Ch.14Wavering Soviet Union

# Pyotr Wrangel.

In the original history, he was the man who led the White Army and fought countless battles against the Red Army in southern Russia. The Bolsheviks even included him in their military anthem “The Red Army is the Strongest,” didn’t they?

It clearly mentioned something like “the White Army and the Black Baron (Pyotr Wrangel) are preparing the Tsar’s throne again.”

Just from these lyrics, one can tell that Pyotr Wrangel was a figure who desired a return to the old era.

The fact that he was mentioned in the lyrics means he was threatening enough to the Bolsheviks.

He got the nickname “Black Baron” because he enjoyed wearing the chokha, a traditional outfit of Caucasian peoples.

Apparently, he started wearing it while commanding the Cossacks. That became the symbol of the Black Baron.

It brings back memories.

This man was the last hope of the White Army, and in this life, I sincerely hope he survives.

“What are General Anton Denikin’s intentions? To operate independently? Or to join forces in Yekaterinburg?”

“The General wishes to join forces.”

“I see.”

The problem is that around this time, Ukrainian anarchists and Reds would be running wild.

Isn’t the Crimean Peninsula based in the Ukrainian region?

“How is the situation in Ukraine?”

“British forces have begun to occupy it.”

“The British?”

I see. They’ve given Germany’s interests to Britain.

Even if I had no such intention, it would be difficult for Russia to reclaim these lands after the civil war.

The agricultural products from Ukraine’s fertile lands… hmm.

We’ll need to increase production in other regions for a while.

Ukraine will likely become complicated and bizarre due to the intervention of the great powers.

“Your Highness, wouldn’t it be best to march straight to Moscow with this momentum?”

March to Moscow.

Honestly, now is the timing, while Trotsky’s Red Army reforms haven’t been implemented yet. This is our opportunity.

But there’s no benefit in rushing.

Trotsky will try to rebuild the army, but it won’t be easy.

Because I exist.

We should advance, but unifying the White Army takes priority.

“We’re just beginning to slowly build our strength, and although we have tanks sent by Britain and France, if they come to their senses and push with sheer numbers, we’ll have no answer. It will take some time to prepare anyway. Let’s begin our advance once we receive support from the great powers and the White Army is unified.”

In the actual civil war, the Red Army mobilized 5 million men.

They relied solely on numbers. They pushed forward believing only in numbers.

In contrast, the White Army could mobilize only one-fifth of that number. Considering they weren’t even unified, their military strength was quite weak, and the warlords ended up failing while fighting among themselves.

Of course, it would be right to suppress the civil war more quickly because of this. But it probably won’t be so easy in this history.

“But just letting that Stalin fellow go like that. Wouldn’t it backfire?”

“On the contrary, now that he’s returned to Moscow, it will put a brake on their army’s reconstruction.”

Stalin, defeated at the Battle of Tsaritsyn, will try to shift the blame onto Trotsky, and Trotsky’s army reforms will be delayed as his abilities are questioned.

Before we invade, Stalin will try to seize the opportunity and put strong pressure on Trotsky.

At least, unlike the original history, we’ll have some breathing room.

We’ve secured southern Russia. We are no longer just the Siberian White Army.

Moreover, resistance against the Soviet Union continues in Finland and the Baltic regions.

No matter how much they try to agitate against us as reactionaries, even Russians who have experienced Nicholas II aren’t fools.

There’s bound to be public outcry.

“We want to maintain the status quo, but they will appear to want to continue the civil war.”

“Yes, exactly. The Bolsheviks won’t last long.”

If we rush and kill everyone we see, even things that could work won’t.

As I always say, we need to show that communism has thoroughly failed.

While implementing reforms even more progressive than Stolypin’s. We must let all communists in the world know.

That what they believe in is nothing but an illusion.

Around this time, the Soviet Union would be denouncing treaties and targeting Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania. They call this the Western Offensive.

No, wait. Perhaps they can’t launch the Western Offensive because of the British occupation and my unexpected success.

It would be good if the Polish-Soviet War broke out on top of this.

# Soviet Moscow

Soviet Moscow was thrown into chaos for a while.

Stalin’s retreat.

This meant that southern Russia had fallen into the hands of the Grand Duchess.

Already, Bolsheviks in the Far East were being suppressed by Kolchak’s army and couldn’t even carry out their specialty of agitation.

In this situation, Stalin returned with a shameless face.

Naturally, Trotsky, who was responsible for the Soviet army, glared at Stalin with bloodshot eyes.

“To lose Tsaritsyn! Koba, what were you thinking? You should have held out there even if you had to bite your tongue!”

The attack on Yekaterinburg had failed.

From the beginning, victory wasn’t certain with an army that had just been rebuilt, but they had to take a reckless gamble because if left alone, the reactionaries would grow stronger and inevitably come.

Yes. That failure was unavoidable.

Trotsky doesn’t regret his choice.

The reactionaries would probably have attacked Yekaterinburg too if they were in the same position.

But the fact that there were so few options meant the Soviet Union was cornered.

They should have at least defended Tsaritsyn.

“Thanks to someone, the Grand Duchess came with a large army, and the reactionaries are now rolling tanks. Did you think you could stop them?”

“You should have urged the people! Surely the revolutionary workers would have held out with blood and tears, even against the Grand Duchess!”

As if.

Stalin didn’t hide his mockery.

After all, this was Trotsky’s fault for failing to prevent the alliance between the Grand Duchess and the reactionaries.

He needed to create an opportunity to oust Trotsky.

“You need to make sense. Why should I clean up the mess you made?”

“What?”

“I’m just telling the truth, Trotsky. Because you failed to subdue Yekaterinburg, Kolchak’s reactionary army joined the Grand Duchess.”

“What did you say?”

“Thanks to that, the reactionaries’ army came all the way to Tsaritsyn. How could I fight in such an isolated position? If I had continued fighting there, public sentiment would have turned against us.”

Though it was to make Trotsky look bad, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

If it had been a fair fight, they would have desperately held out, cutting into their own flesh if necessary.

But how could they fight in a completely hopeless situation?

Though it failed, they had done enough by attempting to assassinate the Grand Duchess with a few Bolsheviks.

“What kind of sophistry is that?”

Just as Trotsky was about to refute Stalin, who was pressuring him with bloodshot eyes, Lenin stepped in between them.

“Enough, both of you. Should we be fighting among ourselves now? We’ve lost southern Russia, and British forces have occupied Ukraine.”

The Soviet Union was facing the worst situation.

With the Great War over, the great powers were now paying attention to the Soviet Union, and massive amounts of military supplies were being provided to the White Army through the Black Sea and the Far East.

The execution incident had been widely publicized in America, and the Soviet Union was being called an untouchable group in the West.

On top of this, Kolchak had joined forces with them, and southern Russia had fallen into the Grand Duchess’s hands after the failure to defend Tsaritsyn.

Around this time, they still hadn’t suppressed the reactionaries in the Baltic region, and the people were groaning under another war.

This was making the revolution meaningless.

Moreover, the Grand Duchess was pushing various reforms and had publicly announced future reforms to the people, which were similar to what the Soviet Union had planned to implement.

Reforms with a slight taste of socialism.

If they continued with the Soviet reforms as they were, they would be labeled as following the Grand Duchess.

In other words, the Soviet Union would lose its reason for existence.

If they had managed to kill Grand Duchess Anastasia, they could have easily defeated what would have been just a coalition of warlords, but that attempt had failed.

In many ways, the Soviet Union was not in a good position.

“Comrade Trotsky. What happened to the officers from the imperial era?”

“They refuse to cooperate at all. Only a few whose families are held hostage have joined the Red Army, but…”

Trotsky couldn’t raise his head under the bitter gaze of Lenin, the idol of the revolution.

The army was entirely Trotsky’s responsibility.

After all, he was the Soviet Union’s Minister of Defense.

“Even they wouldn’t be cooperative.”

“Some generals have fled in the night with their families.”

Fled in the night with their families.

It’s obvious where they would go.

Some would go into exile in other great powers, but most would probably defect to the White Army, believing the Bolsheviks were wrong.

“So we’ve ended up strengthening the reactionaries.”

From the side, Stalin was busy mocking Trotsky.

The more Trotsky damaged himself, the more Stalin could advance.

Although the Grand Duchess was threatening, Stalin judged that this civil war would be a long one anyway.

If he could somehow defeat the Grand Duchess with the army Trotsky had built while taking the blame, and succeed Lenin…

It was a perfect plan.

Unaware of Stalin’s intentions, Trotsky was busy making excuses.

“But comrade, if we hadn’t done this, we would have had far too few commanders to lead the Red Army, so it couldn’t be helped.”

Due to Anastasia’s survival, which differed from the actual history, the Soviet Union was finding it difficult to incorporate generals from the imperial era into the Red Army.

Moreover, as Anastasia refused foreign military support in the civil war except for military supplies, the Bolsheviks couldn’t even portray themselves as protectors of Russia against traitors.

“Can’t we persuade General Brusilov?”

“We’ve taken his family hostage. He should come over soon. It’s fortunate that the Grand Duchess isn’t immediately marching her army to Moscow.”

Aleksei Brusilov, the famous general from the imperial era.

As commander of the 8th Army during World War I, he defeated the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s forces in Galicia and advanced to near the Carpathian Mountains in what became known as the Brusilov Offensive.

Coincidentally, the Grand Duchess wasn’t attacking, and if he could lead the Red Army, wouldn’t they see meaningful results on this stagnant front?

“Why? Why, when they have the upper hand…”

“No matter how good their army is, the Grand Duchess can’t easily attack after experiencing the overwhelming numbers of the Red Army.”

After all, they were once subjects of the Russian Empire.

For Grand Duchess Anastasia, who wants to restore the empire, capturing them would be like capturing her own subjects.

If she tried to kill them all, the Grand Duchess would suffer political damage and bloodshed.

Of course, Grand Duchess Anastasia, who was unifying the army, would call this nonsense if she heard it, but the Bolsheviks, including Lenin, judged it that way.

They believed that despite the lower quality, the reason the Grand Duchess couldn’t attack was because of the Red Army’s numbers.

Above all, Trotsky, having failed the attack on Yekaterinburg with hastily organized Red Army conscripts, was agitating that the Grand Duchess dared not attack because of the numbers of the Red Army he had raised.

If the Grand Duchess aimed for Moscow, Trotsky prided himself that she would surely be signing her own death warrant.

No, he had to believe that.

Around this time, officers from the imperial era were being threatened by Trotsky to join the Red Army.

“They clearly have less legitimacy than the Grand Duchess.”

“These bastards should be grateful to us, yet they’re threatening us?”

“I’m going to the White Army. Good luck.”

In the actual history, to rebuild the army, they tried to persuade officers from the imperial era, and when that failed, they took their families hostage to incorporate them into the Red Army.

However, at that time, it was possible because many opportunists recognized that the Soviet Union had the upper hand. In this history, as the White Army united around the Grand Duchess and achieved successive victories, these officers’ eyes naturally turned to the White Army.

In the midst of this, these Reds were threatening them without knowing their place, so they decided to go to the White Army instead.

Meanwhile, Aleksei Brusilov, whom the Bolsheviks so desperately wanted, was being pestered by his son who had joined the Red Army.

“Father. The Red Army needs you now.”

“Sigh.”

“The Soviet Union is facing a life-or-death crisis right after its birth. You must help, Father.”

Brusilov responded to his son’s desperate plea by furrowing his wrinkled brow.

He had no intention of joining the Red Army.

He wasn’t interested in either side at the moment.

A life-or-death crisis right after birth. If the Bolsheviks had been a proper force, would they have faced such a crisis?

“I haven’t decided yet.”

He still wanted to remain neutral.

“Father. Surely you’re not being swayed by the Grand Duchess?”

Swayed by the Grand Duchess.

Such words fell on deaf ears.

Brusilov didn’t want to belong to either side.

The Soviet Union promised no more war and a future for workers, yet they conscripted young men, gathered an army, and sent them to Yekaterinburg to kill everyone just to capture one Grand Duchess.

Moreover, before they could implement any notable reforms, the Grand Duchess was already carrying out reforms.

There was no hope in the imperial system. That was his belief, but the Soviet Union wasn’t the answer either.

Despite his son’s persuasion, Brusilov ultimately refused to join the Red Army.

Trotsky, too, couldn’t threaten Brusilov for fear of backlash from other officers.

This, too, was a butterfly effect changed by Anastasia’s survival.