Red Banner: A TL

This is my first TL outside of ASB, so please be gracious.

Part 1: The Munich Coup, and Plans for the Future (1923-1925)

In what was, for the rest of the world, a footnote, Adolf Hitler was arrested, tried and executed for high treason, owing to a failed coup in Munich on the 9th November in 1923[1]. His co-conspirators were imprisoned. With his death, the far right-wing elements in German politics were left without a rallying figure, and the Communist elements gained more support.

In 1924, due to the (forged) Zinoviev letter, the Labour Party lost the 1924 elections in Britain. Lenin also died in early 1924, and Leon Trotsky managed to get his rival for control, Joseph Stalin, 'eliminated' sometime in the middle of that year[2]. Later, in December, a communist coup attempted in Estonia succeeded with supplies of Soviet ammunition and weaponry, terrifying the western world about the 'red menace'.

In 1925, Benito Mussolini declared that he was taking dictatorial powers, as Trotsky began his first Five-Year Plan and several brutal collectivisations, as a beginning to his plan to invade Europe and bring Communism to it by force,in order to facilitate the world revolution which Trotsky saw as coming soon and inevitable. Meanwhile, French troops abandoned the Ruhr area of Germany in response to an effective campaign of passive resistance. The year ended with the Locarno treaties, which normalised relations with the Weimar Republic



[1] POD
[2] Another POD
 
Part 2: Chinese Cyclone (1926-1929)

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Leon Trotsky inspecting the volunteers ready to go to China

Trotsky was preparing to improve, reform and modernise the Red Army when news hit him of Chiang kai-Shek's Northern Expedition, Trotsky quickly seeing it as an opportunity to test the equipment and men of the Red Army. After a quick deal with Chiang kai-Shek, 50,000 'volunteers' were sent to aid in the Northern Expedition, mostly infantry and cavalry like Chiang's own forces. They did not make much impact, as Trotsky predicted, but pushed to Nanjing with Chiang's NRA and were present when the city fell. From this, Trotsky discerned two problems:

  1. Morale and discipline were poor.
  2. Equipment was in short supply.
He decided to rectify these two problems by several means:

  1. The establishment of dedicated officer schools and the instilment of discipline in the troops in dedicated barracks.
  2. The increasing of the Red Army's size.
  3. The abandonment of cavalry as archaic and a switch to tanks, armoured cars, and artillery.
  4. Uniform equipment throughout the Red Army.
  5. More and better aircraft in the Soviet Air Force, to enable more air support.
  6. Industrialisation of all aspects of warfare.
All of this required the success of Trotsky's planned two Five Year Plans, which involved major improvements of industry and infrastructure across the Soviet Union, and which the proletariat was working feverishly toward. Trotsky's dream of a global revolution looked closer than ever when the first Five Year Plan was completed ahead of schedule in 1928 - he immediately announced that the Second Five Year Plan was to begin, aimed at making Russia industrialised on a par with the United States. It was not to end until 1933.
 
Part 3: Naval Approaches (1929-1933)

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The Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union

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Ensign of the Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was key to Trotsky's plan. But it was rotting, with barely any ships, considered a joke by the world's major powers. Trotsky intended to change all that. The Americans were building new ships, aircraft carriers, and he needed his own to counter theirs if they entered the war. And it was so that on April 3 1929 he declared the commissioning of four battleships and two aircraft carriers, to incorporate sheer reliability and large numbers of guns.

This new battleship class was designated the Moskva class, and the aircraft carriers were designated the Leon Trotsky class, as the Soviet Union rapidly increased its navy, with the construction of several new destroyers and gunboats.


With the Second Five Year Plan already underway, construction was simple. The four battleships - the Kiev, the Minsk, the Leningrad and the Moskva - were completed in July 1933. The aircraft carriers (the Vladimir Lenin and the Leon Trotsky), due to requiring different and scarcer components, were not completed until the end of 1934. A large number of troop transports were also built, and a small amount of submarines to conduct submarine warfare. The other ships, already built, were also repaired.
 
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