Chapter 62 War and Cooperation

Mikhail Markovich Borodin is one of the many celebrities who died in history that Hersman has met since he was reborn in this time and space. He was arrested in 1949 for the Anna Louise Strong spy case and died in a labor camp in May 1951 - Ms. Strong was also arrested at the same time. But she was lucky enough to survive until Khrushchev came to power, was released in 1955, came to China in 1958, settled in Beijing, and became a friend of American progressive writers and the Chinese people. She died in 1970 and was buried in the famous Babaoshan Martyrs Cemetery.

In a beautiful English-style villa on the outskirts of Riga (originally owned by a British businessman), Hersman met Borodin. The man with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a huge nose and a mustache seemed a little angry, and protested and threatened Hersman as soon as he saw him.

"If you don't give up your policy of hostility to the Russian Soviet Republic," he said. "The Red Army will take drastic measures."

"What drastic measures?" Hersman asked.

"Attack, the Red Army will attack. Estonia and Courland were originally Russian lands. Now that the Brest-Litovsk Treaty has been abolished, we can take back Estonia and Courland at any time. Unless you abandon your hostile policy towards us, release all political F, open up freedom of speech, and expel the White Russian reactionary forces." Borodin, who would become a reactionary in the future, said in a rather stern tone, "This is the final warning from the Russian Soviet Republic to you. If you don't accept it, then the war will break out immediately?"

Hersman grinned and turned his head to look at Halder, who had a bitter face - he joined the Stasi, was responsible for studying military intelligence, and was also the deputy chief of staff of the Courland Defense Army.

"Major, our war with the Russian Bolsheviks has not yet broken out?"

"No reports have been received in this regard." Halder said.

"Then it must break out quickly!" Hersman laughed out loud. "Comrade Borodin, please send a telegram to Comrade Lenin and ask the Red Army to come quickly and have some conflicts with us on the border of Pskov Province. Fire a few shots whenever you want, and it would be better to issue a statement: Courland and Estonia are an inseparable part of Russia."

"Mr. Hessman, what do you mean by this?"

Borotin stopped threatening now - the White Russian army under Yudenich is not a problem at present, but the 100,000 German troops in Courland are no joke. Their training and equipment are first-class, and their officers are active German officers. If they really want to fight for the Tsar, the Red Army in Petrograd can't handle it.

Although the Red Army now claims to have more than one million, their combat effectiveness is really not very good, otherwise they would not have been unable to defeat the White Guards, which are less than one-third of the number and are still divided internally.

Now is the critical moment of the civil war. The main forces of the Red Army were fighting Kolchak (who was now the commander of the Ural and Siberian White Army, with 150,000 troops) and Denikin, and were preparing to launch a large-scale attack on Ukraine. There was simply no way to mobilize too many troops to attack the United Baltic Principalities.

Moreover, on the Western Front, the Red Army's enemies were not limited to the Baltic states. Poland's Piłsudski also showed hostility to the Soviet Union. He had publicly stated that he would seize Ukrainian land and bloodily suppressed the Bolshevik organization in Lithuania.

"It means that we want to fight you!" Hessman said, "We are fighting you under the order of Her Majesty the Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, so this is a civil war among us Russians! Comrade Borodin, do you understand what I mean?"

Borodin seemed to understand a little. "We do not recognize the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, and you do not recognize this treaty, right?"

"Yes," Hessman nodded. "The Grand Duchess's government does not recognize the legitimacy of this treaty, and neither will the Allies."

"That means that Courland and Estonia are still part of Russia."

"Yes, that's the legal basis." Hersman nodded with a smile. This is a legal basis for the United Baltic Duchy to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles. The Allies certainly do not recognize the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and neither do the Russian Bolsheviks and the government of the United Baltic Duchy. In this way, the United Baltic Duchy is part of Russia from the perspective of international law - just like Taiwan after 1949! No matter how much the Americans want to, they can't send troops to occupy it as part of Japan.

Moreover, there is still hope for the restoration of the Russian Empire. On the way to meet Borodin, Hersman told him that Denikin, Wrangel, Kolchak and Semyonov all sent congratulatory telegrams to the Grand Duchess on her inauguration as the monarch of the United Baltic Duchy, and expressed their loyalty to His Majesty the Tsar and His Majesty the Grand Duchess.

Considering that the Russian Civil War has not yet been decided, the Grand Duchess is very likely to become the real Russian Empress! Humiliating the future Russian Empress as the monarch of a defeated country, or even forcing her to surrender her principality, will seriously damage the future relationship between Britain, the United States, France and Russia.

From this perspective, it is quite beneficial to keep the United Baltic Principalities and the Russian Soviet Government in a "civil war state".

"So we are compatriots now?" Borodin felt amused.

"Yes, dear compatriots!" Hessman answered in Russian. "I think... the battlefield of our civil war should be the border between Livonia and Pskov."

"Pretend to fight a civil war?" Borodin asked.

"Yes." Hessman smiled and shrugged, "But we can't control Tallinn now... Yudenich's army will probably really fight, you have to be careful."

"But what good will it do for us?" Borodin asked back with a frown.

"Benefits... well, this is obvious." Hessman counted on his fingers and said, "First of all, we won't really fight with you. One hundred thousand regular troops and one hundred thousand people's stormtroopers will remain neutral in the Russian civil war."

Borotin rolled his eyelids. Isn't this nonsense! What do you Germans have to do with the Russian civil war? What's the benefit of winning? Really become Russians?

"Secondly, we will continue to support the struggle of the Hungarian Bolsheviks. By the way... have they established a party?"

"Not yet."

"We have to hurry up." Hessman said, "I hope they can come to power and establish a Soviet state as soon as possible."

"What help can you give them?" Borodin looked at Hessman with bright eyes. This is the real key! As long as the red flag of Hungary does not fall, the Allies will not be able to send a large number of intervention troops to Russia.

"Weapons and ammunition, military advisers, and access to and from Hungary," Hessman said. "Of course, there is also the victory of the Hungarian Revolution!"

"The victory of the Hungarian Revolution? How do you give it?"

Hersmann frowned slightly: "Comrade Borodin, have you heard of a major general named Paul von Retolden Vorbeck?"

"Who is he?"

Hersmann said slowly: "He is the commander of the German East African garrison! In the past four years, he led an army mainly composed of blacks, using old Mauser 1871 rifles, 67 machine guns and 31 light field guns, and fought in German East Africa, British East Africa and Portuguese Mozambique with no support. The British army of tens of thousands of people had no way to deal with him. If he and his soldiers went to Hungary... I guarantee that the war there will continue. The Hungarians can fight as long as they want!"

——

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