Stalin. Part 23: Berlin is taken. What's next?
Stalin understood that the confrontation between the two worlds: the socialist East and the imperialist West - with the victory of the USSR in the war, not only would not lose its relevance, but would also enter a completely new, much more formidable phase. During the war years, the United States has doubled its wealth. The USSR was in ruins.
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Stalin understood that the confrontation between the two worlds: the socialist East and the imperialist West - with the victory of the USSR in the war, not only would not lose its relevance, but would also enter a completely new, much more formidable phase. During the war years, the United States has doubled its wealth. The USSR was in ruins. All we could answer to those threatening us was the unshakable confidence of the victors of fascism in the justice of the socialist system, in the fact that the existence of the Soviet Union is historically justified and politically necessary to maintain the world balance of power.
1. Who will take Berlin?
Berlin had not yet been taken, and the Allied forces were struggling to get ahead of the Red Army. And this despite the Yalta agreements on the zones of occupation! Stalin felt that the ousting of the USSR from Europe was happening right now. “So who will take Berlin? Are we or allies? " he asked Zhukov and Konev. The challenge was perceived correctly, that is, as a call for a battle of the fronts. The start was given. The propaganda fueled a just desire for revenge against the fascist bastards who killed 13.7 million Soviet civilians. I. Ehrenburg wrote: “Who will stop us? General Model? Oder? Volkssturm? No, it's late. Whirl, shout, howl with a mortal howl - reckoning has come”[1].
Soon Stalin will shorten Ehrenburg with the article "Comrade Ehrenburg simplifies." The stage of a hot bloody war developed into a cold political battle. Old slogans quickly lost their relevance.
On April 25, Berlin was surrounded, American troops reached the Elbe, where they joined up with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. It was real jubilation. The war was about to end!
On April 30, Hitler committed suicide. “Got it, scoundrel,” stated Stalin, awakened by Zhukov for the news. He was trying to get some sleep before tomorrow's May Day parade.
On May 8, in Karlshorst, GK Zhukov finally signed the act of unconditional surrender of Germany. They remember that after the ceremony, which clearly weighed on the Russian marshal, he danced "Russian" heartily. As it should, with a squat, knees and crunches. The courage of G. K. Zhukov was shared by the entire victorious Soviet people.
The only exception was one person - the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin. He knew that a new war was not just inevitable, it was already being waged. Churchill, who openly admired Stalin, secretly prepares a third world war, a war against the USSR: “The common danger that united the allies has disappeared,” he wrote, “the Soviet threat replaced the Nazi enemy” [2]. Churchill tried in every possible way to convince the US and British military not to destroy German weapons, they will still come in handy. "A wide strip of Russian-occupied territory will cut us off from Poland … and very soon the road will open for the Russians to advance …"
Churchill kept his olfactory nose in the wind, but Stalin did not doze either. I understood that the West would not dare to openly oppose the victors of fascism right now. And it is not so much about the large number of our ground forces in Europe. The urethral courage of the winners openly frightened the calculating Western politicians. But courage does not last long, moreover, in a victorious frenzy, it is easy to slip into fraternization with those who were an ally yesterday, and today are an enemy.
2. The war is just beginning
Stalin knew about this and did his best to resist the tendencies that threaten the security of the state. Stalin's storm of indignation was aroused by the publication in Pravda of an article with excerpts from Churchill's speech, sanctioned by Molotov, in which he praised Stalin's role as head of the USSR. "Churchill needs this praise in order … to disguise his hostile attitude towards the USSR … By publishing such speeches we help these gentlemen," Stalin pointed out harshly. It is not right for a Soviet politician to "fall into a calf's delight at the praises of the Churchills and Trumans," just as it is not appropriate for a Soviet politician to be upset at their complaints.
“The Soviet people do not need the praise of foreign leaders. As for me personally, such praises only jar me,”Stalin wrote. Still would! Praise of the enemy is nothing more than an encouragement to take the actions he needs, a signal of loss of vigilance and political instinct. It was unacceptable to be liberal, to show pliability in relation to the insidious enemies of the Soviet state. Stalin warned about the incompatibility of politics and the naivety into which some statesmen were ready to fall, lacking an olfactory (constant) political instinct.
The war did not end for Stalin on May 9, 1945. The real political confrontation between the former allies was just beginning. Victory on this front was far away, and no final victory won once and for all was implied in the static olfactory field of threat.
3. "Uncle Joe" surprises
The war had a detrimental effect on Stalin's health. The last straw was Truman's open threat of atomic weapons in Potsdam. Although outwardly Stalin remained unperturbed, the feeling of catastrophic loss in the lengths of time did not leave him. The tension of all physical and mental forces, all the olfactory power of one person against the combined political will of enemies and "allies" was manifested in a bodily hypertensive crisis, then a stroke. The allies cheered. Weakening Stalin gave them a chance. But “Uncle Joe” would not be himself if he didn’t have little surprises in his jacket pocket for hurried “nieces”.
Miraculously recovering from a stroke, Stalin, cheerful and, as always, unperturbed, met the British Ambassador Harriman at his dacha in Gagra on October 24, 1945. This was not expected by the uninvited guest, who was in a hurry to make sure of the complete or at least partial incapacity of the Soviet leader. A stroke at this age gave every reason for sad predictions. Imagine the American's amazement when, after the usual greeting, "Uncle Joe", hiding a grimace in his mustache, made it clear: there was no need to rush to visit, all information about the activities of the Americans is immediately reported here.
Then, in Stalin's voice, the steel irreverentness that was well known to the American diplomat sounded: the Soviet Union will not be a US satellite either in the Far East or anywhere else. The threat from the United States with a "weapon of exceptional power" is nothing more than political blackmail. We know more about your developments than you would like, and our answer to blackmailers will be adequate. For a long time, the United States lived in political isolation, the USSR is leaning towards the same option for itself.
This meant an "iron curtain" from the western olfactory noses, increasing the dominance of the USSR in Eastern Europe. This meant overstressing the country's best scientific and intelligence forces (sound and smell) to create a corridor for the survival of the USSR and its basis - a uranium (atomic) bomb. How this tension of the Soviets ends was well known to the Western countries. Physically weakened Stalin did not intend one iota to weaken the security of the USSR. On the contrary, he was going to strengthen this security with a margin for the future.
For this, new allies were needed. Stalin saw Germany as one of these allies. He did not want to dismember the defeated country. This was what the Americans and the British wanted, who understood how things might turn out. The bogey of Molotov-Ribbentrop still haunts the liberals. There was a daily, every minute confrontation between political forces, where an imbalance was tantamount to a catastrophe. Equal political players on both sides of the pitch made it possible to maintain parity for a long time. Stalin set aside 15 years for the world. Then, he thought, a new war would begin. It started. Olfactory Western politicians have done everything possible to make this war look like … a thaw from our side.
Providence wanted to extend the life of the seriously ill 67-year-old Stalin for several years, necessary to complete the development of weapons of mass destruction - the guarantor of the country's survival in the post-war landscape. 20 days before his death, Stalin will sign a decree on the start of work on a rocket, which in 15 years will put Yuri Gagarin's spacecraft into low-earth orbit. The third world war transforms into a space race. The balance of power will be respected again.
Continue reading.
Previous parts:
Stalin. Part 1: Olfactory Providence over Holy Russia
Stalin. Part 2: Furious Koba
Stalin. Part 3: Unity of opposites
Stalin. Part 4: From Permafrost to April Theses
Stalin. Part 5: How Koba became Stalin
Stalin. Part 6: Deputy. on emergency matters
Stalin. Part 7: Ranking or the Best Disaster Cure
Stalin. Part 8: Time to Collect Stones
Stalin. Part 9: USSR and Lenin's testament
Stalin. Part 10: Die for the Future or Live Now
Stalin. Part 11: Leaderless
Stalin. Part 12: We and They
Stalin. Part 13: From plow and torch to tractors and collective farms
Stalin. Part 14: Soviet Elite Mass Culture
Stalin. Part 15: The last decade before the war. Death of Hope
Stalin. Part 16: The last decade before the war. Underground temple
Stalin. Part 17: Beloved Leader of the Soviet People
Stalin. Part 18: On the eve of the invasion
Stalin. Part 19: War
Stalin. Part 20: By Martial Law
Stalin. Part 21: Stalingrad. Kill the German!
Stalin. Part 22: Political Race. Tehran-Yalta
Stalin. Part 24: Under the Seal of Silence
Stalin. Part 25: After the War
Stalin. Part 26: The Last Five Year Plan
Stalin. Part 27: Be part of the whole
[1] I. Ehrenburg. War.
[2] W. Churchill. The Second World War.
