Rise Of The Ussr In Another World - Volume 1 Chapter 20 Taking Charge
A/N : Scheduled chapter of the week, and the last chapter of the year!
P.S. I hope that the year 2019 passed nicely for everybody, and I hope that the year 2020 will be a peaceful and prosperous year for everybody! OwO!
(OwO)/ HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! (^_^)/
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The news that the young lord massacred the militia soon spread throughout the small town. Most people could never have imagined that the scoundrel young lord would be such a powerful and ruthless person. the wiser people realized that big changes were due to happen in the coming days, and they could only hope that those changes would be for the better. The next morning, Add paid a visit to the barracks as promised, accompanied by Walter. The soldiers had removed all the dead bodies and cleaned the area. They had worked very hard through the night, as no one wanted to irritate the lord and lose their little lives. After he made a few rounds of the Barracks to check if everything was cleaned and tidied properly, he ordered all the soldiers to gather in the training field of the barracks. The militia which numbered more than 400 at its peak, was now reduced to almost half that size. Only a little over 200 soldiers were left, and their combined strength was much lower than before, especially since many rank 2 warriors and Dave the sole rank 3 warrior were now dead. The men stood with their heads hung low, not daring to look at the young lord who was glaring at them with indifferent eyes filled with disdain.
(Really, it’s insulting calling these things soldiers. Calling them hooligans would be stretching it as well)
Add was thoroughly disappointed with these people. Almost all of them were out of shape with flabby bodies and callous appearances. To him who had worked and trained with the best soldiers of Earth, these people really looked revolting. Still, he had to make do with what he had. Thinking of the many works ahead of him, he managed to hold back his urge to kick these useless slobs out of the militia. After some tense moments of silence, he finally spoke.
“I need two volunteers, somebody step out!”
But not a soul dared to move. Everyone of them knew the terror of this boy very well, the scenes of the previous day were still fresh in their minds. He killed without batting an eye and they feared that he may start killing again if he was irritated. No one wanted to do get near him. Seeing that no one stepped forward, Add’s expression became even more frigid,
“Did you retarded buffoons not understand what I said? I want two people to step out now, or else, I will pick somebody myself and that somebody will not be lucky. I promise you.”
He stressed each word, and the faces of the soldiers fell. They all began looking at one another urging each other to move, while not moving themselves. The young lord’s expression became more and more rigid, and even Walter standing behind him was sweating, afraid that he would begin another bloodbath here. Finally, as if coming to a common agreement, the bulk of the soldiers suddenly but silently stepped back. Only two men who were busy discussing in hushed voices among themselves, were unable to notice that their group had moved back, did not move and as a result they were now ahead of the other soldiers, relatively. When the two suddenly felt that something wrong, they looked around and realised to their dismay that the other soldiers were many steps behind them and it appeared that they themselves had stepped out!
“F***!!!”
“S***!!”
The men, cursed and looked at their ‘brothers’ with a gaze as if wanting to kill. Both of them were internally cursing their nine generations. ‘F*** you pieces of s***. How shameless! You all left me standing and retreated! At least somebody should have told me damn it! Ah!! I want to feed all you to dogs!’ the both of them had similar thoughts in their minds. The others just turned their eyes not daring to match the two’s, their expressions saying, ‘don’t blame us, it is your fault that you were careless and did not move. Thank you for your sacrifice good brothers!’. The men’s faces were raging in anger but soon became pale as they looked towards the young lord, and could not help but shiver.
“Finally, someone stepped out. You both, what are your names?”
Add asked indifferently. He did not care the actions of the other soldiers, he just needed a temporary leader to take charge. Having his emotionless eyes lock onto him, the man felt even more scared, but he knew that if he stayed silent then it won’t end well for him.
“Reporting to young lord, I am called Hick”
“Reporting to young lord, I am Elmo”
“Alright then Hick, take out 20 people and stand separately on the right”
The man who was shivering till now smiled cruelly as he turned to look at his ‘brothers’. The others were now pale, afraid that Hick would call their names. The man in question laughed in his mind, ‘you shameless f**** dare set me up ? Then I will f**k your lives as well!’. He called ten of his well known ‘brothers’ whose faces turned ugly like their fathers had just died. Still they dared not ignore the lord who was standing before them and went to stand beside Hick, cursing him profoundly in their minds.
“Elmo, you will manage the remaining soldiers and continue with your everyday duties. I want no one skipping their work, do you understand ?”
“Yes young lord !” Elmo hurriedly bowed and replied.
Add then turned towards Walter and asked,
“Is it done ?”
Walter nodded his head.
“Very well then. Hick!”
“Yes milord !”
Hick’s tone had become very respectful. Now that Dave was dead, and the lord was clearly the undisputed ruler of the region, it was best to follow him. If he could impress the lord enough, perhaps his life would become better!
“Take the 20 men and follow Mr. Walter. There are some scheming rats hiding around, go and drag all of them here, you have till noon! Now go! Mr. Walter please..”
“Yes milord!!”
Walter sighed. His eyes had dark circles under them, suggesting that he had not slept properly yesterday. Add had entrusted him to make a list of people who were supporting Dave, and Walter who knew very well about who those people were, immediately got to work. Within the night, he had the list prepared and he also knew what Add was going to do with them. He began walking and Hick and his group of soldiers quickly followed. After they had left, Add dismissed the rest and went into the office which was previously occupied by Dave. He had the room cleaned by some soldiers. The only things left there were a table with three chairs, a cupboard and some weapon and armour hanging from the walls. He had some spare time now, before Walter returned with those ‘rats’. He quietly waited while making plans for the coming days.
“This territory is too underdeveloped. I will have to start work as soon as possible. Let’s see, the cadets should be done in a month, after that”
He was not going to teach them to use guns right now. Before he had a stable level of infrastructure ready, and the region had industrialised, there was no meaning in introducing guns as he would have to purchase everything from the system. For now the basic sword, spear and bow would have to work. He also wouldn’t begin the special training which was meant for officers. This would be done later. His primary focus would be to improve the standard of the people. After all, these people who did not even know what gravity was, had to be educated first. Or else using the system to bring out modern weapons and technology would be no better than giving a computer to a caveman. Development was a step by step process, it had to be started at the basics, and then one could move gradually upwards. Luckily he did not have any pressing crisis on his head, and could take things slowly.
“All of this is such a pain”
He felt a headache coming. Add was a soldier and the work of social development was not his job. But now that he had such an identity, this was something he must do. His reasons were simple, he wanted to live a free life, but to do that in this world he would need power, and to get that power, he could only depend on himself. Add knew that this world was reality and not a novel, where one man could go against the world and still win. No matter how strong he was, he would never make the mistake of assuming that he could become undefeatable in the world. As such having the power of a nation behind him was very assuring, and if he did not have a nation? It was simple, he would build one for himself! The Soviet Union became a superpower within a few decades, rising from a rural and agricultural country to a massive industrial power, and it would be as shame on him if he could not do the same in such a small region and with the aid of the System supporting him.
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Finally, late in the afternoon, Walter returned along with the soldiers who were dragging some other people with them. When they reached the barracks, Walter quickly went and fetched Add. The young lord calmly looked at the few people whom the soldiers had brought back. there were 8 men of varying ages, some were very old, some were idle aged. These 8 people were actually officials working under Walter, and were among the few officials who managed the workings of the territory. With the help of the soldiers, Walter had quickly captured all of them and brought them before Add. Till now, he had no means of acting against these people since they had Dave on their side. But now that he was gone, these people could easily be dealt with. As Add looked at the officials one by one, they trembled in fear. They knew what had happened yesterday and all of them had connections with Dave and were supporting him from behind the scenes. It was clear that whatever was ahead of them was not anything nice. Add smiled coldly and did not spare them another glance.
“Hick.”
“Yes Milord!”
“Bring these people to the town square”
“As you wish!”
The town square was just a street across from the barracks, the soldiers dragged the men there, while Add and and Walter followed. When they were at the town square, the gazes of the various people fell on them. Many of them had witnessed the killings at the barracks yesterday and felt fear when Add passed by them. However, most people still looked over in curiosity, as to what the lord was up to today. They recognised the 8 officials whom the soldiers were dragging along, and wondered why these people who were normally quite powerful, in this condition today. And their questions were soon answered, when Add began speaking.
“All people who are gathered here, today I your lord have something to say to everyone! As you all know, yesterday I executed Dave and his followers who wanted to rebel against me! However, it turns out that he was not alone in this plan, rather he also had the support of these officials! This is not forgivable at all! I feel that I have been too soft lately, and everyone is trying to get over my head! So today I am going to show what happens if anyone dares to scheme behind my back!”
The people looked in anticipation as they waited for what the young lord was about to do.
“Men! Make them kneel”
At his shout, the soldiers holding the officials dragged them to the front and made them kneel in a line. Their hands were tied behind their backs which made it difficult for them to move. The officials realised that something terrible was about to happen and began screaming and begging for help. Some were crying and asking for mercy, asking for forgiveness but Add was indifferent to their pleas. He drew his sword and stood in front of an official. The soldier holding him immediately stepped back. The official was still asking for help and mercy, when in a flash, Add lifted his sword and beheaded the man. His head rolled on the ground, fear and despair still eminent on his face. The body slumped down and lay motionless. Not wasting tie, Add moved on and chopped the heads of the other 7 officials. Sadly, they gave no Exp, the system judged them to be too weak for that. The entire town square was silent, not a person dared move. They watched in shock and horror as Add killed the 8 men.
“Today I want everyone to know that there is only one punishment for those who dare scheme against me and try to betray me. Death! In the future, everyone should remember this! If anyone feels that they have enough strength to go against me then they are welcome to try, but they can only blame themselves when they die!”
His cold voice made everyone shiver. After this, he left the place and Walter followed them, signalling the soldiers to clean up the mess. If yesterday Add had shocked the masses, then today, he had instilled fear in them. Everyone now knew what would happen if you went against the lord. Many people sighed, they felt as if they had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire! The previous wastrel young lord was still much better than this tyrant young lord. They cursed their fates as they could only fear of what was to come in the following days.
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Back at the Weismann mansion.
“Mr. Walter, from tomorrow onwards, I will take over the management of the territory. You and all the officials will be reporting to me directly. You should also get some people to replace those dead officials.”
“Yes young lord.”
Add who was sitting in the study room said to Walter. He had turned the study in to an office and was currently looking at the reports which Walter had compiled earlier. These ranged from the condition of the territories of the finances to the various problems and necessities of the people. As he was looking at the papers, his gaze fell on Walter who appeared to be wanting to say something.
“What is it? You can speak freely Mr. Walter”
The man hesitatingly began,
“Young Lord, yesterday you killed so many soldiers and today you killed those officials, their families are aggrieved and I am afraid that they will oppose you openly. How do you wish to deal with them? While it is true that those people deserved death, but from the perspective of their families”
What he said was right. There were many families that had lost their men due to the purge that Add carried out. Aside from the loss of a family member, many of those soldiers were the sole earning member in their families. Now that they were dead, those families would be in a bad situation and many would probably end up out on the streets. Add frowned. This was a consequence he had to face, while on one hand he felt no remorse in killing those people, on the other hand as a lord he was also responsible for the families of those people. After thinking for a while, he made a decision.
“I understand, Mr. Walter, for now I want you to give 50 silver coins as a support to all the families of the dead soldiers. As for the family of officials, I will leave it to your wisdom. Apart from that, in a few days time, I will be starting some major works and those families will be the first to be employed.”
“But if they are not cooperative and dare make a fuss, you can arrest them and put them in prison!”
“As you wish young lord, however if I am so bold as to mention that the finances”
Add stretched his body while sighing, something he had been doing a lot recently.
“I know. For now gather what you can and take the rest from the house’s treasury. Ask Martha to help you.”
“I understand.”
After Walter left, Add began thinking about the money problems he was facing. The treasury was steadily depleting and there was little income coming in.
“Looks like I will have to solve it soon huh”
While he was wondering how to earn money, an idea suddenly popped into his mind. He quickly took an intermediate health serum. The health serums were divided into 3 grades, normal, intermediate and advanced which cost 100, 250 and 500 respectively. There were also elixirs beyond them, but they were quite costly. He knew that there were some traders in town who had arrived recently and the fact that potions were quite costly. This made him wonder if he could sell these health serums for money. But selling a healing serum directly would be suspicious as its effects were very powerful, he knew since he had used them. So he made a plan. The next day he bought some measuring equipment one would find in a chemistry lab and went to the town’s prison and began some experiments with the prisoners. He made cuts on their arms and legs of varying degrees and then made the drink diluted serums of varying concentrations. After lots of testing over many days, with different degrees of wounds and amounts of serum, he finally found the perfect ratio. When he was done, the prisoners were so terrified of him, that whenever they saw him they would cower in the corners of their cells.
Around 10 ml of intermediate health serum in 90 ml water would make a position able to heal minor cuts and bruises. Around 25-30 ml in 75-70 ml water was enough to heal a large flesh wound. And around 50 ml of serum in 50 ml water was enough to heal some serious injuries. After debating for sometime he decided to sell the 25-75 solution of the serum, not too weak, and not too powerful. He purchased a water filter from the system shop to get clean water, and began making the diluted serum. One bottle of intermediate healing serum had 200 ml of serum so he could make 8 bottles out of it. Once he had made over a hundred bottles, he invited a trader to sell them.
The trader had also learnt of the cruelty and ruthlessness of the young lord, so he was a bit uncomfortable when he arrived at the mansion. However his eyes shined when Add showed him a demonstration of the potions on a unlucky prisoner, who had his arm wounded deeply by a blade and then healed again by the potion. Although the trader was initially skeptical about the quality of the potions, once he had seen its effects he was immediately convinced. After negotiations, the hundred bottles sold for 10 gold coins each, a total of 1000 gold coins, which was not much but enough to fuel the works of the territory for some time. As for where the potions came, he casually explained that his father had obtained them from a friend and they were lying unused in the house. He could have sold more, but that could invite unwanted attention. Only alchemists knew how to brew potions, and they were highly sought after. If he began selling potions wantonly and some powerful person got wind of this and thought that there was an alchemist, and decided to pay Add a visit, that would be unnecessary trouble.
After obtaining the money, he focused on the various issues of the town. The families of the dad soldiers and officials had been dealt with, some chose to compromise while others had to be suppressed with force. Over the next month, Add repeatedly made trips all over the territory, even going to the farthest villages taking notes of the conditions of the people and the various problems and challenges before them. He also oversaw the working of the officials and routinely visited to watch the training of the cadets, which was nearly complete as per his currently set plans. After he had a rough understanding of the situation of the entire territory, he began making a plan for beginning the development process. Once again, he returned to the history of the Soviet Union for ideas.
When the Soviet Union was established in 1918, Russia was nowhere near being called a industrial nation. While most of Europe had been industrialising rapidly since the mid 18th century, most of Russia still remained agricultural. The Russian economy then was powered mostly by agriculture and industries were just beginning to rise. This economy was dealt heavy blows by the defeat in the first world war and the civil war between the Bolsheviks and the while army, which left it nearly crippled. After obtaining power, Lenin and the Bolsheviks realised that the Soviet Union was decades far behind the major European countries in terms of industrial and economic development. But before he could do much, Lenin passed away. His successor, Joseph Stalin then implemented the famous and ruthless 5-year plans to reform the Soviet Union into a industrial powerhouse, which were followed by other plans that brought the state out of its backwardness and into a developed society.
Add, right now was facing a similar situation. Although with only around 10,000 people under him, the scales were nowhere as large as the millions back in the Soviet union, but the basic problems remained the same. To modernise his fief, the Weismann territory, Add decided on a similar policy like the USSR had, but with major differences. Instead of a totalitarian state, which the Soviet Union had become, he envisioned his state to follow a Democratic Socialist type of system. The state would follow the ideals of socialism, while also ensuring everyone had the equality, freedom and power that Marx had originally envisioned. True communism, Add reasoned would never work, not for humans at least. The system itself was perfect, no doubt about that. But the people who were to run that system did not deserve it. Humans by nature were selfish and greedy, and this was undeniable. Hence, Communism which emphasised on the collective well being would never truly work with humans. Firstly since in practical life, it was impossible for all the millions of people in a communistic society to come together and make decisions as there would be a million different views. This meant the need of representatives who would then inevitably hold the power over the millions of people and as the ones in power were still humans, sooner or later they would want to ensure their own benefits as power can corrupt even the noblest of hearts.
As such Socialism was a compromise between Communism and the selfish and greedy nature of humans. Add envisioned a state which would give its citizens basic rights such as owning property, but would strictly control the means of production to ensure that the 10% of the population, never had more wealth than the 90% combined. Of course till the state reached a certain level of development, he had to ensure his own control. Once it had developed enough, he would let an elected government take over the government. He started this process of reforming the state by formulating a five year plan for the development of the territory, and more would follow after its completion. This plan was based on the 5-year plans, Stalin had introduced, but there were many key differences. The main objective of the 1st five year plan was to boost agricultural production. Agriculture was the backbone of any state, and as there were no industrialising countries around him, Add saw no necessity of stating to build huge factories when the people had no food to eat.
The development in agriculture would be in all of its sectors. In the country of Reinglief, which was a stereotypical feudalistic society, almost all of the farmlands were owned by the Royal family and Nobles. The normal peasants worked on them as serfs to produce crops. After harvesting was done, the peasants were give a fraction of their produce and some wages while the majority of the produce was owned by the land owners. What the peasants got varied from region to region, but it would suffice to say that it was not much. Add decided to change this system instantly. The farmland around Rigel which was all owned by him, would be divided into parts and leased to the peasants for a period of 10 years, after which, depending on their performance, the lease could be extended or terminated. When leased, the peasants would be obliged to sell all their crops to the state, at prices which would be fixed to ensure that the peasants can make a decent income.
Next would be the variety of crops. wheat was the major crop grown in the territory and it was the staple which people ate. Aside from this, there were vegetables, potatoes, and some amount of fruits grown as well. But all of this was not enough. There had to be more variety, in the produce, and he decided that he would bring more types of crops into his territory as soon as possible. There was also an acute shortage of live stock such as cows, chickens etc. these had to be bought from elsewhere and bred to make new sources of income and boost animal husbandry. Along with this, there was a need for better irrigation systems as the people were mostly dependent on rain for their crops. The final problem which had to be resolved was modernization of agriculture. The peasants here, used primitive methods like hand ploughing, horse drawn ploughing, manual seed planting etc. all of these were slow, time consuming and not very effective. These had to be replaced with simple machines first and then as time progressed more sophisticated and effective machines would be used.
The secondary focus would be on education, healthcare and jobs. Very few of the people of the territory were literate, and only a small fraction of them knew subjects like math, economy etc. this was a major problem which had to be tackled as quickly as possible. No state could prosper without its citizens being properly educated and aware. Sadly, there was only one school in Rigel, if it could be called a school at all, and that too was for the ones who were relatively wealthy. He had once visited that place and inspected the level of teaching, which he had found to be very very lacking even by the standards of this world. For this he planned on establishing state run schools which would provide education on basic subjects such as language, mathematics and rudimentary science. There would be a minimal fee charged and the teachers would be paid by the state. In simpler terms, a public school. The exact courses would be selected later, but once the schools were set up and running, gradually more advanced institutions like colleges and universities would be built. The people had to learn and become skilled so that they could in turn contribute in the development of the state.
For the education, he needed a common language. Although the common tongue of most people in Reinglief was the same, here were also many other languages spoken by smaller communities and isolate tribes. The various races like Elves, Dwarves and Werebeasts had their own languages. For the language which would become the state language, Add was torn between Russian and English. One was his own mother tongue, but the other was simpler and comparatively easier to learn for the people here. He who had studied both languages knew this very well. He also planned to include the various other races in the new Soviet Union. After much internal debate, he decided that English would be the official language while Russian would be used by the military and special agencies. The reason was very simple. English was quite similar to the native language of Reinglief and it was comparatively easier to learn than Russian. Not to mention, that his system displayed everything in English, during his time back on Earth, English had become close to an universal language, with only very few countries where its use was limited. Russian would also be taught, after all it was his own language and the language of the original Soviet Union, however that would be limited to the the military and other special services as a special language for now. But who knew, perhaps Russian would find its popularity among the people soon ? Nothing was impossible after all.
Healthcare in this era was basically confined to herbal medicines and diagnosis by traditional methods which had been passed down through the ages. There were no large hospitals or health centres, only a few private doctors, if they could be called doctors at all. Modern medicine and knowledge of biology needed to be taught as well. As for Jobs, they would appear as the various development projects started. Lots of man power would be required to do the construction projects and in the many new services which would be set up by the state. As the territory developed, and more people gathered, new opportunities of trade and commerce would also appear with time.
The third target was industrialization. This would begin by proper mapping and doc.u.menting of the various mines and quarries in this region. The hills behind Rigel were part of the great dividing ranges and were rich in various minerals, but due to the poor economic resources, not much could be invested in proper mining. Once this was done, small scale factories would be set up by the state to process the raw materials and these will then be sent to other factories to make proper items of use. The main products of interest would be iron and other metals, yarn and clothes, paper and wood. He would also introduce the use of machines, starting with the steam engine, which was the pioneer of industrialization. This would be followed by the production and usage of electricity followed by the railways and similar systems. For developing, constructing and operating such factories machines and systems, there was a need for skilled people and adequate food supply which would be met in the previous two targets.
The fourth sector would be the government. To manage the development of the Agriculture, implementing Education, Setting up industry and to ensure the safety and security of the State, a proper government was a must. Till now, the relatively small population of the Weismann Territory was being somewhat decently managed by Walter and some other officials who had been working under the Weismann family for years. In the future however as the various plans were implemented and the population increased, more people would be required to manage the state and its operations. Till his father’s time, the officials were usually selected on the basis of connections. Ability was a secondary criteria. From now on however, there would be strict tests to evaluate the skill and qualities of the people before allowing them any positions in the government. Next would be the formulation of a proper constitution which would have all the laws, rules and regulations, the state and its citizens would follow.
Add would also set up a State Intelligence agency which he named the K.G.B. and would stand as the homonym for the Committee for State Security. Very original on his part. Just like the original KGB it would directly report to the government, and would be responsible for internal security, intelligence gathering; both inside and outside the state and also serve as the Secret Police. Aside from this a separate agency called the State Investigation Division would be set up to monitor crimes within the state and an Anti-Corruption Agency to keep strict watch on government officials and other people with independent powers. The government would have many departments within it, and more agencies would be added when required. Finally, there would be the Central Police Force which would be responsible for maintaining law and order inside the state. Also not to forget was the State Prison Committee, the infamous GULAGS.
The fifth and final target of this plan was the Military. A nation was only as strong as its armed forces were. For now, there seemed to be peace, but Add knew that the current kingdom was on the verge of collapse and as soon as he began his reforms, the royalty and the nobility of the kingdom would immediately try to suppress him. His and their ideologies were exact opposites and they could never allow the rise of the Farmers an Workers. If he was to ensure the Rise of a Socialistic state, he would inevitably clash against the armies of this kingdom and possibly the other kingdoms as well. So he had to form a strong armed force which could protect the state from any and all threats. Although he had started this process with the 100 freshly recruited cadets, but that was not at all enough. Add planned to make a proper defence force consisting of the three major division : The Army, The Air Force and the Navy. Apart from these, there would be the Special Forces (Spetsnaz), and some paramilitary forces.
A major problem was that all these forces would be armed with modern weapons and equipment, and to supply all that the previous 3 targets would have to be met. He could not just begin producing guns and arming his soldiers with them, as doing this would be difficult without properly developing the other sectors and even if he did, then that would attract too much attention. The current him was not prepared to deal with the various powers which resided in this country be it the millions strong armies or the many strong people who would come after him if he recklessly revealed the modern weapons and technology. All of it had to be done slowly and steadily, and could not be rushed. For now, he would develop the territory and bid his time. The situation of the country was not good and a war with the neighbouring countries could break out anytime. In this troubled times, one could never be more careful.
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