I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 148

“Wow, they really just attacked?”

“Yes. That’s right. The operation name was ‘Knight’s Leap’ (Rosselsprung).”

Beria politely handed me a report. Just like in real history, Nazi Germany launched an operation to capture Tito and destroy the Yugoslav army.

Of course, they failed just like in real history.

“Hey, Borong… Borosilov! Your soldiers seem to have done quite well?”

“Hahaha, I know how to train my soldiers well!”

Just in case, I planted some elite Spetsnaz agents among the troops I sent to the Yugoslav army. They also made a great achievement in stopping this attack, according to the report.

The purpose was actually two-fold. Anyway, now it was to protect Tito, the friendly leader, and prevent Yugoslavia, which we had made into an ally, from falling apart and plunging into chaos.

And to make Tito’s heart grow cold.

In real history, Tito defied Stalin, who had risen to the absolute ruler and leader of the communist bloc. He passed on various information to the Western bloc, while playing both sides diplomatically, and founded the Non-Aligned Movement, putting a brake on the expansion of influence of the two imperialist countries.

Now that Britain, which had dominated the Mediterranean, had fallen and become a floating island in the sea of speculation, the Soviet Union had to hold on to the Eastern bloc tightly… But I didn’t know when they would go their own way.

“There aren’t many big shots like Tito… Damn.”

He was that much of a big shot. He made the word ‘third world’, and made the small countries of the Balkans, which had been torn apart and dominated by foreign powers, the main actors of the international diplomatic stage.

According to the spies and security guards who reported to me, and according to what I knew, he was not a staunch pro-Soviet socialist. Rather, he was closer to a nationalist.

“What are you going to do?”

Beria asked me with a gleam in his eye. 

He licked his tongue and acted as if he would kill him right away, with the expression he usually had when he assassinated or buried someone.

But I had no such intention.

“Rather, isn’t this an opportunity? Hahahaha!”

***

“So… this is what I’m ‘proposing’.”

[Comrade Secretary’s proposal is certainly interesting…]

Tito wanted autonomy. Not a puppet that did what the Soviet Union told him to do, but a voice of the Balkan nations united.

Of course, I wouldn’t order them to do collective farms or purge all the bourgeoisie anyway, so I could say that some of it was a lie. But I did intend to set up puppet regimes in Poland, Germany, and so on, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.

“We think that Yugoslavia’s global role is very important. Yugoslavia can be a model for many late-independence countries. The oppressed nations under imperialist rule unite and create a self-reliant and free socialist state!”

[…]

“The founding of the Soviet Union was certainly a huge step for the development of world socialism, but it could not avoid criticism that it was bloody and violent. I admit that. 

There was necessary bloodshed, but it was too excessive.”

Molotov, who was listening to the conversation quietly next to me, glared at me.

It achieved mythical economic growth and industrialization, but it was built on the blood and tears of trampled peasants. 

On the flag of the Red Army, there would be drops of blood from workers, peasants, and revolutionaries.

“Also, our Soviet Union has never been an oppressed nation under imperialism. Some territories were occupied by fascists, but. But Yugoslavia’s historical experience will surely inspire the oppressed nations of the third world!”

[Ah… Um… Comrade Secretary, I understand what you are saying. But…]

Tito still seemed doubtful.

[But what is the third world?]

“Ah! Haha…”

That’s right. This era still didn’t know the words that symbolized the Cold War. The third world, the iron curtain, the mutual assured destruction.

I felt like I was stealing something.

“It means the third force that does not belong to either the first world socialist freedom camp like us, or the second world bourgeois imperialist camp represented by Britain and America. 

Like the third estate during the French Revolution, it has great potential, but it is still underdeveloped, so it has infinite potential to grow and bloom in the future.”

[Then what is the role of our Yugoslavia in that ‘third world’?]

My intention was simple: ‘a friend of a friend is a friend’.

Yugoslavia and other Eastern European countries, as well as Egypt, Indonesia, and other former colonies, would naturally be closer to the Soviet Union, which advocated anti-imperialism.

The more these countries’ influence grew, the more the US’s influence would shrink, as they could not let go of their imperialist allies like Britain. The Soviet Union would benefit relatively.

“Yugoslavia just has to oppose our Soviet line.”

[Yes?]

“You don’t have to agree with us on everything. Even then, the Soviet Union will still support Yugoslavia as a top priority ally, and help Comrade Tito achieve his goals.”

Who would elect a puppet who agreed with everything the Soviet Union said as the leader of the ‘non-aligned countries’?

“Just for some key national interests, I hope that Yugoslavia will cooperate with us and the socialist countries.”

But only at the decisive moment, you have to be on our side. Usually, you can clash with the Soviet Union and make a loud noise, reach out to the West, and act as a mediator, but in the end, you help the Soviet Union, a kind of joker card.

That was the role I wanted Yugoslavia to play.

[…I think this needs more discussion.]

“Good. This will not harm Yugoslavia’s international influence.”

It was much better than being a junior partner of a superpower, even if it was understood that way. 

In fact, they didn’t have to listen to the Soviet Union’s words and lose face, and to put it bluntly, they could play around with the small countries and get a lot of benefits.

Tito seemed to be thinking. But he would accept it.

Like the other leaders.

***

The Eastern Front was looking forward to recovering the pre-war border as Germany retreated step by step.

No matter how far away, the ‘many’ nuclear warheads for actual combat would be completed by this year.

So we turned our eyes to another direction.

In the Far East, we shook the roots of Japanese imperialism by causing a general strike in Korea and a mass struggle of the Japanese Communist Party. In Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, we cultivated organizations that could control the region by themselves by cutting off some of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Did the French friends finally agree?”

“Yes! That’s right, Comrade Secretary.”

Molotov was running wild as a special envoy of the Kremlin.

The people he met this time were secret agents of the French Communist Party who had been active in the resistance in France. They had eaten up the activity funds and all kinds of support we had given them, and now they had their noses pierced.

No matter what anyone said, the greatest contributors to this world war against the fascists were the United States and the Soviet Union.

Britain and France were beaten in an instant and dropped out of the front line, and only the Soviet Union fought against the mighty ground forces of Nazi Germany and won.

The United States supported the Soviet Union as a water supplier from behind, but anyway, it was the Soviet Union that shed blood in Europe.

The French resistance fighters had no choice but to obey the Soviet command, whether it was because of the money they had eaten or because they were ideological leaders.

“Is the liberation of Algeria and Indochina such a bad thing? Tsk tsk tsk…”

“Algeria insisted that it was no different from the mainland of France, having ruled it for hundreds of years, but… they agreed to let the Algerians choose whether to stay in the French Republic or not through a referendum.”

Of course they wouldn’t stay. There were no one who liked the French colonial rule, whether they were Muslimists or socialists.

Even if France had modernized Algeria for the past years, it was a development centered on the big cities where the mainland immigrants (Pied-noir, meaning black feet – referring to the European immigrants who wore shoes) flocked.

Most of the local indigenous people were pushed south and south, losing their fertile coastal land, and either survived by digging the ground in the desert or became servants of the French. 

This was something that the Soviet Union, which advocated the liberation of the world’s oppressed nations, could not ignore.

We owed the French resistance a debt, so we demanded that France liberate the colonies after the victory.

“It’s not like the colonies are that profitable anyway! Yeah, private businessmen might have found a lot of wealth in the colonies, but… they just made it with the taxes of the people.”

Of course, this was also beneficial for France.

In real history, France was obsessed with maintaining the colonial empire and threw the young people of their country, who had already sacrificed enough in the Second World War, into the Algerian War and the Indochina War.

Eventually, they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, and the Fourth Republic collapsed and de Gaulle came to power, ending the war. 

Tens of thousands of young people shed blood in the jungles and deserts of the colonies, and France suffered a lot more than Britain, which was able to play the role of the leader of the Commonwealth by liberating the colonies moderately.

France, which once had an economic power comparable to Britain and ruled as the strongest country in Western Europe, fell to a level where it could not even beat the divided West Germany.

“Also, I contacted Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam and conveyed our intentions.”

“Really? That’s good.”

Almost all the colonies supported Vichy France, so it was an excuse for the nation to cause active communist activities, that is, pro-Allied resistance movements, in the colonies.

The same logic was used in the Indochina Peninsula.

We Soviet Union would behave only enough not to lead to a war in the Far East because of the threat of Japan. But supporting the organizations that opposed Japan and Vichy France was surely beneficial for the Allies.

The French would watch bitterly, and the Americans would watch nervously as the Soviet Union continued to expand its socialist sphere of influence, but anyway, they wouldn’t have much to say.

“Did I tell you about the domino effect?”

“Yes? No, you didn’t…”

“Hahaha… Well. The domino effect is, you see, the political upheaval caused by a revolution in one country can affect the neighboring countries.”

For example, we negotiated with the French resistance and raised the flag of the anti-colonial movement in Algeria and Indochina.

The intellectuals and peasants of the neighboring countries who noticed the changes made here would surely think. What can’t we do, what’s the difference?

Algeria, the largest country in Africa, would be dyed with the wave of revolution, and it could spread to neighboring Morocco, Libya, and Egypt. Then it would spread to the Arab countries that share the same culture.

Also, if Vietnam in the Indochina Peninsula carried out land reform and distributed farmland, would the small farmers in Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia just look at it from afar? They would demand distribution by overthrowing the greedy landlords and the incompetent monarchy.

“All we have to do is create an environment where the people’s demands, their aspirations for development and freedom, can burst out!”

We didn’t have the ability to pour out a lot of money like the United States and develop the economy and make them our side, but we could at least get rid of the shackles that held their ankles. 

Such as the concrete, the colonial oppressors, the landlords and other feudal oppressors.

And one more thing, we could also provide the most valuable thing.

No, we were already providing it.

“How are the students doing?”

“Oh! Yes. They are still adapting to the weather, but…”

Hahaha, they wouldn’t adapt.

Even if they were armed with a firm belief that they would lead the revival of their country and nation, the winter would not be familiar to those from the warm southern countries. And the winter of Russia was still long.

The students from the colonies also had to endure this winter, and the winter of their homeland. Until spring, the season when the buds sprout.