—— ———-
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——— ——-
Cut to Historian 1 – Dr. Yelena Volkova, Leningrad State University]
"Stalin's commissariat had become something extraordinary — not just an office, but a shadow infrastructure.He was, in effect, rebuilding the state in real time, creating what he called The Network — a web of loyalty, reporting, and supply that bypassed the usual chaos of the soviets."
—— ——- ——- ——-
[Historian 2 – Prof. Andrew Michaels, Cambridge University]
"It's important to understand the scale. Stalin was creating what we would now call a bureaucratic nervous system. Telegrams from Smolny — and later from Moscow — directed coal trains, factory reopenings, even arrests.
The Sovnarkom might issue decrees, but it was Stalin's stamped papers that actually made things move."
———- ——— ———- ——
[Historian 3 – Dr. Tatiana Orlova, Russian Academy of Sciences]
"Each visit, each telegram, each inspection — they weren't just about supplies.
They were about obedience. Stalin was teaching the provinces that order came from above, and above meant him."
——— ———— ———— ———
Narrator:
"The exchange between Stalin and Trotsky in March 1918 revealed a growing fracture inside the Bolshevik elite.Trotsky commanded most of the army; Stalin, the machinery that kept it running."
——— ———— ——— ———- ———
Historian 1 – Dr. Volkova]
"Lenin's approach to governing was a dynamic mix of ideology and pragmatism, where he often adapted ideological principles to the material conditions and practical necessities of retaining power. Which he believed would in turn prevent economic collapse. It was an oversimplification to say he argued over ideology instead of managing the Soviet Union, as he viewed ideological developments as essential for effective practical application and such applications he saw bear fruit numerously through Stalin.
But where he saw potential and development Trotsky saw something deeper: a rival hierarchy emerging beneath the Party's official structure, a state within the state."
———- ———- ——-
[Narrator – footage of the Kremlin under construction, workers hanging banners]
"When the government moved to Moscow in March, the revolution itself migrated with it.
But what arrived was no longer the ragged, improvisational body that had seized Petrograd.It was becoming an organized organism — and Stalin's commissariat was its heart."
———- ———- ————- ————
[Historian 2 – Prof. Michaels]
"His office was unlike any other.
Dozens of clerks worked through the night.
Maps lined the walls, covered in pins and string — every factory, every depot, every regional council marked and categorized.
Stalin was conducting the revolution like an engineer managing a power grid."
——— ———— ———— ————
[Historian 3 – Dr. Orlova]
"From February to April, Stalin implemented three key reforms that stabilized the Soviet economy — at least in the short term."
1. The Ration-Priority System
"He expanded his earlier Petrograd experiment into a nationwide policy— food and coal distributed based on political reliability and production quotas. It tied loyalty directly to survival."
2. The Unified Transport Command
"Stalin nationalized rail scheduling, pulling authority away from local soviets. For the first time since 1916, freight timetables ran on predictable intervals."
3. The Factory Directive Program
"He ordered factories to report daily output to Moscow — even if production was zero.
This created the first comprehensive database of Soviet industrial capacity."
——— ————- ————
[Narrator – over montage of factories reopening, engineers inspecting trains]
"The measures were harsh, but they worked.
Coal output in the Moscow region increased by 20 percent by April. Rail reliability improved, and in some districts, rations doubled. The revolution was no longer just surviving — it was operating."
———- ————- ————- ————-
[Historian 4 – Dr. Pavel Sidorov, University of Warsaw]
"But efficiency came with control.
Stalin's commissariat absorbed so much administrative power that it became indispensable. The Sovnarkom was still nominally in charge, but everyone knew whose seal made things happen."
——— ————- ———— ————
[Narrator – over footage of tired clerks, sealed envelopes, and telegraph operators]
"Within five months of the October uprising, Stalin had achieved something remarkable — a functioning state apparatus in a country that had none.Yet behind the order lay a growing truth:the more the system worked, the more it answered to him."
—— ——— ——— ———-
[Historian 1 – Dr. Volkova]
"Lenin tolerated it because it worked.
He saw Stalin and a few as the mechanics who kept the engine running.But that decision would have lasting consequences — it legitimized a new kind of governance: centralized, data-driven, and deeply personal."
——— ———— ———- ——
[Narrator – closing montage of Stalin observing a map, Trotsky watching from a doorway]
"By April 1918, Moscow breathed again — not freely, but regularly.
The chaos of the Revolution had been replaced by routine.
——- ———— ———— ————
"By April 1918, Stalin's Commissariat controlled rail, fuel, and factory production across 12 key regions — effectively operating as a proto-ministry of state planning.
What began as emergency administration was now becoming the spine of Soviet governance."
——— ———-
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——— ——-Quote ReplyReport •••Gs9gosohardFriday at 12:55 AMReader modeAdd bookmark Index Friday at 1:18 AMAdd bookmark5 #63ZincOxideVery nice! I see one big weakness here, and that is the very centralization of control in one person. What happens when he's gone? Does the system have the flexibility to adjust to the new boss, who may not be the same as the old boss? Like Quote ReplyReport •••Friday at 2:20 AMAdd bookmark4 #64DankStalinZincOxide said:Very nice! I see one big weakness here, and that is the very centralization of control in one person. What happens when he's gone? Does the system have the flexibility to adjust to the new boss, who may not be the same as the old boss?Pretty sure thats the plan, centralized so much control in person so as to ensure massive power for said person, yet at the same be so good at it that the person becomes indepensable. If Stalin SI makes it so the whole system can function with a replacement, he is easily making himself replaceable.Last edited: Friday at 6:00 AM Like Quote ReplyReport •••Friday at 5:42 AMAdd bookmark7 #65alladinDankStalin said:Pretty sure thats the plan, centralized sp
O much control in person so as to ensure massive power for said person, yet at the same be so good at it that the person becomes indepensable. If Stalin SI makes it so the whole system can function with a replacement, he is easily making himself replaceable.That can be done later after Trocky is "taken care of and purges of lazy saboteurs are done. Like Quote ReplyReport •••Friday at 10:23 AMAdd bookmark2 #66beardcoolerI think readying the system for replacement will come in the 40s or 50s when Stalin gets old. Like Quote ReplyReport •••Friday at 2:52 PMAdd bookmark2 #67EasyggMy guess is lste 20's. When the union is on way better footing. Make it slow amd gradual when hes still fit, not when hes on his deathbed. Like Quote ReplyReport •••Friday at 2:56 PMAdd bookmark5 #68Ryzenbeardcooler said:I think readying the system for replacement will come in the 40s or 50s when Stalin gets old.MC may live longer than OTL Stalin, so maybe he can still be alive in the 50s but be in a counseling position or just smoothing the entrance of a sucessor. Like Quote ReplyReport •••Saturday at 9:30 AMAdd bookmark5 #69DankStalinGs9gosohard said:machine remained. And I was the hand guiding it.
definitely not, ot stalin was crazy i can't believe he made so much opportunities slip from his fingersA bit late, but were there so much opportunities he missed or slipped away? Nothing comes to my mind when I try think about it.
DankStalin said:Pretty sure thats the plan, centralized so much control in person so as to ensure massive power for said person, yet at the same be so good at it that the person becomes indepensable. If Stalin SI makes it so the whole system can function with a replacement, he is easily making himself replaceable.Also I just realised something, looking at WW2, the amount of times Stalin placed his allies and supporters in key positions only for them to be generally incompetent and fuck up massively really shot the USSR in the foot. With this Stalin SI now already having his system as the Soviet State apparatus should allow him to sieve through the ranks for loyal & competent allies and supporters.Last edited: Saturday at 9:49 AM Like Quote ReplyReport •••Saturday at 3:33 PMAdd bookmark51 #70Threadmarks Chapter 11: Whites Index Gs9gosohard——— ———-
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——- ——- ———- ———-
NARRATOR (V.O.)
By early 1919, the Russian Civil War had reached its breaking point.The Whites were advancing on every front. Kolchak from the east, Denikin from the south,Yudenich from the north — each claiming to restore the old order, each certain the Bolsheviks were finished.
For the first time since October, the Revolution seemed mortal.
——- ——- ———- ———-
INTERVIEW — Prof. Aleksandr Korovin, Historian of the Civil War
KOROVIN:
"The Whites had momentum, matériel, and the illusion of unity. But their unity was only paper-deep. Monarchists, liberals, Cossacks — each fought for their own Russia. What they didn't have was structure. The Reds, under men like Stalin, had already begun to build one."
——- ——- ———- ———-
[Scene – Moscow, Early 1919]
Inside the Commissariat for Internal Administration and Economic Reconstruction. Clerks work under lamplight. Stalin reads reports from various districts, his voice calm but deliberate.
——- ——- ———- ———-
NARRATOR (V.O.):
While Trotsky led armies, Stalin directed the arteries that sustained them — not merely railways, but the entire mechanism of state survival. He reorganized food distribution, integrated local councils into central planning boards, and requisitioned resources directly from surrounding regions. Factories once isolated by chaos now reported through coded dispatches to Moscow. For the first time, there was coordination — imperfect, but real.
——- ——- ———- ———-
INTERVIEW — Dr. Miriam Poltavskaya, Economic Historian
POLTAVSKAYA:
"He wasn't creating a perfect economy — he was creating a living one. Stalin enforced production quotas, redirected foundries to manufacture weapon components, and implemented what he called practical collectivism: temporary pooling of urban labor to support munitions and food distribution. It was ruthless, but it worked."
——- ——- ———- ———-
NARRATOR (V.O.):
By summer, Denikin's offensive reached its peak. Red commanders feared Moscow itself might fall. Trotsky rushed reinforcements. Lenin called for total mobilization. Stalin — from his office — began the counterstroke of consolidation.
——- ——- ———- ———-
[Cutaway – A Council Meeting, Moscow]
Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov, and Stalin gathered around a map.
LENIN (archival dramatization):
"If they take Moscow, they take the Revolution."
STALIN (measured tone):
"They won't. They have guns, but no proper fuel supply. They have men, but no bread. We'll deny them both."
——- ——- ———- ———-
NARRATOR (V.O.):
What followed was not just warfare — it was economic strangulation. Shipments of food were redirected inland. Supply caches were burned before retreat. Communications were consolidated under the Commissariat's new Bureau of Regional Operations ... a precursor to the later planning agencies of the Soviet state.
The Whites advanced ….. and starved.
——- ——- ———- ———-
INTERVIEW — Gen. (ret.) Pavel Anisimov, Military Analyst
ANISIMOV:
"It was a logistics warfare. Stalin's systems didn't just supply the Reds; they deprived the Whites. Without grain, coal, or telegraph lines, Denikin's march slowed, then stalled. His army began to disintegrate long before it reached the capital."
——- ——- ———- ———-
[Scene – Siberia, Late 1919]
Snow falling over a derailed train. Kolchak's officers burned documents. Peasants loot stores once held by the Whites.
——- ——- ———- ———-
NARRATOR (V.O.):
In Siberia, Kolchak's government collapsed under its own weight. He ruled by decree, but no one obeyed. The Czechoslovak Legion — once his allies — turned against him.
By February 1920, he was captured and executed in Irkutsk. His "Supreme Rule" ended in the snowdrifts of the East.
——- ——- ———- ———-
INTERVIEW – Prof. Elena Marchenko, Political Historian
MARCHENKO:
"The White Armies fell for the same reason the Tsar fell — they couldn't feed the people or control the land. The Bolsheviks, even under siege, created a functioning administrative skeleton. That skeleton was Stalin's work. His offices ran day and night — distributing grain, coal, orders, in equal measure."
——- ——- ———- ———-
[Scene – Petrograd, Winter 1919–1920]
Factories glow in the dark. Smoke rises again from chimneys long cold. A clerk stamps another sheet: "Commissariat Directive 142."
—— ———— ————
NARRATOR (V.O.):
By the end of 1919, the Red state had outlived its enemies.Petrograd's lights flickered back to life. Moscow hummed again. The civil war was not over, but the tide had turned. The Revolution, once a movement, had become a precision instrument….and that instrument had a new architect.
——- ——- ———- ———-
[Interview – Dr. Viktor Lobanov, Soviet Historian]
LOBANOV:
"People remember Lenin for ideology, Trotsky for the army. But it was Stalin who proved the Revolution could provide a proper rule. By 1920, he had laid the foundations for what would become the centralized command economy — born not from theory, but from tried and true methods."
——- ——- ———- ———-
[Final Montage – The Fall of the Whites]
Denikin's retreat through the snows of the Don. Kolchak's frozen train in Siberia. Wrangel's fleet evacuating Crimea under a black flag.
——- ——- ———- ———-
NARRATOR (V.O.):
By the spring of 1920, the White Armies were broken.The old Russia they fought for no longer existed.In its ashes stood something colder, more organized — the machinery of the Soviet state. The Tsar was gone. The generals were gone. But the Revolution endured.…. not by faith,but by proper management .
"By 1920, the Soviet Republic had regained control of most of Russia. Stalin's Commissariat evolved into a permanent institution of economic coordination — an early prototype of central planning that would define the next decade."