I'm baaack!
Post-War Europe Part I: The Eastern Clients
A German Army General inspects soldiers of the Ukrainian Army (1947)
One of the areas most and least effected by the War was the Mitteleuropa sphere of Germany. This sphere, consisting of Poland, Ukraine, Crimea, and the United Baltic Duchy had been spared from pretty much all war damage. However, Ukrainians, Poles, Crimean Tatars, and non-German Balts had been conscripted en masse to fuel the German war effort around the world. Ukrainian wheat and butter fed the whole war effort. Polish coal powered homes and factories across the German world. Baltic iron and timber was used for a dozen purposes. Germany had called upon her puppet states, doing everything to shift as much of the costs of the war onto them as possible, and they answered. However, dissatisfaction was growing with the arrangements between Berlin and her puppet states. They had sacrificed much, and they wanted compensation.
Germany did concede to this rising nationalism, albeit in limited ways. The deportation of the Jews to America was a big one. Anti-Semitism had been rife in the region since the Russian Revolution, in which many of the leading revolutionaries had been Jews. The fact that the hated Stalin was a raging anti-Semite did nothing to ease these feelings among the region's ethnic groups. Jews were viewed as Communists, anti-nationals, un-European, and anti-Christian. During the war years and following, Kiev and Warsaw were home to some particularly vicious anti-Semitic pogroms. Germany "solving the Jewish Question" for her clients did much to restore goodwill. However, deporting a despised ethnic group wouldn't be enough. Reluctantly, Berlin made more concessions. Firstly, they cut their clients in on the war booty taken from across three continents. Gold bullion totalling $40 million was transferred to the Bank of Poland. Ukraine received $25 million in silver. Crimea had 130 French factories and power plants shipped piecemeal into the country and reassembled, vastly increasing the country's industrial base. The United Baltic Duchy received $20 million in war indemnities, and had another $25 million in debt forgiven by Berlin. This doesn't include the millions of dollars in goods pilfered by these troops during their time campaigning. Many Ukrainian peasant women wound up with mink coats and exotic produce like mangoes. Another, larger concession made was a slightly increased degree of political independence. The cord between Berlin and the capitals of Eastern Europe was by no means cut, but the practice of certain government officials having German "Big Brothers" was ended. Finally, Germany declared its unending opposition to Soviet Communism, then Eurasian Communism, and finally just Eurasianism. Strict though the Teutonic yoke might be, it had been positively delicate in comparison to the Russian knout. Eastern Europe was perhaps the most Russophobic place on Earth, and keeping them happy meant the odd bit of saber rattling against the Eurasians. Having covered the general picture, let's now evaluate these countries on an individual basis.
Poland thrived in the post-war era. The expulsion of Jews hampered economic growth some, but the appropriation of Jewish assets by Poles also helped reduce Polish poverty at the cost of Jewish rights. Meanwhile, Polish industry furnished many of the goods Scandinavia and their fellow Eastern Europeans craved, including steel and TV sets. Polish coal fueled electrification projects across Eastern Europe. Warsaw underwent a cultural renaissance in Polish language literature, creating works that were even lauded in Berlin and Vienna. One work in particular "
A Pole's Odyssey," by Ksawery Wasyluk became Poland's modern national epic as it detailed the life of Andrezj Kaminski, born a Polish subject in Imperial Russia, who suffers greatly under Czarist rule. His family is beaten by Cossacks, taxes are heavy, and he is beaten in school for speaking Polish. Upon reaching adulthood, he is conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army, serving under the command of Colonel Nikolai Abakumov, a vicious megalomaniac who beats his Polish troops with a knout as he fantasizes about leading a future Russian charge across Europe to Lisbon. After narrowly escaping a German gas attack, he defects and serves as a scout for Colonel Martin Schiller, who is depicted as honorable, if something of an imperialistic boor. Andrezj is crucial to several victories, earning an Iron Cross after saving Colonel Schiller. When the war is over he married his sweetheart Jolanta. However, they have little money, and Andrezj's family farm is sold to a German homesteader after it's revealed that his parents are dead and siblings scattered. He simply can't afford it. Andrezj enrolls in the new Polish Army attached to the Germans, and Andrezj serves in the Congo, Latvia, and Mesopotamia while raising a family. Despite the adventures and good pay, he desires nothing more than to return to his beloved Poland. He insists that his three children, growing up in the melting pot of German imperial forces, learn two words of Polish for every foreign word they learn. When war breaks out in '39, Andrezj's sons Damian and Bartek enlist. He himself, now a captain, is recalled to Germany and leads Polish and German troops as they contain the French advance and slowly turn the tide. Andrezj is among the troops who conquer Paris, and loots a fabulous 120 carat ruby. Shortly before the war's conclusion, he is promoted to the rank of Colonel by his old commander, now General Schiller. He sells the ruby in Berlin. The novel concludes with Andrezj buying his family farm back from the homesteaders, and the announcement of his son Bartek's wife's first pregnancy. The novel won international acclaim as an allegory for the struggle of Polish nationhood, a twisting tale of adventure, and a work of literature. In 1975, it would be made the national novel of Poland by the government.
Ukraine was considered something of the "powerful idiot" of the Eastern European nations. The country's struggle to create a native intelligentsia and comprehensive high culture was an ongoing slog. Centuries of Russification had strangled the development of native cultural ideas, and the post-war deportations of Jews decimated what buds of a cultural class were there. However, Ukraine did have a strong sense of national identity, and although there was little in the way of high culture, the culture of Ukrainian peasants had a richness all its own. Even many city dwellers brought some of the old ways with them. What Ukraine lacked in high culture, it made up for in muscle. Pre-war Ukraine had a population of 40 million, but after the war it exploded. In the period from 1944-1964, 25 million Ukrainians were born, making the country one of the most populous in Europe. The rich agricultural soil of Ukraine, although often dominated by German agricultural corporations, fed this massive population and have a solid foundation for prosperity. Ukrainian industry, both native and German owned allowed for upward mobility. Although the country still lagged Poland and the UBD (Ukrainian car ownership rates were particularly abysmal) the country grew faster and more consistently than much of Europe. Militarily, Ukraine had the largest Army of any of Germany's puppets, clients, or minor allies, actually exceeding even the size of Portugal and Italy. Ukraine's somewhat backward industrial base meant that the Germans equipped much of this Army, but it was still formidable. Getting command of Ukrainian divisions within the German Army was seen as a special privilege second only to the Crimean Tatars. Furthermore, Ukrainians provided the bulk of the Eastern European auxiliary forces, and it was overwhelmingly Ukrainians who stared down the ravenous EU.
Crimea underwent a transformation in this period. Once considered little more than a glorified warm water port and vacation dacha for the Russian and German elites, the plunder of French factories and power plants allowed Crimea to take full advantage of rich deposits of minerals, resulting in a miniature industrial revolution. The government also began reforming the Tatar language, complete with an alphabet styled on the German one. Aside from this, the tiny republic continued to be Berlin's most fiercely committed ally in the region, and instituted mandatory national service for both sexes, furthering their warrior reputation.
The United Baltic Duchy was Berlin's favored client in the East. This is largely thanks to the region's sizable German ruling class, and it's high level of economic development. The UBD was on par with most European powers, and even outperformed the hated EU. This prosperity hid tensions within Baltic society. In the years before the war, the German ruling class instituted de facto segregation against the native Balts. After the war this policy continued, but had to be tweaked significantly. Part of this was due to changes in Germany. The old racialized view of Slavs as inherently inferior was being discarded. This meant that should significant ethnic violence break out, Germany wouldn't necessarily back an openly racist and oppressive ruling class, and if it did, might enforce reforms or even annex the region (although some Baltic Germans favored this). Instead, there was a process of cultural and linguistic Germanization implemented. Native Balts weren't forced to Germanize, but those who refused were still segregated into other communities. Germanized Balts, however, enjoyed all the privileges of the elite, although there was still some bigotry. Another development in this era was a privileging of the Lutheran Estonians and Latvians over the Catholic Lithuanians. This system would eventually be replaced, but that's far down the road.
In the post-war era, Germany's client states in Eastern Europe became true nations again. Even if they were still subservient to Berlin, these nations were allowed greater political, economic, and cultural freedom than in years past. Despite Berlin's continued hold on the region, the Eastern Europeans were broadly satisfied with German control. They were independent(ish) and prospering. Germany guaranteed their security against the increasingly alien Eurasian Union. German trade brought wealth. Although some resentment was inevitable, Germany's Eastern flank was very secure in the post-war era.
Members of a Ukrainian border unit display their colors (1948)
Warsaw, 1951
An Estonian Lutheran couple poses with their church's new shuttle (1953)