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12-18-April-1920
The shouts of jubilation echoed everywhere as my men celebrated the withdrawal of the British fleet, which was finally leaving the region and giving us time to rebuild.
The news had already spread everywhere. The British were leaving.
Although publicly the agreement seemed to indicate that we had conceded too much merely to preserve poor territories like Ruthenia and the Baltic, Ukraine remained under our control in practice. Therefore, it was still an enormous victory.
However, now the hard work of reconstruction began.
I walked through one of the camps whose men already knew the news of our victory. In a way, officially, we still controlled all the regions of the Baltic and Ruthenia, so most considered the result a great victory, even if on paper we had lost Ukraine.
A good part of the promises made to the soldiers, in addition to pay and the opportunity for revenge, had been land and bread. The time had come to fulfill them.
Now that we had to rebuild, we could do it properly.
As I advanced among the jumping, shouting and celebrations, I began to hear shots fired into the air.
''Hey, go tell them to stop shooting. That shit is dangerous. The bullets come back down and could kill someone'' I ordered one of my men, pointing toward the place where the shots were coming from.
''At your orders, mein Herzog'' my subordinate replied before running toward the soldiers who were firing.
''If you are going to drink, please put your weapons aside. We are not eight-year-old '' I scolded several soldiers who were drinking from a barrel of beer they had found somewhere.
The men held large mugs while still carrying their weapons in their hands.
They lowered their heads, left their rifles inside their tents and then continued drinking.
I had no problem with them celebrating. Many had spent entire days on alert and that rest was more than necessary. I was not applying severe disciplinary sanctions, except in some cases related to the irresponsible use of weapons.
While everyone began to celebrate, it did not take me long to climb into a vehicle.
I had far too much work ahead of me.
We had to rebuild and we desperately needed to find funds. Now it was our turn to pay for the party caused by months of uncontrolled military spending.
I had been paying the salaries of more than four hundred thousand men using the funds obtained through the sale of Ukrainian grain and other food products. I had also resorted to the resources Ukraine was obligated to contribute to our federation of States.
That had kept the army functioning, but now it left me with very few funds available.
I had some savings and reserves, but rebuilding an entire country would not be easy, especially when many of our ports had been destroyed.
My first destination was the Daugava dam.
The dam had been finished for some time, but I had never allowed it to begin operating because it would have become an obvious target for British ships. I could not allow a two-year investment to disappear because of a single naval shell.
When I arrived at the dam, I noticed that it already contained a great amount of water, while only a very reduced flow was being allowed through its gates. There were numerous engineers reviewing the operational capacity of the entire structure.
''Ah, mein Herzog. How good to have you here. How may I help you?'' asked one of the architects who had worked on the construction of the dam. He seemed to be reviewing some technical documents.
''I came to give the order to begin operating the dam, but it seems someone ignored my instructions. We already have a considerable amount of water accumulated'' I said, observing the enormous reservoir, which seemed to be close to half its capacity.
''We have not disobeyed your orders. What happened was that the river flow increased considerably and several landslides occurred in the diversion channels. They were not fully secured because they were supposed to be temporary. That forced us to allow the water to return to its natural course, which inevitably began filling the reservoir. Downstream lies Riga, and if we released all the accumulated water at once, we could sweep away a good part of the city. That is why I limited myself to directing several studies and estimates regarding the energy production for when the entire system enters operation'' the architect explained.
''The spring thaw… I suppose there was not much you could do. In any case, it is necessary to close the diversion channels and begin operating the dam at full capacity. I need to reduce coal consumption for electricity production as soon as possible. Keeping Riga's industry running consumes a considerable part of our reserves'' I said seriously.
''Of course. I will give the order to close the channels. According to my estimates regarding the growth of the Daugava's flow, the reservoir could fill completely within a week. Then we will have a great amount of energy. I suppose that, once all of this is finished and we have confirmed that the dam works correctly, we will be able to return to Germany. We estimate that, with all turbines operating at full capacity, the plant could reach an approximate output of three hundred and twenty megawatts'' the architect said.
''I need more dams, so I would like you and your team to continue working here'' I replied, staring fixedly at the architect.
''I do not think my group of workers will like that very much. Besides, we were supposed to return quite some time ago, when we were requested to go back to our old positions…'' the architect said, letting out a heavy sigh.
''How much?'' I asked, immediately understanding that he was asking for money.
''Fifty thousand marks for each architect and a house for our families in a community of our choice'' he replied almost immediately.
''Tsch… When it comes to getting paid, you certainly are well prepared. Very well, an excellent way to spend half a million marks. Consider it done. However, I need you to build hydroelectric plants along the entire Daugava. I want you to carry out the necessary studies and select the best locations, even inside White Ruthenia. I will make sure its government prepares part of the funds. We have to exploit the full hydraulic potential of the river and build several reservoirs that can also be used for large-scale agriculture. We will never have lands as fertile as Ukraine's, but we will have to compensate for that with hard work'' I said, crossing my arms while observing the numerous workers moving across the dam.
''I will call the workers we had repairing the diversion channels. We will use our previous studies on the Daugava to propose new dams and choose the best sections before we begin working on them'' the architect said.
''Good. Begin as soon as possible and, as soon as the dam can produce electricity, we will start raising all the industries necessary to rebuild the city''.
''I will do so'' the architect replied before returning to his post. It did not take long before he disappeared to continue inspecting the turbines.
As much as I wanted to get to work, there were multiple celebrations in all the camps, so I had to wait two days until the victory festivities came to an end. My men drank practically every available reserve of beer in the region, to the point of causing shortages everywhere.
Finally, when I declared the celebrations over and ordered strict discipline to be imposed again, the time came to put the enormous army we had on our hands to use.
Although I wanted to demobilize them as soon as possible, bring over their families and get them working and paying taxes, there was still a job they could do while we organized all the workers and calculated how many unemployed we had.
''Come on, clear the area and take cover! We are about to activate the explosives!'' I shouted while the engineers hurried out of a partially destroyed building.
We took shelter inside another building and the explosives were detonated.
An enormous cloud of smoke rose when the structure finally collapsed, leaving behind only a mountain of rubble. A large part of the neighborhood, which had been destroyed by the bombardments, was being demolished in the same way.
My palace had also been ruined again, so there was no choice but to tear it down completely. The same was true of that entire area, which was being demolished using the explosives we had left over.
Since we no longer needed so many charges for military use, we had a considerable surplus that could now be employed in civilian works.
And that was the result.
We were demolishing Riga almost completely, or at least a quarter of the city, corresponding to the sectors destroyed by the British naval bombardments.
''Very well, go collect the rubble. I want the whole area cleared so the excavations can begin'' I ordered, pointing to a group of soldiers.
Using wheelbarrows and trucks, the men began clearing the ground.
The soldiers carried bricks, shards of glass, shattered wood and everything that had once been part of Riga's historic center. Meanwhile, groups of engineers and workers were already beginning to dig in the cleared sectors.
There they would install all the basic services underground: gas pipes, electrical wiring, sewerage and water conduits.
Everything would be connected through galleries and access points that would make inspections, repairs and future expansions easier.
While tens of thousands of soldiers worked to quickly finish the cleanup and infrastructure preparation, I had tasked Manstein with reforming our army.
For the moment, we operated through an improvised system made up of Baltic divisions, German divisions, the Eighth Army and different occupation forces. Everything was joined together in an amalgam that had been necessary during the war, but now we had to organize it and divide it properly.
The idea was for the three States to cooperate in the creation of a single army with common structures, also incorporating Ruthenian and Ukrainian soldiers. However, that would be done later, since we still had an enormous number of German soldiers.
Even so, I wanted to reduce the size of the army so Ukrainian money could be used mainly for the construction of military facilities and not to pay the salaries of so many troops.
It was much more important to concentrate on developing modern equipment and standardizing special material, such as the soldiers' personal protection. I also wanted to move toward the adoption of some kind of automatic rifle and, if possible, develop rockets.
But first, we would have to hunt for German talent, because the region's academic curriculum was rather poor when it came to the exact sciences.
The days passed slowly while I endured an overwhelming workload supervising the reconstruction of the city. Finally, the good news I needed so badly began to arrive.
Thanks to the increase in the Daugava's flow, the dam had entered operation earlier than expected and was already working at full capacity. Now we had more than enough energy to supply Riga.
Without wasting a single second, we began the process of disconnecting the multiple coal-fired power plants. I immediately reduced the coal shipments coming from Ukraine, cutting a small percentage of our expenses in one stroke.
A large part of Riga's industry began operating with the electricity produced by the dam, especially the enormous furnaces dedicated to cement manufacturing. The effects on production costs did not take long to become evident.
The price of my cement began to fall considerably once we eliminated the cost of coal and replaced it with the much lower price of hydroelectric energy. That enormous investment of millions was beginning to pay for itself quickly.
We also began occupying many of the empty factories that the Baltic Construction Company had built. The buildings had been prepared to receive machinery when possible, and that moment had finally arrived.
Many of my previous investments became even more important. My standardized machinery factory, which had helped us so much during the war by allowing us to quickly raise a military industry, would now fulfill the same function for the civilian economy.
I had ordered large quantities of machinery to be produced for canning factories, textile processing, tractor production and many other industrial activities.
Practically everything could be manufactured in the Baltic, since most of our machinery was concentrated there. Afterward, we would hand those facilities over to State companies that, with time, would be transferred to their workers.
My intention was to create a proletariat that owned the means of production, although that ownership would be tied to their jobs to prevent the factories from being sold, divided or accumulated in a few hands.
What interested me most was collecting taxes, filling the State coffers with gold and valuable foreign currency, and making our currency increase in value.
I did not want to create State fat through countless public companies full of bureaucrats trying to place their relatives in well-paid positions.
I needed a small and efficient State, but one that at the same time used State capitalism to launch industry and then hand it over to the workers.
That way, we would avoid an excessive accumulation of wealth that, later on, would only end up causing new problems.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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