Chapter 189: Illusory Victory

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On the long front between the Soviet Union and Poland, in an unnamed small village. This place had once been a trading post on the border between Poland and the Soviet Union. Now, it had become a key strongpoint that both sides were fighting desperately to control.

The Soviet army had fiercely attacked the Polish defenders here for fifteen days but had failed to completely occupy this small village of only about twenty houses. It wasn’t until the Soviets had turned the village into a pile of rubble with their artillery that the Polish soldiers stationed here finally retreated into the permanent defensive fortifications behind it to continue their stand.

And upon the ruins of this village, a unit of Soviet Red Army infantry was struggling to cross the Soviet-Polish border. About two kilometers further on was the main Polish border defense zone. The Soviet troops who had gone before had already left behind over a thousand corpses there and still had not been able to advance a single step.

“Comrade Commissar!” a Red Army officer said, saluting a political commissar. “We have no more ammunition and cannot launch an attack now…”

“Retreat is not permitted!” the commissar said haughtily, glancing at the officer who had come to complain. “Every soldier should die on the road of advance for the motherland!”

“Comrade Commissar! We haven’t eaten all morning! The soldiers are so tired they’re falling asleep in the snow. We lack ammunition, and we are fighting on enemy soil…” the officer said with a long face. “We need to rest, eat, and replenish our ammunition and fuel.”

“No! You cannot stop,” the commissar said, shaking his head stubbornly and pointing in the direction of the Polish defensive line. “True Bolsheviks will not be defeated by hunger or fear!”

Anyone with a little military common sense would know that you should not force a starving army to launch an attack, especially a starving army that also lacked ammunition and other supplies. But it was clear that this comrade commissar of the Soviet Red Army had read Stalin’s instruction manual until he became stupid. He was more willing to believe that the sallow and emaciated Red Army soldiers in the distance could transcend their physical bodies with their spirit.

The attack began in the afternoon. The Soviet Red Army organized a large-scale attack on the front of this village, throwing a full 4,000 soldiers against the Polish line. But they were beaten back by the machine guns on the Polish defenses. Many soldiers were executed by the barrier troops, and many more fell on the charge. Apart from making the Poles use up some of their reserve ammunition, this attack achieved nothing.

The several commissars who had organized this attack began to shift the blame, attributing the failure of the offensive to the officers’ unwillingness to serve the motherland or the soldiers’ inability to firmly carry out the sacred tasks entrusted to them by the motherland. In short, it had nothing to do with them. The conclusion they finally reached in their meeting was that there were still some bourgeois conspirators lurking in the army, sabotaging the Red Army’s combat operations.

Thus, the several officers who had pointed out the lack of ammunition and supplies that morning were all arrested and sent to a distant Siberian concentration camp. The officer who had said his army had nothing to eat was shot in front of everyone. Sometimes, we cannot understand this logic: as long as a few people are killed, it is considered an accounting for the thousands who had died before.

Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, as a Marshal of the Soviet Union, was now looking with a troubled expression at his subordinates, who were standing in a dejected line, waiting for his lecture. He had just arrived at the front this month to take command of the nearly collapsed Soviet Red Army’s invasion of Poland. His predecessor had been sent to a Siberian concentration camp a few hours after his arrival.

As a result, after he took over command of the frontline operations, the Soviet Red Army was still unable to achieve victory against Poland. Apart from mobilizing elite troops to break into some areas in the central part of Poland, the Soviet Red Army was still marking time near the Polish border on most fronts. Even the breakthrough on the central front was a slow advance achieved only after the Red Army had been in chaos for several days.

However, Marshal Voroshilov was a little luckier than his predecessor in that, to show the importance he attached to the offensive, Stalin had sent his three most trusted and favored generals to be jointly responsible for all matters concerning Poland. Khrushchev and Yezhov were now at Voroshilov’s side, in charge of the political work of the attacking Soviet Red Army forces.

But Khrushchev and Yezhov were both from political backgrounds. They knew nothing about military affairs but both wanted to meddle and show off their strategic vision. Their interference made the Soviet army’s already weak offensive even worse.

First, Yezhov insisted that the Soviet Red Army continue to adhere to a full-front offensive with some main and secondary points. As a result, the Soviet forces dispersed the advantage of their heavy weapons. After a week of continuous fighting, they had not advanced a single step. A third of their regimental commanders had been killed in action, and another third had been arrested and executed, but they still had not been able to break the stalemate.

Khrushchev, having watched Yezhov make a fool of himself, decided to change this strategy. He had more self-awareness than Yezhov and even consulted some Red Army commanders. In the end, he came up with an offensive plan of a central breakthrough aimed directly at Warsaw. Of course, this plan ultimately failed because of the lack of mid- and low-level officers, and the process of assembling the troops was chaotic. The Soviet Red Army itself fell into disarray first.

In the end, Voroshilov took over the command that should have been his long ago, but what he faced was a complete and utter mess. Of course, his luck was not due to these things, but because Khrushchev and Yezhov had decided to conceal their failures at the front. Thus, Stalin, far away in Moscow, received news of a great Soviet victory, and Voroshilov gained more time to strive for the victory the Soviet Red Army should have achieved long ago.

The Polish forces, relying on their solid fortifications, fought steadily and inflicted tens of thousands of casualties on the Red Army. Although their entire defensive line was now on the verge of collapse due to a lack of reserves, it was absolutely no problem for them to hold out for another ten days or half a month.

The Polish defenders discovered that the Soviet forces were practically testing their training results according to their own defense manual. When they were stationed in the villages, these Soviet soldiers paid for their clumsy attacks with casualties. And when they retreated into their reinforced concrete fortifications to defend, the retreating Soviets came up to die again.

To put it bluntly, the Soviets were practically fighting this war in coordination with the rhythm of the Polish defenders. When the Poles were afraid and retreating, the Soviets would blindly attack and be beaten back, giving the Poles the courage to resist. When the Poles were weak and helpless, the Soviets were in chaos and wasted their opportunity, giving the Poles a chance to breathe. And when the Poles were ready for battle, the Soviets would wash their faces and present themselves again…

Khrushchev looked at the casualty figures and felt sweat breaking out on his forehead. He had signed his name on the operational report to Stalin, but the land that was supposed to have been occupied in that illusory victory was still being trodden by the Poles. Every day that passed was a form of mental torment.

And sitting opposite him, Yezhov, who had once been his rival for favor, also looked dejected. He had also signed that report of victory at the front, so now he could fully understand Khrushchev’s feelings. They were now grasshoppers on the same rope, so his mood in the face of another failure was also extremely foul.

Voroshilov was the only one of the three who knew about military affairs. Before he even received this document, he knew there would be such a disastrous defeat. His army’s logistics were now a complete mess. Supplies were piled up in Kiev and Minsk, but very few could be transported to the front. The number of railways the Germans had helped to build was not small, but due to the disparity in scheduling skills, these railways could not even exert half of their transport capacity in wartime.

The soldiers at the front lacked food and clothing, and the ammunition could not meet the needs of a large-scale campaign. If they could still win under such circumstances, it could only be said to be a blessing from God. Therefore, Voroshilov had not believed from the beginning that this offensive would achieve the desired victory. But he had to let his soldiers go up and die to exchange for the support and compromise of the two of Stalin’s cronies.

“Why did this attack fail again, Marshal Voroshilov?” Yezhov asked, looking as if he were trying to find a reason to shift the blame for this failure.

Khrushchev sighed. “The army is in chaos now. Many commissars have reported to me that they can no longer urge the troops to advance! At the very least, we must distribute food and ammunition before we can continue the attack.”

“If… if Comrade Stalin finds out that we dared to deceive him,” Voroshilov coughed twice. “The three of us are finished! … We now need to think of a foolproof plan to cover up our lies.”

Yezhov, seeing that he could not shirk his responsibility, shook his head and said, “Launch another attack? Every time we fail, we create another hole! Now this hole is almost bigger than the sky!”

“A few days ago, Comrade Stalin held a meeting in Moscow and praised the three of us by name,” Khrushchev said with a sigh, speaking of the honor he had received. He had never been so afraid of his superior’s praise as he was now. “He awarded us medals and is even preparing to hold seminars in the major military districts to study this victory.”

“An offensive is impossible! The army has reached its limit. To maintain it without chaos is already the result of the efforts of all departments,” Voroshilov said after a moment’s thought. “It will take at least two months to recover, and we can only ensure that an attack can proceed smoothly at the beginning of January next year! My predecessor deserved to die.”

Seeing him shift all the blame to a dead man, Khrushchev and Yezhov both nodded in agreement. But then the two of them became worried again. Since the army could not achieve the desired victory, how could this already-boasted-of victory be made real?