History Strikes Back (TNO/TLM ISOT into OTL)

The coffee tasted bitter, an unpleasantness Elke tolerated as she tried to stay awake at her desk. Normally, Elke prefered her coffee milky and with a few sugars and honestly would normally go for tea, but this wasn't really for pleasure. The sting helped her stay awake: Elke told herself she had work to do but there was more to it than that.

She didn't trust herself to sleep.

Coming to Albania had brought back a lot of memories, from her first time getting engaging with politics among the Republic of Hamburg's Women's Interest Party and then from after Hamburg's fall when she was the main authority in the German speaking lands of the All Danish Social Republic, ghosts Elke had managed to put to rest after the Comintern conquered Denmark in favour of soft and gentle days doting on her wife and just enjoying the weeks as they passed by (the she wolf given a chance at rest). Elke never appreciated how good it was to let her guard down at last; not until sometime after the Comintern had crushed the Denmark that Elke, her "Women's Interest" faction of the local National Socialist Movement and her She Wolf militia all served and after all three promptly switched sides to the obviously winning team. Rest is so tempting, so seductive; if heaven truly exists, as far as Elke was concerned it was being able to rest and let those soft and gentle days drift by… But that's the thing isn't it? Soft and gentle days dull ones fangs, turn honed muscle into fat and killer instinct into domestication. Elke knew she couldn't afford that kind of complacency, that kind of weakness.

That kind of weakness got your son ripped from your fucking arms.

But how easy it was to forget, to be seduced into thinking it was safe. It wasn't quite the Comintern's fault, Elke blamed herself for getting complacent really. The Comintern had proven their way was the best first with their capacity for conquest and then for their ability to actually build when the capitalists and fascists were only able to loot; the International more a Father to the people than any Fuhrer (and well… We all know what "people" is in German don't we?).

But that strength is a two edged sword.

Yes, the Comintern was able to protect and nurture the volk people better than any other system; but that also meant the complacency set in, the illusion of safety, the idea that Elke the volk the people could just live comfortably and happily in the arms of their Father Comintern.

The Wamda put paid to such notions.

As strong as the Comintern was, acts of god were apparently stronger and Elke's the volk's people's foolishness was demonstrated. You mustn't let your guard done, you mustn't rest, mustn't ever cease eternal vigilance. The first time Elke did that, her little boy was taken to the gas chamber. The second time, Mia and indeed Elke's whole life was ripped away from her.

God Elke missed her. Elke missed all her old life, even the parts she never thought she would. God Elke even missed August and Oskar's third mother Anna, as much as Elke hated her, as much as the pair only smiled at each other because it was the only socially acceptable way to bare teeth. At least there was certainty in that hate, a familiar quality to that hate.

Yes… the Wamda had taught Elke that there was a certain quality to hate, something that could be measured like a fine and bitter wine. Are they someone you can measure yourself against? Do they make you strive to be better than them? Do your spats bring a savage glee? As much as it pained Elke to say anything good about that slavic freak, Anna provided all that and more; and Elke couldn't see herself meeting anyone with those qualities. Deep down, Elke always knew that Anna was a fierce fighter, tough enough to stomach hardship far greater than what even Elke has suffered and with strength Elke envied; had things been different, Anna would have made a brilliant member of Elke's old She Wolf militia (if only she had been born a real woman). Elke had enemies in this new world of course, but all of them were too pathetic to approach Anna's greatness.

No, this new world was a disappointment. Elke had briefly thought about defecting, either to this new Germany or to the US, but after a quick look at their politics thought better of it. Elke had seen the news on the mines in the Congo, the child slaves held at gun point to rip out the resources that kept the world going. The capitalist powers of this world built their order upon a pyramid of skulls; denouncing their old enemies as tyrants for working a few ten thousand dissidents to death and calling it a punishment whilst these capitalist powers were working entire societies to death and calling it liberty. And after all this, all these liberals… Actually thought they had morals. Actually believed there was something to be proud of in the world they had built. Genuinely didn't notice the blood on their hands.

God it made Elke want to puke.

It wasn't the violence or the death that got Elke's skin. Elke was familiar with that, had been in the business of dealing it out herself when she was in Denmark, picked up a taste for it even. It was the pathetically childish belief these scum had that they were above all it all, that they were somehow detached from the nightmares that kept their accounts and wallets bloated with the money that made their societies possible, that they had any justification for putting on airs of reasonableness and having grown beyond such politics. These pathetic children had been saved from the nightmare of Elke's world by Stalin's USSR. It took a mortal wound rescuing these effete liberals and degenerate conservatives, who gleefully declared their systems superior when USSR collapsed whilst being willfully ignorant of the fact that if a quarter of their population was killed or wounded their precious market societies wouldn't last a year.

Given all this, it was abundantly obvious to Elke that the UAR was going to win this Cold War. It was just a matter of influencing the end result of that. Of making sure that the political projects that emerged in the wake of the Comintern's victory had a certain respect for women's traditional spheres of power, of adding a certain focus on the volk people. Elke wasn't completely without sympathy for Anna's type of course, just as long as they accepted the guidance and authority of the true born women. A bit of Elke suspected that half of the benefit of communism was that made freaks like that useful for the volk people instead of a point of disorder within it; and if nothing else Elke's experience with Hamburg's Women's Interest Party and then in Denmark's National Socialist Movement Women's Interest Faction had taught her that men were much more compliant if they had a concubine to fuck, and what better concubine than one that couldn't complicate things by giving birth?

So yes, here Elke was in Albania, trying to stay sane. The Comintern knew her as a highly skilled apparatchik and militia leader who defected to them more as soon as their armies bulldozed through Denmark and brought her networks and contacts; with any evidence of her actions that the Comintern might have put her on trial for carefully disappeared. If they had known about that evidence, they'd have seen her as a chillingly effective fascist, but with it gone the Comintern just saw as a convert to their cause (which in fairness Elke did see herself as after a fashion) who helped greatly in getting a quick grip over Denmark and who did a bit of activism for lesbian rights after Denmark was properly brought into the fold. So when the displaced Albanian feminist groups in the UAR put out requests for volunteers to go over to this new Albania permanently to start network building, the various people in the Comintern who payed attention to the talents Elke displayed were only too pleased when she put herself forward. The European Women's Empowerment League Elke helped found was the centre of a spiders web of Women's Interest groups spreading across the Red Balkans: daycares and house wife unions; self defence militias and medical education crash courses; all funded with nice stacks of cash from Comintern Intelligence. Of course COIN just saw her Women's Interest groups as a way to bring nominally conservative demographics on board with the Comintern's political project and Elke was happy to let them think that.

She saw it as something more.

In her activism she saw the start of a new Europe: a union of volks peoples where the tools the UAR and Comintern perfected could be put to work in service of real Tradition and the sacredness of motherhood and womanhood unhindered by the straight jacket of capitalism; a world where the whores and freaks that capitalism alternated between profiting from and casually butchering could instead find a place serving Mothers and Motherhood, granted protection in the service of Tradition instead of eroding it away by the nature of their sad and tragic existence.

When engrossed in the fantasy, Elke sometimes even thought of writing her theory; though that'd have to wait until the UAR could have some of it's influence in the Comintern wrestled away. Maude tried her hand at it and to Elke's envy had developed a noticeable number of young enthusiasts. Maude was always embarrassed and bashful about the attention of the eager to please girls; always insisting that she just recorded the things other people were doing and accidentally created a catalogue of alternative family structures and anarcho-feminist praxis when all she wanted to do was learn.

What a fucking waste.

If Elke had that kind of attention she'd have enjoyed every second! The centre of a new Garden of Eden full of lush, succulent fruit to pluck, devour and ravish! So many young, nubile bodies for Elke to sink her hands and teeth into; so many voices screaming her name in ecstasy; prey only too eager for a predator. Elke had wondered before time spent with Mia enlightened her how men felt being in power when having sex, to be the conquerer of virgin territory, and after she tried it herself by fuck did she love every minute! Yes Elke could see how some may object to this attitude; but you need to have power to protect your own and the very nature of power creates those who are powerless, this sort of thing is just the way things are, and given how much the powerless here seemed to desire Elke's carnal conquest surely that wasn't as bad as people made it out to be? The thought brought back wistful memories to Elke of her days in Denmark, of conquering Mia, Adele, both at the same time, or one of the many young whores from the party brothels she ran (yes she rented them out to the men, but every single one of those whores knew they were owned by Elke).

Or course those wistful thoughts about good times gave way to sadder thoughts of Mia and Adele and the comfortable, homely life Elke had stolen away from her by the Wamda. It didn't have the same highs as her life in the All Danish Social Republic but… It had a gentleness to it: from spoiling rotten Mia's children who the communists rescued from Denmark's state creche system to reconnecting with Maude and her extended family; from visits from Adele who had put the skills Elke taught her as a She Wolf to work in the communist's IRB to just holding Mia's hand as they watched the sunset together. It wasn't perfect, Elke had wanted in on the romantic arrangement Maude had and Anna would never have allowed that, but… it was the kind of life Elke was happy with, after so much struggling and so many bitter and brutal choices it felt like a final reward…

All ripped away from Elke because she fucking weak.

Of this Elke was certain: she had lost her reward Adele Maude Anna Mia Leo everything because she was too weak to fight back. Oh intellectually a bit of Elke knew that there wasn't much she could have done to fight an act of god, but if she was truly strong she would have been able to convince Mia to come to visit the UAR with her, she'd have been able to truly thrive in the new world and she'd have stopped her little boy from being dragged to the gas chamber.

It's not fair

…

It's not fair
It's not fair
IT'S NOT FAIR
IT'S NOT FAIR

IT'S

NOT

FUCKING

FAIR

After all she'd been through, after all the blood she'd had to spill, after all things she'd done just to fucking survive, Elke knew she deserved better than this. Oh would Maude or someone have fucking moral objections to all Elke had done!? Sure they would! They got to escape Hamburg to live in fucking paradise! She killed as much as Elke did back in Hamburg, so many fucking traitors who threw their own to the fucking gas chamber that needed to be dealt with. The difference between the two is that Maude got to run off to the Comintern where she got to travel the world and write theory and never fucking kill again whereas Elke got stuck knee deep on the blood and muck in fucking Denmark. And when she survived all that, made sure Mia and Adele survived all that, and had finally gotten the happy ending she deserved it was ripped right from her and here Elke was right back in the blood and fucking muck again!

Still, there was always going to be someone in the blood and muck, and Elke knew how to survive here, so maybe it was better that it be her. There was just a matter of what she deserved. If she was going to go into that blood and muck, if she was going to make that sacrifice, she deserved a reward didn't she? Is that so wrong? She deserved the power shape the nations of this world didn't she!? If the Comintern was to be the volk's people's father, she deserved to be its mother didn't she!? It was the least she was owed after the world murdered her son And surely Elke deserved a more personal reward? Surely after all the Wamda fucked up her life surely Elke deserved compensation? A nice rotating kennel of eager, nubile young comfort girls, wouldn't that be nice? Elke had so many passions, so many hungers that yearned to be sated, and what better way to help her forget Mia to sate them than a host of tamed conquests to keep her bed warm?

Would the people from Elke's old life judge her for all this!? Yes but what the fuck did they know!? Anna chose the right side but it's not like she had a choice! The reds were the only ones who cared for freaks like her so she was never going to be tricked or unlucky like Elke was! Maude!? She lucked out with 2 surviving sons and a dainty communist whore to take her to red Germany and worship the ground she trod on at every step! None of them had ANY right to judge Elke! None of them! They hadn't had to sacrifice everything to protect those they cared about only for it all to be fucking stolen away! They didn't have to stain themselves like Elke had, didn't have to become the monster she knew she had to be. They got paradise where Elke just got hell, and Elke didn't even have those she damned herself to save to comfort her-

"Elke?"

Elke snapped back to reality, first seeing Lindita's concerned face and then realising she had a tear dripping down her face. Lindita was the first recruit of Elke's new She Wolf militia: with Elke having started a new one partially because she knew that power grows from the barrel of a gun and that she needed sufficient guns under her command to reliably engage with politics and partially because it was a good way to start up Elke's planned "revolving kennel" of young lovers. Lindita in particular had that look about her: just turned 18 and with that eagerness to please and shine in her eye whenever she talked to Elke. She needed a bit education yes, but Elke was certain she'd be knuckle deep in Lindita's cunt by the end of the month.

Caught off guard, a part of Elke wanted to lash out and insist she was fine, but she also prided herself on her self control. So instead Elke brushed away her tear, took a breath to compose herself, and said:

"I'm okay pet, I'm sorry for worrying you." Elke gave a gentle, reassuring smile. "I… I was just… remembering times gone by. They're… Not always pleasant, but I'm okay."

"Are you sure Elke?" Lindita had nodded at Elke's explanation, but her voice revealed she was skeptical about Elke's reassurances. "It's late, do you think it's time to get some sleep?"

"No, I…" Elke trailed off. She had a brief thought about trying to speed up her seduction of Lindita, a good fuck to get her mind off the past and burn her anxieties in the fires of base lust and animal instinct, but Elke needed control, dignity. The thought of Lindita sleeping with her out of pity was almost as bad as reminiscing on her past had turned out to be. "If I go to bed now I'll either not be able to sleep, or I'll have… Unpleasant sleep. I… I've had a lot of damage in my time Lindita, most red Germans have. I've got a good handle on it, but sometimes it pops up like this and I need something to focus on for a bit."

"With work Elke?" Lindita gave a little smirk. "It'll be there tomorrow and you need to destress. I know a Burger King that's open late and hasn't closed down yet; if you like…" Lindita became nervous, the maiden innocence and shyness coming to the forefront. "... We could grab a bite to eat and put on some reruns of… Whatever the TV has at this time?"

Lindita gave a nervous smile, reminding Elke of how Adele was once upon a time clearly acting on young affections that no good person would take advantage of.

But Elke was not a good person was she?

And though she didn't find trash food and trash TV particularly appealing, and though she was smart enough not to end this specific night in sex, Elke was only too eager to get a few more hooks in her new hound to use for when she did decide to take Lindita to bed.

"Very well Lindita," Elke gave a gentle chuckle. "You've convinced me. It might be the last Burger King in Albania the way things are going, so it might be a nice memory before it goes completely."

Lindita practically bounced with excitement as she nodded, talking in a burst of noise Elke couldn't keep about where the fast food place was. Elke meanwhile nodded along, her previous anxieties by her predatory focus and hunger for prey.

"Arguments to the effect that all violence, including revolutionary violence, is evil and that Communists therefore ought not to engage in "glorification" of armed struggle and the revolutionary army, amount to a philosophy worthy of Quakers and the old maids of the Salvation Army."—Leon Trotsky


The war in the Balkans would have a rather anticlimactic ending as the International red forces poured through the last Balkan state to claim the mantle of Yugoslavia.

For all that the Serbian government (threatened by its own rabid military officers) pledged to expel the red menace or at least ensure that its advance and occupation of Serbia were bloody pyrrhic affairs there was simply little that the Serbs could do on their own to halt the IRB's advance.

And Serbia was for all intents and purposes on its own for this conflict; even as aid began to flow from its neighbors and Russia it simply wasn't enough to bridge the chasm in training, equipment, and numbers that existed between the brigades and the Serbian Armed forces; whose grunts were beginning to buckle under the pressure of fighting a clearly losing battle.

Morale only worsened as the war went on and the IRB began an extensive air campaign that far outstripped its NATO predecessor years ago, an act that would have consequences later on but for now was serving to break back of the pro-war movement within Serbia.

The case for peace was further strengthened when it became clear that the socialist forces were rapidly approaching Belgrade after securing the south in record time, and the army's poor performance helped push enough of the armed forces leadership to consider talks if only to have a chance to rest and regroup for a counter-attack.

Unfortunately for them, the terms the Comintern offered were simply unacceptable.

The International's demanded reparations were costly and ruinous but achievable and expected, but the communists would also demand the formation of a DMZ that covered most of western and southwestern Serbia which would be jointly controlled by the government in Belgrade along with representatives from the Communist International, Kosovo and Bosnia, something the Serbs never accept unless they wished to be overthrown and replaced by even less rational actors.

The fact that the International also demanded the freedom to operate in Serbian soil to support local communists was merely the cherry on the top, especially when it became clear that the socialists were not going to back down or renegotiate any of the terms, not when they were winning.

Though the short pause had indeed allowed the Serbs to regroup and organize a much better defense, the IRB was also not idle during that period and the Serbian forces without mercy, dismantling fortifications and defensive lines as if they were legos as Belgrade was practically surrounded and the rest of the country had either fallen to the reds or in isolated pockets of resistance that wouldn't survive long.

Though the communists and Serbs alike prepared for a bloody urban quagmire, they and the city's population were spared the bloodbath by wider diplomatic efforts.

The Russians, NATO and even most of Serbia's unlikely Balkan allies knew that they couldn't intervene militarily, it was too late for that with most of the country under Comintern control and large chunks of Europe's fighting capabilities being in the Persian heartlands but the anti-communists still believed they could salvage something out of this messy situation and approached the International with a deal to allow the remaining Serbian government and armed forces to retreat outside the country's borders along with any civilians who wish to join into Romania to set up a government in exile, in return the international gaining control over what remains of Serbia without more bloodshed and are also rid of many potential insurgents and the most rabid anti-communist citizens who would have caused him no end of trouble.

Alexandria agreed to these terms despite the protests of many within the commons that this was merely laying the groundwork for a government in exile and an army of guerrillas right on the border, but the simple fact was that the Comintern was running out of time to end the conflict decisively before NATO forces "pacified" Iran and could turn their attention to the Balkans once more, better that the International secure Serbia now while everyone was still distracted with the Middle East and Africa.

Thus the deal was accepted and ultimately led to over half a million Serbs making the journey east to Romania, to be joined by thousands more over the coming years as the war in Serbia merely transitioned into a new form rather than truly end.

Nonetheless, the Reds wasted no time in declaring victory, and then to the shock and condemnation of most of the world announced the formation of the very first Comintern mandate in the world of Tito's Lament: the Communist International mandate of Serbia.



(Flag by @Raiho-kun )


Time will tell if the the long march model of socialist international mandates will work in this world but at the very least…


| It wasn't the only newborn socialist polity this year |

---

"When the people stand up, imperialism trembles."—Thomas Sankara


Paul Kagame was a seasoned veteran of the world of African politics, gaining world renown for his role in stopping the infamous Rwandan genocide and rising to become the troubled nation's president in the aftermath, beginning a period characterized by an unfree political scene but a steadily prospering economic and social one.

Kagame had managed to navigate the post-Wamda world better than most but now the ALA's lightening advance across the DRC was threatening everything he had built, the Rwandan leader having no doubt that a new socialist state on his doorstep would not only present an ideological rival directly backed by the world's second superpower, but also act as a base for detractors and opponents of his rule as what happened with the now defunct Iranian regime.

Thus it is easy to see why the man and his government thought it prudent to salvage as much as they could from the situation by exploiting the chaos of the DRC's collapse (well further collapse) to conquer enough land to set up a puppet buffer state to safeguard Rwanda proper from aggression and cross border insurgents, successfully pressuring the weak Burundian government into participating to give the affair more legitimacy.

A wise move when dealing with most others in the Pan-Africanist's' situations as the ALA was already dealing with the Republic of Congo and Gabon attempting to cut off the African socialists from sea access and would no doubt understand that the lands the Rwanda-Burundi alliance had taken were comparatively less valuable.

Furthermore, with the UAR already struggling to keep up with the ALA's successes and with the Iran war acting as a distraction there was little doubt in the Rwandans' mind that Cairo would pressure their African allies to settle for what they had already instead of risk the Third Congo War escalating into a pan-continental conflict.

Unfortunately, these assumptions proved to be rather false in quick succession as rather than backing down in the face of four states attacking, the ALA simply responded by declaring war on all of them, with Cairo following suit.

In the southwest, the ALA would not only manage to reach the far flung capital faster than the Congolese Army but easily defeated the ROC's forces and pushed them back behind their borders, and then followed right through as the Pan-Africans now sought to replicate the Congolese-Gabonese plan of cutting off sea access by moving across the coastline in their march towards Gabon.

In the East where the UAR could provide more direct support, air bombardment of Rwandan and Burundian military positions began as the ALA pushed back their militaries and proxies before likewise counter-invading both East African nations, despite threats of war from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya who began mobilizing in preparation of supporting their neighbors' defense.

The quickly escalating situation and the potential for neocolonial French Africa to become encircled from south, north, and east by communists proved enough for France to throw its weight around, threatening nuclear exchange if the ALA does not cease hostilities against the ROC and Gabon, forcing the UAR to finally call on its allies to stop their advances though the red Africans succeeded in depriving the ROC of its coastline beforehand.

France's ultimatum was also too late to save Rwanda and Burundi, both of whom were conquered by the RPA-backed ALA in quick order even with support from their East African allies, who themselves were only spared from directly facing the ALA by the US stepping in and the pan-Africans finally needing to stop and consolidate their gains.

Though the Pan-Africans were not content with what they had gained in their opening move, wanting nothing less than the unification of all of Africa, they were satisfied enough for the time being to declare the formation of the African Union of Council Republics (AUCR).



(Flag by yours truly )


The new socialist state's existence would change the entire post-Soviet status quo of Africa forever as the compradors, republics, and strongmen of the dark continent were now faced with the prospect of a renewed African socialist movement that was existentially hostile to their existence and now scrambled to relearn Cold War realpolitik to counter the new menace even as many of their western allies were already dismissive of the new socialist state as doomed to fall apart in short order.


| Yet another miscalculation |

(As always done by @yeastmobile )