The Rise of the Third Reich

"Mr. Minister, we are passing through Marshal Hersmann Street now."

Harry Hopkins is now sitting in a black Cadillac car bound for the Kremlin. Next to him is William Bullitt, the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. The car was passing through a very grand street, lined with gorgeous buildings from the old Tsarist Russia era. Now they are occupied by some agencies, including party and league agencies, People's Committees and Soviet agencies. There is also a very impressive building with swastika flags and sickle-hammer flags flying side by side in front of it - this is where the Soviet Union and Germany actively promoted the company's presence in the Soviet Union. The headquarters is also the location of the Soviet-German Friendship Center.

"Marshal Hessmann?" Harry Hopkins was stunned. "The Soviet Union also has a Marshal Hessmann?"

"No, this street is named after the surname of the German Field Marshal Margrave Hersmann." Bullitt told Hopkins. "According to the Bolshevik Party, this German Field Marshal was a great internationalist fighter and the Soviet people. An old friend of Comrade Lenin, an old friend of the Bolshevik Party.”

"Is he someone like Hammer?"

Bullitt shook his head and whispered: "Hammer can't compare with him. In fact, he was one of the leaders of the Russian August Revolution! He escorted Lenin back to the country in 1917, and then single-handedly planned the August Revolution and brought Lenin to power. Ascended to the throne of Russian dictator!"

Harry Hopkins' eyes widened, "I've heard news about this, are they all true?"

"It's true!" Bullitt smiled, "Fortunately Lenin is dead, otherwise the Soviet Union would have fought side by side with Germany."

Harry Hopkins seemed to hear the voice of Bullitt's words, "William, you mean the Soviet Union will not fight side by side with Germany now?"

"Stalin won't," Bullitt paused, then shook his head, "He is different from Lenin. Their ideas are completely different. Lenin is the revolutionary leader of all mankind, and Stalin is a red czar!"

"Red Czar?" Harry Hopkins smiled, "This is different from his image in the United States."

Bullitt shrugged, "His image in the minds of the Soviet people is not that of a tsar, but those of us foreign diplomats in the Soviet Union know that he is a tsar!"

"This is a good thing, right?" Harry Hopkins asked, "The Tsar once worked with Britain and France to oppose Germany."

"But Britain and France betrayed Russia and refused to save the Tsar!" Bullitt said in a helpless tone, "Stalin experienced that era, and he was one of the founders of that period of history!"

"It's so unfortunate."

Bullitt spread his hands and said with a smile: "Ball promises will not be effective. If you want to win over him, you have to actually come up with something."

These are all the sequelae of the Paris Peace Conference! Russia paid so much, but in the end had nothing, not even its own land. Of course Stalin would not be fooled by a blank check now. No matter how much land controlled by Germany was promised by Britain, the United States and France to the Soviet Union, it would all be empty nonsense to Stalin. If the United States wants the Soviet Union to reduce oil supplies to Germany, then it should provide some tangible benefits.

…

Of course, there were no real benefits. All Harry Hopkins brought to the Soviet Union was a letter written by Roosevelt and a can of Virginia's finest pipe tobacco.

The Red Czar played with the blue tin can containing pipe wire and listened casually to Bullitt's explanation of Hopkins's purpose in Russian - the general meaning was: President Roosevelt was very worried about the prospect of Germany dominating Europe and hoped that The United States and the Soviet Union can join forces to curb Germany's expansion, jointly maintain peace in Europe and the world, reduce or ban the export of oil, food and non-ferrous metals to Germany, and so on...

"Comrade General Secretary," Harry Hopkins said, seeing that Stalin had not said a word and his attitude was very cold, he quickly added, "The President of the United States understands the Soviet Union's desire to restore all lost territory and is willing to support the Soviet Union in After Germany’s defeat, it took back the Baltic provinces… which were territories occupied by the German Empire!”

This is the only "benefits" that Harry Hopkins can currently offer to attract Stalin. However, Stalin still showed no interest. After listening to Bullitt's translation, he just said coldly in Russian with a heavy Georgian accent: "Germany is the largest trading partner of the Soviet Union. We give Germany oil, non-ferrous metals and The food was not given for free. We received from Germany machines, automobile and aircraft parts, battleship and cruiser engines and main guns... These things will significantly enhance the Soviet defense power. For the Soviet Union, this is beneficial and important. Equal trade, and also does not violate the "International Law" and any resolutions of the League of Nations.

If the United States wants to impose trade sanctions on Germany, it should do so through the League of Nations instead of using back-room diplomacy to make promises that cannot be kept. This seems to be exactly what your President Wilson was against! "

Harry Hopkins frowned, "Maybe we can buy part or all of the oil you export to Germany."

"For what?" Stalin asked.

"USD cash!" Harry Hopkins replied immediately. Americans have plenty of U.S. dollars, but it’s hard to say whether they can buy what they want with U.S. dollars.

The Red Tsar shrugged indifferently and said, "Then can I use these dollars to buy a battleship with a 406mm caliber main gun from the United States?"

There are three battleships with 406mm main guns in the US Navy, all of which are "Colorado" class battleships. There are 4 under construction and 8 ready to start construction, all of which are very powerful battleships.

Stalin now wants to get one of them as a "down payment" for the United States to win over the Soviet Union. Of course, he will not reduce the supplies sent to Germany for this reason.

Hopkins knew that this was impossible. If Stalin proposed to get the Baltic, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, and even East Prussia after Germany's defeat, President Roosevelt would agree without hesitation (in the form of a secret agreement).

But it is impossible to provide weapons of this level of battleships to the Soviet Union, and Congress will not pass it at all. And once Roosevelt approves such a deal, his "three consecutive terms" will almost be ruined-because the anti-Soviet forces in the United States are far stronger than the anti-German forces!

Seeing that Hopkins said nothing, Stalin put the blue tin can in his hand on the table and said, "Mr. Minister, Germany is now helping us build Soviet-class battleships. There are four ships under construction now. They can be completed before June 1943. In addition, through long-term cooperation with Germany, we have established a strong industrial system and become the world's third largest industrial power. Recently, with the cooperation of Germany, most of the land in Right Bank Ukraine and Western Belarus has been liberated." He looked at Hopkins, "This is a true friend! And you..." Stalin shook his head and raised his hand to make a gesture of seeing him off.

...

"Comrade Molotov, where does Hitler want to meet me?"

After sending Harry Hopkins away, Stalin summoned Molotov, who had just returned from Germany, in the same office.

"Hitler hopes to meet you in Riga," said Molotov, "and then jointly issue a Riga Charter, which mainly abolishes all unequal treaties and liberates the colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America."

"Singing high-sounding words?" Stalin's pipe was already filled with tobacco sent by Hopkins, and he was smoking it. "What about the conditions for our participation in the war?"

"They didn't mention it," Molotov frowned, "I don't think the Germans necessarily need us to participate in the war."

Molotov's analysis was very accurate! In fact, neither Hitler nor Hersmann believed that the Soviet Union needed to join at this stage. It was enough as long as the Soviet Union continued to act as a friendly country of Germany.

"They really don't need it!" Stalin took a puff of cigarette, "The current Britain and France can't beat Germany at all, we know this very well!"

The Soviet Union and Germany have been traditional partners for 20 years, and the two sides have very in-depth cooperation in military and industry. Stalin certainly knew how strong Germany was! And he also knew that Germany had started preparing for war 20 years ago, and its reserves of oil and non-ferrous metals should be very abundant. Now it is probably just pretending to be short of oil to paralyze imperialism.

In addition, Stalin had completely grasped the situation in France through the Third International - this generation of French people is not good at all! Britain may be able to hold out for a few years under the German submarine blockade. But the French will definitely succumb to the German bombing very soon.

So Stalin believed that Germany did not need to deploy a large number of ground troops to France. As long as it had air superiority and bombed Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other places for 6-12 months, France would definitely surrender.

There was only one Britain left, so what was there to fight!

Moreover, Stalin was also very clear about the heavy losses of British merchant ships in the past two months (there were also Bolsheviks in the British Seamen's Union). The loss of more than 300,000 tons a month was almost the same as in 1917. How could it be possible to fight? Unless the Soviet Union was full and helped Britain, France and Germany fight a ground war.

Isn't this as stupid as the Tsar? Even if it won in the end, the Soviet Union would be exhausted and would not have the strength to participate in the division! The Tsar who did such a stupid thing has been executed, and Stalin does not want to follow in the footsteps of Nicholas II.

Stalin took a puff of his cigarette and said, "So we must now make plans to liberate the vast number of colonial peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America when British and French imperialism collapses. This is also a problem that needs to be solved at the Riga Conference." He thought for a moment and emphasized, "How much can we gain if we do not participate in the world war?"