Operation Gallop Part 2
TheRejectionist
TheRejectionist
KUNTSEVO DACHA, FOUR YEARS LATER
Kolya wanted to have nothing to do with Zhukov as much as he did before, not after witnessing the annexation of Man'chzhuriya and the expulsion of what Stalin defined as the expulsion of wreckers, anti-revolutionaries and fascists after the Chinese Communist Party had declined to “cede” the region to the Soviet Union, leaving the majority of the population of the former Japanese puppet being Russian Whites, Japanese, and Koreans ( the latter probably tempted to leave and go to the Pyongyang in the United States Army Military Government in Korea Zone) or the mass expulsion of the last remaining Germans from what was now called Królewiec. He felt a deep sense of sadness knowing that the Man of Steel demonstrated little, if any, empathy towards formerly presumed allies and perceived defeated enemies, and showed no mercy or different treatment to them.
And he was still with Zhukov.
His personal photographer. Though he had felt more as his chaffeur and barista than a photographer.
<< Pour me another glass Nikolay >>
Driving and serving the Marshal was a risky hassle, but except for the near contortion he could do it without a problem. It annoyed him but there were advantages to be close to one of the heroes of the Soviet Union.
When they arrived at Stalin’s dacha, Kolya almost sighed a breath of relief. However, the sensation didn’t last for long, noticing immediately the guards were crying.
<< What happened ? >>
Asked Zhukov abruptly when he interpelled one of the soldiers sobbing.
<< Comrade Stalin is dead >>
Kolya stood still out of shock unlike the Marshall, who rushed immediately inside. The “photographer” followed suit but remained composed and serious, concentrating all of his energies in not crying or smiling.
The bastard is dead!
He was one of the few who had not lost any family members to the terrors of the NKVD and others, but the anguish consumated lots of his life. Or during the war. Kazan was a blessing. Now Stalin was dead and maybe…maybe he was safe.
He reached a room where Zhukov was sitting on a chair and standing up were Mikoyan, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Bulganin and others. Turns out Stalin had been dead for a week, but his inner circle had declared him dead that day and that was not good news for Zhukov.
Because Zhukov now was the “new Kalinin”, which meant his value was zero to the new government and that he would be powerless to stop or depose or whatever he would have potentially intended to do according to them. The new government was already organized : Mikoyan would become Chairman of the Council of Ministers and double as a Minister of Foreign Trade, Voroshilov would become Minister of Defense and Molotov retained the Foreign Affairs, meanwhile the Internal Affairs would be given to one of Beria’s favorites, a certain fellow called Ivan Serov.
Zhukov was intimately dismissed , but not Kolya. The photographer felt a chill down his spine when Mikoyan called on him to stay :
<< Nikolay…>>
<< Comrade Mikoyan >>
<< I heard you are good with languages…>>
<< I am, Comrade Mikoyan >>
<< Comrade Serov might need your help >>
Might. More like will. More like you will work for him from now. Kolya felt his heart aching at idea of being a lapdog servant of the intelligence. Ivan Serov took him aside afterwards and approached him with an eerie, uncanny valley smile.
<< Have you ever wished to travel the globe, Ilyanov? >>
<< No Comrade Serov >>
<< Well, you will pack your bags and like it. The world awaits! >>
God, I am working with demons now… what should do I do ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
POSTWAR
Kolya had been sent by Serov to analyze the Balkans as well as Italy for prospects of exploitation for a people’s revolution. But the situation was more complicated than he expected, what happened in Italy was a very unusual war, not just because it happened at the same time of the Balkan Border conflicts as Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria fought as they withdrew from the Axis what can be considered borderline “every man for himself” wars, but because it had united a rag-tag of republicans, former hierarchs (or underlings) and leftists and communists, who had been also fighting between each other the day before but now were starting to realize they shared a common enemy : the Savoy royal family with their loyalist army, the latter which was too busy protecting what little they had gained in barely more than two years of war in the east against (soon to be former) Yugoslav partisans, from Lubiana to Cattaro, and in the west from Ennesì to Nizza against the French resistance. This situation lead to the unpredictable outcome of the emergence of a literally unknown Sicilian landlord and agricultural entrepreneur by the name of Silvio Milazzo, who had seen the writing on the wall of the monarchy with the demise of Hitler which ultimately led to Mussolini’s downfall and execution and sought to exploit it, starting to contact what would have been potential partisan-like organizations in the style of France and Yugoslavia and die-hard (and not so much) followers of Mussolini, uniting what nowadays are described as the right and the left against the (in that case monarchist) “center”, as well as people such as the President of the Confindustria Giuseppe Volpi.
In a matter of a few months, what began as multiple minuscule insurrections became a general uprising with no political inclinations but anti-monarchist sentiment which depleted the loyalist forces not only of resources but of the will to fight after the victories in the East and West, with very few hardline monarchists still holding on.
The political situation post-conflict was … weird. Milazzo had been a good leader for the fight but not so much for keeping said leader position in times of peace and while he wouldn’t be forgotten, his career as a national figure head was over ; expectedly, new parties formed just as soon as the shooting stopped, all originally separate parties that merged in a matter of weeks : National Liberal Republican Christian Democratic Union Bloc (Blocco dell'Unione Democratica Cristiana Nazionale Liberale Repubblicana) with Alcide De Gasperi as chief and Luigi Einaudi as deputy, with the third in command being Randolfo Pacciardi, then there was the National Movement (Movimento Nazionale), headed by journalist Giorgio Almirante (whose past article Defence of the Race was made even more public seemed to affect little the party’s electoral result) and finally the coalition of the Popular Democratic Front for Freedom, Peace, Labour, overtaken recently by mostly socialists and social democrats at the expense of the communists and namely Togliatti.
In his report, Kolya wrote to Serov that just as the Balkans, Hungary and Czechoslovakia after the failure of the 1948 putsch, the best they could hope was to get the same deal they had given to Finland (a “cordial” neutrality) and would wait for his next reassignment.
He prayed with a hush voice to himself : Saint George the Dragon slayer, please help me out of this nightmare.
NOTES :
What changed from our world in this alternate universe (thanks to the early death of Hitler) ?
Italy and the Balkan allies of the Third Reich, while violently, jump ship as soon as the Austrian heroin-addicted failed painter is publicly world known to be dead, preserving most of their gains and out of Stalin’s deadly grasp.
However…
Norway, Denmark, (what remains) Slovenia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the whole of Germany and Austria share the grisly endwar with Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic countries ; in addition the ethnic cleansing of postwar Europe still happens but the roles are reversed.
I hope clear, it is just an inversion of “fate” for narrative purposes, I do not condone any type of violence whether religious, ethnic OR socio-political.
Returning to the subject at hand :
Italy also is seeing a MAJOR DIFFERENCE. Instead of getting a much less worse deal THAN what Germany got, the country goes out without an inch since Hitler’s successor was too busy keeping morale up as long as the Italian king didn’t actually go along with the Allies, which doesn’t even happen here.
So why Fascists, Communist all the sudden unite ? Beyond what I wrote, I don’t have what could be considered a realistic explanation, although his based on a real event :
https://www.ansa.it/valledaosta/not...esi_28863ed1-979b-4224-8ce0-3de423892f13.html where fascist and partisans united against the French forces.
Silvio Milazzo and Volpi also are not works of fiction : you can both read about them on Wikipedia (I don’t think there are sources about them in English). The first became famous for uniting the neofascists and communists of Sicily against the Christian Democracy in the late ‘50s , the second was fascist then helped the resistance after 1943.
Teasers :
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/attachments/italian-coat-of-arms-by-therejectionist-png.680943/
Edit : changed from four to three parties forming after TTL Italian Civil War.
Kolya wanted to have nothing to do with Zhukov as much as he did before, not after witnessing the annexation of Man'chzhuriya and the expulsion of what Stalin defined as the expulsion of wreckers, anti-revolutionaries and fascists after the Chinese Communist Party had declined to “cede” the region to the Soviet Union, leaving the majority of the population of the former Japanese puppet being Russian Whites, Japanese, and Koreans ( the latter probably tempted to leave and go to the Pyongyang in the United States Army Military Government in Korea Zone) or the mass expulsion of the last remaining Germans from what was now called Królewiec. He felt a deep sense of sadness knowing that the Man of Steel demonstrated little, if any, empathy towards formerly presumed allies and perceived defeated enemies, and showed no mercy or different treatment to them.
And he was still with Zhukov.
His personal photographer. Though he had felt more as his chaffeur and barista than a photographer.
<< Pour me another glass Nikolay >>
Driving and serving the Marshal was a risky hassle, but except for the near contortion he could do it without a problem. It annoyed him but there were advantages to be close to one of the heroes of the Soviet Union.
When they arrived at Stalin’s dacha, Kolya almost sighed a breath of relief. However, the sensation didn’t last for long, noticing immediately the guards were crying.
<< What happened ? >>
Asked Zhukov abruptly when he interpelled one of the soldiers sobbing.
<< Comrade Stalin is dead >>
Kolya stood still out of shock unlike the Marshall, who rushed immediately inside. The “photographer” followed suit but remained composed and serious, concentrating all of his energies in not crying or smiling.
The bastard is dead!
He was one of the few who had not lost any family members to the terrors of the NKVD and others, but the anguish consumated lots of his life. Or during the war. Kazan was a blessing. Now Stalin was dead and maybe…maybe he was safe.
He reached a room where Zhukov was sitting on a chair and standing up were Mikoyan, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Bulganin and others. Turns out Stalin had been dead for a week, but his inner circle had declared him dead that day and that was not good news for Zhukov.
Because Zhukov now was the “new Kalinin”, which meant his value was zero to the new government and that he would be powerless to stop or depose or whatever he would have potentially intended to do according to them. The new government was already organized : Mikoyan would become Chairman of the Council of Ministers and double as a Minister of Foreign Trade, Voroshilov would become Minister of Defense and Molotov retained the Foreign Affairs, meanwhile the Internal Affairs would be given to one of Beria’s favorites, a certain fellow called Ivan Serov.
Zhukov was intimately dismissed , but not Kolya. The photographer felt a chill down his spine when Mikoyan called on him to stay :
<< Nikolay…>>
<< Comrade Mikoyan >>
<< I heard you are good with languages…>>
<< I am, Comrade Mikoyan >>
<< Comrade Serov might need your help >>
Might. More like will. More like you will work for him from now. Kolya felt his heart aching at idea of being a lapdog servant of the intelligence. Ivan Serov took him aside afterwards and approached him with an eerie, uncanny valley smile.
<< Have you ever wished to travel the globe, Ilyanov? >>
<< No Comrade Serov >>
<< Well, you will pack your bags and like it. The world awaits! >>
God, I am working with demons now… what should do I do ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
POSTWAR
Kolya had been sent by Serov to analyze the Balkans as well as Italy for prospects of exploitation for a people’s revolution. But the situation was more complicated than he expected, what happened in Italy was a very unusual war, not just because it happened at the same time of the Balkan Border conflicts as Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria fought as they withdrew from the Axis what can be considered borderline “every man for himself” wars, but because it had united a rag-tag of republicans, former hierarchs (or underlings) and leftists and communists, who had been also fighting between each other the day before but now were starting to realize they shared a common enemy : the Savoy royal family with their loyalist army, the latter which was too busy protecting what little they had gained in barely more than two years of war in the east against (soon to be former) Yugoslav partisans, from Lubiana to Cattaro, and in the west from Ennesì to Nizza against the French resistance. This situation lead to the unpredictable outcome of the emergence of a literally unknown Sicilian landlord and agricultural entrepreneur by the name of Silvio Milazzo, who had seen the writing on the wall of the monarchy with the demise of Hitler which ultimately led to Mussolini’s downfall and execution and sought to exploit it, starting to contact what would have been potential partisan-like organizations in the style of France and Yugoslavia and die-hard (and not so much) followers of Mussolini, uniting what nowadays are described as the right and the left against the (in that case monarchist) “center”, as well as people such as the President of the Confindustria Giuseppe Volpi.
In a matter of a few months, what began as multiple minuscule insurrections became a general uprising with no political inclinations but anti-monarchist sentiment which depleted the loyalist forces not only of resources but of the will to fight after the victories in the East and West, with very few hardline monarchists still holding on.
The political situation post-conflict was … weird. Milazzo had been a good leader for the fight but not so much for keeping said leader position in times of peace and while he wouldn’t be forgotten, his career as a national figure head was over ; expectedly, new parties formed just as soon as the shooting stopped, all originally separate parties that merged in a matter of weeks : National Liberal Republican Christian Democratic Union Bloc (Blocco dell'Unione Democratica Cristiana Nazionale Liberale Repubblicana) with Alcide De Gasperi as chief and Luigi Einaudi as deputy, with the third in command being Randolfo Pacciardi, then there was the National Movement (Movimento Nazionale), headed by journalist Giorgio Almirante (whose past article Defence of the Race was made even more public seemed to affect little the party’s electoral result) and finally the coalition of the Popular Democratic Front for Freedom, Peace, Labour, overtaken recently by mostly socialists and social democrats at the expense of the communists and namely Togliatti.
In his report, Kolya wrote to Serov that just as the Balkans, Hungary and Czechoslovakia after the failure of the 1948 putsch, the best they could hope was to get the same deal they had given to Finland (a “cordial” neutrality) and would wait for his next reassignment.
He prayed with a hush voice to himself : Saint George the Dragon slayer, please help me out of this nightmare.
NOTES :
What changed from our world in this alternate universe (thanks to the early death of Hitler) ?
Italy and the Balkan allies of the Third Reich, while violently, jump ship as soon as the Austrian heroin-addicted failed painter is publicly world known to be dead, preserving most of their gains and out of Stalin’s deadly grasp.
However…
Norway, Denmark, (what remains) Slovenia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the whole of Germany and Austria share the grisly endwar with Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic countries ; in addition the ethnic cleansing of postwar Europe still happens but the roles are reversed.
I hope clear, it is just an inversion of “fate” for narrative purposes, I do not condone any type of violence whether religious, ethnic OR socio-political.
Returning to the subject at hand :
Italy also is seeing a MAJOR DIFFERENCE. Instead of getting a much less worse deal THAN what Germany got, the country goes out without an inch since Hitler’s successor was too busy keeping morale up as long as the Italian king didn’t actually go along with the Allies, which doesn’t even happen here.
So why Fascists, Communist all the sudden unite ? Beyond what I wrote, I don’t have what could be considered a realistic explanation, although his based on a real event :
https://www.ansa.it/valledaosta/not...esi_28863ed1-979b-4224-8ce0-3de423892f13.html where fascist and partisans united against the French forces.
Silvio Milazzo and Volpi also are not works of fiction : you can both read about them on Wikipedia (I don’t think there are sources about them in English). The first became famous for uniting the neofascists and communists of Sicily against the Christian Democracy in the late ‘50s , the second was fascist then helped the resistance after 1943.
Teasers :
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/attachments/italian-coat-of-arms-by-therejectionist-png.680943/
Edit : changed from four to three parties forming after TTL Italian Civil War.
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You have certainly chosen well if you want to debuff the US, haha.