I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 163

“We must rise up now and drive out the filthy fascist occupiers!”

“It’s too soon! We can’t afford to spill our blood in vain! There are 20,000 German troops stationed in Paris alone! And what if the Germans from the militia and the surrounding cities come rushing in…?”

The middle-aged resistance leader who was arguing against the uprising shivered. 

He felt that the communist party’s sudden change of position was too abrupt.

The communist party and its affiliated resistance groups had been fervently anti-Nazi, but until now, most of their efforts had been on expanding their organization.

They had set up cells in the universities and factories in Paris, and formed a provisional cabinet with their party officials. What else could they call it but organizational consolidation?

The right-wing and the socialists had done similar things, but the communists had stopped attacking the German garrison at some point, except for the student groups composed of zealous radicals. 

The student circles had still been active, but they had become scarce after many students were arrested.

So, from the perspective of the other factions, their sudden radicalization seemed strange.

‘Did they receive an order?’

The French communist party had officially denied that they received orders from the Soviet Union, but everyone knew that they did. Who wouldn’t know when they shouted ‘Comintern line’?

Of course, no one could say that out loud. The communists accounted for at least 60 percent of the resistance movement. 

A handful of socialists or the even smaller right-wing groups couldn’t dare to oppose them.

The national council of the resistance was dominated by them, and eventually, the motion was put to a vote. People exchanged glances of hostility among the factions, but they each wrote down their approval or disapproval on a piece of paper and handed it in. 

A few people gathered the papers and counted them.

From the beginning of the vote, there were far more votes in favor, so anyone could predict the approval. 

No, as soon as the communists declared their party line in favor, more than half of the votes were predictable. 

In this place, more than half of the representatives were either supporters of the French communist party or from the organizations under their influence.

“Approval 163 votes! Disapproval 71 votes! The motion is passed!”

“You’re passing this with just a majority vote? You’re going to ruin the resistance movement!”

“You’re the one who’s against the democratic principle! You’re the fascist!”

“Boo! Fascists, get out!”

A right-wing leader stood up and protested against the hasty uprising, but the overwhelming size of the booing drowned out his protest. 

Colorful insults such as fascist, Kremlin’s whore, German lapdog, and reds flew back and forth, and the conference hall became a hell.

He was the representative of the national council on the surface, but he had a weak base organization and was in a disadvantageous position as a socialist. 

Jean Moulin, the leader, watched the argument between the delegates with a troubled expression.

“Enough! Enough! Be quiet!”

The presiding officer banged the hammer and shouted for silence, but unfortunately, the French people’s most difficult thing was silence, so nothing changed much.

But one shout silenced more than half of them.

“Comrades! Please be quiet for a moment!”

The secretary-general of the French communist party, Maurice Thorez, quietly crossed his arms and watched the chaotic situation, then shouted loudly. 

The communists who heard his voice shut their mouths in an instant, and the other delegates who were arguing with them also quieted down.

The secretary-general walked up to the podium and took his place as if he was going to give a long speech. He glanced at the presiding officer and nodded, then began to speak calmly.

“Our communist party will… start the uprising on December 22, no matter what. The comrades of the resistance…”

After saying comrades, he turned his gaze to the side where the socialists and right-wing delegates were sitting. The communists looked at the secretary-general with a determined look, and the right-wing side burst out with complaints, but they soon subsided in front of Thorez’s serious attitude.

“Is it the Kremlin’s order?”

“…”

When Jean Moulin, the chairman of the national council of the resistance, asked, the secretary-general Thorez confirmed it with silence. Some booed, but some others seemed to wonder what the Soviet Union’s intention was, looking at his firm attitude.

“Is the Soviet Union trying to use us as cannon fodder?”

“We can’t trust them! They’re just trying to provoke the Paris uprising with the Operation Red Dawn, because the eastern front is deteriorating!”

Despite the protests of the other factions, the secretary-general Thorez stared at them silently, as if he would listen to any criticism. 

The secretary-general and the high-ranking officials of the communist party had already read the letter from Stalin, and they knew what was going to happen.

‘A decisive offensive that will bring down Germany…’

Just once. With that one time, the Soviet Union promised in the letter that they would make Germany kneel and liberate all of Europe.

Germany was now lying to its own country and the rear-occupied areas that they would stop the Soviet army at the Vistula River with the heroic leadership of the model enemy, and counterattack. 

The letter from Stalin’s secretary-general told a different story. Of course, the Soviet Union could be lying too.

But even so, they couldn’t give up being the liberators of Paris for the future control of the regime. When the other parties and factions hesitated, they would liberate the city with a bold total war and become the savior!

Paris was France, and France was Paris. The liberator of Paris would soon become the liberator of France, and the communists couldn’t give that role to anyone else.

“Our policy will not change. You can criticize us for wasting the capacity of the council. But… please don’t try to sabotage us just because we’re from different factions.”

“Sabotage? What do you think of us!”

“…”

Some shouted that, but they had to shut their mouths in front of the cold eyes that the communists sent in unison. 

There was definitely a conflict between the factions, and some organizations had even ‘disposed’ of competing organizations with the help of Germany and the Gestapo, which everyone was half-sure of.

The secretary-general Thorez opened his mouth again in a low voice.

“We can surely liberate Paris with a total struggle. 20,000 German troops? They’re nothing but scum. The Soviet army is advancing across the continent to crush millions of German troops and liberate Europe, and we can’t just wait for liberation!”

“Liberation? Liberation? You mean red terror!”

“Shut up! Fascist bastard!”

“Comrades of the resistance! We can break them down! Will you run away or fight back? The last chance to choose has come! You can join as individuals, not as organizations. We welcome all comrades!”

Sometimes booing broke out, and someone shouted and argued, but the secretary-general Thorez didn’t care and stepped down from the podium and left. 

When he left, the officials of the communist party followed him in unison, and the council became a complete mess.

There was a debate. To participate or not, was that a reckless left-wing childishness? Or a national determination?

“What will the socialists do?”

“Let’s see… It’s such an urgent matter…”

Philippe Leclerc, the leader of the right-wing organization, approached Mullen and asked in a low voice. He shook his head nervously, unable to make a decision. The snow was too much around them.

“What are they all thinking…”

“That’s something we’ll have to see.”

Leclerc seemed very skeptical. How could they beat 20,000 German soldiers! He grumbled and walked towards the right-wing delegates.

‘…Will victory come?’

The long underground activity and the memory of defeat had made them shrink.

The communists who followed the Soviet orders as if they were religious, seemed to overcome their fear with religious zeal, but the others could not.

They still did not feel like victory was coming. Germany’s momentum was still soaring in the sky, and all the newspapers and informants claimed that Germany was still fighting well enough.

Sometimes the bombs dropped by the flying bombers seemed to tell them that the full moon was also shaken, but the brutal repression of the German army seemed to say that it was not yet.

“We… should stay back for a while.”

***

The city of light, Paris, was a huge city indeed.

The population of Paris alone was close to 3 million, and the population of the Paris metropolitan area was over 5 million. 

The Ile-de-France, which corresponded to the capital region of France, was a metropolis with 7 million inhabitants even in this era.

And the largest underground resistance organization in France was the Communist Party, and they were able to organize a huge demonstration.

The Soviet Union had steadily sent them counterfeit marks, which became the basis for maintaining the organization and collecting weapons for the resistance movement. Factory workers and citizens took out their stockpiled weapons and ammunition one by one.

Until the day of destiny, December 22nd.

“Long live France! Long live the revolution! Down with the fascists!”

“Long live the revolution! Long live the liberation of the homeland!”

From the three provinces surrounding Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis, Hauts-de-Seine, and Val-de-Marne, the communists had been flocking to liberate Paris since a few days before the general uprising. 

In the 20 districts of Paris, thousands of armed demonstrators were ready to drive out the German army.

“Our main goal is here! The heart of Paris.”

“…The first district?”

The German army arrogantly used the hotel in the center of the first district as the headquarters of the military administration. The Le Maurice Hotel, overlooking the Seine River that flows across Paris, stood tall and looked down on the Parisians.

The administrative districts of Paris were numbered from 1 to 20, spiraling out from the center, and the German army was fully armed in the heart of Paris.

The Communist Resistance wanted to overthrow them with a general uprising and liberate Paris. 

The Soviet Union said that if they liberated Paris as much as possible in three days, the German army would surrender afterwards.

“Three days! Just three days! After that… liberation will come!!!”

“Waaaaah!!”

Liberation, liberation is coming, my friend! The liberation that we dreamed of!

In front of tens of thousands of demonstrators burning with passion, there were only 20,000 German soldiers. 

If they succeeded here, many more demonstrators would rise up elsewhere, so they only had to deal with them!

But the Communists had overlooked one thing.

There was a reason why they had placed ‘only’ 20,000 German soldiers in Paris, where millions lived.

***

“Liberation, shi… Aaargh!”

“No! Philippe!”

The Resistance, who had left each district with pride and marched towards the heart of the first district, collided with the solid defense line built by the German army.

The German army had withdrawn many troops from the Eastern Front due to the disaster, but they had not left Paris empty, and the division directly under the military administration stationed in Paris was one of the most powerful units that Germany had, while the other divisions had melted away.

“Fire the mortars when the rioters approach within 500m!”

“Yes! Prepare the mortars!”

The demonstrators who had seized the Etoile Gate in the 8th district and marched along the Champs-Elysees from the west were shocked by the German artillery and had no choice but to flee in panic.

The Germans who had barricaded the buildings in front of the Concord Square used curved-fire weapons to indiscriminately bombard the demonstrators.

The machine guns fired from the gaps in the barricades were impossible to deal with by the demonstrators’ weak personal weapons.

Especially since the Germans who operated them were elite veterans who had crushed the French and British allied forces in just six weeks.

The demonstrators who had raided the Army Museum in the southwest 7th district and advanced with the old rifles from the last war were also crushed by the German counterattack.

As the heart of the revolution and the city of rebellion, the Parisians had fought against the oppressors by building barricades and throwing Molotov cocktails. But now the oppressors had built barricades and massacred the Parisians.

In just one day, the French Communist Party’s demonstrators suffered more than 10,000 casualties and had to retreat to the outskirts of the city, giving up the liberation of Paris.

“Retreat! Retreat! It’s a tactical retreat!”

Everyone knew that a tactical retreat was no different from a miserable defeat. 

The Germans cruelly raked their machine guns at the backs of the fleeing people, and they did not discriminate between men, women, and children.

“Suppress them! Kill all the rioters!”

“Fire the flamethrowers!”

The Resistance hid in the buildings and alleys, but the Germans had the equipment to match them. The Germans who poured flames into the buildings where people lived, captured the buildings one by one and advanced.

The military administration commander Dietrich Koltitz ordered a harsh suppression. He had already received orders from the Führer.

[Burn Paris! Along with the rioters!]

“…Yes, Führer!”

Of course, he did not want to burn Paris. He did not want to leave a stain in history by smashing this beautiful city of light, the height of human history, with his own hands.

So he suppressed the ‘rioters’ more harshly. 

He had to trample them all so that they would not dare to rebel and destroy the city. 

If the city was destroyed because of the suppression, he just had to make sure there was nothing to suppress!

“The rioters are resisting with the Bastille Park as their base. What will you do?”

“Call the bombers!”

The park was fine. He could rebuild it even if he razed it. Buildings were hard to rebuild, but parks could be made again anytime.

The Stukas stationed at the airfield on the outskirts of Ile-de-France flew up as if they had found food for the first time in a while and swooped down on the citizens. 

The Resistance, who had no anti-aircraft guns and only fired empty shots with old rifles at the ground and sky, were helpless against the Stukas.

Whiiiiiiik! Piiiiiiik! The citizens who heard the terrible roar of the steel beasts for the first time in years burst into tears and screams and lay down on the ground.

“Hahahaha! You worm-like rioters!”

“Aaaaaah!”

The machine guns, like the claws of an eagle, swept over the citizens like prey. 

What was left there were pieces of flesh torn by the fragments of the bullets. 

The screams and groans never seemed to end.

The Communist Party’s leadership maintained their composure as they heard of these disasters.

“The 11th district uprising army… is waiting for the order to retreat to the 20th district.”

“7th district commander Georges Eberel killed in action! The deputy commander and the other officers are also in critical condition! Who will take over the command…?”

With bloodshot eyes, Torres, the secretary-general, clenched his teeth. Gnashing, he gave the order.

“Don’t try to advance, avoid frontal confrontation, and occupy the buildings! We have two days left! Liberation will come in two days!”

Kremlin… He had to contact the Kremlin. He muttered to himself and walked out of the command post on the outskirts of Paris.

The eyes of the remaining officers were filled with confusion and despair. 

Despite the numerical superiority of several times, the Germans had mercilessly suppressed the uprising army in no time without much damage. 

They had no idea how to deal with weapons like cannons and aircraft that they had never thought of.

Only hope was the Soviet Union.

“Comrade Stalin…”

Someone muttered the name of the one who ordered this situation. As if praying, he lowered his head. Like a prayer, people called Stalin’s name.

“Comrade Stalin…”

“Comrade Secretary-General…!”