Stalin never accepted the defeat his nation faced. Despite losing Moscow, Stalingrad, and the caucausus oil fields in 1942, Stalin refused to face reality. He continued to order waves of tired and hungry Soviet subjects into death, willing to sacrifice a thousand lives to regain even one meter of territory. While the Soviets accrued catastrophic casualties, these efforts—along with the more skilled tactics of General Zhukov—did manage to deter any German secondary operation to take the Ural Mountains. While Stalin was somewhat successful at slowing Japanese advances into Siberia, Russia unfortunately was overwhelmed and forced to abandon much of its eastern tundra.
Due to war exhaustion from these endless waves of Bolshevik forces, the Germans remain at the so-called AA line. By 1944, the threat of the newly revamped German Lufthansa has essentially created a no-man’s land between this German AA line and the Soviet Ural Mountains. Here, many dissidents from both totalitarian regimes seek refuge. In particular, the Poles—facing the most significant persecution and possible complete eradication of their homeland—have congregated in these territories. While no clear ideology dominates this no-man’s land, significant Pan-Slavic feelings are present.
Stalin, more paranoid than ever, not only engaged in hopeless offensives but also invested heavily in making the Ural Mountains an impenetrable fortress. Much like Albania’s Enver Hoxha in real life, Stalin forced the Russian people to labor on creating defenses all over the Ural Mountain region, costing both lives in the harsh climate and significant sums of money. Stalin—aware that only so many Russian bodies could be expended for so long, instituted mandatory childbirth programs that the even the Nazis were too shy to attempt. These birth programs have allowed the Russians to maintain a decent sized population despite being forced back into Siberia.
Stalin, a notoriously heavy smoker among other significant health ills, also personally was suffering during these hard times. In late November 1944, Stalin died from a serious stroke. Shortly after hearing this news, the Kazakh people, led by a charismatic fascist who likely received support from Nazi Germany, have declared independence from the oppressive Soviet rule. Without time for petty politicking, a troika was formed between Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov, and Andrei Zhdanov to tackle the crisis situation. Zhdanov—Stalin’s designated heir—seems to be heading the troika due to his status and his personal relationship with General Zhukov. However, much like Marc Antony in the Roman Second Triumvirate, his personal flaws—primarily alcoholism—and strict adherence to Stalinist ideology make him generally unpopular. Malenkov was the ideological opposite of Zhdanov and instead wanted the Soviet Union to become more practical and technocratic. Malenkov—known to be a cunning political operator—already put his skills to work in the current crisis by getting the other Turkic peoples to turn against the Kazakhs. Beria was truly a deep-state agent due to his ruthless control of the NKVD secret police force. Beria has sworn that the Kazakh rebels will pay with their blood and Russian soldiers will be rewarded, currying favor with young Russian men.
Please look at the posted screenshots of the raging War with Kazakhstan.
