Alright here's a list of all the discords you can find me on if you want to chat to me about this project in particular, while I recommend you join them all I am fine with you picking and choosing one or the other. Though without further ado...
The Kautskyites are not Social Democrats in the sense that the term took after the first world war, they are what the post-great war era would call Orthodox Marxists which is the general term applied to those who hew to the Erfurt program and its commentaries by the SPD leadership of 1892's prescriptions.
After their first worldmerge, the SPD renamed itself to the Socialist Worker's Democratic Party of Germany, or SAPD (Sozialistische Arbeiterdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) specifically in response to syndicalist confusion regarding the drift in the definition of Social Democracy between worlds.
The Kautskyites are not Social Democrats in the sense that the term took after the first world war, they are what the post-great war era would call Orthodox Marxists which is the general term applied to those who hew to the Erfurt program and its commentaries by the SPD leadership of 1892's prescriptions.
After their first worldmerge, the SPD renamed itself to the Socialist Worker's Democratic Party of Germany, or SAPD (Sozialistische Arbeiterdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) specifically in response to syndicalist confusion regarding the drift in the definition of Social Democracy between worlds.
I feel like its worth pointing out that this is not the first time we've had to deal with worlds that have socialist movements that are much more integrated into a capitalist system compared to Reds! (Which honestly, is a really high bar to compare with literally any other world), that being the Weimar Pact in The Red Order.
The Kautskyites are not Social Democrats in the sense that the term took after the first world war, they are what the post-great war era would call Orthodox Marxists which is the general term applied to those who hew to the Erfurt program and its commentaries by the SPD leadership of 1892's prescriptions.
After their first worldmerge, the SPD renamed itself to the Socialist Worker's Democratic Party of Germany, or SAPD (Sozialistische Arbeiterdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) specifically in response to syndicalist confusion regarding the drift in the definition of Social Democracy between worlds.
RVMS Spartakus (Fae/Faer)☭✡
There is the United Soviet Republic of Labour and virtue in Zeta, but they're kinda weird.
Random Member
Bogdanov Zheltorussiya, right?
RVMS Spartakus (Fae/Faer)☭✡
And the Kavkaz society.
Random Member
I don't know what the latter's deal is
RVMS Spartakus (Fae/Faer)☭✡
So Mayakovsky and Bogdanov.
Well for one thing they demolish the entire Kremlin complex to replace it with a citadel of Steel, Concrete, and Glass.
Just because the Kremlin complex is old and therefore has to go.
They also blew up the Hermitage Palace in Petrograd as a relic of the past.
Also abolished the Cyrllic alphabet to latinise and thus modernise the Russian language.
Random Member
But have they done God-Building?
RVMS Spartakus (Fae/Faer)☭✡
Yes.
In essence, trying to social engineer a socialistic religion to direct the energies of spirituality towards the socialist cause.
To rather than abolish the position of religion in society; subsume it.
Also the USRLV has an active program to try and create cyborg transhumans.
The United Soviet Republics of Labour and Virtue are at least; very progressive on the transgender front out of a belief that it is only right to be dissatisfied with your body.
The flesh is weak after all.
A feeble thing that becomes as dust in a single century.
The United Soviet Republics of Virtue and Labour generally refer to their conceptualisation of the force of humanity, progress, and emancipation as "Mekhanikos". A sort of agnostic position on faith that focuses more on the personification of the processes of society and rites associated with it than an answer to metaphysical questions.
Except they don't personify Mekhanikos as a person but instead as a robot; at least in art.
They at least didn't blow up St.Basil's cathedral, they just built a bigger, flashier temple to their god-building project near it to one up it.
Designing it specifically so that it would completely envelop St.Basil's Cathedral in shadow at noon.
Random Member
Why didn't they blow that one up?
RVMS Spartakus (Fae/Faer)☭✡
More conciliatory effort to co-opt rather than shoo out religion.
On the other hand they made Moscow a Skyscraper city as much as they were able to with its soil.
Because Skyscrapers=Modern
Thankfully the attempt to phase out cars with helicopters was abandoned due to practicality reasons.
(Also accident rates)
The program to abolish what personal cars there were in the United Soviet Republics in favour of Helicopters for those who needed personal transport rather than the rail system was abandoned following a highly publicised multi-helicopter accident that destroyed a skyscraper.
Involving six drunk fliers, two people trying to use the copter-phone while flying, a dozen simply inexperienced fliers unaware of how to handle dense traffic, eight choppeers caught by the debris and shrapnel and a building painted a bit too dark to be clearly visible at night.
This is getting extremely unwieldy and I'm going to need maps and maybe even charts of alliance blocs/ideologies before I can even start thinking about plans going forward.
This is getting extremely unwieldy and I'm going to need maps and maybe even charts of alliance blocs/ideologies before I can even start thinking about plans going forward.
Definitely. Ironically the more worlds we encounter the more isolationist I feel. Just hunker down in the worlds we control and pretend others don't exist if we can afford it. Put pressure on them when and where we can but otherwise focus more internally for the moment.
I feel like its worth pointing out that this is not the first time we've had to deal with worlds that have socialist movements that are much more integrated into a capitalist system compared to Reds! (Which honestly, is a really high bar to compare with literally any other world), that being the Weimar Pact in The Red Order.
The People's Democracies of Alpha were even more tangled with the world economy, still having their own National Bourgeoisie and not being immediately closed off by sanctions (save by the most reactionary regimes). For Alpha Finland in particular, them being economically-integrated was actually a bonus at the time, since it granted us a tool to influence capitalist markets through less direct means and fund Comintern-friendly movements.
In general, it honestly surprises me that some are balking at the idea of simply partnering with other revolutionary states when we've been doing the same with reformists since VOSCOM was established. And so far, it has worked to our advantage.
I was going to say, it's very silly to condemn the unions as managing capital in the name of the workers when at this stage, voscom is dominated by places where they could argue the party manages capital in the name of the workers. And where we're still working with lots of national bourgeoisies and reformists.
"Jeju's Ghost: The Atomic Attack on the Petersburg" in Masses, October 1974
The loss of the Petersburg represents the bloodiest day in the history of the Red Navy. The old war horse, whose record stretches back to the waning days of the World Revolutionary War, was lost with all hands to Fascist nuclear attack. The losses are still being counted, for she did not slip beneath the waves alone. The names of hundreds more from her escorts are still being tallied, victims of the silent killer that is radiation.
Petersburg (CV-46), was the last of the initial batch of ten Vanguard-class1 fleet carriers ordered in 1942. Named after the last battle of the Slavers' War, she was laid down on 27 October 1942 on Shipway 11 at the Newport News Shipyard. Due to the extraordinary efficiency and dedication of her builders, Petersburg was the second of her class to launch on 30 March 1944, and she beat the class leader into commissioning by eight days on 21 September 1944, feats which earned Shipway 11 the Red Banner of Labor.
At the time of her commissioning, she was the largest aircraft carrier in the world, a true capital ship displacing almost 60,000 tonnes at full load. The Vanguards were tough ships, building on the battle-tested legacy of the earlier Enragés-class2 to produce a vessel capable of operating ever larger and heavier naval aircraft while being protected against all manner of punishment.
The fully armored flight-deck, half-again thicker than her predecessors, provided effective protection against Axis armored piercing bombs, and her interior was further protected by an armored strength deck at the hanger floor. The heavily subdivided machinery spaces owed more to the legacy of battleships than the cruisers that had inspired previous carriers.
Petersburg would serve in a number of battles in the Pacific, enduring a number of bomb and torpedo attacks in action against IJN carriers. AM Mauler torpedo bombers from Petersburg would claim the carrier Katsuragi and the cruiser Chokai during the Battle of Ryuku. But her most impactful role of the war was still yet to come.
Returning to San Francisco in December 1945 for repairs and refitting new radar equipment, Petersburg would soon be detached from TF 47 for a special mission related to the top secret Project Daisy Bell. While the boffins at Los Alamos continued to struggle solving the complicated physics of explosive lensing, the secondary team at the other academy city Las Vegas had managed to deliver a working weapon. And with it, a plan direct from the Chief of Naval Operations.
Petersburg would deliver in secret the gun-type atomic weapon test type "Curtana" to the Army Air Force's 509th Reconnaissance Regiment assembling at Tinian. Disguised as an aircraft delivery operation, the large carrier would indeed carry a hanger full of partly assembled fighters and light bombers to the airbase. Once her cargo was unloaded, the carrier returned to Pearl refit for combat operations before rejoining TF 47 for the most ambitious operation of the Pacific War.
The stage was set. As the mighty host of the Pacific Fleet steamed towards Kyushu, the Imperial Japanese Navy assembled for one last attempt at kantai kessen. The Admiralty had seen the signs coming, and marshaled every remaining seaworthy vessel to oppose the growing invasion fleet as the bombing of the Home Islands intensified. Five fleet carriers, two light carriers, eight battleships, twenty-five cruisers, and almost four dozen destroyers assembled to meet the American fleet.
They were decisively outnumbered by the invasion fleet, which had amassed nine fleet carriers, four light carriers, and ten battleships in its fast wing. But the slow wing, with two older fleet carriers, twenty escort carriers, and six older battleships, was laden down with the task of defending a long van of transports and assault ships. Through aggression and maneuver, the IJN hoped to strike the slow wing and thwart the invasion.
As the Rengō Kantai sailed southward in its tight box combat formation, with the five carriers grouped for mutually supporting flak fire with their close escorts, their scout planes probed for the enemy fleet. Unbeknownst to them, the real danger was already on its way at nine thousand metres.
The "Silverplate" B-23 "Necessary Evil", one of the select specimens of the venerable bomber specially converted to carry the "doohicky" from Las Vegas had already vectored on the fleet. The sight of these high altitude weather planes had become common over Nippon in the previous months, and drew no special attention.
When the pilot plane "Bockscar" overflew Rengō Kantai half an hour before, it barely noted an entry in Admiral Yamamoto's log aboard the Yamato. The Silverplates flew in singleton, too high and fast to be intercepted. When a second was spotted four thousand metres overhead by Lt. Iwari in his C6N1 scout plane, he did not immediately radio its vector back, for it was already known that the fleet had been spotted in the sunny, cloudless South China Sea.
Lieutenant Nora Jones, bombardier of the "Necessary Evil", lined up the combat box in her Norden sight like she'd practiced a dozen times before, dialing in adjustments for the fleet's speed and crosswind. Her target, the great battleship Shinano, sailed near the center of the combat box, just aft of the two lead carriers Unryu and Amagi.
Curtana dropped free at 1051.22 local time, 18 April 1946. "Necessary Evil" made an immediate hard right bank, with the chase planes lined up their recording equipment. Curtana detonated at the programmed altitude of 480 metres above Shinano's port rear quarter. The world would never be the same.
A microsecond after triggering, a two hundred metre fireball burned in the air above Shinano. The wooden deck cladding–and everyone on deck–caught fire in an instant. The battleship was struck an instant later by a 300 pièze3 blast wave, pancaking the superstructure and crushing the ship's main strength deck.
The destroyer Ayanami on Shinano's starboard bow is next to go. At a kilometer away, she lights up like a candle in the searing radiation flux. A fraction of a second later, the blast-wave hits like a typhoon, caving her port side inward.
The furthest carrier is 2.5 kilometres away from the Shinano. It is not enough. At this range, the blast is still a gale force, knocking men on the deck over. But the light from the bomb alone is enough to cause instantaneous third degree burns on exposed flesh. And there is more than just flesh on their decks.
Even the furthest carrier, Soryu, is burning like hellfire within minutes of the detonation. Further away, the Yamato was only moderately damaged, losing most of her delicate electronics. On the bridge, Admiral Yamamoto was temporarily blinded by flash, as were many of the other officers. But the IJN maintains order. Struck by a sudden, devastating new weapon, the officers fall back on their training. There is damage control to do, preparations to be made. The two unharmed carriers, Taiho and Ryujo, steaming twenty kilometres aft, launch additional fighter cover. Cruisers and destroyers, as well as the Yamato, move in to begin damage control aid and rescue survivors. Unknowingly, they two are doomed.
Officers whisper in hushed tones about the enemy's new weapon. Quickly they agree that it must be a weapon of a new type, the kind being investigated by the Navy's Jin Project: an atomic bomb. But they are naval officers, not physicists, and few are aware of the details of the science behind such a device. But the bomb has left more than just fire in its wake.
The ships and the waters around them are already burning with an invisible enemy. The worst is at Shinano; her foundering wreck has silently absorbed an immense wave of fast neutrons. Everything aboard her, especially her great armored hull, is radiologically contaminated. A spray of fission products and uranium has contaminated the waters around the ships. Firefighters pump the contaminated sea water and spray it over the decks, recirculating more contamination. The water inundated the ships engaged in rescue operations, and their hulls soon became contaminated with the fallout.
It's worst on the two lead carriers. Every unprotected surface of the ship has received a radiation dose of nearly three thousand rems. Even deep within the ship, many men have already received a fatal dose of radiation. The symptoms begin thirty minutes after exposure, while the ships are still burning. Men begin to drop dead on the line, with no explanation. Others fall violently ill, vomiting and shaking.
In the chaos, it takes hours to even notice the silent killer. The fleet is soon under aerial attack, and is in no condition to fight. The still burning wrecks are torpedoed, an act of mercy which may have saved hundreds, even thousands, of Nipponese lives. The Battle of Jeju began as an unmitigated disaster to the IJN, with the fleet routed and unable to even meaningfully damage the enemy, let alone force a gunnery duel. TF 47, to Yamamoto's great surprise, bypassed Kyushu entirely, and began assaulting unprepared positions in Chosun.
But in the days that followed, more men were dying aboard the surviving ships of the Rengō Kantai. By V-J Day, a more comprehensive picture of the ravages of radiation sickness had emerged. After surrender, the Red Navy learned more of the savage weapon they had deployed. The delivery of–and defense from–atomic weapons became the number one priority of the Navy. Having let the djinni out of the bottle, he could not be forced back in.
Having helped usher in the Atomic Age, it is strangely fitting that it would be the Petersburg that would be the ship lost to the new reality of generalised atomic warfare. Like all of her sister ships, Petersburg was modernised to adapt to the jet age. Her unfinished sister ships would be redesigned after V-J Day to take advantage of the new techniques of carrier aviation trialed on Enragés. In July of 1954, Petersburg entered Puget Sound to undergo an extensive modernization.
As a result of this extensive reworking, she received an enclosed hurricane bow, an aft deck-edge elevator, an angled flight deck and steam catapults. She lost her 20 centimeter armor belt to pay for the cost. But with the extensively widened flight deck, meant to bring her up to an equivalent capability to the new Jeju-class supercarrier entering construction, she still gained ten thousand tonnes displacement.
Petersburg sat low in the water now and suffered from rough seakeeping. But she could launch a fully modern air wing when she re-entered service in 1958. Though she would miss the Horn War, Petersburg would serve with distinction in a number of conflicts around the world.
But by 1974, she was showing her age. Once among the largest ships in the world, she'd been derated to a "medium carrier" by the advent of the supercarrier, and further reduced in utility as the nuclearisation of the WFRN continued. She and the other Vanguard-class received another blow when the Naval Operations Committee concluded that she was too small to carry the new MiG-25K fleet defense interceptor, widely known by its flattering AFS Defence Council Reporting Name "Foxcat".4
The loss of the Petersburg has provoked many questions. Why was one of the Navy's oldest fleet carriers, known to be more vulnerable, deployed into very dangerous waters in the Beta Mediterranean? Was she sufficiently escorted for the mission? Did not the circumstances of the revolutions in North Africa demand the deployment of a second carrier?
There are no easy answers, especially for the friends and families of the nearly 5000 sailors lost with her. And the exact sequence of events leading to her sinking are shrouded in the dual veils of state secrecy as well as the dramatic nature of nuclear attack. And unlike Saladin base, which was on land, the wreck is on the bottom of the sea.
As best as can be pieced together by publicly available information, the Petersburg had been suffering from attrition in providing air support for revolutionaries in North Africa, but not excessive, and was continually resupplied. Her task group had been strategically gliding back and forth to reduce exposure. And while her air group were not the cutting edge, her three squadrons of Gr-5N2 fighters were holding their own.
"The threat is manageable", as the task force commander Rear Admiral Hayden Sinclair concluded on a report filed 14 July 1974. This was one day after the previous concerted Italian attack, a combined land and naval based attack spearheaded by the Italian medium carrier Aquila5, and joined by a squadron of RIAF Piaggio P.1676 medium bombers.
The result had been a one-sided massacre. The poor coordination between naval and air force elements of the attack had allowed them to be defeated in detail. Aquila was a smaller, less capable carrier, and her smaller air wing was filled The slower Fiat G.95 fighters7 were unable to protect the bombers from being massacred at long range by fast Red Star No-15 interceptors8, whose AIM-25 missiles fly at Mach 5 and can hit targets over one hundred kilometres away.
It is this missile that has been particularly devastating to August Blood forces over the Mediterranean. Through the advancements provided by modern sophisticated radars, the missile can be fired without alerting the target through a "track-while-scan" mode. Until the missile activates its terminal homing radar at around 15 kilometres, the opponent will be completely unaware. Flying high to launch their salvoes of cruise missiles, the P.167s would have barely over ten seconds to evade.
Kill-claim estimates are unreliable, but it is estimated that the Italians lost twelve bombers, twenty two fighters, and six carrier attack aircraft in the initial attack. Five of our fighters were lost, and one of the interceptors suffered an unrecoverable fault before landing and was forced to ditch near the Petersburg. For political reasons, a retaliation strike against the Aquila was ruled out.
We can only speculate the thinking behind the veil of secrecy. Petersburg withdrew to safety to replenish fuel and munition stocks soon after, and new crew rotated through. Perhaps it was thought that after this drubbing the Italians would not want to try again.
But perhaps the pride was too sorely wounded to let it go. For whatever reason, Mutti ordered another, and at this time we must wonder if the previous attack had also been an attempted nuclear attack. The Regia Marina pulled two carriers out for the second attempt, and a full regiment's worth of bombers.
The attack was more coordinated, with the Italian naval fighters attacking more aggressively to disrupt interception attempts. Only a third of the subsonic bombers were shot down before launching their cruise missiles. And from there, the official record ends.
The volume of anti-ship missiles, the leading theory goes, simply saturated the missile defenses of the Petersburg and the missile cruisers Partisanlied and Schedryk. This was the thesis offered by Com. (Ret) Aleksandr Beech in his 30 September interview with Daily Worker. Now a design consultant with the Phoenix Research Institute, Beech noted that the volume of missiles risked an insurmountable problem of target deconfliction.
Which is to say, in the heat of battle, with multiple ships trying to intercept a swarm of incoming missiles, it is inevitable that operators will target the same bandit, that the radar contacts will bleed together and operators will have difficulty separating out one target from another. One way or another, it meant that the formidable batteries of RIM-15 mounts let at least one missile through, and it was tipped with an estimated 350 kiloton warhead.
Petersburg herself was engulfed by the fireball. It was over in microseconds at the very least. But Partisanlied and Schedryk were far enough away to be crushed like tin cans by the blastwave.
The sequence of events afterwards are almost as hazy as Petersburg's last minutes. Only a few airmen can testify to the final hour of the ship. The actions of the rest of her task force we know only from official reports from the Revolutionary Military Council. The surviving cruisers and destroyers assumed nuclear action stations and continued the fight. Retaliation strikes against Aquila and Duce began immediately, joined by the fighters of VF-41, the last of whom had cleared the deck only ten minutes before the sinking. It would be a one-way trip.
The result was a pyrrhic victory for the Italians. They claimed their prize, but the Duce is by all accounts unsalvageable from the battle damage, struck by several conventional RSM-32 "Bazalt" missiles and at least one of VF-41's fighters in kamikaze.
In the extended air battle over the central Mediterranean, it has become clear that the early reports of disaster on the part of revolutionary forces was more shock than truth. The Italians paid heavily for their victory. The nuclear destruction of Saladin base shortly after nightfall seems to drive this home.
A conventional attack could have rendered the airfield non-operational for some time. But a second nuking, it seems, was there to demonstrate that the first was not a fluke, that Mutti was willing to take this matter to the mat. This bluster has already cost him. Despite the veil of secrecy over the outcome of the battle, and the desperate attempts to conceal the damage to the pride of the Regia Marina, it has become clear amid the recession that the official story of glorious victory is an empty promise.
Last week the Italian metropole was hit with unrest following a pirate television broadcast, no doubt the work of the MRD's black operations. It has been rebroadcast on our own TV stations, and despite my typical skepticism I do not see any reason to doubt it. The broadcast showed captured Italian naval aviator Lt. Com. Giuseppe Luzi, after denouncing the imperialist wars in Arabia and North Africa, exhorted Italians to not believe the lies of the PNF regime.
Specifically, he noted that the country was woefully unprepared for a nuclear war with the Reds, that the fatherland would pay a hundredfold if the conflict escalated to general war, and that peace must be chosen instead. I do not think this is in any way an exaggeration. The purely conventional counterattacks were punishing enough. Had it escalated to tactical nuclear response (the current doctrine, I might add, is to respond in kind to the use of nuclear weapons), the losses to the Italians would have been crippling.
There remain as of yet unanswered questions about the battles in the Arabian liberation war. While the world press was fixated on the nuclear attacks on the Petersburg and Saladin base, it took almost a week for reports to circulate of a third atomic explosion, which had occurred between the two. This underwater nuclear detonation has rendered the Red Sea impassible due to radioactive contamination, and has been seismographically estimated to be between 20 to 25 kilotons, the same yield as the "Joyeuse" implosion type bomb tested at Jornada del Meurto in 1947.
The result was very similar to the Operation Crossroads tests declassified in 1959, where a large fleet of obsolete and captured naval vessels were sunk at Bikini Atoll by an underwater detonation in late 1947, and whose chilling images of a radioactive tsunami have been burned into popular consciousness. A spray of millions of tonnes of water was lifted into the air almost two thousand metres.
The detonation was witnessed by ships transiting the Red Sea, and some 8mm film of poor quality has been procured for eventual release. The military has described it as "of special interest" but has not moved to classify it.
The detonation's yield and lack of any apparent delivery points to a submarine weapon of some kind, either a torpedo or mine of some variety. The WFRN has categorically denied having any assets in the area, as has the Entente Navy. The German consulate has, understandably, not replied to my missives requesting a comment.
Basically OTL's Midway-class.
Equivalent to an Essex-class SCB-27 refit
Pièze is a pre-SI unit of pressure from the metre-tonne-second metric system, equal to 1 kilopascal. It's retained in customary usage out of inertia after both the centimetre-gram-second and metre-tonne-second systems were superseded.
It is the love-child of OTL's MiG-25 and F-14.
Ex-HMS Africa, an unfinished Malta-class carrier hulk taken as a war prize and completed post war.
A Tu-16-equivalent workhorse, adapted to a maritime strike role.
Equivalent to an F-8 Crusader, a good gunfighter and able to use IR guided missiles, but hampered by a lack of longer-range radar missiles.
An A-5 Vigilante equivalent configured as an interceptor rather than strike bomber.
The human cost of our actions hitting Libyan oil fields. It's good to see it spelt out like this. It gives a more mundane and public feeling to it rather than the high level political view we're used to getting. I still stand by that decision though. The use of tactical nuclear weapons against us is devastating but the harm down to Italy's economy and public reputation has been worth it. Them rendering the Red Sea impassable is a surprise too. Jesus, that's crippling international shipping. Ironic since we kept the Suez open.
I finally, finally got some anti-ADHD medication after having no access to any for way too long and being given a too weak dose when I did have access so I'm gonna look through my scatterbrained docs to see which to blow up into proper updates. Also Vilani should be freeish for maps soon.
At first, I misread the title as "Nuclear Attack on Saint Petersburg", and was wondering what fresh hell the four new worlds had brought to our doorstep.
The human cost of our actions hitting Libyan oil fields. It's good to see it spelt out like this. It gives a more mundane and public feeling to it rather than the high level political view we're used to getting. I still stand by that decision though. The use of tactical nuclear weapons against us is devastating but the harm down to Italy's economy and public reputation has been worth it. Them rendering the Red Sea impassable is a surprise too. Jesus, that's crippling international shipping. Ironic since we kept the Suez open.
International shipping isn't what I am worried about here since there are other suezes now but the enviromental devestation from the bomb could be very bad in the short term
International shipping isn't what I am worried about here since there are other suezes now but the enviromental devestation from the bomb could be very bad in the short term
The water was deep enough that sea bed contamination will be minimal. Since the detonation was underwater, the fall out will be dispersed in sea water and should return to normal background levels of radioactivity within a few weeks. Part of the closure of the Red Sea has as much to do with the tensions and various parties wanting to investigate what happened, including the Italians
Delta/ The Cold Revolution TL (Reds version of TNO).
Power blocs
The Comintern/VOSCOM:
-ALPHA/BETA VOSCOM:
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics/USSR (includes the Alpha USSR and Beta Northern Eurasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic + Central Asian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic)
(Alpha) Union of American Socialist Republics/UASR
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of the Zhonghuonese Jianyi
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of the Congo
(Alpha) Democratic Republic of Iran
(Alpha/Gamma) Free Socialist Republic of Deutschland (merger of both east Germanies from the Alpha and Gamma TLs)
(Alpha) Socialist Suomenusko Republic (Finland)
(Beta) African Socialist Union (Cameroon)
(Alpha) Republic of Liberia
(Alpha) Republic of Palestine
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Turkiye
Alpha) Socialist Republic of Chosun
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Nippon
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Somalia
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Eritrea
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Morocco
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Romania
(Alpha/Gamma) Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia (made up of both Gamma and Alpha Yugoslavias plus Alpha Bulgaria)
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Italy
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Greece
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Albania
Alpha) Socialist Republic of the Hungarian councils
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia
(Alpha) The Republic of the Straits
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Mesopotamia
(Alpha) Mongolian People's Republic
(Alpha) Tuvan People's Republic
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Chile
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Mexico
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Puerto Rico
(Alpha) Socialist Republic of Argentina
(Alpha) Socialist Union of Peru
(Alpha) Centroamerican Federation
(Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta) Indochina (made up of all four vietnams and alpha Laos)
(Beta) Democratic People's Federal Republic of Baharat (DPFRB)
(Beta) Cuba
(Beta) Republic of Chile
(Gamma) The Espana communes
(Beta) The United Comhairle Provinces of the Irish Socialist Republic
-Gamma Weimar Pact
(Gamma) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(Gamma) People's Republic of Dongbei
(Gamma) Republic of Cuba
(Gamma) Polish Autonomous Socialist Republic
(Gamma) Socialist Republic of Austria
(Gamma) Socialist Republic of Hungary
(Gamma) Romanian People's Republic
(Gamma) Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia
(Gamma) Socialist Republic of Denmark
(Gamma) Suomi Socialist Workers' Republic
(Gamma) Democratic Republic of Iran/North Iran
(Gamma) People's Republic of Mongolia
(Gamma) People's Republic of Xinjiang
(Gamma) People's Republic of Norway/North Norway*
(Gamma) People's Republic of North Greece
(Gamma) Federative Socialist Commonwealth Bharat
Delta Metropolis accord
(Delta) Union of American Socialist Republics/UASR
(Delta) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics/USSR
(Delta) People's Republic of Iceland
(Delta) People's Republic of Greenland
(Delta) People's Republic of Cuba
(Delta) Popular Union of Australia
(Delta) People's Union of Azania
(Delta) Socialist Republic of Canada
(Delta) Socialist Republic of Mexico
(Delta) Socialist Republic of Honduras
(Delta) Socialist Repulic of El Salvador
(Delta) Socialist Repulic of Puerto Rico
(Delta) Republic of Zhongguo (United front)
Bonus: Lunagrad colony.
The August Blood coalition/ABC:
(Beta) Empire of Japan
(Beta and Delta) Republic of China
(Beta) Empire of Manchuria
(Beta) State of Guangdong
(Beta) Mengjiang/Mongol Autonomous federation
(Beta and Delta) Republic of Indonesia/United States of Insulindia
(Beta and Delta ) Government of Free India (Hindustan)
(Beta and Delta) Kingdom of Thailand
(Beta and Delta) Republic of Laos
(Beta and Delta) State of Burma
(Beta and Delta) Republic of the Philippines
(Beta and Delta) Kingdom of Iraq
(Delta) Swatantra Bharat
(Delta) Great Manchu empire
(Delta) State of Mongolia
(Beta and Delta) Iberian Union (sans Delta Spain)
(Beta and Delta) Kingdom of Italy
(Beta) Republic of Turkiye
The Einheit Pakt/EINPAK:
-Independent member nations
(Beta) Greater German Reich
(Beta) Tsardom of Bulgaria
(Beta) Republic of Suomi
(Beta) Kingdom of Denmark
(Beta) Kingdom of Sweden
(Beta) Serbian government of National Salvation
(Beta) Kingdom of Hungaria
(Beta) Kingdom of Romania
(Beta) State of France
(Beta) The imperial state of Iran
(Beta) Slovak State
(Beta) Kingdom of Afghanistan
(Beta) General Government of Vistula (Poland)
(Delta) Greater German Reich
(Delta) Nordic Union (Finland, Sweden, and Norway)
(Delta) United Kingdom
(Delta) Kingdom of Denmark
(Delta) Kingdom of the Netherlands
(Delta) Kingdom of Romania
(Delta) Kingdom of Hungary
(Delta) Kingdom of Serbia
(Delta) Tsardom of Bulgaria
(Delta) State of Iran
(Delta) Republic of Turkiye
(Gamma) Republic of Indonesia
-Reichskommisarts (RKs)
(Beta and Delta) RK Kaukasien
(Beta and Delta) RK Ukraine
(Beta and Delta) RK Ostland
(Beta and Delta) RK Moskowien/Russland
(Beta) RK Niderlands
(Beta and Delta) RK Ukraine
(Beta and Delta) RK Ostafrika
(Beta and Delta) RK Zenteralafrika
(Beta and Delta) RK Madagaskar
(Beta) RK Sudwestafrika
(Delta) RK Sudafrika
(Delta) RK Arabian
-Ordenstaats (OS)
(Beta) OS Burgundy
(Delta) OS Lotharingia
(Delta) OS Ireland
(Delta) OS Sudwest Afrika
Interplanetary Treaty Organisation/IPTO:
(Beta) United States of America
(Gamma) United States of America
(Gamma) Republic of Brazil
(Gamma) Republic of China
Commonwealth of Allied free nations/CAFS:
(Alpha) The Franco-British Union
(Gamma) United Kingdom
(Gamma) The French Fourth Republic
(Gamma) Republic of Korea
(Gamma) The State of Israel (has Sinai in addition to OTL territory)
(Alpha and Gamma) Portugal
(Alpha) The United Arab Kingdoms
(Alpha) The Greater Indian Commonwealth
(Alpha) American Havana
(Alpha) East African Federation
(Alpha) Kingdom of Bhutan
(Alpha) The State of the Spanish
(Alpha) The Kingdom of Misr** and Sudan
(Alpha) Greek Heraklion
(Gamma) Kingdom of Greece
(Alpha) Australasia
(Beta and Gamma) Australia
(Alpha) Kingdom of Thailand
(Alpha) Kingdom of Nepal
(Alpha) Kingdom of Denmark
(Alpha) The Empire of Brazil
(Alpha) The Kingdom of (South) Italy
(Alpha and Gamma) German Federation
(Alpha and Gamma) The South African Union
(Alpha and Gamma) United States of Venezuela
(Alpha and Gamma) Malaysia
(Alpha and Gamma) Kingdom of the Netherlands
(Alpha and Gamma) Kingdom of Norway
(Alpha and Gamma) Kingdom of Sweden
(Alpha, Beta, and Gamma) Canada
(Beta) West Indies Federation
(Beta and Gamma) New Zealand
(Gamma) Free Republic of Korea
(Gamma) Kingdom of Italy
Unaligned movement/UAM:
(Beta) Mexico
(Gamma) Misr (under Ikhwan rule)
(Delta) Brazilian Estado Novo
The Peron pact (all non-alpha Argentinas0
*North Norway was cut in the TRO mod, no idea if it's the same here yet.
**Egypt endonym
A/N: So lots of people have been having problem following who's with who in this quest so decided to make this to help out new players hopefully.
Russian State-era flag during the period of temporary compromise with National Liberals and Monarchists.
National People's Federal Republic era Flag, adopted after the full consolidation of Savinkov's autocracy with the Night of Cold Blood in 1936. A bit anachronistic sure, but cool.
World of the Red Morning, 1975
The great beast of the fascism of the second quartet of worlds, the NPRFR (though many translations truncate it to National Republican Federation of Russia or People's Republican Federation of Russia due to the peculiarities with the term "narod") is a colossal entity that spans three timelines and encompasses a sum of souls that threatens to reach over eight hundred million thanks to the apparated and its own natalist programs. Initially native to timeline "Red Morning" before spreading to "Cold Snow" and "Eve of Terror", the NPRFR looms large in the Communist International's strategic calculus as the dreadful bear. The Narodnist behemoth to the Ziz bird of Fascist Italy and the Leviathan of Imperial Japan.
The overlord of the Moscow Accord and the Mutual Pact of Fraternal Nations, Russia boasts of a massive army comprising of tens of millions of men at arms or under its labour army to create vast public works under the direction of the almighty Vozhd. The Vozhd is a napoleonic figure, who rules with plebiscites, sweeping reforms, a compact body of reformed civic law, and a spirited privy council that helps to advise and carry out the will of the boss of Russia; while the Kombinats and Siloviki help to arrange the economy under a balance of peasant, worker, entrepreneur, business, and state. At least, in theory anyway.
Theirs was a domain built upon enormous military power. An almost unprecedented amount of raw force concentrated under a singular nation, a military juggernaut that had more men at arms than many country had people in their entirety. Mighty warships and vast air armadas would project Russia's enduring and unbreakable might to other continents, from the submarine bases in Dominica beneath the nose of the Socialist Communal Commonwealth of America (SCCA) to air patrols operating out of airbases in Australia in the South Pacific to monitoring stations off the shores of the National People's Republican Federation of Great Swahililand to the endless rows of tanks waiting in the standoff positions in central Europe and Northern Asia.
It was built in the image of the Great Founder and the Supreme Liberator, Boris Viktorovich Savinkov. From anti-monarchist terrorist to the overthrower of the short-lived Russian Republic, Savinkov had formulated the "fourth political thesis" in opposition to "Liberal Capitalism, Internationalist Syndicalism, and Primeval Reactionarism" in his book "Voyna". Viewing his new model of politics as above traditional forms of racism of "biology and ancestry" or the "old antisemitism of blame dodging emperors", he formulated a vision of Russia as a country that blended the best of both Asia and Europe into a unique civilisation that could straddle the East and West and had been unfairly denied its place in history by a jealous Germany and fearful "Thassalocratic Masons" that feared its strength.
Through a combination of guile and some manufactured crises, he had swept into power at the helm of the Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom (Aka Soyuz Zashchity Rodiny i Svobody aka SZRS) which would later rebrand itself as the National Populist People's Republican Party of Russia (Nacional'naja populistskaja narodno-respublikanskaja partija aka NPNRP) and oust the tumultuous Federal Democratic Republic of Russia. The Republic that had shamed the motherland by bending knee to reparations, that had shamed the people by failing to take control of the Marxists, Anarchists, and Syndicalists who held sympathies to the degeneracy in Paris and London, that had dishonoured the soldiers by simply accepting the loss of western Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, Crimea, and Armenia.
Savinkov would declare the Russian National People's State when he declared, in perpetuity, the establishment of emergency powers following the Petrograd riots blamed on "competing German sabotuers and their Parisian rivals as well as Liberal Cosmopolitan third parties", and then subsumed the Prime Ministry into the Presidency to make himself the Vozhd of all Russians; placing upon the Russian Flag the Kornilov regiment banner to honour its military accomplishments in the great war. But despite his initial rhetorical hostility to Liberalism and Syndicalism, he would still look to the Americans, Japanese, and the Syndintern for industrialisation support, to modernise and expand the economy even more than had already been done as America pumped capital into the motherland in opposition to the Reich.
All efforts would be prepared for a war of revenge against the German Reich and its allies. To minimise any possible disruption in the industrialisation of Russia, Savinkov extended recognition to the revolutionary CSA of William Haywood and Jack Reed and sought to secure the Americans' renewed industrial commitments to build up Russia; as opposed to his counterpart in the world of the Cold Snow that sought to back the southern populists instead out of a greater anti-syndicalist commitment; presaging that Savinkov's absorption of the Entente.
In the World of Cold Snows following the secret accords between Valois and Boris following the former's takeover of France, Savinkov would wait for all of his potential enemies to be distracted before he made his decision to enact operation Nevsky, the invasion of Eurasia; pressing into the spheres of the Syndintern, the Reichspakt, and the Co-Prosperity Sphere simultaneously with the support of the Entente, the Italian Legionary movement, and Yiguando movement.
Countless millions would die in the bloodiest war the world had ever seen as his forces at their apex bestrode half of Europe and had occupied much of China and the Middle East before finally being pushed back when they had over-extended themselves fighting as far afield as North America in support of Canada, Cascadia, and New England the heat of the Levant in offensives against the Turks.
Brutal battles to push Russia back on all fronts would see the bear and its allies overwhelmed in a devastating slog that would see tens of millions of Russians die and many cities laid to waste in barbaric scorched earth tactics. When the Russian people started acts of passive resistance to a regime asking them to die trying to conquer the world, the police slaughtered them with machine guns and mortar rounds to force compliance, and dragged its prisoners from the depths of the Russian hinterland to the frontlines to die.
Even as Savinkov's Great Russia collapsed around him, he refused to accept any possibility of negotiated peace or surrender, not wanting to be the next coward of Brest-Livotsk even when enemy forces crossed from Ukraine and into Great Russia itself. Not even when the Japanese had seized greater Amuria or when the Socialists had broken through the lines at Afghanistan or the Turks had linked up with Austro-German forces in Russia.
Russia was a vast country with deep manpower reserves and plenty of space to give to any invader, and Savinkov and his party cared very little for the collapse of the Entente on other fronts. Even the surrender of Integralist Brazil to American forces or the fall of Pretoria to the German Empire and the surrender of the very last Millenarian and Qing forces to KMT and Fengtien forces.
The war and all of its madness would not end until the combined Swedish, Turkish, German, and Danubian army reached Moscow and Savinkov would die buried beneath the rubble of the shattered Kremlin; upon which Russia would shatter into warlordism that few had the energy to try and resolve, with Imperial Germany settling for establishing a puppet Empire at the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line and returning to a war-ravaged Europe.
In the Red Morning world however, a more unified America would lead to Savinkov deciding to maintain his economic ties with the Syndicalists for the time being and withdraw his ties with the Entente altogether and instead focus on confronting the Turkish and German Empires. Russia would offer its support to the International Concord established by America, France, Britain, Japan, Bharat, Egypt, Iran and China; the big nine of the new international order to be established in the ruins of the great reactionary empires of the world.
As Imperial Germany's attempts to close off the Parisian corridor and reach Rome and take Petrograd and Savinkovgrad** in the east and make amphibious landings in Iberia to support Portugal in the far west faltered, Russia would crush the two pronged offensives of the Reichspakt with the flanks of their central offensive after conceding some gained territory in eastern Poland and Northern Ukraine.
After repelling the "thrust to Moscow" offensive made by Erich von Manstein in the hopes of trying to solidify the situation on the Eastern Front before the Western Internationalists could push the Reich out of the low countries, the already far progressed Southern front of the Russian army would; with the aid of a treacherous Bulgaria, thrust into the soft underbelly of the Austro-Hungarian Empire while Russian forces broke into heartlands of the Turkish Empire as Arab forces had broken through the Golan Heights.
The disorganised means with which the Reichspakt had to pull its Army Group Centre from the closing jaws of the Russian Northern and Southern fronts allowed Savinkov's forces to capture vast numbers of German personnel as they tore through the slavic countryside, throwing men, women, and children into the grinder to try and keep the Imperial war machine going. Russian forces would break the Ottoman army, already decisively defeated by Egyptian forces at Antioch; at Manzikert and storm into ancient Constantinople. With Italian, American and British Troops having broken the Isonzo and the last German troops forced out of France and even the Netherlands, the end of the reich was nigh.
Even in the farthest corners of the world; the Federalist-Fengtien coalition had defeated the Qing, the Island fortress campaign of the Reichspakt and Entente had failed to defend the German-occupied Dutch East Indies (seized since the Batavian revolution). The Combat Squads of the National Populist Party, the War Legion of the Black Guard, and the National People's Revolutionary Republican Army of Russia would rush to be the first to seize Berlin as all remaining reserves were committed to the fray.
While the extensive in-depth fortifications in the west would slow the Syndicalists for the time being, German arrogance regarding the east allowed the forces of Kaminski's Black Guard troops to; after massed nerve gas bombardment of Imperial German positions; breach into the heart of the Kaiserreich. Chancellor Schleicher would commit suicide rather than face the Black Guard's troops, while Kaiser Wilhelm 3 would die choking on his own blood after being shot six times and suffering the effects of exposure to Chemical weapons by the gas mask and steel bib clad shock trooper formations ripping through the capital.
With the fall of the Kaiserreich and the collapse of the Entente to internal rebellion and the mop up of its remaining holdouts around the world, Kaiser Karl of Austria-Hungary, moved by the senseless slaughter in his provisional capital in a Czech village; would order Manstein in the west and Model in the east to agree to the unconditional surrender of the Kaiserreich, bringing Germany's brief time in the sun to a bitter end. Savinkov would sit in the ashes of Potsdam as one of history's great victors, sipping his Sbiten between meetings with the other eight great leaders of the world and touring the wreckage of the vanquished German Empire.
Savinkov would reign until 1955, breathing his last with a feeling of invincibility on top of the world, the great tyrant to many, the great liberator to others. Whereas his alter had found himself defeated utterly, he would be buried in a Mausoleum with his body preserved as a mummy for all of time for the world to gawk at in awe. The body of a giant who had conquered the world and achieved military greatness unmatched since Genghis Khan in his own words. And while the shoes he left behind were quite big indeed,d they would be filled all the same by Mikhail Spasovsky, who aligned with the modernist wing of the Nacpop party; or to the enemies of the regime; the "Voynists". Though an old man already, Spasovsky would preside over the launching of the space age and the solidification of the National Populist regime of the victorious motherland.
Inheriting the legacy of Savinkov, he would preside over surprisingly few major conflicts in Eurasia. Savinkov's stint in the early cold war having already seen the Sino-Russian border war that had lead to the birth of a Heilongjiang based National People's Republic of Manchuria to complete the ring of client states that ensures that Russia borders virtually no possible foe. Including the National People's Republics of Mongolia, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkiye, Yugoslavia-Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Finland, and Xinjiang as well as the Kingdom of Romania, the Moscow Accord was safe from virtually all directions from any foes that would be able to directly threaten its motherland, save for a small sliver of contact between the Japanese and Russian spheres at the minuscule Russo-Japanse border at Northeastern Korea.
However, an opportunity for Russia would arise in the Cuban putsch of 1957 against the loosely Americna supported Social Democratic government which they accused of selling the country out to the mainlanders and giving the Communist and Syndicalist movements power they had never earned and letting the Anarchists run rampant. The Caudillo put in power, Rafael Cruz Sr; a Spanish immigrant and an advocate of an "Authentic, Christian Cuba" requested the might of Russia's atomic sword be placed nearby to defend the island nation from atheistic revolutionaries, and the resulting confrontation; coupled with the endorsement of Trujillo's regime, was enough to alarm both the Japanese and the Americans for its brazenness.
Though riding high from managing to achieve a fait accompli of nuclear armament in Cuba, the attempted Israeli gambit in Egyptian Palestine would result in a publicised enough failure to end Spasovsky's career as the Privy Council of the Nation and Peoples of Russia rescinded its confidence in the sitting Vozhd and demanded his replacement. The attempt to create a Jewish state that Russia could use as both a dumping ground for Poland and East germany's undesired Jews and to gain a new ally in the region had resulted instead in the unravelling of the GRU's spy rings within Egypt and the open detonation of the first Egyptian Atomic Bomb; the Ramesseum Tentyris to demonstrate to Russia that there would be consequences for any further such antics.
After just five years as the Vozhd of all Russians, Spasovsky would make way for Sergey Bunyachenko. The "hard man of the army" would take over and seek to cement the reign of Russia throughout the Moscow Accord, focusing on the Dominican-Haitan war and the Cyprus conflict. Though unable to stop the Cypriot revolution, Dominica would push a bit farther into Haiti before the conflict was mediated into a Dominican favouring agreement. Ethiopia, to his pleasure, would also sign an agreement with Swahililand to expand Russia's growing toeholds in the young countries of Africa. Even better, Australia would sign a number of military basing agreements with Russia; though still allowing influence from the Zaibatsu.
When confrontation between the INFOR and MOSACC seemed ready to spring over the Greco-Yugoslav border though; the worldmerge came, bringing the world of the Red Morning into contact with that of the Eve of Terror; and then later finding that they were also in contact with the world of Cold Snows and the Crimson Typhoon. Taking advantage of a fortuitous death of the alter-Russia's reactionary despot's demise and the clamouring by the more modernistic sorts; he would gain the great diplomatic coup of annexing the Eurasian State into his great Russian Republic, launching Operation Kupalnitsa to deal with the warlords of the Cold Snows to bring them under the aegis of the state and to avenge the death of that world's Savinkov by once again putting the German monarchists to threat.
He would build up his Russia to immense heights, putting the apparated to work wherever he could, to create new cities in the hinterland, to expand on existing divisions or add new regiments to the enormous Russian military. All while ensuring that the Russian Nuclear arsenal was nothing short of apocalyptic. Enough to ensure that if Russia were to be threatened with being overrun as Cold Snow Savinkov's was; there would be nothing but ashes for any victor.
He would achieve greater heights of power and popularity through the diplomatic success in convincing the Australia of the Red Morning to sign treaties with Russia to allow the presence of its mighty pacific fleet and the investment of the Kombinats and Siloviki. In the Eve of Terror reality, he would preside over the agreement with Lehi dominated Yeretz Israel that would see the issue many Moscow Accord members had with their jews favourably resolved with a series of "all expenses paid tickets and cheap homes" for people squeezed into ghettos by actively antisemitic governments.
Some would say this was at the expense of relations with the Arab community in the world of the Eve of Terror, which largely preferred to embrace either Tokyo's communism or "Alphapolis" as the Technate renamed D.C. But in his eyes, it was an adequate solution to the issue of the Jews without "wasting" decent capital, even when it came at the deaths of many an Arab and the forcible displacement of many an Eastern European Jew.
Even the failure of the attempted Nationalist Insurgency in his own native timeline's Vietnam; with the last of the National Populist movement in the country seeking to rise against the Japanese supported monarchy being crushed by 1970; had done little to diminish his spirits. The bear had its other victories.
He himself is unlikely to remain in office for much longer, as the now seventy three year old despot was on the look for an heir to his throne in the Kremlin. So far though, the old man of the army remained an old man firmly in charge of his current office. If time was weighing on his shoulders, he wasn't showing it yet, attending the various parade days in Moscow with the same vim and vigour he did in the past.
"The patriot does not fear opportunities." He declared in 1975 to his audience as the second worldmerges started to cool down into a status quo following a year of interaction. The economies of the world had to be strongly massaged back into shape by vigorous state action to control the runs on gold markets and the fluctuations of currencies that followed. And Bunyachenko had squashed attempts to squirm out of the value for the ruble he dictated with all the bluntness one could expect out of a tank commander under the brutal voynist regime. The ruble was worth what it was worth and that was that.
The Russian order would be brought together by his new cabinet to replace the old guard he felt were no longer up to the task of managing the Bear Order in the new situation foreign minister, the young but promising Yevgenev Primakov and his rising star of a Marshal in Alexander Lazarenko and the...reliably loyal Yelstin. Talented men and Yelstin had formed a solid basis for the growth of Russia's status as a superpower and a state that bestrode the eight worlds like a colossus.
Opposed to the "fluidic semi-friendly association" of the Technate, the Union of the Soviet Republics of Labor and Virtue, and Accelerationist France, the members of the Socialist International whether they be of the Syndicalist Association or the Marxist League, and to the loose understanding between the Allies, Reichspakt, and Oriental Treaty Organisation; Russia pushed an image of itself as a mighty nation. With the best troops and the greatest machines and the most ambitious space programs to further demonstrate the unconquerable might of mother Russia.
Indeed, the master of the MAFN had continued the policy of tightening the grip on the absorbed Russian State from the timeline of the Eve of Terror and the National Populist remnants of the Cold Snow timeline, to make them fully part of Moscow's behemothic sphere of interest and influence and use the leverage of their resources to impress non-aligned countries with Russian might. Natalist programs to populate the endless hinterlands were of course, pushed as hard as ever under the aging Bunyachenko, and new towns all named for glorifications of their ideals of Russian history cropped up rather regularly in an effort to tame the wild wolf of the motherland's orient.
Expanding the alliance was sometimes a fraught endeavour, but deemed a necessary one to secure the motherland's footholds abroad. Eurasia is not enough for Russia's ambitions. Not even two of them. And the black and gold banner would frequently find itself being planted in deepest Africa and Latin America in the hopes of finding new allies to expand its reach.
Bunyachenko himself looks upon his would-be successors with apathy, disdaining talk of replacing the Vozhd when he feels that he has plenty of time left in his old bones. Replacing the Vozhd now was at best hasty, at worst seditious talk by those who thought more of themselves than their stations warranted. Bunyachenko was the master of Russia, the wielder of the iron fist, the keeper of the great bear.
So it was to the disappointment of many that his health check up in 1975 turned out to be simply a case of a particularly unpleasant cold rather than anything more serious. Still, that didn't mean he didn't have aspirants circling around him. There were a great many he couldn't care less for; Moderate suck-ups like Nikolai Petlin, bland technocrats as embodied by Igor Shaferevich, bizarre nutjobs like Valery Yemeylyanov, bloodthirsty warhawks of the ilk of Evgeny Savintsev. Heterodoxical deviants the lot of them, and he wasn't sure how to keep them out of the line of succession without giving his preferred successor any ideas to speed up succession.
Such questions made Bunyachenko's stomach more upset than any illness he had, the sheer audacity to presume that he could be replaced when he was merely in his seventies. Especially when he was now preparing for the planned operation against the Swedes to assist his Finnish allies to establish greater control over the Baltic*.
"Those who yell the loudest for peace are those who in truth, are the most hungry for war. See how many weapons the Swedish king commissions as he begs for peaceful resolutions to lappland's crisis." - Propaganda Minister Konstantin Rodzaevsky
The war in Sweden was the Comintern's first introductions to the politics of the Red Morning. Together with Denmark, it was the last of Europe's monarchies, aligned with the socialist bloc out of necessity and of fear of Russian Finland's territorial claims on the Lappland. It was however, crucially not part of the INFOR military agreement that would bind the nations of Western Europe and North America into the great Transatlantic alliance meant to contain the Russian Bear. And with Russia claiming that this is a local matter to be prevented from suffering the intervention of foreign powers by its nuclear umbrella, the INFOR and its sister organisations such as the Rotfront were scrambling for a proper response. International Volunteers were called, but nobody really wanted a third world war now that the might of the atomic bomb was multiplied by the terrible majesty of the MIRV that would allow a singular missile to devastate a vast area of space.
It was an educating look into the way the International Association of Revolutionary Socialist Workers Movements; Socintern for short; operated. It was not the loose but bonded burgeoning Confederation of the Communist International but rather something more like a United Nations meant exclusively for anti-capitalist governments, parties, and movements. An unhappy marriage of Syndicalists, Anarchists, Popular Socialists, "Maximists", Communists, and even the left wing of Social Democracy, National Liberationism, and Accelerationism; the Socintern often struggled to agree on much.
There were often disagreements between the major alliance blocs within the Socialist International as well as between the various ideological groupings, as clear caucuses within the Supreme Congress of the International had formed. Along ideological, geopolitical, and even economic lines as a seemingly perpetual rivalry between the Spartakists and their communist Allies and the Syndicalists and their assorted partners had been a defining feature of the international since day one. Not to mention those outside the primary two blocs who have always been there at the margins, trying to pull the Socintern in one direction or the other.
Not only was the issue of the war in Sweden a matter of grave concern, but the new worldmerge brought about a fear by those who were outside of the Marxist line that they were soon going to be marginalised in the socialist movement. The Anarchists were somewhat less concerned, already used to being a smaller movement, but there was clear worries from the Syndicalists being voiced by the "officially unofficial" leader of the Syndicalist Caucus within the International; Lane Kirkland and the current Secretary General of the International; Albert Camus.
While they weren't unhappy to have partners, the talks between Lyndon Baines Johnson, Pyotr Masherov*** and their second-quarter counterparts; Chairman Tony Benn of the Union of the Socialist Commonwealth of Britain**** and Leonard Woodcock of the Socialist Communal Commonwealth of America revealed a substantive ideological divide.
Simply put, the Socialist International had a rather strong tradition of tolerating divides in the socialist movement in the name of preventing splits in the movement; whereas the Comintern was much more used to laying down an overarching vision of the path to Communism derived from the experiences of the Bolshevik, Maximalist and Red Guard movements in Russia, America, and China filtered by the local conditions and analyses of the on the ground revolutionaries and cadres.
While Tea and Coffee were shared in the relatively neutral meeting ground of The New Order's Ireland and a relaxed attitude was observed in the halls of Dublin, from the rather prominent failure of initial efforts to bring the Syndicalist major powers into the Communist International early and worry about the details later and the similar blunt rejection of offers to involve the communist bloc in the syndicalist system it was clear that not all was perfect under heaven.
It wasn't acrimonious or spiteful, more a simple attempt to offer the biggest thing they can straight away in full expectation it'd be shot down and then finding where the floor was in negotiations. Standard negotiation tactics really. But it did show where people just weren't going to budge.
To quote at length from the works of Ezekiel DeLeon, the right hand man of D.C's foreign policy apparatus:
"
The Syndicalist system in the Red Morning and Cold Snow timelines has in its half-century of life, generally enjoyed hegemony in the socialist movement with only some dissent on the fringes of global politics until the onset of the worldmerges. To them, Lenin is a fairly obscure cause celebre among those dissenters who had met an unfortunate end after being swept up in the crackdowns against the Socialist Revolutionaries and Russian Social Democrats following the end of the great war. A Luxemburg of the east if you will.
Now we see that this system is not without flaw. In the cold snow it produced a rather particular form of fascism when nationalist revanchism latched onto the particularisms of the Syndicalist movement and directed them to an outright alliance with the Parafascism of Russia rather than a simple understanding of convenience in the face of the Deutsche Kaiserreich. But it's also one that produces a consistently high level of engagement and proletarianisation, having continually enjoyed a rather horizontal political hierarchy and a direct tie to the working class.
However as a form of organisation post-revolution there is a clear tendency towards workerism in the French Orthodoxy of Syndicalism. Though they proudly proclaim themselves to be free of party politics, examination of the Orthodox Syndicalist model shows that the CGT and TUC of the French Communards and British Red Flagists has created a party by other means. But instead of a Politburo or a Central Committee of the Congress they call it a Trade Union Congress or a General Assembly of the Communes.
The maintenance of the labour union form post-revolution however means that there is a tendency towards creating material organisations to reflect the specialisations of those unions. The Community Union of British Steelworkers for example, has essentially taken over the management and production of steel within the "Union of Britain" to use its shortform name. In that capacity not only does it serve as an organ through which the will of the demos can be channelled through to the TUC and the Worker's Parliament, but also the means through which that the production of steel can be managed in a way that directly accounts for the desires of those workers.
However, using the Iron and Steel Trade Confederation (ISTC) as the primary vehicle of that representation means that the ISTC is predisposed to avoiding things that may reduce its influence within the TUC that has come to serve as the second house of legislature. As such it has used the replenishment of Iron and Carbon through means that the Glide provides that are as of yet, unknown to physicists; to argue that there is no risk of steel shortage at any point in the Union's future and has had some difficulties coming to fair agreements with the IWW's Steelworker section or the FTM in France out of fears of competition or loss of power amidst its membership. Something further augmented by the traditional divisions between the IWW's "one big union" structure and the union federation espoused in Europe.
To continue our example, the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation in essence serves as a lobby, a party, and a corporation, even if it is ultimately opposed to Capitalism and seeks to minimise the amount of work its members have to do and ensure their best of conditions, it's also not in its interests to do things that would reduce its overall membership in the TUC. When conducting negotiations with my Syndicalist counterpart I found that they were often not as enthusiastic for integration of our steel economies as I thought, as the Community Representative would often question me on how it would affect the livelihoods of her constituents.
It is not without reason, and she was not acting with malice. But it does present an obstacle towards our plans to move towards glide based materials which are stronger and superior, but made with differing processes. Not an obstinate obstacle, but one nontheless that refuses to be left out of negotiations for the future of the workers movement. Which while a fair play, makes me somewhat concerned as to whether they would ever be willing to legislate themselves out of existence and assist in the planning of their own dismantling."
...
The South American War of the World of the Red Order was now reaching a potential end in a triumph for the Argentines and the Union of Sovereign Latin Nations over the South American Treaty Organisations and Brazil. Backed by a wide array of powers, including the Alliance of Free States as well as the August Blood Coalition in a more under the table manner and even the Zollverein to some extent; the armies of Peronism were starting to push directly into Brazil itself. The Brazilian army, gutted by privatisation efforts and "private-public partnerships" under the free market fundamentalist administration of the UDN is in retreat as the Argentine army advances up its southern states.
With a disastrous private-public procurement system and a heavy; and growing; reliance on weapons procured from abroad with lowest bidder training, the UDN's army has been gradually forced further and further back over the course of years of warfare in some of the bloodiest standing army conflict since the second world war. With The New Order's Argentine bloc pouring in what assistance it can into the war effort, including entire divisions joined by the Argentina of the Cold Revolution; Brazil's numerical superiority was not quite as solid as expected, and the contributions of Eddna Lott's Brazil in the New Order are not enough to shore up the collapsing fronts in the south of the country.
Rio itself is under peril, and Sao Paulo is under siege following the capture of Curitiba and the Rio offensive. While Brazil may be a vast country, its strategic depth is not without limit thanks to its population concentrations. And while the SATO is a fundamentally liberal organisation with anti-communist history, the Union of Sovereign Latin Nations is considerably more committed to the liquidation of communism, even under the more conciliatory regime of Carlos Menem. For all the Peronists' smiling ways when dealing with Communist diplomats to get investment, aid, and cooperative intelligence; Peronism was literally born to quash any room for communist, fascist, or liberal appeal in the fourth positioning state.
Such a position is advocated most prominently within the Communist International by noted Popular Frontist and a longtime architect of plans to warm over relations with the IPTO; Mikhail Gorbachev of the Red Revolution Realised***** world. Gobrachev said that helping to reverse the fortunes of Brazil may help both empower the socialist movement in the SATO and encourage divide in the Liberal movement between its Neo and Retrocolonial halves. The current progressive dominance in US-American politics, seemingly set to be further confirmed by Walter Reuther's America in the Crimson Typhoon World; may be jeopardised with a string of foreign policy defeats and setbacks. And as he notes, the track record of counter-insurgency successes of the IPTO are dismal anyway so it may allow for greater success in the future.
In firm opposition to this though was a rising young star in the Communist Party of China; Wang Hongwen who had been a major supporter of the second cultural revolution and associated strongly with the student radicals.
"Partnership with these "treaty organisations" is partnership with devil who smile rather than bare their fangs. To fight the wars of the capitalist class for them in the face of more openly hostile members of that same class is to in essence; reduce the heroic Revolutionary International Volunteer Army comrade to a cheap mercenary." - Wang Hongwen
Further complicating matters was the new worldmerges. With relations so new with the new worlds; it was uncertain what they would do. Certainly they were under no actual obligation to follow the Comintern line, and there were other powers introduced to the fray who would likely all seek to throw their particular piece into the ring. What effects might spiral outwards from that were largely unpredictable. Nobody had a firm gauge on the likely actions of the major powers and blocs of those new Earths and new realities, which was more than a little problematic for planning any sort of intervention.
Wang Hongwen suggested focusing on encouraging revolutionary defeatism, that communists in both blocs should organise against both Peronismo and Market Liberalism with equal fervour and make themselves a third faction, and to prepare for rising up against their masters and demonstrate to the people that this war was fought for little more than empty pride and the wealth of a select few of the owning class to crush scapegoats and force the workers and peasants to sign away their rights in the name of the war effort.
Gorbachev countered that with the expansion of the anti-capitalist bloc that this may lead to liberal consolidation against the rise of socialism, and that the strength for such action was simply not there at the moment. Progressive reforms should be used as a toehold that future revolutionaries could rally against in the full knowledge that they would be eventually repealed, and given the reported atrocities of the Argentine army as it was purported to purge people who were considered "ideological extremists" by the Argentine armed forces that it was imperative to protect the stronger Brazilian communist movement against the advance of Peronismo.
A third faction however, arose from Simon Levy, prominent Moroccan Jewish communist stalwart, who suggested a path similar to Hongwen's but more moderated, stating that the communist movement in the Red Order's South America was presently somewhat nascent and that they should focus on building a movement rather than taking action for the moment. Something backed by Congolese revolutionary fighter Mambou Aimee Gnali who also believed that neither overt aggression nor taking sides was in order at this point in time. Though of course, these were only a few of the opinions being suggested.
...
International sport was in a somewhat odd place, not only with each bloc having its own particular games, but also with every world having its own set of such games. Eight different Olympics Committees had become two through mergers, and with shocking speed; now one. With the thought that they could just have a Winter and a Summer Olympic literally every year with all the worlds contributing to it (and make a lot of money in the process), there were concerns from the Comintern committee that humouring the IOC's plans for not only more games but bigger games with bigger venues was in essence; fueling grift.
The IOC's allowance of money into the olympics and increasing drift towards more and heavier corporate sponsorship was castigated by many in the Spartakiad committee as a "capture of the spirit of gaming by the most grotesque forms of individual consumerist capitalism" to quote Mannfred Hoppner of The Red Order's East Germany.
This was of course, done in response to protests that the Communist Bloc's "Soviet Sportsman" complex was in essence cheating by allowing amateurs to dedicate themselves to preparing for major sporting events. They argued that the ideal Olympian should be someone who does it as a hobby off of their usual working days, nevermind that the olympians of other blocs were themselves, rich people who could afford to simply not work to practice and prepare for the games.
"You know, the commies, they have a system. They'll call their athletes "amateurs", but the state provides all their living expenses and they get a break off of work during training season. Most of them are soldiers or steelworkers or negroes, who all have an innate biological advantage. They set up these special training facilities and have their "Spartakaids" to buff up this advantage, making them superior to any capitalist funded operation could ever hope. As you have strenuously tried to convince the IOC, the communists have cheated the honorable amateur system that these games were built on. They however refuse to act. I suspect possible subversion within their ranks, a possible communist agent or two
[...]
It is thus my firm belief that the Olympics provides a wonderful venue for advertising. Endorsements by athletes and advertisements during television broadcasting could provide a steady revenue stream. And I would hope Maggie Pie leads the charge in sponsoring these games…" To quote Richard Finlay in his letter to Avery Brundage, discussing selling television rights to the 1968 Olympics in Lahti and Tokyo, and Maggie Pie sponsoring the Olympics, c. 1967
Perhaps the most pertinent reason for the flare up in this thinking was the decision to host the 1976 Summer games in Germania-Deutschstadt in the Greater Germanic Reich without any reconsideration of the bidding brought about by the second quartet of world merges through what was suspected to be no small amount of bribery by Speer. That alone would be controversial enough, but the 1976 Winter games would be hosted in Tromso in the Norwegian Reichskommissariat; implicitly recognising Norway as a part of The New Order's Germany and rewarding the Organisation Todt and the Konzern's involvement in bulldozing through poorer but less "scenic" parts of the city to make room for an Olympic megaplex and featuring a slate of athletes who included the infamous offspring of dubiously consensual at best marriages between occupying German soldiers and Norwegian women.
In other news of general international sporting shitshows, the IOC's recognised sporting federations were planning to begin a slew of "bloc neutral" world cups to fill the air waves with a bounty of international sporting events to join the old standbys of the FIBA and FIFA world cups in Basketball and Football for sports such as Rugby, Cricket, Handball, Baseball (even if all the countries that played Baseball were variants of America or had the American tradition imported into them by the circumstances of world wars and American cultural influence), Squash, Badminton, and more.
With a world cup for something just about every month, the potential for money into the pockets of the IOC was great, especially as they pitched campaigns of the fantasy of seeing the best professional athletes from countries around the world. Alters going up against Alters, the imagination deliberately allowed to run wild. Many of course, made comparisons of Icarus' doomed flight towards the sun, expecting exhaustion to set in if there were games every year. But then, many sports had yearly events already, and yearly Olympics had been the norm since the world Merges in 1962 in any case, with athletes taking a largely rotational system in response.
No what was far more controversial was that they also proposed something that illicited enough of a kerfuffle for Richard Nixon, presently angling for the chief of the Comintern's Presidium; to issue a comment.
"What circle of Hell did Dante Alleghieri imagine for people who proposed the idea of an "All-Professional Olympics"?" In his quote regarding the IOC's proposed "Titanic games" that would serve as the professional counterpart to the Olympics, distinct from the celebration of amateur sport that would be awarded to once again Athens. More specifically the Red Order timeline's Athens in its divided nation of Greece; a snub to the Council Socialist Republic of Hellas which reigned in the northern half of the country.
The Spartakiad by comparison, had grown larger and there were talks of unifying them with their Socintern counterparts, but the participation in the Spartakaid by athletes from non-revolutionary countries was also on something of a decline. Especially the ABC as tensions heated up with the alter-fascist bloc even with Ettore Muti's ousting and replacement by the celebrated century (more than one hundred confirmed kills) Ace and WW2 veteran; Franco Lucchini.
...
The Pan-African Association of Socialist Republics had grown considerably in the decade since its foundation as Felix Moumie and others had brought together revolutionary states from across the continent; particularly Subsaharan Black Africa. The New Order's Cameroon and Ghana, Red Revolution Realised's Congo and Somalia, the Cold Revolution's South Africa and Guinea Federation, the Red Order's Somalia and Ethiopia; the future of African Socialism was bright.
After a decade of cooperation, they had approached the Communist International with the request of a permanent spot on the Supreme Stavka of the Revolutionary Communist International Military Force (REVMIL) alongside the likes of Soviet Unions and United Republics and Zhonggua; on the same basis that the Latin American revolutionaries had collectively gained a spot. One that would be chosen from elected military officials from the PAASR to represent African military interests in the Stavka.
This was a broadly popular idea, especially as the African members of the Communist International had grown fast and developed quickly with the ocean of aid they were being provided by the enormous industries of the communist bloc. Of particular concern was mounting tensions between the Congo of the Red Revolution Realised and Nigeria, as well as signs of not all being well in the South Africa of the same timeline. The ultramilitarist regime of that Ethiopia also showed signs of being of a mind to settle the score with Somalia, bouyed by offers of support from Eurasianist Russia.
With the West African war in the Cold Revolution and New Order winding down, and the iron grip on Africa of the Red Order by the CAFS maintained as a transition towards neocolonial dominions was underway; it was clear that a new era in African history was beginning. The time of the struggle of vulgar decolonisation; of simply rebelling against colonial governments was fast at an end. In the face of contenders to the traditional system, it had evolved into something more sustainable, more flexible.
A plan for the future, particularly with the new, more complicated situation, was needed. One that would help navigate the transformation of the struggle in Africa into its new, more strange phase, as well as the aspirations for rising to the status of industrial great powers fuelled by ample nuclear energy, electric trains, and sprawling networks of satellites that took advantage of the African continent's favourable lagrange points. Already, rocket launches into space were increasingly common place, and it was expected that there would be...military applications based on the aptly named "Proposal for African nuclear armament by the year 2000".
At the moment, the energy production in Africa was mostly Solar, Wind, and Hydro-electric based. Nuclear plants were infrastructure intensive, and the emphasis on developing indigenous talent who could study, build, and maintain Fast Breeder Reactors meant that they would prefer to wait a bit before engaging in a nuclearised electric grid, and there were real concerns about rampant nuclear proliferation if they did start developing atomic weapons openly. Nevertheless, any rocket launch capability necessarily translated into ICBM launch capacity, so the Congo leading the charge in such capabilities lead to the African nuke scare experienced primarily in the halls of London, Germania, and Rome.
...
In the Timeline of the Cold Revolution, Boaventura's takeover of Brazil had lead to an ocean of blood spilled. The Guarda Verde had widened its net of "sexual deviant" purges further and further, consuming as many lives as some iterations of the second world war. Everyone related to homosexuals, transgendered people, bisexuals was not spared either; out of Boaventura's belief that these people could never be cured by any means save death and that the only way to stop more of them from emerging was to purge their contribution to the genepool altogether. Everyone who had provided aid or succor was also a target, as people were rounded up and shot in a gruesome "christly transformation of society" that lead to murder on a scale to surpass the Black Death in Christian Europe.
A pile of bodies equal to a third of Brazil's population at the start of the "Green Devil"'s reign had spread across Latin America. Nearly sixty million dead across the countries that the Green Guard could operate in, not including the Apparated who were not counted in Brazil's citizenry register and doubtlessly contributed many millions more; the nation's intense efforts to socially engineer the highest possible population growth leading to an ample supply of bodies to fuel Cristiano's intensive paranoia. Tens of millions to report on each other, to feed one another into the system that was killing them by the tens of millions every year. A holocaust of bullets, executions, gas chambers, glide-chemicals, and even fire and flame.
The Integralist Regime was always brutal, authoritarian, and cruel. But the possibility of threat from other timelines, other brazils, had lead to the worst impulses of Boaventura and the Guarda Verde being legitimised, validated, and then endorsed by the increasingly decrepit and ugly little man of Salgado. It strictly regulated public behaviour, dissidents disappeared regularly, the apparated were treated as in essence; soulless; non-humans that the Brazilian state could do whatever it pleased to. In essence, demons that they could force into slavery to try and better the lives of god-fearing Christians by taking away the strain of drudge work from to let them focus on more dignified pursuits.
The Guarda Verde's regime was much worse. Everyone was a suspect, and the secretive regime considered simple association or relation proof of guilt in many cases. Not only out of simple paranoia, but out of a belief that if one liquidated the entire social circle, only then would there be no chance of anyone in that circle desiring revenge on the regime. Where the Integralists would kill one man and his accomplices, the Guarda Verde would annihilate their friends and family to ensure nobody who ever loved that person would want justice for their demise. The Green Guard was obsessed with the cleansing power of chemical and fire; and would host mass burnings where after all the possessions of the condemned were emptied from the building, the flamethrower brigades would light everyone forced into the building on fire while the pet priests of the Guard regime would read out their sermons.
The masked men of the Guarde Verde had their identities kept secret from the public, operating under Nom de Guerres and false identities. They could be anyone and everywhere in the propaganda of the regime. But in truth, the state could not be as omnipresent or as omniscient as it portrayed itself, nor as omnipotent. The economy was miserable, pressure was mounting from without and within. The threat of dissidents once thought eliminated was starting to come swirling back, and enemy navies approached the Brazilian State's territorial waters with regularity.
And as is often said, terror is the tool not of entities in a position of power, but ones who are in a state of weakness. When they feel threatened, when they feel insecure, they will turn to desperation, and through his careful purging of all viable contestants to his ascension; Cristiano Boaventura had made himself the only apparent solution to the problems that Brazil faced. At least, to those who refused to let go of the Integralist way of doing things. All up until the serpent began to bite its own tail in its unending hunger. For the support for the massacres started to waver when the Guarda Verde turned on the army, the bourgeoisie, and even the Integralist Party itself. Without Salgado to check his ambitions, Boaventura was free to kill everyone he pleased to try and create the Kingdom of God in Brazil.
When the massacres started affecting the families of Generals, the friends of the police, and the persons of the wealthy whom Boaventura accused of allegiance with paganism, satanism, homosexuality, atheism, communism, or liberalism the enforcement arms of the integralist regime outside of the Guarda Verde and its pet priests started to fray. Police started to forget details, trying to protect their own; so the Guarda Verde simply started accusing the police of treason and had them purged. The Generals began ordering the army to keep the Guarda Verde out of its affairs, and confrontations began ensuing as the masked and armoured goons of the Guard locked gazes with the Adrien helmed troopers of the Brazilian army. The AIB, having had its Greenshirt paramilitaries ground into pulp by the Green Guard earlier, tried to barricade its offices.
All the while dissent and resistance against Boaventura's increasingly bloodthirsty purges had been growing in many sectors. Militias by underground communist movements, simple survival groups, Liberal dissidents, anarchist mutual aid groups, syndicalist rogue unions, and organised crime had all begun to boil over. When gunfire between the Army and the Green Guard broke out following Boaventura's attempt to arrest the General Staff for refusing to turn over members of their own ranks to his "deranged inquisitions", the pandemonium began.
The inner circle of the Guard sought to look to Boaventura himself for guidance, only to enter his chambers and find nobody there, nor any sign of where he had went. In their time of need, as civil war was starting to erupt and commanders started to turn on each other out of paranoia, suspicion, and uncertainty of who was actually what they said they were and who was just another agent for the madman in the mask.
State governments stopped responding to Rio's calls, army units were mobilised in a confused way as much of the General Staff was killed in the immediate fighting at Rio di Janerio, and the gutting of the command of the Guarda Verde as fingers were pointed regarding the Devil's disappearance lead to the Guard turning on itself. The beast was famished, and tore at its own flesh in confused hunger, while the maggots burrowing in its rotten muscles began to hatch into flies of rebellion and revolution.
The country, quite simply, fell apart, and all eyes were turned to the country as cells evolved into warlord states each seeking to stake their claim to the country as a whole. Millions had died, and millions more may die, while Cold Revolution American Premier Jane Fonda declared a state of emergency as the Sao Paulo Commune shakily broadcast its birth to the world as workers seized its heavy factories and transport logistics, driving out the warring factions of gangsters, soldiers, and guardsmen. Perhaps a Brazilian tragedy could become a Brazilian revolution.
Agenda Setting
You may set a general communist international agenda with a 300 word limit, with a special crisis agenda (Particularly for Latin America's current upsets) with an up to 200 word limit that can be attached to the General agenda. You may attach as many planks as you wish to your agenda. A further 100 word budget for Socintern-Comintern relations will also be offered.
Your plan does not need to cover all three things, you can instead endorse somebody else's plan for the crisis or inter-socialist agenda or make a plan for the crisis and/or inter-socialist agenda and endorse somebody else's general agenda. The General agenda will also cover stuff like economic development and social progress of course, though if not specified in this session it will be left to the automated systems determined by the general behaviour of the comintern.
The agenda and its implementation will affect the general makeup of the Comintern due to party elections being rather clunky and requiring things to come to a halt to do them.
BUT, how you argue for the agenda will also affect the final form of how in-universe, it gets implemented and also the make up of the comintern. Your debates matter almost as much as your votes. I will be monitoring the discord and the thread to gauge the general progress of the argument and conferring with my spouse to figure how they factor in, and will periodically make note of how your arguments are affecting things.
Passionate (but not hostile) posting is strongly encouraged, and roleplaying and makes are even more so.
I will also be providing more information on the timelines periodically, and if you're on either my discord or the wordsmiths discord feel free to ping me for information.
*Shuffling the timeline around a bit so the start of the Swedo-Finnish war doesn't happen until after this post.
**OTL Stalingrad/Volgograd
***Pretend all mentions of Suslov or Zdhanov leading the USSR in the Red Order were actually Pyotr Masherov, with Suslov being the Chair of the Politburo and Zhdanov remaining in Foreign politics, with Masherov being elected to Premier of the Sovnarkom and the Soviet Union on a platform of communisation and integration of the communist international.
****This Tony Benn is from Cold Snow but the USCB includes both iterations of the UOB.
*****Name for the Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline
In the Timeline of the Cold Revolution, Boaventura's takeover of Brazil had lead to an ocean of blood spilled. The Guarda Verde had widened its net of "sexual deviant" purges further and further, consuming as many lives as some iterations of the second world war. Everyone related to homosexuals, transgendered people, bisexuals was not spared either; out of Boaventura's belief that these people could never be cured by any means save death and that the only way to stop more of them from emerging was to purge their contribution to the genepool altogether. Everyone who had provided aid or succor was also a target, as people were rounded up and shot in a gruesome "christly transformation of society" that lead to murder on a scale to surpass the Black Death in Christian Europe.
A pile of bodies equal to a third of Brazil's population at the start of the "Green Devil"'s reign had spread across Latin America. Nearly sixty million dead across the countries that the Green Guard could operate in, not including the Apparated who were not counted in Brazil's citizenry register and doubtlessly contributed many millions more; the nation's intense efforts to socially engineer the highest possible population growth leading to an ample supply of bodies to fuel Cristiano's intensive paranoia. Tens of millions to report on each other, to feed one another into the system that was killing them by the tens of millions every year. A holocaust of bullets, executions, gas chambers, glide-chemicals, and even fire and flame.
The Integralist Regime was always brutal, authoritarian, and cruel. But the possibility of threat from other timelines, other brazils, had lead to the worst impulses of Boaventura and the Guarda Verde being legitimised, validated, and then endorsed by the increasingly decrepit and ugly little man of Salgado. It strictly regulated public behaviour, dissidents disappeared regularly, the apparated were treated as in essence; soulless; non-humans that the Brazilian state could do whatever it pleased to. In essence, demons that they could force into slavery to try and better the lives of god-fearing Christians by taking away the strain of drudge work from to let them focus on more dignified pursuits.
The Guarda Verde's regime was much worse. Everyone was a suspect, and the secretive regime considered simple association or relation proof of guilt in many cases. Not only out of simple paranoia, but out of a belief that if one liquidated the entire social circle, only then would there be no chance of anyone in that circle desiring revenge on the regime. Where the Integralists would kill one man and his accomplices, the Guarda Verde would annihilate their friends and family to ensure nobody who ever loved that person would want justice for their demise. The Green Guard was obsessed with the cleansing power of chemical and fire; and would host mass burnings where after all the possessions of the condemned were emptied from the building, the flamethrower brigades would light everyone forced into the building on fire while the pet priests of the Guard regime would read out their sermons.
The masked men of the Guarde Verde had their identities kept secret from the public, operating under Nom de Guerres and false identities. They could be anyone and everywhere in the propaganda of the regime. But in truth, the state could not be as omnipresent or as omniscient as it portrayed itself, nor as omnipotent. The economy was miserable, pressure was mounting from without and within. The threat of dissidents once thought eliminated was starting to come swirling back, and enemy navies approached the Brazilian State's territorial waters with regularity.
And as is often said, terror is the tool not of entities in a position of power, but ones who are a state of weakness. When they feel threatened, when they feel insecure, they will turn to desperation, and through his careful purging of all viable contestants to his ascension; Cristiano Boaventura had made himself the only apparent solution to the problems that Brazil faced. At least, to those who refused to let go of the Integralist way of doing things. All up until the serpent began to bite its own tail in its unending hunger. For the support for the massacres started to waver when the Guarda Verde turned on the army, the bourgeoisie, and even the Integralist Party itself. Without Salgado to check his ambitions, Boaventura was free to kill everyone he pleased to try and create the Kingdom of God in Brazil.
When the massacres started affecting the families of Generals, the friends of the police, and the persons of the wealthy whom Boaventura accused of allegiance with paganism, satanism, homosexuality, atheism, communism, or liberalism the enforcement arms of the integralist regime outside of the Guarda Verde and its pet priests started to fray. Police started to forget details, trying to protect their own; so the Guarda Verde simply started accusing the police of treason and had them purged. The Generals began ordering the army to keep the Guarda Verde out of its affairs, and confrontations began ensuing as the masked and armoured goons of the Guard locked gazes with the Adrien helmed troopers of the Brazilian army. The AIB, having had its Greenshirt paramilitaries ground into pulp by the Green Guard earlier, tried to barricade its offices.
All the while dissent and resistance against Boaventura's increasingly bloodthirsty purges had been growing in many sectors. Militias by underground communist movements, simple survival groups, Liberal dissidents, anarchist mutual aid groups, syndicalist rogue unions, and organised crime had all begun to boil over. When gunfire between the Army and the Green Guard broke out following Boaventura's attempt to arrest the General Staff for refusing to turn over members of their own ranks to his "deranged inquisitions", the pandemonium began.
The inner circle of the Guard sought to look to Boaventura himself for guidance, only to enter his chambers and find nobody there, nor any sign of where he had went. In their time of need, as civil war was starting to erupt and commanders started to turn on each other out of paranoia, suspicion, and uncertainty of who was actually what they said they were and who was just another agent for the madman in the mask.
State governments stopped responding to Rio's calls, army units were mobilised in a confused way as much of the General Staff was killed in the immediate fighting at Rio di Janerio, and the gutting of the command of the Guarda Verde as fingers were pointed regarding the Devil's disappearance lead to the Guard turning on itself. The beast was famished, and tore at its own flesh in confused hunger, while the maggots burrowing in its rotten muscles began to hatch into flies of rebellion and revolution.
The country, quite simply, fell apart, and all eyes were turned to the country as cells evolved into warlord states each seeking to stake their claim to the country as a whole. Millions had died, and millions more may die, while Cold Revolution American Premier Jane Fonda declared a state of emergency as the Sao Paulo Commune shakily broadcast its birth to the world as workers seized its heavy factories and transport logistics, driving out the warring factions of gangsters, soldiers, and guardsmen. Perhaps a Brazilian tragedy could become a Brazilian revolution.
It's like if you infused Khmer Rouge Cambodia, Francisco Macías Nguema's Equatorial Guinea, and the worst parts of the Chinese Cultural Revolution with the most insane variety of tradcath christo-fascism possible...
National People's Federal Republic era Flag, adopted after the full consolidation of Savinkov's autocracy with the Night of Cold Blood in 1936. A bit anachronistic sure, but cool.
It is also my favorite creation so far, Idk but the color scheme and symbols give an element of elegancy and regalism but ruthless modernity, shame its a fascist flag.
Anyways comrades there is a lot on the agenda these days and before I make any plans I will layout my views on our current situations:
Finland/Sweden War: I am a bit conflicted on this one, Sweden is a monarchy but in the unique position of being allied with leftists for the time being and while normally I would be wary of helping potential enemies I also don't want to give the fascist behemoth such an easy victory that will allow it to sway more to its side. Ultimately the matter depends on how we wanna approach the Socintern since its their world after all.
PASSR: Hard yes on the Pan-African republics having a collective seat on the council as well as fully supporting them in becoming nuclear powers in their own right, we must remember comrades that the Comintern is meant to be a world government that represents all of humanity after all and for too long have African voices been silenced or co-opted by imperialists; we must show that we are better, that the african socialist nations are not mere junior partners to be exploited and "civilised" like all other blocs but equal partners in the grand communist experiment.
We must also remember that we are entering a new stage of colonialism that may be far more insidious and longer lived than before and thus we will need the help of our African members to shatter the lies of the imperialists and show that a better way exists for those who fall for this new smiling imperialism.
South American War: While I am sympathetic to the position of revolutionary defeatism I find myself agreeing with comrade Simon, the communist movements in The Red Order world's South America remain precarious and if they were capable of engaging in true revolutionary defeatism they sure would have done so already. Our priority should not be enabling capitalism and its wars in any of its forms, if anything the defeat of Brazil can serve as a potential springboard for dillusionment with so called "Market Liberalism" and IPTO domination that the communist movement can exploit.
Olympics: Personally I believe that legitimising the conquests of the Nazis in any form to be vile and would prefer simply boycotting the olympics and any sports event that endorses genoicidal reigmes. Other than that I offer no opinion
The Brazilian nightmare: …….It takes a really sick twisted mind to manage to surpass the death toll of a World War in a single country and it seems that The Cold Revolution Brazil is full of them. For now I believe we should offer our support for any communist warlord states that emerge and move quickly to prevent this tragedy from escalating any further.
Comintern-Socintern relations: While obviously there are too many differences to be reconciled here, I see no reason for hostility between our two blocs, I believe the best arrangement we can hope for right now is a mutually beneficial alliance in terms of military, economic and scientific cooperation and use the existence of many Marxist members in the Socintern as a starting point for better relations and entry into the Socintern (as well as considering socintern members desiring VOSCOM membership), after all we remain more cohesive and offer a vision of what the Socintern could be now that it doesn't have to allow anyone in out of fear.
General Comintern Agenda: Now that there are eight worlds to deal with I think we may need to dial down on the military adventurism a bit and focus on consolidating what we have, began further steps in promoting Comintern supermacy and its transition to a true world government with a strong focus on scientific research and cybernetic economies along with increased ecological care. When the opportunity arises for revolution we can still support our comrades with our ability to flood them with material aid and weapons but rn our RIVA forces are badly depleted and we need to replenish our best and brightest lest RIVA suffer the same fate as the bolshievks did in the Red May Timeline.
It's like if you infused Khmer Rouge Cambodia, Francisco Macías Nguema's Equatorial Guinea, and the worst parts of the Chinese Cultural Revolution with the most insane variety of tradcath christo-fascism possible...
Well shit, no surprise Savinkov's Russia is a big threat. I thought the American Technate would be a major opponent, but in hindsight it's isolationist and too weird to fit well with other timelines. It doesn't have similar governments to easily absorb, unlike Russia. It's an absolutely massive powerhouse, Jesus, two and a half Russias formed together into a unitary superstate. I wonder how it feels about the Soviets uniting/ruling Russia in nearly every other timeline and if they think "well at least Russia's strong." Like some Russian nationalists stanning Stalin.
RIP Sweden. Sucks to suck. If the Syndies won't save them I don't see a reason to stick our necks out for them. The only reason we'd do that is to test ourselves against Russia's forces by sending weapons or volunteers but that's a major escalation against a power we just met. This may be a bit optimistic and horribly misguided, but I feel like Nadorist Russia and Nazi Germany will gravitate towards each other as monstrous rivals. We should not draw attention from Russia that could interfere with that process. They're not going to be happy about General Plan Ost and the genocides against Russians.
Pan-Africa definitely deserves a seat at the table. We're still helping them build up but now local homegrown industry is popping up alongside the spread of leftist movements. It's excellent to see that a decade of aid is helping them a lot. They're an equal partner as a growing super-state, and it wouldn't be right to deny them a permanent seat at the military/security council
South America I agree that we need to build up local leftist forces first and engage in revolutionary defeatism, rather than being co-opted by liberalism. Gorbechov, he means well, but is he physically capable of not producing bad leftist takes. Seeing revolutions crushed won't convince people elsewhere to fight harder. It just demoralizes people. Building an independent workers/leftist movement is the way forward. Suslov continues to be right.
Brazil has gone to shit. I don't know if anyone's going to invade it or not but wow that is fucked up. I feel hesitant to intervene to avoid getting dragged into a quagmire. We were trying to stop getting involved in foreign wars a little bit, but this is a massive humanitarian crisis. Maybe a joint intervention with the Socintern could be a good team building exercise, though this is in Cold Order, which is Reds' alter timeline, so it's sort of our home turf so to speak. Maybe extend the offer to tag along to deal with the situation. That could be good.
As discussed on discord, the Socintern is more like the UN while the Comintern more like a semi-integrated EU. While I definitely support its aims to prevent splintering among anti-capitalist powers, it's lack of unity is a bit concerning. At the same time though since it isn't meant to be all encompassing member states in it have their own blocs. While they're expected to coordinate a bit through the Socintern, they all have their own alliances and goals. It's been suggested we join to weigh in on matters, but vote in unison like EU members do in the UN proper. We very much upset the balance of power. While the Socintern is bigger than us, we've morphed into a fairly unified and cohesive bloc bigger than any other member bloc in the Socintern. We also don't want it constraining our decisions too much, if at all. We definitely need a united front with them to present against everyone else, but behind close doors that's where we can discuss and argue with each other. If the Marxists want to join us and agree to meet the Comintern's requirements, I say we allow them, but otherwise avoid making demands of Socintern members.
There is the unfortunate fact that the Futurists and Accelerationists have and are committing cultural genocide. They are the most out there members of the bloc for their, well, deranged ideas and systems. Their only "saving grace" is that they decided they're above left-right dynamic and don't like the capitalists. I get why they courted them though. Western Europe plus North America is a massive bloc. It's just outsided by other blocs spanning multiple timelines. The Technate's been running a planned economy obsessed with numbers go up since the 30s. It's industrial capacity is insane. We just don't want them to swing around to another bloc or worse crack open their markets and make another bloc insanely rich.
Red Order's South America:
As someone who's been a Popular Front Enjoyer here when applicable, while I mostly agree with Gorby's (ptuew) idea of driving a wedge between the Retro- and Neo-colonial blocs to kick the can of anticommunist consolidation down the road, there's very little to be gained by deploying the already worn-out RIVA to die in TRO São Paulo for the sake of some Chicago School ghouls. The "middling" approach taken by Levy is ideal, but with my added suggestion of opening up communication with the Peronistas (and their CAFS backers) to let them know the consequences if they don't reign in the white terror and allow "neutral" observers to mediate and protect. Or really any measures to minimize the damage they could cause the worker's movement in occupied territory. I'm sure the Brazilian Bourgeoisie would only be thrilled if we allow the socialists in South America to experience the same fate as those in Beta South Africa when fascist boots waltzed into the country.
Red Morning's Sweden:
On the other hand, this is worth our material support, or whatever the SocIntern is willing to permit and match. Sweden being a kingdom is, while a sore point, not worth allowing an easy win for MOSACC over, nor is it worth potentially souring the prospect of left wing "periphery" nations reaching out for a red patron, as opposed to the CAFS or IPTO. It would also be a good way to break the ice with the SocIntern.
We should not draw attention from Russia that could interfere with that process. They're not going to be happy about General Plan Ost and the genocides against Russians.
Frankly, I don't see what is essentially a minor scuffle between two second-rate powers in the grand scheme of things detracting a noticeable amount of Narodist Russian attention from the Leviathan that is RK Moskowien/Russland. We can try to find a way to give the Finns a comfortable "out" (as opposed to the ebin trolling that TNO's Finland was subjected to) and try to iron out our points of friction with MOSACC to prevent flashpoints in the future, but otherwise I doubt they'd realigned against us just over this.
While obviously there are too many differences to be reconciled here, I see no reason for hostility between our two blocs, I believe the best arrangement we can hope for right now is a mutually beneficial alliance in terms of military, economic and scientific cooperation and use the existence of many Marxist members in the Socintern as a starting point for better relations and entry into the Socintern (as well as considering socintern members desiring VOSCOM membership), after all we remain more cohesive and offer a vision of what the Socintern could be now that it doesn't have to allow anyone in out of fear.
"Verify Your Clock" Brazil Edition:
Shore up support for the Brazilian Communards and race to cut off the TCO Peronistas from the Brazilian Anarchy ASAP. Sao Paulo here will be an ideal entryway to the potential unification of Brazil where a central authority could possibly be established. The Brazilian Tragedy is black stain on human history, but we can salvage a revolution out of it and avenge RRR's 1935 Rio Commune.
Admitting PASSR into Executive Membership:
Absolutely imperative, in addition to building up them and the SUAR. Aside from the ideological and strategic reasons to have a power from every part of the world hold a seat on the Council, we have to remember that socialists no longer have a monopoly on the "anti-imperialist" struggle. MOSACC and various CPSs are cultivating strong allies across the breadth of Africa (Swahililand), so they will doubtlessly try to wage a propaganda war by accusing us of Red Imperialism. Welcoming the PASSR fully puts a massive dent in that and further consolidates power in preparation for a socialist world republic. It also puts us into a position where we can challenge both the Afrika-Schild and CAFS, being in place for when revolutions erupt.
Our plans in general:
The introduction of a gargantuan Russian superpower flying the Thorn-Crowned Sword alone has dramatically thrown a wrench into our usual agenda. Whereas we talked about encircling the Reichspact or the Italian side of the ABC, now we have to avoid overtly confronting the other blocs (defensive actions notwithstanding) while we further consolidate and lick our wounds. We can weather this storm while others might have a harder time from the economic shock.
discord.gg
trolling that TNO's Finland was subjected to) and try to iron out our points of friction with MOSACC to prevent flashpoints in the future, but otherwise I doubt they'd realigned against us just over this.