Springtime for Stalin

[Horrorshow]

I have thought long and hard, but it is difficult to locate the exact point that the charade of Democracy became evident to the world. Of course there had been countless failures and embarrassments, but to locate the one point is a seemingly impossible task. If I had to pick a single point however, I think it might be the summer of 1936, when Stalin the Great held up a mirror to the world's democracies and they grew ashamed.

For they chose the wrong side of that war, and in so doing sowed the seeds of their own destruction just a few years later. But I get ahead of myself. I suppose you kids don't know much of that time. I will tell you that Stalin was quite the ladies man, and was beloved of all the people. His good deeds were legion, and not a week would go by without him saving the life of one damsel or another. I think I have a picture here of one such occaision, which was shortly before the Spanish War and the ugly business of the wicked Trotskyites:

Well, in those days a lot of people liked to think they knew better than us. You know how it is with backwards people. The Basque Republic used to be called Spain, and had a lot of squabbling folk. While most of them were like us, and favored the worker, there were others who wanted nothing more than to ride in fancy automobiles and wear diamond rings dug up by child laborers. They were called Fascists, and were pretty much like Capitalists, but meaner. They felt that they should tell all the little people what to do, and they didn't care whether you liked it or not. They were mean, ugly people and hated us Communists, since we were so much healthier and smarter and certainly saner than they.

People like that, they get to fighting over stupid stuff. And in Spain, these Fascists had decided to try and push around the working man. Well, they weren't going to put up with that! In July of that year their leader, Franco, declared from the Canary Islands a "State of War" for all of Spain. The workers met this threat gladly, as I'm sure you realized!

The first thing, the Regional Government of Catalonia, the Generalitat, decided to arm the people.

The policemen are our friends, and in that war they proved it as well. Here I have a picture of the police defending the workers.

 

[Horrorshow]

The king of Spain, he didn't like Franco, and he asked Stalin to come in and save his simple people. Well, of course he would! Why, just the fact that he was coming personally to save Spanishland was enough to convince thousands of women to join him in fighting the Fascists!

There was a lot of hard fighting, but it wasn't long before we started to paste those bastards right in the kisser! Why folks from all over flocked to join us:

Oh, those Fascists fought back pretty hard, but it wasn't long before they were about done. Here's a pic of Republican forces sheltered against vicious fascist thugs before counter-attacking:

 

[Horrorshow]

In a place called Malaga, the Communists overwhelmed the fascist defenders and capture 150,000 of them!

Here's a pic of us crushing them in their Guernica nest:

I know what you're thinking: That Stalin was a hell of a man! Well sure he was, but he didn't do it all alone! No sir! Of course he had the working man everywhere on his side, but in that war he relied on a simple fisherman, who was a natural at leading men: Ernest Hemingway, overall commander of the International Brigades, led the final assault against the starving Fascist holdouts in Lerida and ended the war. Here's a picture of him helping a young soldier:

Well, with all those workers it wasn't but 2 months before those Fascists were done in. The Basque Communists officially defeated the Nationalists after the dishonorable General Franco commited suicide in a burned out cellar.

Well, there's lots more to tell you guys but I'm just about done in. You kids get to bed, and we'll see what Uncle Joe gets up to tomorrow!

 

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Excellent reels.

Is that Stalin in the first picture? lol

 

[Norgesvenn]

Stalin and his daughter, who later defected to the West, I believe.

Nice use of images. I like that.

 

[Horrorshow]

Yep, the people in the pictures are 100% accurate. It's the circumstances of the pictures that I'm fudging. This is 'Stalin Victorious' after all!

However, that really is Hemingway teaching an International Brigade soldier.

 

[unmerged(2377)]

Nice AAR.

 

[Minodrin]

Very nice AAR. Keep it coming...

 

[Horrorshow]

Well now, where was I? Oh yes, I think I was talking about before the Final War. It's hard to believe now, but there were many people then who did not believe in the promise our great leader brought. Stalin was hurt by the betrayal of his old comades Rykov, Kamenev and Zinoviev, who after a fair trial were fairly executed. Zinoviev, the ringleader, confessed to the murder of Sergei Kirov. His last words: "I end as a traitor to my party, a traitor who must be shot."

These doubters couldn't stop the progress of the workers!

In January of 1937, Karl Radek and sixteen other leading members of the Communist Party are put on trial. They were accused of working with Leon Trotsky in an attempt to overthrow the Soviet government with the objective of restoring capitalism. All of the accused were found guilty and sentenced to death.

It wasn't all heartache and betrayal for Stalin in those years, however. One of the many reasons he was beloved of all was his dozens of very popular children's books involving the hijinks of Mr. Muggs the Communist Cat. Here he is penning yet another volume, while his illustrator Beria looks on.

 

[Horrorshow]

In March of that year of 1937 the Great Expansion began. While it was of course caused by radical and disloyal elements, it none the less had benefits for Mother Russia in the end.

The Southern Generals, they took advantage of Stalin's good nature, but to his great regret he did not punish them harshly enough.

Poorly led and equipped, Afghanistan was no match for the might of the Soviet armies and the Afghanistan Peoples Republic formed.

Within weeks, despite heated resistance the Persian lines shattered.

 

[Horrorshow]

On July 17, 1937 Persia threw off the yoke of capitalism and joined the USSR.

Stalin's magnanimous pardons for what the army had done that spring was repaid by the spread of Trotskyism. Stalin would not be so foolish again, and moved to put down the strikes and civil disturbances.

Precious is his name, Lavrenti Beria was appointed Minister of Security after the previous office holder committed suicide by shooting himself in the back with 4 bullets in February 1938.

Not long after Beria took office I and many of my comrades decided to spend some enriching quality time building roads through the Pripet Marshes, so news was scarce. It wasn't until January of 1939 that word reached us that, in yet another terrible winter suicide, Foreign Minister Litinov pushed himself down 10 flights of stairs and broke his neck and every bone in his body, as well as all the bones of his friends and family. He was replaced by Molotov, who was far too clever to use the stairs. Britain stifled the insurgent communist movement in Iraq, Japan annexed China and Spain continued to rebuff the only nation that stood beside her in her darkest days. Distance was not the safest barrier for Russia's enemies. Research breakthrough followed breakthrough, and the Soviet machine was blessed with a depth of development that provided improvements on the pre-war tanks, bombers, and fighters.

 

[stnylan]

I cracked up at seeing that last pic

Very well done.

[mutter] 4 days till I get the game, 4 days till I get the game[/mutter]

 

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Originally posted by Horrorshow

Precious is his name, Lavrenti Beria was appointed Minister of Security after the previous office holder committed suicide by shooting himself in the back with 4 bullets in February 1938.

LOL jaja he committed "suicide" by shotting himself 4 times lol...

Nice AAR btw

 

[unmerged(8915)]

i loved the part: my and my comrades took some quality time building roads in pripiet. looks like somebody has been working in a gulag. youre style is true to communist propaganda, keep it up

 

[unmerged(13590)]

very good AAR, they way you put in propaganda makes it that much better. keep up the good work.

 

[Horrorshow]

Now, of course all of the Western Powers were class enemies. But that did not mean that they were friends to each other! No, it was far too easy for clever Stalin to not only encourage a falling out among the dogs, but to make sure that as many of them would die in the process as possible. To this end Great Leader Stalin shared many Russian inventions with the backwards Western Capitalists. Not only such inventions as writing and the toilet, but discoveries that would cause even more of them to die, such as the Enigma machine.

September of 1939. It was just then that the weather began to hint at the coolness of fall, and it was then that the Germans fell upon the Poles.

Stalin was delighted! It was 6 full weeks before the Germans could finish all Polish resistance, and in that time they took tens of thousands of casualties in the thick belts of minefields we had provided the Poles, not to mention all the other armaments secretly supplied. In all that time the nation of France did not fall upon the sorely outnumbered Germans, which was puzzling.

 

[Horrorshow]

The first snows of winter had fallen before Germany turned back to the west. The French had dallied, and the Low Countries bordering the Channel had soon fallen as well. There was now a solid front from the Channel to Switzerland. Stalin was said to have laughed loudly when he contemplated how many decadent capitalists were dead.

The French proved unequal to the task though, and within weeks their capitol of Paris was threatened and Stalin declared war on Germany. Our armies were in winter quarters or in transit still from the Finnish front after much [censored] and too many [censored], and so our attack was hurried and conducted in the cold and snow.

In the West the Allied Capitalists were granted a reprieve as the Germans had to strip that front to deal with our offensive.

January 1940 was a month of mixed blessings. Our attack was an overwhelming success at first, and we knifed through Poland and rolled over all opposition. The Germans reacted quickly however, and stripped its front with France to a skeleton force and rushed 150 divisions east. At first these forces were committed piece-meal, but in Konigsberg they caught us napping and in a battle that raged for 6 days over a million men fought and died, and though our cause was pure 60 divisions were thrown back over the Bug, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of casualties.

 

[Horrorshow]

In the north the lines had stabilized as both sides struggled to rebuild crippled armies. In the south, despite repeated German sorties our armies pushed through ineffective resistance and claimed Hungary and Slovakia. Romania was crumbling and Bulgaria trembled.

In February our new offensive began, and it brought immediate results.

The pressure was mounting on Germany. A general named Himmler

took responsibility for the defense of the capitol and it quickly fell.

 

[HJ Tulp]

Hopefully this AAr isn't finished

 

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Your photographs are amazing!