Chapter 257

< World War II - Moscow Race (5) >

May 1, 1942

West of Smolensk, Free Russian Army Defense line

After sending almost all of their forces eastward for the capture of Moscow, the Free Russian Army's Western Front around Smolensk was left half defenseless.

And right in that main base, a noise began to ring out.

"U-Uh?"

"Don't tell me…"

Rumble- The Free Russian Army couldn't hide their horror upon seeing the BT-7 light tanks and a small number of T-34s following them appear over the hills with the sound of rolling tracks.

And following behind the tanks crossing the hills west of Smolensk, a group appeared.

An old Field Marshal wearing a coat with a brilliant Field Marshal rank insignia rode a horse, and the 1st Cavalry Army, which had adorned the Red Army's most glorious moments, deployed as if wrapping around him.

Seeing the speeding tanks and the panic-stricken enemy camp below the hills, Budyonny burst into a hearty laugh.

"Haha, to think the opportunity to do this act would come again…"

Budyonny, drawing a military saber that was now mostly forgotten in the flow of the era, shouted loudly.

"There is no mercy, death to the traitors! For the people who must be dying while defending Moscow even now!"

"For the people!"

"Cavalry, advance!"

The bugler blew the bugle, and the countless warhorses covering the hills began to move in unison.

At first, slowly as if a person were walking.

Soon, with light steps as if dancing.

And then- they began to run.

Pressing his body closely against his beloved horse on the saddle, Budyonny felt his nerves go on edge at the deafening roar of cannons and the noise made by machine guns.

"Aaaargh!"

"Uwaaaah!"

A few fell from their horses and tumbled down, but the enemies who were firing machine guns wildly were hit by the shelling from the tanks' main guns and completely collapsed.

Even after seeing the sacrifice of his subordinates right before his eyes, Budyonny instead kicked his horse's rump and shouted with vigorous spirit.

"Advance, advance, my children! Soviet Ura!"

"Soviet Ura!"

The cavalry, treated as has-beens of the era, galloped across the battlefield where gunshots rained down, with tanks taking the lead.

Not a few fell from their horses and rolled on the ground.

However, the old Field Marshal was relieved by his subordinates surrounding him, the men thoroughly heated up by the heat of the battlefield.

He smiled at the wind felt while running down the hill and the sensation of his mustache trembling ceaselessly from it.

-Hey, Budyonny.

-What is it, Voroshilov.

-We've grown old and fallen behind the era, but it was still a stylish life, wasn't it?

-…Probably.

Budyonny surrendered his body to the heat of the charge by urging his horse to gallop faster.

Without anyone initiating it first, the cavalry raised their carbines and military sabers high and roared.

"Glory to the Red Army--!"

The cavalry dug into the camp of the Free Russian Army, which was panic-stricken by the tanks' sudden raid, like an incoming tide.

-

The situation of the Western Front soon reached Vlasov's headquarters in Smolensk.

"W-What? You're saying the enemies are swarming towards here?"

"Y-Yes, sir! It is Voroshilov and Budyonny's army!"

Moscow was right before their eyes if they just pushed a little more to the east now, but a sudden raid on the rear area here?

"You're telling me the Allied Forces aren't stepping up, even though we've done this much?"

At Vlasov's lament, Kerensky replied with a gloomy face.

"…They are negotiating in Kursk with the Emergency Committee that resolved Moscow."

"Why on earth…!"

If the Allied Forces just advanced, they could drop Moscow right away, yet to think they wouldn't move with a perfect victory right before their eyes even after getting this far!

He also knew that their justification was lacking.

However, to completely sweep away communism, the cancer of Russia, and achieve a unified Free Russia, this was the only path.

It should have certainly been so.

Was the thought that the Allied Forces would eventually step up reluctantly if they showed the Soviet Union collapsing after being caught off guard a misjudgment?

"…No. There's no way it was the wrong choice."

If not for this path, Free Russia would have been relegated to the predicament of eternal slaves anyway, acting as watchdogs dependent on Germany or America.

With that meager territory, at worst, they would have been annexed by the Soviet Union and disappeared just like that.

Vlasov ground his teeth until they made a grinding sound.

The Soviet Western Front was practically isolated from Moscow, and moreover, it was a unit that suffered serious damage from the coordinated attack of Poland and the Free Russian Army in the last battle.

Because the commanders were the two has-beens Voroshilov and Budyonny, he hadn't thought they would surely launch an offensive, to think he'd be tripped up there.

"…It can't be helped. There's no choice but to turn some of the front-line units back and handle them first."

Having spoken that far, Vlasov looked at Kerensky and opened his mouth.

"Please convey to General Patton to help us with the Battle of Smolensk. Even if the advance to Moscow is before the Allied Powers' agreement, America must also prevent the fall of Smolensk."

"…I will do so."

Vlasov looked down at the map with bloodshot eyes.

Since it had come to this, borrowing Patton's power to annihilate the Western Front and steadily occupying the western region to stabilize the rear area came first.

"We did not rise up to become puppets of the West. Rather than becoming slaves again alongside my subordinates, I will struggle for freedom even if we are all burned away."

Vlasov ignited his will to fight with blazing eyes.

-

May 3, 1942

Central region of the Soviet Union, Kursk – Allied Forces occupied territory

"The Soviet Union shall cede the Kola Peninsula and East Karelia to Finland, and liberate the entirety of Belarus and Ukraine."

Giving up the territory including the ice-free port Murmansk in the far north, the Soviet Union's greatest breadbasket Ukraine, and the gateway to Europe, Belarus.

For the Soviet Union, they naturally would have never wanted to accept this, but since it was already occupied by the Allied Forces and they didn't have the spare capacity to take it back right away, handing it over was ultimately inevitable.

However, Andropov's drive to push for the fastest possible end to the war instead of filling that sluggish negotiation process with meaningless psychological warfare was incredible.

"War reparations shall be repaid over 30 years but paid in resources, and all territorial sovereignty over the ceded and liberated territories shall be completely relinquished."

Andropov hardened his face slightly at this part, but he did not show any backlash.

We had already discussed it as well.

"In response, the Allied Forces side that has ended the war with the Soviet Union guarantees they will disallow any interference, including support or weapons sales to nations supporting Free Russia or the conflict between the Soviet Union and Free Russia.

However, the Allied Powers will not intervene in the support from America, which has not officially opened hostilities with the Soviet

Union."

Poland and Finland had already reached their limits, and Ukraine had already satisfied its strategic objectives.

There was no country that wanted to drag out the war further from here.

Germany also had nothing more to gain, and the fact that ending the war was inevitable due to the public's outrage over Free Russia's obstruction was a sufficient excuse to give to America.

However, just because we were the Allied Powers, we couldn't apply pressure on America to sever ties with Free Russia as well. We'd be lucky not to be called the Communist Party by the hawks within America if we did.

As if Andropov didn't not know that, he seemed satisfied just with the fact that the Allied Forces, especially Germany, would not interfere.

However, this was basically me using a point that he didn't know.

The Soviet Union might have been extremely wary of the situation where Germany's massive military supplies would pour into Free Russia after the war, but America had overflowing capability to provide plenty of all the supplies Free Russia needed anyway.

Meaning Free Russia had no need to go out of their way to buy and use supplies from Germany, with whom they had an awkward relationship due to this incident.

America would also want to make Free Russia thoroughly dependent on them if possible.

It would be a huge help to our postwar economy just by taking the customs and transportation fees for the abundance of supplies America would send for Free Russia and making a profit off that.

Through this negotiation, they tried to prevent Germany's intervention by even relinquishing territorial sovereignty over the lost territories, but in reality, it was the same as us having given up nothing.

"Additionally…"

After briefly exchanging glances with Andriy Melnyk, the leader of Free Ukraine, I continued reading down the agreement document.

"The Soviet Union shall sequentially relocate the industrial facilities previously moved from Ukraine to the Ural back to Ukraine over a period of 20 years. In exchange, Ukraine shall provide food corresponding to this to the Soviet Union during the applicable period."

The process of coordinating this was a bit tiring, but compromise was possible because Andropov gave up territorial sovereignty over Ukraine.

Unlike Free Russia, which would carry out the civil war with America's support anyway, the most serious problem for the Soviet Union, which had to somehow lead the civil war to victory on its own, was not industrial power but food.

And we would provide the resolution to that problem.

It was a matter of getting back industrial facilities for Ukraine, which was in the predicament of becoming an agricultural state because the Soviet Union had torn away almost 50% of the industrial facilities in western Ukraine and most of the ones in the east to the Ural.

From Ukraine's stance, they would want to just demand it be handed over, but there was no way the Soviet Union, which was already paying reparations, would hand it over just because of that.

On the other hand, compromise was possible in the form of a trade.

Therefore, it was also difficult for America to recklessly find fault with it.

Strictly speaking, this was a trade, not support. With it being a trade to get back their own nation's industrial facilities, would they pick a fight with Germany and intervene?

From the Soviet Union's stance, they could avoid the vain fate of losing the civil war due to immediate food depletion.

Cultivating at least a minimal food self-sufficiency ability by developing agricultural technology during that period was a matter up to the new Soviet high command. Without Khrushchev around, either…

"Both the Allied Powers and the Soviet Union shall comply with this treaty, and in the event the Soviet Union conducts activities for the overthrow of Allied Powers member states, or if the Allied Powers fail to comply with the treaty, sanctions and immediate response may follow by Germany and the League of Nations or equivalent organizations."

Unlike me, who knew there was no such thing as a world revolution by communism anyway, from the stance of the people of this era, that damn 'overthrow activity by the Soviet Union' was an object of fear, so it was a phrase that was included.

As a result, it was a phrase that made it clear Germany was the leader of the Allied Powers and the mediator of this treaty, so there was nothing bad about it.

Having read all the way up to there, I met Yuri Andropov's gaze.

It was an extremely humiliating negotiation for the Soviet Union. However, depending on subsequent actions, it was also a negotiation that could become the starting point for settling the hostile relations up until now.

At the very least, it explicitly eliminated parts that could become causes of conflict between both sides, and it stipulated that sanctions or responses could follow even in the case the Allied Powers did not comply with the treaty.

"Henceforth, both the Allied Powers and the Soviet Union shall actively cooperate to prevent the recurrence of additional conflicts."

Ukraine had to receive factories, and the Soviet Union had to receive food.

By making them relinquish territorial sovereignty and depend on each other, with Germany standing as a guarantor, we prevented immediate conflicts.

Whether this phrase would simply end up as a customary inclusion after that, or truly become a phrase for a new relationship, was entirely up to the parties concerned.

I watched as Mr. Heuss and Yuri Andropov each placed their signature on the agreement document.

Ultimately, we made the choice to take the Soviet Union's side.

If Free Russia, running wild like that even now, were to collapse the Soviet Union and swallow Russia in the unlikely event, that indeed would become the most massive threat to Germany.

Free Russia threw an unreasonable move to avoid a situation where they became the lackeys of Germany and America to stand against the Soviet Union, but as a result, they rather ended up in the predicament of falling into America's slaves.

Free Russia, with its small territory and poor foundation, would have to rely entirely on America throughout the civil war process, and although they called themselves a pro-Western nation, hostile relationships between nations were not necessarily determined by ideology.

Just look at Putin's Modern Russia, which was 'for now' a democracy.

If the massive enemy called the Soviet Union disappeared, it was inevitable that Free Russia, full of dissatisfaction towards the Allied Powers and Germany, would bare its fangs at us someday.

Rather than Russia becoming America's watchdog and keeping Germany in check, it was better to keep the Soviet Union alive to draw the attention of America, which was being swept by the fierce winds of McCarthyism.

Furthermore, whether they actually had the power to threaten all of Europe or not, the existence of a nation that could be sufficiently threatening from the stance of other countries excluding Germany would increase Europe's solidarity in itself.

Even if others didn't know anyway, I knew that America was too massive a great power to confront alone, even for a Germany much better off than in original history.

Since both sides were democracies, there was no guarantee that things would necessarily turn into the Cold War structure of original history just because it was only the two of them, but at this point where history was already vastly distorted, I couldn't be certain of anything.

How vain a thought it was that just because it's a democracy, it would be moderate and love peace. Who knew what would appear in the future unfolding from here on out? Like a president named George Bush.

Thus, although it's a funny story, it was better for us that the Soviet Union survived. I suppose it should be called a hostile symbiosis.

Unlike us who appropriately pulled out, they would definitely become hostile with America, which would be shooting Finnish Civil War season 2 or a Vietnam War prequel, so they might even end up on our side in an emergency.

Andropov, having shaken hands with Mr.

Heuss, slowly approached me and requested a handshake.

I quietly asked as I took the hand he offered.

"Do you still have no regrets?"

Honestly, when I heard him say he almost carried out the assassination of me or Claudia, my blood didn't just run cold, it froze over.

If Claudia had, a-ah, no.

I'm stopping that thought.

Andropov asked back in a low voice.

"…Well. Won't you regret this agreement, Minister?"

Regret this agreement, he says.

The decision to abandon Free Russia, which was crying out for freedom for now, and choose the 'dangerous commie' Soviet Union, all while claiming to be the guardian of the Free World.

I glanced around and opened my mouth again to him in a quiet voice.

"Whether it's democracy, freedom, or whatever. No matter how good a political system or ideology is, the moment you blindly believe in it, it becomes poison."

For Russia's freedom.

However, was the path Free Russia would tread in that process truly a path befitting 'freedom'?

Hitler also cried out for freedom. Dictators claiming to be democratic could be found without difficulty even in modern times.

Andropov was quietly listening to my words.

"Rather than that, my thought is that it's better to place a bet on those who strive to doubt and develop it, even if it is a so-called subversive ideology."

Even if communism started by crying out for things like a bloody revolution by the proletariat, now, after just a little time passes, it becomes common sense that such a thing is unrealistic.

Did the communist nations remaining in modern times still pursue things like permanent revolution? Ultimately, everyone ends up changing.

I saw Enrique Líster's resolve.

And I met Andropov, the man he staked that resolve on.

Because he was a secretive person, I couldn't read everything, but I could at least tell that he was someone with the will to reform the Soviet Union, unlike Stalin.

I smiled at Andropov.

"Right now it's an ideology that people believe to be more important than anything else and that divides each other, but I believe the day will come when even that ideology will become nothing more than a factor of the nation and the lives of the people living within it."

Andropov gazed at me quietly, then shook my hand without a word and turned his back.

Our paths do not overlap.

The moment I briefly encountered Enrique Líster, the paths we were to take each began to stretch out in a direction that would never overlap again.

However, just because the direction was different, I didn't think the path of someone walking a different path from mine was wrong.

The Soviet Union.

A nation that was overwhelmingly the strongest in the world in original history, competing for the hegemony of an era with the United States of America, only to eventually collapse after being crushed by that burden.

I hoped their path, which would be different from original history, could become a better path if possible.

…Finally.

The German-Soviet War had ended.