Ch.203Age of Turbulence (10)

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“If Goebbels was aiming for that, then it’s even more likely.”

“Since we’re on the topic, what about America?”

“The civil war happening over there will ultimately play an important role for us.”

“The quicker we end the American civil war, the less damage we’ll take while extracting more benefits from America.”

“Spain is fighting worse than expected, according to reports.”

That makes sense. They’re a country that just ended their own civil war.

Even though they went all the way to America hoping to get a piece of the action, their soldiers’ fighting capability won’t be as strong as when defending their own country.

In any era, if you don’t have the will to fight, you lose in war.

As a result, the best the Spanish forces can do is defend.

For my part, I just hope Spain maintains enough troops to stab France in the back.

No matter how I look at it, that’s Germany’s only way to defeat us now.

“Tell Spain to focus only on defense.”

Patton alone will have his limitations.

MacArthur seems powerful having seized the White House directly, but he doesn’t actually have many troops.

Above all, many World War I veterans have defected to his side.

In any case, eliminating the communists is our role, and when we capture Trotsky, we must thoroughly demonstrate Russia’s role and quickly enter World War II.

Right now, our military trembles at the mere mention of communists. The White Army split from the Russian Imperial Army alongside the Red Army, and through the civil war, they’ve become united in their hatred of Bolsheviks—an army of vengeance that beats down any Bolshevik they find.

“Let’s send the expeditionary force as planned.”

“Wasn’t it just about capturing Trotsky?”

You know how it goes.

“How dare they attack our Secretary!” They might hold out to the end with that attitude. At the very least, they won’t collapse immediately.

We should provide some assistance at the very least.

“Even if Trotsky is captured, the American Communist United States will try to hold out with what they’ve accumulated.”

For instance, they might say something like: “If war breaks out in Europe, Russia will eventually have to withdraw!” That sort of thing.

In the end, it’s a game of watching and waiting.

Who stabs whom, and who finishes whom quickly. That’s the game.

In that game, European hegemony will be decided, someone will fall, and some countries will be completely destroyed.

In that hellscape, Russia—changed by me—must reshape the world.

“So it’s an army prepared for that time.”

“Please prepare the expeditionary force to quickly end the American situation, while also being ready to intervene in Europe if necessary.”

I understand Austria has gathered quite a large army since becoming a combined robot, though not as large as Austria-Hungary in World War I.

If Austria serves as our meat shield according to plan, we should minimize damage while striking down Germany and England, and pressuring England and France to take the initiative.

Yes, that’s right. The quality of weapons is important. And don’t we have rockets?

“In the end, the quality of weapons will turn the tide. Unlike during the Russian Empire, we’re producing our own weapons. Weapons different from our enemies’.”

“You’re referring to rocket weapons.”

While rockets might not end the war, they can at least threaten our enemies.

Rockets have developed tremendously recently.

“Yes. Have rocket weapons been deployed?”

The combination of Tsiolkovsky and Goddard has created a fantastic partnership.

In the original history, Tsiolkovsky should have died long ago, but he lived longer.

Perhaps it was to pursue his dreams diligently, but in any case, thanks to that, Tsiolkovsky accelerated rocket weapon development.

What was stagnant until the 1920s began to be actively developed in the 1930s once it became somewhat weaponizable.

“Yes, Your Majesty. The accuracy is still low, but there’s no difficulty in striking cities.”

I hear Goddard and Tsiolkovsky have established a separate Army Rocket Research Institute to continue development since the weaponization of rockets began.

Wernher von Braun from Austria also came over after hearing about Russia’s space development program.

I didn’t particularly intend to NTR.

I simply informed the Anti-Comintern Pact countries about Russia’s rocket program to find people interested in rocket development. Austria was only interested in military integration and tanks, not rockets, so Wernher von Braun, who was stuck between a rock and a hard place, got caught up in this.

The weapons will probably be made much faster.

“Then, we need to prepare for when war breaks out.”

“Yes, I’ll arrange for deployment.”

Since history has been flipped and Communist Germany might not be able to make the V2, we’ve made it instead.

Still, the history of rockets must continue.

Russia is establishing the foundation to extend the lineage of rockets and advance into space.

Communist Germany heard this and openly insulted the Russian Tsar in newspapers, saying he sucks the blood of the people to make his toys. If so, they won’t develop it, or they’ll have to research from scratch, which won’t be easy.

At the same time, Beria finally developed a fighter with a jet engine, and the man who was notorious as the NKVD chief in the original history became the developer of the world’s first jet fighter.

And those designs were passed to figures like Igor Sikorsky, so various aircraft will likely emerge.

Afterward, Beria aimed to return to the Okhrana, and feeling this was sufficient, I promoted him to head of the Okhrana’s Asian branch.

That guy has outstanding abilities, after all.

Then I gave new orders to the pleased Beria.

“Congratulations, Beria. For someone who was a Bolshevik, no one has been as successful as you.”

“Your Majesty, I was never sincerely a Bolshevik, I assure you.”

“I know well. Now, I’ll give you a secret mission. Go to the Northern Manchuria branch, there’s something for you to do.”

Thus, he was sent to Northern Manchuria to act formally as my eyes.

Thinking of contingencies, I plan to contact Renya Mutaguchi to observe the situation in Southern Manchuria and send him to Kentucky.

Well, it’s about time to bring up one more topic.

Saying we’re facing war means our territory could be trampled by enemy boots. We should at least avoid such a fate.

“If we’re facing war, wouldn’t the Perun Project be most important to prevent them from invading our territory?”

This time, it was the Black Baron who brought it up first.

The Russian version of the Manhattan Project, the Uran Project—the nuclear development project of the United States of Russia.

It’s called the Perun Project.

Perun is the thunder god, sky god, and chief deity in East Slavic mythology.

Russia has attached various project names to important military weapon developments.

For the disastrous tanks during World War I, there was the T Project; for the airborne carrier project, the Beloye Project; for the jet fighter project, the Beria Project; and for nuclear development, the Perun Project.

Originally, I wanted to call it the Tsar Project, but I wondered if it should have a code name.

Later, after the war, I plan to rename it the Tsar Project and research hydrogen bombs as well.

As the Sino-Japanese War intensifies and we’re hurrying to develop asymmetric weapons, nuclear armament is essential.

The start of the war is really not far off now.

We can take advantage in the American Civil War and extract various benefits afterward, so we had to create it even if we had to borrow money.

Fortunately, I had some knowledge about this, and we had quite a few resources, plus we could get uranium from Bulgaria.

Thanks to early preparation with the mindset of “Let’s make it early!” things progressed quickly.

Judging by the Black Baron’s confident tone, it must have progressed quite well.

“How is the Perun Project coming along?”

As I understand, various facilities have already been installed.

In the original history, the Soviet Union used spies to steal nuclear technology from abroad, but surprisingly, they were also looking into nuclear technology even during the German-Soviet War.

We’ve gone much further ahead than that.

“Thanks to Your Majesty, nuclear physicists like Georgy Flyorov and Igor Kurchatov have made progress in their experiments, and development should be completed by the early 1940s.”

Nuclear weapons will be created in the early 1940s. That would be much earlier than in the original history. The research must be progressing remarkably fast.

As fast as it is, we should still tread carefully.

“The dangers of radiation must be clearly communicated.”

I told the researchers to clearly explain the dangers of radiation.

Although I initiated it, I couldn’t directly involve myself in the nuclear project, and it’s essentially being continued by the White Army Department, my hands and feet, under the name Perun Project.

So, I ordered the White Army Department to better inform about the dangers of radiation.

I don’t know everything, but there have been people who were exposed to radiation while researching it without knowing it was harmful.

We can’t afford to lose valuable researchers and scientists like that.

I secretly instructed through the White Army Department to use remaining Bolsheviks for experiments demonstrating the dangers of radiation.

When else would we use Bolsheviks if not now? I kept some Bolsheviks alive for this day.

“We’ve already conducted experiments on several selected living Bolsheviks at the Second Nuclear Research Institute in Siberia.”

Experiments. It’s probably what I think it is.

Those photos of irradiated people from history. They probably suffered the same fate.

It’s pitiful, but what can we do? They shouldn’t have engaged in Bolshevik activities if they didn’t want this.

We had to use the Bolsheviks who survived the previous road construction project in some way.

It’s not like we’re using prisoners of war or kidnapping foreigners for experiments.

If I were truly playing the dictator character, I might not care, but as someone with the titles of Saint and various Emperor titles, I can’t do such things.

But you know what? Bolsheviks are different.

I’ve repeatedly declared that communism is a plague and Bolsheviks are vermin.

In other words, vermin are treated as vermin. It’s natural for them to sacrifice for humans.

The problem is what Einstein, who wasn’t particularly positive about nuclear weapons to begin with, would say about these radiation experiments.

“Doesn’t Dr. Einstein say anything?”

Dr. Einstein must know about this.

I’m sure he has some complaints.

Anyway, it’s already happened, and it’s not like I gave the order, so it doesn’t matter.

“It was done secretly from the doctor, and we told him it was giving criminals an opportunity to protect the researchers’ bodies. So it’s fine.”

That’s good, but now I’m curious about the Bolsheviks.

What happened to the Bolsheviks used in that experiment?

“Then what about those Bolsheviks?”

What happened to those Bolsheviks? At my question, the Black Baron frowned, either having seen it directly or in photographs.

“They died in a way that’s too horrific to express in words.”

Well, this is essentially human experimentation. But still. It’s something that had to be done eventually.

People don’t sense danger unless they face it directly.

“A fitting death for Bolsheviks.”

That’s how the reds should die. We must deliver death to Bolsheviks in various ways.

I didn’t specifically order experiments on Bolsheviks.

I said radiation is harmful to the human body. Be careful. If you don’t believe it, experiment on Bolsheviks.

“But how did Your Majesty know?”

“Yes. It’s a bit disappointing that the scientists didn’t believe Your Majesty’s words and conducted experiments, but you warned them because you knew it was dangerous, didn’t you?”

I’m not sure how well-known the dangers of radiation were in this era.

But I’ve seen photos of how radiation-exposed patients die in the future.

“Quite impudently, these Russian Bolsheviks cursed this country and Your Majesty.”

Ah, I’m sure they did. People tend to curse when dying so horribly.

With nothing else they can do, all they have left is to curse.

“Curses. Curses. How amusing.”

I’ve already received enough curses.

Life in a world where nuclear war has occurred. And the lives of a strange old man and Anastasia.

Honestly, all of this is no different from a curse to me.

Still, the reason I’m making nuclear weapons is because eventually, nuclear weapons will inevitably emerge.

What I’m doing is trying not to make Russia into a thuggish state like modern Russia, tearing apart China as a hegemonic power, while simultaneously maintaining America as a check and balance.

The origin of the nuclear war was China, after all.

I need to tear apart China, the culprit, and ensure Russia doesn’t have a dictator obsessed with power. To prevent such a ruler from ending everything through war. Such mechanisms must be put in place.

I already have much to do and have received enough curses, so such curses mean nothing to me.

What remains now is to mobilize all our capabilities to make plenty of weapons before World War II.

With that power, we won’t be invaded, but instead, we’ll charge toward Communist Germany.

Yes. My ultimate goal is the extermination of communism.