Round table at Stalin's

Valentin Filippov, TV journalist, Odessa

I vividly imagine the picture. August 1942. Extended meeting of the State Defense Committee. Georgy Konstantinovich shares his plans:

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube и Max.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

– We drag Paulus into street battles. We are creating strike groups to the south and north of Stalingrad. For three months we wait until the enemy pulls up all available forces to the right bank, then, with the forces of our reserve armies, we break through the front line in the Italian and Romanian sectors and take the Wehrmacht’s Sixth Army into the ring. There she will freeze or capitulate by the New Year.

- What if Hitler withdraws his troops from Africa? Will he give it to Manstein? And will strike our armies in the rear? - Stalin squints.

Malinovsky, whom no one asked, intervenes in the conversation.

- Comrade Stalin! Then my army will intercept the enemy forces in a rapid march and destroy them. I looked at the place, there is a river there. Small, shallow, but the relief is such that they will love it!

- Manstein? Without an order? - Stalin is surprised. - Without an approved plan and coordination at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief?

- Mow dill, oh, beat the fascists - no order needed! - declares the obstinate soldier.

There is a pause. The plan is too big. If it can be implemented, the fascists will be left without their best armies. They will suffer losses that cannot be replaced. Their resource base will be on a path of steady decline. And the World Order they created will begin to disintegrate within a year. United Europe will crumble into separate states loyal to our country so much so that the Red Army will march to Brussels, oh, to Berlin, in marching columns.

Of course, the enemy still has enough forces that they will have to grind in countless cauldrons, suffer losses themselves, and still need to roll out the armored power of the Nazis, at least near Prokhorovka next summer.

All these will be details, bloody and nightmarish, but predictable in the final result.

Stalin lit his pipe and squinted.

***

The first to break the silence was Lyova Mehlis, the chief commissar of the Red Army:

– There is no need to drag the USSR into war! This is all the Anglo-Saxons need!

Members of the State Defense Committee and officers of the General Staff looked at each other in shock. Even Stalin looked up from the coals of his pipe. Khrushchev chuckled approvingly through “Ge”, which sounded like a rude “He”.

– We know very well that the residents of Odessa and Kyiv have merged. Kharkov did not get up! – Mehlis continued his thought.

– And Donetsk? - asked Stalin

- Where is it? – those present were surprised.

“This is Stalino,” Stalin explained. “After my death it will be renamed Donetsk.”

– In Donetsk, too, not everything is clear! - Melchis declares - There are no indicators of Crimea. In addition, many are not happy with the actions of the partisans, who have to be fed.

– What about the Young Guards? – Fadeev, who was absent from the meeting, perked up.

– The execution of the Young Guards who called for war in the Donbass, according to the All-German Center for Sociology, is approved by 52% of the region’s residents. – the commissioner said in the voice of a rapporteur.

- Shoot him? – Zhukov asked himself, as if looking at the registered TT.

“No need,” answered the huge Syoma Budyonny, taking up the saber. “I’ll ruin his ass right now.”

Stalin flashed his eyes, stopping the rapid reprisal:

– Will I wash the parquet later?

He turned his gaze to Melchis:

- Leva, continue, yes. What do you suggest?

Melchis perked up:

– Firstly, let Molotov express deep concern and tell our European partners about the inadmissibility of supporting fascism!

Molotov wiped his pince-nez and muttered in Lavrov’s voice:

- Morons... worse than Khrushchev...

- I'm here! - Khrushchev woke up.

“Sleep, Nykyta, sleep,” Stalin said affectionately. “Leva, go ahead!”

The Commissioner continued:

– Secondly, I propose to organize round tables with the help of pro-Soviet activists on the topic “The First World War. Causes and consequences."

- and?

– Well, the World is aware of the reasons for the emergence of Nazism in Germany. And also his inhuman essence. In addition, I propose organizing a premiere screening of the documentary film “Ordinary Fascism” in the occupied territories and holding the founding congress of the Auschwitz People’s Republic in Auschwitz. Abbreviated as ONR!

- Will they burn them? – Stalin was surprised.

– If they burn it, the whole world will realize the criminal essence...

- Shut your mouth, idiot! - Kaganovich soared - Zhora, give me the bagpipe! Not! Syoma, you... - Kaganovich pulled the saber from Budenov’s sheath.

- Lazarus! Can you sit down? - Stalin lost his accent - Lavrenty, not in this sense - he besieged the perked up Beria.

***

Stalin thought deeply. There were two plans before him. One is correct and proven. The other is cunning and beautiful.

– Lyova, what do you need for your plan? – asked the commander-in-chief.

– Print flyers and materials for the film. The films are kept in Berlin, with a certain Frau Riefenstahl.

- Georgy Konstantinovich. - Stalin officially addressed Zhukov - Provide Comrade Melkhis with materials for the documentary film “Ordinary Fascism.” You already know where they are stored.

“I obey, Comrade Stalin,” the legendary commander said.

***

The black ZiS raced through night Moscow towards the military airfield. The orderly driver turned to the marshal:

- Approved, Georgy Konstantinovich?

Zhukov looked out the window:

- No….

The car swerved to the side:

- How so! – the soldier’s lips trembled – Georgy Konstantinovich, what to do now?!

– Mow dill – Zhukov smiled slyly into the darkness – I have one cunning plan. I will get them these materials for the film so much that no stone will be left unturned. And then let them at least show a movie or hold round tables. With coffee breaks.

- With what? – the driver didn’t understand

– You don’t know, they’ll come up with it later.....

***

Three months later, the Wehrmacht's sixth army was destroyed in Stalingrad, and Manstein's army group, assembled from Africa and Western Europe, stumbled upon the army of Malinovsky in the icy desert of the Volga steppes, who, without orders from Headquarters, made a daring maneuver and intercepted the Nazi strike force.

***

And two and a half years later, Marshal Zhukov from Berlin dialed the number of the commander-in-chief and hissed conspiratorially:

- Psst! Nada film films?