An enjoyable update. Did you purposely leave Molotov in the Politburo to stir up things later or was it just that you did not think they would actually go to the trouble of having him killed?
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Great update LB. I wonder how long Kalinin will last as General-Secretary? I wonder if Bukharian will try to remove him later down the track?
Can't wait for more!
Can't wait for more!
I imagine he'll be Bukharin's President Hindenburg. He'll have to wait for him to expire or risk losing popularity (come on as if we didn't notice the similarities between Hindenburg and Kalinin's role )
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Sorry about the lack of updates, my life has been very hectic recently. I finally had the time to write a quick one. It will be up soon. I Hope you all enjoy it.
Well Bukharin is a "Die-Hard Reformer" Alexander Gleitz (Armaments Minister) is an "Administrative Genius", Fedor Kuzentsoc (Intelligence Minister) is a "Technical Specialist", and Timoshenko (Cheif of Army) is "Armoured Spearhead doctrine".
Thanks for the kind words and support everyone, I appreciate it!
Well when you wrote this, no there was no update around the corner. But it's there now, can you smell it?Kelden said:
Dhatori said:
Well Bukharin is a "Die-Hard Reformer" Alexander Gleitz (Armaments Minister) is an "Administrative Genius", Fedor Kuzentsoc (Intelligence Minister) is a "Technical Specialist", and Timoshenko (Cheif of Army) is "Armoured Spearhead doctrine".
Thanks MorpheusMorpheus506 said:
Thankyou sir, I appreciate your support.coz1 said:
The main reason that Molotov was left in the Poliburo was because Bukharian did not have the power to remove him at the time. This will soon change.Machiavellian said:
Quite right, this is a parallel to the situation between Hindenburg and Hitler.Evans said:I imagine he'll be Bukharin's President Hindenburg. He'll have to wait for him to expire or risk losing popularity (come on as if we didn't notice the similarities between Hindenburg and Kalinin's role
Thanks for the kind words and support everyone, I appreciate it!
Book I - Rebirth of the Soviet Union
Burying the Red Tsar
Burying the Red Tsar
For more than a week Stalin’s embalmed body had been on display at Lenin’s Mausoleum, drawing huge crowds of weeping Russians. Although the Man of Steel had been one of Russia’s most brutal leaders, outstripping the former Romanov autocracy in brutality and bloodshed, his sudden death caused great sorrow across the Soviet Union. From Vladivostok to Leningrad, thousands of mournful peasants and workers crowded the city and town centres to pay their last respects to the imposing statues of the dictator that had been erected all over the union during his iron fisted tenure as Soviet leader. This genuine show of public mourning came as no surprise to Bukharin. He had been expecting it. Stalin’s propagandists had successfully created a powerful personality cult that surrounded the dictator. The people saw him as a demigod. Indeed, many churches across the land had been replaced with “Stalin Houses”, where the glorious life and many achievements of the great dictator were put on display for the benefit of the Soviet people. Religion was effectively replaced with the State Cult of Stalin. God was effectively replaced by the General Secretary. When the General Secretary died, the people felt as if they has lost their Lord.
Bukharin understood this, and he let the people mourn the loss of their God. But it would not last for long. As thousands of people lined up outside Lenin’s Mausoleum, Bukharin schemed. He was stepping up his attacks against the former strongman within party and government circles. This was only the beginning of what Bukharin called “de-Stalinization.” While watching the thousands of peasants lining up outside the Mausoleum from the windows of Kremlin’s Presidium Palace, Bukharin whispered to himself, “within six weeks those people out there will be cursing the memory of this barbaric man.”
On the 15th of January, Stalin’s official funeral procession drew huge crowds to the Red Capital. As the carriage carrying the coffin returned to Red Square, the new leaders of the Soviet Union saluted the fallen Red Tsar. Kalinin gave a short and emotionless speech. Bukharian declined to give a speech and no other senior Soviet leaders opted to deliver one either. Stalin’s coffin was returned to the Lenin Mausoleum, his temporary resting place. Although Kalinin had at first insisted on Stalin being placed next to Lenin permanently, Bukharin refused. “It causes me great anguish,” Bukharin told his wife, “to think that a man like Stalin will be placed next to a great leader like Comrade Lenin. I will not have it.” Instead, Bukharin arranged for Stalin to be buried amongst the thick foliage of the Kremlin’s Taynitsky Gardens. That way, Stalin’s grave would be out of site from the Kremlin buildings. “Hide him away,” Bukharin told Yagoda, “we don’t want to be reminded of him for the rest of our days.” The day after the state funeral, Stalin’s coffin was buried in the non-descript Taynitsky grave. A blood stained chapter of Russian history was buried with the tyrant. A new chapter was just beginning, and the pen was in Bukharin’s hand.
Workers lining up outside the Lenin Mausoleum
Will Bukharin be forming his own personality cult in the wake of the deceased Stalin? Great and smashing update.
'De-Stalinisation'? This should get interesting.
Great update LB, I can't wait for more!
Great update LB, I can't wait for more!
Yes indeed, but I wonder how far this De-Stalinisation process will go? Will Stalinists like Molotov be purged from the Communist Party?Regent Horthy said:
Looking foward to more of this.
Im getting all excited about this one! There is so many possibilities to move on. But the thing I'd like to hear is what are the other countries thinking/doing? How's the Adolf is going to react? What do the Allies?
Waiting ure next update, please dont keep us waiting.....
Waiting ure next update, please dont keep us waiting.....
Yes, I'd think so - and watch it backfire just as it did with Stalin. Keep it up, LB. Hopefully life will get a little less hectic and let you get back to updating here. We'll be waiting.Sir Humphrey said:
Interesting! I will follow this closely... What are your immediate plans? A pact with the fascists?
What are your immediate plans? A pact with the fascists?
Good update. Though even with an attempt at de-stalinization, I imagine the new regime will have to be watchful and cautious.
Bukharin would definately have his work cut out getting the support of Communist party memebers, who were none too keen on his attitude towards peasants and opposition to collectivisation.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the support.
Sir Humphrey: You'll find out shortly.
Kasakka: Ah yes, it seems I have neglected to include the opinions/reactions of other countries to Stalin's death and Bukharin's rise to power. I will write about the world's reaction to the recent events in the USSR in one of the upcoming updates. Thanks for reminding me.
Ptolemy & Regent Horthy: The details of Bukharin's de-Stalinisation process will be revealed soon.
coz1: Thanks for the support coz. I will hopefully have time to update this at least once a week. My mid-semester holidays is coming up soon, so around Easter I have time to throw in an extra update or two.
Lucidor: Unlike Stalin, Bukharin will not be seeking a pact with the nasty Fascists. I'm not entirely sure of my immediate plans yet, but I'm sure they will become apparant in the next few updates.
Machiavellian: Yes indeed, Bukharin will be watching his back closely. In the world of Soviet politics, no one can be trusted.
Evans: That's exactly right, many senior party members will still remember his opposition to key policies in the late 1920's. However as you will find out in the next update, instead of trying to gain support, Bukharin will remove the strongest pillars of opposition (i.e "Stalin's Three Confidants").
Sir Humphrey: You'll find out shortly.
Kasakka: Ah yes, it seems I have neglected to include the opinions/reactions of other countries to Stalin's death and Bukharin's rise to power. I will write about the world's reaction to the recent events in the USSR in one of the upcoming updates. Thanks for reminding me.
Ptolemy & Regent Horthy: The details of Bukharin's de-Stalinisation process will be revealed soon.
coz1: Thanks for the support coz.
I will hopefully have time to update this at least once a week. My mid-semester holidays is coming up soon, so around Easter I have time to throw in an extra update or two. Lucidor: Unlike Stalin, Bukharin will not be seeking a pact with the nasty Fascists.
I'm not entirely sure of my immediate plans yet, but I'm sure they will become apparant in the next few updates.Machiavellian: Yes indeed, Bukharin will be watching his back closely. In the world of Soviet politics, no one can be trusted.
Evans: That's exactly right, many senior party members will still remember his opposition to key policies in the late 1920's. However as you will find out in the next update, instead of trying to gain support, Bukharin will remove the strongest pillars of opposition (i.e "Stalin's Three Confidants").
Book I - Rebirth of the Soviet Union
The Fall of the Stalinists
The Fall of the Stalinists
By mid February, Bukharin was firmly in control of the Soviet government although his position was by no means secure. Staunchly loyal Stalinists, most notably Molotov, Beria and Malenkov (they were known as “Stalin’s Three Confidants”) remained in powerful positions within the government and Party. Although Bukharin had managed to force out two prominent Stalinist Commissars, Kaganovich and Yezhov, shortly after assuming power of the Sovnarkom, he did not have the authority or influence to purge Stalin’s Three Confidants. Although Bukharin had deposed Molotov as Chairman of the Sovnarkom, the loyal Stalinist still remained an influential member of the Politburo. Beria was a Central Committee member and the General-Secretary of the Communist Party of Transcaucasia. Malenkov was also a Central Committee member, and he held multiple positions of authority within the Moscow City Committee.
All three men, holding positions of power and authority, posed a direct threat to Bukharin’s new regime. They were keen to undermine him, and Beria continually reminded his Central Committee colleagues of Bukharian’s digressions in the late 20’s, when he actively spoke out against Stalin and the policy of collectivisation. As long as the Stalinists remained in positions of influence, they could still muster support against Bukharin and undermine his precarious hold on power.
As the grief and melodrama surrounding Stalin’s death began to subside, Bukharin, enjoying patronage from Kalinin, felt confident enough to strike at the Stalinists that threatened his hegemony over the post-Stalin Soviet regime. He had to tread carefully, however, as his control over the government was limited, and his authority within the Party was somewhat weak. Unlike Stalin, he could not simply have his potential enemies arrested on ambiguous charges of “treason” or “involvement in subversive groups”. Instead he would have to engineer each man’s downfall carefully and systematically. Bukharin’s first actions against Molotov, his strongest rival, began on the 16th of February when he met with Yuri Borrosov, the head of the Ukrainian Grain Commissariat (predecessor to the Extraordinary Commission on Grain Delivery in the Ukraine, which Molotov managed in the early 1930’s). Borrosov willingly handed over documents pertaining to the Ukrainian Famine (1932-1933) in which nearly half a million Ukrainian peasants died due to poor harvests and severe grain shortages. As Bukharin expected, the documents showed that Molotov had managed to collect some 4.2 million tonnes of grain despite the drought and subsequent famine that wiped out entire villages. Furthermore, the documents indicated that nearly 3 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain was sold to Germany. Two days later, Bukharin presented the evidence to the Politburo. From across the table in the Politburo room, Bukharin, according to Maxsim Litvinov (Foreign Commissar and Politburo member) “stood up and pointed his finger dramatically at a stunned Molotov… the dam walls then broke and a passionate burst of oratory filled the room…the Chairman accused Molotov of conspiring to break the will of the peasants in the Ukraine by engineering a famine…Bukharin accused him of stealing the peasant’s winter supply of grain despite the drought...and then the seized supplies were sold to the Germans for a pittance.” In response, Kalinin asked Molotov to leave the session of the Politburo so the accusations could be discussed.
Bukharin suggested an “Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry” to investigate Molotov and the Ukrainian Famine. Bukharin’s proposition did not receive a warm welcome from his Politburo colleagues, as it could set a dangerous precedent of accountability in government, a prospect that was unheard of in the Soviet Union. The Politburo members, many of whom had dabbled in varying degrees of corruption, abuse of power and irresponsible use of authority, were against any notion of government accountability. The majority of the Politburo was against removing Molotov, and it was clear that most of them did not believe that Molotov had fundamentally abused his powers. One Politburo member suggested that Molotov should be tried before a court. Bukharin, however, immediately dismissed the suggestion as it would be impossible to prosecute Stalin in the courtroom. Under Soviet Law, in-direct mass manslaughter (which Molotov had committed by seizing the peasant’s grain supplies in the Ukraine) was not illegal and there were no provisions for corruption or abuse of power. An inquiry commission was the only way in which Bukharin could legitimately remove Molotov. After a marathon six hour session, the exhausted members of the Politburo finally agreed to form an Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry (made up of 4 randomly chosen Politburo members) to investigate Molotov’s role in the Ukrainian Famine.
On the 20th of February, the Inquiry members (Mikoyan, Litvinov, Zhdanov, and chaired by Ordzhonikidze, a close personal friend of Stalin, but he despised Molotov) met for the first session of the Inquiry at the Kremlin’s Yellow Palace. Due to the fact that neither Bukharin nor his close ally, NKVD Chief Yagoda, were chosen to be part of the Commission, the Sovnarkom Chairman was unable to exert direct influence over the Commission’s deliberations. However, Bukharin knew that he could rely on Litvinov and Ordzhonikidze, who both strongly disliked Molotov, to find the former Chairman of the Extraordinary Commission on Grain delivery in the Ukraine guilty of gross irresponsibility and abuse of power. To ensure that Litvinov would “follow his conscience and make the right decision”, Bukharin even invited the Foreign Commissar to a series of informal meetings at his private apartment in the Kremlin after the Inquiry’s session ended in the evenings. No minutes were ever kept of the meetings, but its reasonable to expect that Bukharin offered Litvinov certain concessions in return for his cooperation in removing Molotov. Ordzhonikidze needed no prompting, he had long been a bitter foe of Molotov, and he had already made up his mind before the Inquiry even began.
On the 2nd of March, the inquiry released a damning report that concluded “V. Molotov intentionally caused the death of thousands of Soviet Citizens by seizing emergency grain supplies…the Commissar’s actions in this matter are a gross abuse of authority.” Kalinin read out the conclusion to an emergency session of the Politburo on the 4th. As he was reading it, “the colour in Molotov’s face drained away,” Bukharin observed, “and by the end of it he was as white as snow.” Kalinin pushed a small red button positioned under the table where he sat. Six NKVD guards burst into the room and seized the shocked Molotov. He never said a word. “His eyes,” Kalinin later recounted, “were fixed on something in middle distance. He didn’t blink, he didn’t even protest as the NKVD men dragged him out of the room…he seemed almost lifeless.”
The former Sovnarkom Chairman was forced into internal exile (those sentenced to internal exile were mostly sent to Sibera or Central Asia). The place of this exile was never recorded, and Molotov was never heard of or seen again. With his greatest rival out of the picture, Bukharin knew that resistance to his leadership would soon fade away. However, the two remaining Confidants, Malenkov and Beria, still remained. After Molotov, Bukharin turned his attention towards Beria, the Transcaucasion party boss.
After becoming Chairman of the Sovnarkom, Bukharin had immediately appointed himself Commissar for Nationalities, a now defunct ministry that had been part of Stalin’s impressive portfolio. Bukharin revived the ministry and established a policy of reconciliation with minorities that had been persecuted during the Stalinist era. Among the most oppressed and persecuted nationalities within the Soviet Empire were the people of the Caucasus. As party boss in the Transcaucasion SSR, Beria (a Georgian like Stalin) implemented a series of harsh laws that effectively banned Caucasian languages and culture. Countless dissidents, especially from Georgia and Armenia, disappeared in a series of purges that were instigated by Beria in an attempt to subdue the volatile region. Bukharin’s outspoken opposition to the persecution of minorities had been one of the contributing factors to his downfall in 1929. Now that he held power himself, he didn’t hesitate to resurrect the issue in order to bring about the demise of Beria. In a Politburo session on the 6th of March, Bukharin denounced the Stalinist policies of “Russification” and accused both Stalin and Beria of attempting to “rid the Union of entire races of people by forcing them to be Russian.” Although it could be argued that Bukharin’s belief that the Soviet Union’s nationalities should not be forced to assimilate was fundamentally opposed to the Communist theory of a world without nationalities, no one in the Politburo opposed him.
Throughout early March, Bukharin stepped up his attacks against Beria and continually undermined his authority by forcing the Politburo to overturn laws that had been implemented by Beria in Transcaucasia. Finally on the 16th of March, under intense pressure from Moscow, the Secretariat of the Transcaucasion Communist Party voted to remove Beria as General-Secretary. The decision was backed by Kalinin and the Secretariat of the CPSU and on the 17th, Beria was stripped of all his positions in the local party. The disgraced Stalinist was then forced to resign from the CPSU Central Committee. Forced into political obscurity, Beria became the manager of a coal power station in the Byelorussian SSR.
As the drama of Beria’s downfall was being played out, Malenkov disappeared from the political forefront on his own accord. After falling seriously ill (doctors were unable to determine the problem), Malenkov was convinced that he had been poisoned by the NKVD. He retreated from Moscow and took refuge in his Crimean holiday dacha. On the 8th of March, he officially resigned from all his party positions and declined to return to Moscow. With the fall of the Three Confidants, Bukharin had cleared the Party of the most determined opposition. He had swept away his foes, and his domination of the new Soviet government appeared secure, for now at least.
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Great AAR! You have nice ideas for those stalinists. They even survived! In game terms, it is better to have another leader than Stalin?
Brilliant The Soviet Union looks like it might be a more successful nation from the pov of it's population
The Soviet Union looks like it might be a more successful nation from the pov of it's population