Voroshilov Era

* **Beginning of Voroshilov Era**

The Era of Voroshilov began almost immediately after the death of Mikhail Kalinin. On 4th of June Voroshilov,Kaganovich,Molotov,Stalin and others were on the funerals of the Chairman,and only after a few hours all of them has made their speeches on the Lenin's mausoleum.At that time,the Soviet Union had already established a semi-dynastic tradition of speeches at funerals.those who were the first to read speeches from the stands of the mausoleum were one step higher than their colleagues. The first speaker was Nikolai Bukharin, Head Of the people's Commissariat for Development of the USSR, who was the author of the so-called "Transition Economy" linking elements of NEP and War Communism,which the USSR followed since the mid-20s, which helped the country to pass a difficult period of forced construction(which became a reality thanks to the administrative genius in the person of Joseph Dzhugashvili) and the spread of the world revolution. Next came Iosif Dzhugashvili, the people's Commissar for internal Affairs, local industry and Finance.After him came Marshal Voroshilov himself, a hero of the Eastern War and the main reformer of the red army,making it at the time of 1945 the third most powerful in the world after the German and Ottoman empires. However, at the same time, a real power struggle was raging outside the Kremlin walls among the 3 main parts of the Politburo. Conservatives represented by Rykov and Bukharin. Militarists in the person of Voroshilov and Reformers in the person of Mikoyan.

Representatives Of The Conservatives:Rykov, Bulganin, Vakhrushev, Rodionov, Bukharin.

Militarists:Voroshilov, Tukhachevsky, Zhukov, Akhromeev, Vasilevsky, Shaposhnikov, Dzhugashvili (2nd half of the internal party struggle)

Reformers:Mikoyan,Shvernik, Vlasov(the Only General who supports the reformers), Kosygin, Dzhugashvili (the 1st half of the internal party struggle)

Despite the state sliding into the conditions close to the civil war,the faction of Militarists,thanks to the efforts of Dzhugashvili and his control over the smaller ministries allowed Marshal Voroshilov to come on top of the other factions,installing a new dictatorship,which almost broke Russia away from the Internationale,except for some smaller groups known as Totalists represented by Oswald Mosley. The Interregnum Period has ended by late June with the execution of Nikolai Bukharin.

* **Great Thrust Forward**

(The following Articles will describe processes in both Manchurian and Chinese SSRs)

Meanwhile,as the Soviet grip over China increased,the promising figure in face of Wang Ming,member and head of the CPC,which,after failrue of the Revolution in 1925 in Beijing entered a long war against Combined Forces of Kuomintang,German East Asia and Empire of Japan for more than 20 years,until the First Soviet front under command of Marshal Tukhachevsky entered Harbin,being his temporare residence,where he previously tried to build up a network of guerillas and spies in Manchukuo,the most succesfull one built in Vladivostok under command of Nikolai Kuznetsov,future Soviet commander of the Far Eastern region.During his guerilla activites,Kuznetsov was most notable for stealing a Japanese frigate near the Sakhalin island.

Neverthenless,the CPC had its own problems in the face of illiterate population,inadequate industry,subsequent farming and incompetent ministers,neverthenless,Wang Ming instituted his own policy called "The Great Thrust Forward",which found a lot of support within the Politburo of RSFSR. Essentially it could be described as Radical version of the Kuomintang 3rd Principle of *Mínshēng* (Social Welfare) with the mix of Soviet War Communism. The Rapid Collectivization of Industry,and instead of creating the "workers unions" and start a stable mixed economy development,the State would emphasize on the growing bueracratic apparate and favour the heavy industry,while the most succesfull enterprises will get the status of "People's Finest" and would be freed from collectivization in favour for their own local development.The state, in turn, exercised Supervisory and controlling functions in relation to the trusts. Trusts had a certain degree of economic freedom in terms of making decisions about what to produce and where and to whom to sell their products. At the same time, each trust was obliged to perform state tasks and grant the state organizations the preferential right, other things being equal, to purchase the trust's products. Enterprises that were part of the trust, as a rule, were removed from the state supply and purchased raw materials on the market. The law provided that "the state treasury is not responsible for the debts of PF's." In general,the economy could be portrayed as a formula: War Communism- Heavy State Capitalism-Distributional Economy with elements of both systems,leaning left.

The Great Thrust Forward almost immediately began with the mass amounts of land confiscation and harsh pay grades reforms. Then came in the vast reserves of the Chinese manpower,most of which were formermly unemployed or underground workers in the cities. During this,almost every day (thanks to the efforts of Soviet specialists) 2.3 new industrial sites were introduced. The new economy was also characterized with the short-term planning of the state-controlled industry,known as the "Quartal Plan"(3 months),giving the weak Chinese productive force,which lacked technology achieve long term goals while modernizing in the process of construction,not interrupting the prognosis for the future plans. In terms of economic growth the Great Thrust Forward was quite successful, especially in those areas emphasized by the Soviet-style development strategy. A solid foundation was created in heavy industry. Key industries, including iron and steel manufacturing, coal mining, cement production, electricity generation, and machine building were greatly expanded and were put on a firm, modern technological footing. Thousands of industrial and mining enterprises were constructed, including 346 major facilities. Industrial production increased at an average annual rate of 23 percent between 1945 and 1955, and national income grew at a rate of 9.6 percent a year.In order to create its own engineering base, the domestic system of higher technical education was urgently created,almost immediately after the end of the Great Eastern War. Neverthenless,until the end of Voroshilov Era,most of the Chinese specialists received education in Moscow.

* **Collectivization**

The party leadership saw a way out of the "grain difficulties" in the reorganization of agriculture, which provided for the creation of state farms and the collectivization of poor and middle-class farms, while at the same time resolutely fighting the kulaks. According to the initiators of collectivization, the main problem of agriculture was its fragmentation: most farms were in small private ownership with a high share of manual labor, which did not allow to meet the growing demand of the urban population for food products, and industry — for agricultural raw materials. Collectivization was supposed to solve the problem of limited distribution of industrial crops in the conditions of small individual farms and form the necessary raw material base for the processing industry. It was also intended to reduce the cost of agricultural products for the final consumer by eliminating the chain of intermediaries, as well as through mechanization to increase productivity and efficiency in agriculture, which should free up additional labor resources for industry. The result of collectivization should have been the availability of a commodity mass of agricultural products in an amount sufficient to form food reserves and supply the rapidly growing urban population with food.

Unlike previous major agrarian reforms in Сhina, collectivization was not accompanied by any clearly formulated program and detailed instructions for its implementation, while attempts by local leaders to obtain explanations were suppressed by disciplinary means. The reform included the removal of land from rich land owners for use of agricultural land for peasants, but not ownership. In the same time Wang Ming began experimenting with the small scale collective agricultural and industrial production,in the form of The People's Unions,which basically ment turning the villages into small agricultural and industrial points,with the main focus put on autarky of such union,with the surpluses being given to the state. The village will forge its own clothes,tractors parts and other needed things,while giving the grain and some of the products to the state,depending on the quotas of the regional authority.

The results of the Collectivization were vastly different from the ones in the Soviet Union,if the USSR mostly focused on the voluntary collectivization methodics,by forcing the kulaks to surrender before the collective mechanized farms,the Chinese Collectivization was performed with harsh measures,including execution of landlords and forced collective farms creation without the previous mechanization. More than that,the Average Chinese Worker ate less than the Soviet,mostly due to the fact that Chinese grain was exported to Russia and Central asia,in exchange for industrial and technological aid.

* **Militarization**

After the end of the Great Eastern War,the Soviet army had almost 450 rifle divisions,and nearly 19.000 tanks,not counting the wide variety of artillery and air forces. This giant war machine was the world 3rd army after defeat of Japan,and the Soviet Premier made all efforts to make it the 2nd ranked army in the world. The German-Ottoman split left the Soviet army without a threat from the Caucasus,and the Construction of the Transcaspian pipeline was underway,providing the Red Army with the needed fuel. The Soviet army received huge amount of funds from the other ministries,de-facto military began ruling over small sectors of the Economy. Plan of Marshal Voroshilov was simple-militarize the economy,follow the Chinese experiment under the military rule,and begin mass production of weaponry. This strategy also carried the geopolitical goals of weakening already overstreched German economy,suffering from colonial mismanagement and independence movements with an armed race,which the capitalist economy could not keep up with. The wages were equalized,and thousand of soldiers integrated into the everyday work life,from construction to production. Military officers were also quite frequently seen in charge of shops and mail services. The new culture movement was born,combining the roles of worker and soldier,as everywhere,even in schools,the military lessons were mandatory,on them,kids would be taught how to use the rifle,trenches,and other elements of the war. The same processes were underway in the villages,but more practical manner,with kids literally simulating military actions after school,under supervision of the political comissars. In some undeveloped areas,like Vladivostok,Chita and Murmansk,the card distribution system was brought back,in favour of the military and the strategic reserves,placing the surpluses of grain,meat,vegetables etc. into the special underground vault,in case of coming war.

The military itself was transformed,starting form its doctrines,which were changed from "Swift Assault" to the "Deep Battle",Kliment Voroshilov believed that with the enormous industrial power that is USSR,with the manpower of China and Korea,with the resources of Russia and Central Asia,all of its combined,the Soviet State stands above that of the Central Powers,being able to draft and field larger armies,bleeding their enemies out,slowly but surely advancing deeper into the enemy soil,cutting him off from the resources he already has. The large portions of the army was restructured into the motor rifle divisions,while leaving Cavalry divisions behind them. The army received new weaponry,such as iconic AK-47 and T-55,both being the most produced weapons in history. The jet aviation became common and the artillery switched from mobile,to being more static,focusing on the massive barrages of combined missiles and regular artillery shells. Bulganin,despite his previous affiliation with Conservatives was placed as the minister of military production,and Tukhachevsky won the comptetition against Zhukov,becoming the Minister of Defence,and 2nd in Command of the Soviet Army. Meanwhile,on the local level,the divisions were placed near the villages,and often formed its own military settlements,where the soldiers could train and produce weapons. The year 1949 was characterized with the birth of Spetznaz,the elite infantry of the Union,which will play a decisive role in coming proxy conflicts.

* **Progress in Central Asian transformation**

New fourth five years plan (FYP), started in 1944, planned new megaprojects since the reunification with China and the full centralisation of USSR. In 1945, the new Irtysh-Aral canal was put under construction, providing a massive irrigation and means of transport of commodities. It was finished in 1950. In 1947 also started the construction of Turkmen canal, finished in 1951. In the Caspian portal of this channel, new city of Lysenkograd has been built. Under the fifth FYP, China and Central Asia growth of industrial infrastructure and output.

* **Purges and Political Interaction**

Era of Voroshilov from a diplomatic point of view became a failrue. Everything started in 1947,Characterized with the French-Russian split,as the French Syndicalist Party began en-mass criticism of Centralisation and militaristic reforms,which "betrayed the case of Lenin",this was followed with the constant fails of negotiations on South Korea and Southern China,which was still owned by Germany,escalating 2 crisises. 1st South Chinese Crisis in 1948 and 2nd in 1951,when both PRC(One of the termins used to describe the Chinese SSRs) and AOC soldiers clashed with each other on the border. The recently integrated Central Asian republics created more and more troubles,with their overstretched administration,slowing down the technological progress in the area.

The spread of Revolution was also unsuccesfull,with the only notable events being Coup in California and Revolution in the Sannag,which started a cold war in Africa,without British and French support making it even more difficuilt for the USSR,which focused on itself now. The only allies remaining on the political scene were Cuba and Argentina,which from the start had some authoritarian control over themselves and maintained the centralised way of governance,which,obviously was not enough for the USSR,as the lack of European Technical and scientific support soon backfired in the form of slow degradation of the computer industry,which was lacking in USSR.

The diplomatic channels with the Socialist countries would be rebuilt only after the end of the Era.

On the other side,the economic relations were enstablished with the Exalted Ottoman State,in the form of various economic treaties and cooperation programms,such as the development of Suez Canal by Soviet engineers,in exchange for access to the Arabian and Caucasian oil fields.

What Voroshilov was truly succesfull in-repressions,under Sergei Kruglov,more than 90.000 party members were executed,and more imprisoned,the repressions also touched the civilian population,but,mostly in China,as the Kalinin processes nearly eradicated all opposition within RSFSR. The Courts of Honor were created,being the collective decision courts,with military or party official in the head of the process,being the judge. No one knows the scales of repressions even by this day,and their results is the point of many speculations and debates.

* **End of the Era**

Era of Voroshilov was characterized with the intense economic and military growth,integration of military into the everyday life and controversual diplomatic decisions,with the increasing authoritarianism,voluntarism and slowly emerging cult of personality,combined with decreasing amount of consumer goods and social unrest in China,following the rapid collectivization. Other than that-the increasing role of police and monopolization on every sphere,including media slowly turned the Soviet society against the previously supported reforms.

The Era formally ended on 5th May 1953,when Iosif Dzhugashvili,dissapointed with the current conditions of the state took the revolver and shot himself,leabing a small note,where he expressed his sorrow and pain about the working class,which in the endless hurricane of marching army boots sees the misery and oppression from the state that was supposed to protect and care about them. 2 days later,The Supreme Presidium of the Soviet Union and the Union of People's Commisars began a large procession of trials against Voroshilov,blaming him in all recent failrues of the USSR,and most notably-severing diplomatic relations with France,Brittain and Italy. Marshal officially resigned by 9th September 1953,ending his reign over USSR,and giving way to the era of Molotov.