The Rise of the Third Reich

The plan submitted by Pavlov and Shalashnikov again finally satisfied Comrade Stalin - the Southwestern Front was strengthened and heavily deployed on the Dnieper River defense line. At the same time, the Western Front, the Kalinin Front and the Reserve Front maintained a strong force of more than 2.5 million, which was enough to cope with a large-scale main battle.

It seemed foolproof. Now the evil Nazi invaders would definitely go to hell!

So in the remaining days of April 1943, the Soviet High Command once again worked hard to adjust the deployment, strengthen the defense of the southern line, and weaken the central and northern routes.

At the same time, several German front-line commanders selected by Hessmann and Guderian - Marshal Kuchler, commander-in-chief of the Northern Army Group who surrounded Leningrad in the north, Marshal Manstein, commander of the Central Army Group responsible for the main attack in the middle, and Marshal Rundstedt, who was responsible for attacking Ukraine from the front in the south - were all summoned to the General Staff in Zossen.

"Marshal Reich, where is our goal? Is it Moscow?"

Marshal Manstein, the main commander of the German army in this battle, has carefully studied the "Purple Plan" formulated by Hessmann and Guderian. However, Manstein was still a little confused about the ultimate goal of the German army in the "Purple Plan".

He said: "If we win two battles in Smolensk and west of Moscow, then why do we still have to go south? Leningrad has been besieged for more than half a year. By September or October, how much defense will the city have? We can capture it and surround Moscow at the same time."

"Moscow is a big city that is difficult to capture." Hessmann told Manstein, "If we want to capture Moscow, we must be prepared for hundreds of thousands or even millions of casualties, and we are likely to spend the winter under the city of Moscow."

According to Hessmann and Guderian's estimates, the decisive battle in Smolensk and the area west of Moscow will be very fierce! The Soviets are likely to deploy a huge force of 3-4 million people to resist. Even if the German army wins, it will certainly consume a lot of resources, and it is really uncertain to attack Moscow again.

Moreover, once Moscow is in danger, Stalin will certainly dispatch troops to rescue it at all costs. At that time, the main force of the Red Army in Eastern Ukraine will inevitably be transferred to the north, and Ukraine will be quite empty. Then the German army can use fewer troops to encircle and encircle the entire Eastern Ukraine from the front and back.

"Ideally," Hersman said, "this winter, the front line on the Soviet battlefield should be maintained on the Pskov-Smolensk-Bryansk-Kursk-Voronezh-Stalingrad line."

Because it is expected that the Soviets will transfer all the main forces on the southern line to the central route to defend Moscow, Hersman and Guderian formulated a plan for the Central Army Group to split its troops and move south to cooperate with the Southern Army Group to complete the encirclement of Ukraine, and then move east to attack Stalingrad.

"Cut off the connection between the Caucasus oil producing areas and Moscow?" Marshal Rundstedt also raised a question at this time, "Will Turkey join the war? I heard that Ambassador Papen has been working on Turkey." Ambassador Papen is Franz von Papen, who served as prime minister from June 1 to November 17, 1932. In this time and space, he has never been prime minister, but he is still the leader of the Catholic Center Party (later the Christian Democratic Union). After the merger of the Center Party and the Fatherland Party, he became a member of the National Committee of the Fatherland Party and a member of parliament. After the outbreak of the war, he was sent to Turkey as an ambassador (he served in the Turkish army for most of World War I, so he had many connections in Turkey). He successfully pushed Turkey to open its borders for German troops to pass through after the Mediterranean Campaign was won. However, he was not satisfied with such diplomatic achievements and always wanted to push Turkey to join the war. "That's the idea of ​​the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Hersman shook his head slightly and said, "But I don't think the Turks need to join the war, because the Turks will not join the war in vain. In order to win them over, we may have to give up the Caucasus oil-producing areas. And once we complete the occupation of Stalingrad, the war is likely to end. Why should we drag Turkey into it?"

"What if the war is not so easy to end?" asked old Marshal Rundstedt.

"If the war is not over after we occupy Stalingrad," Hersman shrugged, "then Leningrad will most likely become Her Majesty's loyal Petrograd! In that case...how can we hand over the Caucasus oil-producing areas to the Turks?"

Hersman was not very interested in winning over the Turks to join the war, because if he wanted to negotiate peace with the Soviet Union, it would be better not to take over the Caucasus oil-producing areas. It is too important to the Soviet Union and Russia-without the oil fields in Baku and Grozny, Russian oil and gas companies will not be able to operate well!

And if the Soviet Union stubbornly refuses peace, then Leningrad will be besieged until October this year and it will be almost time for it to surrender. By then, whether Hessmann is willing or not, his friend the Empress will definitely return to the Winter Palace as a victor, and become a true Russian monarch under the cheers of a group of former Soviets defeated by hunger.

In this way... Hessmann certainly cannot give the Caucasus oil to the Turks, because it is the property of Empress Olga and will belong to the Empress of the German Empire in the future.

"Don't worry about Turkey," Hessman said, "We will fight the war ourselves! If... Stalin doesn't admit defeat before the winter comes, then a large part of the Russians will become our allies, and Olga's court will win them over." Russian Empress Olga has issued the "Land Reform Decree" in Pskov Oblast, announcing that all the land of the former Soviet collective farms will be equally distributed to the peasants of the collective farms and become privately owned! And exempt from land tax for three years! If this "pardon" is widely publicized in rural Russia, I am afraid that many Russians will sing "Think of the Empress, welcome the Empress, and don't pay grain when the Empress comes." "Isn't this better?" Marshal Kuchler, commander of the Northern Army Group, asked somewhat strangely. As the commander-in-chief of the German army besieging Leningrad and a close friend of the Russian Empress, he really hopes to capture Leningrad. Hessman shook his head and said, "If we capture Leningrad, there will be no room for easing tensions between us and the Soviet Bolshevik Party, and there will be a long war to be fought." He paused and said, "And Empress Olga's appeal in Russia is limited. Although many people in rural Russia miss her, there are still many people in the entire Soviet Union who oppose her and the Romanov dynasty. In particular, in order to gain our support, she must give up the entire Ukraine, which will make her rule lack legitimacy in the minds of a considerable number of Russians." The separation of Russia and Ukraine was not a problem during the Tsarist period. Although Ukrainian separatism existed at that time, it was not very powerful. Moreover, there was no "Ukrainian State" during the Tsarist period. The territory that was later called Ukraine was called "Little Russia" at that time, and the people living there were also part of the Russian nation. And "Little Russia" did not have a clear territory, and the difference between Little Russians and Great Russians was not very obvious, and even the language difference between Little Russians and Great Russians was not much (equivalent to the dialects in various parts of China). However, after so many years of rule by the Soviet Union and Poland, Ukraine's language, writing, ethnic territory and national consciousness have all been formed. Ukraine's separation from the Soviet Union or Russia has become a trend.

But for the Russians, the main ethnic group of the Soviet Union, losing Ukraine will be their eternal pain! Whoever loses Ukraine must be a sinner of the Russian nation, and this sin cannot be changed by a little so-called benevolent governance.

Because Russia's great power chauvinism has long penetrated into the bone marrow, even more stubborn than the militarism of Germany and Japan, it is very difficult to eliminate it, and it will take at least one generation of denationalization brainwashing.

Moreover, Russia without Ukraine is a worm, and the later Putin the Great has no tricks, let alone Olga, a woman with no experience in governing?

"So Olga didn't really come to power. There are many people who support her and miss her," Hessman sighed softly, "but once she really came to power, there would definitely be more people against her, so I don't want the Romanov dynasty to be restored in Russia. If we must do this, then the Caucasus oil-producing areas must be left to Olga, otherwise how can she continue to be the queen? If she can't do it, won't Russia's troubles be ours?"

The queen must have the capital to be benevolent! Without Ukraine, Russia's industry will definitely not work, and there is not much hope for agriculture (Ukraine is also a granary). If the oil-producing areas are not left to Olga, how can you let the future Russian imperial regime deal with the various dissatisfactions of the domestic people?

This is not something that can be solved once and for all by dividing a few acres of land, because the Soviet Union in the 1940s was a socialist country with a high level of urbanization.

The high level of urbanization means that the distribution of land to households cannot take care of the interests of everyone-otherwise Leningrad would not have resisted stubbornly until now!

Being a socialist country means that the Soviet Union has many benefits, such as a pension system, free medical and education systems, basically free or low-cost housing and various public utilities, and a large number of inefficient state-owned enterprises that still have to pay money and benefits on time. Empress Olga had to take on all of these, and at the same time she had to give benefits to the peasants, otherwise the Russian people would continue to make trouble.