Well, God reading the reviews for this is going to be fun lol, but in any case, if you couldn't exactly guess from the title this is an AU, a very, very, well, lets just say different AU from the main timeline of games lets just say.
In any case this first chapter is more or less a generalised timeline of events, now you can skip this IF you want to, but if you want to have a clue on what's being discussed (Especially with the more intellectual shit), then I do advice that you at least do skim over the timeline a little bit.
Another thing I should note is that this isn't going to be a "Humanity fuck yeah" AU, so if that's what your looking for here, then your better off reading another fanfic.
One last thing, while I will be responding to legitimate criticism, I won't respond to stupid criticism like "your story is too woke" or anything like that.
In any case I hope you enjoy the story, and well yeah.
Oh and by the way you can totally just skip this chapter if you want to, while as stated above it does have a lot of context and information used in later chapters, so you CAN skip this chapter but then again I wouldn't recommend it, sure its not exactly the most action packed of things and is largely just there for world building but well yeah.
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1. 10000000 BC – 10000 BC, Prehistoric Timeline.
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—
7 November, 1917.
—
The October Revolution Begins, as Russian Peasants and Workers, Tired of constant oppression and exploitation at the hands of the Russian aristocratic class and the bourgeois, and frustrated at the inaction and complacency of the Provisional Government, as well as the deaths of countless loved ones during the first world war would storm the Winter Palace in Petrograd (Modern Day Leningrad), with the Second congress of Soviets Proclaiming the Establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic soon afterwards.
Around the same time the Romanov's are also captured by the Red guards, who would eventually end up being held in house arrest in a small Dacha outside of Petrograd.
—
8 - 13 November, 1917.
—
Reactionary forces, Under the Command of Alexander Kolchak and Peter Krasnov would attempt to retake Petrograd from Soviet forces, however, due to Partisan actions by Rail workers and Soviet Political Agitators, Along with stubborn resistance from Red Guard forces and workers militia's would ultimately force the Reactionaries to retreat, with Peter Krasnov being Captured by Soviet forces soon afterwards.
—
25 – 30, November, 1917.
—
Reactionary forces would again attempted to prevent the Revolution, though this time unlike Kolchak and Krasnov, who had largely tried to quash the Revolution through brute force, the Kadets and SR's, both respective capitalist political parties, would attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the Bolshevik movement through bribing the Russian Peasantry with the promise of "land reform", a promise, that later historiographers would discover, was something that Viktor Chernov had no intention of actually implementing, thankfully Lenin and the Majority of the Russian Proletariat would see through this ruse, with the Bolsheviks and their allies dissolving the Russian Constituent Assembly, with instead elections being held through the Russian Congress of Soviets.
This would spark an immediate Reaction from Reactionary forces, with many Officers of the Imperial Russian Army, Dissatisfied with the New Soviet Government, would flee to Siberia and the Caucuses, with Eventually the City of Ufa becoming a major focal point of the "White Movement".
—
1 January, 1918.
—
Tragedy would Nearly strike the Revolution as Vladimir Lenin would nearly be assassinated by an assassin hired by reactionary opposition forces, while thankfully the Assassin would miss his intended target, that would only be because of the heroic sacrifice of Leon Trotsky, who had been with Lenin at the time who had been giving a speech to the Russian Congress of Soviets.
—
10 – 15, January, 1918.
—
Trotsky death, while Heroic, would leave a large vacancy within the power structure of the newly founded soviet state, this vacancy would eventually be filled by a relatively new, though highly experienced member of the Party, Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
The Death of Trotsky would also have more immediate effects then simply opening a cabinet position within the newly forged RSFSR, for one Trotsky Popularity among the Troops, and especially those in the trenches of the Baltics and Poland, would be highly detrimental to the moral of the troops, forcing the Soviet government to sue for peace with the Imperialist Germans, with by January 15th a ceasefire having been declared.
—
1 February, 1918.
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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed leading to the RSFSR's withdrawal of Troops from the Baltic's, and the western side of the Dnieper River, while later information retained from German Imperial Archives would reveal that the German Empire had intended to annex far more lands than those simply west of the Dnieper river, Pressure from both Britain and France, and the Flood of American Troops into the continent would force German Military Leadership to give up on their aspirations of complete conquest of Eastern Europe in order to focus on the more pressing threat to the west.
—
15 February, 1918.
—
Exploiting the Political Vacuum within the Siberian Territories of Russia, along with the significant uproar due to the signing of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Reactionary White movement would declare the establishment of the Provisional all Russian Government, while in the Don, Peter Krasnov, who had been previously freed by Lenin in order to pacify the Don Cossacks and prevent the emergence of reactionary forces within the Don a few months ago, would break his promise to the Bolsheviks, Declaring the establishment of the "Don Republic".
Around the Same time large scale separatist uprisings would occur throughout most of Russia, and within former Russian Territories such as Poland and Finland, Which were lost after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
—
20 February, 1918.
—
As the Situation continues to escalate across Russia, Vladimir Lenin calls for a meeting with The Commissar of War, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, unlike many Generals within the Red Army, who advocated for a mass scale offensive against the at this point, disorganized white and separatist forces. However Tukhachevsky would advocate for a much more "surgical" approach, instead of Red army forces trying to capture and take as much territory as possible, Tukhachevsky would instead suggest focusing the Red Army's efforts within the Caucuses while the rest of the Red Army focused on simply holding the line around the Urals and Major Cities such as Kazan, Murmansk, and Arkhangelsk, along with supporting their Bolshevik Comrades within Ukraine against the Black Army and White forces that controlled most of the southern portions of the country east of the Dnieper (at this point Germany hadn't been defeated and hence the treaty of Brest-Litovsk hadn't been made redundant).
Tukhachevsky Idea of a "surgical" offensive would eventually be accepted by Lenin along with most of the Generals Present at the meeting, the Council of Labour and Defence, along with Mikhail Tukhachevsky quickly drawing up plans for operations codenamed "Rasputitsa".
—
20 March, 1918.
—
Reactionary forces within the Don would be taken by surprise by a sudden Red Army offensive into the Don, this was largely due to Peter Krasnov, who, along with most of his Cossack Officers, Had largely assumed that the first target of a Red Army offensive would be towards the city of Ufa, the at the time, Capital of the All Russian Provisional Government, the Largest Reactionary White Faction at the time. And Hence had been significantly underprepared at the time, the Red Army would manage to exploit the opening given to them by the foolish reactionaries, with the city of Rostov falling in a matter of days to advanced Red Army Cossack units that managed to enter the city without much of a fight largely thanks to the disorganized nature of Peter Krasnov's goons.
—
25 March, 1918.
—
Taken by surprise by the sudden Soviet offensive Peter Krasnov would attempt to meet the Red Army head on at the village of Pavlovskaya, despite the advice of his fellow White Army officers who would advice Krasnov to disperse his forces and conduct a Guerrilla Campaign against the Red Army forces, a statement that Krasnov would consider unsound and dishonourable as the Don steppe was not suited for a Guerrilla Campaign and that there only chance of Victory against the Reds would be to meet the Red Army forces head on at the village of Pavlovskaya.
—
26 March, 1918.
—
The Red Army Manages to crush Peter Krasnov's forces around the Village of Pavlovskaya, leading to most of the White Army forces to either be killed, captured, or forced to flee south or west, this victory would also definitively end White resistance within the Don-Kuban, with what remained of the White movement fleeing to the Separatist states of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Pyotr Wrangels White Army in Crimea.
While Some Red Army Generals would initially advocated for continuing the offensive into the Caucuses, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, along with an assortment of other Red Army generals, would disagree, instead ordering for most of the Red Army divisions that Participated within the offensive being redeployed to Kazan or other fronts such as Ukraine, with a marginal sized holding force being left in the Don to discourage potential White Army offensives from Crimea or raids by the Separatist states of the Caucuses.
—
20 April, 1918.
—
As the Red Army Prepared to launch its offensive to liberate the city of Ufa from Reactionary forces, Mikhail Tukhachevsky would begin the arduous task of reforming the Red army, while most of the forces of the former Imperial Russian Army had joined the Red Army at the advent of the Russian Civil War, however most of those who had defected where regular soldiers, who had little to no prior experience commanding men into battle, in order to try and rectify this Mikhail Tukhachevsky would begin to try and recruit captured White Army officers into the ranks of the Red Army along with sending out Commissars to identify and Cultivate "Potential officer talent" among the rank and file troops.
Another issue that the Red Army faced was simply the fact that most of the troops had little to no experience (aside those who had defected from the Imperial Russian Army of course) in order to try and change this Tukhachevsky would order for a "mixing" of combat squads between those who had experience and those who did not.
Another Problem that the Red Army also faced was a lack of equipment, while this was an issue that was far more acutely felt by White forces, the Red Army also faced issues when it came to procuring material such as artillery for instance, in order to resolve this Vladimir Lenin and the newly created Supreme Economic Council would enact a series of policies under the wider nickname of "War Communism", these new policies, along with the associated increase in industrial output thanks to them, would help to alleviate the supply issues faced by the Red Army at the time.
One of the more peculiar policies enacted during this time was the "grain procurement" policies, while initially most members of the Supreme Economic Council would advocate for simply seizing the grain stores of peasants and kulaks alike, Nikolai Bukharin, at the time a rising member of the party and defector from the Mensheviks, would instead advocate for the forceful purchasing of grain stores utilising long term, fixed interest, I. , with the idea being that eventually these peasants would be able to invest there capital into agricultural machinery, leading to a large scale increase of agricultural production and beginning the process of agricultural mechanization (something desperately needed to stave of famines that had been prevalent during the days of the Russian Empire.) while many were sceptical that this would lead to what Bukharin was suggesting, the prospect of being able to pacify the peasantry, and prevent revolts within the countryside, was reason enough for the grain procurement policy to be changed.
—
8 June, 1918.
—
With the ground Hardening and the issues that had faced the Red Army beginning to fade the Red Army would launch a large-scale offensive to take the City of Ufa.
While White Army forces had largely expected the Red Army's hammer to drop at the city of Ufa, the sheer scale of the offensive and the unexpected proficiency of Red Army forces would take the White Army by surprise with the Whites being steadily pushed back till reaching the City of Ufa itself, with the All Russian Provisional Government, fearing the immediate fall of the city, being forced to rapidly relocate to the City of Omsk where they would remain until early 1919 when they would again be forced to move to the City of Chita.
—
12 – 18 June 1918.
—
With the Red Army Steadily advancing towards the City of Ufa and with the Allies unable to send much in the way of significant support other than war material that needed to be shipped halfway around the world to the port city of Vladivostok, the Whites would turn to the Czechoslovak Legion for support.
While Initially the Czechoslovak Legion would be receptive to White Emissaries, Red Army spies within the ranks of the White Movement would feed information back to the Bolsheviks about the negotiations taking place. Tukhachevsky, unwilling to let such a valuable asset fall into the hands of the Whites, would send a counter offer to the Czechoslovak Legion, offering them free passage to the port in Petrograd, where they could then be transported back to Europe in order to fight in the liberation of their homeland from Austrian Oppressors (at this point, while Russia had officially left the Great war, the war was still ongoing, especially on the western front), in exchange for having "minders" assigned to the Forces of the Legion as they made there way to Petrograd, and that they did not cause any significant disturbance.
Seeing little reason to stay in Russia or fight the White's battles for them, the Czechoslovak Legion would agree to the Bolsheviks terms, more or less dooming the White's defence of Ufa and forcing a full blown White Army retreat to the eastern side of the Ural Mountains.
—
30 June, 1918.
—
Seeing the loss of Ufa and all European Russian Territories as definitive proof of the failure of the All Russian Provisional Government, Alexander Kolchak, along with many other military leaders of the White Movement, would launch a coup against the All Russian Provisional Government, Leading to the Overthrow of the Previous Government and the establishment of the Authoritarian and Proto-Fascist Russian State.
—
8 July, 1918.
—
With the capture of Ufa and the repulsion of White forces west of the Urals, many within the Red Army High Command would largely see this as a substantial victory and would advocate for sending Red Army forces to Reinforce Ukrainian Red Army (which had taken a significant beating from both White army and Black army forces). Along with securing the breakaway separatists states of the Caucuses, surprisingly however, Tukhachevsky would instead push for the Red Army to continue its offensive east of the Urals, with Tukhachevsky largely viewing the Whites of Siberia as the greater danger to the revolution and seeing the recent coup and fall of Ufa as a sign of "Great Demoralisation", something that would prove itself to be truer than what even Tukhachevsky expected.
—
20 - 30 July, 1918.
—
Red Army forces would begin to launch an offensive into the Ural Mountains, while initially the White army would manage to halt the Red army offensive, low morale, supplies, and Manpower would eventually lead to the White Army to be gradually pushed back to the City of Yekaterinburg where the Red army would temporarily hold its offensive in order to allow for its supply lines to catch up.
Meanwhile far to the west the German Imperial Army spring offensive beings to slow to a crawl as American Reinforcements, along with German loses, make it impossible for the German Army to continue on its advance westward, even with its troops freed up from Russia, this, combined with the British Blockade of German trade is bringing Germany to the breaking point.
As it become more and more obvious that the Great War is coming to an end, Vladimir Lenin and the Red Army High Command would Hurriedly draw up war plans for a potential Capitalist invasion of the young socialist state, with it being ultimately determined that, due to war exhaustion, the Capitalist states could only send a limit amount of forces to aid the White Army, and would likely utilise the White Army, along with other proxies forces, such as local secessionists, to destroy the RSFSR, in order to prevent this, and largely predicting that the Capitalist forces would attempt to do that by significantly shortening the supply lines of the whites, would order for the fortifying of the key northern port cities of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in order to prevent such a reality from forming.
—
30 July - 10 September, 1918.
—
Seeing the need to hold Yekaterinburg at any cost and keep the Red Army bottled up in the Ural Mountains, Kolchak would throw everything he had into holding the city, leading to the two month gruelling siege of Yekaterinburg, while initially it seemed that the Whites would be able to hold Yekaterinburg, the breakout of Red Cavalry units to the North and South of the city would force the White Army to rapidly retreat from Yekaterinburg, less they faced being cut off by advanced Red Cavalry units.
This Retreat would quickly turn to Chaos as the Hardened Summer Siberian soil would prove to be most beneficial for the advancing Red Calvary, helping to accelerate there rapid advance and plunging the White Army retreat into chaos, with many White Army units simply abandoning their posts, and many others being encircled and liquidated by the rapidly advancing Red Army,
While eventually the Advance of the Red Army would be stalled thanks to logistical concerns, the damage done to the White Army would be extensive, with Hundreds of Thousands of White army troops being Killed, Captured, or Wounded.
Along with the massive loss of life suffered by the White Army, there was also the massive loss of war material, Yekaterinburg, along with a number of other settlements such as Chelyabinsk were major supply hubs for the White Army, and due to the chaotic retreat of White Army forces towards Tyumen would lead to many of these supply hubs to be captured by advancing Red Army forces, further exasperating the already severe war material shortage faced by the White Army.
In a desperate attempt to try and stabilise the situation on the frontlines, Alexander Kolchak would attempt to negotiate for increased support from the Western Imperialist Powers, while the First World War was beginning to enter into its final days, the Western Imperialist Powers were reluctant to send substantial commitments of Troops to the White Army largely due to a wide variety of reasons such as war exhaustion (an issue that would continue to prevent more substantial direct western Imperialist intervention even after the end of the first world war) with instead many of the Western Imperialist states promising to "Increase there War Material shipments". This would eventually force Kolchak to sue for negotiations with the Empire of Japan, leading to the Signing of the Kyoto Accords, where the Japanese would agree to send 100,000 troops to support the White Army, in exchange for the handover of Vladivostok and other assorted surrounding regions after the end of the civil war, along with the more immediate granting of Resource rights to Japanese Companies within Eastern Siberia.
—
30 September, 1918.
—
Japanese troops would begin to arrive en masse to Tyumen, allowing for the White army to temporarily stabilise the situation upon the Ural front.
—
11 - 30 October, 1918.
—
While the signing of the Kyoto Accords had helped to temporarily halt the Red Army's advance, the political chaos it would cause for Kolchak, and the White Army as a whole would be catastrophic, Large scale demonstrations would break out within Vladivostok and many other White controlled Cities, along with this Kolchak and his allies would have to contend with revolts within the government, with many officials (who at this point where heavily nationalistic and often had proto-fascistic tendencies) would decry the treaty as a betrayal of Russia and would demand Kolchak's removal, with, ironically enough, a coup, lead by Yevgeny Miller (An important general within the White Army) nearly succeeding in deposing Kolchak, only failing thanks to Kolchak's Japanese allies.
While the Red Army may have been able to take advantage of the Chaos within the ranks of the Whites, unfortunately this would not come to pass as the harsh winter conditions of Siberia would force the Red Army to dig in across most of the Siberian front.
However this wouldn't mean that the Red Army was inactive for this time, Tukhachevsky, exploiting the temporary pause of fighting with the Whites in Siberia, would order for the redeployment of significant Red Army forces to Eastern Ukraine, and the Caucuses, (at this point the Baltic's where still under German Rule along with most of western Belarus.) with the main objective being to retake lost territory from secessionist, and other rebel forces.
The main offensives, would largely succeed (although to varying degrees), in Ukraine, the Red Army would have a relatively easy time pushing into Territories held by the Anarchist "Black army" and the remnants of the Southern White Army, largely managing to liquidate most of the Black Army and push the Whites back into Crimea, however the offensive into the Caucuses would prove to be much more difficult, with the Red Army only managing to Capitulate the Mountain Republic and Take the city of Baku before being forced to halt the offensive to regroup to allow for supply lines to catch up.
—
11 November, 1918.
—
The Great war between the Imperialist powers would end, allowing for their concentration to turn towards Russia, while thankfully for the revolution, years of gruelling trench warfare had largely made it untenable for the ruling Capitalist elite to dedicate their entire power to crushing the Revolution and the alternative system it offered. However it would not deter them from sending limited forces to assist the Reactionary Whites with both the British and Americans sending substantially sized "expeditionary forces" to assist the whites.
While the Americans would largely send most of their forces to Vladivostok, and then further onto the frontlines, the British would plan something much more insidious, something that, if it had succeeded, may have allowed the Reactionary menace to win the civil war.
—
30 November - 25 December, 1918.
—
With the ground hardening thanks to the freezing cold temperatures of Siberia the Red Army would again resume its offensive on the white forces in Siberia.
While initially the White Army appeared to be able to hold the line against the Red Army, however eventually the Red Army would manage to break through a few sections of the line, and thanks to the demoralisation of the White Army, along with a general sense of animosity to many of the Coalition forces that were on the front lines, would see to Kochak's plan of exhausting the Red Army and preventing the Red Cavalry from exploiting openings in the front crumble before his eyes as Red Cavalry units would again exploit the openings made by the general troops of the Red Army, rapidly pushing forward to encircle entire formations of troops and cut of strategic supply lines due to the refusal of reserve White Army Divisions to deploy to the front.
While thankfully for the White Army the retreat from Tyumen would be much more organized than before, leading to most Units and Equipment managing to escape to fight another day, however this second defeat would utterly demoralise the White Army with mass defections and desertions becoming much more common than before.
—
8 - 20, January, 1919.
—
Seeing that the White Army was about to collapse, the British Capitalist elite, deciding that it could not wait to launch its invasion of Northern Russia any sooner would commence operation Snow, while initially intended to be launched in March, the rapid collapse of White forces in Siberia had largely forced the British to launch it early, in conjunction with Finnish white forces to the west, the British marines would manage to take Murmansk with relative ease, however things where not going entirely perfect for Reactionary forces, as the landing at Arkhangelsk would end in a complete disaster, with thousands of British Marines and White Russian forces being captured or killed by the Red Army.
Red Army forces would respond rapidly to the Finnish invasion, while the border of Finland had remained relatively lightly guarded throughout most of the Civil War, High command had always been aware that there was a potential for Finnish invasion ever since Finland declared independence shortly after the October revolution, and especially after White victory in the Finnish Civil War.
The Collapse of Eastern Europe after the signing of the treaty of Versailles also exemplified the need to station significant numbers of troops at the Western borders, and while Red Army High Command were reluctant to re-station experienced troops on said border, they where more than willing to construct new divisions to defend said border.
While initially the Reactionary White and British forces would make significant headway into Soviet controlled territory, the arrival of hastily mobilized divisions would largely halt the advance forcing both sides to dig in as the frontline would stabilise.
—
4 February, 1919.
—
With the Reactionary offensive on Karelia stalling out, the Red Army would largely turn its eyes towards securing the last remaining separatist holdouts within the Caucasus.
—
8 - 30, February, 1919.
—
The Red Army would launch and offensive aimed at taking the key city of Tbilisi, while initially the Georgian defenders would manage to put up a staunch defence until the Red Army managed to break through the "mountain line" of the Georgians, once that had happened the Georgian defences would fall quickly, with Tbilisi falling on the 15, the fall of Tbilisi would also shatter the moral of the Armenian separatists, leading to the Red Army securing the Caucasus and allowing for crucial red army forces to be freed up to support the Ukrainian Red Army (the western portions of Ukraine had been turned into a capitalist "democracy", which in turn had collapsed as rapidly as it had been declared as Ukrainian Bolsheviks would storm the capital of Kiev, declaring the establishment of the People's Republic of Ukraine, with Nationalist Ukrainians taking over Lvov and what remained of the Bourgeois government fleeing to Odessa.) along with being able to support forces on both the Baltic, Komi, and Eastern Fronts.
—
8 - 31, March, 1919.
—
With the Rasputiza in full swing the Red Army would decide to launch a sudden surprise attack on the White Army.
The White Army, largely expecting an attack to come around May or June, when the ground had dried out making it possible for calvary to move much more effectively, would be taken by complete surprise as Red Army forces, supported by Armoured Trains, would crash through the frontline of the White Army, with Omsk being captured by Red Army forces in as little as a week, while Kolchak would attempt to rally and reorganize White forces the demoralisation suffered with continuous defeats, the actions of Soviet Political Agitators within the White Army's ranks, along with the lack of faith in leadership would see the White army disintegrate rapidly with the Red Army capturing Novonikolayevsk (Modern Day Novosibirsk) by the 23rd of March.
—
1 – 28, May, 1919.
—
In a desperate attempt to stave off Soviet victory in the civil war, Reactionary forces from Murmansk all the way to Crimea would launch several large scale offensives aimed at redirecting Soviet troops from the Siberian front in order to by the bulk of the White Russian Army time to regroup, while initially these offensives would manage to make notable successes, such as the capturing of Kherson from Red Army forces, these offensives would quickly stall out however thanks to material and manpower shortages, to make matters worse for Reactionary forces the offensive would do little to pull away Red Army forces from the Siberian front, leading to Krasnoyarsk to fall to advancing Red Army forces.
—
29 May 16 June, 1919.
—
The Numerous Imperialist states that had troops deployed in Siberia, realising the hopelessness of the Situation, would begin to rapidly evacuate there forces from Siberia using the Port of Vladivostok as there main escape route (though Japanese Troops would cross into Manchuria as well, largely avoiding Mongolia due to the Pro-Bolshevik uprising that had occurred within the country) around the same time large scale worker uprisings would occur within the Cities of Chita, Vladivostok, and Irkutsk, and while Coalition and the few remaining White Army units would manage to put down the ones in Vladivostok and Chita, the uprising in Irkutsk would manage to succeed in pushing out White Army forces, allowing the Red Army to rapidly speed up its advance and causing the collapse of the Entire White Army frontline.
—
17 June 18 August, 1919.
—
By the 20th of June Red Army forces would enter the city of Chita, with Alexander Kolchak being handed over to Red Army forces by, what remained of the White Russian Garrison, with what remained of the White Army in Siberia deserting, surrendering, or scattering into the wilderness, the Red Army would advance uncontested, with forward elements of the First Cavalry Army reaching the outskirts of Vladivostok by the 28th of June just as the last transport ships of the Coalition left port.
While there were still remaining pockets of the White Army along with other anti-soviet factions (such as around Murmansk, and in western Ukraine and Belarus along with the Baltic Secessionist states.) The defeat of Kolchak's White army would largely seal the fate of these Reactionary Pockets, as both international Imperialist forces would begin to withdraw from Russia, with Finland largely agreeing to a separate peace deal with the Bolsheviks in June 28th, with Finland withdrawing its forces from the Kola Peninsula and with the British and White Russian forces in Murmansk evacuating two weeks later.
Similar events would also occur in Ukraine with the remaining White Forces in Crimea largely evacuating from the Peninsula with the help of Imperialist Naval Assets. And with both Nationalist and Republican factions largely surrendering to the Ukrainian Bolsheviks by July 28th, largely allowing for the Bolsheviks to take control over most of Ukraine (except for regions such as Moldova and Lvov, which would become occupied by Romania and Poland respectively.) The Bolsheviks would also manage to reclaim significant portions of Belarus as well (except for certain portions occupied by the Polish reactionaries.) Along with securing all of Central Asia.
While initially many voices within the newly established Soviet Republics (as by this point the USSR hadn't been formed yet) called to continue the push for global revolution, many figures opposed such an idea, such as Nikolai Bukharin and Joseph Stalin, who argued that instead the newly founded workers states must first develop the productive forces to be equal, or surpass those of the capitalist powers, as while the Red Army had proven itself to be effective, it was utterly dwarfed by the power of the Imperialist Nations, who, thankfully for the revolution, where still stuck licking their wounds after the Great war.
Eventually, and after a many drawn out arguments, it was eventually agreed by the Council of Soviets that, the Soviet Republics at this stage did not have the industrial nor the economic means to liberate the workers of the world from capitalist, and imperialist, exploitation and oppression, and that the development of the already liberated states must be of tantamount importance.
—
20 – 30, August, 1919.
—
The Treaty 0f the Declaration of the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is signed by delegates from the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SSR, leading to the creation of the USSR, a state that would be pivotal in the eventual liberation of the global proletariat.
However by August 1919 the USSR was far from that dream, with large portions of the country devastated by reactionary occupation and with the need to develop fast to catch up to the Imperialist powers, the USSR needed peace now, and hence Vladimir Lenin, the now General Secretary of the CPSU, would send out numerous diplomats to both the Baltic states and Poland in order to negotiate for peace with these states, something that all of them would agree to, fearing that they would have no chance against a full scale Soviet invasion.
Not all prominent party members agreed with the decision to seek peace with the Capitalist states however, for example, Mikhail Frunze would famously state that the Minsk accords where "A betrayal of the European proletariat" with Mikhail Tukhachevsky, more pragmatically stating that "The choice to negotiate with the Eastern European Capitalist states has made us lose the opportunity to liberate there proletariat of eastern Europe for the foreseeable future." However for the most part most members of the CPSU would largely accept the need to sue for peace as a necessity.
Another issue that would also prop up around this time would be the economic model that the USSR would use to develop itself, this would cause a series of charged debates within the ranks of the CPSU, with eventually three dominant idea's forming.
The First idea was that of a top down planned economy, largely advocated for by Joseph Stalin along with figures such as Andrei Zhdanov, the idea was that in order to develop rapidly the entirety of the USSR, resources needed to be controlled directly by the CPSU, while this idea was accepted by many within the CPSU it also received criticism from many different factions within the CPSU for being impossible to implement and leading to large scale "bureaucratization" and inefficiency (while it should be noted that Economic planning had been done long before this point it had largely taken place within the confines of capitalist corporations, not at the state level that Stalin and Zhdanov had advocated for, which many regarded would lead to large amounts of inefficiency and wastage.).
The Second idea was for a form of Market Socialism, onto where the state would control the commanding heights of the economy but where Markets and Private capital accumulation would still be allowed to exist so long as it did not negatively affect the stability of the socialist state or significantly harm the livelihoods of the people, while slightly more accepted than what would usually be expected for such a pragmatist policy in the heavily inflamed ideological fires of the CPSU at the time, this would be largely due to the fact that it had proven successful in ensuring the compliance of the Russian Peasantry and Kulak class, and had even been beneficial allowing for a slow development of agriculture during the civil war through allowing Peasants and Kulaks to utilise the I.O.U payments to purchase Imported agricultural machinery from the west, however many within the CPSU would oppose such a policy, largely seeing it as an easily exploitable policy that could be used by the petty and national bourgeoisie to reinstate capitalist power, while many others saw it as a "negligible risk" and that the CPSU was powerful and strong enough to survive said potentiality and that it would be the most effective way to develop the Union.
The Third idea, Largely suggested by Mikhail Frunze, was largely a continuation of war communism, onto where most of the resources of the state would be dedicated to the building up of the military industrial while Civilian industry would be allowed to grow independent of state investment, this was heavily opposed by both proponents of State planning and Market Socialists, who largely viewed it as re-enacting the same mistakes the Tsarists made in their own program of industrialization (something that was heavily centred around the military industry and had lead to the civilian industrial base to fall behind) along with allowing for a potential Bourgeois class to dominate the civilian economy due to a lack of State control over it.(something that both Market Socialists and State Planners hated equally, seeing it as an incredibly easy way for Capital to seize control of the state and for capital to be restored to power).
—
5, September, 1919.
—
In a closed session of the All Union Congress of Soviets the vote on the implementation of the Market Socialist "New Economic Plan" would pass with a 57% majority, with it quickly being ratified by the Politburo soon afterwards, while highly controversial within the CPSU, the New Economic Plan, as it would be called, would manage to pass largely thanks to its endorsement by Vladimir Lenin, and also due to the moderate amount of political capital that Nikolai Bukharin had managed to build up during the Russian Civil War.
—
6 September, 1919 - 1923.
—
The next four years would see the USSR develop rapidly economically and socially, with the New Economic Plan, along with the enacted five year plan, helping to rapidly increase the USSR's industrial and overall economic base, this would only accelerate after the signing of the London accords in 1922, which would significantly ease import/export restrictions and tariffs on the USSR in exchange for allowing foreign companies to set up in the Union itself (largely to exploit the vast natural resources of the Soviet Union), while undeniably controversial, probably even more so then the NEP itself, the western concession of allowing the CPSU to establish localized (e.g USSR only) party committees within any foreign (domestic corporations already had party committees inserted into them) corporation operating on Soviet soil largely helped to smooth things over with many members of the CPSU, the London accords, also notably, helped to massively increase the speed of economic development within the USSR, with by 1923 agricultural machinery becoming much more commonplace than what it was before the great war.
Social conditions also began to improve rapidly, with literacy beginning to rapidly improve thanks to heavy state subsidies into education and poverty elimination, with primary education becoming widely accessible to the majority of the population by 1929, and with secondary and tertiary education also becoming widely accessible by 1940.
However this also did come at a cost, the allowance for the growth of the wealth of the Bourgeoisie would also lead to a notable increase in wealth inequality, this was especially notable in the countryside where wealthy peasants, known as Kulaks, would grow their wealth massively, utilising the machining boom to decrease their reliance on peasant labourers and forcing many to migrate into the cities in search of jobs within collective and state run factories (industrial jobs where one of the things considered especially important to keep under state or collective control.) Ironically enough this migration would actually help to accelerate the industrialization process of the Soviet Union as the extra manpower would allow for factories to expand much more rapidly than otherwise.
In the CPSU, political divides would begin to grow throughout this period as the "Left Bloc" largely made up of Stalinists and Zinovites, viewed the New Economic Plan as "blatant revisionism" and largely sought to replace it with a Centrally Planned command economy and introduce sweeping waves of collectivization mainly within the agricultural sector and "Break the Kulaks Monopoly."
The "Center Bloc", largely made up of Zhandovites and Tuckhachevites, while nominally agreeing with multiple of the idea's proposed by both sides, largely argued for a "gradual" transition away from Market Socialism and towards Planned Socialism, largely arguing that, since the USSR was still heavily underdeveloped, a full scale economic planning system would be impossible to implemented due to a lack of skilled mathematicians and intellectuals, and that currently state planning could only be implemented on a limited scale.
The last bloc, most commonly called the "Right Bloc" was largely made up of Bukharinists and Leninists, who largely believed that the primary stage of socialism could be reached through Market Socialism, so long as the Communist Party stayed in control of the economy and continued to represent the proletarian class of the Soviet Union, while these three factions would largely be kept in check from 1919 to 1922, Lenin's deteriorating health and eventual death in 1924 would see to large scale infighting break out between Stalin, Bukharin, and Tukhachevsky.
—
24 January, 1924 - 1925.
—
With Lenin's death, a large scale power struggle would begin within the CPSU, while Bukharin would be declared as Lenin's suggested successor shortly before his death, Stalin, largely utilising his relatively humble, though unintendedly powerful position to place key allies in powerful positions within the Politburo, while Bukharin would barely manage to avoid the unintendedly embarrassing trap of failing to turn up to Lenin's funeral (largely thanks to his allies within the Politburo who had managed to smuggle the correct date for the funeral to him) Bukharin would increasingly find himself isolated as the Leninists began to disintegrate into petty infighting or joined other factions, due to this, Bukharin would be forced to form an alliance with the "Center bloc" who were also keen on keeping Stalin out of power for fear that his "Socialism in one country" policy along with his immediate collectivization policy would significantly harm the Soviet union and lead it to being surrounded by Capitalist powers.
With both the Right and Center Blocs working together, Stalin and his "Left Bloc" would be gradually pushed back, with Stalin largely being crippled when Pravda, the CPSU party news paper, would publish a damning report on Stalin abusing his position to get his Political allies into positions of power, not only would this significantly decrease Stalin's popularity with the Soviet people, it would also lead to the Cheka to launch a substantive investigation into the activities and conduct of the "Left Bloc" with it eventually being discovered that many members of the "Left Bloc" had secretly sympathised with Menshevik ideas, and that many had actually been plotting to restore capitalist power to the Soviet union in order to "Accelerate the advance towards socialist utopia through capitalist imperialism." this report would destroy Stalin's chance of taking power within the Soviet Union, and while Stalin wouldn't immediately be arrested, largely due to the fact that Stalin likely didn't know about "Zimonovite plot" in the first place, he would eventually be detained before being released, and then being relegated to a menial post by Bukharin, and then eventually purged from the Communist Party and sent to a Corrective labour camp in Siberia. Zinoviev himself would manage to temporarily escape from Soviet Authorities, however he would eventually be found and then assassinated by the NKVD in 1938.
The end of the Political power struggle between "Left Bloc" and the Center-Right coalition would usher in a new age for the USSR, while officially Bukharin would become the de-facto leader of the USSR, unofficially Bukharin would largely be forced to share power with Tukhachevsky due to the need preserve the coalition between the "Right" and "Center" Blocs (at this point both the Right and Center Blocs where evenly split in terms of total political power within the USSR, hence necessitating the creation of a coalition between the two factions.) this would also lead to the implementation of the "Reformed New Economic Plan" which while preserving the main core aspects of the old New Economic Plan also implemented measures that helped to protect the Proletariat, one of them being the implementation of land rent limitations, which prevented the Kulaks from amassing vast tracts of farmland and allowed for small peasant farms to effectively compete against the large Kulaks (something also encouraged with the total dropping of land rents for peasants below a certain acreage of rented land.) Along with this the Reformed New Economic Plan also gave a greater level of importance to the Soviet Economic Planning System.
—
1925 - 1930.
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With the Soviet Union continuing its Breakneck pace of Economic and Societal development, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, with permission from the Politburo and the Congress of Soviets, would begin a program of "Military Modernization", largely aimed at rapidly adopting and incorporating Modern Military equipment and newly devised "Deep Battle" Strategic doctrines into the Red Army, while this program would take a number of years to fully bear its fruits, Tukhachevsky Military Modernization program would help to massively increase the effectiveness of the red army, something that would prove to be completely necessary after 11 years after the completion of the program and the beginning of the Great Patriotic war.
Several other events would also occur during this time period, mainly the full implementation of the policies Reformed New Economic Plan, along with the restructuring of the Cheka.
While the Cheka had proven to be effective during the Russian Civil War, the organization had proven to be particularly ineffective at rooting out enemies within the party itself and dealing with corruption that had begun to spread at a rapid pace across the Union, in order to rectify this Nikolai Bukharin in 1926 would order for the Cheka to be formally Restructured into the NKVD, with the new organization having a much more formal and organized rank structure and chain or command as well as defined purpose along with a number of structural reforms that encouraged Meritocracy within the organization (something that had already been implemented into the state planning commission and the Red Army.) This in turn would lead to a massive increase in efficiency for the organization leading to a sharp decline in corruption in both the party and the economy as a whole.
Another issue that would also arise during this time period would be the Soviet Union's relation with other socialist political parties, while Stalin had advocated for using the many different socialist political parties to protect the Soviet Union, Bukharin and Tukhachevsky largely had a different idea, instead of simply using these foreign socialist organizations to extend the interests of the Soviet Union, the main focus would be instead organizing and strengthening these organizations, allowing them to be sufficiently strong enough to seize the moment when it did arrive, this policy of "organizational strengthening" while effective at strengthening foreign socialist organizations, would also have several unintended consequences down the line. (for an example in the United States the strength of the socialist movement within America would become so immense that the backlash from reactionaries would be extensive, so much so that all attempts by capitalist reformists to stabilise the capitalist system would largely fail, leading to the collapse of America in the 1980s.)
By 1928, many policies put forward by the "Reformed New Economic Plan" and that of the "Center Bloc" would be implemented, such as the "Agricultural Reform Policy" (already stated above) along with the implementation of the "New Gosplan" a policy that intended to strengthen the planning committees of the USSR and make the Economic Planning system far more efficient. Limited efforts would also be made to begin the collectivization of agriculture during this time period, however such endeavours would remain limited as the Kulaks would also form their own agricultural "co-operatives" (these largely being made up of groups of Kulaks who brought there land together to more effectively compete against the up and coming collective farms) after the implementation of the Agricultural Reform Policy, something which would eventually contribute to significantly worsening the effects of the Great famine, or the "Holodomor", of 1933 due to Kulak hoarding and destruction of grain and other assorted food stores.
By 1929, the Soviet Union's breakneck Economic and Societal development would continue unabated, with the average growth of PPP being around 13-15% per annum during this time period (with PPP growth rates within the USSR only slowing down, and then eventually stabilising at around 8% by the 1960s.)
However in the west the situation was rather different, while the victorious Imperialist states of the first world war enjoyed a large scale economic boom throughout the 1920s, largely thanks to generous corporate subsidies directed towards the western bourgeoisie by the Imperialist states at the time along with the massive expansion of colonial plunder (this was especially true in the case of the pre-eminent imperial powers of Britain and France at the time.) However most of the profits generated by the exploitation of the working class in these nations were largely directed by the Capitalist class towards wealth speculation, and in many cases, to industries which produced little in the way of real economic value, asides from speculative profits, this, combined with little to no controls over banks and their lending practices by the nations of the western capitalist world, would have catastrophic consequences for the world as a whole.
The New York stock market crash (largely caused by banks attempting to lend money that they did not have and being forced to have petty and national bourgeois elements to pay back their loans, hence forcing the capitalists to sell off massive amounts of assets in the market) would be apocalyptic for the Capitalist world, with unemployment in most imperial core countries reaching as high as 30% in some cases.
While the Soviet Union would remain largely unaffected by the Great Depression, certain sectors of the economy that relied on the Export of goods to the west (mostly the Raw Materials sector) would be hit especially hard by the crash, in order to rectify the Issue the Third Five year plan would be drawn up, with its main mission to, in Bukharin's words "To turn the USSR into an advanced, modern, industrialized state."
While the past ten years had seen the Industrial and Economic base of the USSR rise rapidly, most of the industrial growth had largely been based around the Primary sector (e.g. steel mills, textile factories, ect.) and while there had been some growth in Secondary and Tertiary industries, the fact that it was simply easier to import many Secondary and Tertiary industrial products abroad, and the fact that, for most of the 20s, the USSR's Primary industrial base was still growing (albeit at an extraordinary fast pace) lead to Secondary and Tertiary Industrial development to slag behind in comparison to Primary industrial development.
The Great Depression would only strengthen the USSR's need to become economically autonomous from foreign trade, and this combined with the fact that the USSR now had a sufficient and highly built up primary industrial base meant that the main focus of the five year plans could now be towards building up the more, advanced, sides of the economy.
—
1 January - December 16, 1930.
—
Germany, already floundering even before the Great Depression would have its economy collapse completely, with unemployment reaching apocalyptic levels soon afterwards along with the collapse of the German currency (something only kept alive thanks to the lending of American Capitalists, who would largely disappear post stock market collapse.) would lead to significant levels of political chaos in Germany.
While the German Bourgeoisie and Political establishment would initially attempt to ally with the NSDAP (The German Nazi Party) against the rising Political tsunami that was the KPD (who, thanks to efforts by the Soviet Union to organize and strengthen communist and socialist movements globally, had been more than prepared and organized to seize the moment, with the KPD by March 3, a few days before the German Civil War, becoming the third largest party within the Reichstag.) However this coalition would quickly collapse as Strasserites. (a faction that attempted to syncretize socialism with nationalist and fascistic tendencies, and who had become quite popular within the NSDAP by the 1930s) as well as the Nazi's own armed wing (the SA) would threaten to leave the party if a coalition was formed with the German political establish, with Hitler largely being forced to give in to their demands due to the need for the SA as civil war became more and more likely throughout February.
Fearing a potential KPD victory in the upcoming June elections, the German political establishment would suspend the elections, declaring that "Russian NKVD Agents" had rigged the elections in favour of the KPD, of course such obvious lies where not tolerated by the German Proletariat with the German workers quickly seizing control of Hamburg and most of the western provinces within Germany, starting the German civil war (the Nazi's would also seize Bavaria and other south and north German regions around the same time as well).
While eventually the Nazi's would manage to emerge victorious in the Civil War, the damage done to Germany (especially the main industrial regions) would delay Nazi expansionism by many years and give much needed time for the USSR to prepare for the inevitable Fascist invasion of 1941.
—
1933.
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A large scale famine breaks out within the USSR, largely caused by consecutive crop failures due to poor weather throughout 1931 and 1932, the "Holodomor" as it would be called within Ukraine, would devastate Ukraine, Southern Russia (especially the Don-Kuban), along with the western portions of Kazakhstan.
While Soviet authorities would scramble to provide aid to the affected Republics, the Kulaks, sensing an opportunity to increase the price of grain, and hence their own wallets, would begin to systematically burn and destroy crops, exacerbating the crisis.
Andrei Zhdanov, sensing an opportunity to rise up the ranks in the party and to significantly undermine Bukharin, would have Pravda, the party newsletter, being read by 10s if not hundreds of millions of Soviet citizens at the time. Publish a series of scathing articles called "The Failures of the New Economic Plan" painting in no uncertain detail that the main cause of the Famine were the Kulaks, at that Bukharin has the blood of millions on his hands.
Zhdanov's Publications would significantly undermine Bukharin's reputation not only with the Soviet people, but even within the party itself. Bukharin would attempt to save face by ordering for the execution of "Disloyal" Kulaks and the seizure of their lands, though this wouldn't do much to calm down public sentiment, as at this point anger wasn't just directed to Bukharin allowing for the Kulaks to accumulate so much power, but was also directed to the foreign corporations that had begun to exploit the Unions natural resources.
As while many foreign corporations had been nationalized by Bukharin following the 1929 crash, most of the time those that were nationalized where still allowed to operate the enterprises they used to own, which many considered as simply bailing them out, and also just one of the many things that Pravda exposed to the wider Soviet Populous.
In May, calls would begin to grow for Bukharin's removal from the position as General Secretary of the Communist Party, with eventually a vote being held on May 14th to decide on what would happen to Bukharin.
Surprising most of the Soviet People, the Congress of Soviets would come out 49-51% against Bukharin's removal from the position of General Secretary.
While coming as a surprise to many people (especially the general citizenry of the Soviet Union) it shouldn't be necessarily, at the time many people within the Soviet government where still supportive of the New Economic Plan (and even good portions of the general citizenry as well, especially those living within the cities who largely experienced only the positive sides of the NEP) after all it had allowed for the Union to develop at a much more rapid rate then a purely Planned Economy would have been able to accomplish, and had also helped to enrich the Soviet people, with by 1933 a small but rapidly growing middle class even beginning to develop.
However that isn't to say that most party members, or even those who supported the NEP thought that it was perfect, obviously the Kulaks had gained far to much power and needed to be controlled, and that wasn't even to mention the foreign corporations that had exploited the hard labour of the Soviet people, and sure it may be much less bad than it was in western states but still, that wasn't an excuse.
Of course a vote in the Soviet People's Congress wasn't exactly going to stop the outcry against Bukharin or his supposed (Bourgeois sympathies), and it certainly wasn't going to stop any of Bukharin's opponents from taking advantage of said outcry.
On June 8th at 0300 hours, the 14th and the 3rd Guards Motor-rifle Divisions would leave the Khimki Red Army barracks, quickly moving into Moscow to secure several important locations along with rounding up as many members of the Congress of Soviets as possible for an "Emergency meeting".
By 0800 hours, Mikhail Tukhachevsky would enter the city before making his way to the Presidium where many of the Congress of Soviets members (or at least those that Tukhachevsky and Zhdanov's men could find) were located.
Around 0930 hours Nikolai Bukharin is arrested by Red Army Soldiers, before being taken to the NKVD's Moscow Headquarters.
At 0945 hours Tukhachevsky would give the infamous "10 minute speech" where Tukhachevsky would go into detail on how Bukharin had managed to "rig" the May vote before presenting forward a series of documents that supposedly held the "evidence" proving his allegations.
While the "June coup" is looked back on as a relatively minor historic footnote signalling the beginning of the slow transition away from the New Economic Plan and towards Zhdanov's "Computerized Planned Economy" at the time, and especially within the Presidium and Politburo the coup had been controversial, to say the least, while Tukhachevsky would allow for the Congress of Soviets to hold a new election for the position of General Secretary of the Communist party in July, there was no question on who would win.
While many, especially the general population of the Soviet Union, would see Tukhachevsky's coup as something that "Saved the Union", others, especially those within the Politburo largely saw it as a cynical power grab and would fiercely oppose Tukhachevsky's take over, largely forcing Tukhachevsky to purge the "disloyal" members of the party (largely through mass dismissals).
By September, Tukhachevsky had largely managed to secure his control over the Party mainly through instating many of Zhdanov's supporters into key positions of power within the Politburo (Tukhachevsky's main supporters were largely located within the military and not necessarily the party itself, hence necessitating the need to continue on the alliance with Zhdanov and replace those purged with mostly Zhdanov's supporters.)
In October Tukhachevsky, in an effort to fully solidify his alliance with Zhdanov would announce the creation of the position of Commissar of Economic, Social, and Industrial Development (a highly powerful position within the Politburo due to its extensive amounts of power it gave the holder in internal matters.) with Tukhachevsky granting the position to Zhdanov. At around the same time Tukhachevsky would also reform the Congress of Soviets into the Supreme Soviet, with the Politburo being granted majority Veto power over the Supreme Soviet (though the Supreme Soviet was still responsible for the ratification of those to the Politburo.) While at the time this reform was controversial, especially among party members within the Supreme Soviet, with the reforms eventually being de-facto repealed by Zhdanov in the 1960s with the re-establishment of the Congress of Soviets, the "October Constitution", as it would later be called, would help to significantly cull infighting within the party, which would help the union significantly to unify it against the upcoming Nazi Invasion, which many began to see as inevitable as Germany began its Rearmament campaign and remilitarized the Rhineland.
—
1933 - 1936.
—
With Tukhachevsky largely focused on building up the Red Army for conflict with the Imperialist powers to the west, Zhdanov would largely be left in charge of Economic and Societal development.
One of Zhdanov's first acts was for the partial collectivization of agricultural farmland within the Union, while this was generally popular across the Union, it should be noted that this "first collectivization" as Zhdanov called it, wasn't necessarily a full repudiation of the New Economic Plan.
Zhdanov, and many of his supporters at the time, actually viewed the NEP as a major success, however they also viewed it as a system that had major flaws and contributed to many failures within the Union's economic structure.
To rectify this Zhdanov would largely push for a policy of "Slow Planning", onto where state planning would gradually replace the market in terms of being the main driver of economic development and growth within the Union, with Zhdanov stating that "the only way to transition from the intermediate stage of socialist construction to the primary stage of socialism is for a large, competent, and effective, national level planning system to emerge."
One of the more notable divergences in opinion that Zhdanov and his supporters to that of the rest of the party was education, while education was certainly seen as important by all members of the party it was often seen as something that had to take a back seat to the Economic development of the nation, something that Zhdanov and his supporters fiercely disagreed with , who saw educational development as just, or in some cases, more important than industrial development.
This was mostly due to the fact that Zhdanov largely viewed education as one of the only way to move towards "full scale state planning" due to, in Zhdanov's opinion "A highly educated and skilled population being an absolute necessity for expanding the role of state planning to include all sectors of the economy."
In order to accomplish this goal Zhdanov would order for large scale state investment into the construction of new education facilities and "Technical Universities", Zhdanov would also begin to encourage foreign intellectuals to emigrate to the USSR (so long as they did not try to spread reactionary thought mind you), this would lead to a small but steady stream of scientists, doctors, engineers, and others of highly skilled professionals to immigrate to the Union.
This was especially pronounced in the case of Germany and Italy, who both had fallen to Fascist movements, where many intellectuals, fearing for their lives, would flee Germany with many immigrating to the USSR due to promised work and job opportunities.
Zhdanov would also try to improve the Central Planning system of the USSR to a moderate effect, managing to increase its level of efficiency through improving local planning information committees abilities to transmit information back to the Planning Committees of the USSR, along with allowing for greater level of autonomy for localised planning committees to experiment with new ideas and policies to a certain extent.
While Zhdanov had initially intended to restructure and develop the Union's economy (especially the State Planning Apparatus) further, Tukhachevsky's view of war with the Imperialist Powers being on the horizon had lead to much of the Union's resources being redirected to expanding Military Industrial enterprises (something that would prove itself immeasurably useful for the USSR during world war 2).
With Zhdanov largely focused on the Economy and Social aspects of the Union, Tukhachevsky would largely turn his focus towards the military.
While the Red Army would undergo a massive series of reforms from the 1920s - 1930s Tukhachevsky was more than aware that there was still a lot of room for improvement within the army itself.
One of those was the usage of tank units.
After the Civil war the rapid industrial boom that would occur within the USSR had also led to the Red Army to increasingly expand its arsenal of weapons at an exponential rate, and one of those "new weapons" were tanks.
While by 1934 the Red Army had a significant stockpile of tanks in reserve there usage, and their designs, were relatively inefficient.
For an example by the 1930s Soviet main strategic doctrine was to utilise tanks as support vehicles for infantry divisions, while this certainly helped to increase the firepower of individual infantry divisions it also meant that the tanks themselves became far less effective as, due to there small number and fast speed, would have to purposely slow themselves down to allow for the infantry to catch up.
While having largely been prevented from fixing said errors before by his political opponents, Tukhachevsky would begin to implement his reforms, with the first one being the reorganisation of the Soviet tank corps.
Instead of tanks being used to support individual divisions, tank units would instead be organized into their own respective divisions and "Tank armies" (usually made up of 5-10 divisions), in the event of war Tank Armies would be utilised either as a force to break through enemy lines and allow for the encirclement of enemy divisions, or a rapid response force that could be used to slow down or halt enemy offensives.
Another reform enacted to the Red army would be to the officer corps, while the Red army had a plethora of experienced officers from the Russian Civil War, Tukhachevsky was more than aware that fighting the poorly equipped White Army would be a lot different then fighting the highly industrialized imperialist powers of Britain, France, Germany, and America, and hence in order to rectify said "stagnancy of ideas" within the Red Army High Command, and in the officer corps as a whole, Tukhachevsky would implement the "Young Officer's Talent Initiative" where particularly promising non-commissioned officers, and even regular troops who had shown talent leading men into battle, would be gathered up and shipped of to the numerous military academies across the Union to explain their experiences fighting as volunteers abroad such as in Germany and, later on, Spain, with the hope being that many officers in training, and those already serving, would gain new experiences in fighting a modern conventional war.
The "Young Officer's Talent Initiative" would succeed at least partially, while it is hard to discern how effective the program was, judging by eventual reforms made to the Red Army (largely surrounding Cavalry divisions and Red Air force squadrons) it is safe to assume that the initiative was at least partially successful.
While the USSR prepared for war against the Imperialist power, those same said Imperialist powers continued to struggle with the aftermath of the great depression, In America the capitalist reformist, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would win the election and would attempt to enact several reforms to stabilise the United States economy largely nicknamed the "New Deal" by Americans, while these reforms did help to stabilise the American Economy they also caused a fierce reactionary backlash due to the stringent regulations introduced by the FDR administration and the abandonment of the domestic gold standard.
This, combined with the rapid growth of the American Labour Movement (partially contributed to by Soviet Operatives within America at the time) would lead many of America's business elite to view that FDR's policies were only opening the way for a full blown socialist revolution to occur on American shores.
In order to prevent this the American Capitalist class would begin to conspire to overthrow the American government and establish a government that they could control, in order to carry this out the Capitalists would begin to organize disenfranchised American military veterans against the government, as well as to try and find a puppet leader to install as president afterwards.
Initially the "Business Coup" as it would be called by future historians, would almost fail in its crib, as due to insufficient profile inspection by the Capitalists orchestrating the plot, their plot would nearly be uncovered by the same guy they asked to lead it.
While almost failing at the first hurdle, a hastily orchestrated assassination of Smedley Butler, a, at the time, Social Patriot who secretly held sympathies with the American labour movement. Would allow for the plotters to reorganize and teach them to be far more careful in the future, to this extent it would take until early 1935 for the plotters to find another leader for their coup, a man by the name of Douglas MacArthur.
It would take another several months for all of the pawns to be put into place however by November 3rd the coup was ready to begin, while MacArthur had hoped to bring in more troops into the coup the need to preserve the secrecy of the plot and the more immediate need to "finish off" FDR would eventually force MacArthur's hand.
Around 9 am MacArthur's "42nd Division" would move quickly into Washington D.C. (at the time Capital of the USA), quickly seizing key strategic areas and buildings, such as the White House, however problems would very quickly emerge, for one FDR wasn't actually at the White House, having left on an unannounced family trip to Boston a few hours earlier.
A few days after the Coup, FDR would make a broadcast to the Nation, largely declaring that he was still alive and calling for all Americans to oppose the "Traitors" through civil disobedience, around the same time FDR would order for the military to surround the Capital before declaring New York the "Temporary Government Capital".
FDR's calls for "civil disobedience" may have been taken a little to seriously then what even he may have wanted, the major American Trade Unions, seeing the coup as an obvious attempt by fascists to take power within America, would order for a large scale general strike to take place until the president had been reinstated into power, due to the massive growth of American Trade organizations and labour movements over the past four years this would have dire consequences for the American Economy, with the American Economy grinding to a halt and even another (albeit much smaller) financial crash to occur due to the sudden loss of profit and many investors rapidly selling their shares off due to fears of another great crash occurring.
Rapid negotiations would quickly take place between both sides, and within less than 15 days the Coup would end with MacArthur and the 42nd division returning to their Barracks and FDR being able to return to the White House.
While at the time the details of the deal at the time were relatively unknown to the American public (aside from the fact that the plotters were unanimously pardoned by the US Government.) it would be later revealed after the fall of the United states that the American Government had agreed to several notable demands, a few of them being to allow for the establishment of the "American Corporate Representative Board", which was apparently constructed to represent the interests of America's largest Corporations directly within government, with the board itself having oversight power over anything that came across the president's desk, and while initially the Corporate Board would only have "Advisory power", this would be gradually expanded overtime to the point that by the 1980s the president was a mere puppet of the American Capitalist Class (well more of a puppet then previous presidents may have been).
Another demand made was a more immediate one, the re-establishment of the American Gold standard, while some may be confused onto why the American Capitalist class would care about something like that, and to put it simply, it was due to the fact that it risked their savings being significantly devalued over time.
This would have significant effects on the American Economy, for one It heavily limited the Capital the American Government could create (through monetary printing) largely forcing the US government (especially by the 1980s) to rely heavily on the Bond Market to accumulate capital and heavy taxes on the working class to sustain itself.
The Third and final major demand was for the formation of the American Labour Oversight Committee, while on the surface (and to your average American) this organization was created to protect the rights of the American Worker, in practice ALOC did the exact opposite, forcing trade unions to agree to unfavourable terms with corporations, and, in later years, assisting the Capitalist class with union busting operations, and many other activities aside.
It cannot be understated the impact that the Business plot had on American Society, for many it exposed the fact that the real rulers of America where the corporations, and for many others the extremely slow pace of economic recovery, along with the massive levels of downsizing of programs that had helped with economic and societal recovery would feel like a betrayal, with FDR losing the 1936 elections to the Republican candidate Alf Landon.
—
17 July, 1936.
—
The Spanish Civil war would begin with the Spanish Military, attempting to overthrow the rightfully elected Republican Government through a Coup.
While the Coup would largely fail to secure the most populated and industrious areas (such as Catalonia and the wider Madrid metropolitian area) the Military would manage in succeeding to gain control over the largely rural western portions of Spain such as Galicia and Seville.
—
20 - 30 July, 1936.
—
Tukhachevsky, seeing the opportunity to spread the revolution to Spain, would order for several divisions of Red Army mountaineers to be sent to the Republicans as volunteers, along with substantial amounts of Material support and military advisors to help organize the nascent Republican Army.
While all of this was in transit, infighting would break out between the Republican ranks (largely between the Worker' Party of Spain and the CNT-FAI) attempts at reconciling both factions would largely fail with the CNT-FAI leaving the republican coalition, with Catalonia and Valencia following soon after as well to form the "Spanish Free Territory".
While the loss of territory to the Anarchists would certainly hurt the Republicans in the short term, this also made the WPS the largest faction within the Popular front and allowed for the WPS to largely take over the government, leading to Republican forces to be able to much more effectively coordinate with one another due to one of the factions being dominant and able to ignore the others.
—
4 - 8 August, 1936.
—
Red Army Material and Advisors would begin to arrive in Republican Spain, with time of the essence Georgy Zhukov, at the time Red Army advisor for Republican forces in Spain, would push for the Republican army to launch an offensive on Seville and cut off Franco's army of Africa from the rest of the Nationalist front, eliminating one of the Nationalists strongest armies and hopefully Franco as well.
While initially opposed by many Republican commanders for a wide variety of reasons, Zhukov would eventually manage to persuade them by offering the usage of the Red Army mountaineer units for the operation with Republican forces serving as "line holders" as Zhukov would call it.
—
15 - 30 August, 1936.
—
Operation "Seguidor del río" would begin as Republican (though primarily Red Army Volunteers) forces would begin to push deep into the poorly defended Nationalist front of Extramadura.
On the Nationalist front, the Republican's choice for offensive locations was relatively surprising, with many Nationalist commanders, including Franco, largely believing that the Republicans would launch an offensive north to link up with its forces cut off in Northern Spain, or focus on retaking Valencia.
However this didn't exactly mean that the Nationalists where going to do nothing about the Republican offensive, Franco would hurriedly order for his most experienced and elite brigades to be sent to Extramadura to prevent the breakthrough and hold the line, though due to low organization, issues with supplies, and a severe underestimation of who they were fighting (The Nationalists largely believed it was primarily Republican forces launching the offensive not very well trained and experienced Soviet Troops) would lead to the Nationalists reinforcements to be devastated, forcing the Nationalists to effectively retreat from Merida and Cacares, leading to Franco's army of Africa to be effectively cut off from the wider Nationalist front.
—
1 - 20 September, 1936.
—
With Franco's forces cut off and unable to communicate with the wider Spanish Nationalist front, the Nationalists would fall into disarray as Franco's forces would be slowly forced to give ground to the advancing Republicans. However not everything was exactly going perfect for the Republicans, in the East, Anarchist forces from Valencia and Barcelona would manage to link up at the Coastal town of Amposta, allowing for the Anarchists to conduct much more organized offensives in the future.
—
21 - 30 September, 1936.
—
In order to preserve what remained of his forces Franco's would be forced to retreat the remnants of the Army of Africa and the other assorted Nationalist Militia and Army units that Franco had access to behind the Rio Guadelquivir river, which, while being much more defensible, at least from attacks coming from the east, also sacrificed a lot of ground gained during the Initial days of the coup, which would significantly undermine his legitimacy as the leader of the Nationalist coalition, which, combined with Franco's already sporadic contact, would lead to significant levels of infighting within the Nationalist coalition, which, while for now remained purely political, would eventually spill out into open violence between the different factions, more or less ending the Nationalist Coalition (though it should be noted that this wouldn't happen for several more months yet).
—
1 - 20 October, 1936.
—
Republican forces would continue to put pressure on Franco's Nationalist forces in southern Spain, with the Nationalists eventually being forced to retreat from Seville after a Republican offensive (Supported by Soviet Mountaineers) managed to break through the northern defensive line of Seville, with the situation becoming desperate Franco, and what remained of his Nationalist forces, would retreat to the port town of Huelva, where Franco would desperately try to petition the Portuguese government to assist him in evacuating his forces from Huelva.
While Portugal would eventually intervene in the Spanish civil war in 1937, however, due to internal political factors and an economy that only just begun to recover from the Great Depression, would largely dissuade Portugal from directly getting involved with a conflict that, at the time, it didn't see the need to get involved with due to the fact that the Portuguese government was still confident that the Nationalists would win, after all, most of the military sided with the Nationalists, so why wouldn't they?, or that was at least the attitude the Portuguese government had at the time.
Without any possibility of being able to escape Huelva, Franco, and what remained of the Nationalist front in southern Spain, would surrender on October 20th .
"The surrender of Huelva", as it would eventually be called, would help to significantly boost the morale of the Republicans while also significantly demoralising the Nationalists, leading to an intensification of infighting that would largely render future Nationalist offensives for the remainder of the war improbable.
—
5 - 20 November, 1936.
—
With southern Spain secured, the Republicans would turn their attention towards Valencia preparing an offensive to cut off the city from the wider Anarchist front and allow for its capture.
While this was being prepared, the Anarchists would launch an offensive towards the Nationalist held city of Zaragoza, which, due to Nationalist infighting and de-organization, would succeed leading to the Cities fall to the Anarchists.
However this would lead to much of the Anarchists' strength to be diverted up north, leaving much of the Valencian coastline lightly guarded, an easy to take for the Republicans.
—
20 - 30 November, 1936.
—
The Republican offensive on Valencia would begin with the Republicans managing to take most of the Valencian coastline, leading to the land connection to Valencia to be effectively cut off with most of the Anarchists forces near Valencia retreating into Valencia itself and forcing the Republicans to engage in four months of gruelling siege warfare before eventually taking the city.
To the North the Nationalists, after the fall of Zaragoza, would attempt to launch an offensive to retake the city, while comparatively small in scale to previously planned offensives (due to infighting within Nationalist ranks largely preventing the organization of a large scale offensive) the idea itself wasn't as ludicrous as you might think, due to the Republican offensive on Valencia many Anarchist units had been diverted down south leaving Zaragoza lightly defended.
And while this offensive would largely fail (Again due to infighting, especially among the Monarchists and the Carlists) it would still go on to show that there was still a level of unity within the ranks of the Nationalists by late November (something that would all but disappear a few months later.)
—
1 - 31 December, 1936.
—
Fighting in Spain would continue as Republican forces would slowly push into Valencia while the Anarchists tried to hold onto every street and every building, making the Battle of Valencia one of the bloodiest battle in Europe since the end of the First World War (and up until the Battle of Minsk during the Great Patriotic War/WW2)
While most fronts in Spain remained relatively quiet throughout December (except for obviously Valencia). With all three sides largely preparing their offensives of February when the weather became more palatable.
While the Spanish Civil war ranged on, Germany, having spent more than 4 years since the end of the German Civil war engaging in a large-scale rearmament campaign, would annex Austria outright after instigating a coup within Austria that replaced its former government with a Pro-Nazi one.
While the Imperialist west would condemn the annexation of Austria, Both Britain and France would largely do nothing to punish Germany, instead both countries would actually do the exact opposite sending diplomats to negotiate with the Fascist German government in hopes of building a wider "Anti-Bolshevik Coalition" against the Soviet Union.
Seeing that the war against the Imperialist powers was coming soon, Tukhachevsky would order for the acceleration of the Implementation of Reforms to the Red army and the speed of Military industrial build up across the Union.
—
28 February, 1937.
—
Valencia falls to Republican forces after a bloody siege, with its forces freed up from Valencia the Republicans would begin to prepare to smash apart both Nationalist (who by this point had collapsed into infighting between the different Nationalist factions) and Anarchist forces in one grand offensive.
—
18 - 28 March, 1937.
—
Operation Paseo de patos is launched and is initially met with great success with the Republicans managing to penetrate deep into both Nationalist and Anarchist held territories, however the Republicans great successes would also attract attention from nearby Reactionary states, mainly Portugal who's reactionary leaders, concerned that Republican victory would mean the establishment of a Socialist state on their border, would prepare to directly intervene in the Civil War.
—
8 - 30 April, 1937.
—
The Portuguese Military, utilizing most of its armed forces (which where comparatively quite small, albeit well equipped) would invade Republican held Spain, initially the Portuguese offensive into Spain would fair relatively well due to the poorly defended state of the Republican's border with Portugal, however, by the end of April the Portuguese offensive had largely ground to a halt thanks to Republican reinforcements, Partisan Resistance, and low troop numbers (the Portuguese military at this point only had around 30,000, which while could be increased overtime with conscription, made the Portuguese army significantly outnumbered by Republican Reinforcements.)
While the Portuguese offensive had been halted by the Republicans it had come at the cost of forcing the Republicans to halt all offensive operations, which would eventually lead to both Nationalist and Anarchists to reclaim some of the territories that they had lost during the Republican offensive (such as the city of Zaragoza as in the case of the Anarchists).
—
6 - 18 July, 1937.
—
The Spanish Civil war would largely remain static for two months as the Republicans re-organized there forces and the Nationalists and Anarchists dug in, with the Portuguese largely petitioning for aid from first the western imperialist powers, and then from Germany and Italy who would both agree to send 8,000 troops to assist the Portuguese in their struggle against "European Bolshevism".
Eventually however the first move would be made by the Republicans, who, in concertation with there Soviet military advisors, would agree that the Portuguese held town of Huelva (the same town Franco surrendered in) would likely be the safest bet, due to it containing a significant number of Portuguese troops that could be easily encircled.
Hence on July 9 Republican forces, alongside Soviet volunteer troops, would launch their offensive towards Huelva.
Initially the Assault itself would be met with much difficulty, as the Northern Hills gave the Portuguese defenders a great advantage, however eventually by the 15, the Republicans had managed to break through the Portuguese defensive line on the hills and reach the small village of Corrales, effectively encircling a good fifth of the entire Portuguese army in Huelva.
The Battle of Huelva itself would surprisingly not take long, with many of the Portuguese defenders surrendering due to low morale and lack of supplies. And with Huelva itself effectively falling back into Republican control by the 18 of July.
—
26 - 28 July, 1937.
—
Fearing a potential invasion by Republican forces after the disaster at Huelva Portugal would attempt to petition for Axis Membership, however Germany, reluctant to be forced to directly intervene in the Spanish Civil war (as it would waste resources that it would need in its invasion of France, and later the Soviet Union.) would subtly deny the request, dooming Portugal.
—
8 - 20 August, 1937.
—
With the Nationalists and Anarchist forces to the North largely too weak to conduct any large scale offensives the Republicans would launch an offensive towards the Portuguese Capital of Lisbon, hoping to knock the Portuguese out of the war.
The offensive itself would manage to make steady progress, while the Portuguese army and there German and Italian allies would try to halt the Republican advance, demoralisation, combined with being severely outnumbered and in many cases outgunned (thanks to Soviet war material) would lead to the Portuguese to be pushed back all the way to the city of Lisbon.
In the North the Republicans would also around the same time launch an offensive in Catalonia, largely aimed at providing a better launching pad for a future offensive on Barcelona, while in the past the Anarchists may have been able to hold off this offensive, infighting between the different communes would lead to poorly coordinated counter-attacks that would cost the lives of thousands of Anarchist Militia fighters and force the Anarchists to give up considerable ground to advancing Republican forces.
—
4 September, 1937.
—
As the Civil war in Spain continued to rage on, the western Imperialist powers of Britain and France would meet with their fascist counterparts in the German city of Munich to discuss the handover of the Sudetenland from Czech hands to German ones.
Germany, who, earlier in August had started a border skirmish with Czechoslovakia for the Sudetenland, had largely managed to win against Czech forces (though this should not be surprising considering that pretty much every state that surrounded it had pretty much decided to get there piece of Czechoslovakia around the same time.) by the time the Munich agreement had been signed, while the details of the treaty are vague (as most of the documentation surrounding said treaty was destroyed by British Government loyalists during the Crimson Revolution of 1986) it is safe to assume that the Munich agreement was most likely signed as a way of placating Germany, and to empower Germany to oppose the Soviet Union (that most western powers still saw as a threat even during the height of the NEP period).
—
10 - 30 September, 1937.
—
Portuguese forces, in a desperate attempt to break the encirclement of Lisbon, would launch a large-scale offensive to take the crucial strategic point of Carregado.
While initially the Portuguese would have some level of success, being able to retake several surrounding villages, however, Poor Morale, organization, along with an acute shortage of manpower and equipment along with infiltration of the general soldiery by Republican political agitators would lead to the offensive stalling out with eventually Republican forces being able to recapture most of the lost ground from Portuguese forces.
—
11 - 20 October, 1937.
—
With the encirclement of Lisbon now secured, the Spanish Republican forces would turn their attention to actually capturing the city.
While Lisbon would have been fairly easy to defend, the severe lack of manpower, combined with significant morale issues would lead to the rapid collapse of the Portuguese defence of the city and its Capture by the Republicans.
—
30 October 1937 - 8 June 1938.
—
With the Fall of Lisbon the majority of what remained of the Portuguese military began to surrender to the Spanish Republicans, with what remained of the Portuguese government unconditionally surrendering to the Republicans on the 30th October 1937.
While the Spanish civil war would continue on for several months, the fall of Portugal would largely seal the fate of the Nationalists and Anarchists, with Barcelona falling in February 3 1938 along with the remaining Anarchist holdings soon afterwards.
The Nationalists would manage to hold out for a few more months than the Anarchists, however the steady advance of the Republicans would not relent with eventually the last stronghold of the Nationalist movement, Galicia, falling in June 3, with the Republicans declaring victory in the civil war a few days later.
While some of the western imperialist powers had hoped that Spain would retain its status as a Bourgeois democracy, the matter of fact was simply that wasn't ever going to happen, with, ironically enough, the Spanish government had largely become the puppets of the Workers Party of Spain, and on June 8th the WPS would take direct control of the Government, with Spain and the now recently liberated Portugal being combined together to form the Iberian People's Federation, a state that would eventually become well known as one of Western Europe's first socialist states.
However, as this was celebrated by Soviet authorities, storm clouds began to gather on the Horizon, as German forces gathered on the Polish and Belgium borders.
—
11 November, 1938.
—
German Officials, largely attempting to prevent Soviet intervention in their invasion of Poland (and inevitable conflict with the western imperialists) would invite Soviet diplomats to the city of Danzig to negotiate for a "non-aggression pact" (air quotes should be extremely noted here).
While some CPSU party members (most notably a number of former Bukharinists.) would petition Tukhachevsky to negotiate with Germany, Tukhachevsky would flat out deny the requests famously saying "The Soviet Union will never make deals with fascists, no matter how useful it may be." to a session of the Supreme Soviet on November 15.
—
March 8, 1939.
—
While disappointed by the choice of the USSR to not negotiate with them, Hitler and his General staff wouldn't exactly be put off invading Poland and hence on March 8, German troops would storm over the Polish border, beginning the 2nd world war.
—
March 18 - June 29, 1939.
—
While the Poles would put up an admirable defence of their homeland, it wouldn't take long until German forces managed to penetrate deep into Polish territory forcing the Poles to retreat to prepared defensive positions around the Warsaw area and those north and south of it by May 8.
While the imperialist western powers would declare war immediately on Germany after their invasion of Poland, there actions for the first stage of the war would be lethargic, with the French attempting to launch an offensive into the Saar land, and while it would be slightly successful (with the French managing to take a few border towns and villages) Incompetency and complacency within the French military high command would eventually lead to the "Saar land offensive" to stall out and eventually be halted entirely.
In the Soviet Union the reaction would be quite different, with the Red Army being rapidly mobilized and with Soviet Industry (already in a state of early mobilized state for war since the German build-up on the Polish Border) being put onto a partially mobilized status, the Soviets would also only a week after the beginning of the German invasion offer the Polish government more than 800 thousand troops to repel the German invasion, an offer, that would unfortunately be rejected by the highly reactionary Polish government at the time.
Seeing the collapse of the Polish state as inevitable, by May 26, Mikhail Tukhachevsky would order for more than 300 thousand Red army troops to cross into Poland in order to save as much of Poland as humanly possible.
Poland, within a few weeks of the Red Army's invasion, would effectively collapse with the Polish government and what remained of the Military fleeing into Romania, Lithuania, or any other surrounding states that were willing to take them.
By June 15, Poland had effectively ceased to exist, with the vast majority of Poland being occupied by the Germans while the Eastern Regions, which were mostly populated by Ukrainians and Belarusians, would largely fall under Soviet control.
While a few Soviet officials would advocate for the Red Army to immediately invade Germany while it was busy with the western Imperialists (this was an especially common call among the exiled members of the KPD, who had fled to the Soviet Union and had become "International Members" of the CPSU shortly afterward after the end of the German Civil War.) However Tukhachevsky, along with most of the CPSU, where reluctant to immediately invade Germany for several reasons, one, was the fact that the Soviet Military was still being reformed, and while the Red Army reforms had mostly been completed by 1939, Tukhachevsky still wanted to wait another year for the reforms to be completed just do be on the safe side of things (after all it is better to be over prepared when facing the Germans after all.) Another reason was simple Geo-Strategic pragmatism, after all both Finland and the Baltic states where still controlled by bourgeois reactionary government, and if the Union was to declare war on Germany now there was no telling what they would do, so, by the end of June, the Supreme Soviet would agree that, before the Nazi menace could be confronted directly, the Geo-strategic and internal aspects needed to be corrected by any means necessary, and that only after that had been accomplished, could the Red Army move in to liberate Europe from Fascist oppression.
And all the while the Soviet Union figured out a plan of action, German forces would begin to Gather on the Belgium and Dutch Borders.
—
July 1 - December 19, 1939.
—
The Wehrmacht, unexpectedly for the western imperialist powers, would launch a rapid offensive across the Ardennes, largely catching the western imperialists off guard and allowing for the Germans to effectively bypass the Maginot line.
By July 28, the Fascists had largely managed to enter the Lowlands and would begin to rapidly advance down south, cutting off British forces at the port city of Dunkirk by August the 16.
Within less than 30 days the German army would reach the French Capital of Paris, leading the French Government to surrender on the 20 of September.
What remained of the British and French forces on the continent (in the case of the French, those who did not recognize the surrender) would attempt to evacuate from the Port Cities of Dunkirk and Dieppe, the Germans, realising that they could potentially knock Britain out of the war entirely, would fiercely assault both the Dunkirk and Dieppe enclaves, these assaults, while ending in relative failure (as most of the British and French forces would manage to escape) would force both the British and the French to leave behind most of their military equipment, largely preventing any form of Naval invasion from Britain for the time being.
While Germany was busy invading France, the working class within the Baltic States would begin a large-scale general strike, demanding the resignation of the current governments in favour of those chosen by the working class, for the working class (with minimal Soviet support of course).
In retaliation the bourgeois governments of the Baltic's would begin to violently repress the strikers and workers, hoping to prevent the spread of the revolution to their own countries.
The Baltic's reactionaries hopes though would be swept away as on October 3, more than 85,000 Red Army troops would enter the Baltic's, largely leading to the collapse of the old Bourgeois order within the region in less than a week, and to the integration of three new republics into the USSR.
With the Baltic states now incorporated into the Union, the USSR would turn its attention to Finland.
Of course it wouldn't exactly take long for the Red Army High Command to figure out that invading Finland wouldn't exactly be a walk in the park.
One of the issues that faced the Red army in its planned invasion of Finland was the Terrain, along with the Finnish defensive fortification known as the "Mannerheim line" which largely protected the Karelian Isthmus and would make it difficult for the Red army to advance up in that direction.
However Tukhachevsky would identify one weakness the Mannerheim line had, and that was the City of Viipuri, which served as a vital logistical hub for the Finnish forces along the Mannerheim line, if the City could be taken in an Amphibious assault, it would most likely make the defence of the Mannerheim line untenable and likely force the Finnish army to retreat, allowing for the Red Army to flood into the Finnish heartland and take Helsinki.
However this plan, while certainly Viable, would be difficult to pull off, for one, Viipuri and a number of smaller islands in its Fjord that the Finns had establish coastal batteries upon, would need to most likely be taken before being able to directly land troops in Viipuri itself.
Another obstacle for this to be considered was the Finnish Garrison of Viipuri itself, which would most likely send overwhelming reinforcements to the Coastal forts, largely leading to the certain defeat of any Red Army marine task force sent to silence the forts.
However there were rather obvious solutions to this, and that was the Finnish socialist movement.
While the Finnish Government had tried their best to eliminate what remained of the Finnish Red Army after the end of the Finnish Civil war, many Finnish Reds had either successfully managed to escape to the USSR, or go underground, which meant that the USSR could exploit these "Finnish Reds" to instigate an uprising within Viipuri, that would then allow for Substantial Red Army forces to land in the City.
Of course setting up such an operation would take time, weaponry, ammo, and a whole manner of other stuff would need to be smuggled in without the Finns noticing, which would obviously take a lot of time, with the NKVD estimating at the time it would take around 6-10 months until the "Free Finnish Workers Army" was ready to begin there uprising in Viipuri.
—
January 1 - November 4, 1940.
—
While the Soviets prepared for operations "Winter Storm", the Second world war waged on across the globe, with the Germans (Unable to launch a naval invasion of Britain due to the overwhelming superiority of the Royal Navy) would attempt to bomb Britain into submission, and while ultimately the British would emerge victorious, the battle would come decisively close in the end largely thanks to American Arms exports.
America, led by its "Non-Interventionist" President Alf Landon, would see the Second World war as an opportunity to stimulate economic growth within the American economy (Which had largely stagnated since the Business Coup and the Failure of the New Deal.)
While these new arms exports would help to stimulate the recovery of the American economy (and hence guarantee Alf Landon's victory over his opponent in the 1939 elections) it would also come to bite the American's in the ass later on.
While America would eventually be dragged into World war two after the Japanese attack on Pearl harbour, I think it should be noted that by this point much of America's industry had been heavily decayed thanks to economic stagnation and decay (largely due to the inaction of Alf Landon and the failure of the New Deal) and while the 2nd world war would help to significantly restore America's economic capabilities, it would also plunge America into deep levels of debt, and fully cement the Bourgeois control over the American political system, eventually contributing to the appointment of George Wallace as president in 1964. (as by the 1960's the American electoral system had become so rigged it couldn't even be called a bourgeois democracy any more, with America having effectively transitioned into a bourgeois oligarchy.)
As all of this happened the 2nd world war continued on at full force across the globe, with the Red Army preparing to launch Operation Winter Storm around the same time.
—
November 5 - November 7, 1940.
—
With everything meticulously prepared the NKVD would send the signal to its agents in Viipuri to begin the Uprising.
In the early hours of November 5 the numerous sleeper cells of the Free Finnish Workers Army in Viipuri would activate, leading to complete and utter chaos to spread throughout Viipuri, as the Finnish garrison attempted to reorganize itself and figure out what was going on.
Around the same time, Red Army Marines would begin their assaults on the Numerous Coastal forts and Batteries scattered around the Viipuri fjord, managing to take them in only a few hours and allowing for several Red Army Brigades and Divisions to enter and secure Viipuri.
By November 6 Hundreds of Red Army troops would land in Viipuri, allowing for the city to be secured and captured in relatively short order as Thousands more Red Army troops poured into the city on troop transports.
On the 7 of November, Mannerheim, seeing the desperate need to retake Viipuri, would gather up as many troops as possible in order to commence a "Do or Die" offensive to retake Viipuri.
While the sheer fanatical determination of the Finns would manage to retake several of Viipuri's outer districts, however, due to being severely outnumbered and disorganized, the Finnish advance would be halted, and then eventually routed as Red Army tanks along with dedicated "Storm Trooper" units would manage to utterly break the attacking Finns, forcing what remained of the assaulting Finnish force to retreat.
—
November 8 - December 28, 1940.
—
The Red Army would launch a general offensive across the entire Finnish front, and while the Mannerheim line held for now, the Finns where more than aware the Mannerheim line had effectively been bypassed and that it would only be a matter of days before Red Army Tank units reached lake Ladoga and effectively cut off and encircled a large portion of the Finnish Army.
In order to ensure that this didn't happen, Mannerheim would order for the immediate deployment of Finnish Reserves to the village of Krotovo, with Mannerheim hoping to buy time to allow for at least some of the Finnish army along the Mannerheim line to be evacuated.
While the Red Army advance had been rapid, it had not exactly been as fast as Tuckachevsky had hoped, with poor weather, road conditions, and relentless ambushes from Finnish army units significantly slowing down the Red Army's advance, however eventually by November 18 the Red Army would reach village of Krotovo, where intense fighting would continue around the village for five days until the Red Army would manage to route the Finnish defenders, and by November 29 the Red Army would reach Lake Ladoga, effectively encircling the bulk of the Finnish army remaining on the Mannerheim line.
With the Finnish Frontlines effectively shattered the Red Army would race towards Helsinki, utilising the much more well developed roadways of the Finnish core region, the Red Army would effectively advance towards Helsinki unchallenged, and by December 11 the Red Army would enter the city, effectively securing a full Soviet Victory in the Winter war.
While some elements of the Finnish army would continue on fighting for a few weeks after the fall of Helsinki, these were relatively few and far between, with the "Mannerheim pocket" surrendering in December 15, and with most other remaining Finnish pockets surrendering by the end of December.
On December 23, Soviet officials, in conjunction with Representatives of the Free Finnish Workers Army, would declare the formation of the Finnish Congress of Soviets, which, on December 30, would effectively declare the Establishment of the Finnish Workers Republic.
While the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Winter War would help to spread socialism abroad (along with secure its Northern Flank against a Finnish/German invasion) it would also unintendedly influence Sweden to join the Axis, with Sweden joining the Axis Powers on December 29, securing another ally for Germany.
—
February 11, 1941.
—
With the Axis offensive in North Africa largely stalling out, thanks to overextended supply lines, and fearing a potential invasion by the Soviet Union along with wanting to complete its ideological objective of Genocide of the Eastern European peoples to make room for "Aryan" settlement. Hitler would order for a massive number of troops to redeploy to the Axis border with the Soviet Union in preparation for "Operation Barbarossa".
—
February 12 - March 1, 1941.
—
While the Axis military forces would try their best to hide their movements, the sheer number of forces involved combined with the presence of NKVD agents within Germany and most of the Axis states would largely render such efforts ineffective with the NKVD hurriedly rushing a report to Red Army high command on the massive amounts of Wehrmacht troops being deployed to the Axis eastern border with the Soviet Union.
While most major political figures within the USSR had largely predicted that a large scale war between the Imperialist powers was all but inevitable, there was no decisive consensus on how to actually defeat said Imperialist powers, with some within the Red Army's high command all but declaring it "Impossible" only 20 years ago, and while the Red Army was a lot more capable and well equipped then it was back then, it was also about to face an army that had conquered most of western Europe and had defeated major imperialist powers (such as France) in only two months, this understandably caused a great deal of apprehension within the upper ranks of the Red Army, however said apprehension wasn't shared by Tukhachevsky.
One of the major reasons why the Germans had been so successful in France and Norway had been largely due to there application of "Blitzkrieg" tactics, which largely involved concentrating enormous amounts of force on one point in the front allowing for armoured divisions to break through and rapidly encircle divisions on take key strategic sites such as supply hubs.
However this tactic wasn't impervious, one of its main weaknesses was that since infantry divisions tended to move slower then there armoured compatriots, this would often lead to vast gaps opening up in the front as infantry divisions were unable to keep up with the pace of there armoured counterparts, and, as demonstrated in Africa, could lead to forward "Panzer" divisions to be encircled or cut off from other friendly forces if enemy divisions where to reform and re-occupy there defensive lines.
Utilising this knowledge of German military tactics (and its weaknesses) Mikhail Tukhachevsky would begin to draw up plans for "Case Black", with the plans main points eventually being.
1. All Tank armies would be withdrawn to reserve positions along the western border with the fascist powers.
2. When an armoured breakthrough occurs, all Tank divisions within that sector of the frontline will respond immediately to engage advancing Fascist armoured forces.
3. Tank armies will continue to engage and hold off enemy armoured formations until either Red Army forces can reform behind the enemy armoured divisions to allow for there liquidation, or until Red Army forces have been able to reform and entrench themselves at the next defensive line, at which point Tank armies will orderly retreat behind the next defensive line, where they will move back to the next set of reserve positions and be placed on standby to await the next offensive.
This strategy of "Сила с Силой" (or quite literally in Russian "Force with Force") would help to severely slow down and then eventually halt the German advance during the initial stages of the Great Patriotic War. Along with plans such as "Case Black" being drawn up there was also an effort to encourage the mass adoption of "anti tank tactics" within the ranks of the Red Army, such as the proper usage of Anti-tank guns and artillery, along with the mass adoption of the "Molotov Cocktail" (a type of improvised petrol bomb that had proven to be especially effective against Soviet BT-7's and T-34s during the winter war).
Along with all of this the Soviet Authorities would also continue on the process of "Military Equipment Standardization", while initially started by Tukhachevsky soon after he came to power, this program was largely designed to eliminate "Superficial Equipment" from Soviet production chains in order to increase production efficiency and allow for much more useful equipment to be produced in much larger numbers than previously.
This combined with the continuous rapid growth of Soviet industry (at around 14-16% per year) between 1930 and 1941 would see the Red Army's equipment stockpiles be filled to the brim with newly made weaponry and equipment.
A Notable example of "Equipment Standardization" could be seen in the Red Army's tank force, by 1941 the main tank models utilised by the Red Army, or the "Three workhorses", as Tukhachevsky had named them, where the BT-7, the T-34, and the KV-2, all of which would prove vital for the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.
—
July 22 - November 9, 1941.
—
With their preparations complete, the Wehrmacht would launch operation "Barbarossa".
While German forces would be able to attain initial success in the opening days of operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht's rapid advances into the Western border of the USSR would quickly become bogged down, and in some places reversed, as fierce Red Army counter attacks would force German Panzer Divisions to halt their advance and consolidate control over already taken ground.
This slow, though steady German advance, would continue throughout August and most of the summer, with both sides engaging in enormous tank battles before the Soviets would be forced to retreat to the next set of defensive lines as the Advance of German infantry threatened to encircle or cut off Red Army Tank divisions and brigades.
While the Wehrmacht continued to advance throughout most of the Summer, the mood within the Upper strata of German high command was remarkably bleak.
The Initial objectives of operation Barbarossa had been to reach the AA line before the end of the year (the AA line being an arbitrary line between the Cities of Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan which was supposed to mark the end objectives of operation Barbarossa.), however by November, it had become remarkably clear that the Wehrmacht weren't even going to be able to take Minsk by then (if at all), and that was before the German advance was forced to a halt thanks to severe cold temperatures and severe casualties.
In order to try and rectify this "failure of leadership", as Adolf Hitler called it, multiple high ranking German generals would be dismissed from there post and eventually executed for "Treason", with more "ideological loyal" generals being reassigned in their place.
Another thing that Hitler would also try to do in order to win back German forces on the Eastern front there war tempo would be for the immediate redeployment of German forces from North Africa to the Eastern front in preparation for the "Spring offensive" as Hitler called it.
While North Africa would still be held by Italian troops, the withdrawal of German forces from North Africa would eventually doom Axis controlled Africa, with the Allies managing to reclaim North Africa by mid 1942, eventually setting the stage for the invasion of Italy in August 1943.
—
December 7, 1941.
—
While the Battle of the century was fought in Eastern Europe, tensions in the Pacific came to a boiling point.
Tensions between the United States and the Empire of Japan had always been high since Japan's rapid expansion across East Asia and the Assimilation of former European colonies into its rapidly expanding empire.
Tensions would finally boil over in July when the United States would prevent the exports of oil to the Empire of Japan, convincing the leaders of Japan to prepare for a surprise attack on the United States.
On December the 7 the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour would have devastating consequences for the American Pacific Fleet, with it leading to the American Pacific fleet to be effectively neutered for more than a year as it repaired and rebuilt itself.
Shortly afterwards Japan would officially declare war on the United States, followed shortly afterwards by Germany on December 12.
While the initial attack on Pearl harbour would devastated the American Pacific fleet, it was also indirectly help to revive America's economy (which had largely been stagnant throughout the past decade) as the American government would begin to take on large amounts of "Victory bonds" in order to retool America's industry for war and to supply the US Army, this in turn would help to support and revive America's economy, along with creating a massive number of new jobs, that would effectively reduce down unemployment to pre-depressions levels.
However the Alf Landon's administration's "isolationist" foreign policy would also effect it now, with America only officially joining the "Allied Powers" in April 1942, and even then the United states would very quickly implement a "Japan first" policy, with the Alf Landon administration largely viewing the Japanese as a greater threat to American interests than the Germans, largely leading to American focus to be directed towards the Pacific theatre for the initial stages of the war with American support in Europe being largely limited to lend lease to Britain, and air support.
—
April 13 - 30, 1942.
—
With Spring approaching the Wehrmacht would launch operation "Teuton", with its ultimate aim being the capture of the strategically important city of Minsk.
German forces would initially manage to make steady headway towards the City, managing to break through both of the initial defensive lines surrounding the southern and western Axis of the city.
However, once German forces began to enter Minsk their advance would slow to a crawl as determined resistance from Minsk's defenders, combined with the urban terrain largely inhibiting large scale tank movements, would force both sides to engage in fierce and gruelling "House to House" combat.
—
30 April - December 8, 1942.
—
With the German troops in North Africa re-assigned to the Eastern Front, British forces in North Africa would manage to exploit the severe weakening of Axis forces in the region to extreme effect, with Allied forces entering the City of Tobruk by May 8, with soon afterwards the entire Axis front in North Africa collapsing with the last Axis North African holdouts being cleared by British forces in August 3.
However not everything had gone perfectly for the allies, as in the Pacific, with the Japanese Empire managing to invade and capture the lightly defended Philippines swiftly, before turning its sights to the strategically important island of Midway.
While Atlantic American Naval forces had been hurriedly moved to reinforce the American Naval presence in the Pacific according to Alf Landon's "Japan First" policy, this would not help the American's much, as due to experienced staff shortages, faulty equipment, and ill-prepared vessels, the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) would ultimately manage to win out against the Americans in the Battle of Midway, Albeit due to severe loses, overstretched supply lines, and other issues the IJN's drive towards Hawaii would largely be halted, this combined with the fact that the Americans could replace their losses at a much faster rate than the Japanese would allow for the Americans to eventually reclaim midway on Christmas 1942.
Meanwhile, On the Eastern Front, the Werhmarct would continue to pour troops into the City of Minsk, or as it would later be called colloquially by both sides "The Meat Grinder".
While Both sides would take enormous loses across the Entirety of the Eastern Front throughout most of 1942, these losses would be exceptionally bad for the Germans who largely lacked the manpower in order to replace battlefield loses, and this wasn't even taking into account material loses which Germany could not afford to lose due to strained production capabilities along with resource shortages.
In order to try and "Resolve" some of these issues, the Nazi's would begin to utilise vast amounts of slave labourers within its factories in order to replace the workers that were currently fighting on the Eastern Front, however this would also cause its own issues, as equipment "malfunctions" would become much more common within the Wehrmacht either due to inexperience on the hands of the slave workers (due to a lack of training), or due to purposeful sabotage.
Other issues also affected German forces on the Eastern Front, one of them were coordinated Partisan attacks on German logistical arteries in Eastern Europe (which was only made worse by German Reprisal killings and "Slave Hunting" operations conducted by the German Army and SS) Which largely made it considerably difficult to transport supplies and men to the front line.
By mid October, and after months of gruelling urban fighting German forces would manage to reach the Svislach river, leading to the development of a considerable bulge around the last two bridges that lead to the southern portion of the city, while initially some foreign commentators had expected Soviet forces to retreat to the northern side of the river, however instead Tukhachevsky would order for the Soviet defenders to "Hold on" as the Red Army prepared to launch operation Uranus.
By Late November the Germans, after weeks of failing to close the Soviet bulge south of the Svislach river, would eventually give up and would begin to dig in, with German High Command hoping to break the stalemate after the end of winter.
—
December 10 - 31, 1942.
—
With the Preparations complete, the Red Army would Launch Operation Uranus on December 10, initially the Operation would expectedly meet some resistance, largely in the form of Italian and Romanian troops that had been tasked with holding the German flanks, who, after being faced with Soviet Tank Divisions, and being poorly dug in due to a lack of entrenching equipment (largely due to Partisan raids on Axis Supply lines in the run-up to the offensive) would lead to the liquidation of both Italian and Romania forces.
The German High Command, seeing the danger that this offensive presented, would immediately order for its reserve Panzer divisions to be deployed to counter these offensives, however, low division strength, communication issues, and constant strafing runs by the Soviet Air Force (who had at this point had managed to secure air superiority over most areas of the Eastern front), would largely lead to the collapse of the German defence on the flanks of the German Army in Minsk, with by December 26, Soviet Northern and Eastern Armies linking up at the village Chechino, effectively encircling more than 400,000 German Troops in Minsk.
—
January 5 - March 16, 1943.
—
While German forces would attempt to break the encirclement of Minsk throughout January these attempts would largely fail largely due to well prepared Soviet defences, bad weather conditions, and the unwillingness of the German forces within Minsk to try and break out, fearing that any attempt to launch a breakout would lead to Soviet forces in the North of Minsk to push down on the already weakened frontlines of the German forces.
By Early February German forces within Minsk would begin to get squeezed into the City, with the last Airfield (and in turn last supply line) into Minsk being Liberated by Red Army forces on February 15th.
With the fall of the last supply line, the German forces in Minsk would begin to crumble rapidly, with Red Army forces managing to further push what remained of the German Army to the banks of the river, with what remained of the Wehrmacht's forces in the city surrendering on March 14.
The "Battle of Minsk" as it would eventually be called, would remark a resounding turning point in the war, the destruction of the German "Minsk Army" would effectively cripple German offensive capabilities for the rest of the war, with the German army on the Eastern Front largely being thrown onto the defensive (except for operation Berg Breaker that would be launched on July 1943.)
—
March 16 - July 8, 1943.
—
With German forces crippled after the Battle of Minsk, Red Army forces would exploit the weakness left in the ranks of the German Army, managing to recapture vast swathes of territory, with by the 9th of May, most of Belarus and good portions of Ukraine and Lithuania having being liberated by Red Army forces.
While eventually the German Army would manage to stabilise the Eastern front (largely through the redeployment of forces holding the Atlantic wall along with the emergency deployment of army units in training) it would become obvious to many within the German Army that the current situation was not desirable in the slightest.
The unmitigated disaster that was operation Teuton had wasted far to many troops in a gruelling war of attrition that heavily favoured the Soviets, this combined with most sectors on the Eastern front largely devolving into a fierce attritional war of trenches and tank battles had severely drained German material and manpower reserves, while in comparison the Soviets had only been growing stronger as the Soviet economy increasingly transitioned onto that of a war footing and more and more factories were converted to support the war effort.
In order to try and reverse the course of the war, Hitler would order for the creation of the Volkssturm, an army of conscripted Youths, invalids, and those unable to serve in the regular army, the intention of this force largely being initially to hold strategic locations (such as the Atlantic wall for instance) however, as the Wehrmacht continued to suffer losses throughout the war the Volkssturm would eventually become the main fighting force for Germany by the end of the war.
Another plan that the German Military command had drawn up was operation "Berg Breaker", a plan that, while incredibly risky (as it required the significant investment of some of Germany's last armoured units, along with the deploy of significant Luftwaffe assets in order to secure air parity in the Area of operation,) also had the potential to be a significant victory for the German Army, and potentially put momentum of the war back in favour of Germany.
—
July 8 - 28, 1943.
—
Operation Bergbreaker would begin with German forces launching a dual pronged attack on the Lutsk salient.
While German Forces had hoped to catch the Red Army by surprise their (rather naive) hopes would be dashed aside with initial German offensives meeting stiff resistance from the Red Army, despite that the German Army would manage to make steady progress for the first four days, managing to make breakthroughs in the first lines of Northern and Southern defensive Areas.
However by July 14, The Wehrmacht's advance would begin to slow, with by July 16, the Northern offensive axis had been largely halted thanks to overextended supply lines, high casualties, and heavily defended Red Army positions, while the Southern offensive axis would manage to advance slightly more than that of the Northern one (largely thanks to the flat terrain of the southern portion of the Lutsk salient) by July 16, the Southern axis advance would begin to slow as Red Army reinforcements would begin to arrive en-mass to the frontlines, this, combined with the withdrawal of the Luftwaffe support for the offensive (largely due to horrific losses sustained through fierce air battle with the Red Air force, along with the inability to replace losses due to a chronic lack of air planes and qualified pilots.) would lead to the Southern offensive to grind to a halt by July 20.
Around July 22, Red Army forces would begin clearing operations of German forces in the Forest belt north of Lutsk, and only a couple of days later the Red Army would attempt to launch an encirclement operation of German army forces around the village of Lysche, and while German forces would manage to organize a retreat in both sectors by July 28, most of the German gains made in operation "Berg Breaker" would be reversed, utterly demoralising German Army forces on the Eastern Front, along with liquidating some of Germany's last Armoured reserves.
—
August 3 - September 1, 1943.
—
While the German Army recovered from the failure of Operation "Berg Breaker" other events that would soon occur would bring even greater amounts of grief to the Axis Powers.
As Germany and its allies licked there wounds, the Western Imperialist Allies, seeing an opportunity to get a foothold in Europe, would launch a naval invasion of the Island of Sicily, while a year prior the Axis powers may have been able to put up a fight for the island, the losses suffered by the Axis powers on the eastern front, combined with a severe lack of manpower and equipment, would largely render the Axis defence of Sicily doomed from the start, with the Island largely being captured August 16th, only two weeks after the Allied landing on Sicily.
While the Western Imperialist Allies made their first inroads into Europe, the German forces on the Eastern front braced themselves for the inevitable Soviet offensive.
While many German Generals by mid 1943 were doubtful of the Wehrmacht chance's of being able to hold off a Soviet offensive, that didn't necessarily mean that the Fascists had lost any hope of victory.
One Idea proposed by notable Wehrmacht generals such as Heinz Guderian was the Festung Doctrine (Festung translating to roughly Fortress city in German) With the general idea being that, as the Red Army advanced into German territory, the Festungs (built up and designated around strategically important cities.) would force the Red Army to halt its advance and secure there supply lines, this in turn would give the Wehrmacht time to reinforce its frontlines and hopefully, maybe, halt the Soviet offensive.
While the Festung Doctrine was applied across most of the Eastern front, it in and off itself wouldn't be enough to stop the Red army advance, so, German High Command would be forced to "Guess" where the Soviet offensive would be targeted towards.
While some of the German High Command would correctly guess that the Soviet offensive would be targeted towards the Symbolically important city of Koenigsberg (Modern day Kaliningrad) the majority of the German Generals, including Hitler himself, would be convinced otherwise, believing that the Soviet offensive would instead be targeted towards seizing the crucial Romania oil fields, this "strategic blunder" would cost the Fascists dearly in September, with the Aftermath of operation "Bagration" largely signalling the beginning of the end for the Nazi Regime.
—
September 3 - 30, 1943.
—
On September 5 the Red Army would launch Operation Bagration, its main objective would be to capture the Symbolic city of Konigsberg, as well as Encircle German Army group north around German Occupied Lithuania.
German Lines would quickly fold under the pressure of the Soviet offensive, and while many German Festungs would manage to hold out for quite a long time, the lack of German Reserve forces within the northern sectors would largely render many of Festungs strategically worthless, with the Soviets managing to effectively bypass most Festungs and establish forward supply lines without much in the way of molestation from Germany Army forces.
While Germany's Reserve forces would be deployed as fast as possible to the Baltic's in order to halt the Soviet advance, by September 10 it had become clear that it was too late to stabilise the frontline, with many of the Festungs that had held up Soviet supply lines having been captured over the preceding week, largely invalidating any effect the Festungs may have had to hold up the Soviet's advance.
To make matters worse for the Germans, numerous Polish partisan organizations, seeing the Soviet advance as an opportunity to liberate their country from German oppression, would launch a general uprising on September 18th, forcing many of Germany's reserve forces to be diverted from stalling out the Soviet offensive to instead putting down the uprising.
By September 21st, Red Army forces would reach the Town of Elblag, effectively cutting off the land supply route of the German Northern army, this would have severe consequences for the German Army on the Eastern front, as with Army Group North now encircled, some of Germany's last elite and professional Divisions and units where effectively trapped around Southern Lithuania and Koenigsberg.
While the Red Army pushed deep into German Occupied Territory, the Situation would continued to deteriorate for the Axis on other fronts, as was the case in Italy, where Allied forces would manage to take advantage of the situation developing on the Eastern front to great effect, managing to take most of southern Italy by the end of September 1943, before eventually being forced to halt their advance due to strained supply lines.
While the Situation for the Axis powers in Europe was dire, the situation was equally grim for the Axis powers in the pacific, as while initial Japanese Victories at Midway and in the Philippines had allowed for the Empire of Japan to seize vast portions of territory, by late 1943 the situation for the Japanese had become much more dire as American industrial superiority, combined with Japanese overextension, would lead to much of Japan's gains in the Early stages of the 2nd world war to be reversed, with many of the Japanese occupied Islands in the Pacific being recaptured by American forces would lead to Japan's dominance over the Pacific to collapse, with Islands such as Okinawa and the Philippines being directly threatened by American forces by the end of August 1943.
—
October 1 - 20, 1943.
—
With the realisation of Germany's Military Capabilities being severely weakened and diminished by Red Army High Command, Mikhael Tukhachevsky, would order for a General offensive across the entirety of the eastern front by the Red Army.
The Severely Diminished Wehrmacht and its allied forces were able to do little to slow down the Soviet Advance, with Warsaw falling in a matter of days to the Soviet Advance, all the while Hitler and his Fascist crooks took there rage out on the German Military High command, with all Remaining Wehrmacht forces (as by this point the vast bulk of the German Military was largely made up of the Volkssturm and SA units.) being placed under the direct command of the NSDAP (and more specifically Adolf Hitler).
This would have catastrophic effects on German Military organization on the Eastern front, as the Nazi party, who, largely being made up of Civilian Bureaucrats, would predictably make catastrophic military blunders, with the newly christened "Army Group Konigsberg" being ordered to "Hold onto their positions against the Judeo-Bolshevik Horde at any cost." While this "Last Stand order" as it would be later coined by future Historians, would prevent the closing of the Koenigsberg pocket in October, and hence force the Red Army to Divert troops to the pocket that could of otherwise been used on the Polish, Romania, or Scandinavian Fronts Respectively, and hence slow down the advance on these fronts, it would also lead to some of Germany's last professional Divisions to be sacrificed in the defence of Koenigsberg after the fall of the pocket in November, and hence help to accelerate the collapse of the German Army and the end of the Nazi Regime.
In any case while the Dogged Determination of the Volkssturm and SA was certainly notable, it would only help to partially slow down both the Soviet and Allied advance, and not completely stop it, as by October 10 Soviet forces would enter Bucharest (which had at this point been liberated by Romanian Revolutionaries who opposed the Fascistic rule of the Iron Guard).
By October 13 Allied forces would enter Rome effectively unopposed (as by this point the Italian army had effectively collapsed.) By October 15 much of France's countryside was effectively under the control of the French Resistance.
By October 20 most of Pre-war Poland was effectively under Soviet Control, with only a small German force holding out around Danzig and Gydnia.
Around the Same Time of all of this Soviet forces would manage to make Steady Headway into Scandinavia, with Pitea in Sweden and Glomfjord in Norway effectively falling under Soviet control, while a British Naval landing in Southern France would lead to Marsellie and Toulon to fall under allied control.
—
October 20 - November 30, 1943.
—
While the Situation on the Frontlines became apocalyptic for the German Government, the situation at home would similar turn Grim for the Nazi's as, due to a chronic manpower shortage within the Gestapo, along with deteriorating Material conditions for the general citizenry as well as deteriorating support for the war (that even the Nazi's were having a hard time addressing at this point.) would lead to several large protests to start, with these protests quickly escalating to full blown uprisings as underground organizations of numerous Ideological backgrounds would quickly organize these protests into full scale revolts, with socialist alleged "Rott Front" managing to capture Essen along with many other Cities within the Ruhr by October 28, while Liberal Bourgeoisie aligned rebel groups, while not as successfully, would manage to seize control of Erfurt and Weimar.
By October 30, both allied and Soviet forces had managed to liberate vast amounts of territory that had been occupied by Germany and its allies, with by October 28 Stockholm falling to advancing Soviet Forces, as Allied forces would quickly secure Southern France (with Paris eventually being Liberated by November 8).
Around November 4, disgruntled German officers and Generals, upset with Hitler's disastrous decisions surrounding placing the Wehrmacht under the control of the NSDAP, would launch a coup in order to "bring about competent and coherent leadership to Germany in these dark times." The Coup attempt (or Operation Valkyrie as it was codenamed by the plotters) would largely succeed with Hitler being Assassinated and many of Hitlers main supporters, such as Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goring, being arrested by the Plotters and a "Interim German Government" being established.
While a change of leadership may have saved the Fascistic German Regime a year earlier, by late 1943 the NSDAP's influence within the German military, combined with the external pressure of both the Allied and Soviet fronts would spell disaster for Germany, with many Volkssturm and SA units, who were ultimately loyal to the now deposed NSDAP, would begin to desert en mass, with the German Army Practically Collapsing by November 10.
With the German Army Collapsing Both the Red Army and allied forces would make a mad dash to secure as much territory as humanly possible from the other, with by November 14 forward elements of the 14th Guards Tank army arriving at the practically undefended Seelow heights, a couple of days later Soviet forces would march into Berlin nearly uncontested, only really facing opposition from a single SS division and a motley assortment of hastily formed Civilian Militias that the German Interim Government had been hard pressed to form to try and counter the Soviet's mad dash to Berlin.
The Fall of Berlin would largely mark the end of the War in Europe with the German Interim Government Soon Afterwards unconditionally surrendering to both Soviet and Allied Forces on November 16, However this didn't mean that Violence in Germany would end immediately as the country was heavily divided between different Militia Groups and organizations that often held vastly different ideological perspectives, this, combined with Military units that didn't recognize the surrender (mostly being diehard SS, SA, and Volkssturm units.) combined with the Mad dash by both Soviet and Allied Authorities to secure as much of the fallen Nazi empire as possible would mean that in practice organized fighting would continue on in Europe for weeks after the surrender of Germany.
While it should be noted that the Allied Imperialist powers would attempt to make inroads to occupying parts of Germany in the immediate aftermath of the surrender (with British and Free French troops entering the Saarland on November 22.) these attempts would largely fail due to the resistance of the local populous, along with allied forces being significantly over stretched due to the sudden collapse of German Resistance and lack of American support during the campaign on mainland Europe (Largely due to American focus on the Pacific Theatre largely leading to the European Campaign to be largely dictated by the British.) with allied forces eventually being forced to retreat from the Saarland on November 28 due to incoming Soviet forces into the region and resistance from German Socialist Militia Groups.
By November 30 the Nancy conference would largely settle Europe's new borders, Germany (or the German Democratic Republic as it was later be called) would lose East Prussia, which would be respectively split between both Lithuania and Poland (who were both now Socialist States in alignment with the USSR), along with both Pomerania and Silesia, however somewhat controversially (especially among the Imperial Powers of Britain, France, and America) Germany would be allowed to keep both Austria and the Sudetenland (albeit Trento would be gifted to Italy due to ethnic concerns.).
While the relatively light "punishing" of Germany by the Soviets was somewhat controversial even within the Supreme Soviet, this would later go on to be shown as a wise decision by Mikhael Tukhachevsky, as not only did it prevent Fascists and other reactionary forces from utilising discontent generated by harsher peace deal to overthrow the Socialist government of Germany, but it also helped to strengthen Germany as a whole, which would help to provide Europe with a powerful Socialist bastion, that would, in later years, help immeasurably with the socialist struggle in Europe.
While the Nancy conference would determine the fates of numerous states in Europe, the main effects of the conference were the confirmation of the establishment of Socialist workers governments throughout most of Central, and Eastern Europe, as well as within the Balkans and Scandinavia (with a few notable exceptions such as Greece and Turkey.) Along with all of this the Nancy conference would also effectively confirm the re-establishment of France, Italy, and Belgium and the Netherlands as Capitalist nation states.
—
November 30, 1943 - April 12, 1944.
—
While the War in Europe had effectively ended, this wasn't true in East Asia.
By November 30 American forces had made steady headway into the Japanese controlled Pacific islands, However fierce Japanese resistance had considerably slowed the Americans "Island Hopping" campaign, with American forces having just secured Guam and the Mariana Islands by the end of November.
However with the Securing of Guam and the Mariana Islands came a number of opportunities to attack the strategically important Islands of Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and Palau, which America's Puppet President, Alf Landon, would advocate to be done "Immediately and quickly." largely due to the American Bourgeoisie class fearing that, if Japan wasn't knocked out quickly then the Soviets could potentially invade Japan's imperial dominions and further undermine the capitalists class's grip over the world.
And Hence on December 20, the "Christmas offensive" would begin with American forces launching simultaneous landings on Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and Palau.
While American forces significantly outnumbered and outgunned the Japanese Army and Navy by this point in the war, that didn't necessarily mean that the Japanese were going to go down without a fight.
American forces would take significant casualties throughout the "Christmas offensive", with American ground troops commonly running into booby-traps, IJA ambushes, and all manner of obstacles that significantly impeded their advance as well as inflicted heavy casualties on American forces.
Navally the situation wasn't much better for the American's as while by late 1943 the IJN had been reduced to a shadow of its former self, that didn't necessarily mean that the IJN wasn't going to go down fighting, with some of Japan's last naval elements being deployed to Iwo Jima and Okinawa in a desperate attempt to force out American Naval assets from these areas.
While Japanese resistance would be fierce, the Americans would slowly but surely advance, with one month after the Beginning of the Christmas offensive the Island of Palau falling definitively under American control, along with both Okinawa and Iwo Jima around late March 1944.
With the fall of the last Japanese Bastions on Iwo Jima and Okinawa Alf Landon would declare the "Christmas offensive" a success, however, instead of pushing into the Japanese home Islands (something that many American Military commanders would advocate for.) Alf Landon instead would order for the American Military to prepare for offensive operations towards the Philippines and South East Asia as a whole. (to the chagrin of the American military and the applause of the American Bourgeoisie of course.)
While the American's prepared to land in the Philippines, the Red Army would begin to muster its forces on the Soviet – Manchurian border, with by April 5 more than 350 thousand having been assembled on the USSR's far eastern border with Japan and its Puppet states.
—
April 20 - May 30, 1944.
—
Around 0450 Hours on April the 20, the Red army would storm across the Manchurian border, managing to successfully capture several border posts and villages from the woefully unprepared Kwantung army (the Japanese Army group responsible for the defence of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.)
After more than seven days of fighting the Red Army would manage to advance deep into Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, with Belan, Qiqlhar, and Mudanjiang falling only after a week of fighting.
The Japanese, knowing that trying to defend Manchuria would only end in failure, and concerned about the possibility of an American invasion of the home islands, would order for the withdrawal of all IJA units from Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and Northern China by April 31, with the Kwantung army being ordered to delay the Soviet advance into Manchuria for as long as possible while IJA units in Northern China and Inner Mongolia evacuated to Korea.
While a sensible military strategy, the sheer speed and strength of the Red Army, combined with the fact that the Kwantung army was mostly made up of conscripts with heavily outdated weaponry and equipment made such a plan impossible to carry out.
By May 3 and after a week of fighting the Red Army would manage to Capture the city of Harbin, soon afterwards the morale of the Kwantung Army would Practically collapse with many of the Kwantung Army's soldiers (most of whom where Manchuria locals who held little in the way of loyalty to there Japanese masters.) would begin to defect en mass leading to Japan's control over Manchuria and Inner Mongolia to collapse by May 8.
While the Japanese Army on mainland China continued to disintegrate, the situation was equally grim for the Japanese in the other Theatres, as by May 10 American Forces would capture Manilla, managing to quickly seize control of the city from Japanese forces, over the next week the Americans would move quickly to rest control of the Northern Philippines from the Japanese control, with by May 20 most of the Luzon Islands would fall under the control of the American Military, effectively shattering Japanese Resistance in the Philippines and allowing for the American's to effectively cleanse organized Japanese Resistance from the Philippines by late July.
While all of this was going on, the Red Army was busy cleaning up IJA pockets within Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, along with handing over civilian functions of its occupied territories in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia to the Communist Party of China, as well as distributing captured Japanese Munitions and equipment to the armed wing of the CPC, the PLA (or People's Liberation Army.)
However by May 28 it had become clear to both the Soviets and the American's that the Japanese weren't going to surrender without a fight, with the Japanese government largely declaring that it would "Never surrender" against European Imperialism, and with the Japanese Emperor calling on all Japanese citizens to take up arms against the western demons and to help the IJA in "anyway possible".
With it becoming obvious that the only way to force the surrender of Japan would be to land in the home islands themselves, the Americans would begin to brace themselves for a bloody campaign to force the capitulation of Japan (with Alf Landon also secretly ordering for the diversion of considerable resources to the "Manhattan project" around the same time) however the American's misfortune also proved to be a notable opportunity for the Soviets.
While both the USSR and the United States had agreed to split Korea into two states of their own respective Ideologies a few months prior to the Soviet's invasion of Manchuria, the fact that the American Military had to dedicate large amounts of resources to the Invasion of Japan meant it was unlikely that the Americans could do anything if the Soviets chose to March into Korea, and hence, while the Americans prepared there forces for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, the Soviet's also prepared there's for the Invasion of Korea.
—
June 4 - August 20, 1944.
—
From June 4 to June 20, The American Air force would begin "Operation Satan", the Operation itself being a massive bombing campaign with its main goal being to soften up Japanese defences on Kyushu and Shikoku in preparation for the eventual Naval landings on the two Islands.
The Operation itself would meet with Partial success, with most of the Japanese Coastal fortifications largely being utterly destroyed by the American's bombers, along with critical logistical hubs, bridges, and other forms of infrastructure that would impede a Japanese response to the landings.
However the bombing campaign would also have a number of undesirable consequences for the Americans that American troops would discover soon after the beginning of "Operation Downfall" on June 22.
The Americans Initial Landings at the first beachheads would be met with little resistance (aside from Japanese Militia and Army forces trying to take pop shots at the landing Americans), however as American Forces tried to advance further inland and to the strategically important cities of Kagoshima and Kochi they would be met with fierce and fanatical resistance from Japanese Military and Militia elements, who, utilising the heavily urbanised and now ruined terrain of Kagoshima and Kochi would manage to inflict significant casualties on American forces, as well as significantly slow down the American advance with both Kagoshima and Kochi turned into bloodbaths for both sides as the Japanese and Americans butchered each other.
While facing nigh on fanatical resistance from the Japanese, the Americans would eventually manage to take both Kagoshima and Kochi after weeks of bloody fighting on July 10.
However the situation barely improved for American forces on Japan, with both Kochi's and Kagoshima's harbours being rendered nigh on useless thanks to damage from American Bombing and Japanese sabotage, The American Forces around both of the Initial beachheads would be forced to rely on floating harbours for re-supply and reinforcement, something that would significantly bottleneck American Logistics on the Japanese home Islands until the Restoration of the Kochi and Kagoshima harbours could be completed.
Before the American's could even begin to dig in and secure the surrounding areas of Kochi and Kagoshima however, the IJA, in an effort to "Drive the Americans into the sea" would launch a massive counter offensive named "Operation Bun'ei".
The Initial stages of the offensive would turn out quite successful for the Japanese, with frontline American positions largely being overrun by waves of IJA and Japanese Militia charges utilising relatively basic equipment (this was especially true in the case of the Militia units, with many utilising old muskets and farming implements as makeshift weapons.)
However Japanese casualties would begin to mount up considerably as American air power and Naval support would inflict heavy losses on advancing Japanese forces, this combined with the deployment of American armoured forces to the Japanese mainland would eventually lead to the offensive to stall out by July 15.
While the Japanese home islands descended into chaos, the Red Army prepared to launch its offensive into Japanese occupied Korea.
While the Japanese Government had reinforced Korea's Northern border after the fall of Manchuria (largely by utilising the forces pulled out of Northern China, Inner Mongolia, and Manchuria.) The American Invasion of the Japanese Home Islands had led to the Japanese Government to re-allocate many of its forces from Korea to Japan itself in order to fight the Americans.
This would, conveniently for the Soviets, leave Korea relatively lightly defended, and hence on July 20, the Red Army would launch "operation Sunset."
The Depleted Japanese Garrison of Korea wasn't able to do much to halt the Soviet advance, or even slow it down, with Soviet forces entering Pyongyang on July 26, and only six days later the Red Army would reach Seoul, leading to the effective disintegration of Japanese control over Korea.
While the Red Army secured the liberation of the Workers of Korea, the Americans continued to drudge through Japan with American Forces securing most of Southern Kyushu and Shikoku Islands by the End of July 1944.
Meanwhile the American's successfully test the first Nuclear bomb in the deserts of New Mexico on August 10, 1944, an invention that would soon change the course of history.
—
September 3, 1944.
—
The Empire of Japan and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics officially sign the Treaty of Hokkaido, leading to the USSR to withdraw from the war against Japan in exchange for Japanese withdrawal from all of its colonial territories, along with the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands being given over to Soviet authorities.
Soon Afterwards the USSR would announce the creation of the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea." as well as fully handing over both Manchuria and Inner Mongolia to the Communist Party of China (which had at this point had effectively taken over all of Northern China and had massively increased in strength and popularity largely thanks to the KMT's utter disregard of civilian casualties during the Sino-Japanese war, as well as from the seizing of substantial amounts of Military Hardware left over from the retreat of the Japanese from China.)
—
October 8 - 15, 1944.
—
While the USSR consolidated the liberation of the workers of Korea (as well as providing the CPC with a significant leg up against their KMT rivals for when the Chinese Civil War Resumed.) The Americans began their preparations for an operation that would finally force Japan to surrender.
On October 9, 0900 hours, two American B-29 bombers would take off from the American Northwest Field on Guam.
After an hour of flight towards the Japanese Mainland both bombers would separate to engage their respective targets of Hiroshima and Nagoya respectively.
By 1015 hours Japanese Air Defence forces would spot the two bombers, however due to the severely depleted state of Japanese Air Defence Capabilities (which by late 1944 had been practically reduced to nothing) largely prevented Japanese Air Defence forces from actively engaging the lone B-29 bombers (though it should be noted that even if they did have the capabilities, it is likely that they wouldn't off due to the fact that the IJA officers would of reckon that the B-29s were out scouting and not preparing to launch a bombing run.)
Around 1030 hours the B-29 bombers assigned to drop the fission based nuclear warhead named "Fat man" on Nagoya would arrive at its destination, with the Bomber releasing its payload before turning around and making its way back to Guam.
Similarly the B-29 Dispatched to Hiroshima would also drop its payload on Hiroshima at around 1045 hours.
The carnage of the atomic detonations would immediately kill tens of thousands of civilians, with hundreds of thousands more succumbing to radiation poisoning over the next few months and many, many more souls being permanently scarred by chronic, radiation afflicted illness for the rest of their lives.
For the Japanese Government, and people, the dropping of the Nuclear bombs on Nagoya and Hiroshima would finally break what many perceived as an infinite will to fight, with the Japanese Government unconditionally surrendering to the allied powers on October 12, officially ending the 2nd World War.
—
1945 - 1955
—
While the Imperial Capitalist West had managed to survive its apocalyptic confrontation with its late stage capitalist counterparts in the Axis, it was obvious to many Geo-political observers of all ideological stripes that there were only really two definitive winners of the 2nd world war, and those being America and the USSR.
With their old economic rivals crippled, the United States would manage to establish itself and the supreme Capitalist power on Earth, however such a victory also had its consequences.
One consequence was the significant slowdown of economic growth within the American economy, with the end of the war also came an end to wartime manufacturing and rationing conditions, this in turn would severely affect the main driver of this economic growth, the Military Industrial complex.
While the American economy wouldn't enter into a recession (as many Military factories were simply converted back to Civilian functions, which thanks to the end of rationing, as well as an established Job market would lead to a massive increase in consumer consumption.) The rapid (at least in comparison to the 30s) growth of the economy would end, and this, combined with the exorbitant amount of debt the American Government found itself, would largely prevent the American Government from investing into public work projects or social programs that could have helped the American citizenry or Economy.
Geo-politically America wasn't in the best position as well, in Europe, the Soviets had largely managed to Liberate most of Central, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia, with only the Capitalist holdout state of France, Britain, Italy, and Belgium and the Netherlands posing any form of resistance to a full scale liberation of Europe from the hands of Capitalism and American Imperialism (it should also be noted that while Capitalist rule was restored in Greece in 1945, this would not last for long as by 1949 Greek communists, with Soviet Support, would manage to overthrow the Capitalist Regime in Greece.) While in Asia and Africa mounting resistance to Colonial rule was beginning to spill over, with the British being forced to withdraw from India in 1946, and with most European colonial presence within Asia largely disintegrating by 1955.
While not a completely bad thing for the American Capitalist class. (as it allowed for American Capitalists to access markets that competing British and French Capitalists previously held a monopoly over.) It also meant that socialist thought was allowed to spread like wildfire across much of the global south, with socialist movements and revolutions springing up in countries such as Vietnam, India, Laos, and many many more countries besides.
In an effort to rebuild its allies in Europe, the US Government would in 1945 introduce the Marshall plan, a plan that largely involved trying to rebuild and modernise the capitalist European states economies, as well as turning the capitalist countries in Europe into effective bastions against communist influence from the USSR and its aligned countries.
by the 1950's the Marshall plan would prove to be only partially successful, thanks to restricted budgetary concerns, concessions made to the American Capitalist Class by the European Governments along with Domestic pressure the Marshall plan would only manage to Partially complete its objectives, this in turn would leave Western Europe significantly behind economically in comparison to the many states within the Soviet's sphere of influence, who, thanks to the USSR's "European Industrial and Economic Recovery Plan" or EIERP for short, had managed to recover at a significantly faster pace in comparison to Capitalist European states of Britain and France.
In comparison to its main rival, the USSR was in a much better (albeit not perfect) position in comparison to the USA.
In stark contrast to the Precarious Geo-political situation of the United States, the USSR found itself in a fairly comfortable position, with the USSR having most of its borders covered by allied socialist states by 1948.
This comfortable position would only continue to become even more cushy by the beginning of the 1950's after the CPC managed to effectively win the Chinese Civil War (although the KMT would continue to hold out on Taiwan and Heinan, with these holdouts eventually being cleared out by the People's Republic of China in 2004.) However that didn't mean the USSR could rest on its Laurels, Europe still needed to be Rebuilt after all, and the United States and the rest of the Capitalist world still posed an existential threat to the Union and to every other Socialist state in existence.
And Hence on April 14, 1946, Mikhail Tukhachevsky would approve for the implementation of the "European Industrial and Economic Recovery Plan" or EIERP for short, the plan, while in some ways similar to the US own Marshall plan, differed in many different respects.
For one the plan was purely economical in nature and largely avoided the mentioning of any form of political policies for the most part, and was for the most part dedicated to reviving the economies of European countries within the Soviet Sphere of influence.
Another Interesting policy implemented by Tukhachevsky was the idea of "Economic Self Organization", with the rough concept being that, instead of all of the European Socialist States adopting the same direct Economic model of the USSR, that it would be more efficient for these states to adjust and choose their own Economic model that fitted their material needs and conditions (of course, overall the Economic Models of these states would still to maintain there socialist nature.)
While Europe continued to rebuild and the peoples of the colonies of the European Empires raged against their, now heavily weakened, colonial oppressors, the Political situation within the USSR would begin to heat up again, as both the Zhadanovites and Tuckhachevites came to blows over the future direction of the USSR.
While both the Tuckhachevites and the Zhadanovites generally had the same end goals (e.g. global socialist revolution) the ways that both sides thought that end goal could be achieved had drifted steadily ever since the Hiroshima and Nagoya bombings.
While by 1948 the Tuckhachevites still largely believed that ultimate victory over the capitalist powers could be achieved through both direct and indirect Military force, the Zhadanovites in the mean hand had become even more thoroughly convinced that military confrontation would only end in failure and likely total destruction for the USSR (and, after 1945, the world potentially).
This increasing level of polarisation would lead to a renewed wave of infighting within the party by 1948, with political infighting reaching its peak by 1950 just before the death of Tukhachevsky in April 1, 1951.
The Death of Tukhachevsky would be the final nail in the coffin for the Tuckhachevites, who would soon afterwards be splintered by infighting between its members, allowing for Zhdanov to cleanly win the power struggle by the end of May 1951.
The Beginning of the "Zhdanov Era" would see a lot of immediate changes within the USSR, the first one of those being the cutting of Military Spending as well as the end of conscription within the USSR, with Zhdanov and his "Ultra Visionary Socialists." (or Technocratic Socialists, as many of Zhdanov detractors would call the faction within the Politburo.) largely viewing the enormous size of the Red Army as more of a detriment to the USSR's economic and societal development, with its "Protective qualities" largely being cancelled out thanks to the rapid development of nuclear weapons (which in the eyes of many of the Ultravisonary Socialists, would soon make a direct invasion of the USSR practically suicidal for the United States or any other of the USSR's enemies.)
While many of the Red Army's officers and generals would rage against the "Budgetary Re-allocation" that Zhdanov had implemented, for the most part these complaints wouldn't turn into much aside from ramblings at local party meetings, with the more "Radical" of the Tuckhachevites more concerned with infighting with other Tuckhachevites than actually trying to organize a coup against Zhdanov (albeit that isn't to say there weren't attempts that never actually proceeded due to being stopped by the NKVD, and later on the KGB past 1953.) and with the more moderate Tuckhachevites being eventually quelled after Zhdanov's large scale increase in nuclear research and production spending in 1952.
With Much of the USSR's state budget freed up from the Military, Zhdanov and his Ultravisonary Socialists would begin to enact their plans for the USSR.
On May 15th, 1952, Zhdanov would announce the "Seven Points" program, at a general meeting of the CPSU.
The Seven Points Program would, for the most part, entail.
The Reformation of the USSR's educational system to be more of a specialised system that would produce intellectual thinkers, instead of a generalised system intended to produce factory workers by 1965.
The large scale allocation of funding towards the construction and modernization of Technical Colleges, Universities, and other education institutions by 1965.
The Reformation of the Gosplan and Market systems to prioritise a more balanced and equal level of economic development by 1960.
The Reformation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to be more open, transparent, and accepting of new members by 1956.
The Reformation of the Workers and Peasants Red Army from a quantitative force to a qualitative force by 1959.
The completion of the transition to a highly efficient, automated, fully planned economic system by 1965.
The Establishment of the Soviet Union as a fully developed, rich, and prosperous, equal, and fair country through any means by 1970.
While the "Seven Points Program" would take decades to fully implement, and would, at the time, be faced with a fair bit of controversy within the CPSU for being too "Idealistic" would prove to be immeasurably successful by the 1970s.
However even by 1955, Zhdanov's policies had begun to have notably positive effects within the Soviet Union, with the USSR seeing its intellectual capacity begin to grow at a steady rate, with the USSR eventually managing to surpass the United States by number of high impact research studies and publications by 1961. (albeit, while Zhdanov's large scale investments into improving education certainly helped, it should also be noted that the number of Americans entering into higher education had significantly declined by the 1960's largely due to it being too expensive for most American Families to afford.) other improvements could also be noted immediately from 1952 to 1955, with light industrial goods production managing to increase rapidly during this time period, and while this would slightly come at a cost to heavy industrial production, would ultimately prove to be more than worth it, with the large scale increase in consumer goods supply within the USSR largely allowing it to avoid one of the pitfalls that would eventually engulf America in the 1980s.
While the Seven Points were probably some of Zhdanov's most important reforms to the USSR, that doesn't mean they were the only ones.
For an example, in 1954 Zhdanov and the CPSU would announce the creation of GEDO, or the Global Economic Development Organization, would prove immeasurably useful in the fight against capitalism, with GEDO largely managing to heavily undermine Capitalist organizations such as the IMF (The International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank by the 1970s (largely through low interest loans and other policies that made the organization far more appealing to all third world states regardless of ideology than GEDO's predatory capitalist equivalents.) and hence heavily degrade American influence abroad.
Another Example would be the establishment of the Warsaw Pact (or officially the Pact of Friendship) in 1953, which, while largely being established by the USSR to act as an effective counter to America's own NATO (or North Atlantic Treaty Organization) which was largely made up of the few remaining capitalist states in Europe along with the United States itself.
—
1955 - 1965.
—
The Cold war would, around this point, officially begin in Earnest with the start of the Indo-China war.
While both the USSR and the United States had fought a number of proxy wars before the Indo-China war (such as in Greece, China, Malaya, and so on.) The Indo-China war would represent a massive escalation in the cold war unseen in previous conflicts.
While going into a full detailing of every single proxy war within the cold war would be as unnecessary as it far too extensive for such a generalised timeline of history (unlike major conflicts such as the Russian Civil War, the 2nd World War, or the Inter solar war for instance.) It should be noted that by 1955 the American government had become quite concerned with the rapid spread of socialism within Asia as a whole but especially within south-east Asia, which many American Geo-political analysts considered a crucial junction against the spread of socialism, this, combined with the third wave of red scare paranoia sweeping through America, would eventually see American troops being directly deployed to hold up the French colonial regime in Indo-China.
This in turn would cause the many Anti-colonial movements in Indo-China, such as the Viet Minh and many others to join forces in an alliance called "The Movement of Peoples Liberation". Which would in turn further escalate the conflict with MPL forces launching a massive co-ordinated uprising across most of Indo-China, that would effectively last for years eventually resulting in a Indo-Chinese victory in 1976 after American withdrawal from Indo-China.
While the world continued to burn and catch alight, the situation within the United States was remarkably different than that of the USSR.
By 1955 Anti-communist hysteria had reached a new fever pitch within America, with supposed "communists" (who, for the most part, were Trade Unionists, Social Democrats, and civil rights advocates.) were targeted in organized witch hunts led by the Capitalist figurehead Joseph McCarthy.
This in turn allowed for more conservative political figures (such as George Wallace.) to garner more political traction, however, even with the Red Scare paranoia sweeping America, this would not be enough for the conservative Republicans to maintain hold of power, as Dwight D Eisenhower would lose the 1961 elections to John F Kennedy largely due to sluggish economic performance (with the American economy maintaining sluggish growth numbers throughout the 50s as well as overseeing an increasing level of poverty within many American states.) As well as due to alienation of Minority voting bases the Republicans relied on for support.
The Kennedy Administration, while only lasting two years, would also be highly impactful on the American Psyche, with Kennedy soon after entering office signing the Civil Rights act into law, addressing discrimination that had plagued the United States since its founding (albeit it should be noted that the Civil Rights act was really only a light concession to America's minorities, containing a lot of legal loopholes that allowed its effects to be mostly nullified in the more racist Southern States.)
The Kennedy Administration would also prove vital in avoiding nuclear Armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the United States agreeing to withdraw nuclear weapons from Turkey (which had largely been placed there in the first place to deter Soviet Invasion.) In exchange for the Soviets doing the same in Cuba, which, it should be noted, such an agreement would likely have been impossible with any other person at the helm of the capitalist American Empire.
However the potential for America to sustain its empire for a century more through reform would be snatched away as, secretly, the CIA in conjunction with the majority of the Capitalist Class as well as the more reactionary members of the American Government would arrange for Kennedy's Assassination, which would go off without a hitch on November 22, 1963.
Soon afterwards both the American Capitalist Class, as well as the CIA, would label the Assassination as a "KGB Plot", this, combined with America's Capitalist class support for reactionary and populist figures would lead to Barry Goldwater's support to plummet as well as LBJ to be taken off the ballot and replaced by George Wallace, who, due to populist and racist rhetoric, would manage to secure the 1964 Presidential election.
While George Wallace is more infamous for his later policies during the late 60's and early 70's, it should not be underestimated the impact that Wallace's early actions would have on America in the coming decades.
One of George Wallace's more notable early actions was the repealing of the civil rights act, and action that would send shock waves through the United States, leading to large scale protests to break out in the United States as a result, which George Wallace would use to justify further crackdowns on the Civil Rights movement as well as other progressive movements within the United States would only lead to more and more progressives to become disillusioned with the American political system, and ironically would contribute to the steady resurgence of the American Labour Movement and other socialist groups throughout the 60s and 70s.
While America continued its slow descent into oblivion the USSR continued to progress at breakneck speeds, with the USSR managing to overtake America Economically by PPP around 1964 as well as completing most of the initial set of objectives laid out in the "7 Point Program".
In 1959 the USSR would launch the "OGAS Program", with its primary aim being to completely computerize the USSR's economic planning system, which, when completed, would guarantee the creation of a highly efficient, effective, and sustainable economic planning system.
Seeing the potential of OGAS, Zhdanov would funnel substantial resources into the program as well as into computer sciences and other technological sectors, this, combined with the already substantial Academic base of the USSR, would help to greatly accelerate the rate of Technological discovery within the USSR, and as a whole the world, with the USSR by the 1980s becoming the main Technological power on Earth.
However the USSR wasn't the only socialist state developing at breakneck speeds.
Both the People's Republic of China and the German Democratic Republic would also see there Economies grow at a considerable pace, both due to GEDO and COMECON investment, as well as due to adapted socialist economic models of China and Germany, hence allowing for these countries to address their material conditions without falling into revisionism or stagnancy.
While the United States would attempt to undermine the USSR's relationships with other socialist states (most notably China for instance.) these attempts would largely fail thanks to proactive diplomacy on the hand of the USSR, as well as due to the Economic connectedness of many socialist countries within Eurasia at the time (Both the People's Republic of China and the USSR had strong trade and economic relations at the time, and hence when tensions flared over border disputes both sides found it much more preferable to negotiate for their demands then try to seize them by force.)
This wasn't exactly a luxury the capitalist west had by any imagination, as while the United States was by far the most dominant out of any of the Capitalist powers on Earth, that didn't mean that the British or French Capitalist classes were going to let their Empires go without a fight.
One attempt by the two fading Empires to turn there luck around would be in Egypt in 1956, where, in an attempt to prevent the Egyptian government from nationalizing the Suez Canal, Britain, France, and Israel (one of the last colonial settler states established, that would last up until the end of the Yom Kippur War.) would invade Egypt, only being forced to withdraw after considerable international backlash and diplomatic pressure from both the United States and the USSR would force the three countries to withdraw from the Suez Canal.
The Cold War also would extend into that of the scientific field as well as the Geo-political and economic, with the USSR launching the Sputnik Probe in late 1955 and effectively starting what would be known as the "Space Race".
While the United States would try to keep with the Soviets in regards to space exploration, the highly tightened federal budget, combined with a general lack of interest in space exploration from the US government (with a few notable expectations such as John. F Kennedy for instance.) would lead to the United States to fall behind in the space race, with the Soviets largely winning after their initial landing on the Moon in 1964.
—
1965 - 1970
—
The Late 60s would see the Cold war begin to escalate considerably as the United States, in an effort to contain the spread of communism, would dedicate considerable amounts of resources to fighting proxy wars across the world.
Meanwhile the USSR, while sending resources to revolutionary movements around the world, would, from the 1950s onwards, largely focus on supporting already established socialist states rather than trying to prop up revolutionary movements in Capitalist and Reactionary states.
This would lead to many revolutionary movements to be forced to survive on their own (and hence alienate many post 1950's socialist countries from the USSR, with a few notable expectations such as Cuba.) but this policy would also allow for already existing socialists states to solidify and hence prevent reactionary takeovers of socialist states (albeit at the cost of slowing down the spread of socialist ideology globally.)
By 1966 the lack of investment into civilian infrastructure as well as other societal needs would begin to have detrimental effects to the American Economy.
This was only further exacerbated by George Wallace's "Bootstrap" economic policies, which in layman's terms was largely intended to revitalise the American economy through large scale business tax cuts, establishment of "Craft Schools", as well as Road and Rail building programs utilising prison labour (which thanks to George Wallace's draconian racial policies, had been heavily expanded throughout the 60s.)
While George Wallace's economic policies would have some success in the Deep South and Southwestern United States (conveniently where most of George Wallace's voter base was located.) for most of America the policies would either have negligible, or even negative effects, with the Business tax cuts doing little to discourage American industrial conglomerates from migrating to developing states such as Brazil and India, which posses significantly less labour costs, not to mention the large scale business tax cuts would also significantly strain the budget even more, forcing the US government to cut back even further on civil spending.
Wallace's economic failures however wouldn't be enough to stop him from winning the 1968 presidential elections however, as Wallace would still manage to secure the support of his voting base, as well as the Bourgeois class, which by the late 60s had managed basically take control of the American government, with George Wallace practically acting as a figurehead by 1969.
However by the end of the 60s resistance to Bourgeoisie rule would begin to mount within the Imperial Core nation states, with labour movements previously destroyed by capitalist sabotage and infiltration reforming and re-organizing themselves, as well as starting to grow in popularity due to general disillusionment with the capitalist status quo in those states (largely caused by deteriorating material conditions, racial and gender discrimination, as well as opposition to the wars and bloodshed of the Bourgeoisie class.)
While the United States continued to rot and decay, the USSR would continue its trajectory of rapid development both economic, socially, and now politically, with Zhdanov in a speech to the Supreme Soviet on June 8 1967, would officially declare that the "October Constitution" was no longer needed to ensure the survival of the Soviet Union, and that the old 1917 Constitution would be re-establish along with the Congress of Soviets.
This would have notable impacts across the Soviet Union, for one it would give greater rights and representation to the individual Republics, and hence at least address the rising issues of separatism within the Republics (something that would be later fully addressed with Zhdanov's, and later Kardashev, Proletkult, or Proletarian Culture program in the 70s.) as well as massively decreasing the power of the Politburo of the CPSU.
The late 60s would also see the rise of Nikolai Kardashev to prominence within the party, with Kardashev officially becoming the Commissar of Economic, Social, and Industrial Development in 1968, effectively cementing Kardashev as Zhdanov's successor and effectively usurping the previous holder of the office, Vladimir Chelomey.
By the end of the 60s the USSR was on the precipice of entering into the next stage of socialist construction, having effectively eradicate poverty as well as developing a highly efficient, innovative, Economic and societal ecosystem, as well as being well on track to propel Humanity's technological enlightenment decades ahead in all fields of study (though especially in computer electronics.)
However that didn't mean the USSR could rest on its laurels, a fact that Zhdanov recognized, and hence on October 3 1969, Zhdanov would announce to the Congress of Soviets the "Second Seven points program", which would largely entail.
The need to forge a unified proletarian identity, that acknowledges and respects the differences between the cultures, religions, and ethnicities of the USSR.
The need for the USSR to continue to develop and foster its technological and intellectual capabilities.
The need for the USSR to ensure equal development of all of its regions, as well as ensure the prosperity of the Union is enjoyed by all, regardless of ethnicity, or location.
The need for the Soviet Union to allow for the free expression of socialist thought, and to break down barriers that separate the Communist party from the proletariat of the USSR.
The need for the USSR to support the economic and societal development of all the peoples of Earth.
The need for the USSR to oppose any and all capitalist or Bourgeoisie imperialism globally.
The need for the USSR to continue to develop its economic planning system, as well as further integrate new technologies into the Economic system of the USSR.
While not necessarily having any fixed "dates" in comparison to the last "7 point program", Zhdanov's new seven point policy would lead to large scale changes in the USSR, and eventually open up the way for the USSR's transition to a "Multi-party Socialist Democracy" during the Early stages of the 21st century, as well as the lessening of separatist tensions within the Soviet Union.
—
1970 - 1975
—
From 1970 to 1973 not much would occur globally other than the United States continuing to deteriorate, as well as the USSR beginning to implement its "Proletarian Culture" program along with many other policy initiatives pushed forward by Zhdanov in the "2nd Seven Points Program."
However in the Middle East, tensions would erupt between Israel and the Arab Republics of Egypt and Syria, leading to the start of the Yom Kippur war in 1973.
Both Baathist Syria and Nasserist Egypt (with Nasser managing to hold onto power after the end of the Arab-Israeli war largely due to extensive amounts of Soviet support as well as due to being able to foil the Israelis attempt at crippling Egypt in 1967.) would manage to make considerable headway into Israeli controlled Negev during the first initial days of the conflict, this, combined with the Israeli military being effectively crippled by the combined Egyptian – Syrian strikes on major military and industrial facilities within Israel would cause the Israeli government to panic and request support from the United States.
George Wallace, who, after managing to barely win the 1972 presidential elections, and eager to secure his position from his political rivals, would jump at the chance of bolstering his PR image with the American public (though mostly his voting base) and would begin to send extensive amounts of material aid to the Israelis.
While this would allow for the Israelis to recover and eventually halt the Syrian – Egyptian advance in December 1973, it would also have dire consequences for the United States and its capitalist allies, as the Organization of oil producing Arab countries, in solidarity with occupied Palestine and Egypt and Syria, would announce unilateral and complete Embargoes on the export of oil to any and all country that support Israel on Christmas day, 1973.
This was quickly followed by GEDO, who, on January 5, 1974, would announce similar "solidarity embargoes" on all oil exports to nations that supported Israel.
This would have apocalyptic consequences for many capitalist nation states, with the United States itself experiencing a massive jump in the price of oil from 3 dollars a barrel Pre Yom Kippur war, to more than 10 dollars a barrel.
By 1975 the US economy was practically on the brink of collapse, with much of America's industrial production largely disappearing as factories either closed down or moved abroad to capitalist countries unaffected by the sanctions (such as India and Brazil).
Meanwhile the US government (as well as its geo-political allies such as Britain and France.) would scramble to address the oil crisis, with the US government effectively introducing oil rationing by mid 1974, as well as desperately trying to expand domestic oil production through government subsidies to oil companies.
While some of these attempts would succeed at least in stabilising the Economies of the affected nations, by 1975 the damage had well and truly been done, with the American economy practically gutted and with poverty rising at a rapid rate would lead to a massive increase in discontent with the Capitalist establishment with workers movements garnering even more support by the mid 70s.
This was further exemplified in America, as on June 8, 1975, numerous revolutionary organizations within the United States would merge to form the "American People's Liberation Front".
This was further copied within many western capitalist states, with the establishment of the New British Republican Army in 1974 as well as the intensification of militant actions by Italian and French socialists.
While the western capitalist world reeled from the oil crisis the Israelis continued to lose ground, as the temporary halting of the Egyptian - Syrian advance would resume in May 1974.
In a desperate attempt to avoid being completely destroyed by the Egyptians and Syrians, the Israeli government would authorize the use of Nuclear weapons on both Syria and Egypt.
While Israeli nuclear capabilities had been severely disrupted after Egypt seized control of the Negev desert and the numerous missile silos located there, the Israeli defence force still possessed enough nuclear weapons to cause severe damage to both Egypt and Syria, and hence on August 8 1974, nuclear weapons would be deployed again for a 2nd time in history, with the IDF launching several nuclear carrying bombers and three missiles towards both Egypt and Syria.
While most of the IDF bombs would not reach their targets (largely due to extensive Syrian and Egyptian air defence networks) three bombs and a missile would manage to get through, striking the cities of Daraa, Cario, Lakatia, and Ar-Raqqa.
The damage done by the strikes, while extensive, was nothing compared to the damage done to Israel's reputation abroad.
A couple of weeks after the strikes the United States and its western capitalist allies, faced with mounting internal and external opposition to their support of the Israeli government, would be forced to withdraw their support, effectively dooming Israel.
By October large scale uprisings had broken out within both the West bank and the Gaza strip, with IDF forces severely overstretched there would be little that the Israeli government could do, and by early November, forward elements of the Abu Ali Mustafa brigades would enter Tel-Aviv, effectively ending the existence of Israel as a state.
Soon after the capture of Tel-Aviv, Hafez al Assad would declare victory over Israel in Damascus, effectively ending the Yom Kippur war.
—
1976 — 1981
—
By 1976 the situation for the United States and the other western capitalist states had deteriorated significantly, and it would be no surprise that in the 1976 elections George Wallace would lose to Jimmy Carter in a landslide, leading to a capitalist reformist being in the White house for the first time.
One of Jimmy Carter's first actions as president would be to try and reinstate the civil rights act in order to try and cool down racial tensions.
While a notably admirable attempt, this would largely fail as due to Wallace's 12 years of rule, much of the Supreme Court had become heavily stacked with Wallace's supporters, and hence the "New Civil Rights act" would become heavily bogged down and then eventually watered down by electoral politics, and by the time it was actually implemented in 1980, the act had become so heavily watered down that it was seen as more of an insult by most of America's minority communities, and only really helped to contribute to the growth of left wing dissident movements, like the APLF, which would become increasingly more active throughout the late 70s.
Another objective that Jimmy Carter tried to achieve was the ending of Oil sanctions on the United states, and the west as a whole.
This would be met with much more success in comparison to Jimmy Carter's other policies, with GEDO agreeing to end oil sanctions against the United states in 1977, and with OAPEC agreeing to end sanctions a year after.
While this would help to at least stabilise the US economy (at least until the Iranian Revolution of 1979 would practically destroy any progress the US may have made in economic revitalisation), it wouldn't come without cost, with GEDO largely forcing the US government to withdraw its forces from military bases outside of North America, or Western Europe, effectively crippling the US ability to project power as well as America's ability to extract wealth from the third world, and hence hurting the wealth of the capitalist class, as well as the American Economy, even more.
This would be followed up by severe budget cuts to the US military in 1979, which was largely a part of Jimmy Carter's plan to reallocate funds in order to invest into the development of the US economy, while in the long term this may have actually worked in at least partially revitalising, in the short term, this would further exacerbate economic issues, as the cut to military spending would lead to one of the last avenues for the American working class to advance their lot in life, and hence would effectively guarantee Jimmy Carter's defeat against Ronald Regan in the 1981 elections.
While the Capitalist world continued to breathe its last breaths, the USSR went through a period of transition, as Zhdanov, due to failing health, would eventually retire in 1977, with Nikolai Kardashev taking his place as leader of the Soviet Union soon after.
Kardashev's policies would remain largely similar to that of Zhdanov, albeit would take on a much more "Pragmatic" flare in comparison to Kardashev's predecessor.
One of Kardashev's more notable policy decisions would be the establishment of the "International Scientific Development Group." or ISDG for short in 1979, ISDG's aims were mostly that of global scientific collaboration in an effort to accelerate humanity's understanding of the universe, as well as to accelerate the development of technologies that would further enlighten the human species.
Over time the ISDG would help to significantly accelerate the Technological advancement of the USSR, and Humanity, as a whole, but for now the organization would be in its developmental infancy up until the mid 80s, where it would begin to make remarkable strides in accomplishing its objectives.
One of the more notable technological advancements made during the 70s would be the creation of COCNET, largely extrapolated to that of the "Collective Information Network" COCNET's development had initially begun in the early 70s largely piggy backing of the development of the OGAS, COCNET was initially envisioned as a way for anyone to be able to access any sort of information with only a click of a button, however by the early 80s COCNET had begun to be used for more than just an Encyclopedia, with numerous websites popping up offering anything from Entertainment, to subjects more closer to COCNET's original objective.
The rise of COCNET would be largely headed up within the USSR, with by 1980, half of the population of the USSR having access to COCNET (something that would only continue to grow throughout the decade) however other countries would also begin to utilise COCNET more extensively, mostly at the beginning, already well developed socialist states such as Germany, however eventually expanding outwards and to even Capitalist states such as the United States.
While both the United states and the USSR continued to battle it out globally, other more notable events would occur throughout the Late 70s and Early 80s.
In 1978, the United Arab Republic would be reformed after a referendum in June 1978 would see the Syrian Arab Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Provisional Palestinian Republic merge together, with Hafez al Assad acting as the first President of the United Arab Republic.
In response, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, and the numerous other Monarchist gulf states would form the "Arabian Gulf Treaty Organization" in order to contain the newly formed UAR.
The AGTO would soon after its formation, also be joined by Iraq, who, while nominally Ba'athist, was of a more Nationalist and right wing persuasion in comparison to the nominally Ba'athist government of the UAR.
This would largely mark the beginning of the Middle Eastern cold war, as the UAR, the AGTO, and, after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran, would begin to battle each other out in a series of proxy conflicts, which would eventually culminate in the 1989 "Middle Eastern War." which would eventually end in a total UAR - Iranian victory in 1992.
—
1981 — 1984.
—
In 1982, Ronald Reagan, after managing to win the 1981 elections against Jimmy Carter, would immediately begin the process of repealing many of Jimmy Carter's former policies (with a few notable exceptions such as the civil rights act.)
By 1983 the US army would see its budget restored to pre Carter levels, with Ronald Reagan largely justifying the budgetary increase as a "measure to combat communism", ironically enough Reagan's policies would do more to help American communist movements to grow, as much of the funding that had originally been dedicated towards the revitalisation of the American economy was now diverted back towards the military, which in turn would lead to unemployment to spike as well as economic activity (something that had only barely started to recover after the oil crisis) to collapse.
With the American Economy on the precipice of disaster, the Reagan Administration would begin to draw up plans to invade neighbouring countries in order to exploit said countries resources and economic value in an effort to stabilise the American Economy, however, before these plans could be put into action disaster would strike America as the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant would meltdown, causing an untold amount of damage to the local surrounding area, as well as to Reagan's reputation, eventually leading Reagan to lose the upcoming election to Michael Harrington's "Democratic Socialists of America" in 1984.
While America continued to implode the rest of the world moved forward, in the USSR, Kardashev would begin the process of "political socialist democratization" in 1982, with the Cadre structure largely being divorced from the CPSU and instead being largely placed in the hands of the Government, as well as the allowance for the formation of opposition parties within the Congress of Soviets, so long as said opposition parties were of socialist in nature and did not oppose the rule of the Proletariat.
In order to oversee this (as well as prevent potential capitalist infiltration of these new parties.) Kardashev would order for the reformation of the NKVD (which largely at this point had been converted into a tool for maintain internal discipline within the CPSU as well a rooting out corrupt officials and political dissidents, with its more "Geo-political" components, being made into their own separate organization, the KGB) into the Federal Security Bureau (or the FSB for short.) with the FSB largely maintaining the similar objectives of the NKVD, albeit also being tasked with ensuring that reactionaries and other undesirables weren't allowed to infiltrate the Soviet political system by creating their own parties or trying to subvert those created by actual socialists.
These political reforms would be met with considerable controversy within the Congress of Soviets, with many old time members of the CPSU decrying the reforms as "Idealistic revisionism", while many of the more younger members of the Congress of Soviets would rightly point out that factionalism had always been present within the CPSU, and it would not change much if these factions were allowed to form their own parties.
While Kardashev's reforms would initially convince many within the Soviet Union that he was a reformist, later actions would later on contradict this, such as Kardashev upholding of the "Democratic Centralist Political System", which was seen by many reformist in the 1980s as Authoritarian, as well as the many other policies that prevented local elections from descending into Populism, and firmly kept them as meritocratic as possible. (largely through prohibiting parties from sponsoring or running candidates, and other such laws that prevented parties from recruiting Cadre's who hadn't made any form of notable political office.) This largely allowed for the USSR to avoid issues that often presented themselves in other Multi Party Democracies (Bourgeois or otherwise), such as the United States, and even later on the European Peoples Federation, while still maintaining and enhancing the Proletariats control over the country, this system, due to its reliability, and utility, would eventually become adopted by the Human Systems Alliance during the founding of the Human Colonial Congress in 2074.
—
1984 — 1989.
—
After winning the 1984 Presidential elections, Michael Harrington and the DSA would attempt to stabilize the American Economy and country as a whole.
At this point it should be noted, that contradictory to the DSA's name, the party was, for the most part, made up of capitalist reformists than actual socialists, this, combined with significant opposition from the American Far-Right, as well as the meddling of the Bourgeoisie class (who actively worked to prop up the Reformist faction of the DSA), would significantly impede the DSA's ability to actually implement any form of meaningful reforms to the United States.
However, despite said opposition the DSA would push on, implementing a series of Economic and societal reforms under the "Social Construction Program" which, while faced with significant opposition, would partially succeed in stabilising the American economy and slightly decreasing racial tensions by 1986.
These policies however would face enormous pushback from the Reactionary segments of America, with many white supremacists and reactionary groups within the deep south uniting to form the "White Liberation Front" which would soon begin to terrorise minority communities in the deep south, as well as organize attacks on Federal and State government troops within their respective regions (something that, should be noted, the APLF had been doing for awhile).
All while America continued to descend into chaos, its influence and grip on Europe began to wain, as on July, 1986, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) would, in collaboration with the Italian Proletariat and the German Democratic Republic, would succeed in overthrowing the Bourgeoisie government in an event called the "Velvet Revolution".
Meanwhile in France and Britain, the situation was equally grim, with the New British Republican Army, supported extensively by both the Irish Republican Army, and the Soviet Union as well as the GDR, would grow massively throughout the late 80s, eventually allowing for the NBRA to launch a general uprising against the British Bourgeoisie establishment in 1992, which, after a three year long civil war, would result in Republican victory, and the establishment of the British Socialist Republic in 1995.
While in France a wide left wing coalition called the "Popular Front" would succeed in winning the 1989 French elections, leading to the downfall of the old Bourgeoise government and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of France.
Tensions within America would finally come to a head in June 1988, as elements of the US Military, in an effort to prevent what they say as an incoming communist takeover, would coup the US government.
The coup itself would go off flawlessly, with the vast majority of congress as well as most of the DSA's leaders largely being captured by the plotters, however the coup would also ignite the powder keg that the United States had become in the ensuing decades.
Soon after the coup however the situation within America would deteriorate massively, with many American labour organizations announcing general strikes against the Military Junta, which was soon after followed by newly formed "Red Guard" milita's seizing a number of American cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
In New England the remnants of the American Government would declare, what would soon be called the "Washington Junta" as illegitimate, and from New York City would call for all those loyal to the Federal government to "Resistance any and all traitorous factions."
While in the deep south, Governors loyal to George Wallace would soon declare the resurrection of the Confederate States of America, largely declaring both the APLF, the Federal Government, and the Washington Junta to be illegitimate.
Within a month the battle lines had been effectively drawn out for what would become known as the "2nd American Civil War." with the APLA (the successor organization to the APLF as well as the Workers militia's that formed at the start of the war.) largely consolidating its control over the rust belt along with a number of neighbouring states, while the "Washington Junta" fought desperately to maintain control over the surrounding Washington Area as well as its connection to its forces within the Great Plains and the Midwest, all the while the newly reformed CSA would establish its control over the deep south as well as over Florida and Louisiana.
While the "Big four" factions would battle each other for the soul of America, that didn't necessarily mean that there were other factions fighting smaller struggles, Texas would be one such example, with the state seceding from the Union soon after the beginning of the civil war, Taking Oklahoma with it as well, while on the west coast numerous socialist groups, who, thanks to geography were largely separated from the wider APLA command, would establish the United Socialist Republics of the Pacific, which, while remaining allied to the APLA, would largely remain and independent entity until the North American Unification referendum in 2028.
The 2nd American Civil war would ultimately drag on for several, but would inevitably end in a APLA victory due to the disunity of the other factions, as well as the APLA's ability to simply outproduce and out gun the other factions such as the CSA for instance, combined with extensive amounts of foreign support.
The beginning of the 2nd American Civil war would also effectively mark the end of the cold war, as while many of Earth's nations states where still Capitalistic, the fall of America effectively made it so that it was only a matter of time until the last remaining capitalist holdouts would be crushed, which, while taking until 2033 to fully accomplish, would eventually be completed, marking Socialisms final victory over the capitalist world order, with all nation states on Earth largely adopting some variation of a Socialist system by 2035.
—
1990 — 2035
—
With the fall of the United States, the Soviet Union would seize the opportunity to turn its focus from cleaning out the last vestiges of Capitalism (which, with the last major bastion of capitalist resistance destroyed, was more of an inevitability at this point.) to scientific development, more specifically space exploration.
While the USSR had continued to delve deep into space exploration throughout the cold war, these expeditions had, besides the moon landings, largely involved flying unmanned probes to nearby planets such as Mars and Venus (although the United States, in an effort to one up the Soviets, would launch a manned expedition to Mars in the years leading up to the 2nd American civil war, an expedition that, while failing spectacularly, would technically mark humanities discovery of Alien life, as the 4 remaining surviving astronauts of the expedition would take shelter within the Prothean ruins on mars, before eventually dying of starvation a few months later, with all of this only being uncovered after a surveying team accidentally discovered in the ruins in 2082) However in a speech to the UN in 1998, Kardeshev would announce to the world the USSR's intentions to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2008.
While the USSR largely turned its focus towards space exploration and technological discovery, Geo-political events continued to unfurl around Earth, with the European Economic Union eventually being establish by Germany in 2004, and which would grow rapidly throughout the decade to eventually include most Western European countries such as Britain and Iberia as a few examples, as well as the Scandinavian Peoples Union in 2019, with the European Economic Union Eventually Federalising and uniting to form the European Peoples Federation in 2025.
While the victory of Socialism against Capitalism had certainly helped the world immeasurably, it wouldn't immediately stop wars or political rivalries from developing between different states, while for the most part these rivals would more so take on the form of economic and scientific competition rather than direct wars (albeit wars would still occur through the Early and Mid 21st century, just to a far lesser extent in comparison to the previous century.)
While humanity would continue to develop and advance at a rapid pace throughout the early 2000s, this would, eventually come at a cost, as a Soviet Geologist, Dimitry Dakanov, would in 2006 publish a scientific essay called "The Warming Earth, Humanities Impact on Earth's Climate."
This essay, while conspicuously titled, would send shock-waves throughout the scientific community, and would eventually prompt Earth's most powerful nation states to respond in the First Paris Climate Conference of 2008, which would largely lead to the founding of the Organization for the Preservation of the Earth (or OPOE for short) as well as significant commitments by already developed states to invest significant resources into lowering their respective climate footprints by a considerable amount.
While the goals set within the boundaries of the First Paris Climate Conference were more than achievable for already developed states (such as the USSR, and China.) These goals were incredibly unrealistic for countries that had only just begun to develop (such as India, and most Global South nation states.) with the OPOE by 2015 often enforcing serious trade sanctions on states who didn't cooperate with the OPOE or rejected the goals of the First Paris Climate Conference, which in turn would lead to a vicious cycle of significantly delaying the development of underdeveloped states, or, in some cases, outright halting there development totally in some cases.
Either way while the relatively unified response (if not forced) to climate change would help Earth avoid the worst effects of climate change, it would also contribute to significant levels of alienation between the more developed states of Earth, and the less developed states of Earth (which, in turn, would partially contribute to the start of the Inter solar war in 2060.)
However despite all of the strife on Earth humanity would continue its Journey to the stars, with the USSR establishing Earth's first outpost on Luna on July 7, 2007, which would, over the following 5 years, be followed by a large wave of settlements and outposts being established by numerous other countries on Luna (though Primarily the USSR.)
By 2015 Luna's population would grow to around 5,000, with a number of colonies acting as major "cities" (albeit at this point the largest Luna "city" Sevastopol Point, only had a population of roughly 800.) However Luna's population would soon boom after the invention of fission based engines made it possible for humanity to establish feasible colonies on Mars (which had previously taken years to return and go to.)
However fission engines did have one, very noticeable problem, and that was the fact that they were incredibly dirty (as in, they often left a lot of radiation behind when used.) and hence this fact would largely forced many of Earth's nation states to massively invest into Luna in order to build up its ship making capabilities.
By 2018 the first Fission Based Ships would be launched from the Luna shipyards, and only two years later the first outposts would be constructed on Mars.
By 2030 the "First Earth Exodus" would begin as the rapid population boom that followed the end of the cold war, combined with the relatively deprived states of many of Earth's nations would lead to a large scale exodus from Earth, as hundreds of millions would begin to leave Earth to venture to the newly established Solar colonies of Mars, Luna, Ganymede, Callisto, and Many others, helping to massively expand out the populations of Earth colonies.
By 2032, many of Earth's nation states, viewing the need to more effectively manage to rapidly growing colonies, would establish the United Nations Inter solar Space Administration (or UNISA for short) which, while given nominal powers to facilitate the administration of the colonies (as the relatively slow speed of fission based ships made it largely impossible for Earth's nations states to directly manage the affairs of their colonies.) was largely relegated to a subordinate force in comparison to its later successors, however this did not mean it was spineless, as the United Nations Inter solar Peacekeeping Force (or UNIPF for short) would be directly charged with maintain order on the colonies as well as defending the space surrounding Earth (although it should be noted that most of the UNIPF's ships largely utilised Chemical rockets, with most Naval actions outside of direct Earth orbit being largely carried out by Earth's respective Space Capable fleets, which had begun to develop by the mid 2030s.)
—
2035 — 2060.
—
Humanities rapid technological advancement would continue with the development of the first fully functional Fusion reactor occurring in 2037, and with Fusion engines being developed five years after that.
The first Artificial Intelligences would also be developed in the 2040s by Soviet Scientists on Io, while proving to be too unstable to be practically used, this hurdle wouldn't halt further research into AI, with the first Artificial Personal Intelligences (e.g. an AI that is imprinted and trained with a Human and later on API personality in order to let the API further understand the human condition more thoroughly as well as experience human emotions.) being developed in 2058.
While humanity would continue to develop technologically, it would also equally continue to expand into the Solar system, with the first outposts on Pluto and the outer edges of the Solar system being established during the mid 2040s.
By the 2050's the population of both Luna and Mars had exploded, with Tens of millions living on Luna, and close to a 100 million living on Mars respectively.
This would in turn begin to spread discontent among many of Earth's colonies, with by the 2050's a distinctive "Colonial" identity would begin to emerge largely thanks to carrying over tensions from the Colonists themselves who were mostly made up of immigrants from underdeveloped countries, and hence largely despised there masters on Earth who were largely from already developed countries, as well as the large scale exploitation of resources from the colonies, which Earth's nation states urgently needed to fuel there Industries back on Earth, and, in some cases, feed there people.
As tensions continued to boil within the Colonies, Earth's nations states would begin the undertaking to construct Armstrong station in 2051.
Armstrong station, as it would eventually be christened after its completion in 2059, was largely intended to be a massive research station located at the edges of the Sol system, its main purpose largely being to conduct research considered too dangerous to be conduct close to Earth itself, and hence in order to resolve said "safety issue" the construction of Armstrong station would being.
The fact that the station was finished before the beginning of the Inter-solar war is considered something of a miracle by modern day historians, and even at the time the speed of Armstrong stations construction was nothing to scoff at, with Pluto largely being turned practically overnight into a large scale manufacturing hub in order to accommodate for the needs of the project, something that in and off itself was considered a major undertaking, however, after more than eight years the project would eventually be completed with the station starting operations just a month before the beginning of the Inter-solar war.
—
2060.
—
While Earth's Nations continued to enjoy the bounty of the Sol system, tensions would finally reach a boiling point by 2060 with the numerous factions that made up the "Free Colonial Alliance" launching several major hit and run attacks on military installations around Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
This would soon be followed with a co-ordinated uprising on Mars, which would quickly spread to other surrounding colonies such as Ganymede, and Luna.
While in some cases forces loyal to Earth would win and effectively put down their respective revolts, within less than a month Mars, and many other colonies, would fall to rebel forces.
Due to the heavily fragmented nature of Earth's fleets, the initial response to these attacks would take a lot of time to organize, which the Free Colonial Alliance would exploit to their fullest effect, with by May the FCA would manage to secure control over the Callisto and Pluto Shipyards, along with many of of the Military ships in dock there at the time.
This "kick up the ass" would motivate many of Earth's nations to band together to form the "Coalition for the Preservation of Peace in the Solar System" or simply, the Coalition, as it would later be known as.
The first year of the war would largely see the Coalition suffer defeat after defeat, however, the situation would begin to turn around by the end of the year, as Coalition forces would manage to secure considerable portions of the Asteroid Belt (albeit the Mars – Mid System Corridor would remain open until 2063) and hence would manage to succeed in require the urgently needed Materials to feed Earths and Luna's shipyards.
—
2061.
—
After their success in securing the Asteroid Belt, the Coalition would launch their invasion of Mars in Early 2061.
While initially the invasion of Mars would go relatively smoothly for Coalition forces, the Coalition would soon encounter significant opposition while trying to enter Mars underground cities, with the Coalition largely being forced to fight gruelling and costly battles in maze of tunnels, side passages, and alleyways, that made up many of Mars underground cities.
In space the situation was equally grim for the Coalition, as while the Coalition Navy quite easily outnumbered the Colonials own fleet, that would only matter if the Colonials were caught out in open void warfare, which would rarely occur throughout the Inter solar war, with instead the Colonials preferring to utilise "Hit and Run" tactics against the Coalition, which would significantly infuriate Coalition Naval Commanders, who would often unsuccessfully attempt to pin down the more faster moving Coalition Naval groups.
by the end of 2061 both sides had made little in the way of progress to achieving their goals, as while the Colonials largely manage to demoralise the Coalitions fleet, the Coalition would also manage to recapture both Ganymede and Callisto within the same year (albeit the Coalition would be forced to maintain a considerably sized Garrison on both colonies due to the locals support for the Colonials, which in turn would impede any further attempts to reclaim Colonies such as Pluto until the end of the war.)
—
2062 — 2064.
—
The Inter-solar war would enter into a relative "Stalemate" for the next two years of war, with both sides being largely unable to defeat the other and with both sides slowly growing exhausted by the war.
In Mid 2064, the Coalition, in an attempt to end the stalemate, would launch a massive attack on the vitally important colony of Europa, largely forcing the Colonials to directly engage the Coalition in open battle.
The battle itself, instead of being the decisive victory the Coalition had hoped for, would quickly turn into a slog as Colonial determination, ingenuity, and coordination, would manage to significantly blunt the Coalitions material and technological edge, this, combined with the Coalitions relative disorganization would result in the Coalition taking extreme casualties before emerging victorious in the "Battle of Europa".
While the Coalitions victory on Europa would effectively allow it to evict the last significant bastion of Colonial resistance within the wider Jupiter Area or Operations, this victory would, later on, prove to be too little to late, as Earth, which had been suffering from mass resource shortages since the beginning of the war, as well as large amounts of war exhaustion thanks to the meat grinder that was the Mars and Jupitoran campaigns, would lead to many of Earth's leaders and citizens beginning to view a peace settlement with the Colonials as the only way to end the war.
—
2065
—
In a desperate gamble to end the war on equal terms, the Colonials would dispatch several "Rock Haulers" to both Earth and Luna in a desperate attempt to force Earth to the peace table through a sudden strike on major Industrial and Economic centres on Luna (with the Haulers sent to Earth being more of a distraction for the UNIPF ships stationed in orbit of Earth.)
This plan would succeed massively, with the diversionary rocks being targeted towards Earth being more than enough of a distraction for the Colonials to hit the real target, the Luna shipyards.
In only the space of a few hours, the Coalition's shipbuilding capabilities would be crippled as the Colonials rocks would hit their intended targets, effectively crippling Earth's shipbuilding capabilities and forcing Earth to sue for peace with the colonials.
A few months after the "Luna Raid" as it would eventually be called, the Treaty of Olympus Mons would be signed by dignitaries of both the Coalition for the Preservation of Peace in the Solar System and the Free Colonial Alliance, effectively ending the Inter-solar war.
The Treaty of Olympus Mons is a fairly extensive and complicated treaty, but some of the main points were.
The Establishment of the Human Solar Alliance, as an entity that shall represent and be supported by both the Colonies and Nations of Earth.
The Establishment of the Alliance Navy as the only legally operated Armed Naval force of the Nations of Earth, and the Colonies.
The Establishment of a common and equal trade between both the Colonies and the Nations of Earth.
The right for both the Nations of Earth and the Colonies to act in accordance with their own wills as long as they do not conflict with the Laws of the Human Solar Alliance.
The Immediate folding of both Colonial and Coalition into the newly established Alliance Navy.
The formation and election of a government for the Human Solar Alliance in at least 9 years of the signing of the treaty.
While comparatively bare bones in comparison to the Later "Alliance Constitution" signed in 2074, the Treaty of Olympus Mons would prove to be a vital step in uniting humanity and preventing a potential return to the Capitalist Barbarism of the 20th century.
—
2065 — 2070.
—
While the Solar System butchered itself, the scientists of Armstrong station would largely continue on with their work without much interest to the rest of the goings on in the Solar System.
Armstrong stations inhabitants were largely able to do this thanks to the fact that the station had been designed to be highly self sufficient, its distance from any major colony aside from Pluto had forced the designers of the station to make it capable of being as self sufficient as humanly possible, and hence the station had been equipped with large scale hydroponics and water reclamation and production facilities, along with even limited manufacturing, refining, and mining capabilities.
This had largely allowed the Scientists of Armstrong station to ignore the goings on in the rest of the Solar system and allowed them to focus on the projects that they were working on.
While Armstrong station would birth many scientific inventions or innovations, one of its most infamous inventions would be the Vortex drive of the scientists Fukeyori and Gablin.
While Armstrong station was home to numerous "FTL research Projects" Fukeyori's and Gablin's would eventually turn out to be relatively successful, with the two eventually managing to launch a probe to the Alpha Centauri system (roughly 1.6 light years away.) and have it return to Armstrong station on July 2068.
The News of the development of the first successful FTL drive would spread rapidly throughout the Sol system, with it only taking a month for the first "Vortex Capable" ships to roll off the manufacturing lines of the Luna Shipyards (despite said Shipyards still being heavily damaged from the Inter-solar war.)
The Human Solar Alliance would quickly assemble together several expeditions to survey the surrounding systems in a 10 LY radius from Earth, while most of the systems would largely contain dead worlds, four "Garden Worlds" would be discovered by the Surveyors, with the most inhabitable (and what we would call today a Class one Garden World) being quickly settled and named "Nova Terra" by its inhabitants.
—
2070 — 2080.
—
Throughout the Next Decade, Humanity would begin to rapidly establish outposts and colonies in the systems surrounding the Sol system, with by 2080, more than 12 colonies and 15 outposts being effectively established.
The resources from the newly established colonies and outposts would help the Sol system immeasurably, largely allowing for most of the damage caused by the Inter-solar war to be repaired, as well as allowing for Earth's more, underdeveloped regions and states to finally catch up with their more developed neighbours by the end of the 2070s.
While all of this was ongoing the Human Solar Alliance in 2074 would announce the creation of the Alliance Colonial Congress, along with the establishment of the Alliance Charter, for the most part, the Alliance Colonial Congress functioned in a similar manner to the Congress of Soviets of the USSR, with the Alliance Colonial Congress operating under a "Democratic Centralist" model of governance.
The Alliance would also change its name to fit its new reality, with the Human Solar Alliance being Renamed to the Human Systems Alliance around the same time of the creation of the Alliance Colonial Congress.
By 2076 however issues would again begin to emerge as API's (who, while being incredibly small in number) would increasingly begin to demand political representation and the guarantees of the same rights that Humans enjoyed.
This would eventually force the Alliance Colonial Congress to Act, with a relatively close vote passing the "Non-organic and organic sentients rights act." into law, and effectively giving Artificial Personal Intelligences the same rights that any other Human enjoys.
Around the Mid 2070s the Alliance Navy would undergo a series of reforms largely aimed at eliminating redundant ship designs (which was especially common among the former coalition ships) as well as standardizing military doctrine as well or ship design.
This would eventually lead to the creation of the "Hackerone Naval Warfare Doctrine." which largely empathised the use of Carriers and Missile Cruisers and Dreadnoughts to allow for ships to engage the enemy without having to have direct line of sight, as well as allowing for ships to engage an enemy without having to turn the entire ship to face the targeted ship (something that many of the Coalitions "Spinal Mounted Gun" ships had struggled with during the Inter-solar war.)
During the 2070s, the large scale expansion of Humanity into the surrounding star systems would also show the limitations of the Vortex Drive, with many ships being destroyed by spatial Anomalies due to risky jumps into uncharted space, as well as inexperienced crews accidentally causing there drives to discharge into their ships (albeit, as what would soon be discovered after 2085, Vortex drives could go for much longer before needing to discharge in comparison to the Mass Effect Drives utilised by the Protheans.) and hence, in order to rectify many of these Issues, the Alliance would divert considerable funding into the creation of QEC probes capable of mapping deep space far more efficiently than manned spaceships were capable of.
—
2080 — 2090.
—
The "Second Earth Exodus" would begin in earnest, as while material conditions where beginning to improve on the home world, severe overpopulation, combined with political and even cultural incentives would lead to many of Earth's nation states, as well as the Alliance, to encourage, and ultimately start the Second exodus, allowing for some of the first colonies founded, Such as Vikunta, New Jamestown, Nova Terra, and Voronezh to develop into Humanities first major extra solar industrial hubs, with each of the four worlds being called home to by Hundreds of Millions of souls by 2090.
This would also be further encouraged by the Alliance directing considerable resources to population growth programs aimed at increasing population growth in the Colonies through generous housing allocations as well as other benefits.
However said massive increase in manpower would ultimately prove to be unnecessary, as throughout the 2080's factories and other industrial facilities would become increasingly more and more automated to the point that most industrial facilities would become able to operate purely independently of organic operation, and while it would take until the 2120's until Humanity fully became an Advanced Socialist Society (As while the Colonies and the more developed states on Earth where already like this, this wasn't exactly true for the less developed nations on Earth, who would only reach this state by the 2120's) while some Philosophers had suggested that the need for organize Government was beginning to come to an end, there were others who disagreed, stating that it had been the organization provided by the proletarian governments that had allowed for humanity to progress this far, and that it was equally possible that if the proletarian Government was abolished, then all of the progress made up until this point would be undone, and hence, it would be better to maintain a system of governance in order to prevent the collapse of the proletarian state and system.
While Philosophers debated the need for the existence of a Government at all, noteworthy discoveries would be made which would decidedly shift that discussion very heavily in favour of those who wanted to preserve the existence of government, as the Prothean Ruins on Mars would be discovered by a team of surveyors in the Promethei valley on January 3rd, 2085.
In a coordinated effort led by Alliance scientists, Researchers would manage to uncover many Artifacts left behind by the Protheans, and while the Alliance Scientists would manage to learn much about the "Protheans" as the race of aliens that had built the ruins called themselves, there was still decades, if not centuries worth of knowledge still buried within the Archives.
The Political and societal ramifications for the discovery of the Prothean ruins would be immense, for one humanities technological capabilities would be catapulted far ahead of what was previously thought possible (though, albeit some technology, such as Mass Effect Drives, would largely prove to be somewhat disappointing with Vortex Drives proving themselves to be overall, with a few exceptions, generally better than Mass Effect Drives, with really the only a few elements of Mass Effect Drive technology being implanted into Vortex Drives to allow for Vortex capable ships to access the Mass Relays.) for two would help to contribute to significant political changes on Earth and in the Colonies, with the "Pan-Terranist Movement" beginning to gain serious traction within the Alliance Political scene, advocating for "Human Unification" and "Global Proletarian Solidarity", as well as many Representatives and Deputies from both Earth and the Colonies calling for the Alliance to significantly expand its military in preparation for a potential war with the Protheans (should the Protheans ever turn out to still be alive and hostile.)
Eventually however the political situation on Earth would cool down, with the Alliance announcing that it would begin a large scale military build up campaign, with the ultimate goal of expanding the Alliance Navy to around 3000 warships by 2095, as well as the establishment and training of professional "Planetary Defence Forces" that would be responsible for the defence of the alliances colonies and outposts, and would fall outside the command of the Marine Corps (later on ground command)
In 2086 the first expedition, commanded by Jon Grisson, would enter through the Charon relay and would end up in what would later be called the Arcturus system.
A month after the discovery of the Arcturus system, the Human Colonial Congress would pass the "Extensive exploration act" which, in an effort to avoid detection by the Prothean Empire (assuming that they even exist) would require the alliance to thoroughly settle and explore a cluster till at least 12 colonies and 30 outposts had been established and reached a certain population and economic development threshold before another Mass Relay could be activated within said cluster.
—
2090 — present day
—
Throughout the next few decades the Alliance would continue to expand from one cluster to the next, with major worlds such as Elysium, Shanxi, Hades, Echeron and many others being colonised during this time period.
Humanities technological capabilities would expand rapidly during this time period, as API's would increasingly become more intelligent and common, with the Alliance eventually establishing the "Artificial Personal Intelligence Assessment Criteria and Ranking Structure" in order to more effectively catalog the different types of API, from the more common Gamma Class type, all the way up to the highly power Theta Class.
The third wave of military reforms would also be carried out during this time period, with the Alliance army and PDF forces being largely folded into the wider banner of the Alliance navy, with different commands largely being established for each branch such as ground command, space command, aerospace command, logistics command, defence command, and special operations command. Which would help immensely with the organisation of the armed forces into a more efficient and effective fighting force.
The size of the Alliance navy would also increase considerably during this time period, rising from 3000 warships by the 2090s to around 9000 by 2033.
...
As an end note to this diatribe of an author who really has spent most of his life researching obscure topics that most of the public could care little about, all I can say is that while we can't know what tomorrow will bring, if it'll be sorrow or laughter, or pain or joy, all we can do as comrades and fellow sentient beings is stand united for tomorrow, and against anything that may come our way, for what I have learnt in my explorations into the deep dark recesses of the human species, is that it is better to stand united than alone.
Signing off.
The Archivist.
...
Mass relay activity reported.
When was the relay activated?
Query accepted.
Responding…
Relay appears to be activated approximately 15 minutes ago by what appears to be the unidentified ships situated nearby the mass relay.
Can the ships be identified?
Query accepted, wait…
Responding…
The ships do not appear to match any known modern or ancient designs, it is likely the ships originate from a previously unknown species.
How large is the fleet and what exactly weapons are they packing?
Query accepted.
Responding.
The flotilla of unknown alien ships appear to consist of five vessels, of which two of them are actively armed and likely constitute this race's equivalent to "frigates" while the remaining three ships are likely civilian in nature.
How long until reinforcements will arrive?
Query accepted.
Responding…
Judging by the confirmation for reinforcements was recorded and responded to roughly around five minutes ago, it is likely that Commodore Varkan's 16th flotilla will arrive within approximately 30 minutes, soon followed by the rest of Admiral Orvakas 15th Border security fleet soon afterwards.
Captain Torran's mandibles would click at the acknowledgment of the VI's rather matter of fact statement, while some would largely dismiss the TNS Jareens as a rusted old bucket of tan'gra crap, Torran actually preferred the old frigate over any of the fancy "Haptic real time feedback" bullshit that he had seen the more younger Turian recruits utilise during a visit to the Aepthus naval warfare Academy a few years back.
But Torran's attention would eventually be drawn back towards the alien ships orbiting around Relay 314, Torran felt a pang of guilt, knowing that the Aliens orbiting the Relay would soon be utterly destroyed for violating a law they had no idea even existed, but it wasn't his place to question orders, that chance was well and truly away from him after that shit show in the Traverse a few years back.
Torran would crack the muscles in his neck as he counted down the minutes till reinforcements would arrive, with the aliens practically having no chance of actually detecting his ship due to it's hiding location (a crater on an asteroid) all he really had to do was wait until Varkan and his flotilla would arrive, which according to the VI, was quite soon.
So, taking in a deep breath from his admittedly old bones, Captain Torran would take the opportunity to enjoy a small, if not restful map, before he would be required to attend to his duties in the near immediate future.
Oh boy that took fucking forever to right, though It was quite enjoyable at the end, especially writing the little short story setting up the events of the next chapter.
Now to clarify some points that some of you may ask, there are actually two major divergence points from our timeline, the first one being that Mikhail Tukhachevsky is never captured by the Germans in 1915, and hence is able to rise to a considerably higher rank in the Imperial Russian army, and in turn the Red Army Post Revolution, with the last of the divergence points being the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1918.
In any case, while I will do my best to ensure that there aren't too many issues, again I'm only one man and I am fairly sure I will fail to notice a few grammatical issues or so while proofreading so yeah.
The next four or five chapters of this fic will likely be set in the first contact war so yeah, I hope you enjoy this story and all of that, goodbye.
