I Will Stage A Coup D’état

Chapter 49: Contrast (2)

Stalin pondered the advice he had heard from Lee Sung Joon

Under the assumption that a Nazi invasion was inevitable, Lee Sung Joon's advice was logically valid.

Stalin summoned Ivan Sedin¹, the People's Minister for the Soviet Oil Industry, Ivan Fedorovich², the People's Minister of Ferrous Metallurgy, and Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan³, the People's Minister for Foreign Trade, to inquire about how much they were losing in trade with Germany.

Their answers were shocking.

"The Germans are deliberately slacking off or engaging in sabotage. They have rarely delivered the promised quantities on time."

Stalin was furious at this report.

Stalin knew that Germany was slacking off, but he didn't realize it was this serious.

"Why are you reporting this only now!"

Well, who would want to report the truth and get caught?

No one wanted to touch the nerves of a dictator who hoped for the 'non-aggression' to be maintained.

Stalin glared at the people sweating profusely with pale faces.

With such pathetic and stupid people sitting as ministers, he thought the country was running well.

"You comrades have allowed the German bastards to steal the property of the Union."

"So- sorry."

"Stop blinking like a rat and go stop the trains to Germany right now!"

The ministers ran away from Stalin's office quickly with relief.

Pathetic creatures.

Stalin twirled his pen holder.

Should he just leave those stupid people in those positions?

Wouldn't it be better to put them on the 'list' and get rid of them?

He was tempted to do so, but he didn't.

Even if he got rid of those fools in front of him, only new fools would appear.

Stalin decided to endure it for once.

It was an uncharacteristic patience.

When the Soviet government touched trade with Germany, Germany did not remain silent either.

Count Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenburg⁴, the German Ambassador to the Soviet Union, visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and threatened Molotov in a strong tone.

Now that he had Germany, which had already conquered Europe, on his back, the ambassador was unstoppable.

"Trade between the Union and Greater Germany is a symbol of cooperation based on mutual trust. Moscow has unilaterally trampled on such an important legacy. Do you know how seriously Berlin is taking this situation?"

Molotov wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

He had never been cornered like this in a conversation before.

"Ambassador, that's a misunderstanding. Based on reciprocity, we are just sending it late as much as the German side sent the quantities late."

"If it's a misunderstanding, that's a relief. When can I take it to mean that you will resume the supply of resources?"

That wasn't the case.

Unless Stalin ordered it, not a single piece of coal could be allowed to enter Germany.

"Ambassador, for us to resume the supply of resources, sincere measures from the German side must come first."

Molotov said what he had to say, albeit in a difficult position.

No matter how great the difficulty of dealing with the Germans was, it was nothing compared to the fear of Stalin.

"Minister, are you joking right now?"

The German Ambassador scolded Molotov for a long time and left after treating him in a high-handed manner.

Molotov clicked his tongue at the German Ambassador's high-handed attitude and went to report the conversation to Stalin.

"I heard you got an earful from the German Ambassador?"

"Yes. The Count behaved very rudely. He didn't seem like that kind of person before, but it seems there were instructions from Berlin."

Stalin also knew the German Ambassador.

As was typical of German aristocrats with 'von' in their names, Count von der Schulenburg was a polite and docile, typical diplomat.

For such a person to come out so strongly meant that there were strong instructions from his home country.

"It must have been painful for the Nazis to have their resource supply cut off."

"That may be the case."

"From now on, don't give an inch to the German side. Understood?"

"Of course, Comrade General Secretary."

With Stalin's specific instructions given, Molotov had even less room to maneuver.

As a result, when the German Ambassador and Molotov met, they repeated the same words like parrots as if they were talking to a wall.

While the two sides engaged in a diplomatic battle, Stalin reconfirmed the military's wartime readiness.

"Koba, why did you stop laying the defense line on Polish territory, the buffer zone we barely obtained? If we focus on the Stalin Line, we won't be able to defend all the territories we gained in '39 and '40."

"The enemy is Germany. They are the ones who toppled Britain and France in six weeks. Do you think we can counter them right away at the border without preparation?"

Stalin did not have such confidence.

"But if we fight inland, the material damage to the Union will also increase."

"We have to be prepared for that much."

Stalin was prepared to sacrifice millions, no, tens of millions if necessary.

On December 29, 1940, the Soviet Army divided into blue and red armies and conducted a war game.

The Blue Army⁵ skillfully bypassed the Red Army's defense line with ease, using German-style blitzkrieg tactics, easily crushing the Red Army.

When the side playing the role of the German Army, the Blue Army, won in this wargame, the Red Army commanders were shocked.

"This is impossible."

However, the reality was reality.

As soon as Stalin received the report on the results of this wargame, he kicked the desk.

"These idiots. They don't have the mindset to fight Germany at all!"

Stalin immediately issued a high-intensity reprimand.

As the war with Germany was imminent, commanders lacking in qualifications could not be left as they were.

Of course, such measures were far from enough to stop Germany.

I can't fully trust Korea, but it's a waste of troops to keep 30 divisions stuck in the Far East.

Stalin had 20 divisions taken from the troops allocated to the Far Eastern Army and moved to European Russia.

Still, Stalin thought it was not enough.

The enemy was not just Germany alone, but a United States of Europe that could utilize the resources of all of Europe.

To face such an enemy, information was more important than anything else.

Fortunately, the Reds had sympathizers scattered all over the world.

Stalin called for Beria⁶, the head of the NKVD⁷.

"Comrade Beria."

"Yes, Comrade General Secretary."

Stalin's cruel hunting dog bowed his head politely at his master's call.

"From now on, compile the news coming from Germany and put it on my desk every hour. Not a single sound of Adolf bastard's balls shaking should be missing."

"Don't worry. I will do my best."

Beria was just thinking of using the wiretapping equipment developed with the power of Soviet technicians in Korea in Germany.

When January 1941 came, strange things began to happen at the German-Soviet border.

"Hey, that thing passing by at high altitude, isn't that a German plane?"

"I think you're right."

The German Army scratched the nerves of the Soviet Army by entering Soviet airspace several times a day.

"Shoot them all down."

Stalin ordered decisively.

On January 30, 1941, a German reconnaissance plane that had infiltrated to photograph inside Soviet territory at high altitude was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet.

The German government strongly protested this.

"Aren't we in a non-aggression pact? Attacking for accidentally crossing the airspace is going too far."

"You've been messing with our airspace nearly a hundred times in the last month. We've been patient enough."

The Soviet Army pounced like crazy whenever a German plane came in.

Because of these interceptions, the German Air Force had to suffer disruptions in taking photographs for the Army.

"Why are the Soviet bastards suddenly acting so stiff? Aren't they afraid of clashing with the Great Germany?"

"Even the Reds know it. The day is approaching when we will clash with them."

The German Army thought it was bothersome due to the defensive actions of the Soviet Army, but they thought there would be no big problem.

They thought they could use the old maps secured by the German Imperial Army when they were stationed in Russian territory in 1915-18, even if it was regrettable.

Of course, Germany's provocations did not stop there.

In February '41, Ukrainian separatists instigated by Germany carried out terrorism in Western Ukraine.

Railways were cut, bridges were damaged, and government offices were burned.

A situation was created where the entire Western Ukraine was temporarily disrupted.

"Damn, these idiotic bastards."

As a result, the number of military commanders who went to the Gulag increased quite a bit.

Based on Germany's repeated provocations and the information coming from Eastern Europe, Stalin became convinced that Germany's invasion was imminent.

Then it was total mobilization.

"Put them all in military uniforms."

"Pardon? How many are you talking about?"

"I said all of them."

Stalin issued a mobilization order to the 12 million reserve-duty men who had not yet put on military uniforms.

When this mobilization is completed in early May, the size of the Soviet Army will exceed 13 million.

It was a truly formidable number.

In the original history, the Soviet Army was not fully mobilized even at the time of Barbarossa, but here, the mobilization order was issued in February, well before the start of the war.

Millions of men boarded trains and trucks from all over the place and headed to their unit's garrison.

Even after mobilizing such a large army, if Germany did not invade, it would be a disaster in itself.

But Stalin had conviction.

'=The Nazis will definitely come.

And a fateful showdown between the Slavs and Germans, which had continued since the 19th century, would unfold.

Stalin had no intention of losing in this confrontation.

1. There's almost nothing on this guy aside from him being the Second Minister of the Oil industry.2. Ivan Fyodorovich was a Soviet politician of Armenian descent. Hero of Socialist Labor (1943)3. Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the head of state of the Soviet Union.4. Friedrich-Werner Erdmann Matthias Johann Bernhard Erich Graf[1] von der Schulenburg was a German diplomat who served as the last German ambassador to the Soviet Union before Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, during World War II. He began his diplomatic career before World War I, serving as consul and ambassador in several countries.5. Polish Army6. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs from 1938 to 1946, during the country's involvement in the Second World War.7. NKVD (Russian: Narodnyi komissariat vnutrennikh del; Ukrainian: NKVS, or Narodnyi komisariiat vnutrishnikh sprav [People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs]). A ministry of the Soviet government responsible for security and law enforcement that was set up on 7 November 1917 and reorganized as the MVD on 19 March 1946.