Chapter 1641: Soviet Union's Attitude towards Germany

Time flew by and it was early 1937. At this time, the East African government's actions in various fields, including politics, economy, diplomacy, and military, were progressing steadily.

Under the leadership of Joseph's government, the Soviet Union completed various industrial development plans efficiently and steadily. Compared with ten years ago, the Soviet Union has completely become a veritable industrial country.

Although the Soviet Union still had many shortcomings compared with other major powers, the gap had narrowed to a level visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, due to the existence of the German threat, the political and social atmosphere in the Soviet Union in this timeline is much more relaxed than in the previous life. This change became even more obvious after Germany annexed Austria-Hungary.

With Germany, a hungry tiger, lurking nearby, the Soviet Union's primary concern was its survival. Therefore, Joseph had to set aside some of his prejudices and show more tolerance towards internal forces.

This difference in performance is not surprising. In the past, after World War I, Germany was in a miserable state. Therefore, for the sake of its own development, it did not hesitate to cooperate with the Soviet Union. Before World War II, it was not an exaggeration to call the relationship between the two countries a "honeymoon period."

In this timeline, since the end of World War I, Germany has been the most direct external threat to the Soviet Union, and the two countries even went to war in the 1920s.

With Germany's encouragement, the Slavs undoubtedly positioned themselves more correctly in the world, including the active improvement of relations between the Soviet Union and countries such as East Africa and the United States.

Moscow.

To celebrate the successful completion of the project, the Soviet Union made an unprecedented move by inviting people from East Africa and the United States to the celebration.

In the Kremlin, Joseph told the Soviet leaders: "With the growing strength of the European extremist national group led by Germany, Germany has now become the most deadly external threat to the Soviet Union."

"Even though the Soviet Union has now been initially built into a new industrial power in the world, the gap between us and Germany is still not negligible. Therefore, the Soviet Union needs to find more 'friends' in the international community."

"Otherwise, when the Soviet Union faces a group of extreme nationalist countries led by Germany in the future, we will be caught in an extremely difficult struggle environment."

Joseph in his previous life would never have said such a thing. Even before Germany declared war on the Soviet Union, Joseph did not think that Germany could pose a threat to the Soviet Union.

Because in this period of his previous life, the Soviet Union had already become the de facto second strongest power in the world.

The Soviet Union experienced explosive industrial growth, especially in heavy industry, and by the end of the 1930s its total industrial output had indeed firmly established itself as the world's second largest, behind only the United States, and surpassing Britain, France, and Germany.

In this timeline, the Soviet Union's total industrial output ranks only fourth in the world, with East Africa, the United States, and Germany ranking first, second, and third respectively.

Especially after Germany digests the original industrial system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany's industrial advantage over the Soviet Union will be further consolidated, and Germany will have an advantage over the Soviet Union in the quality of industrial development.

In terms of military strength, the Soviet Union in the 1930s had the world's largest standing army and was among the world's leading countries in terms of the number of heavy equipment such as tanks, artillery, and aircraft, even surpassing Germany in some aspects.

Germany's military power in the past was so elusive in the world at that time that almost all countries ignored the strength of Germany's military before the outbreak of World War II.

Even in the eyes of countries such as Britain and France at the time, Poland could successfully contain Germany.

This is not surprising. After all, it was not until March 16, 1935 that Germany publicly announced the implementation of the National Defense Law, reorganized the National Defense Army, and restored universal conscription, tearing up the restrictions on German military power in the Treaty of Versailles.

In the eyes of people in 1939, a German army that had been rebuilt and armed for less than four years did not really give people a sense of oppression.

So in 1937 in the previous life, the Soviet Union could be regarded as the most powerful military force in Europe, except for the navy, but the Soviet Union's military advantage over Europe did not require the navy to play a big role.

In its previous life, the Soviet Union was a massive but temporarily "weak" military giant.

It possessed terrifying war potential and mobilization capabilities, but at this point in 1939, its actual combat effectiveness was greatly reduced by its internal trauma.

In fact, if it were not for the political movement launched by Joseph in his previous life within the Soviet army, Germany might not have caused so much trouble to the Soviet Union in the early stages of the war.

In this time and space, Joseph obviously did not dare to underestimate Germany. Germany is now the number one military power in Europe. Its development in the three areas of land, sea and air is more sound than in his previous life, and it is no longer a "quickly built" powerful army.

Joseph said: "Germany now has a huge lead over the Soviet Union in terms of military size, mobilization capabilities, weaponry and so on."

"Once Adolf, the ambitious man, completes his military expansion plan, Germany will be on par with us in terms of military strength. This is a situation that the Soviet Union, and even the entire Slavic history, has never encountered."

"Before Germany annexed Austria-Hungary, no European country had ever been so close to us in military strength, let alone equal to us."

"Germany is now a superpower with a population of over 100 million, which is only a few tens of millions behind us. However, we must note that Germany still has many allies and puppets. If Germany completes the integration of Central and Eastern Europe, their numbers will exceed the Soviet Union."

"The populations of Germany and Italy alone are comparable to those of the Soviet Union, and may even exceed ours. If Germany completes its infiltration of Spain, coupled with the pseudo-regimes of Poland and Western Ukraine next to Germany, the Soviet Union and the extreme nationalist group led by Germany will be at a huge disadvantage."

The Soviet Union had no obvious advantage against Germany alone. If Germany's allies such as Italy were included, the thought of such a scenario would make the current Soviet government feel uneasy.

Marshal Voroshilov of the Soviet Union added, "It's not just the population gap. From a pessimistic perspective, Germany may have an advantage over us in mobilization capabilities. Just looking at railways, for example, Germany has more railways than us. However, Germany's total area is only over one million square kilometers, and its railway density is much higher than ours."

In 1937, the length of railways in the Soviet Union was about 110,000 kilometers, while the data for Germany was about 130,000 kilometers, including the original railway networks of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The railway mileage of both the Soviet Union and Germany is longer than in the past. The reason for the Soviet Union is that it was influenced by East Africa.

After the Soviet Union chose the path of planned industrial development, East Africa inevitably became a model for the Soviet Union to learn from. Therefore, the Soviet Union's approach to industrial development was inevitably influenced by East Africa.

There is no doubt that East Africa was influenced by Ernst in its industrial development, and paid particular attention to the construction of basic transportation such as railways.

Therefore, the Soviet Union's construction of basic transportation has been strengthened compared to the previous life, but the Soviet Union is obviously unable to maintain consistency with East Africa.

After all, the Soviet Union's transportation construction environment is fundamentally different from that of East Africa. In the Soviet Union, due to the influence of permafrost and long winters, the cost of transportation construction is much higher than that of East Africa, and the maintenance cost is also greater, not to mention that the Soviet Union's finances are not as good as those of East Africa. Therefore, it is impossible for the Soviet Union to develop a transportation network as large-scale as East Africa.

This also caused Soviet railways to miss the opportunity to become the largest railway network in Europe.

Of course, there is another factor to consider, that is, East Africa was able to build the most developed transportation system in the world, and the low-cost advantage of early black workers is difficult to replicate.

German Railways is currently the most developed railway system in the whole of Europe and is also the largest in scale. Its 120,000 kilometers of railway lines are the result of not only the annexation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but also other territorial expansions.

This mainly refers to the approximately 50,000 square kilometers of land annexed by Germany in Eastern Europe after World War I, which is the territory of western Poland in the past. These 50,000 square kilometers of new territory also allow the German railway network to further cover more areas.

Marshal Voroshilov said: "Germany's highly developed railway network enables them to complete the mobilization of troops more efficiently."

"Not only do we have fewer railways than Germany, but our population and towns are also far more dispersed than Germany's. This will increase the difficulty of our mobilization work during the war."

Without considering the Asian part of the Soviet Union, the mobilization cost of the Soviet troops, just the European part, was much higher than that of Germany. This cost not only included the economic cost of transportation, but also the time cost.

Time cost is particularly important for the military. Speed ​​is of the essence in war. The country that can complete military mobilization faster can gain an advantage in the early stages of the war.

Joseph took a drag on his cigarette, nodded grimly, and said, "The gap in transportation means that our material transportation and logistical support will face greater problems than Germany. Therefore, if war breaks out between the two countries, we must be mentally prepared."

"Considering the gap between the two countries in industry, weaponry, and other areas, we even have to consider the possibility of failure on the front line. Therefore, during the Three Fives period, the transfer of national defense and population to the east must be further accelerated."

"In the war with Germany, we must fully utilize the Soviet Union's advantage in depth, using space to buy time and delaying the German offensive for the sake of war."

Even the steel-hearted Joseph could say such words, which shows the Soviet Union's "pessimistic" mood in facing the German issue.

It is true that the Soviets did believe that they had a tenacious will to fight, but they could not deny the objective fact that flesh and blood could hardly collide with steel shells, otherwise Joseph would not have been so anxious to develop the national defense industry in his own country.

Joseph said, "The current situation in Europe is becoming increasingly unfavorable to us. The European Labour Movement is facing serious challenges. Our hopes of supporting the Labour Parties in various European countries to create trouble for Germany have not achieved the desired results."

"The current Spanish Civil War, with its support from Germany and Italy for the Nationalists, demonstrates this."

"According to reliable intelligence, both countries have sent troops to participate in this war, and the Republican government is at a disadvantage."

The situation in Spain is now clearer than in the previous life, after all, the Spanish rebels are backed by Germany, Italy, and East Africa.

Even without considering Italy and East Africa, Germany's support for Spain alone is far greater than in the previous life. After all, Germany can directly transport troops and supplies to the Spanish rebels through Mediterranean ports such as Trieste.

Conversely, Germany could also use the former Austro-Hungarian navy in the Mediterranean to contain Soviet support for the Spanish Republican government.

Because of the existence of German naval power in the Mediterranean, and the fact that countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire and others were basically moving closer to Germany, it was much more difficult for the Soviet Union to assist the Spanish Republican government than in the previous life.

As one thing grows, another shrinks, and the Spanish Civil War may end much earlier than in the previous life. Therefore, Joseph can already imagine that in Europe, another "big country" will fall into the arms of the extreme nationalist group.

Joseph said: "Europe is being eroded by the evil forces of extreme nationalism, and countries like Britain and France have chosen to turn a blind eye to the threat posed by Germany, further stimulating the Germans' wolfish ambitions."

"Therefore, we cannot place too much hope in Britain and France now. These two decadent and corrupt old European imperialist countries are hard to trust, especially Britain."

"So when we face the threat from Germany in the future, we cannot focus on Europe, but on countries outside Europe."

European affairs are basically decided by a few major powers, namely Germany, Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and Italy. Currently, Germany and Italy are in cahoots, while Britain and France also lean towards the German camp.

This left the Soviet Union completely isolated in Europe. As for the smaller European countries, they could be completely ignored, especially since these smaller countries were all surrounding Germany and Britain, not the Soviet Union.

Joseph said, "Europe is completely corrupt, and we can hardly find reliable allies. We can only rely on ourselves. Moreover, Germany is closely connected with the Ottoman Empire and Japan. Germany has in fact completed the strategic encirclement of us."

"Under these circumstances, we can only hope that the United States and the two East African countries will not allow Germany to become bigger in Europe."

“We can even give up some interests in the Asian region in order to prevent them from siding with Germany.”

The Soviet Union's sphere of influence is concentrated in Europe and Asia. Now, in addition to its own territory, the only countries that the Soviet Union can win over in the European part are several small countries in the Balkan Peninsula that face the threat of Germany, such as Yugoslavia, Greece, and Albania.

In Asia, the Soviet Union still wielded considerable influence over the Far Eastern Empire, Central Asia, and the Middle East, which could serve as leverage in negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as in East Africa.

The Soviet Union’s core interests were undoubtedly in Europe, and Joseph also believed that the United States and East African countries did not want to see a new competitor rise strongly in Europe.

Compared with the Soviet Union, Germany is indeed the most likely threat to dominate and integrate Europe, and Germany's allies, the Ottoman Empire and Japan may also become Germany's arms to extend into the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the future.

(End of this chapter)