Chapter 784: Socialist Republic of England
On January 17, 1943, Winston Churchill, the most reactionary and greedy prime minister in the history of the British Empire, and a dictator whose hands were stained with the blood of the people, finally ended his evil life with a pistol in panic amid the sound of gunfire in the uprising!
But the suicide of the British prime minister did not mean that the good life of the people had begun. Instead, it seemed to have opened a Pandora's box, releasing the bloody politics that had disappeared from British soil after the Glorious Revolution.
From this moment on until a long time later, the political life of Britain will be full of blood and rain!
"Long live peace! Long live the Republic! Long live peace! Long live the Republic..."
Cheers came from all directions to Harry Pollitt, the great leader of the British Bolshevik Party, making him feel like a dream. In fact, he was not sure whether everything that happened on the 16th and 17th was true or false, or whether it was really a dream.
The revolution that was originally thought to be unsuccessful was surprisingly smooth. It took only more than ten hours for London to change! Tens of thousands of workers' pickets and two or three hundred thousand revolutionary masses controlled by the Bolshevik Party actually captured Whitehall Street, Downing Street, King Charles Street, and other streets where British government departments were concentrated. They also controlled all the police stations in London, occupied several barracks, and disarmed thousands of reactionary troops!
Moreover... the reactionary leader of the British Empire, Prime Minister and dictator Churchill, also lost his life in the armed uprising of London workers!
This seemed to mean that the British revolution had won, or at least half of it...
"Comrade Pollit! Comrade Pollit..."
Ivan Maisky's cry dragged the great British leader who was in a dream back to the real world. He looked around. This was a room that looked luxurious but very messy. It was an office. Documents and books were scattered all over the floor. Several portraits of reactionaries fell on the floor and people stepped on them.
This is the Treasury Building! Pollit remembered that this office was in the Treasury Building on King Charles Street. Churchill, the public enemy, committed suicide in the basement of this building!
Ivan Maisky said again: "Comrade Pollitt, the revolutionary masses are now gathering on King Charles Street, waiting for you to announce the establishment of the Republic of England!"
"What? Announce now?" Pollitt was stunned, "The comrades of the Labour Party have not come yet, we..."
The Bolshevik Party's influence in the British proletariat is not very large, and it cannot be compared with the Workers' Party. The previous London protest easily mobilized a million people to take to the streets because of the participation of the Labour Party. In response to the armed uprising of the London workers, only tens of thousands of workers directly participated, and the masses who cheered and watched the excitement added up to only 200,000 or 300,000.
Obviously, the uprising was not supported by the Labour Party. However, the Labour Party did not oppose it. If there were millions of Labour Party supporters taking to the streets to support the government and the royal family last night. The garrison and the Royal Guards near London would not have "remained neutral", and the uprising would have failed long ago.
So Pollitt believed that the Labour Party could still be won over. As long as the Labour Party could stand with the Bolshevik Party, the revolution would be successful.
Hearing what Pollitt said, Ivan Maisky sneered in his heart. The British proletarian revolutionaries are really naive!
If it weren't for the workers' death squads directly controlled by the agents of the Third International (actually Soviet agents) who attacked the Labour Party headquarters and the residences of the main leaders of the Labour Party yesterday, the revolution would have failed now.
"Attlee won't come!" Ivan Maisky said, "because he has been killed by the reactionary army loyal to the royal family! The Labour Party headquarters was also raided by the Royal Guards!"
"What?" Pollitt suddenly became nervous. Now the British Bolshevik Party can control only 30,000 to 40,000 armed forces, and most of them are a mob. As long as the Royal Guards are dispatched, they can be easily crushed.
Pollitt was dumbfounded again, "What would we do if there was no Labour Party?"
"How could there be no Labour Party?" Maisky glanced at Pollitt, "There are still many comrades in the Labour Party who survived. As long as we protect them, they will cooperate with us. So we can now announce to the public that the Bolshevik Party and the Labour Party are comrades fighting side by side, and at the same time tell the people that Britain will be a socialist republic in the future."
While speaking, Maisky had already handed Pollitt a speech that had been drafted long ago, "Comrade Pollitt, just say what is written here. We must give it a try now. The victory of the revolution is entirely possible..."
Politt took a deep breath, took the speech and looked at it. There was not much content on it, and he quickly memorized it. Then he came to a balcony facing King Charles Street accompanied by Maisky and several British Bolshevik cadres.
The street was crowded with people, mostly supporters of the Bolshevik Party, and some were people who came to watch. They saw Pollitt come out, surrounded by the crowd, standing in front of a microphone that had been set up in advance, and shouting: "Comrades! I salute the British revolutionary proletariat and soldiers. You have carried out a victorious revolution against the Churchill dictatorship. You have won a precious peace for Britain. I have discussed the issue of peace with the leaders of the Labour Party and reached an agreement. Therefore, I can assure you that there will be peace, bread, and milk.
However, before peace can be fully realized, there are still some major issues that need to be resolved, which is to overthrow the reactionary, decadent, and brutal Windsor dynasty and the landed aristocrats and capitalists represented by the Windsor dynasty!
In the future socialist republic of England, factories will no longer be owned by capitalists but by workers. The land should not belong to the aristocratic landowners, but to the peasants! Only in this way can the 46 million British people achieve true happiness after the arrival of peace... Comrades, please work with the Bolshevik Party and the Workers' Party to carry the British socialist revolution to the end! March to Buckingham Palace, where the most reactionary Windsor dynasty in Britain is entrenched! "
Pollitt raised his arms and shouted: "Long live the British socialist revolution!"
"Long live the revolution! Down with the Windsors! The land belongs to the farmers! The factories belong to the workers!" The excited revolutionary masses on King Charles Street also cheered together.
…
The cheers of the revolutionary masses spread to Buckingham Palace, which was like an anti-revolutionary island. Everyone who gathered here - from the evening of the 16th to the 17th, many reactionaries gathered from all over London to the Elizabeth Palace. Everyone around the princess was feeling heavy, even a little desperate.
The British Empire, at least the British Empire they knew and loved, is gone now!
Churchill is dead, Eden is dead, and Labor leader Attlee is missing and may have been beaten to death! The Bolshevik Party, with the support of the Soviet Union and perhaps the United States, controlled most of London, and announced that it would establish a Socialist Republic of England!
There was no doubt that Britain was going to fight a civil war.
Such a very troublesome question is placed in front of various British reactionaries. Who do they want to be loyal to?
Britain now has no legitimate parliament, a caretaker cabinet is almost non-existent, and King George VI is far away in Canada. There is a power vacuum in the UK, and the current problem cannot be solved by the Powers Act and the Succession to the Throne Act.
If all kinds of British reactionaries are not willing to sit still and wait for death, then they only need to swear allegiance to one person - the British eldest princess Elizabeth!
The reactionary army and reactionary officials now owe allegiance to a princess of the British royal family instead of the Parliament that can control the royal family.
This means that even if Princess Elizabeth leads everyone to victory in the civil war, Britain will no longer be a constitutional monarchy with democracy, freedom, and the rule of law... Princess Elizabeth will step on the corpses of her enemies and ascend to the throne made of blood.
She...will be a D monarch!
"Friedrich, what should I do?" Princess Elizabeth is just a 17-year-old girl, but now she has to face a cruel era. She looked at her fiancé, who was more than ten years older than her. She didn't love him, she was just prepared to marry him out of responsibility. But now, this man who looks very tough is her only support - Princess Elizabeth is not stupid, she knows that the Duke of Windsor is a useless guy and cannot be relied on at all.
"The key now is the Royal Guards. Without their loyalty, we will soon be captured by the Bolsheviks!" Prince Friedrich said, "Princess, you must personally address them and ask them to swear allegiance to you... ...If you're not sure of their loyalty, I can do their job with Mr. Mosley."
"Do their work?" Princess Elizabeth didn't seem to understand.
"Buy!" Friedrich said, "Money, titles and land...cannot be given on the stage, because many people value reputation, but few people will refuse the wealth under the stage. There will always be many like fathers in an army. People like brothers, they may be officers or non-commissioned officers, as long as you get their loyalty, the Royal Guard will be firmly in your hands. "
Unlike the British royal family, which had not held real power for a long time, the German royal family still held power until 1918, so they knew how to win over the morale of the military - the Junker officers received more than just medals and honors from the royal family.
"I'll give it!" Elizabeth nodded, "The royal family has a lot of land and wealth, which can be used, and titles can also be conferred. It's not a problem." Her eyebrows still did not spread, "But the royal guard only has 12,000 people... …I am no more powerful than Charles I.”
"There are still many troops in Britain," Prince Friedrich took a deep breath. "Most of them will not like the Bolsheviks. But what they need is a strong leader!"
"strong?"
With a determined expression on his face, Friedrich said: "Princess, your hands must be stained with the blood of the Bolsheviks before you can let other British troops fight for you! This is also Prime Minister Churchill's last words!"