West Russian War
| West Russian War | |||
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| Part of The Cold War | |||
 Partisans attacking Village, 1956 | |||
| Date | July 5, 1955 - February 25, 1957 | ||
| Place | Eastern Europe | ||
| Territory | West Russian Revolutionary Front captured approximately 450,000 sq mi (1,150,000 km²) of German territory but failed to reach Moskau | ||
| Result | Pyrrhic German victory
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| Belligerents | |||
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| Leaders | |||
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“If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there.”
- Georgy Zhukov
The West Russian War or the Second Great Patriotic War, also known as the Second Trial was a conflict fought in eastern Europe between the Greater Germanic Reich and its faction of the Einheitspakt against the West Russian Revolutionary Front and their alliance of socialist countries in the former Soviet Union.
Background[edit | edit source]
Collapse of the Union[edit | edit source]
During the Second World War, Germany invaded the USSR in a masterful display of Lightning Warfare, or Blitzkrieg, known as Operation Barbarossa. The German Army smashed through Soviet lines, encircling and defeating their armies in the Baltics and Ukraine, after which the USSR was in no position to resist.
With the mood inside the government dreary, popular opinion and influence begins to move towards the still decently powerful center, compiled with chairman of the party Nikolai Bukharin exploring a contingency strategy in the Far East, Iosif Stalin called for an extraordinary meeting of the Supreme Soviet. Stalin gave a speech on the errors of Bukharin's policy and Bolshevism as a whole, and he forced through a vote that restaffed the Politburo. With Bukharin disappearing in the Far-East, this was essentially a coup. Whilst the coup itself didn't immediately end the Union, it did begin a period of disloyalty and disorder that would ultimately doom the communist state.
Stalin was wary of a possible counter-coup, and grew more wary as he aged, whilst the front failed to improve under his tenure. Therefore, he sought to move leading Bolshevists who remained in power out of his government, often through demotions to irrelevant departments and party chapters away from the front. This prevented the immediate threat of a civilian counter-coup, but it only grew support outside Moscow. Heads were rolling on the Stalingrad Front, therefore Stalin decided to end in his trusted ally, despite his incompetence, Kliment Voroshilov. Voroshilov was put into a terrible position, having his logistics hamstrung and his forces disorganized. Despite this, he attacked the weakened and overextended Army Group B, which had just depleted the amount of resources that could be sent to the Caucasus. With the entry of Turkey into the war on the German side and the formation of Reichskommissariat Kaukasien in 1943, the Caucasian and Stalingrad fronts would collapse.
The failure was catastrophic for the USSR - militarily, but more importantly culturally. Neither the coup nor the failure at Grozny would have been enough to fully disrupt morale on their own, but taken together, common perception began to be that Stalin was little more than a second Bukharin, if not even worse. Paired with the disappearance of Bukharin himself, Bolshevists began to see Stalin not just as an interloper who broke the systems of the Soviet Union, but as an existential threat to the Soviet Union as a whole, an incompetent man whose unwillingness to adapt to the situation might doom the union forever and lead to the worst possible scenario: fascist victory. One man who very much resented Stalin, was Martemyan Ryutin - the head of the propaganda department. Being loyal to the ideas of Bukharinism, he was demoted, and hence began working on a coup. Being the now-former head of the propaganda department, he started publishing anti-Stalinist papers, such as the Irkutsk Platform.
Ryutin never intended for a war to begin, only a bloodless coup. But when he managed to get the Irkutsk Platform published by the Irkutsk Agitprop office, he in effect broke the USSR forever. Soon, the work was republished across much of Siberia and Central Asia. But within the Supreme Soviet, the work fizzled. Stalin had managed to control the Executive well, and so it refused to allow any mention of the document. When important ministers chose to attempt its introduction instead, they were removed from the assembly. And a few days later, Mikhail Tomsky, who had circulated the document, was arrested. Stalin chose to escalate, hoping he could prevent the resistance from taking hold or connecting with the military. However, many Old Bolsheviks feared Tomsky's arrest, as Bukharin’s disappearance weighed on them. Genrikh Yagoda was especially shocked - Stalin had chosen to arrest Tomsky without his involvement. To Yagoda, this read as a lack of faith. He had already failed to prevent the Ryutin incident, and it seemed likely that whatever happened next, he would be replaced. If Stalin was not going to support him, he reasoned, he was not going to do the same.
By denouncing Stalin, he began the 2nd Russian Civil War.
Rise of Yegorov[edit | edit source]
In the European part of Russia, the Soviet army was in disarray. Voroshilov, not so much due to his incompetence, more so due to the fact he had nothing to fight with, failed to hold off the Germans and counterattack along the Volga.
Stalin growing more and more paranoid by the day had the government and himself relocate to Tyumen, essentially abandoning West Russia to the Germans. In this power vacuum, came to power the replacement for Kliment Voroshilov. Marshal and Hero of the Soviet Union, Alexander Yegorov. West Russia was now de-facto under his command but de-jure still taking commands from Stalin. With the reinvigoration of the Army, and a competent general at the helm, the German advance was halted at the A-A Line stretching from Astrakhan in the south, to Archangelsk in the north. With the winter coming, a breeze set in for Russia. Stalin formed the West Siberian People's Republic and Yegorov formed the West Russian Revolutionary Front. The frontlines solidified, the war was over, Russia lost, and Yegorov only had to recuperate his forces, in preparation for a reclamation, a final war that would bring Russia her honor and glory back.
The Conflict[edit | edit source]
Preparations[edit | edit source]
The start of the preparations for the conflict, is impossible to pinpoint, as the Soviet war machine never stopped from the Second World War. It couldn't stop as this was a war, not of winners and losers, but that of those who lived, and those who perished. It also can't be said this was purely Yegorov's fight. Support, in the shape of men and new rifles such as the AK-47 rushed in from across the Ural mountains. With Stalin's death in 1953, his successor Lazar Kaganovich, became even more invested into the fight. Support from Central Siberia was sparse, as the democratic Central Siberian Republic was anti-Soviet, specifically anti-Stalin, being led by Soviet dissidents. Yagoda in the Far East also had no qualms about not supporting the government he tried to overthrow. Despite that, support from those places rushed west, and the WRRF's number swelled.
Additionally the United States and Japan seeing a chance to counter German ambitions, would give military aid and support to the WRRF, via means of military advisors and war materials.
Two plans under one code-name evolved. Tukhachevsky's plan and Zhukov's plan. Both named Operation Suvorov called for an attack on the German forces when they were least prepared and the ground was muddy from the melted snow, hampering German logistics. It would go off in the early spring.
Both generals bickered among each other, leaving it to Yegorov to combine their plans in what would be a Barbarossa-esque wide front advance. It's goal being the liberation of Moscow and the other major Soviet cities from the German yoke of oppression. The 2nd Great Patriotic War would not fail, it could not fail.
The Beginning[edit | edit source]
In early 1955, the German economy was strained by the war and Generalplan Ost, to the point where Grand Marshall Yegorov believed that German forces would simply crumple under the pressure of the Red Army. He correctly assumed that his forces were much more numerous, and that the Germans would have to concentrate on one section of the front, while he could advance along its entirety. With the German economic crash occurring in early 1955 as predicted. The offensive had to be delayed due to last minute unscheduled relocating of Soviet divisions leading to the Germans being able to slightly reorganize. On the 5th of July, 1955, the WRRF took the opportunity while they still had it and launched a massive attack against Nazi forces.
The war began with a massive partisan uprising across the occupied territories. Partisans blew up railways, put up roadblocks, conducted assassinations and all in all made the Germans' lives hell. Caught totally off guard by this, the Wehrmacht struggled to respond with their communication lines cut. They were in the dark, allowing for Operation Suvorov, to begin. Confusion ran rampant through the Wehrmacht as the Russian forces advanced westwards with barely any resistance. Additionally the Luftwaffe was grounded due to partisans taking out the German fuel dumps across the region, allowing for the Red Air Force to fly unopposed. Marshal Zhukov led Soviet forces in the South, advancing toward Ukraine. Marshal Tukhachevsky's forces, meanwhile, also saw many victories as they aggressively pushed into Moskowien from the north. Astrakhan, Pensa, Arkhangelsk, and Plesetsk were all soon seized by the advancing Russian forces.
The German high command turned to desperate means to stave off the collapse of their front line. One such measure was the creation of the Russian Liberation Army, under Andrey Vlasov. In desperation, the Germans even allowed the creation of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR), the embryo of a free Russian Republic that would rule over areas liberated by the planned German counter offensive.
An attempted coup by the SS also severely weakened the German high command and interior situation leading to the WRRF advancing almost unopposed for an entire month.
Attempted SS Coup[edit | edit source]
Main Article: SS Rebellion
Following the end of World War II, the SS held a position of power in Germany, and the economy was in a state of expansion from all the wealth of the conquered states of Europe and Africa. This prosperity soon came to a grinding halt as the ambitious projects of Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer drained the German treasury and caused the economy to collapse. To make matters worse, the West Russian Revolutionary Front had reunited the disparate warlords of Russia to take back their lost lands in Europe. It was these circumstances that lead Heinrich Himmler to plan to seize power from Hitler.
The SS plan to seize power was simple: SS units would strike the much stronger Wehrmacht from the rear while they were busy in Russia, and destroy their forces. Then, the SS would march on Berlin and seize control of the country, throwing out Hitler and saving the Nazi ideology.
Their plan was destined to fail from the start. General Hans Speidel discovered their plans, and along with several other generals, launched a pre-emptive strike against the SS, defeating them and causing a portion of their forces to flee. In order to prevent a full civil war, Hitler offered Himmler an opportunity. He would take full control of Reichskommissariat Belgien-Nord Frankreich, and border territories of the French State. In return he would stay out of German affairs. This was accepted, and the SS State of Burgundy was created, leaving the remaining SS in Germany under the control of his deputy, Reinhard Heydrich.
Russian Failure[edit | edit source]
The war was smooth sailing for the WRRF up to this point. All of their major strategic objectives had been met so far, Stalingrad had been liberated, and their forces were within spitting distance from Moscow. But it wasn't a situation in which victory was assured. German forces were getting more and more numerous by the day, the Luftwaffe ruled the skies again and the German internal situation had been resolved. Just as the Front's forces were on the brink of reaching Moscow and Leningrad on day 40 of the offensive, the hardships of war began to take too much of a toll on WRRF forces as the front lines began to solidify. Many of the Soviet generals and their forces abandoned the war effort, due to political divisions among leaders of different Soviet factions, severely weakening their united front from within. Combined with the retraction of support from Kaganovich, the WRRF's situation began to look dire.
General Hans Speidel was able to gather enough forces and relieved the now almost besieged city of Moscow, sending Russian soldiers into a full scale retreat. General Ferdinand Schorner's brilliant use of maneuver warfare allowed for a swift recapture of Paulusburg, leading to even more internal stress within the Red Army. With Speidel's counterattack seemingly not stopping, Nikolai Averin leading the Gorky Tank Brigade led a desperate stand at Gorky which would halt the German advance. His counterattack bought enough time for the Red Army to retreat to more defensible positions in an organized manner, leading to a stalemate taking place along the current frontlines, with barely any movement.
Collapse of the Front[edit | edit source]
With the failure of Operation Suvorov, the final piece of faith in the Soviet Union the people had, was lost. Declaration of independence from Bashkortostan and Tatarstan followed almost immediately after the ceasefire. Monarchists led by Vladimir III took control of Vyatka. Vlasov's Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia took control of Samara after a contained German advance.
Warlords across the region started to chip away at Yegorov's Front, leading to its full collapse and retreat to Arkhangelsk.
Aftermath[edit | edit source]
While Operation Suvorov did fail, it ended up liberating 500,000km² of territory. Despite Germany's success in the war, it was only a pyrrhic victory. The war strained the already reeling German economy even more so and severely weakening Reichskommissariat Moskowien, which never managed to retake the A-A line or many of the cities they had lost during the Front's advance. The post-war political situation in Germany became disastrous, as the people's faith in National Socialism and a German "Lebensraum" was virtually shattered.
As a direct result of the SS coup, the SS State of Burgundy was created to appease Heinrich Himmler, and the Schutzstaffel was split into the German and Burgundian branches. The WRRF collapsed and was left with control over the area surrounding Arkhangelsk to the far north. New warlord factions rose up to fill the power vacuum caused by the collapse of the WRRF in their previously held territory.
Nevertheless, the West Russian War was a pivotal moment for both contenders and was the determining factor for the starting events in The New Order.