We are talking about Poland. Nothing is ever normal there. - Andrzej Sapkowski

8 April 1975 P.C.

People's Republic of Poland

Radom

This year's April, according to a Polish proverb, besides the obvious according to the Polish name of this month of blooming flowers, has flown between summer and winter since the beginning of last week. A few days of sunshine, then out of nowhere it snows again, then sunshine again, then snow. Someone also noticed that this oddity collides too well with the state on the front. As Poland wins it is warm as Poland retreats it snows.

Fortunately, the sun was shining again today, so the kids were walking to school in the melting snow, and from time to time they used the last opportunity until November 1st to throw snowballs at each other.

Oh great times when there was snow in Poland for the winter and for quite a long time, not like in the year from which Japan came, there is winter but there is no snow for almost the whole winter or there is but little and for a few days in December or February.

Not that it makes winters more bearable for people, oh what not.

But we did not come here to hear about the long gone weather in the average quality of about 30% of the story of some inferior author who can not write or something like that.

So, who have we come to but Mr. Jędrzej Durczak, a random worker from the country who loves workers so much that the first thing he did after the first workers' strike in 1956 was to order the army to shoot at him. Such a worker-peasant paradise.

Why am I drawing your attention to this man? I don't mean that he somehow fell into disfavor with the party authorities, because that's not the case, but the fact is that he was followed by UB agents.

So now the question is, why do they follow him? Simple, this man was one of the first non-Party people who set up a company in the New Kresy, a paper company to be exact, although it mainly produced toilet paper. And at this point, Polish readers are already grinning because they know what is going on.

Namely, the toilet paper, not knowing why, in the People's Republic of Poland is called a scarce commodity, which means, according to Polish newspeak, contrary to what one may think, a commodity which is always in short supply and which everyone wants.

Yes, there is such a shortage in a country which can produce tanks on a mass scale, belongs (which is not a joke) to the elite group of countries working on atomic energy, or at least belonged to 1978, the mysterious death of Professor General Kaliski responsible for this research interrupted this, but in this world it is unlikely to ever happen, and many outstandingly advanced things and has a problem with something so simple.

It's a laughing stock considering the fact that there were no such problems in Czechoslovakia or Hungary for example, strange isn't it?

That's why one of the areas where economic bans were loosened a bit. Well, the understatement of the year, in the New Kresy, the so-called Kunicki-Lejczak Act was introduced, named after the ministers of light and heavy industry respectively. To make a long story short, this act is almost a dot-to-dot copy of Wilczek's act of 1988, a copy of which was miraculously found on the computer of ambassador Milewski, who wrote about it in his master's thesis in economics.

The copy was lying in a forgotten corner of the computer's memory when it was uploaded there after he had written his thesis. He found it by accident while searching for important information of the IIIRP which could be useful for the government of the People's Republic of Poland. It was quickly sent as important information to the government, then as befits an important piece of information, it lay there for a couple of months before finally, after being read and checked for correctness by the Security Service, Counterintelligence and other important secret services of the People's Republic of Poland, it reached the desk of the first secretary.

There it was read and at the next court session it was decided to implement it with some corrections and sold as a test on the New Kresy to the hard-headed communists at the PZPR convention as part of the new five-year plan for 1975-1980. Fortunately, the transfer came in the last year of the last five-year plan, so it didn't hurt as much as one might expect, and the hard-liners in power effectively silenced with their propaganda and police truncheons those fools who came out shortly after the transfer was announced to protest the public sensing an opportunity for democratization.

The people's government said so and with its apparatus of terror and violence crushed all resistance, then loosened up a bit and met, amusingly and ironically, some of the democratic opposition's demands. Nothing important or really noticeable but giving time and space and scapegoats in case of failure.

The newly promulgated law on economic freedom, which in a nutshell could be described as "what is not forbidden is allowed" and "let it work" was in a package with the act of colonization of the New Eastern Kresy within the framework of the five-year economic plan 1975-1980, quite effectively repaired the somewhat tarnished image of the good Gierek after the harsh suppression of protests.

Although the Poles did not forget these events, they rushed at the opportunity like piranhas at meat in water. Of course, priority was given to the children of communist party members and friends of those in higher levels of power in the colonization lists to be able to open their own businesses. But this did not mean that there was no shortage of ordinary people willing to do business.

And one of such lucky people was Mr. Jedrzej Durczak, a worker at the Gen. Walter's "Predom-Łucznik" Metal Works in Radom, which our readers may know under the more modern name of "Łucznik" Weapons Factory, and as befits an armaments plant in the Eastern Bloc, in addition to all sorts of firearms they produced sewing and typing machines, household appliances, or any other metal things like locks, padlocks, or machine tools.

Generally equipment that no one would expect to be produced in an infantry armament factory. Of course, a small curiosity would be the fact that the period from 71 to 75 was a period of huge investments in this enterprise. One of them was the creation of a branch office in Zvolen from scratch, or the launch of production under licence of sewing machines of the American company "Singer", together with the right to sell two models with the "Singer" trademark all over the world.

This was used both before and after the transfer, although now some of the "Singer" machines are sold on the Polish market since the main foreign buyer has disappeared and the machines were manufactured exclusively for export.

Town Hall in Radom

Mr. Durczok was impatiently waiting for his turn in the corridor of the municipal office, it was not a nice place, not with the level of courtesy and the attitude of the clerk to all petitioners who would do best if they didn't come. Yes, there are nicer ones, like the lady clerk to whom he stood in not small queue.

He felt a little sorry for this angel in the building, which came from the mediocre years of Gomulka's rule. It smelled clearly of old age here, and although you could see that the building is taken care of, it was not comfortable to sit here. Especially that the corridors are a bit cramped and the queue is long. In the air there was a slightly watery smell, but not of sweat, but of rot.

Of course, in order to take part in the last formalities he dismissed himself from work and waited like others in a neat suit. The other thing is that he was not too rich and since he bought a suit for his wedding about 8 years ago he still wears it. Besides, hardly anyone could afford to spend full money for a new set of navy blue jacket, white shirt and pants.

Not that it stood out in any way, just a typical formal outfit from the 1960s for the slightly poorer. As for the meeting, he was just waiting for the last documents confirming the opening of the new plant, the permission to settle in New Lwów and the confirmation of the registration of his paper company Parpol on the territory of the New Kresy.

Most of the several months of paperwork, namely from the 1st of January since the new five-year plan was announced, had already been done. One could say that for the first time in my life there were no major problems, except for the obvious intruders in the form of Polish Secret Police. Well, he had had a wiretap for a long time, after all, who doesn't in this country?

Durczok looked around at those waiting in line, nothing new, just a whole lot of people from the working or peasant class eager either to set up their own businesses or to work in the mushrooming private companies for usually bigger and more efficient paychecks. Like, for example, Mr. Jan Nowak before him who is the younger of the peasants' sons and with the help of his family has collected enough money and wants to establish a new farm in the virgin regions.

And so, sitting on his chair, he noticed the two men on his left arguing. It was difficult not to pay attention to them. As far as he knew, they were both the same age and one had brown hair while the other had blond hair.

He said, "Mr. Stanislaw, I'm telling you, it's a terrible idea what you've come up with. The authorities won't just let a privateer do something like that!" Shouted one brunet suddenly.

"Mr. Andrzej, don't get upset and don't talk nonsense, you'll see how the people's power with a workers' act will help in the construction of my company, after all, it will be a fucking vein of gold." Replied the blond man more calmly with a joking streak.

"Yeah sure, if she wants to be dead, the SB will get on your ass for that idea." Andrzej replied dubiously.

"Sorry to interrupt but what were you two talking about?" Durczok asked curiously, drawing the attention of both men.

"Look, Andrzej, you're talking so much about SB and look what you did yourself," said Stanislaw mockingly and then added in a conspiratorial whisper, "After all, walls have ears, don't you remember?

Andrzej burbled something unintelligible in response and Stanislaw turned to Durczok quietly enough that no one but him could hear what he was saying.

"You see..." he paused for a moment

"I'm Jedrzej Durczok, I used to work for Walter," said Durczok shaking his hand.

Stanislaw reciprocated the gesture "Stanisław Białas, also from Walter, I worked at the weapons assembly plant and you?"

Jędrzej replied "The typewriter at Gołębiów"

Stanislaw nodded and then added "Okay, what was I talking about?" he paused for a moment then his eyes lit up "Okay, Mr. Jedrzej as I was saying I'm going to open an armaments company in Novy Lwów producing old weapons, you know, mauzers, mosins and other scrap from the war or before"

"And you want to sell it all over the world, to Roderius, or to the Philades after this brawl with Parpaldia is over?" Said guessing what Stanislaw meant, Jedrzej.

Stanislaw smiled "That's right sir, I think the government will let me do that so I can relieve you know Walter, I don't think this factory has ever made so many Mosin's in its life when the order from Altaras came in, I think half the assembly lines went for it which of course slowed down the AK production."

"I heard that the order was for fifty thousand, and that's how many should be in stock?" Jedrzej wondered.

Stanislaw shook his head "You heard wrong, the order was for 500 thousand and that was new, because our people didn't want to sell used guns and all Mosins were withdrawn in the fifties in favour of AK."

"Five hundred thousand Mosin?! What kind of army do they have that they need so many?" Jedrzej wondered

"Not much, less than a quarter of it is for the Army, the rest is for the Navy, Air Force and the Altaras commoners. Well that order, my mistake sorry was total, about 300,000 of that was ordered by the LWP probably for intelligence and giving to the insurgents in Parpaldia. And..." He paused for a moment to look around and then looked more carefully at his interlocutor.

After a few moments of staring, his somewhat tense face loosened and he added in a whisper, "And from what I hear they intend to send to Roderius, to the warlords formed after the breakup of Louria after the Japanese arrested their king and won't let him go any further. And of course to those other two neighboring countries."

Stanislaw moved away after this interesting news with his face away from Jedrzej. Jedrzej hearing this unknown information looked at Stanislaw in a different light.

Squinting his eyes he said, "Let me guess that friend who told you this suggested this idea right?"

Jedrzej was sure that he had hit the jackpot, seeing for a moment the triumph on Stanislaw's face. Holding his tongue about his thoughts, Durczok changed the subject.

"And your friend, what does he want?"

Stanislaw seeing that Jedrzej wanted to change the subject replied "Construction company, he's a bricklayer by trade but his hands are falling off when he sees what's going on at construction sites, how people steal goods at construction sites because they have too much, or how they squeeze your belt if you do too well, and other socialist debilitations, as you know." He finished the argument by raising his hands.

Jedrzej raised an eyebrow hearing the end, but said nothing and ignored the accusation hidden in Stanislaw's eyes with good humor. Of course, he agreed with this short summary of what was happening on the construction sites of huge blocks of flats which in the future everyone would associate with the eastern block of flats

The momentum with which new apartments were being built surpassed the previous one, by this year 300 thousand apartments were being built annually! The propaganda announced what a success it was, of course there were just these events, but the construction continued uninterrupted. Well, it was damned necessary, the baby boomers, numbering 3 million Poles, needed housing. And Gierek provided them.

Last year it collapsed a bit in April, but after the conditions stabilized for the perpetually crisis-ridden country, the construction started again with a kick. The big novelty were companies from Japan, which in the face of huge supply and a small number of construction plants, were employed on quite good terms.

Well, it was very helpful for the Japanese housing construction industry, which didn't have too many clients due to the crisis. And infrastructure investments were not a place where they could earn much. Fortunately the communists needed housing and so they started to employ these companies to build apartments both in Poland and in the New Kresy.

In fact, in Radom alone there are three Japanese companies that build apartments according to Japanese designs, with a much higher level of comfort than the grayish blocks of apartments. In a way they introduced a new quality to the Polish construction industry. And they were very fast and good at what they did. Of course, they built according to Polish guidelines, which is why the apartments were usually larger than those of the same type in Japan, but they cost much less.

Further deliberations were interrupted when the last petitioner left the room. Durczok said goodbye to Stanislaw and got up then went to his room.

"Comrade citizen Jedrzej Durczok?" The clerk in the room asked.

Durczok nodded "Yes that's right."

"Identity card please." Durczok handed over his ID for inspection. He waited a moment as the clerk checked.

After checking, the clerk began to search through the documents. "Mr... excuse me comrade for proof of company registration?"

Durczok nodded "That's right. Also for permission to settle in New Lwów."

"I see, please wait a moment." She said after finding Durczok's name. After that, she started looking for the right person.

"Andrzej, Bartłomiej, Damian, Jedrzej, oh I got it." She muttered to herself under her breath. Then a quick peek at the ID to see if the person matched, she handed over the ID and provided the appropriate documents. She then handed over the acceptance report to be signed and decorated it with a stamp.

"Thank you is all, have a nice day." Said the clerk to Durczok who rejoiced after receiving the approval.

"You too!" Replied Durczok cheerfully, then left the room. He nodded to Stanislav who was entering the room behind him.

When he left the building and got into his Fiat 126p called "Maluch" he shook his head looking at the obviously SB agent following him.

"There is nothing like it to serve and protect a communist country that introduces capitalism Comrade Agent." He said aloud to himself as he started the car and set off for his apartment with the good news.

A few thousand kilometers north of Radom

The continent of Filades

April 8, 1640 C.C.Y

Altamater Front Command Camp

Commander's tent

16:18

Arde felt both anxiety and dissatisfaction as well as relief and a fulfilled sense of duty. The latter two because his Legions were beginning their retreat across the Abovo River and that they had managed, after what they had learned from the locals, to outrun the Polish offensive. And that he managed to hold out long enough and pose a real threat to the Poles long enough for Remille to have a strong enough position that the negotiations were not a concert of fulfilling the Poles' wishes.

So much for the good news. The bad news is that about 50% of the soldiers taking part in this several-day offensive are currently being judged by Morr, the God of Death and the Dead. And of the other half, only 37% are likely to pose a real war threat.

What does this mean in terms of numbers? It means that roughly 350,000 people are dead, such a number was terrifying, never in the history of Parpaldia had so many soldiers died in one offensive and within a few days. It resembled the losses from the Fifth Civilization War between Mu State and HME! To make matters worse, out of the other half of those 700,000, only about 129,500 people are fit to continue fighting.

Yes, Parpaldia has huge human resources, after all, they've always been ready for war with the eternally arrogant assholes from HME who are the main reason why the 300-year continent unification campaign started, but still, the shock of such losses is massive.

Especially since such losses were usually suffered within a few months. And in this war from November to April they lost only soldiers without navy almost eight hundred thousand men. And with sailors this reached almost a million, what means that they lost half of the military personnel from before the war.

He knew one thing, this would have a solid hiccup on the social order in Parpaldia, if true what he heard about communism. Poles without any scruples will use this for their purposes.

Of course more legions are ready to wage war but Parpaldia cannot afford such losses so quickly. Fortunately it does not have to suffer them further, for now of course, but it was certain at this rate of warfare they would lose without being able to stand fairly straight.

For someone has to beat the rebellious colonies and with an army of corpses this will not be done.

Fortunately magic was not able to match the enemy technique because it was quite effective in the initial surprise. In practice it was the only thing that gave them a chance to attack the enemy and now they have the opportunity to retreat. The magic of weather change combined with the magic of camouflage, as they rightly believed, effectively hinders the warfare of a more advanced civilization.

Yes, that's right, they began to consider Poland and to some extent Japan as more advanced than Parpaldia, but they also pointed out that they are probably more advanced than HME and Mu due to the use of technology and magic not found in them. It wasn't strange since all the tricks used by them were in action against the two strongest superpowers in case of war with them.

Other effective magic included healing and interrogation spells. The former effectively healed severe wounds and the latter allowed them to gain information from the captives fairly effectively before they were disposed of. The latter was all the more important as the scouts usually suffered heavy losses when smashed by Polish patrols or their reconnaissance units.

Particularly troublesome were the airborne ones in machines called helicopters, who could knock out an entire regiment of legionnaires without a problem if they did not have their own anti-aircraft guns. And using one's own air force was impossible, the enemy ruled the air indivisibly and every creature that flew into the sky very quickly returned to earth but dead.

"Damn planes!" Said Arde with fury. He hated them more than anything else in the enemy army's arsenal. It was impossible to shoot them down, they were too fast for that, very numerous and those firebombs of theirs were knocking out every Parpaldian camp the Poles managed to discover because some mage failed to cast a camouflage spell in time.

Unfortunately they were limited to human mages without the ability to tech like the Center, from such a fate. The magic stones were running out, the rate at which they were losing their supply was also the reason for their retreat, and the reason why they intended to conquer Altaras, which has the largest deposits of them in that part of the world. And the magic stones were to them what Poland and Japan or Mu was to oil.

Of course, this limitation was also in a sense an advantage because they were able to develop better versions of ordinary spells without magical devices that the Central World has and produces in huge amounts, but for which they need magic stones to work.

If they managed to take Altaras they could in this way provide themselves with a better negotiating position against the Center and in case of war undermine the war effort of HME and its allies because their deposits although theoretically inexhaustible (because the stones are mysteriously renewed very quickly) have a limited capacity and their economy needs more and more of them. And war will need them in huge amounts.

What's more, taking over these deposits would give an influx of new cash to Parpaldia, helping it move from a robbery economy to a manufacturing economy. And perhaps a greater influx of new technology.

That's why the cursed island from which it all began, all this slaughter and defeat after defeat of Parpaldia and the great rebellion in which Polish hands were noticed, many of the rebels used weapons which came from Poland. This island had to be conquered if Parpaldia was to go through proper reforms and start catching up technologically with Centrum to be a real threat to them.

Because that they won't win it was obvious at the Center and now, Poland showed them how impossible it was. They could at most make the enemy not want to conquer Parpaldia.

Now looking at the map Arde planned his next moves after retreating and digging in on his side of the river. Obviously the intention was to destroy any infrastructure that the enemy was noted and reported to be dependent on.

That is, in essence, bridges and aqueducts.

Thus planning his next moves a messenger, his faithful adjutant Gaius, entered the tent. "Supreme Commander, I report that the revealing troops have begun a controlled retreat in accordance with your orders." Arde nodded without taking his eyes off the map.

"At ease Gaius." The adjutant followed the command relaxed.

"Commander, permission to ask?" The adjutant asked.

"Permission granted, what is it?" Replied Arde taking his eyes off the map

"I don't want to sound pessimistic but why did we need this offensive? They massacred us with ease. We only made it 67 km across the river to Almater and then had another bloody battle after which we must retreat if we want to keep fighting. Wasn't it better to dig in on this side of the river?"

Arde looked into his eyes, paying no attention to the hard-to-miss sort of circle with spears on it with rays like sunshine around it on his hat, but he saw no treachery, no accusations either, more strangely but ordinary human puzzlement and the question why? Why sent so many people to death? In view of this, knowing the loyalty of his subordinate as well as the fact that he will not say what is said here without permission, he replied.

"Because our aim was not to push Poles to the sea, oh no! We had such a chance a few weeks ago when they launched their invasion and we failed miserably. We had no chance and have no chance now to win against them."

The adjutant made a questioning face but said nothing waiting for his commander to finish.

"Because our goal was to show, yes you will defeat us, but there are more of us. We can resist longer but we also want peace. So what will you choose a long and tiring battle with us? Or will you sign the peace treaty and we'll end this brawl and start again? We have shown them that we can flood their sparse forces in wave after wave until we win but if there are those trying to come forward. Are they going to slaughter the common people so willingly in a meat grinder?"

Gaius stepped into the word. "So this is all for diplomacy?" He asked as casually as if he were talking about fine weather and not the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. "Hundreds of thousands died so some diplomat would have cards in his hands?" He continued in that tone slightly scaring Arde with the ease with which he said it.

"Not only that!" Raised Arde's voice slightly interrupting Gaius "With this pre-emptive strike, we were able to gain time to make a better defense! We learned more than just the Poles massacring us! We have extended the time it takes for the Poles to go on the offensive!" Arde defended himself.

Gaius raised an eyebrow "How much do you think?"

Arde, on the other hand, was not able to answer that question. He turned to the map, trying to remember what orders he had given to his aide not to pursue the matter further. After a slightly longer moment he turned back towards him when he remembered what he wanted to tell him but realized that Gaius was nowhere to be found.

"What on earth?" He asked himself out loud and a moment later as if on cue Gaius entered the tent.

"My lord, I report that the rear guard has begun a controlled retreat breaking away from the enemy." He reported to a strangely stupefied Arde.

"What kind of jokes are these? After all you were here just now Gaius and you reported the same thing to me." Said after shaking off his astonishment to an enraged Arde.

"My lord, I just came." Said a surprised Gaius.

"No, Gaius you were here just now you reported me quote..." Arde corrected himself and using his pretty good memory he repeated the report. "...Supreme Commander, I report that the revealing troops have begun a controlled retreat in accordance with your orders."

When he finished Arde said to himself. "Strange, I don't recall you ever speaking to me with my rank..." He paused when he looked at the tall officer's hat that looked like those of Napoleonic France on his head. "Wait a minute Gaius, last time you had like a sun on your hat with such strange piping and the whole thing looked like a sun..."

He paused for a moment turning into a pillar of salt. "My lord is everything alright?" Asked frightened by his master's strange behavior Gaius and was answered by laughter. Laughter that began as a small quiet chuckle and slowly grew into louder and more frightening laughter before finally sounding like the laughter of a possessed maniacal madman.

This went on for quite a while and the guards who looked into the tent when they heard the laughter became as dumbfounded as the faithful adjutant. When the laughter stopped, Arde, exhausted, sat down on a stool next to where the tea was. Green to add to it. He took a sip and after calming down said.

"Is all well you ask Gaius. Let me tell you, it is not good for Desolis herself has confirmed that the Gods are against us. And the war will not be won." He then took another deep sip and asked the soldiers before him "Have you written your will gentlemen? For I think you will find it very useful."

The uncertain deafening silence that fell was his answer.

Welcome to another now short chapter that extends the Parpaldia arc indefinitely.

And now more seriously and well it's time to explain the what and how right?

PZPR - Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza/Polish United Workers Party.

A communist monoparty formed on December 15, 1948, by merging the Polish Workers' Party and the Polish Socialist Party, after purges in their ranks. Also referred to as the Real Socialist Party, it ruled the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989 and existed until 30 January 1990.

Of course it had different activists and what is interesting it was not the only party in PRL, there were also ZSL and SD, they were Satelite parties, which aimed to say that here is also pluralism in people's democracy. In the elections of 1989 they broke away and ZSL changed to PSL and SD remained with the same name but is a meaningless centrist party.

Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that de facto PZPR was the owner of People's Poland, because it was to them that everything common belonged in fact as far as property was concerned.

The Wilczek's Act - the original term for the Act of December 23, 1988 on economic activity, drafted by the Minister of Industry Mieczysław Wilczek and Prime Minister Mieczysław Rakowski and passed by the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic of the ninth term. The act was in force from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 2000 and regulated business activity in a liberal way.

Funnily enough, the Free Democratic Poland only reduced this law and expanded it from 45 articles to more and more in the 20 years since its repeal.

Fiat 126 colloquially "Maluch" (which means something small, this word can also be used for a one-year-old child, for example) - a passenger car of the smallest class of cars, designed by the Italian manufacturer Fiat, produced between 1972 and 2000. It was produced by Fiat and under license by the Polish Fabryka Samochodów Małolitrażowych (since 1992 part of the Fiat Group as Fiat Auto Poland) as Polish Fiat 126p (in Italy until 1980, in Poland in the period from 6 June 1973 to 22 September 2000).

A popular joke in Poland says that this car is bigger on the inside than it looks.

As for Poland, it is the car which seriously motorized Polish society thanks to the fact that it was cheap and simple in production and easy to repair by any amateur.

Most of about 4.5 million of these cars were made in Poland.

Although it was cheap doesn't mean it was easy to get. It took an average worker a couple of years to earn it and another couple of years to get it, because there were lists of people interested in the car, and quite a few of them.

So if someone had it quite early, they were either lucky or had a good friend in the right place. It changes the way you look at Durczok now, doesn't it?

Okay and now it's time for a joke. Russian brothers, greetings to readers from Russia, I think they've heard of him.

- Who is your father - a Soviet officer asks the recruit.

- Comrade Stalin - answers the recruit.

- What do you mean? - The officer does not hide his surprise.

- Comrade Stalin is the father of us all - the recruit says.

It is difficult for the officer to deny, so he asks further. - And who is your mother, young man?

- My mother is the Soviet Union - answers the future soldier.

The officer, increasingly puzzled, asks for an explanation, and the boy replies that since the Soviet Union is everyone's mother, so is his. It is difficult to answer, so the officer asks: - And what would you like to become?

- An orphan - is the recruit's answer.

Well, that's it for today. Thank you to everyone who stayed to the end and greetings regardless of where and when you are Towarzysze.