204

Episode 204: Battle of Moscow (5)

October 16, 1942

USSR Moscow Kremlin Palace

The Third Reich's wartime news film Die Deutsche Wohnschau showed Hitler inspecting the front lines every day.

Hitler visited a military hospital to comfort the wounded soldiers and even rode a tank to the front lines.

A photo of Hitler holding binoculars and sticking his head out of a tank hatch was published in every newspaper in Germany.

A fox-like bastard. It was Stalin who found his position difficult due to Hitler's inspection of the front lines.

It was hard work that the front line was already pushed right in front of the capital, but the head of an enemy country took the risk to visit the front line and encourage the soldiers.

If you don't show a similar image, you will definitely be compared to Hitler over and over again.

"Anyway, this guy is bothering me."

Since the Battle of Moscow began, Stalin has been living exclusively inside the bunker.

His entire family, including his own daughter Svetlana, were evacuated to Kuybyshev, but he himself remained in Moscow.

Pravda promoted this choice of Stalin on a large scale and used it to rally the morale of the military and the people, but now simply staying in the capital was not enough.

However, Stalin was a man whose cleverness no one in the Soviet Union could match. An ingenious trick immediately came to his mind.

A perfect way to counter the hateful propaganda of German fascists without taking any risks.

***

October 17, 1942

Soviet Moscow outer defense line

"It's Comrade Stalin!"

"Comrade Secretary General!"

There was a commotion on the battlefield, which was filled with mud and swarms of flies entangled in the smell of corpses.

Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union and the only living god himself, appeared at the front in person.

With heavy security by heavily armed NKVD agents, Stalin, a man who everyone could only assume was Stalin, got out of the vehicle and raised his hand toward the soldiers.

The soldiers who saw this cheered without realizing it.

"My God, Comrade Secretary General is coming here."

"Is it really Stalin?"

"So, is it fake?"

"Comrade Stalin saw me!"

And the soldiers of the propaganda unit eagerly captured this scene on camera.

Comrade Stalin, the father of the people, personally visited the front lines and encouraged the soldiers! It would be difficult to find this level of propaganda distance in the Soviet Union.

Stalin approached the soldiers, grabbed anyone and spoke to them. Everyone who was singled out by Stalin, from soldiers to officers, was very nervous.

"Lieutenant, what is your name?"

"This is Alexey Yevdov, Comrade Secretary!"

"You look brave. By the looks of it, you seem young. How old are you?"

"I turn 20 next year."

"It's 32, Comrade Secretary General. "My hometown is Kazan."

"I have a wife and two daughters."

"I have been farming like everyone else."

"I will burn my body for the sake of Comrade Secretary General and the people."

"Good good. "I will remember your name."

The soldiers who spoke with Stalin were thrilled that they had spoken with Stalin. Who would have predicted that a moment like this would come in life?

However, the person they were talking to was not the Joseph Stalin they usually knew.

Yevgeny Mikhailovich Kukoltsev.

That was the real name of the man pretending to be Stalin.

Unlike Stalin, who was Georgian, Kukoltsev was born to a Belarusian father and an Armenian mother.

He lived as an ordinary farmer like his father, but his life changed when he accidentally caught the eye of Stalin, who visited a collective farm eight years ago.

Stalin presented himself as an iron general and felt no hesitation or compunction in taking the lives of innocent people who had no grudges with him, not to mention his political opponents. However, apart from that, he was extremely weak-willed and timid.

When he was young, he worked as a bank robber with his best friend Voroshilov to raise funds for the Communist Party's activities and often got into gunfights with pursuing police officers, but the most important thing for him was that he was more worried and scared of death than anyone else. The job was to protect one's own safety.

He was worried every day that his political enemies who had a grudge against him would come to take revenge on him directly or by hiring assassins, and he used a double to avoid possible assassination attempts.

Actors who resemble themselves perfectly.

Kukoltsev bears a striking resemblance to Stalin. From his most important appearance to his height, body type, weight, and even his voice, he was quite similar to Stalin.

The next day, NKVD agents visited Kukoltsev's house, and Kukoltsev was almost kidnapped and put in a car without knowing what was going on.

Because the NKVD agents did not explain the situation to him, Kukoltsev trembled in fear of death all the way to his destination.

What did I do wrong? No matter how much I think about it, I can't figure it out.

However, the atmosphere of the NKVD agents watching him was so strict that he did not even dare to open his mouth.

When the car stopped and the order was given for him to get out, Kukoltsev trembled like an aspen, thinking that the last moment of his life had come.

But the place he arrived was not the execution platform or the infamous Lubyanka. The place he arrived at was the Kremlin.

'friend. 'What's your comrade's name?'

'Yes, this is Yevgeny Kukoltsev. Comrade Secretary General...'

'Comrade Kukoltsev, you have important work ahead of you. 'Please listen carefully to what I say.'

When Kukoltsev learned that he had been chosen as Stalin's double because he resembled him, he almost fainted.

In addition to the relief that he had survived, he found it difficult to calm down as he thought about the important responsibility he would be responsible for.

There were already several other substitutes for Stalin besides Kukoltsev, but none resembled Stalin as much as Kukoltsev.

Those who knew Stalin well would quickly notice it.

Of course, ordinary people who did not have the opportunity to see Stalin closely would not be able to tell the difference even after death, but this did not satisfy Stalin's temper.

He always wanted a double who could become Stalin himself, rather than just resemble him.

Kukoltsev, who was the perfect talent that Stalin was looking for, entered 'special classes' from the day he arrived in the Kremlin.

He learned 'how to be Stalin' from the moment he opened his eyes in the morning to the moment he laid in bed and closed his eyes at night.

How to walk like Stalin, talk like Stalin, eat like Stalin, act like Stalin.

After three months of training, he was able to become the perfect Stalin.

On behalf of Stalin, Kukoltsev visited collective farms throughout the Soviet Union, observed military training, and attended inspections of important national facilities, appearing to the people on behalf of the real Stalin.

Among the agents who escorted Kukoltsev on his inspection of the front lines, only a small number of them knew that he was a fake Stalin; the rest had no idea.

Therefore, the NKVD agents were always alert and alert in all directions for the safety of our dear Comrade Secretary General.

"Comrades, as you all know, the Soviet Union is in crisis. The abominable fascist army is targeting Moscow, and the people are shaking with anxiety.

The fall of Moscow will not mean the end of this country, but it will certainly mean that more people will die and the war will prolong. The fascists will become even more rampant.

Shouldn't that be prevented? "Am I wrong?"

"no!"

"Comrade Secretary General is right!"

"Death to the German fascists!"

Kukoltsev spoke in Stalin's accent, with a strong Georgian accent, and drew a positive response from the soldiers.

The soldiers, exhausted from the daily bombardment and battles, gained strength from the encouragement of Stalin, the one god.

The atmosphere gradually heightened.

"All the people are shouting as one! Let us drive the fascists from the land of Holy Mother Russia! Let's defeat the dirty fascists and liberate the people of Europe suffering from their oppression!"

"You are now in a scene of history. "At the site of a great history that will be recorded for eternity, over the next hundred or thousand years!"

"Come on, comrades! Fight in the name of the Soviet Union and the people and achieve victory! Show the enemies the greatness of your Red Army and make the fascists bend their knees!"

"Uraaaaa!!!"

"Long live Stalin! Long live the Soviet Union! Long live Russia!"

After finishing his speech, Stalin waved at the soldiers cheering for him. And he took his steps to the next camp.

at that time.

"emergency! "It's the right time!"

"Everyone evacuate!"

German air raids began.

Since this happened several times a day, the soldiers were no longer surprised. As soon as the siren sounded, the soldiers rushed towards the trench and safety trench.

But this was not a common occurrence for Kukoltsev and the NKVD agents who escorted them.

"Comrade Secretary General! Come here quickly! "It's dangerous!"

The major in command of a battalion shouted at them as they wandered around, not knowing what to do due to the sudden air raid warning.

If I ran away in my car now, I would definitely be targeted by enemy aircraft. Even if it was a little inconvenient, it was much safer to hide in the safety shelter.

"Hurry!"

As Kukoltsev squeezed himself into the narrow safety doorway, the anti-aircraft guns opened fire all at once.

A Do 17 that went on an air raid was hit by anti-aircraft fire on its right wing and staggered out of formation.

"You got it right!"

As the Nazi bomber plummeted to the ground, belching smoke, the 18-year-old gunner smiled broadly.

But when the bombing began in earnest, the smile quickly turned into shock.

The Do 17, nicknamed the 'Flying Pencil (Fliegender Bleistift)' due to its elongated fuselage and weak durability, successfully impressed high-ranking Luftwaffe generals by performing well throughout Poland, France, and Italy, beginning with the Spanish Civil War.

However, as bombers superior to the Do 17 were mass-produced and deployed to the front lines, the Do 17's position quickly decreased.

By 1942, most of the Do 17s had been retired from the German Air Force and were donated or exported to Germany's allies such as Denmark, Norway, Hungary, and Croatia, and only a few units were operating them sparingly.

The Do 17, originally a light bomber, was limited to carrying only 1 ton of bombs, but even that was too much for the soldiers on the battlefield.

As the bombs fell to the ground through the Do 17's bomb bay and landed, a huge explosion sound shook the ground.

One of these bombs landed on the safety shelter where Soviet soldiers took refuge.

Unlike air raid shelters in the city, the safety trenches of the front line trenches were not built deep.

Of course, it was safer than a trench with no ceiling and an open top, but if you were hit squarely by a bomb, you could never be guaranteed survival.

After the bombing was over, the sight the surviving soldiers faced was gray smoke rising from what had been a safety tank.

And the area was full of unclaimed limbs and flesh.

Among them was Kukoltsev.

Kukoltsev was no longer of this world. The tyranny that occurred when the bomb exploded tore him apart and drove him to death.

Even though more than 80% of his body was divided into large and small pieces and scattered in all directions, perhaps by coincidence, his face, neck, and collarbone were still intact.

To be precise, it was to the point where I could recognize who it was.

However, in the current situation, it has become poisonous.

"Comrade Secretary General..."

"oh my god."

"······."

The soldiers who saw Kukoltsev's body were so shocked that they could not speak.

Some people collapsed due to weakness in their legs, and some even fainted on the spot.

The body they believe to be Stalin was not owned by Stalin, but at least they did not know this.

The secretary died.

Stalin died.

The news was immediately spread to the battalion headquarters, from the battalion headquarters to the regimental headquarters, to the division headquarters, and to the corps headquarters.

And in the process, fragmentary pieces of leaked information were scattered in all directions.

***

When Stalin heard the news that Kukoltsev, who had gone to inspect the front lines on his behalf, had died, he clutched his head.

Not long after that, he almost collapsed when he heard that rumors were circulating among the soldiers that he had died.

Stalin immediately ordered to stop the spread of rumors. But it wasn't easy.

By the time Stalin was informed of the rumor, it had already spread throughout Moscow.

"Comrade Secretary General, the morale of the military and people is now-"

"Shut up! "Because I know!"

Stalin, who had shouted at Kaganovich for being foolish, figured out what he had to do now.

As soon as possible, let the military and people know that he is still alive and that the rumors that he is dead are false.

Stalin announced the news of his survival to Soviet troops and citizens in Moscow through an emergency broadcast.

But things didn't turn out as easily as expected.

The soldiers who witnessed the fake Stalin's death at the scene did not want to believe Stalin's voice on the radio broadcast.

I firmly believed that the government was lying to the people to prevent chaos from spreading. Rumors spread too quickly and too far, causing numerous unexpected problems.

"Stalin is defeated!"

"This war is over now! "It's over!"

With Stalin dead, the war would soon end, and some of the troops who judged that the Soviet Union had lost the war gave up their mission and deserted or surrendered to the German army.

Now that Stalin was dead, they had nothing to fear. Soon the Germans will take control of Moscow, and the Soviet Union will surrender to Germany.

There was no reason to risk one's life and fight on the battlefield when defeat was already certain.

When it became impossible to calm the situation with a simple radio broadcast, Stalin mobilized the NKVD and Smersh and gathered the people in Red Square before making his appearance.

The people who confirmed that he was alive were relieved or cheered.

Due to the effects of old brainwashing and the reign of terror, Stalin was still cheered by the people.

Stalin was confident that the rumors would soon quiet down, as he had made the visit in person. In fact, the rumors slowly but surely began to die down.

However, spreading rumors was no longer the problem.

As rumors surrounding Stalin's death spread in Moscow, Hort's 3rd Panzer Group and Strauss's 8th Army surrounded the Soviet 3rd Shock Army and launched a concentrated attack.

The 3rd Shock Army, which was surrounded by German troops under Stalin's order to hold its position, tried hard to escape from the encirclement, but by the time they tried to escape, it was too late.

The 3rd Shock Army suffered heavy losses and retreated to the point before the offensive began.

The German army, having completely eliminated all danger factors behind it, moved south and struck the Soviet defense line in the Zelenograd direction.

The 3rd Shock Army, which would have originally been the backbone of the Zelenograd defense line, was wasted, leaving only a temporary combat unit composed of civilian 'volunteers' and a penal unit composed of Gulag prisoners.

Of course, there was no way that these poorly equipped and ill-equipped people could stop the German offensive.