Chapter 1598: Dark Clouds Cover the Iberian Peninsula

For the Soviet government, Kuibyshev is a model city. Its name was changed in January this year, confirmed by the Central Executive Committee of the USSR itself, to commemorate Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev, a famous Soviet national leader, Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR and Chairman of the State Planning Commission.

The original name of the city of Kuibyshev was Samara, which originated from a frontier castle in the Tsarist era.

Of course, even in the Tsarist era, Kuibyshev, also known as Samara, was a rapidly developing city. By the end of the 19th century, its population and economy had already ranked it among the top ten cities in the empire, ranking around ninth.

However, during the Tsarist era, Russia's overall industrial level was low, so even Kuibyshev, one of the top ten cities, was only considered impressive in Tsarist Russia.

Agriculture dominated Kuibyshev or Samara at that time, because Kuibyshev and its surrounding areas were important "granaries" of Tsarist Russia.

Boasting the world's most fertile black soil belt, Samara boasts a highly developed agriculture, particularly wheat cultivation. The city of Samara (Kuibyshev) has become one of Russia's largest grain trading centers. This vast grain market attracts merchants from across the country and even the world. The grain traded here is transported via the Volga River to northern Russia, including St. Petersburg, and then exported to Europe.

During the Soviet era, Kuibyshev experienced a leap in development. During the First Five-Year Plan, the Kuibyshev Aircraft Manufacturing Plant was established in this city. Up to now, the Kuibyshev Aircraft Manufacturing Plant has become one of the largest and most important aircraft manufacturing plants in the Soviet Union, and Kuibyshev has also become an important aviation industry center in the Soviet Union.

Then came the development of the energy and metallurgical industries. Kuibyshev built a modern refinery, becoming an important fuel supply base in the Volga River Basin, providing power for aviation, vehicles and industry.

In the field of metallurgy, Kuibyshev established a large bearing factory, which was one of the key production bases for key components of all Soviet mechanical industries and military equipment, such as tanks, aircraft, automobiles, etc. Other metal processing and chemical plants were also built one after another, forming a complete industrial system.

In terms of electricity, the Kuibyshev State Power Station was also one of the core projects during the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan. By 1935, it had become one of the largest power stations in the Soviet Union, providing sufficient electricity for all newly built giant factories and cities in Kuibyshev, and was the "heart" of the entire industrial complex.

In summary, during the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, Kuibyshev completed the transformation from an agricultural city to an industrial center, and successfully transformed from a commercial and agricultural center into one of the most important heavy industrial bases in the Soviet Union, especially the military industry.

Kuibyshev's ranking also advanced to the top five in the country.

Although the ranking improvement was not significant, the cities he surpassed were obviously not incompetent in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the closer a city is to the front, the more difficult it is to catch up in industry.

It took Mombasa in East Africa decades to surpass Dar es Salaam and become the largest city in East Africa.

Therefore, the industrial achievements of the city of Kuibyshev were of great political significance in the Soviet Union and became one of the symbols of Soviet industrialization.

This in itself made it easy for the Soviet leadership to favor Kuibyshev more.

The last point Joseph mentioned, that is, the safety of Kuibyshev, also comes from this. Kuibyshev developed late and is not very well-known in the international community. At least compared with Soviet "historical cities" such as Kiev, Odessa, and Kazan, Europeans are probably not very familiar with this city.

Even in the past, Kuibyshev gained greater international fame because it became the second capital of the Soviet Union during World War II. Now World War II has not yet broken out, so although Kuibyshev has become an industrial center of the Soviet Union, its popularity is not as high as imagined, especially internationally.

The low attention it receives naturally makes it more conducive to completing military and political deployment in the city of Kuibyshev, not to mention that Kuibyshev is very far away from European countries outside the Soviet Union.

Joseph said: "Germany will digest the Austro-Hungarian Empire and complete its military preparations. Optimistically speaking, it will be possible to complete this within ten years at most. Pessimistically, it may only take a few years."

"Therefore, the transfer of key industries in our country must be completed within five years, especially the defense industry. A complete military-industrial system should be built in the rear."

"Ensure that when frontier industrial areas in Leningrad, Ukraine, and even Moscow are hit, the defense industrial system will not collapse and can continue to operate normally."

The Soviet Union had no choice but to develop these industrial bases. After all, if the Soviet economy wanted to develop, it had to move westward and connect with Europe.

This is similar to the previous Far Eastern Empire, which concentrated all resources in the coastal areas after fully turning to economic development.

To put it bluntly, under the circumstances at that time, the coast of the Far Eastern Empire was not a safe place, and it faced threats from the Western bloc and the United States. At that time, the strength of the Far Eastern Empire Navy was so weak that it could not even confront the US Navy, and even the Japanese Navy was a formidable enemy.

However, even so, if the Far Eastern Empire wants to achieve the fastest economic development results, it can only choose to prioritize coastal development.

The Soviet Union actually encountered the same problem in economic development. The reason why the First Five-Year Plan and the ongoing Second Five-Year Plan achieved brilliant results was that the European part of the Soviet Union could more easily obtain technology, personnel, machinery, etc. from the capitalist world.

At the same time, people in some European territories were exposed to industrial civilization earlier, which was also an important foundation for the Soviet Union to cultivate its own talents and workers. After all, the Soviet Labor Party itself was part of the European Labor Party movement, and the places where these ideas were first triggered were the countries with the highest level of industrialization at the time, such as Britain, France and Germany.

At that time, Tsarist Russia was theoretically not an ideal place for the development of the Labor Party. After all, Russia had a low level of industrialization, which in itself restricted the growth of the working class.

On the other hand, Western Europe, with its vast working class, is also a region where capitalism is powerful. Therefore, the workers' movement is difficult to develop and is subject to severe repression and various bribes...

However, these issues are obviously not the focus of the Soviet government's current discussion. For the Soviet Union, because of Germany's strength, the subsequent survival of the Soviet regime has been further elevated to the top of the Soviet government's discussion.

Joseph said: "Inside the Soviet Union, we must prepare for war, complete industrial transfer, and develop a strategic rear area."

"However, facing German imperialism, we cannot simply wait passively for them to strike first. Today, Europe is in chaos, and the aftermath of the Great Depression is still lingering. Before the capitalist world recovers, this is a critical window for us to lead the European movement."

"Only by fostering more allies in Europe can we escape the current predicament we are facing. The coalition government within the Austro-Hungarian Empire has failed, but we cannot give up our support for them and allow them to hinder Germany's progress in digesting the Austro-Hungarian Empire as much as possible."

The annexation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by Germany was a foregone conclusion, and it was impossible to reverse the result in a short period of time, so the Soviet Union had to give up the idea of ​​turning the original Austro-Hungarian Empire into a red regime.

Put more energy into inciting anti-extreme nationalists within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This includes not only the remnants of the original Greater Austrian coalition government, but also those non-German ethnic groups, who can all become objects of Soviet support and allow them to cause trouble for Germany.

"In addition, we must continue to deploy forces against the three puppet governments of Poland, Lithuania, and Western Ukraine to expand the Soviet Union's security borders."

The governments of Poland, Lithuania and Western Ukraine were not recognized by the Soviet Union. The reason why the Soviet Union targeted these three countries was that, tracing back to history, these regions were originally the territories of Tsarist Russia. Therefore, in the eyes of the Soviet Union, the three countries themselves were the remnants of Tsarist Russia and were also reactionary regimes colluding with German imperialism.

"As for Finland, we should also speed up territorial negotiations with them."

Although the Soviet Union now has a territorial dispute with Finland, it does not have much hostility towards Finland. However, the Soviet Union cannot tolerate Finland's annexation to Germany. After all, Finland is related to the security of the Soviet Union's Leningrad and other Baltic territories.

If Finland sided with Germany, it would mean that the northern coast of the Baltic Sea would become Germany's sphere of influence. Germany could send its navy into the Gulf of Finland, directly threatening the Soviet national security on the southern coast and Leningrad east of the Gulf of Finland.

Of course, for a country like the Soviet Union, which has a strong sense of crisis and a strong desire for control, the Soviet Union would probably be satisfied only if Finland became its own territory. Of course, this is obviously not a problem of the Soviet Union, but a shortcoming of the East Slavic national character itself.

"Finally, there's Spain. We can't delay supporting the Spanish Republicans any longer. If Spain also becomes ruled by an extreme nationalist regime, then Europe's extreme nationalist regimes will completely become a massive military, political, and economic reactionary group."

"After the Austro-Hungarian Empire's change of color, we cannot allow another European power to repeat the same mistakes. In addition, we must take advantage of the contradictions within imperialism and strengthen cooperation with France. We must work hard to put any country or force that can contain Germany on the opposite side of Germany."

In fact, after Germany annexed the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France and the Soviet Union began to flirt with each other more frequently. Although the two countries had ideological contradictions, they had many common topics on the issue of Germany.

In the past, in order to prevent retaliation from Germany, France was keen on building the so-called "Eastern Treaty System" to win over Eastern European countries and put pressure on Germany in the east. In the past, Poland was the "core" chosen by France.

However, in this time and space, the Polish government itself was supported by Germany during World War I, not to mention that Poland's strength is far less than in the previous life. Both its land area and population have shrunk. In the previous life, Poland could at least be called a "European power" and even claimed to be the seventh most powerful country in the world.

But now, Poland can't even say such confident words. Poland itself is at most a medium-sized country in Europe, and it follows Germany's lead in international affairs.

Of course, Poland is more cunning, and its relationship with Germany is more similar to that between the United States and Japan in the previous life. As long as its strength can reach the level of competing with Germany, it will inevitably bite back at its master.

However, Poland has probably hidden all its little thoughts tightly now. After all, after annexing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany is no longer a superpower that Poland can treat half-heartedly.

Without Poland, the only thug France could find in Eastern Europe was the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union was not Tsarist Russia, otherwise the two countries would have formed an alliance again long ago.

…

With the adjustment of the Soviet Union's diplomacy and foreign ideological export policy, the Iberian Peninsula was destined to become more turbulent in the future.

However, even without Soviet intervention, there would be no peace on the Iberian Peninsula. After all, Germany also hoped that the Spanish Nationalists would come to power and seize power.

Even if the Soviet Union and Germany were excluded, Spain would still fight. At most, after the civil war broke out, the weapons and equipment of both sides would be inferior, and the intensity of the war would be reduced.

However, this does not mean that Spain's final losses will be less than those in a civil war caused by foreign intervention. After all, when there is no obvious generation gap between the two sides in terms of weapons, the final number of casualties is difficult to predict.

Even if the armies of the Spanish Republicans and the Nationalists both fought with cold weapons, the final casualties would not necessarily be much lower than those caused by hot weapons.

East Africa, Rhine City.

Some intelligence from within Spain was soon sent to the Rhine Palace. As early as a few years ago, East Africa had increased its attention on Spain.

In a sense, Spain is one of the countries with the best relations between Europe and East Africa. In the 19th century, East Africa valued its ties with Spain, and the former Spanish royal family even received funding from the Rhine royal family.

Spain itself is also a key node in trade between East Africa and Western Europe.

After all, the Strait of Gibraltar is an important strategic bottleneck in East Africa's trade with Europe, and its importance to Spain is no less than that of the Suez Canal.

Friedrich said, "The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War is inevitable. Intelligence sources have revealed that both the Soviet Union and Germany are accelerating the arming of the forces they support. Large quantities of weapons, equipment, and personnel are being transported to Spain. This place is likely to become a training ground for war between the two countries, as well as a testing ground for weapons and equipment."

It is true that Germany's military strength is recognized as strong throughout the world. If an ordinary country faces a force equipped with German weapons, it will definitely fall into a hardware disadvantage.

However, the Soviet Union, which had already initially completed its industrial construction, should not be underestimated in its improvement in weapon performance. Although the Soviet industry was obviously inferior to Germany, the defense industry was prioritized first in the Soviet Union's two five-year plans.

Moreover, during the Great Depression in the capitalist world, the Soviet Union was able to easily obtain all kinds of most advanced equipment and machinery. Therefore, the degree of modernization of the Soviet industrial system was actually very high, with no obvious gap with the mainstream powers of the international community.

The level of its defense industry can even be ranked among the best in the world, above Japan and Italy. If the navy is not taken into account, the Soviet defense industry can even be ranked in the first echelon in the world.

Therefore, even though there is a certain gap between the Soviet Union and Germany, its support for the Spanish Republicans cannot be underestimated. Moreover, the human factor is also very important in war. The subsequent Spanish Civil War will test the capabilities of both governments and military commanders, as well as their respective supporters.

Ernst said, "During the Spanish Civil War, the difference in strength between the two sides wasn't too significant. However, as before, I'm still more optimistic about the Nationalists. They are more united internally, while the Republicans can't reach a unified consensus."

(End of this chapter)