"My name is Yakov Sverdlov, you have oppressed the proletariat, prepare to die."
The Imperious Chairman-A TL
- Thread starter Napoleon IV
- Start date
"My name is Yakov Sverdlov, you have oppressed the proletariat, prepare to die."
Nah, Sverdlov would be the Dread Pirate Robert/Westley. Iñigo Montoya and Fezzik would be Kirov and Frunze, although which is which depends on who is bigger. I'm inclined to put Frunze in Montoya's position since he is a trained military man and Kirov comes off as physically beefier in their Wikipedia photos.
I suppose this makes Stalin Vizzini. "Never go in against a Georgian when death is on the line!"
Excerpt from The Comintern and International Revolution by H.N. Turteltaub
The conflict between the Communist Party of India and the British Raj escalated throughout the late '30s. The British struggled to keep “the twin evils of Bolshevism and Independence” (as Chamberlain wrote) from consuming India, while the CPI was driven increasingly underground. The leadership was either in jail or in hiding, and despite the massive growth of the Party is was difficult to conduct business due to constant British surveillance and raids. Things finally reached a breaking point in 1938. From 1935 onward the CPI had been arming itself at the behest of M.N. Roy and Whittaker Chambers. “Inevitably there will be war either with the British or a future bourgeois Indian government. When that time comes we want to be the side with the most guns.” Although a few guns were smuggled from the Soviet Union through Afghanistan or bought from corrupt KMT officials and transported through Burma the majority came from the British Indian Army. A number of Indian soldiers were sympathetic to the Communists. Some of them worked in the armories, where they would steal small amounts of weapons. The British caught several of the thiefs in 1937. Facing life imprisonment Sergeant L.K. Vashkeya, one of the leaders, provided letters between him and CPI leader Puchalapalli Sundarayya. Sundarayya tried to flee, but on January 3rd, 1938 a policeman recognized him in Calcutta. In a panic Sundarayya attacked and tried to overwhelm the policeman, which ended with five bullets in Sundarayya's chest. -
The death of Sundarayya was the catalyst for the War of British India. Almost instantly the CPI declared Sundarayya a martyr. General Secretary P.C. Joshi declared “Puchalapalli Sundarayya was a true Communist and the Party will not be the same without him.” The story that Sundarayya was murdered in cold blood by the police officer was spread throughout India by CPI agents. Angry crowd gathered in several cities, demanding that the officer be charged. The British refused; inflaming the situation further. For a few more months the situation simmered until CPI spymaster Sanjay Jogelkar came up with a plan for revenge. One of the people in Jogelkar's spy ring, Sanjay Ahuja, was a violinist in the employ of Victor Hope, Viceroy of India. On March 15th the Viceroy hosted a large party to celebrate a friend's birthday. In his violin case Ahuja had placed an improvised bomb, rigged so that it would go off when the case was opened. After sitting down Ahuja gestured to the Viceroy and his wife to come over. When they did Ahuja asked “Is there any song that you want to hear Sir?” After the Viceroy requested Bach's Concerto in A Minor Ahuja opened the case. A massive explosion rocked the room. One partygoer remembered “I heard the explosion and ran to help. People lay all around in various states of shock and injury, but my eyes immediately locked on one thing: a severed arm covered in a piece of blood soaked dress. It was the largest part left of the Viceroy's wife.” The blast killed 8 people, including the Viceroy, his wife, and Ahuja, and injured 15 more. Two days later the CPI Central Committee released a statement:
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“To the British Imperialists and Indian Traitors,
Two and a half months ago you murdered Comrade Sundarayya. The killing of Victor Hope was Karmatic justice for this crime, and many others. War is coming; at any time you can end it simply by giving India her independence. If you refuse then we will unleash the floodgates, and a river of blood shall flow.”
On March 18th Neville Chamberlain spoke before Parliament on the India situation. “A group of Indian terrorists, influenced by Communist lies, have declared war on our Empire. But we will not give in to terror. Instead we will either send these terrorists either into the ground or back to Moscow. They may have fired the first shot, but we will fire the last.” Only a few MP's voted against the war. In early April Parliament also voted to impose massive sanctions on the Soviet Union, hoping that it would force Sverdlov to abandon the CPI. Later that month France and all of the Dominions followed suit.
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The CPI realized that they were in for a long struggle. At the start there were about 15,000 men in the CPI's armed wing, the Indian Workers and Peasants Army (IWPA), along with an unknown number of cadres and supporters. Few IWPA soldiers had ever heard a shot fired in anger, and their training had been a haphazard affair. The majority were armed with outdated Martini-Enfield Rifles or Russian Mosin-Nagant Rifles [1], their artillery consisted of a few cannons (for defending fortified positions), and they utterly lacked air support. In contrast the British Indian Army had around 194,000 men, as well as 22,000 from the Indian Auxiliary Force (composed of white volunteers), 53,000 from the various Princely States, and 19,000 from the Indian Territorial Force. While these forces had shortages of modern weapons they still had better weapons and training than the IWPA, as well as artillery and air support. As a result the IWPA adopted the People's War strategy first proposed by Mao Zedong. Mao had described the policy as “the enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” A key point of this strategy is to set up a base from where you can attack. The IWPA had two: the Western Ghats mountain range and Northeast India. The Western Ghats are a series of mountains that run parallel to the west coast of India. Forests and jungles, interspersed with plains, cut through the Western Ghats, and this is where around 5,000 fighters hid. The problem with the Western Ghats was the number of settlements (called hill stations) and plantations in the area, which made hiding difficult.
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The Western Ghats were more of a base to attack targets in western and southern India, but Northeast India was the main base of the CPI. Northeast India is covered in rugged mountains and forests, some of which are all but inaccessible. The inhabitants of Northeast India were also very receptive to the CPI's message. The foothills and mountains of Northeast India were (and still are) populated by various tribes, including the Naga, Bodo, Hmar, and Lushai people. These tribes were poor farmers or hunter-gather, and several had fought against British rule. The lowlands [2] were the center of Indian tea growing; the British loved the region's famous Assam Tea. Colonial planters had imported thousands of poor Indians to grow this tea. These Tea Tribes, as they were known, were horribly exploited. They worked long hours for tiny amounts of money and lived in ramshackle huts that barely kept out the monsoon rain. From 1935 onward CPI cadres had traveled to Northeast India, where the highland tribes supported them for more autonomy and revenge against the British, and the Tea Tribes supported them to get land reform and end colonial exploitation. While the British controlled the cities in the countryside their rule was only skin deep. After P.C. Joshi and most of the CPI Central Committee there in July 1938 CPI cadres worked with local leaders to create an alternate administration. Already the tribes lived in relative equality with each tribe as an autonomous unit, so the CPI contented itself with completely overhauling the court and tax systems. The British saw their tax revenue dry up as, outside of the major cities and certain areas, Northeast Indians stopped paying their taxes and paid the far lower CPI taxes. British courts were no longer listened to, instead a panel of three judges (two local leaders and one CPI cadre) made decisions based on a mixture of tribal law, British law, and Communist ideals. Despite later Communist propaganda support for the Communists was far from universal. Many tribes people were Gandhians, and a significant minority supported the British, mainly due to a fear of Communism or a mixture of bribery and promises by the British.
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With their overwhelming superiority in both men and material the British were confident that they would easily win. “The general feeling was that we were the most powerful Empire in the world and no fucking Red or headhunter [3] was going to be able to withstand us” one sergeant remembered. The commanders created a twofold strategy to defeat the IWPA. First, the troops would create expanding zones of control, eventually creating a system of interlocking zones that would isolate the IWPA from other units and the general population. This strategy (nicknamed the India Ink Strategy by the press) required the British to occupy the hill stations and cities, and set up military bases across the affected areas. Generally the bases would be about 15 miles away from each other in a diamond pattern. Typically they would be built so that a village or group of villages was inside the diamond, effectively placing the area under British control. The other part of the strategy was referred to as a “hunting expedition.” In a hunting expedition a group of 60-90 soldiers would go beyond the zone of control, deep into the hills and forests, with the goal of killing Communists and finding weapons. One soldier wrote home that “Every time we enter a village we order everyone to gather near the center. Then we would search anywhere that could contain weapons: houses, animal sheds, grain storage sheds, etc.”
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Hunting expeditions were the most dangerous time for a British soldier. Around 70% of British military casualties occurred during these expeditions. The IWPA strategy was the main reason for this. Their main unit was the five man cell. All members of a cell were supposed to trust each other beyond all doubt. To do this each cell spent every virtually every waking minute together from training until the cell was disbanded. They also engaged in rigorous self-criticism sessions where each member confessed to even the smallest wrongdoing. Four cells made up a squad, which was more or less a loose collection. Every cell in a squad were in the same general area, but were trained to act independently. Above all the IWPA valued mobility. Whereas the average British soldier carried between 50-85 pounds of equipment the average IWPA soldier only carried about 30-40 pounds of equipment. Their basic attack strategy was to hit and run. From a hidden position they would shoot at British soldiers, then melt into the jungle. Given that their mission was to kill guerrillas the British would follow. Often the IWPA would lay traps along the way, or on the trail. There were many traps, but the most feared were punji sticks and body bombs. A punji stick is a sharpened stake placed inside a pit covered in leaves, dirt, and grass. When a British soldier walked over the pit they would fall in and impale their foot. Often they were covered in dung, animal blood, and rotting food (to increase the risk of infection) and/or the tips were carved at odd angles (to make it difficult to stitch the wound). As bad as punji sticks were body bombs the British hated the body bombs even more. A dead body (or even worse a person who was still alive but unconscious) was put in a British uniform and placed near a trail. An improvised mine was placed under the body and rigged so that when soldiers tried to move the body it would explode. Most were loaded with nails and other shrapnel, to cause further wounds. Luckily for the British at the start of the conflict the IWPA was very much still building itself up and only a small number of casualties occurred. But that would soon change.
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[1] The Mosin-Nagant Rifle is a Russian rifle created in the 1890s. In 1938 it was still in service in the Red Army.
[2] Particularly what became the OTL state of Assam
[3] The Naga were headhunters. IOTL they continued to display heads until the late 1960s, although the practice had fallen out of vogue well before then.
Gandhi hates this war and stages several hunger strikes and protests to try to stop it. His hunger strikes in particular will have serious consequences for India's future.
This is very well done I think. Certainly it is the first time I've seen a "better Bolshevism" TL that is still Bolsevist.
I think the German parts of this TL are very weak though. I don't think the early electoral victory you give the Nazis is at all likely. Also, if the Great Depression follows a pattern similar to OTLs Great Depression, an earlier Nazi rise to power will mean things get very dicey for them around '33-'34. OTL, Nazi economics was saved from an early crash into harsh reality because they came to power just before the recovery began and just as the policies of prior governments to combat the Depression began to work so they could enact some bad policies claim credit for some good policies and after a little time, hey presto, Germany was recovering. Without that fortuitous timing, rather than Nazi economics appearing to work, it will fail messily and Hitler will be left with egg on his face. I doubt it would force him from power, but it would certainly slow his plans.
And are you building up to have Britain become Germany's backer (even ally) in the coming Nazi-Soviet war?
fasquardon
I think the German parts of this TL are very weak though. I don't think the early electoral victory you give the Nazis is at all likely. Also, if the Great Depression follows a pattern similar to OTLs Great Depression, an earlier Nazi rise to power will mean things get very dicey for them around '33-'34. OTL, Nazi economics was saved from an early crash into harsh reality because they came to power just before the recovery began and just as the policies of prior governments to combat the Depression began to work so they could enact some bad policies claim credit for some good policies and after a little time, hey presto, Germany was recovering. Without that fortuitous timing, rather than Nazi economics appearing to work, it will fail messily and Hitler will be left with egg on his face. I doubt it would force him from power, but it would certainly slow his plans.
And are you building up to have Britain become Germany's backer (even ally) in the coming Nazi-Soviet war?
fasquardon
For some world building (and to bump my TL
) here is a list of Time Magazine's Person of the Year from 1927-1930. Like OTL this began when Time failed to put Charles Lindbergh on the cover after his famous flight. So instead they made him the first Man of the Year. There are some indication as to what will happen next.
The list:
1927: Charles Lindbergh (American aviator, first person to make a nonstop Transatlantic flight)
1928: Walter Chrysler (American businessman, merged Chrysler and Dodge Motors before start the Chrysler Building in New York City)
1929: Owen Young (American diplomat, author of the Young Plan to settle German reparations from the First Great War)
1930: Mohandas Gandhi (Indian independence leader, marched 240 miles to protest the Salt Tax)
1931: Pierre Laval (Prime Minister of France, caused the failure of the bank Creditanstalt and worsening the Great Depression)
1932: Kurt von Schleicher (German general, his intrigue led to the Night of the Long Knives and the Nazi seizure of power)
1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (President of the USA, launched a series of programs called the New Deal aimed at ending the Great Depression)
1934: Vlado Chernozemski (Yugoslav revolutionary of Bulgarian ethnicity, assassinated King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou)
1935: Haile Selassie I (Emperor of Ethiopia, led his country against Italy in the Second Italo-Abyssinan War)
1936: Wallis Simpson (American socialite, her affair with King Edward VIII caused him to abdicate)
1937: Li Zongren (Leader of China, led China through the Second Sino-Japanese War)
1938: Adolf Hitler (Fuhrer of Germany, oversaw Germany's annexation of western Poland during the Berlin Agreement)
1939: Benito Mussolini (Duce of Italy, helps the Nationalists win the Spanish Civil War and led Italy through the Yugoslav Crisis)
1940 saw the title shared between two men
1940: Yakov Sverdlov (Leader of the Soviet Union, fought against the German invasion which started the Second Great War)
and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (President of the USA, won an historic third term in 1940)
) here is a list of Time Magazine's Person of the Year from 1927-1930. Like OTL this began when Time failed to put Charles Lindbergh on the cover after his famous flight. So instead they made him the first Man of the Year. There are some indication as to what will happen next. The list:
1927: Charles Lindbergh (American aviator, first person to make a nonstop Transatlantic flight)
1928: Walter Chrysler (American businessman, merged Chrysler and Dodge Motors before start the Chrysler Building in New York City)
1929: Owen Young (American diplomat, author of the Young Plan to settle German reparations from the First Great War)
1930: Mohandas Gandhi (Indian independence leader, marched 240 miles to protest the Salt Tax)
1931: Pierre Laval (Prime Minister of France, caused the failure of the bank Creditanstalt and worsening the Great Depression)
1932: Kurt von Schleicher (German general, his intrigue led to the Night of the Long Knives and the Nazi seizure of power)
1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (President of the USA, launched a series of programs called the New Deal aimed at ending the Great Depression)
1934: Vlado Chernozemski (Yugoslav revolutionary of Bulgarian ethnicity, assassinated King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou)
1935: Haile Selassie I (Emperor of Ethiopia, led his country against Italy in the Second Italo-Abyssinan War)
1936: Wallis Simpson (American socialite, her affair with King Edward VIII caused him to abdicate)
1937: Li Zongren (Leader of China, led China through the Second Sino-Japanese War)
1938: Adolf Hitler (Fuhrer of Germany, oversaw Germany's annexation of western Poland during the Berlin Agreement)
1939: Benito Mussolini (Duce of Italy, helps the Nationalists win the Spanish Civil War and led Italy through the Yugoslav Crisis)
1940 saw the title shared between two men
1940: Yakov Sverdlov (Leader of the Soviet Union, fought against the German invasion which started the Second Great War)
and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (President of the USA, won an historic third term in 1940)
WW2/The Second Great War started with a German invasion of the USSR? No fall of France before hand?
Welp, so much for any chance the Germans had of penetrating the Soviet interior... heck, they probably won't make it beyond the frontier regions. Between the better prepared Red Army and a Germany lacking the loot of Western Europe, IATL's Barbarossa is going to fall very flat.
Welp, so much for any chance the Germans had of penetrating the Soviet interior... heck, they probably won't make it beyond the frontier regions. Between the better prepared Red Army and a Germany lacking the loot of Western Europe, IATL's Barbarossa is going to fall very flat.
Well, if Britain were either a German ally or friendly neutral giving Germany "lend lease" I could see Germany giving the Soviets a hard fight.
fasquardon
When Barbarossa starts Britain and France are going to be neutral. While neither wants to have a German dominated Europe, they also despise the Soviets. Keep in mind that Sverdlov has been actively promoting world revolution, going so far as to support the CPI in their struggle against the British. For the first part of the war Britain and France are essentially going to say "Let them duke it out and weaken each other" the assumption being that neither side will be able to win for quite a while.
But unless they supply the Germans with a lot of free stuff, the Germans simply don't have the logistics (they would only have something like a 1/3rd of the trucks, for example) to sustain a deep penetration into the Soviet's major centers of manpower, raw material, agriculture, and industry like they did IOTL. The Germans will still likely make progress, but rapidly bog down from the combination of more skilled Soviet resistance and the constricted supply chains bringing them to their culmination point much sooner. Without that damage inflicted upon the Soviet economy and military, the fully-mobilized Soviet Union's military would explode in both the quantity and quality of their personnel and equipment. The Anglo-French's reaction will go from glee at the two tyrannies ripping each other to shreds to concern as the front-line starts moving westward in the winter of 1940/41 and then absolute horror as the Soviets start achieving major breakthroughs in the summer of '41. Maybe then they'll start rendering assistance, but it would be too late: the Germans would have already plunged into the manpower death spiral that they suffered IOTL from 1943 on.
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Germany is not going to have an easy time. However the Soviets lack modern planes and tanks and still emphasize offense at the expense of defense. Certainly we're not going to see Germany at the gates of Moscow in 1941, but I think it's a stretch that the Soviets will be smashing them in the summer.
IOTL, the Soviets proved capable of mobilizing and deploying 5.3 million men in the first five months and 8 days of war. They mobilized another 6-8 million over the course of 1942 and only then ran out of reservists without some form of paramilitary training. ITTL, while the Soviets will probably mass conscript similar numbers, the combination of the German invasion getting logistically strangled and the Soviets fighting more skillfully means their losses will be vastly lower. And without the damage and disruption inflicted upon the Soviet's industrial heartland, Soviet industrial capacity is effectively doubled for the first two years of war and remains increased by something like 50% for the remained. No way are the Germans going to be able to withstand the kind of offensive power the Soviets are going to be able to generate by mid-'41 ITTL.
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Except the Red Army has several problems. Obsolete and ill maintained planes and tanks will make it difficult for the Deep Battle Doctrine (which is predicated upon air superiority or at least parity and armored reserves to exploit breakthroughs) to go on the offensive. Lack of trucks on both sides will have difficultly supply offensives. While the Soviets will have greater industrial capacity ITTL a combination of a shorter period of industrialization (it started later ITTL), the British and French embargo, and German air superiority means that it will not be as great as it could be.
With this IMO a stalemate will be the result in 1941.
Except the lack of penetration into the Soviets industrial heatland and the shift to wartime production means both 1940 and 1941 ITTL will see Soviet weapons production reach numbers more akin to IOTL 1942. Those obsolete tanks and aircraft are going to get replaced by modern models with extreme rapidity.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if 1941 see's the Germans able to effectively pull damage control and slow the Soviet advance... but I don't see them still being on Soviet soil by the start of '42.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if 1941 see's the Germans able to effectively pull damage control and slow the Soviet advance... but I don't see them still being on Soviet soil by the start of '42.
On this we can agree. At the most even if they are on Soviet soil in 1942 it won't be for long.
I also realize I have been saying 1941 for all of this. I meant 1940.