I became Stalin chapter 103
103
Just as Germany runs camps, there were people in the Soviet Union who were imprisoned in the Gulag.
It was one to half better than Nazi Germany, which runs extermination camps to kill them openly, but it was operated at a level that was embarrassing to even claim that.
“So, how many people are there?”
“… It is estimated that around 3.5 million people.”
Stalin didn’t kill tens of millions, as Western sagas during the Cold War had painted over.
But it was undeniable that he was a murderer who imprisoned millions and killed hundreds of thousands. Beria wiggled her fingers as she looked at my dismayed eyes and smiled sullenly.
“How many of them are political prisoners, not vicious ones, who can be released?”
“Yes? The release of political prisoners?”
Well. don’t wanna In fact, even if you think about it briefly, the claim to release them all back into society was, frankly, realistically impossible.
Although it was the Soviet government’s fault for throwing people into the Gulag, they still had to lead the war anyway. It was too radical to release millions of people who might have held a grudge against the government right away.
“Aren’t we supposed to send them back to society someday?”
“… If that’s the will of Comrade General Secretary… .”
“Berry, you may think so, but it is not a simple matter. We will have to be friendly with the imperialist countries, ostensibly in the future, and don’t let these ‘little’ things get in our way!”
“I will obey your orders!”
Only then did Beria respond quickly.
Western “imperialist” countries have always criticized the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries for personal human rights issues. Mechanisms of maintaining the regime, such as concentration camps and secret police, were among the Western repertoire of major accusations. Even now, anti-Soviet Americans were constantly blaming the Soviet Union for this and whining.
“I don’t know what you guys have to say about throwing Japanese people into the gullag, but anyway, don’t be rude to them. Moral superiority is our good weapon.”
“After all, Comrade Secretary General’s insight is outstanding! We never dared to even think of that.”
“Think about it. How many people will have to die in another fierce battle with them? Having a head-to-head confrontation with their pouring weapons. Isn’t it really terrible? It would be great if we could lead the board to an advantage through morality rather than kneeling with a gun.”
You cannot abandon socialism. Socialism is the very identity of the Soviet Union.
But in the future, socialism in the USSR should be socialism with a human face, rather than crushing the opposition with Stalin’s steel power and pushing the opposition away like a bulldozer.
Even to promote that the country we live in is a happier and “good” country, even if it is a little less prosperous and lacking something.
“We will leave the development of Siberia to skilled workers. Gulag’s living conditions should also be relaxed. Berry, you follow me without saying anything. Isn’t the food situation bad right now?”
According to the plan, most of the prisoners will be treated like average Soviets and will be sent from the Volga to Kazakhstan. At least it would be better than the harsh forced labor in Siberia.
One day, this area had to be developed, and a huge amount of labor was required to lay the infrastructure for development.
If you can’t put them into military production right away because of sabotage concerns, it’s better to use them for something like this.
“by the way… ha! How cool!”
“It is so, Comrade Secretary General.”
Sporadic power struggles were taking place on the front lines.
However, I stopped the war map for a while, and for the first time since possession, I came out of Moscow and did a local inspection. Right in the ‘virgin land’ around the Volga and Kazakhstan.
The plain, which was open to the horizon, preserved the fresh greenery as if it had not been touched by human hands. A great plain with no curves stretched out all the way to where the eyes could see.
All of a sudden, Khrushchev, who was escorting me from a distance, caught my eye. It was as if he was still terrified of flinching when he caught my eye.
Khrushchev’s claim to ‘clearing virgin land’ was an exquisite mix of bullshit and truth, but it wasn’t wrong at all.
Wheat that had undergone seed improvement was able to grow well enough in this area. It was not as good as the black soil of Ukraine, but the quality of the soil was good.
However, the infrastructure was absolutely lacking.
What do you do with grain production? You should be able to ship it to people who will eat it.
“When will we be able to build enough railroads to cover all this vast land?”
“Choi… I will finish it as soon as possible!”
The local party secretary became contemplative and bowed his head abruptly to apologize. I didn’t mean to force you to do the impossible right away, so I smiled moderately and waved my hand.
However, railroads for transportation were essential.
In actual history, the area was so wide and had little infrastructure itself. The cost of shipping grain from Kazakhstan to the densely populated areas of Europe and Russia was more expensive than just importing US grain and unloading it to Leningrad.
“First of all, our Soviet Union needs far more railroads than it does now! Only railroads connect this vast land into one nation!”
I had the Gulag inmates to lay it out hard, but at least tens of thousands of kilometers more.
Only with the railroad could local goods be brought up to the center, and central control could effectively extend to the provinces. The inefficient centralization of the Soviet Union made corruption and inefficiency pervasive throughout society, and in the end even made me collapse without being able to control myself.
“More railroads! More Steel! More machines! This will lead us to victory. We were able to come this far with the dedication and blood and sweat of the people. Now it’s the machine’s turn to save the people. We must make sure that even the last drop of their blood and sweat is used for the people.”
“Yes!!!!”
The Encabede agents escorting me grinned, revealing their white teeth. For some time now, officials who were found to have stolen the blood and sweat of the people were taken to the “traditional” Gulag.
Those in power had to fear someone. It would be best if the people were the masters of the state, but if not, even the secret police would be afraid.
Wouldn’t it be great if Encabede’s intelligence could not only monitor the people, but the powers! Well, there were a lot of things that had to be done before that.
* * *
For example, agricultural machinery and fertilizers were too scarce.
Because of the war, the excuse was possible. The factories that were supposed to print tractors and combines became tank factories, and the fertilizer factories became gunpowder factories.
But when the war is over, they will switch back Even in the Soviet Union, which constantly shouted for machinery and industrialization, more than 40% of the farm households that were still rolling with manpower and livestock (livestock!) alone accounted for more than 40%.
The famous Soviet collective farm was not using machines to divide labor, but just manpower, horses, and a few cows.
This is bound to be inefficient! Who would want to farm on land that does not belong to me while hurting myself? I’d rather not know if I told you to hand over a few agricultural machines and just click and roll the machines.
“It will be after the war, but let’s build railroads around places that can provide sufficient agricultural water. We also have modern storage facilities around the railroad.”
Local officials were diligently jotting down every word of mine as if they were oracles.
I shouldn’t take my non-professional opinion like this, but… Anyway, it’s not something I came up with as a brain person, but it’s something I’ve made through research so far, right?
“Let’s first distribute agricultural machinery and fertilizers to collective farms located in blocks adjacent to the railway. Why can’t we waste precious resources by giving equal support to inefficient places?”
“Yes, Comrade Secretary General!”
First, fervent party members armed with agricultural machinery, fertilizers, and new seeds are put into the efficient land.
After the war, the blueprint for post-war restoration contained all these aspects. Major projects such as rural mechanization, the supply of fertilizers and pesticides, the introduction of new seeds, and the construction of large-scale rural houses were already in the planning stages, looking ahead to the post-war period.
In particular, the geneticist Bavilov was working on improving the dwarf wheat I designated. Since it has already been developed in Italy, etc., it is possible to quickly improve it to suit the Soviet environment.
The Soviet Union did not always produce enough agricultural and livestock products for its own consumption, although about 20% of the population was engaged in agriculture.
The shortage was imported from Europe and the United States and became a leash that plagued the Soviet Union to the end. It was very different from American agriculture, which feeds the world with only 5% of the population. Among them, mechanization could be said to be the main variable.
In order to close the gap, the Soviet Union had to utilize heavy industry that had poured out all of its national capabilities.
Contrary to popular belief, agriculture and heavy industry have become inseparable from each other in modern times. To the extent that it would be better to fill in some consumer goods with imports and continue to invest in heavy industry if we reached a society that was biased towards heavy industry as much as the Soviet Union.
“Currently, the current status of farm machinery in collective farms by region is as follows.”
The official in charge of the agricultural sector turned over the presentations one by one with a trembling voice in front of me and the Politburo members who came out of the local inspection. Various charts show the number of agricultural machines owned by Kolhoz (collective farm) and Softhoz (state farm) in the lower administrative districts.
Just looking at it, agricultural machinery was absurdly lacking.
“After the war, within three years, we will have to produce enough agricultural machinery to cover this land.”
“Ah… .”
One farm machine can do more than dozens of people rush to work.
Even compared to livestock, the power of agricultural machinery is overwhelming. The crappy-looking cultivator engines we use today have 8 to 10 horsepower.
When a farm horse of this era works for 6-8 hours, it produces about 1 horsepower, so one cultivator can produce more than 8 horses. people? In terms of the ability to work continuously, it is less than 0.1 horsepower!
Even machines eat oil, but they are far less laborious than horses and finicky creatures.
By attaching an auxiliary device to a power source (tractor, cultivator), it can be used more versatile and can work for a longer period of time.
And those who have worked with machines can put them back into modern work. Considering that the people who form the backbone of the current Soviet tank soldiers are people who came from collective farms and drove tractors, you can see how much the supply of agricultural machinery is necessary for an industrial society.
“Of course, we can’t just invest in machine production. It has its limits.”
Essentially, it had nothing to do with running an army. At most, the size of the army grew several dozen times than that of supplying a few million troops, and it was just that many more factors were involved.
The Politburo members nodded as if they understood this well.
“You’ve been tired of it too, you know? Or let me do a little more work. Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Ha ha ha ha ha… Hahaha! That’s right, Comrade Secretary General.”
A facility to supply and maintain agricultural machinery should be arranged.
If there are facilities, there must also be manpower, and education is required to cultivate manpower. The number of areas we need to invest tail to tail has increased, and the number of things we need to pay attention to has also increased.
Fortunately, the war was helping.
“A large number of tanks are being supplied to the battlefield, and the number of troops who have learned to drive and maintain vehicles is increasing. They will become valuable troopers in the industrial field in the future.”
“That’s it! War may be a terrible tragedy, but we Soviet people will be reborn in war.”
As a military strategist, Borosilov was a breadwinner, but as a military ruler, he had more than expected talent.
It was Borosilov who led the cavalry of the Red Army during the Red Army and organized it behind the scenes and turned it into an army.
Even now, Borosilov was making a significant contribution to nurturing the Special Forces Spetsnaz and promoting quantitative and qualitative improvement with volunteers within the army.
The tank soldiers who survived the bloody war will return to the industrial field after the war is over. With the talents learned in the military.
In this era, driving was a valuable talent. Manipulating complex machines was no less than a tremendous ability. The modern war, the all-out war we are experiencing, has organized young people who are still living in the pre-modern era into a new human image.
Even in Korean society, the military once played such a role.
Rural youths, who woke up at sunrise, ate when hungry, and slept at sunset, had to get used to the military schedule that moved according to a tight schedule of 5 or 10 minutes.
And they could use what they had learned in the military to become good workers. The way the military worked was essentially not much different from the factory.
So was ‘my’ grandfather. My grandfather, a veteran of the Vietnam War, served as a sergeant and learned how to maintain a vehicle. And with the melody I learned in the military, I raised four children, including my father.
Suddenly, thinking of my father, the images of a drunken shoemaker from Gori, Georgia and a benevolent office worker overlapped and disappeared. I shuddered at the weirdness.
* * *
“Maybe the war was a good thing… Koba, don’t you think so too?”
“is it… ?”
That evening, after drinking a few glasses of vodka at a dinner prepared by the local party organization, Borosilov asked me with a dazed look on his face.
I drank about half a cup because I had to take care of this old body’s health, but most of it was drunkenly after repeating pour and drink.
War… If you have never seen the horrors of the war in real history, you could say that. Borosilov drank another glass of vodka.
“okay! That’s good. Ukrainian reactionaries must have been surprised when they saw it, right? Is Collective Farming a Problem? Right now, there are a lot of bastards saying they will kill us all… .”
Stalin wielded a ruthless iron fist to suppress dissatisfaction, citing a security threat.
‘We are more than a century to half a century behind the capitalist powers. If we do not catch up with this within 10 years, there is no future for our socialist country. Will you catch up with them or will you be eaten by them?’
In 1931 Stalin said:
Thousands of people have since been executed, taken to the Gulag, and starved to death.
However, when the war broke out in just 10 years, the violence could be justified. Borosilov was pointing that out.
‘You have disregarded Comrade Stalin’s wisdom for the sake of immediate comfort. But look! We were right!’
“People have been throwing trash at us. But look! The winds of the times, the winds of history, will sweep it away. Coba, get me a drink.”
“… .”
‘I’ will probably be evaluated much more favorably than Stalin in actual history.
The actual tragedy on the Eastern Front was much reduced, and the Soviet power grew more efficiently. The leader of the anti-communists who will criticize me, Churchill, was roasted by the much more powerful German army.
Even so, the Soviet Union is the only one who can stop Germany.
In part, it also reduced cultural-social oppression and surveillance… .
Perhaps the biggest part of Stalin’s many mistakes has been reduced, so wouldn’t later generations evaluate ‘I’ more positively? But it also had its own problems.
The mythical success of the Stalin regime made it difficult for future leaders to attempt drastic reforms. It was only in the 1980s when the problems of the system became so prominent that it was impossible to hide it.
It wasn’t until 30 years after Stalin’s death that reformers like Gorbachev began to work on the problem in earnest.
‘Even that, he took a clumsy and naive approach and ended up dismantling the Soviet Union… .’
The country built on the blood of workers and people was dismantled by the children of poor peasants who wanted to become feudal aristocracy on their own. And the confusion started.
As I recalled the dry memories in my head, a strange resentment erupted.
‘In this world… Is it possible to democratize Stalin?’
In real history, Khrushchev, who led it, was slapped with a lot of scolds and couldn’t even speak.
Molotov, who would be loyal to Stalin until the end, was recognized as a semi-second-ranked man. The high-ranking generals of the military, who had armed forces in their hands, gave almost absolute allegiance to me because I personally hired them and promoted them.
Success today may lead to failure later… However, it cannot fail with the lives of the people now.
I had a headache and drank vodka.
Yes, how can I take responsibility for what happens after I die?
I became Stalin chapter 103
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