I Will Stage A Coup D’état - Chapter 180



Only Noblemtl

EP.180 After the Dictator’s Death (1)

Stalin enjoyed listening to music after work.

“Comrade Secretary-General doesn’t like you coming and going during his work, so be careful.”

“All right.”

In the security service organized by Nikolai Vlasik (now purged), there was one unspoken rule that everyone had to know.

Do not disturb Comrade Stalin’s daily life.

I didn’t know who would get angry if I disturbed my comrade’s daily life or provoked him.

The bodyguards stood guard in front of Stalin’s room, looking straight ahead.

thud.

At that moment there was a heavy echo in the room.

It sounded like something large had fallen.

‘Didn’t my comrade collapse?’

‘You want to check? Don’t do that.’

The guards exchanged glances, but did not dare touch the door.

The idea that they should not offend Stalin kept them immobilized.

The next morning, Stalin’s human butcher, Beria, showed up in the Secretary General’s office.

“Please step aside so I can see Comrade Secretary.”

The bodyguards, who had been watching Beria’s comings and goings, immediately left the room.

As soon as Beria opened the door to his office, he smelled a faint stench.

It smelled like urine and feces.

When I looked inside, I saw Stalin lying on the floor, foaming at the mouth.

‘Ha. I never thought a day like this would come for someone like you.’

Beria felt a strange emotion seeing the giant he had previously admired writhing in awe like a mere human being.

“This human being, you piece of trash. You old man who deserves to die.”

Beria whispered in Stalin’s ear the curses he wanted to say.

After a while, party officials heard the news that Stalin had fallen and rushed to his office.

“Where are you, comrade?”

“He is lying over there.”

People were shocked when they tried to approach Stalin and stepped in urine on the floor.

“First, let’s take Comrade Secretary to bed.”

At Kaganovich’s suggestion, the people gathered their strength and carried Stalin to bed.

And when they tried to call a doctor to treat the secretary, a serious problem was discovered.

“The doctors are trying to assassinate me.”

Stalin’s paranoia had led to a purge of the Kremlin’s doctors, leaving no one to treat the General Secretary.

Party officials hastily seized a retired doctor from the city and brought him to the Kremlin.

I did that and barely managed to get an opinion.

“There is absolutely no chance of my comrade recovering?”

“Yes.”

The atmosphere became a little bit more subtle at those words.

An absolute ruler like Stalin can never give orders twice.

Then, isn’t there a power vacuum?

‘If this is the case, who will be next?’

Then Stalin opened his eyes.

“The Secretary has regained consciousness.”

At those words, people quickly hid the impertinent thoughts that had come to their minds.

Beria was horrified.

Surely, you didn’t hear all the swearing I did?

Beria approached Stalin as if he had not even thought about it and started making a fuss.

The world became Stalin’s world again as soon as the absolute ruler opened his eyes.

Even though he couldn’t say a word, Stalin was Stalin.

Even though they were just looking at each other, no one thought of fighting back.

Stalin would raise his hand for a moment to point at something or look at someone.

‘Bring me a picture of my son, Jacob.’

Stalin gave the order, but no one understood.

People were busy interpreting the meaning of the secretary’s actions, thinking that they must have some great significance.

In this way, Stalin breathed his last while desperately waiting for his son’s photo.

“Comrade Secretary has passed away.”

Only then did people breathe a sigh of relief.

The terrifying dictator wielded his fearsome power even though he was paralyzed on one side of his body.

Even such a fearsome power did not last beyond Stalin’s death.

Immediately after the Secretary General passed away, the Council of Ministers of the USSR appointed Georgy Malenkov as interim leader of the Union.

“George, you’re putting that idiot in charge of the Federation?”

Of course, prominent party officials, including Nikita Khrushchev, accepted this situation as temporary.

In fact, the person they were looking at was not a puppet like Malenkov.

He was wary of Lavrenty Beria, the head of the MGB, who was trying to seize power behind Malenkov.

“For the sake of our comrades who died at the hands of that bastard, that bastard must be eliminated.”

“That’s true, but can you get rid of that guy?”

“The Red Army will be on our side. I can guarantee that.”

In contrast to the conspiracy unfolding under the surface, the situation above the surface was very bright.

“Let’s call a ceasefire now.”

With Stalin, the last obstacle to an armistice, gone, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to abandon the war in Italy.

It was decided to draw the military demarcation line along the current front line.

In this case, the communist camp was effectively defeated, but the responsibility for defeat could be borne by the dead Stalin.

“Finally, those commies are backing down.”

The ceasefire in Italy brought a breath of fresh air to the frozen Cold War.

The new Soviet leaders, the Troika of Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov, proposed a grand-successful reconciliation with the West, hoping to rally the people who had been distraught by the long war and purges.

The West was taken aback by the sudden change in the Soviet Union’s attitude, but did not give up its hand for the time being.

“It seems like the Reds have changed a bit, but let’s wait and see.”

The Soviet Union’s gesture was not limited to the West.

They also reached out to Pyongyang.

“We will also help prevent nuclear proliferation in China.”

The Sino-Soviet relationship that had deteriorated slightly after the abolition of the Yushin regime was thus cleanly mended.

Three months after Stalin’s death.

The world felt a brief moment of warmth.

*

That’s a mistake.

I sneered.

If you ask people in the 21st century about past Soviet leaders, they will all answer like this.

“After Stalin? Not Khrushchev?”

I don’t even know there’s such a thing as Malenkov.

Malenkov was that insignificant.

What would be the point of a story told by a guy like that?

The only person who could make a practical promise was Khrushchev, the man with the power to win the next presidency.

I drew a line on the Soviet question at the Cabinet meeting.

“The power vacuum in the Soviet Union is still there, so don’t talk nonsense.”

“Yes? Wasn’t it the Malenkov Troika that took power?”

Yeah, no.

The real power in the Soviet Union, then and now, has been the military.

And Zhukov, who could be called the head of the military, hated Beria very much.

It was decided from the beginning whose side Zhukov would take in the power struggle between Beria and Khrushchev.

So, we just had to wait until the winner was clear.

“Your Excellency, I have received word that Soviet Secretary Malenkov wishes to hold a summit.”

“Let’s discuss the schedule over time.”

To refuse outright would have been to hurt the pride of the superpower, the Soviet Union.

So, it takes time.

I secretly reached out to the Soviet military through the Soviet embassy.

It would be a nuisance to bow to Khrushchev now, so it was right to act like this.

Marshal Zhukov, the hero of the German-Soviet war, reacted strangely to our attempts at contact.

“What business do you have with me in Korea?”

“The point is, it is difficult to grasp the situation in the Federation, an ally of the Empire, so I would like to ask for the opinion of Your Excellency, a man of power.”

“is it so?”

Zhukov told us a bit about his situation.

He didn’t lie outright, but he hid some facts.

After listening to Zhukov’s conversation, I became convinced of one thing.

Zhukov had no intention of sitting idly by and watching the current situation unfold.

In that case, the only action he could take was a coup.

Whether this was a faster or slower movement than the original, it was clear that they were thinking about a coup from quite early on.

Gil Tae-hwan, who replaced Kim Seong-ju as the Army Minister, made a serious expression as soon as he heard my analysis.

“If the Soviet military staged a coup and it failed, it could lead to a very serious situation.”

I agree with that.

Original Translation: What happened to the Soviet Union immediately after the failed coup of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1991?

The great federation was dissolved.

It didn’t seem likely that the current Soviet Union would suffer that much damage, but it seemed clear that a failed coup would be fatal to the Federation.

‘I never thought about the possibility of failure, but it’s not impossible.’

Beria held the capital firmly in his hands.

If the coup side had not moved quickly enough to catch them off guard, the situation could have changed.

“Then should we intervene?”

Of course, there were not many means of intervening in the superpower Soviet Union.

The only intervention we could do was to provide financial support.

“If possible, it would be better not to intervene directly. Even if we intervene and overthrow the regime, the Soviet Union will be wary of our intervention.”

“The Federation has its pride, and it probably doesn’t like its neighbors interfering with its internal affairs.”

So, is wait-and-see the best option for now?

However, I was anxious about letting go of this dizzying situation.

So I decided to use a simple trick.

“Just in case, send a lot of international mail to Beria.”

Since the coup forces might not have a pretext to attack Beria, they decided to present him with the charge of colluding with foreign countries.

‘Even so, if you lose, I admit it. Beria, you are the number one in the Soviet Union.’