration to send a survey party to look at the islands, which are about 80 kilometres (50 mi) and 130 kilometres (81 mi) from the nearest major settlement.
The Penglai colonial government was particularly interested in developing atomic energy as the colony was then thought to have no oil and only limited supplies of coal. Plans for atomic power were considered along with hydroelectricity as part of the post-war Snowy Mountains Scheme. There was also interest in the production of uranium-235 and plutonium for nuclear weapons.
In December 1947, the islands were assessed as suitable for atomic testing, but only in October.
ICN Pinghai in 1943. The atomic bomb was exploded in its hull.
To coordinate the test, codenamed "Operation Houyi" after the legendary Chinese archer who shot down nine suns, the Chinese government established a Houyi Executive Committee chaired by Hong Liao. It held its first meeting in May 1951.
ICN Chahar, the task force flagship
The Chinese assembled a small fleet for Operation Houyi that included the escort carrier ICN Chahar, which served as the flagship, and several landing ships. Chahar had five aircraft embarked, three helicopters and two amphibious planes. Between them, the landing ships carried five mechanized landing craft and twelve assault landing craft. The bomb, less its radioactive components, was assembled in Xiamen and then flown to Penglai.
The Chinese bomb design was similar to that of the Roman one, but for reasons of safety and efficiency the Chinese design incorporated a levitated pit, in which there was an air gap between the uranium tamper and the plutonium core. This gave the explosion time to build up momentum, similar in principle to a hammer hitting a nail, enabling less plutonium to be used.
The original intention was that the scientists would stay on Chahar, commuting to the islands each day, but the survey party had misjudged the tides; Chahar could not enter the lagoon, and had to anchor far offshore. The pinnaces could not tie up alongside Chahar at night, and had to be moored several miles away. Transferring to the boats in choppy waters was hazardous. Rough seas prevented much work being done between 10 and 14 August 1951. Even when a boat was on call it could take 45 minutes to respond. Boat availability soon became a problem with only five mechanized landing craft, leaving personnel waiting for one to arrive. The twelve smaller assault landing craft were also employed; although they could operate when the tides made waters too shallow for the pinnaces, their wooden bottoms were easily holed by coral outcrops. On 15 August, some men were transferred from Chahar by one of its three helicopters, but the weather closed in and they could not be picked up again, having to find shelter on other ships, which were moored in the lagoon. To get around these problems, tented camps were established for the scientists on two islands.
Scientific rehearsals were held on 12 and 13 September. This was followed by an operational rehearsal on 19 September, which included fully assembling the bomb, which was placed inside ICN Pinghai, since the radioactive components had arrived the day before on a flying boat. Everything was in order by 30 September, and the only remaining factor was the weather. This was unfavourable on 1 October but improved the following day, when 3 October was chosen as the date for the test. The final countdown commenced at 09:15 local time on 3 October 1951. The bomb was successfully detonated at 09:29:24 on 3 October 195` local time, which was 7:59:24 on 3 October in Lokhanda Nagara to the southeast. The explosion occurred 2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in) below the water line, and left a saucer-shaped crater on the seabed 6 metres (20 ft) deep and 300 metres (980 ft) across. The yield was estimated at 25 kilotons of TNT (100 TJ). All that was left of Pinghai was a "gluey black substance" that washed up on the shore of one island. The bomb had performed exactly as expected. The military officers on site were filmed as shouting "Wansui!" nine times, though the scientists remained silent.
Cloud from China's first atomic bomb immediately and 30 minutes after the detonation
Two helicopters flew in to gather a sample of contaminated seawater from the lagoon. Scientists in gas masks and protective gear visited various points in pinnaces to collect samples and retrieve recordings. Although the feared tidal surge had not occurred, radioactive contamination of the islands was widespread and severe. It was clear that had an atomic bomb exploded in a Chinese port, it would have been a catastrophe worse than the bombing of Warsaw, Konigsberg, and Dresden. The fallout cloud rose to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and was blown out to sea, as intended; but later reversed direction and blew over the Penglai mainland. Very low levels of radioactivity were detected as far away as Xiwang on the east coast.
Hong and some of his staff returned by air on 9 October. He was awarded the Order of the Tiger of the Chinese Empire on 23 October for his role in Operation Houyi. The rest stayed behind to clean up the radioactive fallout.
With the success of Operation Houyi, the Chinese Empire became the third nuclear power after the CSSR and the Reich, although production bombs would not be delivered to the ICAF until November 1953, and a further two years would pass before the ICAF had bombers capable of carrying them. Nevertheless, it was a worrying trend for the Reich, where many civilians and politicians feared that continued nuclear proliferation only increased the chance of a world-ending nuclear war.
You get a nuke! You get a nuke! Everybody gets a nuke! Nuclear proliferation for all!
Next thing I know Tawantinsuyu and Vinland are both getting nukes. Or both Japans. Or even Northern Siam.
The destruction of Brandenburg Palace, while upsetting, isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. Her memory outlives the building. Now, China getting nukes, that's a big deal. The three strongest nations in the world all have the same trump card, with varying levels of producing them. Bad time to be the fourth strongest...
Or Nepal. Or Ryukyu, if it ever shows up again.Next thing I know Tawantinsuyu and Vinland are both getting nukes. Or both Japans. Or even Northern Siam.
I didn't talk about the other Hohenzollern palaces that the Soviets destroyed yet.
Well, the fourth strongest is either India or the Eimerican Commune. The former has the Himalayas, a large population, and the Reich to help them defend against China and the CSSR if war ever occurs, and the latter is separated from Eurasia by the Atlantic and Pacific. Nobody has ICBMS...yet.
Chapter 412: Unrest
The day after announcing the successful test of a nuclear weapon, Chiang announced that he would be organizing a government-funded space program. He declared that within twenty years, China would have the technology to put manmade devices (probably nuclear weapons) in space, truly becoming a Celestial Empire. The declaration alarmed many in Adenauer's cabinet, who urged the chancellor to divert more funding into the Roman space agency.
The 1952 Reichsrat convened with the CMU and other conservative factions losing even more ground to the liberals and traditionalists. The conservatives only controlled 16% of the Reichsrat, less than the socialists and slightly more than the progressives. Their plummeting numbers meant that they had to invite the traditionalists into their coalition with the socialists and progressives to gain a majority. However, the progressives refused to work with the traditionalists, their ideological opposite, and left the coalition entirely, entering into a coalition with the liberals and populists. The KRA thus gained a majority in the Reichsrat to oppose the CMU coalition in the Reichstag. For the first time in Roman politics, the Diet was deadlocked. Greater transparency and popular representation in the political process had come at the expense of introducing a major flaw of 19th century democracies into the Reich's meritocracy.
The KRA-dominated Reichsrat set about passing its own agenda. The progressives called for a vote decriminalizing homosexuality, which the conservatives and traditionalists vehemently opposed. Adenauer called the bill foolish and argued that it would not find much support against the general population. While the traditionally moderately liberal Church officially had never declared homosexuality a sin (that part of Bible involving Sodom and Gomorrah was interpreted as focusing on lack of hospitality), it did rail against the decriminalizing of homosexuality as a threat to traditional marriage. Despite thousands being invested by the Church and conservative parties, the Socialist Party broke from the SPR's alliance with the CMU and supported the KRA/FMP's bill, giving them a majority in both houses. Adenauer called for the Kaiser to veto the bill, but Otto refused to use his veto power. While homosexuality was officially decriminalized in the new piece of legislation, it would take time to be enforced, and many local authorities would continue to enforce anti-LGBT laws for a while. Most of the blame for passing this law fell, ironically, on the CMU, as it was technically leading the government at the time.
In the CSSR, Molotov began cracking down on suspected political dissidents, including some of his former allies. The Muslim Anti-Fascist Committee was formed on Molotov's order in Kuibyshev in April 1942 with the official support of the Soviet authorities. It was designed to influence international public opinion and organize political and material support for the Soviet fight against Rasa India and the Angeloi. But towards the end of the war and the beginning of the postwar era, the MAC became involved in documenting the Muslim Holocaust, which ran contrary to official Soviet policy to present it as atrocities against all Soviet citizens (despite the low number of atrocities compared to those in India, Central Asia, and the Middle East) and not as a specific anti-Muslim genocide. Their contacts with Roman Muslim organizations resulted in the NKVD deeming it a capitalist front. Its leader was killed in Minsk by the NKVD, which staged the murder as a car accident. Other senior members of the MAC were arrested and charged with disloyalty, bourgeois nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and conspiracy to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Caucasus and Crimea to reunify with the Reich. All were then executed or sent to gulags in Yavdi. Soviet state media issued propaganda against "rootless cosmopolitans," blatantly aimed at Muslims. On 12 August 1952, at least 13 prominent Arabic writers were executed in what became known as the "Night of the Murdered Poets."
(It should read Muslim Anti-Fascist Committee instead)
As the Soviets continued their mass repression against their own people, a surprising document arrived in the Diet. It was a letter from Chiang, who offered to solve the "Indian problem" with the Reich and called for a conference on the reunification of India. The note included the following points:
Princess Sita (who still hadn't had her formal coronation) had different priorities from Chiang. Her main priority was integrating India into the Roman economic bloc, and she saw reunification as a rather abstract goal. The government of Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to focus on the reestablishment of India into a capitalist meritocratic Eurasia, with reunification only possible when economic integration was complete. Both Nehru and Sita did not believe that Chiang's offer was sincere and appealed to Adenauer to mediate the discussion.
Adenauer, like much of the Diet, did not believe Chiang was serious about Indian reunification. One of his ministers suggested that India should mediate the Roman-Chinese talks. Another wanted to reject the proposal, as it said nothing about free meritocratic examinations. Other ministers and members of the KRA and FMP felt that they should at least seriously test Chiang's proposal so that the public would not get the impression that reunification failed because of India. It would also prove if Chiang was serious, and if he wasn't, his treachery would be revealed.
Adenauer felt that a test would have significant disadvantages:
As a result, Adenauer, the CMU, and the SPR agreed that the offer wasn't sincere. The KRA and FMP, though, used their control of the Reichsrat to force the government make a counteroffer, namely demanding that the neutrality clause be removed and India retain its membership in the Central Powers as a meritocratic state. Realizing the Romans had called his bluff, Chiang decided to call a conference in Hyderabad, where representatives from the Reich, China, and India gathered to work on the terms of reunification.
Molotov didn't stop after the Muslim Anti-Fascist Committee had been purged. He moved on to targeting Kiev doctors who allegedly had ties to the MAC and plotted to kill senior equalist leaders. On 11 March, the Politburo set up a commission (led by Beria and Malenkov) to investigate the alleged "doctors' plot." Beria soon twisted the investigation to purge his enemies in the Ministry of State Security (MGB) and take control of it for himself. Several more doctors, mostly Muslim doctors, were arrested, charged with conspiracy to assassinate Molotov and other Soviet leaders, tortured for confessions, slandered in the media, and then shot or sent off to gulags.
Adenauer had planned to attend the conference, but his plane was grounded in Constantinople by an unexpectedly extremely severe smog covering all of Constantinople. A period of cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants – mostly arising from the use of coal – to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted through March and April 1952 and then dispersed quickly when the weather changed.
It caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severe than previous smog events experienced in the past, called "pea-soupers". Government medical reports in the following weeks, however, estimated that up until the end of the smog, 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the total number of fatalities was considerably greater, about 12,000.
The Great Smog is known to be the worst air-pollution event in the history of the Reich, and the most significant in terms of its effect on environmental research, government regulation, and public awareness of the relationship between air quality and health.
Up north, Molotov caused an incident when a Tsarist military plane crashed in the Baltic, allegedly shot down by a Soviet artillery piece. The Catania affair occurred when a Tsarist Russian military Dietrich DC-3A-360 Skytrain flying over the Baltic Sea carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations for the Tsarist National Defence Radio Establishment (TNDRE) disappeared east of the isle of Gotska Sandön. Three days later, two Tsarist military Catania flying boats searched for the DC-3 north of Estonia. One of the planes was shot down by Soviet warplanes but the crew ditched near the imperial freighter Münsterland and were rescued. The CSSR denied shooting down the DC-3, but a few days later a life raft with Soviet shell shrapnel was found.
Adenauer, still grounded in Constantinople, had to cancel his other plans to visit several Roman cities, among them Munich. That was probably for the best, for on 2 April 1952, just a couple days before the smog lifted, a package addressed to Adenauer exploded at Munich's police headquarters, killing one officer. Investigators revealed that the bomber was named Menachem Begin, a former leader of the radical Jewish terrorist group Irgun and leader of Herut, another Jewish terrorist group. When he and five accomplices were arrested by authorities, he confessed to the crime, saying that it was intended to put pressure on the Diet and prevent the passing of a bill that would help Muslims settle in large numbers in the Middle East, including Israel. He said it had nothing to do with Irgun's and Herut's stated goals to establish a Jewish state in Israel. Adenauer tried to condemn the attack over radio, but the smog interfered with communications and injured some of the broadcasters, and the broadcast was cancelled. Begin was given twenty years in prison.
A week later, a scandal ciculated that several progressive senators in the Reichsrat had taken bribes from wealthy corporate interests and helped said corporate interests evade taxes. The corporations in turn made several million marks in illegal donations to each progressive senator, as there was no organized progressive party. When leaked by several major newspapers, this scandal caused uproar among most of the general population, especially the progressive-leaning citizens, who felt betrayed. Many of the progressive senators were forced to resign, crippling the progressive cause and weakening the KRA's grip on the Reichsrat.
Despite the smog temporarily impeding the government's operations and Begin's attack, immigration to the Reich reached record levels. At least five hundred immigrants were settled in the Reich every week. Over half of them were from Korea, with the rest coming from a variety of countries such as the two Japans, the African countries, and even Free Aztlan, Tawantinsuyu, and Vietnam. Despite the horrors of the war and economic instability, the Reich remained a beacon of liberty, attracting immigrants from all over the world who wanted to start new lives and get rich. Never had so many immigrants arrived in the Reich. The Bureau of the Interior made sure that they were effectively integrated into Roman society and given a pathway to citizenship. Around the world, the Reich was seen as a place where anybody could achieve anything (other than become Kaiser, obviously) through hard work. The 1950s saw the birth of the Imperial Dream, the Reich's national ethos. The Imperial Dream was the set of ideals (meritocracy, human rights, liberty, opportunity, equality, fairness, and tolerance) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for families and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. Ideals like the Imperial Dream had been defined during the interwar period, but only in the 1950s did it become a cornerstone of Roman national identity.
The Shogunate offered to increase ties with the Reich in mid-April, and Adenauer accepted, welcoming the Shogunate as the first East Asian member of the Central Powers. Membership was approved in exchange for the Shogunate allowing the Reich to build military bases and station troops in its territory.
The Hyderabad Conference concluded in April when Chiang surprisingly agreed to most of the Reich's terms in exchange for a popular referendum in India to decide on who to align with. The referendum was held at the end of the month, with most Indians deciding to align with the Reich. Chiang agreed to respect the terms of the Hyderabad Conference and on 1 May ordered all Chinese troops to withdraw from East India. The East Indian government was formally dissolved on 2 May. On 3 May, the inner Indian border was demobilized and eventually abolished, with freedom of movement across it restored. On 4 May, the Indian national flag was raised over Kolkata, and Sita declared India reunited under a meritocratic government, after thirty years of chaos and war. While India retained its membership in the Central Powers, its large population and industrial base meant that its geopolitical clout was second only to the Reich's within the alliance bloc, allowing it to forge its own path in the world while still remaining on good terms with Constantinople.
The KRA claimed the credit for Indian reunification, as it had been responsible for pushing the government to go through with negotiations.
In July, the Athanatos Anne Frank published her second set of memoirs, which were collectively grouped in the Diary of a Young Girl. The first set of memoirs, comprising mostly of her wartime diary entries, was released in the late 1940s and detailed her experiences as a Resistance fighter in Frankfurt as she grew from a scared orphan into a confident fighter who could stand up to the Angeloi who killed her parents. The second set of memoirs took a different turn, detailing her experiences as she grew up and became a full-time Athanatos, leading (declassified) operations in Mitteleimerica and Indochina against equalist insurgents. In her unconventional diary entries, she expressed concern over the details of her missions, ranging from the killings of innocent civilians (both accidental and intentional) and the ethics of the Athanatoi's conduct. During the war, she had fought in the Resistance against the Angeloi because it was the right thing to do; she didn't feel the same "rightness" when she fought in Mitteleimerica and Indochina.
The second part of Diary of a Young Girl was an instant bestseller across the Reich, but it nevertheless quickly faded into obscurity once preparations for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki began. Helsinki had previously been selected to host the 1940 Olympics, but when the war broke out and Finland was occupied by the CSSR, the games were cancelled. The CSSR, Nusantara, Thailand, Siam, and several other countries made their Olympic debuts in Helsinki. It was also the first Olympics where a united India competed and most of the equalist bloc attended.
A stamp commemorating the 1952 Olympics
(It should say Finland instead - the Olympics event chain partially broke down)
For the first time, a Soviet team participated in the Olympics. The first Soviet gold medal was won by Nina Romashkova in the women's discus throwing event, while the Soviet women's gymnastics team won the first of eight consecutive gold medals.
A dozen Muslims competed as part of both the Roman and Indian teams.
Nusantara sent three athletes to Helsinki.
The Olympic flame was lit by two Finnish heroes, Paavo Nurmi and Simo Hayha. Nurmi first lit the cauldron inside the stadium, and Hayha lit the flame in the stadium tower by shooting it with an incendiary bullet from the middle of the stadium. Only the flame in the tower was burning throughout the Olympics.
Paavo Nurmi and the Olympic Flame
Carpathia, an Occupied Territories satellite state ruling over 9 million inhabitants, won 35 medals at these games, coming in fourth place behind the much more populous Reich, China, and CSSR. The Reich had previously threatened to boycott the games over the IOC's decision to admit teams representing the governments of the Occupied Territories.
Carpathia's Golden Team won the football tournament, beating the CSSA 2–0 in the final.
India, Persia, and Ethiopia were invited after being barred in 1948. Though they won 24 medals, the fifth-highest total at the Games, Indian competitors failed to win a gold medal.
The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) boycotted the games.
Rules in equestrianism now allowed non-military officers to compete, including women. Lis Hartel of Denmark became the first woman in the sport to win a medal.
Emil Zátopek of Bohemia-Moravia won three gold medals in the 5000 m, 10,000 m and the Marathon (which he had never run before).
The Indian national field hockey team won its fifth consecutive gold.
Robert Mathias of the Reich became the first Olympian to successfully defend his decathlon title with a total score of 7,887 points.
Josy Barthel of the Reich pulled a major surprise by winning the 1500 m.
A dozen Muslims competed as part of both the Roman and Indian teams.
Nusantara sent three athletes to Helsinki.
The Olympic flame was lit by two Finnish heroes, Paavo Nurmi and Simo Hayha. Nurmi first lit the cauldron inside the stadium, and Hayha lit the flame in the stadium tower by shooting it with an incendiary bullet from the middle of the stadium. Only the flame in the tower was burning throughout the Olympics.
Paavo Nurmi and the Olympic Flame
Carpathia, an Occupied Territories satellite state ruling over 9 million inhabitants, won 35 medals at these games, coming in fourth place behind the much more populous Reich, China, and CSSR. The Reich had previously threatened to boycott the games over the IOC's decision to admit teams representing the governments of the Occupied Territories.
Carpathia's Golden Team won the football tournament, beating the CSSA 2–0 in the final.
India, Persia, and Ethiopia were invited after being barred in 1948. Though they won 24 medals, the fifth-highest total at the Games, Indian competitors failed to win a gold medal.
The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) boycotted the games.
Rules in equestrianism now allowed non-military officers to compete, including women. Lis Hartel of Denmark became the first woman in the sport to win a medal.
Emil Zátopek of Bohemia-Moravia won three gold medals in the 5000 m, 10,000 m and the Marathon (which he had never run before).
The Indian national field hockey team won its fifth consecutive gold.
Robert Mathias of the Reich became the first Olympian to successfully defend his decathlon title with a total score of 7,887 points.
Josy Barthel of the Reich pulled a major surprise by winning the 1500 m.
The 1952 Summer Olympic programme featured 149 events in the following 17 sports:
Aquatics
Diving (4)
Swimming (11)
Water polo (1)
Athletics (33)
Basketball (1)
Boxing (10)
Canoeing (9)
Cycling
Road (2)
Track (4)
Equestrian
Dressage (2)
Eventing (2)
Show jumping (2)
Fencing (7)
Field hockey (1)
Football (1)
Gymnastics (15)
Modern pentathlon (2)
Rowing (7)
Sailing (5)
Shooting (7)
Weightlifting (7)
Wrestling
Freestyle (8)
Hellenic (8)
Demonstration sports:
Handball
Pesäpallo (a Finnish sport)
Diving (4)
Swimming (11)
Water polo (1)
Athletics (33)
Basketball (1)
Boxing (10)
Canoeing (9)
Cycling
Road (2)
Track (4)
Equestrian
Dressage (2)
Eventing (2)
Show jumping (2)
Fencing (7)
Field hockey (1)
Football (1)
Gymnastics (15)
Modern pentathlon (2)
Rowing (7)
Sailing (5)
Shooting (7)
Weightlifting (7)
Wrestling
Freestyle (8)
Hellenic (8)
Demonstration sports:
Handball
Pesäpallo (a Finnish sport)
With an annual average temperature of 5.9 °C, Helsinki was the coldest city to host the Summer Olympics.
Hämeenlinna – Modern pentathlon
Harmaja – Sailing
Helsinki Football Grounds – Football
Huopalahti – Shooting (shotgun)
Käpylä – Cycling (road)
Kotka – Football
Laakso – Equestrian (eventing – riding)
Lahti – Football
Liuskasaari – Sailing
Malmi Rifle Range – Shooting (pistol/ rifle)
Maunula – Cycling (road)
Meilahti – Rowing
Messuhalli – Basketball (final), boxing, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling
Olympic Stadium – Athletics, Equestrian (jumping), Football (final)
Pakila – Cycling (road)
Ruskeasuo Equestrian Hall – Equestrian (dressage, eventing)
Swimming Stadium – Diving, Swimming, Water polo
Taivallahti – Canoeing
Tali Race Track – Equestrian (eventing steeplechase)
Tampere – Football
Tennis Palace – Basketball
Turku – Football
Velodrome – Cycling (track), Field hockey
Westend Tennis Hall – Fencing
Harmaja – Sailing
Helsinki Football Grounds – Football
Huopalahti – Shooting (shotgun)
Käpylä – Cycling (road)
Kotka – Football
Laakso – Equestrian (eventing – riding)
Lahti – Football
Liuskasaari – Sailing
Malmi Rifle Range – Shooting (pistol/ rifle)
Maunula – Cycling (road)
Meilahti – Rowing
Messuhalli – Basketball (final), boxing, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling
Olympic Stadium – Athletics, Equestrian (jumping), Football (final)
Pakila – Cycling (road)
Ruskeasuo Equestrian Hall – Equestrian (dressage, eventing)
Swimming Stadium – Diving, Swimming, Water polo
Taivallahti – Canoeing
Tali Race Track – Equestrian (eventing steeplechase)
Tampere – Football
Tennis Palace – Basketball
Turku – Football
Velodrome – Cycling (track), Field hockey
Westend Tennis Hall – Fencing
These were the top ten nations that won medals at the 1952 Games.
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Roman Reich 40 19 17 76
2 Soviet Union 22 30 19 71
3 Chinese Empire 16 10 16 42
4 Carpathia 12 13 10 35
5 India 8 9 4 21
6 Bohemia-Moravia 7 3 3 13
7 Tsarist Russia 6 6 6 18
8 Finland (host) 6 3 13 22
9 Tawantinsuyu 6 2 3 11
10 Kanata 3 2 0 5
The 1952 Olympics concluded in early September with the King of Finland presiding over the extinguishing of the Olympic flame and the handing over of the Olympic flag to General Jiang Jingguo, Chiang's son. The 1956 Olympics had been awarded to Nanjing, China.
(Ignore the event spam behind the notification. An error in the event made it fire for every single country, including those that didn't exist.)
As the winter approached and the Reichsrat prepared to go on break before convening again in January, the fallout from the homosexuality decriminalization bill took its toll in both houses of the Diet. The Socialist Party, which had supported the bill, found itself kicked out of the CMU/CSU-SPR coalition and politically isolated, as the SPR campaigned vigorously against it. The social meritocrats labeled the Socialists as too radical and borderline equalist, with its more radical members plotting against the Kaiser himself. The Socialists' popularity among the public rapidly collapsed, and by the beginning of November, most of its members had either resigned or defected to the SPR. The remaining members agreed to dissolve the party on 1 November and formally join the SPR. Where there were previously three socialist and social meritocrat parties there were now two parties, one socialist and one social meritocrat. The Schweinfurts had wisely fallen in line behind the SPR, fearing that their century-old party might follow the Socialists into oblivion.
Nusantara agreed to an alliance with the Reich that month. The kingdom would gain Roman protection and access to the markets of other Central Powers members in exchange for the Reich building military bases in Borneo and Java and stationing troops there.
To take back control of the government, Adenauer went on the offensive. Aided by the SPR, he pushed through regulations on the Roman economy, making sure that corporations treated their clients and customers fairly. Other financial regulations ensured that banks remained accountable to their clients and that the stock market could never undergo a second Great Depression or postwar slump. The KRA and FMP denounced these regulations as strangling the free market, but the progressives sided with the CMU and SPR against them, giving Adenauer a majority.
Next, Adenauer ordered a reorganization of the Bureau of Security to make it more efficient. The wartime bureau was to be reorganized into the Imperial Security Bureau, which would be a military intelligence organization that was a part of the Bureau of Defense (BOD). The ISB was to be responsible for global mointoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The Athanatoi Home Division would remain under the Bureau of Intelligence's oversight, while the Athanatoi Overseas Division was placed under the ISB's jurisdiction, giving both the BI and ISB control over the Athanatoi as a whole.
Adenauer also announced the continuation of the Roman nuclear program through declaring the success of Operation Castle, a series of nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Bureau of Defense to test designs for a thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb), which would be immensely more powerful than a conventional atomic bomb.
While the Trinity test took place in Mauretania, the General Staff was concerned about a possible spread of radiation to populated areas and advised that the next test take place in a more isolated area. Bikini Atoll was chosen as the location to conduct Operation Castle for its remote location from heavily populated areas (the Reich made sure to test it far from the nearest Polynesian settlement too).
Operation Castle was divided into seven experiments, all to take place in the region near Bikini Atoll. The most notable event of Operation Castle was the Castle Bravo test. The dry fuel for Bravo was 40% Li-6 and 60% Li-7. Only the Li-6 was expected to breed tritium for the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction; the Li-7 was expected to be inert. Yet Johann Neuman, head of the Agadir Theoretical Design Division, had speculated that Bravo could "go big", estimating that the device could produce an explosive yield as much as 20% more than had been originally calculated. The Li-7 component turned out to be an excellent source of tritium through a previously unquantified reaction. In practice, Bravo exceeded expectations by 150%, yielding 15 Mt—1,000 times more powerful than the weapon used on Warsaw. Castle Bravo remains to this day the largest atmospheric detonation ever conducted by the Reich, and the fifth largest detonation in the world.
Castle Bravo
Castle Reinhard
Because Castle Bravo greatly exceeded its expected yield, Joint Task Force 7 was caught unprepared. Much of the permanent infrastructure on the target atoll was heavily damaged. The intense thermal flash ignited a fire at a distance of 20 nautical miles (37 km) on the island of Eneu (base island of Bikini Atoll). The ensuing fallout contaminated all of the atoll, so much so, that it could not be approached by JTF-7 for 24 hours after the test, and even then exposure times were limited. As the fallout spread downwind to the east, more atolls were contaminated by radioactive calcium ash from the incinerated underwater coral banks. Although the atolls were evacuated long before the test and the atolls were chosen so that any detonation was as far away from any permanent settlement as possible, 239 natives on the Utirik, Rongelap, and Ailinginae Atolls were subjected to significant levels of radiation. 28 Romans stationed on the Rongerik Atoll were also exposed. Follow-up studies of the contaminated individuals began soon after the blast as Project 4.1, and though the short-term effects of the radiation exposure for most of the Polynesians were mild and/or hard to correlate, the long-term effects were pronounced. Additionally, 23 Japanese fishermen aboard Daigo Fukuryu Maru were also exposed to high levels of radiation. They suffered symptoms of radiation poisoning, and one crew member died in September 1953.
The heavy contamination and extensive damage from Bravo significantly delayed the rest of the series. The post-Bravo schedule was revised on 14 April 1954.
Operation Castle was an unqualified success for the implementation of dry fuel devices. The Bravo design was quickly weaponized and is suspected to be the progenitor of the Mk-21 gravity bomb. The Mk-21 design project began on 26 March 1954 with production of 275 weapons beginning in late 1955. Castle Reinhard, relying on natural lithium, was rapidly turned into the Mk-17 bomb, the first deployable Roman hydrogen bomb / thermonuclear weapon, and was available to strategic forces as an Emergency Capability weapon by mid-1954. Most of the Castle dry fuel devices eventually appeared in the inventory and ultimately grandfathered the majority of thermonuclear configurations.
No longer was the Reich on even ground with the CSSR. It had finally pulled ahead in the Cold War. Its nuclear weapons were now superior to anything in the Soviet arsenal (not to mention everything in the Chinese arsenal), giving it an unprecedented advantage on the global stage. Now it would be the Reich's turn to boss the CSSR around, though not to the same degree that the CSSR goaded the Reich in the five years after the war. But it wouldn't be long before the Soviets developed their own thermonuclear weapons and caught up.
Even the successful test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific didn't boost the conservatives' numbers in the Reichsrat. The CMU, CSU, and HF lost another two percent of the seats in the Reichsrat in 1953, while the KRA and FMP now controlled over a third of the seats. The progressives, hurt by the previous year's scandal, lost over half of their seats. Other big winners included the traditionalists and socialists. Thinking fast, Adenauer negotiated with the populists and traditionalists, bringing them into a coalition with the socialists and conservatives to regain control over the Reichsrat. But the liberals and their progressive allies still controlled well over 40% of the Reichsrat's seats.
The year 1953 also brought change in the Soviet Commune. Worrying about dissent within the party over falling behind in the nuclear arms race and with his health failing, Molotov announced on 5 January that he would be retiring from office effective immediately, citing his poor health. The man who had led the CSSR for almost twenty years had finally stepped down. He named Beria as his successor to the office of General Secretary. Within an hour of the declaration, Beria, who remained extremely loyal to Molotov, had purged over twenty senior party leaders and generals that Molotov suspected were plotting to overthrow him. Beria announced that more purges were on the way. If Molotov was bad enough, Beria was even worse. The intelligence chief's reign of terror had begun.
The chaos of the succession in the CSSR was felt in North Eimerica, where ambitious generals and politicians also attempted to seize power, only to be brutally suppressed, with the common people suffering the worst. Dissent was brutally crushed in the larger and more powerful dictatorships on the mainland, but things were different in PARA and Cuba. As it had previously been expelled from the ranks of the equalists, PARA's dictatorship was devoid of foreign support, making it harder to suppress dissent. It took the entire Mexican army, with significant Cuban support, to prevent a coup from overthrowing the politburo. Eventually, the Mexican army itself launched its own coup, deeming the politburo ineffective and incompetent at protecting the revolution. A junta of equalist generals formed a new politburo and began a mass repression of dissenters and other political opponents.
In Cuba, the regime of General Secretary Vataki Balaam also became incredibly disliked, especially among the younger generation. Vataki Balaam had been installed as the dictator of Cuba after the island rebelled from Mayapan with Soviet backing during the war. While he initially enacted a rather progressive and liberal constitution that won him much popular support, he eventually suspended that constitution and revoked most political liberties. Balaam aligned with the powerful Soviet military advisers who helped him set up a one-party dictatorship in exchange for giving control over most of the sugar industry to the Soviets. A stagnating economy, worsened by the fact that over 70% of all arable land was controlled by Soviet economy planners, left thousands of Cubans in poverty while Balaam and his politburo lived in luxury. His increasingly corrupt and repressive government relied on Soviet aid and the mob to continue funding its repression. To crush dissent in the general population--which was displayed through frequent workers' strikes and studen protests--Balaam used the state media to censor all of the protests while using his secret police to carry out wide-scale torture, violence, and public executions.
Vataki Balaam
After a military coup in 1952 that Balaam engineered against his own politburo to further increase his power, several students decided that enough was enough. A 26-year-old man named Fidel "Canek" Argiz Castro, who took the pen name Kestrel, was among them. Kestrel was the son of a Hispanian plantation owner who immigrated to Mayapan in 1926 during the General Strike and his Mayan wife. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Mayan Civil War, in which his parents were killed by Balaam's forces. He himself survived by joining the Equalist Party. In 1945, Kestrel began studying at university, where he became involved in student activism, particulary royalist activism. After graduating and getting "married" (Balaam's government had abolished marriage), Kestrel tried to reform Cuba from within, setting up a "partnership" to help poor Cubans, but Balaam's secret police forced him to end it as it was deemed too capitalist. He also tried to join the Equalist Party, but after Balaam's self-coup his application was denied.
Fidel "Canek" Castro, also known as Kestrel
After the coup, Kestrel formed a group called "The Movement" which operated as a clandestine cell system, publishing underground newspapers while arming and training anti-Balaam recruits. From July 1952 they went on a recruitment drive, gaining about 1200 members in a couple months, the majority from Havana's poorer districts. Almost all of Kestrel's followers were lower middle class or working class; only four were university graduates. The average age was 26. Although a secret royalist, Kestrel avoided an alliance with far-right nationalist and religious fundamentalist groups, fearing it would frighten away moderates. He stockpiled weapons in preparation for an attack on the Moncopan Barracks, Balaam's second largest military garrison. Kestrel decided that his followers had to dress in military uniforms to carry out the attack, which he got by stealing from a military hospital.
The night before the attack, Kestrel and the men he had chosen to carry out the attack gathered at a nearby farm, where he explained the plan. They were to secure the barracks and seize its weapons. Then they were to use its radio to broadcast false messages for hours to confuse Balaam's. Meanwhile, the weapons would be removed and hidden throughout the city to be handed out to the other members of the royalist resistance. A nearby radio station would be seized to broadcast a speech from the Mayan K'uhul Ajaw, who was still held in high regard by most of the Cuban population, in order to mobilize the general public with the aim of launching a revolution against the equalists.
On 6 February, at 6:00 AM, Kestrel and his brother led a group of about 135 rebels in an attack on the garrison. The group formed a sixteen-automobile caravan in order to give the appearance of being a delegation headed by a high-ranking Soviet officer. The plan was that a first group of twenty men would take a civilian hospital at the rear of the barracks, a second group of five men would take the Palace of Justice, and a third group of 90 men, led by Kestrel, would take the barracks and its radio transmitter.
The attack began moderately well. The caravan of automobiles remained intact, and the car containing the heavy weapons arrived on time. Many of the rebels who took part in the attack were well equipped. The infiltration of the barracks was almost completed with little loss of life before the rebels were noticed and the alarm was sounded. Eventually, the rebels, outnumbered 10 to 1, were forced to retreat without broadcasting their message, although they had seized some of the weapons.
Fifteen soldiers and three policemen were killed and 23 soldiers and five policemen wounded during the attack. Nine rebels were killed in combat and eleven wounded, four of them by friendly fire. Thirty-four rebels captured during the next three days were shot after admitting their participation. A handful of rebels, including Kestrel, escaped into the nearby countryside.
While hiding in the Cuban jungle, Kestrel wrote a speech entitled "History will Absolve Me," which he had learned by heart. A copy of the speech was smuggled into Havana, where a royalist sympathizer published it. Soon afterwards, a general strike began, led by Kestrel's brother. The unsanctioned strike crippled the entire city for a whole day, during which the strikers demanded Balaam's resignation and the restoration of capitalism. Balaam responded by declaring martial law and sending in the army. Revolution had arrived in Cuba.
Despite the heavy press censorship in the equalist republic, the Athanatoi still found out about Kestrel's royalist movement and sent him some military aid. Adenauer would have approved more if he hadn't been distracted by the outbreak of full-scale war in Southeast Asia.
Since the end of World War II, the Chinese-backed Seri Thai had launched raids against Roman settlements in Siam, which continued as the Reich handed over control to first the Dominion of Indochina and then the State of Siam. Initially, the Roman government did not consider it a war but rather an insurgency. From 1946 to 1950, the Seri Thai carried out a low-level rural insurgency against the Reich. After the collapse of Indochina and the establishment of two Thai and Siamese governments, the conflict escalated, with the Seri Thai using bases in Thailand to launch raids across the border into Siam. The Chinese supplied both the Seri Thai and the Thai Royal Army with weapons and training, while the Romans tried to train the Siamese National Army to deal with the insurgency. When the SNA proved incompetent at handling the insurgency on its own, the Reich stationed several divisions raised from across the empire throughout Siam, using them to reinforce the SNA. The KRA and FMP called the Siamese counterinsurgency effort a "dirty war," but the alternative was losing influence in Siam to the Chinese.
Roman troops arriving off the coast of Nakhon Si Thammarat
Roman efforts were made difficult by the limited usefulness of armored tanks in a jungle environment, lack of KL air support, and the use of Roman troops being limited by the pacifist KRA's opposition. On the other hand, the Seri Thai used efficient and novel tactics of direct fire artillery, convoy ambushes, and amassed anti-aicraft guns to imped land or air supply deliveries together with a stregy based on recruiting a sizable regular army faciliated by wide popular support, a guerrilla warfare doctrine, and instruction developed in China and the use of simple and reliable Chinese weapons and equipment.
Roman naval aircraft dropping napalm on a Seri Thai cell
This combination proved fatal for the SNA, which suffered several heavy defeats at the hands of the Seri Thai, particularly at the historic World War I battleground of Prachinburi, where over two thousand Siamese soldiers were killed, six thousand were wounded, and eleven thousand captured. Most of the Siamese standing army was routed, destroyed, or captured in just one single engagement.
Roman troops at Prachinburi. Many Roman soldiers made use of the decades-old trenches in the region dug by their grandfathers forty years earlier.
The decisive Seri Thai victory at Prachinburi was enough for Pridi Panomyong to issue an ultimatum to Bangkok demanding immediate reunification under the north or face war. Plaek Phibunsongkhram refused, and the TRA charged over the border to aid their Seri Thai allies.
Direct Roman involvement in the conflict was vetoed by the KRA and FMP, although Adenauer managed to get some more troops deployed to Siam to help in noncombat roles.
Just as everybody had expected, war in Siam had finally broken out. It was never a question of if, but rather when. Now the question on everybody's mind was: who would win?
Legalizing homosexuality is a pretty bold move for the 1950s. How progressive of the Reich. I suppose when you have the unlikely scenario where conservatives dare to form a coalition with socialists, anything can happen.
I was wondering when war would break out in Southeast Asia. If things go the way I expect, the Reich is in for some trouble.
I was wondering when war would break out in Southeast Asia. If things go the way I expect, the Reich is in for some trouble.
The war in Siam could well serve as a spark, lighting the world aflame if things get out of hand. Worst case... I mean, the Reich just got better bombs.
Well, homosexuality was legalized in Brazil extremely early. The real surprise here is the reunification of India.
Oh, now I get that bijection. (Sierra Tango ~ Victor Charlie)
Shame to see that the Castros have flipped sides in this. I was really hoping for a barracks storming in, I don't know, Pueblo.
Then again, you'll need to use that same country for a certain crisis...
Shame to see that the Castros have flipped sides in this.
I was really hoping for a barracks storming in, I don't know, Pueblo. Then again, you'll need to use that same country for a certain crisis...
Hey, blame the liberals and progressives for pushing the bill through. As if it's going to hurt them, though...Legalizing homosexuality is a pretty bold move for the 1950s. How progressive of the Reich. I suppose when you have the unlikely scenario where conservatives dare to form a coalition with socialists, anything can happen.
I was wondering when war would break out in Southeast Asia. If things go the way I expect, the Reich is in for some trouble.
Worst case...WORLD REVOLUTION!The war in Siam could well serve as a spark, lighting the world aflame if things get out of hand. Worst case... I mean, the Reich just got better bombs.
Well, I didn't know what to do with Indian unification in the long run, so I just threw it in here.
Spoilers.
What bijection? I didn't get it.Oh, now I get that bijection. (Sierra Tango ~ Victor Charlie)
Shame to see that the Castros have flipped sides in this.
Then again, you'll need to use that same country for a certain crisis...
Edit: I think I got it now.
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what is the Romisches Reich researching? it seems that you haven't been doing none kind of research for the past few years
I actually have researched everything and am just waiting for the next set of techs to unlock. It helps that the waiting has given me a ludicrous amount of research points.
Reich OPI actually have researched everything and am just waiting for the next set of techs to unlock. It helps that the waiting has given me a ludicrous amount of research points.
Chapter 413: Power Struggles
Unter den Linden, East Berlin - June 1953
"Form ranks!" shouted Major Valentin Varennikov to his men.
His soldiers formed a line across the street and pointed their rifles at the crowd of student protesters marching their way.
Captain Dmitry Yazov raised a megaphone. "Attention, rioters!" he shouted in broken German. "Disperse your illegal demonstration at once, or we will fire!"
He put down the megaphone and reached for his gun.
"You ready, Valentin?" said Dmitry, loading his pistol.
"Ready as I'll ever be," said Valetin, raising his gun, "I've been itching for a fight for the last ten years."
The protesters didn't stop. Thousands of them walked down the street, yelling anti-equalist slogans and singing capitalist songs.
"We destroyed their palace, and they still don't learn," said Valentin, "Has it ever occurred to them we're acting in their best interests?"
"Never knew Romans were this stupid," said Dmitry.
The protesters continued to approach them as more Soviet soldiers and East German police took up defensive formations next to them.
"Last chance!" shouted Dmitry to the protesters. "We will shoot you!"
"Shoot us, then!" shouted a protester. "At least we die free!"
"Very well, then." Valentin shot the protester in the head.
As the headless student fell to the ground, blood spurting everywhere, Valentin shouted, "FIRE!"
The Soviet soldiers and East German police opened fire, and dozens of protesters fell.
Valentin calmly fired off every bullet in his gun without flinching. As protesters screamed and fell, he coldly picked out a target, fired, and moved on to another target. He fired again. He fired again. A young man with a beer bottle charged him. He shot him in the head. An older man waved a Roman flag. He shot him in the head. A woman shouted at him to stop the shooting. He shot her in the head. One student reached him and prepared to punch him. Valentin point the gun in his face and blew it to pieces, not even flinching as his own face was showered with blood and gore. Their screams were far away. Their blood meant nothing to his boots. They were just fascists and reactionaries and capitalists. They did not deserve to live in a workers' paradise.
---
War raged in Siam. As the Thai Royal Army charged out from the hills and jungles of northern Thailand, the Siamese National Army prepared to counter them. However, despite having numerical superiority, the SNA was woefully underequipped. Corruption had resulted in most of the Roman aid being siphoned into the pockets of Plaek Phibunsongkhram's cronies, who used the weapons to supply their own personal armies. The SNA's officers had never been tested in battle before. Many of the troops had been demoralized by the guerrilla tactics and propaganda of the Seri Thai, not wanting to fight their cultural brethren in the north. After Prachinburi, many outright defected. The remainder were not given orders to ship out to the front, and as a result, the bulk of the SNA remained stationed around Bangkok. The Seri Thai and TRA were thus allowed to rampage through the countryside, further turning public opinion in favor of the north.
The Reich did not directly intervene in the war for two reasons. First, the Chinese backed Thailand, and while Chiang hadn't publicly announced that he would directly intervene, Adenauer didn't want to provoke him into doing so. Second, the SPR unexpectedly sided with the KRA in opposing direct involvement, saying that the Malayan Emergency showed that the Reich was not ready for a war in the jungles of Southeast Asia. In addition, the Neurhomanian Emergency need all of the government's attention. While the Reich controlled the major coastal cities, nationalist strongholds held sway over large parts of the interior. Repeated airstrikes did little to dislodge the nationalists and only pushed the so-far generally neutral population closer to siding with the nationalists. The SPR argued that if anything Adenauer should be opening negotiations with Thailand and resolving the conflict peacefully, which would show to the Neurhomanian nationalists that he was willing to talk to them as well.
In the Soviet Commune, the power struggle that ensued after the unexpected retirement of General Secretary Molotov raged on. Although Beria was the "legitimate" General Secretary and used his power to purge as many of his opponents as he could, there were simply too many dissenters for the NKVD, MGB, and MVD to handle. Eventually the power struggle spread out from just a conflict within the highest circles of power to a war between different factions within the Politburo and the Party, where leaders of opposing factions declared war on each other. It took just a few weeks for the army to go into full revolt, but it was too busy fighting itself to topple Beria. Instability in Russia allowed nationalist sentiments, previously suppressed by Molotov's strategic management, to flare up again in Yavdi, eastern Finland, the Baltic States, and the Occupied Territories. Fearing a total counterrevolution might break out at any time and bring back the monarchy, Beria ordered the NKVD to launch a purge of unprecented scale against the military and political establishment. The purge was so large, encompassing even equalist leaders in other equalist dictatorships, it would put Molotov's purges of 1937 to shame. It would take just one month to complete, after which Beria was in complete control of the CSSR. It is unknown how many were killed or sent off to gulags in the purge, as all of the documents regarding it were immediately destroyed on Beria's orders.
Beria's excessive purging, even by his own standards, caused some dissent among even his own "allies" in the Politburo. And yet Beria couldn't purge his allies, as he couldn't rule the CSSR without them. But he couldn't let them criticize him, as they could ultimately get rid of him if left to their own devices. To ensure their loyalty, Beria named himself First Deputy Premier and head of the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs), which he merged with the MGB (Ministry of State Security). He named Georgy Malenkov as General Secretary, although he passed decrees which moved most of its duties and responsibilites to the office of First Deputy Premier. Beria also named Nikita Khruschev, a Russian farmer from Yavdi, as Party Secretary, hoping to quell Yavdian unrest. His other allies received other high-ranking positions, which all conveniently were figurehead ones.
Lavrentiy Beria
Georgy Malenkov
Nikita Khrushchev
Faced with unrest within his own coalition, Adenauer agreed to open negotiations with the Thais. Over radio, the chancellor pleaded for the nationalists to lay down their arms so that the Reich could mediate on a peaceful settlement. The Siamese complained that the Romans had abandoned them, but after some prodding from Chiang, the Thais agreed to talks. Adenauer called up Chiang and asked for his help imposing a ceasefire. Chiang obliged, and on 14 March, he ordered the Thais to stand down or face retribution from China. Adenauer, in turn, asked the Siamese to withdraw to their side of the border and demobilize. The two nations called for a conference on the "Siam question" to start in a month.
On 26 April, the Vienna Conference assembled in Hofburg Palace, Vienna. Delegations from the Reich, China, India (as a neutral party), Thailand, and Siam attended to work on "the problem of restoring peace in Indochina."
While the delegates began to assemble in Vienna from late April, the discussions on Indochina did not begin until May 8, 1953.
The Roman government did not have a unified position on what the Conference was to achieve in relation to Indochina. The KRA and SPR favored a negotiated settlement to the conflict in favor of the status quo. Adenauer and the CMU disagreed, wanting to push for concessions from Chiang.
The Adenauer administration had launched air strikes in support of the Siamese at Prachinburi, but it was unable to obtain a commitment to united action from other parties of the Diet. Adenauer, listening to the SPR's arguments, was wary of becoming drawn into "another Mitteleimerica" that would be deeply unpopular with the Roman public. Roman domestic policy considerations strongly influenced the U.S. position at Vienna. Columnist Walther Lippmann wrote on April 29 that "the Roman position at Vienna is an impossible one, so long as leading CMU senators have no terms for peace except unconditional surrender of the enemy and no terms for entering the war except as a collective action in which nobody is now willing to engage." The State of Siam refused to attend the negotiations until Adenauer wrote to Bhumibol assuring him that any agreement would not permanently partition Siam.
Adenauer opened the conference on May 8 by proposing a cessation of hostilities, a ceasefire in place, a release of prisoners, and a disarming of irregulars.
On May 10, Pridi Panomyong, leader of the Kingdom of Thailand's delegation, set out their position, proposing a ceasefire, separation of the opposing forces, a ban on the introduction of new forces into Indochina, exchange of prisoners, independence and sovereignty for Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Burma, elections or meritocratic examinations for unified governments in each country, withdrawal of all foreign forces (including Chinese), and the inclusion of Laotian and Cambodian nationalist representatives at the Conference. Panomyong first proposed a temporary partition of Thailand on May 25. But their victory at Prachinburi and given the worsening Roman security position near the border, a ceasefire and partition would not appear to have been in the interests of the KOT. It appears that the KOT leadership thought the balance of forces was uncomfortably close and were worried about morale problems among their troops and supporters.
On May 12, the State of Siam rejected any partition of the country, and the Reich expressed a similar position the next day. The Romans sought to implement a physical separation of the opposing forces into enclaves throughout the country, known as the "leopard-skin" approach. The KOT/Seri Thai would be given the themes of Prachinburi and Chanthaburi, three enclaves near Bangkok, and what the KOT already controlled; the State of Siam and Roman forces would retain most urban areas, the Malay archipelago, and several northern cities, including Sukhothai and Chiang Mai, allowing it to resume combat operation in the north if necessary.
Behind the scenes the CMU, KRA, and SPR continued to discuss the terms for possible Roman military intervention in Indochina. By May 29 the three parties had reached an agreement that if the Conference failed to deliver an acceptable peace deal, Adenauer would seek Diet approval for military intervention in Indochina. However, following discussions with the Malayan and Nusantaran governments, in which it became evident that neither would support Roman military intervention, reports of the plummeting morale among the Siamese forces and opposition from senior officers on the General Staff, the Reich began to shift away from intervention. They continued to oppose a negotiated settlement. By early-mid June, the Reich began to consider the possibility that, rather than directly supporting the Siamese in Indochina, it might be preferable for the Reich to train and equip native Siamese troops so that they could fight on their own. This would remove the taint of Roman colonialism. Unwilling to support either the proposed partition or intervention, by mid-June the Reich decided to withdraw from major participation in the Conference.
On June 15, Chiang proposed that the ceasefire should be monitored by a supervisory commission chaired by neutral India. On June 16, Chiang stated that the situations in Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, and Laos were not the same and should be treated separately. On June 18 Pridi Panomyong said the Seri Thai would be prepared to withdraw their forces from Laos, Cambodia, and Burma provided no Roman bases (Chinese bases were allowed) were established in Thailand or Siam. This apparent softening of the nationalist position appeared to arise from a meeting among the KOT and Chinese delegations on June 15, where Chiang warned the Seri Thai that their military presence in Laos, Cambodia, and Burma threatened to undermine negotiations in relation to Thailand. This represented a major blow to the KOT, as they had tried to ensure that the Laotian and Cambodian nationalists would join the juntas in Laos and Cambodia, respectively, under the leadership of the KOT. The Chinese likely also sought to ensure that Laos and Cambodia remained under China's influence.
On June 18, following discussions with the SPR, Adenauer abandoned earlier assurances to the State of Siam that the Reich would not pursue or accept partition, and engaged in secret negotiations with the Seri Thai delegation, bypassing the State of Siam to meet a deadline imposed by the SPR. On June 23, Adenauer secretly met with Chiang at the Chinese Embassy in Constantinople. Chiang outlined the Chinese position that an immediate ceasefire was required, the three nations should be treated separately, and recognition that two governments existed in Thailand. Adenauer returned to Constantinople. The following day he met with his main advisers on Indochina. Field Marshal Doukas outlined the deteriorating military position in Siam, and Lorenz de Normandie suggested that the situation on the ground called for partition at the current borders. The three agreed that Bhumibol government would need time to consolidate its position and that Roman assistance would be vital. The possibility of retaining Sukhothai and Chiang Mai or just Sukhothai was dismissed, as the Romans believed it was preferable to seek partition with no Seri Thai enclaves in the south, which would cause "horrible borders," in one diplomat's words.
On June 16, Bhumibol appointed Plaek Phibunsongkhram as Chancellor a second time (he had previously resigned after the disaster at Prachinburi). Phibunsongkhram was a staunch nationalist, both anti-Chinese and anti-Seri Thai, with strong political connections in the Reich. Phibunsongkhram agreed to take the position, on the condition that he receive all civilian and military powers. Phibunsongkhram and his foreign minister were strongly opposed to partition. At Vienna, the State of Siam's proposal included "a ceasefire without a demarcation line" and "control by the United Nations ... of the administration of the entire country [and] of the general examinations, when the United Nations believes that order and security will have been everywhere truly restored."
On June 28 following an summit in Constantinople, China and the Reich issued a joint communique that included a statement that if the Conference failed, "the international situation will be seriously aggravated." The parties also agreed to a secret list of seven minimum outcomes which both parties would "respect;" these included preserving a meritocratic south Siam, future reunification of divided Siam, and the integrity of Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, including removal of all Seri Thai forces.
From July 3 to 5, Chiang met with Pridi Panomyong and other senior KOT leaders in Liuzhou. Most of the first day was spent discussing the military situation and balance of forces in Thailand. One Thai general explained that:
"While Prachinburi represented a colossal defeat for the Siamese traitors ... their Roman masters were far from defeated. The Reich retained a superiority in numbers - some 470,000 troops, roughly half of them Siamese, versus 310,000 on the Seri Thai side as well as control of most of Siam's major cities (Pattani, Siam, Chanthaburi). A fundamental alteration of the balance of forces had thus yet to occur despite Prachinburi."
Wei Guoqing, the chief Chinese military adviser to the Seri Thai, said he agreed. "If the Reich does not interfere," Chiang asked, "How long will it take for us to seize the whole of Indochina?" In the best-case scenario, the general replied, "full victory could be achieved in two to three years. Worst case? Three to five years."
That afternoon Chiang "offered a lengthy exposition on the massive international reach of the Indochina conflict ... and on the imperative of preventing a Roman intervention in the war. Given Constantinople's de facto opposition to the Empire... one must assume that the current administration would not stand idly by if the Seri Thai sought to win complete victory." Consequently, "if we ask too much at Vienna and peace is not achieved, it is certain that the Reich will intervene, providing Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Bhumibol with weapons and ammunition, helping them train military personnel, and establishing military bases there ... The central issue", Chiang told Panomyong, is "to prevent the Reich's intervention" and "to achieve a peaceful settlement". Laos, Cambodia, and Burma would have to be treated differently and allowed to pursue their own paths, provided they remained in China's sphere and did not permit Roman bases on their territory. The Adenauer government, having vowed to achieve a negotiated solution, must be supported, lest it fall and be replaced by one committed to continuing the war." Panomyong pressed hard for the partition line to be at the prewar border.
Several days later the Thai junta's annual conference took place. Pridi Panomyong emphasized to his fellow generals the need for an early political settlement so as to prevent a military intervention by the Reich, now the "main and direct enemy" of Thailand. "in the new situation we cannot follow the old program." Panomyong declared. "efore, our motto was, 'war of resistance until victory.' Now, in view of the new situation, we should uphold a new motto: peace, unification, independence, and democracy." A spirit of compromise would be required by both sides to make the negotiations succeed, and there could be no more talk of wiping out and annihilating all the Roman and Siamese troops. A demarcation line allowing the temporary regroupment of both sides would be necessary ..." The junta endorsed Panomyong's analysis, passing a resolution supporting a compromise settlement to end the fighting. But Panomyong plainly worried that following such an agreement at Vienna, there would be internal discontent and "leftist deviation" and in particular that analysts would fail to see the complexity of the situation and underestimate the power of the Roman adversary.
The Conference reconvened on July 10, and Adenauer arrived to lead the Roman delegation. The State of Siam continued to protest against partition but this had become inevitable, with the only issue being where the line should be drawn.
All parties at the Conference called for reunification examinations and elections in the relevant parts of the country, but could not agree on the details. Panomyong proposed elections under the supervision of "local commissions". The Reich, with the support of India and the governments of Siam, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma, suggested UN supervised examinations. This plan was rejected by Chiang, who argued for a commission composed of an equal number of nationalist and pro-meritocracy members, which could determine "important" issues only by majority agreement. The negotiators were unable to agree on a date for the elections or examinations for reunification. The KOT argued that the elections should be held within 6 months of the ceasefire, while the Central Powers sought to have no deadline. Chiang proposed June 1955, then later softened this to any time in 1955 and finally July 1956. The Phibunsongkhram government supported reunification examinations, but only with effective international supervision, arguing that genuinely free elections or examinations were impossible in the totalitarian North.
Vienna Conference, 21 July 1954. Last plenary session on Indochina. Molotov is second from right; he is attending as a non-participating observer.
By the afternoon of July 20 the remaining outstanding issues were resolved as the parties agreed that the partition line should be at the current borders and that the elections (with meritocratic screening of candidates) for reunification should be in July 1956, two years after the ceasefire. The "Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Siam" was signed only by Roman and Seri Thai military commands, completely bypassing the State of Siam. Based on a proposal by Chiang Kai-Shek, an International Control Commission (ICC) chaired by India, with Kanata, Vietnam, and Korea as members, was placed in charge of supervising the ceasefire. Because issues were to be decided by majority vote, Vietnam's Korea's presence in the ICC provided the nationalists effective veto power over supervision of the treaty. The unsigned "Final Declaration of the Vienna Conference" called for reunification elections and examinations, which the majority of delegates expected to be supervised by the ICC. The Seri Thai never accepted ICC authority over such elections and examinations, stating that the ICC's "competence was to be limited to the supervision and control of the implementation of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities by both parties." Of the nine delegates present, only the Reich and the State of siam refused to accept the declaration. Bedell Schmidt delivered a "unilateral declaration" of the Roman position, reiterating: "We shall seek to achieve unity through free examinations supervised by the United Nations to insure that they are conducted fairly."
While the three agreements (later known as the Vienna Accords) were dated July 20 they were in fact signed on the morning of July 21.
The Vienna Accords, which were issued on July 21, 1954, set out the following terms in relation to Siam:
The agreement was signed by the Kingdom of Thailand and China. The State of Siam rejected the agreement, while the Reich stated that it "took note" of the ceasefire agreements and declared that it would "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb them."
To specifically put aside any notion that the partition was permanent, an unsigned Final Declaration, stated in Article 6: "The Conference recognizes that the essential purpose of the agreement relating to Siam is to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities and that the military demarcation line is provisional and should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary"
Separate accords were signed by the signatories with the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Kingdom of Laos, and the Kingdom of Burma in relation to Cambodia, Laos, and Burma respectively.
The KOT at Vienna accepted a much worse settlement than the military situation on the ground indicated. "For Pridi Panomyong, there was no getting around the fact that his victory, however unprecedented and stunning was incomplete and perhaps temporary. The vision that had always driven him on, that of a "great alliance" of all Thais, had flickered into view for a fleeting moment in 1945–46, then had been lost in the subsequent war. Now, despite vanquishing the Siamese military, the dream remained unrealized ..." This was partly as a result of the great pressure exerted by China for its own purposes, but the Seri Thai had their own reasons for agreeing to a negotiated settlement, principally their own concerns regarding the balance of forces and fear of Roman intervention.
In a press conference on July 21, Adenauer expressed satisfaction that a ceasefire had been concluded but stated that the Reich was not a party to the Accords or bound by them as they contained provisions that his administration could not support.
Antinationalist Siamese refugees moving from a Roman landing ship to the SMS Mark Brandenburg during Operation Passage to Freedom in August 1954.
After the cessation of hostilities, a large migration took place. North Thais, especially Christians, Muslims, Hindus, intellectuals, business owners, land owners, anti-nationalist meritocrats, and members of the middle-class moved south of the Accords-mandated ceasefire line during Operation Passage to Freedom. The ICC reported that at least 892,876 North Thais were processed through official refugee stations, while journalists recounted that as many as 2 million more might have fled without the presence of Seri Thai soldiers who frequently beat and occasionally killed those that refused to turn back. The Athanatoi attempted to further influence Orthodox Siamese with slogans such as 'Saint Gunhilda is moving South'. At the same time, 52,000 people from the South went North, mostly Seri Thai members and their families.
Plaek Phibunsongkhram asserted his power in the South. Phibunsongkhram refused to hold the national examinations, citing that the South did not sign and were not bound to the Vienna Accords and that it was impossible to hold free elections and examinations in the nationalist and militarist North, and went about attempting to crush nationalist opposition.
Thailand immediately violated the Vienna Accords by failing to fully withdraw Seri Thai troops from Siam, stifling the movement of North Thai refugees, and conducting a massive military build-up that more than doubled the number of armed divisions in the Thai Royal Army (while the Siamese National Army was reduced by 20,000 men). Thailand established military operations in Siam in violation of the Vienna Accords, by providing military supplies and equipment, weaponry, and military personnel and leadership to nationalist insurgents in Siam. Guerrilla activity in Siam escalated, while U.S. military advisers continued to support the Siamese army. The failure of reunification led to the creation of the National Liberation Front (better known as the Chaw Thai, or "Thai Nationalist") by Pridi Panomyong's government. They were closely aided by the Thai Royal Army (TRA) of the North, also known as the North Siamese Army.
Historians have said that the 1954 accords "were so hastily drafted and ambiguously worded that, from the standpoint of international law, it makes little sense to speak of violations from either side."
One of the reasons that the accords were so hastily drafted was because Adenauer couldn't afford the distraction of Indochina when Mossadegh started acting up again. The sanctions imposed on Persia didn't seem to be having an effect on Mossadegh's government, which had turned first to China and then the CSSR itself for support. After Chiang insisted that Persia grant China heavy concessions in the oil industry, Mossadegh expelled the Chinese diplomats and entered into negotiations with Beria. Fearing a nightmare scenario, Chiang issued an ultimatum to the CSSR demanding that they stand down. Beria refused to accept Chiang's terms. Not wanting to lose influence in Central Asia, Adenauer sent his own ultimatum, which Beria also ignored. He then conducted secret talks with Chiang over coordinating their next move. Should the CSSR not back down, Adenauer suggested a temporary alliance with Chiang, where they would work together to take down Mossadegh and install a more friendly capitalist government. Chiang agreed.
The next day, Adenauer publicly announced he would be tightening the embargo on Persia, while Chiang issued a similar announcement, withdrawing his previous support for Mossadegh. India also issued its own embargo. Roman and Chinese patrols would ensure no support came from the Soviets through the Caspian. Persia would now be completely isolated in preparation for Operation Ajax, the Athanatoi-Jinyiwei plot to depose Mossadegh.
While the operation got underway, Chiang busied himself with other reforms, as usual done in Penglai. He announced the establishment of the Penglai Atomic Energy Commission in May 1953 with the goal of providing cheap and reliable power for all Chinese within a decade.
In India, the coronation ("Delhi Durbar") of Empress Sita as Samrajni Chakravartin of India, Indian Africa, and Nusantara took place on 17 May 1953 at the Coronation Park in downtown Delhi. The official ceremony lasted from 17 May to 23 June, with the Durbar (coronation) itself occurring on 2 June.
The ceremony followed a similar pattern to the coronations of previous Samrats and Samrajnis Chakravartin before her, being held in Coronation Park and involving the nobility and priesthood. However, for the new Empress, several parts of the ceremony were different. The coronation was the first ever to be televised and was the first major international event to be fully broadcast on television. There had been considerable debate with the Indian Cabinet on the subject, with Nehru against the idea, but Sita insisted that the event be televised. The event was also filmed in color. Tens of millions of Indians watched the coronation live.
Along the route lined with sailors, soldiers, and airmen and women from across the Indian Empire and its colonies, guests and officials passed in a procession before about ten million spectators gathered in the streets of Delhi, some having camped overnight to ensure a view of the imperial carriage, and others having access to specially built stands and scaffolding. For those not present, more than 200 microphones were stationed along the route, with 750 commentators broadcasting descriptions in 39 languages.
The procession included foreign royalty and heads of state riding to Coronation Park in various carriages, so many that volunteers ranging from wealthy businessmen to rural landowners were required to supplement the insufficient ranks of footmen.
After being closed since the Empress's accession for coronation preparations, Coronation Park was opened at 6 a.m. on Coronation Day to the approximately 8,000 guests invited from across the Indian Empire and its allies; more prominent individuals, such as members of the Empress's family and foreign royalty, the peers of India, heads of state, Members of the Sansad Bhawan from the Indian and Indian African legislatures, and the like, arrived after 8:30 a.m.
Empress Sita and Prince Shahaji arrived at Coronation Park in their Coronation robes, the Samrajni Chakravartin wearing the Imperial Crown of India. They received homage from the federal princes and rajahs of the empire's states at the shamiana (ceremonial tent). Afterwards, the imperial couple ascended to the domed royal pavilion, where the Samrajni Chakravartan took the Coronation Oath as administered by a prominent Hindu cleric. In the lengthy oath, the Empress swore to govern each of her countries according to their laws and customs, to mete out law and justice with mercy, and to uphold the faiths of her citizens in the empire (the original oath called to uphold Hinduism, but that became associated with Gandhi's madness). She proceeded to the altar where she stated, The things which I have here promised, I will perform and keep. So preserve me Vishnu," before kissing a copy of the Rigveda. Sita then sat in the Coronation Chair, where she was annointed with holy oil (the Christian-inspired practice had been started by the first Samrat Chakravartin, Jayasimha I), while all television footage was cut off. Once this part of the coronation was complete, the cameras were allowed to broadcast, and Sita was presented with the Sword of Jayasimha. The Empress was invested with the imperial robes and the Sovereign's Orb, followed by the Samrat's Ring and the Imperial Scepter. With the first two items on and in her right hand and the latter in her left, Empress Sita was crowned by a Brahmin priest, with the crowd shouting "Vishnu preserve the Empress!" three times at the exact moment the crown touched the monarch's head. The princes and peers gathered then put on their coronets and a 21-gun salute was fired.
With the benediction read, Sita moved to the throne and all of the Brahmin high priesthood offered to her their fealty, after which, while the choir sang, the princes and peers of the Indian Empire each proceeded, in order of precedence, to pay their personal homage and allegiance to Sita. When the last baron had completed this task, the assembly shouted "Vishnu preserve Empress Sita. Long live Empress Sita. May the Empress live for ever!"
Now wearing the Imperial Crown and holding the Sceptre and the Orb, and as the gathered guests sang the Indian national anthem, Sita left Coronation Park, followed by members of the Royal Family, the priesthood, her ministers and others. Then, transported back to Red Fort in the Gold State Coach, with an escort of thousands of armed forces personnel from around the empire, the Empress appeared on the balcony of the Centre Room before a crowd as a flypast went overhead.
The day after, the imperial couple made a darshan (appearance) at the jharoka (balcony window) of Red Fort, to receive a million or more of the common people who had come to greet them. The next day, Sita presided over a military parade of 100,000 troops. Now that India had finally been reunified, her reign could finally begin.
Empress Sita with one of her cats, although she preferred corgis.
On 15 May, the Athanatoi was given the green light to begin the coup. The official pretext for the start of the coup was Mossadegh's decree to dissolve the Majlis a couple days earlier, giving himself and his cabinet complete power to rule, while effectively stripping the Shah of his powers. It resulted in him being accused of giving himself "total and dictatorial powers" in preparation to establish an equalist republic (documents recovered by the Athanatoi afterwards confirmed that Beria had pushed him to depose the Shah). The Shah, who had been resisting the Athanatoi's demands for the coup, which included bringing back Reza Khan, finally agreed to support it. Having obtained the Shah's concurrence, the Athanatoi executed the coup. Farmans (royal decrees) dismissing Mosaddegh and appointing Reza Khan (who had been covertly flown into Isfahan by the Athanatoi while the coup began) were drawn up by the coup plotters and signed by the Shah. Having signed the decrees and delivered them to Khan and his second-in-command, General Zahedi, the Shah and Queen Soraya departed for a week-long vacation in Mesopotamia. On Saturday 15 August, Colonel Nematollah Nassiri, the commander of the Imperial Guard, delivered to Mosaddegh a firman from the Shah dismissing him. Mossadegh, who had been warned of the plot, probably by the equaliist Tudeh Party, rejected the firman and had Nassiri arrested. Mossadegh argued at his trial after the coup that under the Persian meritocratic monarchy, the Shah had no right to issue an order for the appointed Chancellor's dismissal without the Majlis's consent. However, the Basic Code of Persia at the time did allow for such an action, which Mossadegh considered unfair. The action was publicized within Iran by the Athanatoi and in the Reich. Mossadegh's supporters (millions of National Front supporters as well as members of the Tudeh Party) took to the streets in violent protests, calling for the end of the monarchy. Following the failed coup attempt, the Shah, accompanied by his Queen Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari and Aboul Fath Atabay, flew to Damascus. Reza Khan fled to the nearest Athanatoi safe house, as he hadn't had time to make news of his return known yet. He asked Zahedi to carry on the coup for him.
General Zahedi
After the first coup attempt failed, General Zahedi, declaring that Khan was the rightful chancellor of Persia, shuttled between multiple safe houses attempting to avoid arrest. Mossadegh ordered security forces to round up the coup plotters, and dozens were imprisoned. Believing that he had succeeded, and that he was in full control of the government, Mossadegh erred. Assuming that the coup had failed, he asked his supporters to return to their homes and to continue with their lives as normal. The Tudeh party members also returned to their homes, no longer carrying out enforcement duties. The Athanaoti was ordered to leave Persia, although they were slow to receive the message—allegedly due to Jinyiwei interference—and eagerly continued to foment anti-Mossadegh unrest.
However, General Zahedi, who was still on the run, met with Khan, the pro-Shah Mobad Mohammad Behbahani, and other Shah supporters in secret. There (using Athanatoi money deridingly known as "Behbahani marks"), they quickly created a new plan. Already, much of the country was in shock from the Shah's flight from Iran, fears of equalist takeover, and Mossadegh's arrests of opponents. They capitalized on this sentiment in their plans. The Mobad Behbahani also used his influence to rally religious demonstrators against Mossadegh.
On 19 May, hired infiltrators posing as Tudeh party members began to organize a "equalist revolution". They came and encouraged real Tudeh members to join in. Soon, the Tudeh members took to the streets attacking virtually any symbols of capitalism, and looting private businesses and destroying shops. Much of southern Isfahan's business district, including the bazaars, were vandalized. One Tudeh Party member raised the red flag over the bazaars, declaring the birth of the Socialist Republic of Iran. With sudden mass public revulsion against this act, the next part of Zahedi's plan came into action. From the vandalized bazaars, a second group of paid infiltrators, this time posing as Shah supporters, organized angry crowds of common Persians who were terrified about an "equalist revolution" and sickened by the violence.
Anti-Tudeh "demonstrators"
Pro-coup soldiers outside the Majlis in Isfahan
By the middle of the day, large crowds of regular citizens, armed with improvised weapons, took to the streets in mass demonstrations, and beat back the Tudeh party members. Under Zahedi's authority, the army left its barracks and drove off the Tudeh and then stormed all government buildings with the support of demonstrators. Mossadegh fled after a tank fired a single shell into his house, but he later turned himself in to the army's custody. To prevent further bloodshed, he refused a last attempt to organize his supporters. By the end of the day, Zahedi, Khan, and the army were in control of the government. Despite the Athanatoi's role in creating the conditions for the coup, there is little evidence to suggest that Athanatoi agents were directly responsible for the actions of the demonstrators or the army on May 19.
Coup supporters celebrate victory in Isfahan
The Shah stayed in a hotel in Syria until he learned what had transpired, upon which he "chokingly declared": "I knew they loved me." The director of the Athanatoi flew back with the Shah from Damascus to Tehran. Zahedi officially replaced Mosaddegh, after which he resigned and named Khan his successor. Mossadegh was arrested, tried, and originally sentenced to death. But on the Shah's personal orders, his sentence was commuted to three years' solitary confinement in a military prison, followed by house arrest until his death.
The Shah on his way back to Persia
Mossadegh at his trial
After Mossadegh's fall, the Shah immediately called for snap meritocratic examinations, which were won six months later by a pro-business left-wing party (which had no links with the Tudeh Party). Despite fears that the coup had brought back a fascist dictator, it appeared that Khan was willing to respect meritocratic norms now. It helped that he remained immensely popular among the common people.
A Chinese woman in Fusang, Chen Jiake, broke the sound barrier in June, becoming the first woman and first Chinese to do so. Chiang hailed the achievement as a "great leap forward" for Chinese science.
Not to be outdone, the Diet approved funding for a space center (name to be decided later) to be built in New Cordoba. The space center would be the main headquarters for all future space programs once it was completed at the end of the decade.
And not to be outdone, Beria ordered the Soviet nuclear project to go into overdrive and regain an edge in the arms race. On 2 September, Beria announced the successful detonation of a thermonuclear weapon, dubbed Johann 4 by the Reich. Johann 4 detonated with a force equivalent to 400 kilotons of TNT. Scholars dispute the authenticity of RDS-6 as a thermonuclear device as it did not manage to produce a yield consistent with a true hydrogen bomb.
"Johann 4"
The test made it clear that the Soviets weren't about to concede the arms race and in fact were about to pull ahead again. Beria also ordered his scientists to begin research into acquiring missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads to almost anywhere in the world. These intercontinental ballistic missiles would have unprecedented range, allowing missile silos in Vinland and the Eimerican Commune to hit targets in Neurhomania, Africa, and the European mainland. The Reich's thermonuclear missiles, by comparison, barely had enough range to hit most Russian cities but not the Yavdian ones, meaning that the CSSR could not be destroyed in a single strike and any retaliatory strike could destroy the Reich.
As a sign of "goodwill," though, Beria decided to release several thousand Angeloi and Axis prisoners of war in exchange for a couple NKVD spies. The move was met with criticism in both the Roman and Soviet governments, with the Soviets arguing it showed weakness and the Romans arguing that the Angeloi didn't deserve to be releaesd in such a deal. While Reza Khan helped the Iranian prisoners integrate, the Angeloi and Rasa soldiers had a difficult time adjusting to freedom, as they retained their old prejudices and nationalist tendencies, which clashed with many civilians. Both Roman and Indian society effectively ostracized the Axis prisoners, despite efforts to rehabilitate them. They and their families would be discriminated against for years to come.
The prisoner swap was intended to distract the Reich from events occurring in East Germany, where widespread protests had broken out in major cities.
A Soviet tank in Leipzig
In July 1952 the second party conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) took place in East Berlin. In SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht's words, there was to be the "systematic implementation of Socialism" (planmäßiger Aufbau des Sozialismus); it was decided that the process of Sovietization and Deromanization should be intensified and the importance of the state expanded. The party was acting on demands made by Molotov and continued by Beria.
This meant for example the reorganization of the five Länder into 14 regions (Bezirke) plus East Berlin. This division marked an assault on the remaining middle stratum of the DDR: farmers who owned land, as well as small business owners/tradesmen, who were being forced to give up their independence through raised charges.
This decision was made amid the background of the catastrophic economic situation in the country. In the course of the militarisation pushed by Soviet authorities, direct and indirect military expenditures rose and already made up around 11% of the national budget in 1952. Together with reparation payments, this totalled over 20% of the budget. The economic policies of the SED favoured the development of heavy industry at the expense of the production of food and consumer goods, all of which resulted in a severe crisis in supplying the public with goods. Electricity was turned off in factories and public buildings at the onset of darkness every evening (during peak period).
The dramatic increase of emigration (Republikflucht, brain drain) in the first half of 1953, already high since the establishment of the DDR, constituted a serious economic and social problem. Another factor that contributed to an already complicated political situation was the high number of political prisoners in the DDR. Suppression of the illegal organisation Junge Gemeinde (Young Congregation), wrongly perceived as the central youth organisation of the Church, played a role here. Numerous trainee pastors were imprisoned (e.g. Johannes Hamel and Fritz Hoffmann). Ecclesiastic recreation centres were closed and taken over by the FDJ (e.g.: Schloss Mansfeld and Huberhaus Wernigerode). High school students who belonged to a church were often expelled by the school authorities, sometimes even shortly before school graduation.
Within this complicated background, the decision to raise the work norms (in short the principle 'more work for the same salary') was perceived as a provocation, which would conceivably lead to the deterioration of living standards. The Central Committee decided to address the economic difficulties with a package of changes, which included higher taxes and higher prices, and—most significantly—an increase of the work quotas by 10%.
These changes were coming into force by 30 June 1953, Ulbricht's 60th birthday. Issued as a suggestion, it became in effect a direction that was introduced in all the state-owned enterprises (so-called volkseigene Betriebe) and if the new quotas were not met then workers would have to face a reduction of salaries. The decision was taken on 13–14 May 1953, and the Council of Ministers approved it on 28 May.
Following Molotov's retirement in early 1953 and the massive increase in emigration, Beria decided to ease the policies Molotov had demanded. On 4 June 1953, the Soviet government, alarmed at reports of unrest, summoned East German leaders to Kiev. Georgy Malenkov, on behalf of Beria, warned them that if policy direction were not corrected immediately, there would be a catastrophe. After intense discussion the East German party eased policies and publicly admitted that mistakes had been made. However, that admission may have had the unintended effect of inflaming public opinion rather than easing tensions.
On the morning of 16 June, 300 East Berlin construction workers went on strike and marched down Trotskyallee, renamed Karl-Marx-Allee, towards government buildings after their superiors announced a pay cut if they did not meet their work quota. Things started with a discussion by shop stewards as regards how to respond to recent increase in their work quotas. However, this soon turned into a mass demonstration, which gathered more workers from construction sites as they marched first to the headquarters of the Free German Trade Union Federation. However, dissatisfied with the response there, the protest swelled to over ten thousand as they marched to Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus, the home of the House of Ministries in Leipziger Strasse. They bore banners with such slogans as "“We demand a quota reduction!" However soon more political demands were developed such as “Workers join us!” “Unity is Strength!” “We want the Kaiser and free examinations!” and “We want to be free, not slaves.” They then demanded that Walter Ulbricht come out to speak to them. When a minor official informed the crowd that their original demand about quotas had been met, this failed to satisfy the protestors who started developing other demands until a young engineer made the suggestion that they put out a call for general strike the next day. These events were reported by a West Berlin-based radio station which helped spread news of the intended strike. Also independent networks which had been formed within the factions of the SPR in East Germany, which had been forcibly merged into the SED, the trade unions and the Union of Persecutees of the Angeloi Regime - which had recently been dissolved by the authorities - were an element in this self-organisation.
A Soviet T-34/85 tank in East Berlin, 17 June 1953.
Early on 17 June 40,000 protesters had gathered in East Berlin, with more arriving throughout the morning. Many protests were held throughout East Germany with at least some work stoppages and protests in virtually all industrial centers and large cities in the country. Joint strike committees were established in Hennigsdorf, Görlitz, Cottbus and Gera.
The original demands of the protesters, such as the reinstatement of the previous lower work quotas, turned into political demands. SED functionaries took to the streets and began arguing with small groups of protesters. Eventually, the workers demanded the resignation of the East German government. The government decided to violently suppress the uprising and turned to the Soviet Commune for military support. In total, around 16 Soviet divisions with 20,000 soldiers as well as 8,000 Kasernierte Volkspolizei members were used to quell the uprising.
In East Berlin, major clashes occurred along Unter den Linden (between the Brandenburg Gate and Marx-Engels-Platz), where Soviet troops and Volkspolizei opened fire, and around Potsdamer Platz, where several people were killed by the Volkspolizei. It is still unclear how many people died during the uprising or were sentenced to death in the aftermath. The number of known victims is 55; other estimates put the number of victims at least 125.
Earlier Roman estimates of the number of people killed were considerably higher: according to the Imperial Bureau for Occupied Territories Affairs in 1966, 513 people (including 116 "functionaries of the SED regime") were killed in the uprising, 106 people were executed under martial law or later condemned to death, 1,838 were injured, and 5,100 were arrested (1,200 of these were later sentenced to an average of 5 years in penal camps). It also was alleged that 17 or 18 Soviet soldiers were executed for refusing to shoot demonstrating workers, but these reports remain unconfirmed.
On 18 June 1953 Neues Deutschland, the official party publication of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the daily national newspaper, published an article on its front page titled "Was ist in Berlin geschehen? (What occurred in Berlin?)" that explained the strike and subsequent uprising to be a direct result of the attempts by "reactionary agencies" to disrupt the national stability and legitimacy of the SED. Fortunately they had failed, demonstrating the legitimacy of the SED and the trust that the people placed in them to uphold law and order.
Other archived editions of Neues Deutschland document similar comments made by party officials that condemned the influence of Roman popular culture on East German youth. The prominence of Roman films and music in both East and West Berlin influenced the rise of a subculture of youth commonly known as Halbstarke (lit. half-strengths). Roman films of the era like The Wild One and Rebel With a Cause, featuring movie stars Markos Brando and Joachim Dean, respectively, were viewed by the DDR with romanticizing public disobedience and rebellion, as well as encouraging violent crime.
In memory of the 1953 East German rebellion, the Reich established 17 June as a national holiday, called "Day of Roman Unity". Adenauer issued a formal complaint to Beria, who like his predecessor ignored it.
(Ignore the fact that the event fired in October)
The government's handling of the prisoner swap, the East Germany rebellion, Operation Ajax, the Vienna Accords, and the Neurhomanian Emergency was not forgotten by the rest of the Diet. The Reichsrat convened in January 1954. The year didn't start well for Adenauer and his allies. The only faction that saw a significant change in number of seats was the conservative one. The CMU, CSU, and HF as a whole lost three percent of all seats, together barely controlling more seats than the traditionalist factions. The CMU and CSU's coalition with the socialists and traditionalists fell short of a majority, but the KRA and FMP had convinced the independent progressive senators and the populist parties to work with them, again giving them a bare majority.
In Cuba, Kestrel's rebellion raged across the island as royalist militias used the stolen Moncopan weapons to launch insurgencies against Balaam's government.
In February, Beria announced plans to firmly integrate Estonia into the CSSR. The deportation of native Estonians, Lithuanians, Norse, and Finns was to be accelerated and Russians settled in the region.
That month, the General Staff was proud to announce the launching of SMS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, named after the submarine that saved Empress Sita's life thirty years ago. In its first few years of operation, its nuclear propulsion allowed it to break many records as well as revealing limitations in her design. Nautilus's most famous achievement would be completing a submerged transit of the North Pole in 1958, dodging Soviet and Vinlandic naval patrols until it arrived in Chinese waters and was escorted to Jinshan.
Kaiser Otto also celebrated his Silver Jubilee that January with a grand parade through downtown Constantinople. Millions attended the celebrations, while millions more tuned in on television and radio. In his speech from in front of Hagia Sophia, Otto vowed that he would do everything in his power to liberate the peoples of the Occupied Territories. Despite what the Soviets had told them, the Reich had not forgotten them. They would return for them.
Back in Southeast Asia, steady ambushes and raids by the Chaw Thai against the Siamese government became more regular. The previous December, China had agreed to a proposal to seat both Thailand and Siam as independent members of the UN, which caused uproar in Thailand, where Pridi Panomyong saw it as a sellout of their goal of reunification. He instead ordered the Chaw Thai to go on the offensive in retaliation. A pattern of politically motivated terror began to emerge, directed against the representatives of the Bangkok government. The terror was directed at any organization or individual whose operations were essential for the functioning of Siamese society. The scale and scope of the insurgency slowly and steadily spread and intensified, until by February the Chaw Thai constituted a serious threat to Siam's overall stability.
That month, Pridi Panomyong declared the Vienna Accords dead and the beginning of a War of National Reunification to reunite all of Thailand under his leadership. His junta ordered a changeover to an all-out military struggle as the TRA charged across the border a second time to aid their Chaw Thai and Seri Thai allies. TRA troops also crossed the border into Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, reopening the Panomyong Trail. The Second Indochina War, which would soon go down in history as the Siam War, had begun.
Obeying the terms of the Vienna Accords (though the Reich had never signed), both China and the Reich refused to get involved in what was offically Siam/Thailand's "internal affairs." Instead, both countries covertly shipped supplies and equipment to their allies in Thailand and Siam, with the Chinese supplying the Seri Thai government and the Romans training the Siamese National Army. The Reich also sought to increase ties with other Asian and Central Asian countries, particularly Burma, Persia, and the Shogunate of Japan, in preparation for an armed intervention should the situation take a turn for the worse. Burma politely declined an offer to join the Central Powers, preferring to maintain ties with China first (it did, however, complain about the Seri Thai's and Chaw Thai's violation of its sovereignty in the use of the western Panomyong Trail).
In the CSSR, Beria's brief reign of terror came to an end when he made one fatal mistake. In addition, his "allies" began having doubts about his motives. Khrushchev had previously opposed Beria's alliance with Malenkov, but he said nothing about it. His opportunity came in June 1953 when the East German uprising led Beria to make cryptic statements regarding the future of the DDR. Khruschev and other leaders suspected that Beria might be willing to trade East Germany to the Reich in exchange for massive aid from Constantinople. The cost of the war still weighed heavily on the Soviet economy, and Beria craved the Reich's vast financial resources. Beria also considered giving Eastern Finland and Yavdi greater autonomy.
The uprising convinced Molotov, Malenkov, and Nikolai Bulganin that Beria was a liability to the revolution and that his policies were dangerous and destabilizing to Soviet hegemony. In February, after several months of planning, Khrushchev convinced the other party leaders to support a coup against Beria.
On 26 February 1954, Beria was arrested and held in an undisclosed location near Kiev. Accounts of his fall varied considerably. The most likely account, Khrushchev's, involved Khrushchev planning an elaborate ambush, convening a meeting of the Presidium on 26 February, during which he suddenly denounced Beria of being a traitor and Athanatoi spy. Beria, completely surprised, demanded, "What's going on, Nikita?! Why are you picking fleas in my trousers?" Molotov, who had arrived to oversee the denunciation, then denounced him as well, followed by everybody else in the room. Khrushchev then proposed and passed a motion for his dismissal. At that point, Beria realized what was going on and pleaded for Malenkov to help him. Malenkov refused to even speak with him and instead pushed a button, signaling for General Zhukov to burst in and arrest him.
Beria was taken to a guardhouse and then to a bunker of the headquarters of the Kiev military district. Defense Minister Bulganin ordered a tank and motorized infantry division to move into Kiev to prevent pro-Beria forces from rescuing him. Many of Beria's allies and colleagues were also arrested. Pravda did not announce the arrest until 10 March, crediting it to Malenkov and referring to Beria's "criminal fascist capitalist reactionary activities against the Party and State."
Beria and his allies were tried by a special session of the Supreme Court of the CSSR immediately with no defense counsel and no right of appeal. He was "found" "guilty" of:
1. Treason. It was alleged (without proof, obviously) that Beria had secret connections with foreign intelligence services, particularly the Athanatoi, Gurapu, and Jinyiwei. It was also alleged that Beria tried to let the Angeloi occupy the Volga basin, and there were allegations that he also tried to obtain the support of reactionary, fascist, and capitalist states at the price of violation of territorial integrity of the Soviet Commune and transfer of parts of the CSSR's territory to reactionary, fascist, and capitalist states. These allegations were due to Beria's suggestions to transfer East Karelia to Finland and a few border towns in Siberia to China.
2. Terrorism. Beria participated in Molotov's purge and carried out his own purges.
3. Counterrevolutionary activity during the Russian Civil War. Beria had previously tried to convince Kerensky to adopt a moderate form of equalism, attempting to establish the CSSR without bloodshed.
Beria and his allies were immediately sentenced to death. Beria pleaded on his knees for mercy before collapsing to the floor and wailing and crying energetically, but to no avail. A minute later, General Pavel Batitsky had to stuff a rag into Beria's mouth to silence his bawling before shooting him in the head. His other supporters were summarily executed seconds later. His body was then dismembered, burned, dissolved in acid, and dumped in an unmarked grave in a forest outside Kiev.
Beria's death didn't resolve the power struggle within the Presidium. Malenkov and Khrushchev immediately went to war with each other, with Molotov watching on the sidelines. Malenkov's power was in the central state apparatus, which he sought to extend through reorganizing the government, giving it additional power at the expense of the Party. He also sought public support by lowering retail prices and the level of bond sales ot citizens, which had long been effectively obligatory. On the other hand, Khrushchev had his power base in the Party and sought to strengthen both it and himself. While the Party was officially preeminent, it had been much drained of power by Molotov, who had given much of that power to himself and the Politburo (reformed into the Presidium). Khrushchev saw that with the Presidium in conflict, the Party and its Central Committee might agian become powerful. He carefully cultivated high Party officials and appointed supporters as local Party bosses who took seats on the Central Committee.
Khrushchev presented himself as a down-to-earth activist prepared to take up any challenge, constrasting with Malenkov who, though sophisticated, came across as colorless. Khrushchev arranged for government buildings to be opened to the public, which made him immensely popular. His land and agricultural reforms were much morre extensive than Malenkov's. In addition, Khrushchev also possessed incriminating information on Malenkov, which he had seized from Beria's secret files. He used this blackmail to take the seat of honor from Malenkov at Presidium meetings. He reorganized the NKVD, MGB, and MVD into the KGB, which was headed by one of his allies. At a Central Committee meeting a few days later, Malenkov was accused of involvement in atrocities, citing Beria's files, and the committee passed a resolution accusing him of allowing Beria to come to power. At the meeting of the mostly ceremonial Supreme Soviet the next day, Malenkov was demoted in favor of Bulganin, fired from the Presidium, and then forced to take an assignment in Yavdi. Molotov then suggested that Khrushchev himself assume the offices of premier and general secretary. Khrushchev completed the consolidation of power by firing Bulganin, taking his offices, and establishing a CSSR Defense Council, led by himself, effectively making him commander in chief in addition to premier and general secretary. Although he was initially allied with Molotov and Zhukov, he realized they were liabilities and could overthrow him like they did Beria and Malenkov. Khrushchev forced Molotov into permanent retirement, severing all of his ties with the government and fired Zhukov from his cabinet and the Presidium. Their allies were expelled from the Central Committee and the Presidium and sent to head industrial facilities and institutes far from Kiev. Khrushchev was now firmly in control over the CSSR, though he did not enjoy the absolute power that Molotov did.
Khrushchev immediately sought to distract Zhukov further by giving him a military conflict to deal with. He ordered Zhukov to drive the Tsarists entirely from the Aland Islands, which were mostly in Soviet hands. After a short conflict, the Tsarists were forced to retreat, and Sbyslava ordered her forces to go on high alert. Adenauer resisted pressure from his cabinet to use nuclear weapons or involve Roman troops, especially with many tied up in Neurhomania and Indochina. Instead, he proposed a mutual defense pact with the Tsarists, further strengthening the bonds of the Central Powers military alliance. Zhukov refused to escalte the situation further, fearing that the Reich could intervene at any moment. Frustrated that almost nothing had happened except for the CSSR seizing a few rocks, Khrushchev called off the whole thing (he kept the rocks) and forced Zhukov into retirement. He would not tolerate any challenges to his rule.
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Oh, would you look at that. One minute the CSSR stands for Russia, the next it stands for China. You're twisting my brain here.
I always thought that you wrote these articles about TTL's historical events on your own. Turns out you just "parody" Wikipedia's.
I always thought that you wrote these articles about TTL's historical events on your own. Turns out you just "parody" Wikipedia's.