This one was a long time coming, delayed by a hard drive crash two years agao and yet after successful recovery and some rewriting since last month, it has come at last!
Soldatist People’s Commonwealth
Given what I have heard about this place, I’ve expected it to be somewhat shabby but luckily the destination in question, Bonn, is not like that; but is undeniably deceptive in terms of being “democratic” so there is a point to those countless anti-SPC propaganda I have looked up prior to my visit. Nevertheless the country of interest is worth exploring in spite of it being similar to many communist and far-left dictatorships based in Germany in other timelines, this one in particular is a military-based one, in that it relies on the military being the leading “revolutionary class” instead of workers or peasants. And this is exemplified in the propaganda posters and other imagery that fill the streets and alleyways with images of soldiers and the “proletariat” working hand in hand along with people in military uniform hanging around in the stores, beer halls, and cafes, sometimes those that aren’t necessarily from the Volks Army, usually to show solidarity with the regime as I learned before the visit. As for its geopolitics, it’s currently at odds with the Western European State (or commonly called the Euro State) and the Intermarium Alliance, who despite their ideological and governmental differences with each other, both hate the SPC with passion and had a brief armed conflict with it at some point, one with the ES over the Saarland, and the other with the IA over Czechia; all in spite of the blocs having nuclear weapons but luckily they haven’t been used nor did the brief skirmishes escalate. That and it seems more open for others to visit but then again I was told of how this one interviewer ended up mysteriously dead near a hotel after his meeting with the higher ups of the Volksstag, likely due to his anti-SPC stance that tipped them off. Still, I wouldn’t let that deter me, with my fabricated past of fleeing Paraguay as an alibi to get the people sympathetic to the SPC to trust me, especially with some who lived in the country in question.
One of the two people of this world I intend to meet happens to be a citizen here, Carl Garrett, who is a professor for the University of Bonn, and is currently having a lunch break in his office at the time, with his latest lesson being about the importance of farm labor. However, I have been informed by some people that professors in the SPC are generally paid off by the party in that they are used to reinforce their ideological rhetoric in spite of their claims to be “open-minded”, but still it is worth hearing his view on how the ideology works here. I came in to his office near the classroom and greeted him, and he seemed to be okay with my presence here with me lying about myself fleeing from Latin America and that I claim to learn about the ideology in question. Garrett was quite an experienced person, about in his 40’s and having nearly grayed out hair with a light beard, but had the face of a war veteran despite having no scars and looking a decade younger. He told me about how he came to be in the SPC and later as a professor after I noted his last name which indicated he was from outside the country, he started with him being born in the USA and moved here when it was called Germany in the 1970’s when he was in his pre-teens with his parents who were fleeing the country due to the political instability there. Then he got into politics in his late teen years because of his dissatisfaction with the democratization of Germany and its capitalistic policies at the time and that he participated in the Soldier’s Revolution on the side of the revolutionaries and got accepted into the regime’s education system as a choice between that or become part of the Volk’s Army. Nowadays he teaches the virtues of Soldatism and its connections to Marxist-Leninism to students both in the country and outside, namely those who seek to learn it. He claims that Soldatism is on the rise ever since the revolution and that it would become a phenomenon in the 21st century to “unite” the world.
“It’s quite amazing that we became the center of revolution that Marx intended,” he said. I then asked about how the SPC came to being.
“It wasn’t always like this; it was once divided up by the Yankees and the Soviets after the Second World War. Then things changed: the USA gets caught up in the Korean affair then escalated said war by nuking China, making what would have been an easy victory for the capitalist powers into a long and brutal affair. You can thank Barkley for that, as he took over after Truman got assassinated during the early phase of the East Asian War at the hands of Puerto Rican nationalists. Then in March 1952, for the sake of avoiding another Korea in Central Europe, the president agreed to a deal with Stalin to unify Germany and leave it as a neutral state, basically giving up West Germany by withdrawing their troops. Of course the British and the French didn’t like it despite reluctantly agreeing to follow in America’s example, due to their concentration on Egypt and Vietnam respectively, and afterwards, the bourgeois powers of Europe and America began to split with each other. Though America made up for it by eventually defeating the North Koreans and bringing the Communist Chinese to the negotiating table by 1957, it lost its influence on the European continent; “Gave up Germany for Korea” as people in the West said back then. And since then, the French began to devolve into capitalist-fascism and the latter united with the Low Countries and Italy into the Western European State by the beginning of the 1960’s with Britain more or less a willing accomplice and the rest is history”.
“Of course in regards to Germany, it wasn’t exactly reunited as Stalin promised but rather made the idiotic move to keep it divided of sorts into pieces via a confederation similar to the one in the 19th century based in Berlin under the GDR flag, only in that it was in two pieces; though in hindsight it was a somewhat understandable move to discourage the return of Nazism. Then he died in ’54 and his successor, Malenkov, had recognized the need to reunify the country if it were to be a stable neighbor and partner in the world scene, so henceforth said reunification came in 1955. Just about 5 years later, the European State spawned into existence as a reaction to the Germans embracing socialism and began to reach its tendrils into Iberia, Greece, and Africa throughout the decade. Even Germany was not safe from their grasp as Neo-Nazi hooligans were being backed by Euro spies to threaten the newly united nation and its “military” at the time was a pathetic militia that doesn’t know squat about taking on tanks, so henceforth the Warsaw Pact set out to create an army that would guarantee the safety of the German people by stamping out fascist subversion anywhere in the country. Thus the German People’s Army was born, an army for the people rather than one that would fall prey to fascism like the Wehrmacht did, and answers to no one but itself and to the will of the people. And of course it succeeded in its job in crushing the fascist insurgency, quite like a sheriff taking down a rowdy posse. Since then, under the banner of SED, there was a period of peace and prosperity for the German people.”
I can tell in that last part he really did like Westerns with that metaphor, especially with a Single-Action Army pistol in the back in a display case, which wasn’t loaded and was a prop as he later told me. Not to mention having a good collection of Wild West material in his office, especially those from media based on it. He said to me it’s part of the benefits of showing loyalty to the ruling party, especially when he first joined in his youth. That and he added he’s not the only one with peculiar interests that are members of the Soldatist Party existing, but I think Carl’s enough for me for now.
“Meanwhile the capitalist bloc began to tear itself apart with the Euro-American split still continuing and the USA and UK backing down from imperialism after the debacle in Iran in the 1970’s. You can safely say it was a boon for the non-capitalists, yet it wasn’t to last very long. In the 80’s, the German economy began to decline and the people were misled to believe that somehow the SED government was responsible even though there was evidence that the fascists manipulated them by giving them false info; though granted some of the leadership was incompetent along with the Soviet government that unwisely abandoned us and the Warsaw Alliance for the sake of settling matters in Iran and Uyghurstan. All while the United States fell apart in 1985 after a series of racial strife and regional separatism which you’d think would have kept the Eastern bloc alive, yet even that’s not meant to be so, though at least the Euro State declined a little before thanks to its imperialist antics taking toll on its economy. The Soviet Union fell in 1989 thanks to a combination of poor leadership and separatism and that was it for the people who followed the ways of Marxist-Leninism who were now becoming prey to fascism and capitalism, even in the USA when it began to follow the path of socialism.”
“The socialist system in Germany was sabotaged by the foolish Social Democrat party who basically opened the floodgates to the fascist subversion that we sought to prevent, especially with the disbanding of the DVA under the pretense of removing governmental “suppression”. The 1990’s was a terrible time, with the capitalist system failing us and the Neo-Nazi Republican Front gaining seats in the Bundestag and even winning the election in 1994. It was high noon at the Okay Corral, with the RF threatening to resurrect Nazi rule and fly the swastika once again, then, all of the sudden, a miracle happened. In August 1995, the people rose up against the Neo-Nazi regime and the DVA came back from the shadows to save them, led by a man called the Marshall. It wasn’t just made up of Germans but also many other nationalities around the world, some from Africa and Asia, it was a truly multicultural organization; there were even Jews and Arabs fighting side by side. It helped that in its heyday, the DVA would volunteer in various proxy wars against Western imperialism. And as you know, I was a participant in the revolution at first starting with the anti-fascist protests, of which I have participated in. Then after the crackdown happened, I made the commitment to the people’s cause and that part is history. Anyway, after our forces crushed the last of the reactionaries in October, I met the men behind the revolution in a ceremony celebrating the victory, especially the Marshall himself, and from him personally I was awarded with this medal for my contribution to the July Revolution.”
He showed off the Order of Kahle medal, which had Hans Kahle’s likeness on a gold round plate with wreaths around it, very similar to the Soviet Order of Lenin both here and other universes, only this medal has the People’s Sword instead of the Hammer & Sickle. Being reminded of what the symbol stood for, I asked him about what Soldatism is and how it’s implemented.
“Here’s where Soldatism comes in; see most variants of Marxist-Leninism rely on the either the urban workers or the rural peasants to be the proletariat, but this one relies on the soldiers to lead the revolution. After all, it is in the name; the reason is that the workers and peasants are too vulnerable and susceptible to being manipulated, while the soldier obviously fights. Granted they too can be manipulated by capitalist-fascists, as the Western-propped governments in Latin America and Asia showed us, but here the situation is different as they are trained not to fall prey to the ways of fascism; we took the lessons learned about the Wehrmacht’s complicity in Nazi crimes very seriously, far more than any other nation can. All thanks to the anti-Nazi veterans in helping us out with it, as well as drawing on the experiences the Soviets had in supporting the 1917 from disaffected Russian Army veterans. And of course, the role of the soldier is to establish, via revolution, a socialist and democratic government that will incentivize collective work and ownership of production. Class enemies, be they of the bourgeois of the or nationalists, are to be purged and expelled from the revolution since they contribute to the class struggle; and we put emphasis on the nationalists and nationalism being an enemy because of their role in fermenting imperialism and fascist exploitation. As for the soldier, the class struggle in itself is a war, an ongoing war, and to wage a war you need soldiers, soldiers who know and understand the class struggle, and like all wars, bloodshed is necessary.”
I asked him to elaborate on the specifics of Soldatism.
”It’s not enough to have the military be just the armed forces of a proletariat state but rather be the government to rule it, manage the economy, and maintain the peace of society. Again, the military is strong enough to only lead a revolution and preserve it, yet I must add it only does so as a sign of solidarity with the people. Sure one can start a revolution and govern a worker’s paradise but how often does one do so while being part of the armed forces that ensured such an event for the people? Not very often, not even the likes of that deviant Josef Stalin had the courtesy of showing comradeship with the people he supposedly cared for nor that of Mao Zedong who sold out the people in nuclear fire and became a coward when the forces of Chiang came into the mainland during the later stages of the East Asian War. The leadership of Germany is not like them, both they and the people wear the same kinds of uniforms to express the role of the military in leading the revolution, not that of the workers nor the peasants. If those two groups wish to contribute to the cause, they must enlist in the military which is compulsory. Being a party member is almost cosmetic when it comes to the difference between being in the military and being in the party in that you merely have a badge of the party on your uniform in regards to the latter.”
I mentioned to him about the similarities with Trotskyism and Carl happily replied in response.
“Of course, those are deliberate; Trotsky himself had the right idea in spreading the revolution instead of being isolated in the name of ‘Socialism in one country’, especially not as there are similarities between the geopolitics of the 1990’s with that of the late 1910’s and 1920’s in regards to threats to the proletariat state. We are not like the slouch Stalin and his cronies were wasting their efforts with their ‘socialism in one country’ nonsense whereas doing so made them vulnerable to warmongers, no we export the revolution to wherever is possible in the way Trotsky wanted, even to the most remote region in the planet, so that the imperialists would spend their resources away from us and on them, yet they will lose in the long run, especially as America’s economic troubles in the 1970’s and 1980’s showed that capitalism isn’t sustainable in the long run.”
“Speaking of which, our economy is managed by the military as well as other aspects of German society. What is important is that much of our economy and society is geared to spreading the revolution, with both the workers and peasants contributing. As I’ve mentioned before, being a member of the party is almost no different from being in the military and that being so in regards to being enlisted is a necessity to contribute to the cause. However, one can opt out of military service as long as they can serve in non-combat roles, even though military training is a requirement. As for non-combat roles, many of them involve working in the farms and factories to ensure the connection between the people, same in the streets and in the military facilities, the uniforms the members in question wear say it all. And speaking of connection, I must point out that we do allow foreigners inside to help carry out the revolution around the world, as it is enshrined in our constitution about ‘soldiers of the world’ and that I mentioned how said foreigners played a role in the Revolution of 1995. Anyone from everywhere is welcome, even from enemy nations like the Euro State and Poland, as long as they swear allegiance to our country; all provided they go through a process of ensuring that their commitment is genuine and not otherwise. And I must stress that it’s conceptually no different than the idea of America allowing foreigners in for their democracy, at least on paper and before the authoritarian turn at the hands of Richard Nixon.”
Not risking in getting myself “disappeared”, I mentioned to him about the various rumors about the atrocities the Soldatist government has and is committed. Predictably, he seemed to be unamused and in disbelief and responded with his “refutation”.
“Don’t ever pay attention to what the so-called ‘witnesses’ say, if anything they’re obviously paid off by the capitalist mouthpieces to discourage people from around the world in contributing to the Soldatist cause; same thing with those that spoke ill of the USSR when it came to the unfortunate famine of the 1930’s, Stalin’s misguided policies notwithstanding. The Nazis used it as ‘justification’ for their atrocities against the Soviet peoples in their colonization schemes and the Euro State would do the same, even if they go into great lengths in distancing themselves from them by pointing out their ‘socialist’ antics and supporting Jewish peoples in spite of evidence of their hidden anti-Semitism. Same thing with those elements in the former American nations, Poland, England, Argentina, and elsewhere, always saying the same rhetoric to justify their anti-socialist policies and or behavior; it’s the oldest trick in the fascist book I tell you. Especially when they used it in their propaganda machines during our brief conflicts with them over the liberation of Saarland in 1997 and Czechia in 2005 from their grips. And they’re still spouting the same nonsense to this day, this time regarding the Venetians; in fact I won’t be surprised if they use it as a casus belli in a future conflict with us but luckily we have nuclear weapons ever since the testing of our very first nuclear bomb in the Baltic sea in 2006 to keep them at bay. A fistful of nukes I’d like to think of it when it comes to our policy on them.”
“But make no mistake, they can still surround us and have us collapse just like the fascist elements did to the USSR, even without a superpower like the USA. Yet the revolution has only begun and the 1995 one was just the beginning. That recent war with Poland was a mere speed bump in that we couldn’t spread to Eastern Europe thanks to Warsaw manipulating the governments of those countries and neither could we free Western Europe thanks to the Euro State regaining their influence, but still we were able to have Prague on our side. Austria, on the other hand, before that conflict and after the Saarland one joined us by the will of the military after hearing of European aggression in 1998, though it’s funny enough they did the same thing almost six decades ago with the Nazis but we are not the latter so that’s that. Not to mention that we are able to bring Slovenia and Venice into our orbit in the second half of the 2000’s and we’re getting the voice of revolution heard in places like Kurdistan, Africa, Iran, North America, and South Asia; sure the oppressive governments can silence them but all they’ll do is make more martyrs out of them the more they do it, they’ll bury themselves that way.”
He stood by his revolver pistol, putting his hand on the display case, with a solemn look on his face.
“In the days of the wild west, the Native Americans would often fight back against the Yankee imperialists stealing their land and wiping them out in the process, yet they would lose in the end. And indeed, the lower class people are suffering the same fate in the developing world at the hands of the bourgeois with the corporations being the new tools of imperialism, however they have help and our revolution is that help. We are the Good, the Imperialists Bad, and the struggle against them Ugly. Lots of people died in the process, some of them ones I knew personally since the revolution, and will continue to do so but that’s a fact of life in our never ending struggle to bring the world hope and eventually unity, which is what is needed in the wild west of politics. It’s clear that there hasn’t been a true world power since the Soviet Union went kaput in 1989, yet even then it was too weak to carry out its duty to world revolution. In its place were many independent nations and a broken Russia that struggled between its supposed freedom and order. Yet fortunes have changed with the resurrection of the USSR since the Communist party won the election in 2000 and became allies with us since the fight with Poland, even though it still retains the questionable notion of emphasizing the urban workers to be the proletariat. Not to mention it has to deal with the likes of Turkey and China, who are run by fascist governments.”
I asked about the SPC having more allies outside of Central Europe and the Second USSR. He seemed to be pretty upset about what he has to say.
“The Soldatist Commonwealth doesn’t have many allies despite our efforts to gain more influence around the world, we’re still on an uphill battle though that’s going to change in the future and has been so. Lately the Second United States has begun trade with us and sought to improve diplomatic relations despite protests by Brussels and Warsaw, though in recent times they have to deal with the nationalist regime in Mexico led by that fascist Ernesto De La Cruz. That madman wants to retake the old pre-1848 territories at the expense of the American peoples, stoking hatred between the Mexicans and the Americans in a manner similar to what Hitler did, especially in Aztlan. But sooner or later, even his own people he purports to represent will turn on him, especially his troops who are basically partaking in a secret invasion of Texas as we speak. In addition, the Englishmen under the current nationalist regime threaten to recolonize Scotland and Ireland under the pretext of defeating Welsh and Cornish separatism, all with backing by the Euro State.”
That last part about Scotland reminded me about what I need to do next, so I proceeded to end the conversation and I shook hands with Carl, thanked him for his time with me, and headed outside the university to the airport and got on the plane there, flying to my next destination.
My next contact for another view of the SPC happens to live in the Scandinavian Union, yet is not a native of that country nor from Germany. This person in particular was once part of the Volk’s Army as a foreign volunteer during the revolutionary conflicts of the 2000’s and then defected to the Scandinavian Union due to an incident that made him doubt the Soldatist cause, a Scotsman named Seamus McCallum. His location was in a small, remote town in the Norwegian part of Scandinavia, of which is alleged to house refugees from Germany. I came across his house which was pretty fancy in spite of it being more akin to an apartment block. There, Seamus came to greet me and as well as introduce me to his dog, which is a pug, a well behaved one yet playful. He prepared some tea and snacks for me just before we sat in the living room and there I brought up his time in Germany. He told me that the information must be tightly guarded lest people associated with the Soldatists find out and kill him.
“Even here, I get mightily suspicious if anyone’s ever follow’d me home; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made enemies ever since I became one of those defector types, mate. I’ve heard horror stories of those much more unlucky than me, especially when it comes to the people in America, but hopefully you wouldn’ be caught up in whatever happens to me.”
That part I am not worried about given that I have no intentions of staying in this timeline for long; if anything I was more interested in the incident that made him disillusioned in Soldatism.
So henceforth I asked about him with persuasion and he said grimly, “Thon incident? Well, laddie, it’s quite a long story but if you insist, I’ll be happy to tell ye, so I hope yer sittin’ comfterably.”
He then cleared his throat and began his story, “After Scotland gained its independence in 1979, many of us, me-self included, looked to the Germans for help and to spite the Englishmen, so it’s not much of a shocker when there’s talk of fellow Scotsmen being chummy with the Jerries since then, even long after both the USSR and USA collapsed ‘n’ resurrected themselves. I myself was wan of them, even though I was too young to join the revolution of ’95 yet I was inspired by the Soldatists given that I was in a poor family and I had trouble gettin’ into university in the 2000’s. So then, I traveled to Germany in 2005, at the age of 19, in search of getting a good life for me and my family and to impress em, especially me father who often thought less of me for lackin’ spirit. I then joined the Volk’s Armee shortly afterwards, made some friends in my unit, especially this one mate frae Korea, who equally had a shite life like I had before enlistin’. Though he had it worse in that he had an abusive dad that beat him, mine wasn’t, but I recall he called me a lil’ bugger when I was goofin’ off but I’m gettin’ off topic here. After trainin’, I got transferred to the Venetian Soldatist Republic in 2007 and was stationed there as part of a peacekeeping unit to stamp out the counter-revolutionary insurgents, or at least thon’s what our officers told us.”
”Every so often we engaged in search and destroy missions against the insurgents, in the same manner the Soviets did in Uyghurstan in the 1970’s. Up until the incident, we always managed to defeat them yet I lost a few friends in the process. In our latest operation in February 2008 we were sent to the outskirts of Trento as part of a military operation to look for alleged insurgents, the Italian Liberation Army, thon were planning to take over the city in question and prevent them frae doing so. We found the group near a local village n’ we fought a short battle, it was quite big for both of us, and in the end we defeated the insurgents and sent off the captured survivors off to our HQ. Normally, this would be the end of a story, generic search n destroy, ain’t it? But of course, these are the Soldatists we’re talkin’ aboot, so there’s more to the story. Now after the battle, we had to go to the village in question and investigate the whole place for more insurgents. And there is where I witness’d somethin’ thon shook me world upside down.”
“While we gathered up the villagers, all o’ them, and most of them were put in the trucks and they drove off, with none of us knowin’ what happen’d afterwards, at least for a while. Then we gathered the remaining group who by then are just village leaders and people who taught Italian. However, they were put in the nearby forest were they literally dug holes only to be shot in the back. Then the buildings they lived in were burned down, and I was wonderin’ why do this when we didn’t before? Mind ye, I and others didnae do the shooting, we just watched the whole thing go just stationed there, just to keep the people in from escapin’. The officers told us they deserved it because they went against the Venetian government, but deep down, many of us knew that they didnae deserve it nor were such characters that fit the ‘fascist’ mold. For me, the fact that the dead were teaching Italian and were in the area when the country was taken over by separatists in league with the Soldatists tipped me off about how they treated people who just happened to have involvement with Italian in a positive manner. That’s when I realized the Soldatist Jerries were no better than the English oppressors, in fact perhaps worse; at least they had trials and only executed those guilty in their prisons.”
I asked Seamus how he managed to defect from the volunteer unit.
”Aye, I’m glad you asked me that. It’s realleh simple: I just flew away. How? Well, it was just a matter of luck on me part. For starters, I simply snuck off frae the barracks to the helipad while no one was looking, I didn’t even leave a letter for ob’vious reasons. It was at nighttime mind yeh, and that said helipad wasn’t guarded well, which made me lucky to come n’ steal a helicopter that just happen’d to be there. Everyone got alerted when I got the copter runnin’ and tried to shoot it down but I managed to get away in the dead o’ night, down south towards Ferrara, Padania. I honestly thought I would have been shot down by fighters n’or missiles by then but I managed to reach a nearby base, with me signalin’ my attempt to defect and after a while, the Padanians let me in, albiet inspectin’ me after landin’. They took me into the base for further questionin’ and I’ve told everything they need to know and they agreed to let me go provided I have protection until I leave the country. They told me there were a few other cases yet many others weren’t so lucky, so that’d give you an idea of how the defection goes. I got offered by the agency to move to a safe country of my choosin’ and I just happen’d to pick Scandinavia due to my past desire to visit there for vacation and here I am. Even though the circumstances of my defection were kept a secret, it eventually began to be an open one with said defection being a reoccurring subject when the whole thing about Venice is brought up. I later found out from unofficial sources on the web that the villagers my unit rounded up were put in the Soldatist’s own kind of gulags only for most of them to die/be killed in them ‘n’ the rest to be ‘reeducated’ to renounce their ‘nationalist’ ways; made me feel ashamed to be part of such a scummy group in the first place.”
I told him that I met Professor Garrett prior to visiting Seamus and he made a harsh response with a grimacing look.
“Well, jee, ain’t ye surprised that laddie’s a tool of the Soldatist regime? He may be wearin’ an outfit of a university professor but he’s no different frae the party blokes that run the country, even if his background’s different. That talk of “foreign solidarity” is pure haver when certain ethnic groups get screwed over if their nationalism is at odds with the regime’s ain kind, whether it’d be from Germany or Denmark or Venice. And on top of that, the Soldatists are no different than the oppressive SED or even the NSDAP, only that they wear the red banners and disassociate itself from the “Stalinist” ways just for brownie points. Their takeover of Austria after the Saarland conflict says it all; along with taking on Poland then taking over Denmark and formerly Northern Italy, doesn’t that ring a bell? They’re doing the same kind of imperialism the Nazis and Soviets have done in the past along with what the Euro State and other powers are doing. Noo, none o’ this means I’m gaunne support the Euro State over the SPC, they’re still crypto-fascists as far as I’m concerned. After all me gran’father fought the Nazis in WWII, so I don’t need to be with people who are close to such nor be with those who claim to fight against. Bottom line: always careful of who you back in this time of an undead cold war.”
I thanked him for the chat and left his house, with my concerns about a new cold war starting that can once again threaten nuclear destruction across the world on my mind once again. “Haste ye back!” he said in a mildly happy mood at his front door.