Hello, this is my first AAR. I've been thinking about doing this specific campaign for a while and given how much I enjoy LARPing as a general from the comfort of my armchair I figured I'd make a story out of it.
Firstly I'd like to say that the subject matter of this AAR is in no way meant to be a commentary on current events. I had the idea of doing this campaign as I was finishing up my last, and it was only as I was starting this that things kicked off in East Europe irl. I will express no opinions on current events other than my desire to see peace return as soon as possible; with that I will say no more that isn't related to the AAR.
Below is a description of the custom country paths I've selected, which you shouldn't read if you prefer surprises.
As mentioned above, the central premise of this campaign is fascist Russia vs. Communist Germany, but to make things a bit more challenging and interesting for myself I've also set Hungary and Romania to go down their communist paths and hopefully ally with Germany. I've also set Yugoslavia, Turkey, Japan, Mexico, and the United States to "random" to create uncertainty on my peripheries. Additionally, I've also buffed Germany by one level.
-1936- "I Serve The Soviet Union"
It has been a bit more than one year since Leonid Nikolaev, the assassin of Stalin's close friend Sergei Kirov, was caught and executed. Since then, Stalin's fear of betrayal from within the Party has only grown with each new trial. Fascists, fifth-columnists, and saboteurs lurk in every shadow of his Soviet Union, and it is the job of the NKVD to root them out. That is, assuming one can trust the NKVD. Stalin has grown weary of the current People's Commissar for Internal Affairs, Genrikh Yagoda. On the 8th of February 1936, Stalin makes a few phone calls, signs some papers, and Yagoda is arrested the next day for treason.
Immediately, Stalin calls Nikolai Yezhov to his office and awards him with Yagoda's former position. Yezhov was crucial in the fabrication of evidence against Kaminev and Zinoviev, opponents of Stalin who were conveniently disposed of in the trials following Kirov's assassination.
Stalin had many enemies inside and outside the Union. If Yezhov was going to take out The Boss, he was going to have to marshal all of them that he could get his hands on.
Trotsky was an obvious choice. The proponent of world revolution had signifigant appeal with the old Bolshevik cadres who were disappointed that "socialism in one country" meant they might never get another chance at taking Warsaw. When agents of the NKVD attempted to contact him in Mexico he was understandably suspicious, but after being told of the growing dissatisfaction with Stalin's regime he became aware of the great opportunity he was being presented with.
Yezhov couldn't afford to only recruit from veteran inner party members. Dissatisfaction with Stalin's government was higher among those Party members who hitched-on after the revolution was won. Unlike the old Bolsheviks, their loyalty to the current regime was based not only on fear but also opportunism, which made many of them ideal targets of recruitment by the growing fifth-column. Of these hangers-on none volunteered more readily than Andrey Vlasov. It did not take much convincing to get him on-board with killing Stalin, and he told his recruiters that he would bring along many more "patriotically-minded" comrades from the armed forces.
Meanwhile in Western Europe, Hitler's government made its first major move towards undoing the constraints of the 'Versailles Diktat'. Seeing that Britain and France had neither the public nor political will to engage in another war and, since the invasion of Abyssinia, were diplomatically divided on Italy's membership in the Stresa Front, the German Fuhrer ordered that the Rhineland be re-militarized. On March 12, units of the expanding Wehrmacht crossed the Rhine, provoking strong criticism from Western nations and condemnation from the Soviet Union.
In Berlin, sighs of relief are had in the Reich Chancellery building. Adolf Hitler puts on a tone of "I told you so" when talking to the general staff about the success of the maneuver, pointing to the reactions of France and Britain as evidence of "the inherent spinelessness of parliamentarian hucksters". Despite the success, "doveish" elements remain in the high command; Reichsminister of War Werner von Blomberg continued to object to a policy of expansionism stemming from doubts of the war industry's current capacity to sustain a conflict with another European power. Heinrich Himmler, meanwhile, became more active in the foreign policy debate on the side of the expansionist proponents of autarky. Despite the recent provocative move, Hitler had not yet fully weighed-in on the argument; perhaps wanting to being seen as siding with the SS over the Wehrmacht, Hitler continued entertaining the idea of either an entente or a full alliance with Britain. Like Yazhov ~1,000 miles away, Blomberg found himself contemplating whether his country's political leadership could be trusted.
Back in the USSR, The NKVD commissar's search for potential allies widens to anti-communist exiles living abroad, including some formerly aligned with the White armies, now residing in Manchuria. Yezhov wasn't happy about making deals with these reactionaries, but he assured himself that, being far more familiar with political purges than they were, their presence would not last very long after they outlived their usefulness.
In Manzhuli, on the Manchurian side of the border Southeast of Chita, a bright neon swastika shines from the local headquarters of the Russian Fascist Party, taunting the Reds from the safety of Japan's new client state. Konstantin Rodzaevsky had been keeping his ears open to rumors of instability from Soviet Russia; one day, he fantasized, his black-shirt legions would storm across the border and reclaim Russia from the bloody red tyranny. But he couldn't afford to be impatient lest he smash everything he'd built against what he knew was an infinitely stronger opponent. For now, he had to wait patiently and consolidate strength, not just in terms of recruitment from the White Russian community of Harbin, but also in terms of relations with the Japanese Kwantung Army, who he hoped would assist him militarily in the coming reconquest of Russia.
One day in April of 1936, five years and twenty-three days after the founding of his party, Rodzaevsky noticed the wheels of the rumor mill were turning faster. White Army leaders outside his party with whom he had contact were whispering of a plot to kill Stalin. Konstantin decided to cut his visit to his party comrades at the border short and headed back to Harbin where he could put his ears closer to the chatter.
-
Moscow, May 8, 1936: After two months of sleepless nights, today was the day. Nikolai Yezhov anxiously paced in the hallway outside Stalin's office until he received word that everything was in place. Three NKVD rifle divisions, one armored, and one motorized division had been secretly assembled on the outskirts of Moscow by Red Army leaders loyal to the fifth column. When Yezhov recieved word that they were in position, he responded with the signal to put Moscow under martial law. To avoid the plot's discovery, nothing pertinent was mentioned over phone lines. The message was instead sent to the division commanders via a messenger who traveled via the new Moscow Metro to a location on the outskirts of the city. There the messenger met Vlasov, who immediately sent word to the other commanders to take control of the city. They had previously timed the length of the journey so that Yezhov could count on the armed forces jumping into action at the same time he entered Stalin's office. After giving the signal, he waited 30 agonizing minutes, then told the NKVD officers he came with to kick open the door.
Before the shouting toned down and his shock had worn off, Stalin was restrained by the two agents and his underling was reading out a list of accusations. He didn't speak, he had imagined every possible variation of this scenario already, and he knew from experience that there was little point of protesting this sort of thing. Nikolai continued to read the list of crimes. He looked up from the papers he was holding to look at his boss and was met with a glare of hatred more intense than he had ever seen from his boss before. He was taken aback, and for a split second paused his reading of the charges against the General Secretary. He looked back down to continued reading but forced himself to maintain eye contact as much as possible throughout the arrest. After he concluded, Stalin was led out of the room and Yezhov was left alone. He walked behind the desk and sat in a chair that was still warm from its previous occupant. He did not know whether he would survive the coup he just executed but, for now anyways, he thought to himself "I won".
-
But Yezhov did not have time to wring his hands over what he did. The Soviet Union was in a terrible state. Logistical slowdowns, epidemic, and an unstable new administration were pressing matters that had to be addressed immediately. The first task was getting the economy back on track. The newest political purge had wrecked havoc on the State Planning Commission's ability to manage the world's 4th largest economy by command. To build support for the new leadership among the workers, Yezhov ordered that the current Five Year Plan be refocused on raising the Union's standard of living by expanding civilian industry. This would also build a larger economic base that could be refocused to arms production if need be, although not as quickly as if arms production was given preference.
The next diplomats to arrive in Moscow are from somewhere less expected. Yugoslavia had recently changed its policy toward the USSR. After some private talks between diplomats via third parties in Bulgaria. On the 23rd, a embassies were established in both nations' capitols.The next day, something unexpected happened. NKVD officers sent to arrest a man suspected of distributing anti-Yezhov pamphlets were assaulted by members of his family as they tried to enter his apartment. Soon nearly the whole complex was outside fighting off the reinforcements which had been called. A great many knew someone who had been taken and never seen again, few had seen the archipelago from the inside, and their determination to prevent a loved one from seeing the same convinced crowds to follow them. Eventually, guns were drawn by the NKVD and by dawn of the next day 17 were dead. In the days that followed, word spread through Leningrad that the corpses smiled for having died by the steps of their homes rather than in the Tundra. The event was absent from the pages of Pravda, but in the following weeks the story was reported on in the foreign press and became an international embarrassment for the Soviet Union.
Compounding the stress on Yezhov was the task of overseeing the Soviet Union's industrial growth. At every turn incompetence, or perhaps malice, was throwing a wrench in the gears of the Soviet economy. Wreckers, sabateurs surely sent either by the fascists or holdout reactionaries hoping to restore the Czars, were surely behind the recession that followed the coup.
Then a new development reared its head. Reports reached Moscow on the 14th of July of a putsch had been attempted in Spain by rightist elements of the Spanish military against the new leftist government. A decade of polarization had now broken out into all-out civil war.
Trotsky pleaded with Yezhov to send a sizeable volunteer force or at least material aid. The NKVD head refused, citing the ongoing troubles on the home front, and told Trotsky that the inevitable world revolution could wait, but troubles in the interior could not. Rather than meekly accepting the NKVD commissar's decree, Trotsky argued for intervention in public speeches. Soon, a Trotskyist faction of the CPSU again divided Soviet politics.
The office of General Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union was not as all-powerful as it used to be. During the coup against Stalin, the NKVD had expanded its size and powers to the point where it could practically govern the USSR by itself. Trotsky, who was elected General Secretary after Stalin's removal, was growing frustrated at the ability of the Commissar to circumvent and block his authority.
Yezhov's sleepless nights returned. To remedy this he again increased the amount of alcohol he consumed each evening.
August: the world meets in Berlin for friendly competition and to admire great feats of athletic achievement. After the procession of national teams to thunderous shouts of "Heil!" from a packed stadium, the German chancellor announced the games officially open and 30,000 pigeons are released into the sky as a gesture of peace.
After the games are concluded, Hitler sends a memo to Herman Goering, calling for a four-year plan to prepare Germany for another world war. "the extent of the military development of our resources cannot be too large," The Fuhrer writes, "nor its pace too swift."
The following month sees another shift of Hitler's stance in favor of the autark faction. At a meeting in Berlin where Colonel Friedrich Hossbach took minutes, the fuhrer explained that the Germany could not sustain its present standard of living without the ability to independently produce enough food to sustain a growing population. A German Reich dependent on food imports from abroad would be vulnerable in a war against a Britain whose navy rules the world's shipping lanes.
Additionally, he continued, Germany's current lead in the arms race with Britain and France was not going to last forever, and the balance of power was predicted to shift back to their favor by the mid-1940s in current trends continued. The amount of secret rearmament spending via MEFO bills had put Germany in a strong millitary position in Europe that would be squandered if not put to use soon. Repayment of the promissory notes could only be extended so many times before the industrial cartels churning out German arms lost faith, at which point the German economy would be in crisis.
"The only remedy, and one which might appear to us as visionary," the Fuhrer continued, "lay in the acquisition of greater living space – a quest which has at all times been the origin of the formation of states and of the migration of peoples."
Naturally, England would be expected to oppose such expansion in Europe in fulfillment of her longstanding policy of maintaining a balance of power on the continent, but considering the weakening of the British grasp on India and her weakening position in the Mediterranean and Asia due to the increased aggressiveness of Italy and Japan respectively, Hitler believed that British hegemony was more of a paper tiger than what they presented. Rather than challenge Britain overseas and attempt to regain Germany's lost colonial possessions, the better strategy was to acquire space and resources in Central and Eastern Europe. The presence of some 30 million ethnic Germans in these regions of Europe would only facilitate and give greater significance to this conquest. Surely, he thought, the English leadership is equally aware of their fragile position, and will shrink away from conflict in Europe to preserve their own empire.
As the Fuhrer talked of the risks involved in winning for Germany a position of global power, Werner von Blomberg feels a knot in his stomach. He thinks back to the last war; of how quickly everyday things like butter or leather became luxuries, and of how many men under him never came home. He almost raises an objection, but, despite Hitler's promise of political independence for the Wehrmacht, he thinks again before contradicting the Fuhrer.
In Moscow, Yezhov was plotting to rid the Soviet Union of the Trotskyites, this time for good. Like the Left Opposition, the White exiles that had been brought in to oust Stalin (and some opportunistic party members) had formed an insular circle of their own. Yezhov saw an opportunity to play two ambitious opponents off one another. On the 24th of September, he contacted the mercenary-general Konstantin Nechaev with a contract. On the 23rd, a counter-offer was delivered, written on a crumpled paper and dropped (by arrangement) in Yezhov's office waste bin: "give me the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union and I'll give you Bronstein's head". Yezhov tore up the paper.
On the 27th of September, Konstantin Nechaev is awarded the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union for his performance during the coup. The fact that he fought the Red Army from the Volga to Mongolia during the Civil War is not mentioned in the papers.
With that, 1936 comes to a close.
I hope you've enjoyed this first installment. If you'd like to see this continued leave a comment and I will write up the events of 1937.
I planned on making one post per year (in-game year that is) but if you think this is too long and should be broken up into smaller pieces let me know.
Also let me know if there's anything in the formatting or content that should be changed for the sake of readability or rule-compliance and I will make necessary edits.
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