Chapter 67 Another January of Dramatic Changes
It was already January 1919, and several major events had happened in the world.
First, the deadly flu seemed to have disappeared - this was a big deal in late 1918 and early 1919 (but Hessman knew that there would be another wave of flu epidemics). However, this was not necessarily a good thing for Germany, as the Allied camps were no longer full of sick people, and they could launch a new offensive.
Secondly, the Russian Empire was back! On January 1, despite the opposition of Britain, France and the United States, Grand Duchess Olga, the eldest daughter of the late Tsar Nicholas II, was crowned in Tallinn and became the Russian Empress Olga I. Denikin, the commander-in-chief of the southern Russian armed forces, Kolchak, the governor of the Siberian Provisional Government, Semenov, the governor of the Trans-Baikal Regional Provisional Government, and Lieutenant General Horvath, the director of the Middle East Railway Administration, all expressed their loyalty to the new Russian Empress through telegrams or by sending special envoys.
However, the major powers in the world, such as Britain, France, the United States and Japan, did not recognize Olga's status. However, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and other countries sent people to attend the Queen's coronation ceremony, and these countries also recognized the Queen's government diplomatically.
Then came the vigorous January Revolution in Germany!
Because the Americans dragged their feet on the issue of food aid - from November 14 to January - the food supply in major German cities became increasingly difficult, and was obviously worse than before the armistice. At that time, at least there was food shipped from Poland and Ukraine. Therefore, the support rate of Ebert's People's Committee began to decline sharply, and the Bolshevik Party established on December 30 gained a large number of supporters.
Therefore, the revolutionary situation in Germany was also rapidly heating up. On the eve of the establishment of the German Bolshevik Party, the "Horse Training Ground Incident" occurred in Berlin. The People's Navy Division, which was inclined to the Spartacus League (the Spartacus faction became the League), refused to leave Berlin and exchanged fire with the soldiers of the Berlin garrison who came to drive them away. In the end, they won with the support of the Berlin workers, but this did not mean that the People's Navy Division could defeat the counter-revolutionary army gathered around Berlin. The "Horse Training Ground Incident" only showed that most of the German army did not obey the Ebert government, and even the army that followed orders was just dealing with things in a perfunctory manner.
But the direct consequence of this conflict was that Ebert's People's Committee became a paper tiger that everyone bullied. Now the Social Democratic Party could neither get aid from the United States nor support from the German army, and the working class turned to the newly established radical Bolshevik Party because of their increasingly difficult lives.
Feeling dangerous, Ebert dismissed the Berlin Police Governor Ehgoren, who was inclined to the Bolsheviks, on January 4 and replaced him with the Social Democrat Ernst. However, this move did not help strengthen the authority of the Social Democratic Party. Instead, it caused the Social Democratic Party and the Independent Social Democratic Party to break up. The latter withdrew from the government and turned to cooperate with the Bolshevik Party.
On the evening of January 4, the Bolsheviks and the Independent Social Revolutionary Party held a joint meeting and decided to launch a strike and demonstration on January 5 to protest against the Ebert government. By January 6, the strike had escalated into a general strike! The number of protesters also increased greatly, and some workers also obtained weapons, and the uprising was imminent.
On January 3, Hessmann returned to Berlin with the German delegation to Russia (Tallinn) that attended the funeral of Nicholas II and the coronation of the empress. The funeral and coronation were not grand, partly because the Russian government was short of funds; partly because not many foreign missions attended the celebrations.
However, the current situation in the Baltic is reassuring. The "low-intensity war" with the Soviet Red Army began as early as early December. In Courland, both sides were just pretending, and no one wanted to really fight. In Estonia, the conflict was more intense, but it was just a sustained exchange of fire. It is now a cold winter season, and the cold winter in Russia is not a time to fight.
Moreover, the strength of the Courland Defense Force, the Estonian Defense Force and the Russian Army is still strong, with a total force of more than 200,000 (excluding the Courland People's Stormtroopers). If they really want to attack Petrograd, as long as Britain, the United States and France are willing to support, they may succeed. Now it is just defense, so there is naturally no big problem.
Although Britain, the United States and France have not recognized the empress and her government, they have not raised any demands such as expelling the Germans. Hessman felt that the banner of the Russian empress was still somewhat useful. Although the Allies did not recognize her, they would not use force against her. Due to the tragic experience of the Tsar's family, many people in Britain, France, the United States and other countries (mostly upper-class people) sympathized with the empress and hated the Bolsheviks. The "non-recognition" of Britain, the United States and France had already attracted a lot of criticism. If they sent troops to threaten again, they would be smeared as Bolshevik spies.
So the Baltic was not in danger for the time being, but Berlin was facing a civil war!
The German military headquarters, including the General Staff and the Navy, had already withdrawn to Potsdam at this time. Hessman and his spies were still in the city, but they did not dare to enter and leave the General Staff in military uniforms.
Instead, a secret headquarters was established in the Eden Hotel in the western part of Berlin, with more than 500 agents and informants (182 agents and the rest were cooperative informants) directly or indirectly under the control of this headquarters. All military camps in Berlin (including the People's Navy Division's camps) and police stations had spies from the Military Intelligence Bureau (Stasi) lurking, and many chairmen of the soldiers' committees in the military camps were simply agents or informants.
In the editorial office of the newly established German Bolshevik official publication "Red Flag", there were also people from the Military Intelligence Bureau (Stasi) infiltrating. Even the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Liebknecht, had spies from the Military Intelligence Bureau (Stasi) hiding around him.
Therefore, Hersmann not only knew everything about the activities of the Bolsheviks and the Independent Social Democratic Party in Berlin. Moreover, the city of Berlin, which seemed like a den of dragons and tigers, was a place he could enter and exit at will.
At 8 a.m. on January 6, Hersmann was sitting in a shabby-looking carriage with the logo of the Spanish Embassy, driving slowly on Wilhelm Street. Through the steamy car window, you can see that it is snowing heavily outside. However, there are crowds of people on Wilhelm Street, and large groups of people are gathering through the alleys. They are walking on the white snow, braving the biting cold wind, carrying bright red flags, and some of them are holding weapons that they don’t know where they got from. Some people are singing "The Internationale" loudly, and they are in high spirits. It seems that they are ready to do something big.
Next to Hersman sat a very tall man, about 50 years old, wearing a well-dressed suit, looking at the scene outside the car window expressionlessly. He is certainly not an official of the Spanish Embassy, but a politician of the Social Democratic Party, Gustav Noske. Hersman received a call from Marshal Hindenburg, who had been transferred to Potsdam, early this morning, asking him to take this person to Potsdam in person.
As for what this person is going to Potsdam for, Hindenburg did not say, but Hersman knew it clearly. Now it is time to reveal the truth! The Social Democratic Party is like a good cook without rice, and can only borrow troops from the Junkers - they are the Social Democratic Party, the ancestor of the European virgin bitch, not the naturally reactionary National Socialist Party. It has come to this point, and there is really no way out.
The carriage passed by the Chancellery on Wilhelm Street. The seat of Germany's highest administrative body has been surrounded by demonstrators since yesterday, and Chancellor Ebert's whereabouts were unknown for a while.
"Have you found the Chancellor?" Noske suddenly asked.
"Found it," Hersman said, "He is hiding in the home of a businessman named Sklerek."
"Why do they want to do this?" Noske shook his head, "Don't they see what kind of hell Russia has become?"
"They have no food to eat!" Hersman said, "The supply is very tight, more than 70% less than before the revolution. Without the black market, no one can fill their stomachs. And the things on the black market are too expensive, even a lieutenant colonel like me can hardly afford it, let alone ordinary people?"
Hersman doesn't buy vegetables, but he has spies, and of course he knows how difficult the lives of ordinary people in Berlin are now.
The high welfare of the Social Democratic Party will be a matter of decades later, but at present they have no way to feed more than 90% of the people in Berlin. There are only two ways to solve this problem: one is social revolution, redistributing some food so that most people can have food to eat; the other is to seek external assistance to overcome the difficulties.
But the United States, which later helped the Soviet people and helped the Soviet Union overcome the difficulties. Now it is reluctant to help the German Social Democratic Party and requires them to take repressive measures to restore order first.
So the Social Democratic Party must now shoot at the German working people who voted for them. The rift caused by this will seriously damage the mass base of the Social Democratic Party. Moreover, the Social Democratic Party is not the Russian Bolsheviks, they do not have their own armed forces...
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