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Hopefully there won't be a leader, and an end is put to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
No Trotsky will take over and will truely make Soviet Union what it should have been !!
Sir Humphrey said:Top show! Looks like Yagoda is planning something....
I think Yagoda has already planned something; the assisination of Stalin!
And by the sounds of it everything is going to plan. So who will be the new Soviet leader? Yagoda or Bukharian? They obviously conspired together, along with the Marshall, but who will succede the Man of Steel?
Great update LB, I love this AAR already!
Bukharin of course! Yagoda will be gone within a year, as will everyone else with knowledge of the operation. Standard procedure, you know the drill.
Nicky?! Are we to assume that Yagoda and Bukharin are more than just friends?
And great update!
And great update!
Yeah, I am wondering if we might not see a reappearence by Trotsky on the scene as well. Whatever the plan was, it may be more instability than the plotters ever dreamed of.
Bukharin was no friend of Trotsky and no doubt if he tried to reappear he'd be arrested. I'm wondering why the bloodthirsty dwarf was so nervous however? You certainly have a gift at writing about people which I sure as heck can't! Just to join the bandwagon, I also loved the way you made Stalin "real." A nice AAR, looking forwards to seeing what unfolds
A nice AAR, looking forwards to seeing what unfolds 
Feedback
Thanks for your support Yogi, I appreciate it.
Thanks Kelden, the next update will be up soon.Kelden said:Nice job, now give me an update
Thanks for your support Horthy, its much appreciated.Regent Horthy said:
Yes, the coup has taken place at the beggining of 1936 before the first officer purge took place.Machiavellian said:
Indeed. After doing quite a lot of research I discovered that they were perfect. Yagoda was beginning to fall out of Stalin's favour at the time and he knew it. He had the entire NKVD at this fingertips so it is reasonable to suggest that he could have organised Stalin's death. As for Bukharian, he hated Stalin and was pushed out of the party in 1929. However, for unknown reasons Stalin "rehabilitated" him in 1932 and by 1935 he was back in the Politburo. He still hated Stalin and was now in a position to act against the dictator. Rehabilitating Bukharian was a fatal error.Dhatori said:Bukharin and Yagoda!
Thanks Humphrey.Sir Humphrey said:
As you will discover in the next update, Kalinin will technically succeed Stalin. However Bukharin will secure a very important position.Ptolemy IV said:
Excellent! I see you know all about Soviet politics.cthulhu said:
Now that you mention it, "Nicky" does make it sound like there is more going on there than meets the eye. However I assure you that was not my intention.The Yogi said:
Thanks for your support Yogi, I appreciate it. Quite right, the fall of Stalin will create a multitude of problems for the plotters.coz1 said:
Indeed, Trostky will not be returning to Mother Russia, Bukharian will make sure of that. Thanks for the kind words Evans, I appreciate your support.Evans said:
Although I would love to please all the Trotskyites out there, I'm afraid Trostky will not be returning to the USSR.Wilhelm VI said:
Thankyou. The next update will be up very soon.Alwyn De Glere said:
Book I - Rebirth of the Soviet Union
Bukharin's Government
Bukharin's Government
On the morning of the 7th of January, news of Stalin’s assassination was released by the NKVD through the heavily censored state media. The predictably NKVD blamed Trotskyites for the murder, and Feodr Dinshenko, head of the Moscow NKVD Bureau, dutifully produced three suspects and an impressive array of forged evidence. Before long, a blaze of fiercely anti-Trotskyite propaganda spread over the Soviet Union like a ravenous plague. The Soviet hierarchy, however, did not find out until later that afternoon when they were escorted by NKVD officers to the Kremlin’s Yellow Palace. Since 7 pm the evening before, leading and influential Soviet politicians and Communist Party members had been placed under virtual house arrest. Their telephone lines were cut and they were forbidden to leave their residences. Heavily armed NKVD officers remained on guard outside their properties all night. Although the NKVD claimed that keeping the entire Soviet leadership locked up in their own homes overnight was a safety measure, it was actually nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to keep them isolated. Without contact with the outside world, they did not know what was transpiring and were completely powerless to act.
Although Bukharin and Yagoda had successfully removed Stalin, they still did not control the state nor the Party. They both conceded that they could not gain control of the Communist Party itself, as neither of them were members of the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee, the most powerful body within the Party. On the afternoon of the 7th, the members of the Secretariat met in an emergency session and in less than an hour elected Mikhail Kalinin as the new General-Secretary. This position, coupled with his Chairmanship of the All-Union Executive Committee (making him titular Head of State) rendered comrade Kalinin the most powerful man in the Soviet Union. Technically, he now held more power than Stalin ever had. The election of Kalinin was a triumph for Bukharin and Yagoda. The ageing Soviet statesman, known as “kind grandfather Kalinin” was politically weak, and Bukharin, who had worked closely with him during the early 1920’s, knew how to manipulate the old Bolshevik. When it was announced that Kalinin would succeed Stalin as General-Secretary, the gathered members of the Central Committee applauded enthusiastically. Many of them were relieved that a moderate and reasonable man had replaced the brutal Stalin. Others, however, saw an opportunity to increase their power bases at the expense the weak willed General-Secretary.
Bukharin was the first to strike. On the 9th of January, when the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (the Political Bureau) met for its weekly session, Bukharin attacked Vyacheslav Molotov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) and an ardent Stalinist. Bukharin claimed that Molotov was incompetent. His explosive rhetoric was impressive, however he never actually produced any proof that Molotov was in fact inept. Although Molotov was feisty and indignant, he was a poor orator and found it difficult to counter Bukharin’s arguments, even if they were nothing more than hollow accusations and distorted half truths. Bukharin urged the Politburo to strip Molotov of his position as Chairman of the Sovnarkom. Kalinin was completely fooled by Bukharin’s brilliant oratory, and so announced that it was his intention to remove Molotov from his post. The other members of the Politburo, eager to impress the new General-Secretary readily agreed. The Politburo unanimously agreed to remove Molotov from the Chairmanship of the Sovnarkom, though it stopped short of removing him from the Politburo.
Kalinin then proceeded to nominate Bukharin as Chairman of the Sovnarkom, a move that Bukharin had expected. Once again, the Politburo eagerly agreed with Kalinin and Bukharin was named as the new Chairman, effectively making him the defacto head of the Soviet government. Over the next few days, Bukharin, with Kalinin’s approval, purged Stalinists from the Sovnarkom. The first to be removed was Lazar Kaganovich, Commissar for Peacetime Armaments Production and Transport. Bukharin claimed that Kaganovich had misappropriated nearly a quarter of a million rubbles of the people’s money that had been set aside for the Moscow Metro. Kalinin and the Politburo readily accepted Kaganovich’s removal from office. Bukharin, feeling confident of his new position, then confidently declared that Stalin had turned a blind eye to the embezzlement. This slur against the former Soviet strongman was the first time Bukharin attacked the late dictator. When he faced no reprimand or warning from above, he frequently began to drag Stalin’s name through the mud in an unrestrained fashion . Lazar was replaced by Aleksadr Gleitz, a flamboyant young man who had turned the Shelinsky Moscow Ammunition Works into the most productive armament factories in the Union. Bukharin boasted that “Commissar Gleitz will turn Stalin’s inefficient, corruption riddled armaments industry into a competent, resourceful and highly proficient sector within a year.”
Several days later, Bukharin and Yagoda engineered the downfall of the ardent Stalinist loyalist Yan Berzin, Commissar of Military Intelligence. The NKVD produced reports of suspicious “Trotskyite activity in the upper echelons of the Military intelligence establishment.” The vague and circumstantial evidence was immediately shown to Kalinin. The new General-Secretary took a leaf out of Stalin’s book and demanded an immediate and vicious crackdown on the so-called Trotskyites in the Ministry of Military Intelligence. Bukharin was only too happy to oblige, and during the early morning of the 11th of January, Yan Berzin, and his senior officials were snatched from their home’s by Yagoda’s men. A People’s Court found them guilty the following day, and Berzin, along with four of his former Intelligence Ministry colleagues, where shot for “conspiring to overthrow the Soviet government.” Bukharin proposed that is brother-in-law, Colonel-General Fedor Kuznetsov should succeed Berzin. Once again the General-Secretary and the eager-to please Politburo approved the appointment.
The coup de grace came on the 12th of January, when the last Stalinist member of the Sonvarkom, Field Marshall Kliment Y. Voroshilov, one of the five Marshals of the Soviet Union, People’s Commissar for the Red Army and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army, resigned. Voroshilov, a close comrade of Stalin, had been an influential bulwark of Stalinism in the Red Army. The ageing Marshall, clearly one of Stalin’s favourites, was forced to resign after the three anti-Stalinist Marshalls of the Soviet Union, Tuchatjevskii (Chief of Staff), Blyukher and Timoshenko threatened to reveal evidence of “abuses of authority” that took place under Stalin’s leadership. Marshall Voroshilov, feeling increasingly isolated and insecure, broke under the pressure and agreed to quietly and honourably resign from all his positions in government (Commissar for the Red Army), the party (a member of the Central Committee) and the Armed Forces (Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army). Marshall Timoshenko, the commander of the Red Army in Ukraine, succeeded Voroshilov on the recommendations of Marshall Tuchatjevskii. Within a week of Stalin‘s death, Bukharin had successfully secured his position as Head of the Soviet Government. He had cleared all opposition from the Sovnarkom. In a speech to the Sovnarkom members on the 13th of January, Chairman Bukharin announced, “the Soviet Union is on the threshold of a new era, and I am honoured to be leading the way.”
The New Soviet Government
Absoluetly bloody fantastic. I wonder what plans Bukharin has in store for the Soviet union and her peoples?
As I was reading that first update, I got the feeling "Uh oh, Stalin's going to die soon..."
Chilling! Looks to be a great story already.
Chilling! Looks to be a great story already.
Well, I guess Trotsky won't be making a come-back. And so typical of Soviet leadership change - completely discredit the last guy. Great stuff.