April 21, Unified Year 1934

Berun, Prussian Republic

Tanya was sitting alone in her dingy, two room apartment. It wasn't much, but she could afford it and it was certainly better than staying as a 'guest' with various party members. She made her living as a speaker these days. Different organizations and groups would ask her to talk to their members and would pay a modest fee for her services. The veterans particularly loved her, and any organization trying to appeal to them would want her to speak on their behalf. It wasn't much, but at least now she wasn't destitute. It also helped that she didn't have to draw on the Party funds to pay for personal expenses. Along with her courage and sharp mind she also had a reputation for being honest and incorruptible. She needed to maintain that appearance of the virtuous leader who always did what was best for the greater good rather than what was in her own self-interest.

Spread out before her was the morning edition of the Berun Standard. It was the largest and most popular paper in the city. There were a dozen of them, newspapers and the radio were how most people got their news. They were the internet of this age. In much the same way, you could find websites aimed at specific groups; many of the papers pandered to a particular demographic. The Standard was a conservative paper. If you wanted to read something more liberal, you could buy the Sun. Each of the main churches owned a weekly that would argue temporal matters and encourage the faithful in their beliefs. All the major political parties had them as well, even the communists. For the past month, the headlines had been screaming about one scandal or another perpetrated by political rivals. Libel laws in Prussia were lax, you could print almost anything short of accusing someone of a specific crime. That left a lot of room for personal attacks and stories of corruption and immorality. If you believed all the stories every single candidate for office was sleeping with underage boys, getting drunk, getting high on morphine, robbing the tax payers blind, in the pocket of the rich or the Rus or the Republic or the Allied Kingdom, and spending every night in an orgy.

It was a wonder any of them found the time to actually vote on anything.

The NUP didn't have a paper. That would have required a lot more capital than their meager funds would allow. The party had to rely completely on donations from its supporters. The people and groups with money weren't interested in them. Just getting registered as an actual political party and getting on the ballot had been hard. For the last six months, she had been campaigning all over Berun, speaking anywhere she could. She'd talked in beer halls, theaters, at schools, hospitals, markets, in the parks, and even on some street corners. Basically, she'd spoken anywhere the police would allow her to. She would have loved to have gone to the other major cities as well, but only a handful of her followers owned cars. Gasoline was expensive and so were rail tickets, give the party's finances she'd only managed to speak outside of Berun a total of three times. Without the money for a newspaper or travel getting noticed was difficult.

She almost never suffered any personal attacks in the opposition papers. To a certain degree that was because she was a war hero and a woman. But the main reason was that the NUP just wasn't enough of a threat to waste the ink. On the front page of the Standard were the final results of yesterday's election. There were a total of 170 seats in the Prussian Parlament. Unlike in many other democracies, here people didn't vote for specific candidates to represent specific districts. Instead, they would vote for the party they wanted to represent them. Each party would win a number of seats based on their percentage of the overall vote. The party would then decide which members would fill those slots. It was an unusual system. Tanya thought it was probably a holdover of the old Imperial mindset that had stressed teamwork over individuality. She actually liked the method; it tended to force people to follow party lines and stressed the success of the whole rather than that of the individual.

The election results were:

Nationalist - 66

Social Democrat - 58

Centrist - 23

Black Soil - 11

Teutonic Alliance - 6

Communist - 4

National Union - 2

Tanya wasn't surprised. This was about what she'd expected. She'd actually been worried they might not win a single seat and be deregistered. According to the constitution, if a party failed to win at least one percent of the vote in a national election they lost their designation as a political organization. At least the result guaranteed they would still be in the polls two years from now.

Even more importantly, two members of her party would now serve as elected deputies of the Prussian Parlament. They would receive a state salary, enjoy immunity from libel and slander charges for as long as they were in office, and best of all receive a rail pass. All members of the government were entitled to a pass that gave them free and unlimited travel on the state rail lines. They could also not be refused a seat.

Tanya grinned. It was a good start. The only question was, who would the other deputy be?

XXX

April 23, Unified Year 1940

Berun, Prussian Republic

Driving on the way to the Reichsplatz they passed the two-story brick building where the Berun Union was printed. The building was draped in party flags and their newsboys shouted they were giving away free copies. Tanya was pleased to see a small crowd gathered reading the papers and discussing things. Many of the telephone poles were plastered in posters that depicted her as a knight with a sword in hand. Her medals were somehow pinned to her armor and at the bottom was a single word in stark white letters, 'Degurechaff.' She saw other posters too; posters with hammers and sickles and message like, 'workers unite' and 'equality now.' There were posters with white stars, eagles, angels, and even a handful depicting a farmer working a plow. But there were more posters of her than any other.

The polls throughout the country would open at eight on the dot and would remain open for twelve hours. They arrived with a good five minutes to spare. The place was already packed. A line of voters stretched down the block. Across the street from the polling station were two groups of hundred men or so. One group had red scarves tied around their necks or arms. The other were either dressed in field grey uniforms of wearing white arm bands with a black cross. Both sides carried placards and were screaming at the opposition. Words like 'traitor,' 'murderer,' and 'rapist' were among the nicer things being said. Standing between them were two full squads of armed policemen. Two more squads surrounded the polling station to make sure no one interfered with the people trying to vote.

As Tanya and her group got out of their cars a horde of reporters and photographers rushed up. She was half blinded by the flash of camera bulbs. A couple movie cameras on tripods also captured the moment. No doubt the images would be on newsreels all over Prussia.

Tanya smiled at the reporters, one of those soft, gentle smiles she liked to show the public.

"Fräulein Degurechaff!" One of the reporters shouted. "The polls show you have a significant lead for the Presidency! If you do win what are your plans?"

"To help our people and our nation be great again."

"Will you pledge to respect all the articles of the constitution?" A different reporter asked.

"You make it sound like holy writ. That piece of paper was written up in six weeks because the Allies said it had to be. I may have to make a few alterations here and there, but I do pledge to you that whatever I do will be done legally."

A different reporter elbowed his way ahead of the others. "Fräulein, what does it feel like to betray the workers and sell them out to the rich?"

Well I can guess which paper he works for. She deliberately made her smile even wider and answered with a girlish tone. "What does Comrade Vorshilov's ass taste like? You must know. You spend enough time licking it."

That produced a round of laughs from the other reporters and turned the face of the one she'd spoken to red. That line would be in all the papers tomorrow. In some countries a political candidate saying something like that would be a scandal, especially if it came from a woman. In Prussia, politics were not for the faint of heart and the insults could near draw blood.

"Now if you'll excuse me, me and my supporters need to vote and help put this country in order."

Tanya and her group walked past the reporters and up to the doors. One of the staff opened it for her and allowed them in though it was still a couple of minutes early. The people in line didn't object, they were excited just for the chance to see the White Silver up close.

"I'm sorry I can't vote for you," Viktoriya mumbled.

She and her family had actually been nobles in the Russy Empire. They had fled when the revolution took place. Viktoriya had been granted Imperial citizenship when she had volunteered for military service. Unfortunately, because her family residence had been in Leipzig, she was a citizen of Saxony not Prussia.

Tanya gave her a quick pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry about that. You've helped me more than anyone else. I couldn't do this without you."

Viktoriya's cheeks blossomed and she looked relived. The girl looked so adorable Tanya felt the urge to kiss her right then and there. Tanya forced herself to turn away and go up to the closest table where the election staff waited. The old Empire had been one of the most enlightened and rational societies in the world. But there were still limits to what people could accept as 'decent' behavior.

Tanya produced her ID card and handed it to the man seated there. "I am Tanya Degurechaff, resident of Berun, district four."

The man took her card and opened the ledger he had. He flipped through some pages until he found her. He drew a pen and neatly crossed out her name. The man then took a paper ballot, handed it to her and pointed to a line of booths with curtains. "Please fill out your ballot in any of the booths and deposit it in the box inside."

"Danke schön."

In the booth was a basket with sharpened pencils. On the list of candidates for President were five names, she drew an 'X' in the box next to her own. The ballot also asked her to vote for a member in Parlament, city council of Berun, city bailiff, city treasurer, and city burgomeister. She marked each box listed National Union. That done, she folded her ballot in half and dropped it through the slot of the ballot box.

Rerugen, Weiss, and Zettour were all citizens of Prussia and also voted. Their democratic duty complete, they left the polling station to return to Kaiserhoff.

XXX

They all went to her suite to listen to the returns on the radio. When Conrad joined them he was as angry as a cat caught in a rainstorm. He'd informed her that Sergeant Gunter was a moron and that she should get rid of him. She promised to speak to the sergeant and apologized profusely for the mistake.

The early results began coming in at two. In the very first report she had a lead of eleven thousand votes on Levi, none of the other candidates had more than five percent of the vote. They were leading in the race for Parlament as well; though by a much smaller margin. The other parties were also doing better there.

Each hour there was an update as more votes were tallied. All through the day Tanya's lead kept expanding. The communists had a strong following in all the major cities, but as the polls showed, they had practically no support in the towns and countryside. It was soon obvious Tanya would be President and that her party would be the largest in Parlament. It was a great and wonderful success, but there was still a little bad news.

"We're not going to have a majority in Parlament," Rerugen said when he shut off the radio at about ten. "Never mind the two thirds majority we would need to amend the constitution."

Zettour gave a solemn nod. "With the communists as the second largest party they'll be able to obstruct everything we try to do. Just like always they'll try to sabotage our efforts."

"That doesn't really matter, does it?" Conrad said happily as he sipped champagne. "Fräulein will be able to select whoever she wants as chancellor and you'll be chief of staff again. The important thing is we kept Levi out of the main seat. I'm sure things will be just fine."

Tanya scowled at the man. It was enough for him and his kind to know the wolf was no longer at the door. All they really cared about was having an environment where they could make money without worrying about a sudden knock at the door in the middle of the night. Business and the economy were important, as a salaryman she damn well understood that. But she hadn't gone through all this just to make a little money. She had much bigger plans in mind.

"Today was a good start," Tanya announced. "But only that. There is still a lot of work ahead of us and much to do."

Viktoriya, Rerugen, Weiss, and Zettour all nodded. Conrad sipped more champagne.