The Red Orchestra
  1. Events

The Red Orchestra

World History 🌐 World Wars and Interwar Period🧨 Event ⭐
Treaty of Versailles
1919 to 1939

The Great Proletarian Revolution, the Rotsturm, or more commonly known in English-speaking circles as the Red Orchestra was a twenty year period of unrest, revolutions, coups and wars in Europe, either sponsored or completely carried out by the Soviet Union, which overlapped with the historical period between WW1 and WW2 known as the interwar period. Throughout the October Revolution, but especially following a Soviet victory in the Polish-Soviet War, Vladimir Lenin and his closest ally, Leon Trotsky, believed that the only way to defeat the German Empire was to chip away at its empire one nation at a time, creating a wide network of Soviet-sponsored communist parties and agents throughout Europe. This would greatly aid them in the inevitable Great War of European Liberation, what the Soviets expected would be World War II.

The following events are part of the interwar period, many of them also part of the Red Orchestra narrative:


  • January 1919. Michael Collins, leader of the Irish Republican Army, declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain, beginning the Irish War of Independence.


  • April 1919. The British Raj mishandles a major protest, resulting in the Amritsar Massacre and major civil unrest. However, it is successfully quelled by the German Empire through shrewd negotiation with Indian political leaders and the Raj's sovereignty is transferred to Germany, beginning German Rule over India.


  • February 1919. Protests in Scotland escalate into a full-blown civil war, the British Revolution.


  • October 1919. German authorities within India accidentally release 200 tons of chlorine gas into a protesting crowd, resulting in the Delhi Massacre. This was perceived as the last straw against European colonial powers by the native intelligentsia, and the Indian War of Independence begins.


  • February 1920. Unable to deal with secessionism and political extremism, the Greater Habsburg Empire collapses under its own weight, becoming embroiled in the Austro-Hungarian Civil War.



  • September 1921. The Konratopian Civil War erupts as the federation's leader is assassinated by undercover NKVD agents, framing Uzbek tribal secessionists.


  • October 1922. Benito Mussolini successfully carries out the March on Rome, seizing Italy's government and transforming it into a totalitarian one-party state.


  • September 1922. With fighting in Britain coming to a halt, the former global hegemon enters a period of reform and reconstruction known as British Socialism under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government.



  • May 1924. The assassination of Joseph Stalin. In January of the same year, Vladimir Lenin died of a stroke, prompting the rise of Joseph Stalin against the former leader's wishes. He advocated for greater state control of the economy and political life, as well as no compromise with the other factions of the CPSU, attempting to exile his greatest political enemy, Leon Trotsky. However, with support from the Red Army (which Trotsky had practically created), Moscow's government facilities and key infrastructure was seized on May 1st, 1924 and Trotsky declared emergency party elections; he was chosen as the next General-Secretary and given emergency powers. Stalin, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev attempted to escape to the United States, but were intercepted and executed by Cheka agents the 19th of May.


  • November 1924. Commemorating the 6th anniversary of the October Revolution, Trotsky announces the creation of the World Revolution Plan, which would officially designate the "protection and expansion of communism" as a the primary objective of the Soviet state from 1924 until 1946. For this purpose, the Cheka and Militsiya organisations present throughout the USSR, as well as the Union's network of spies and collaborators throughout Europe, would combine into a single All-Union NKVD. Notably, the German Empire condemned this act as "pushing Europe towards a second Great War", having just finished its own Velvet Revolution and in response, reformed its military intelligence service (Abwehr) to strengthen counter-intelligence actions across Europe.


  • December 1924. The Romanian Communist Party, with support of the Romanian Army, overthrows the German-imposed king and declared itself a socialist republic; the Romanian Revolution has taken the German-dominated European order by surprise. Soon after, communist insurgencies begin popping up throughout the Balkans, largely armed and trained by the Romanian government (which in turn was subsided by the Soviets). 


  • January 1926. Bulgarian communist rebels march on the capital, but are besieged by the Bulgarian Army, loyal to its German-allied Tsar. In response, the Romanian Red Army invades, beginning the East Balkans War. Soviet innovations in mobile warfare and deep operations take the German-trained Bulgarians by surprise, and by April the king is forced to abdicate; the Bulgarian Revolution follows, setting up a second communist regime in the Balkans.


  • July 1926. Greek revolutionaries, inspired by success elsewhere, take up arms. They are initially unsuccessful, but a series of NKVD collaborators infiltrated within the Royal Hellenic Navy began a mutiny and took over Athens. Within two months, the Hohenzollern King of Greece had been forced into exile. Being the third success in Europe, the Greek Revolution begins to put the Germans into maximum alert, while the Americans begin to question whether supporting the Soviet Union is worth the risk of a communist takeover in Europe.


  • April 1927. Under Chiang Kai-Shek's orders, nationalist China's NRA begins the Shanghai Massacre, killing or detaining most left-wing KMT and Communist Party members. The 1st of August of the same year, reorganised communist forces with the backing of some NRA defectors begin the Nanchang Uprising, thus starting the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was pit against the numerically superior NRA in five encirclement campaigns, from 1927 until 1934. The intellectual author of said suppression campaigns was the German officer Hans von Seekt, accompanied by his contemporary Alexander von Falkenhausen, who helped train a number of NRA divisions into elite forces modelled after the Deutsches Heer. They received ample support from the German Empire in the form of funding, weapons, ammunition, uniforms, artillery, radios, vehicles, and other such equipment (much of it refurbished surplus from the Weltkrieg). This event marks the first serious German intervention in world affairs aimed at containing communism.


  • June 1927. Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress, mysteriously disappears. The unstable Indian Federation of Princely States collapses under its own weight and is carved between competing cliques, dictatorships and princedoms, beginning the Indian Warlord Era.


  • March 1928. Tensions had been brewing for almost two years between the allied kingdoms of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Albania and Montenegro against the newly formed South European Pact, an alliance of Balkan communist states. The 11th of this month, an NKVD assassin unsuccessfully strikes at the Serbian king; with German backing, the kingdoms declare war intent on liberating southern Europe from the red menace. Unfortunately, the Danubian Socialist Party uses all of its influence within the Danubian Federation to prevent the Germans from moving military supplies through their country; thus, they are forced to rely on a slow trickle of naval supplies, and no reinforcements from the Deutsches Heer. The South European Pact finds victory in the Third Balkan War by July, the finest German military genius failing against avant-garde irregular warfare strategy and tactics, working in tandem with fully motorised and partially mechanised professional forces. Communist pan-slavists win most elections in the occupied area, and agree to form the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.


  • August 1928. In response to the complete takeover of the Balkan Peninsula by communist forces, the German Empire announces the creation of the Antikominternpakt, a defensive military alliance to contain Soviet expansionism. The American government slowly recedes its financial, technological and military support of the Soviet Union, unsure of who will come out on top of this tense situation, and beginning to warm up to a far more democratic, post-Velvet Revolution Germany.


  • October 1929. Economic speculation and the reluctance of American leaders to intervene in the economy results in the 1929 Wall Street Crash. This signals the beginning of a decade-long period of global economic downturn, the Great Depression.


  • May 1930. The Second Tours Congress is shot up by Hohenzollern troops, unleashing the Fourth French Revolution and the subsequent neosocialist takeover of France.


  • November 1930. French troops cross into occupied south-eastern France, beginning the Franco-Italian War.


  • October 1931. Inconclusive electoral results and the rise of political radicalism in Britain lead to a period of political violence known as the Downy Days.



  • February 1932. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, father of the Republic of Turkey, is assassinated by NKVD agents, framing the event on Ottoman restorationists groups, which were largely funded by Germany. In the 12 years prior, him and Vladimir Lenin had sustained a close relationship, which was also true for his successor Trotsky. So much so that following his death, a good portion of the Kemalist Republican People's Party begun to see Trotskyism as the only alternative to being ensnared once more by the German giant, and integration into the greater South European Pact the road towards the future. This diagreement provoked what seemed like the beginning of a civil war. However, the situation was bleak for the Left-Kemalists, as most of the Turkish Army was favourable to the RPP's right wing. Unexpectedly, on the 28th of February, Soviet naval forces disembarked on Istambul, while ground forces in the Caucasus mountains began advancing using mountain warfare tactics and strategies developed over a decade of proxy conflicts in the Balkans, thus began the Turkish-Soviet War. Despite initial setbacks, by May of the same year Soviet forces had reached the outskirts of Ankara. Preparing for a valiant, conventional last stand, Turkish forces were caught completely by surprise by the first combat drop in history; over 5,000 Soviet paratroopers, in close coordination with supporting fighter-bombers, captured key positions and infrastructure, trashing the defensive side's plan and forcing them to surrender. In response to this invasion, the neighbouring Hashemite United Arab Kingdoms sought an alliance with the German Empire. Negotiations with the Imperial State of Iran, however, suffered from unexpected setbacks...


  • May 1932. Following the Turkish-Soviet War, both the United Arab Kingdoms and the Imperial State of Iran sought an alliance with Germany to protect their independece. The Germans, reliant on middle-eastern oil for their economy and armed forces, agreed to rapidly discuss the terms of such an alliance, hoping to extract oil concessions. While the Arab delegation arrived on time, the Iranian one never did; it was intercepted by Soviet fighters close to the Turkish border and shot down, its itinerary likely known by NKVD infiltrators. The Imperial State of Iran protested upon the League of Nations, arguing that such a massacre was an act of war; Leon Trotsky's response agreed with their conclusions, declaring war. So began the short-lived Soviet-Iranian War The Germans declared that they would send an armed expedition to push the Soviet Army back across the Caucasus, though this force could not arrive in time. By June, when it did, most of rural Iran was controlled by NKVD-sponsored communist guerillas, Tehran had seen an armoured column parade through its centre, and Soviet paratroopers had seized all major urban centres. The vast majority of the monarchist government had been either killed or detained. Humilliated, the Deutsches Heer embarked once more and went home. As a result of this war, both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Egypt joined the German alliance.


  • December 1933. The Danubian Federation, now for three years under the rule of the Danubian Socialist Party, agrees to maintain it's alliance with Germany, committed to the values of democracy and self-determination. However, since their victorious election in 1930 a growing number of NKVD infiltrators and collaborators had been slowly seeping into the Danubian government, academia, media and public life. This would later result in a complete 180-degree foreign policy shift.


  • October 1934. The Chinese Communist Party receives intelligence from its spy network within the NRA that Chiang Kai-Shek is planning for one last battle of annihilation, forcing them to break out of their encirclement in a mad dash towards the north, later known as the Long March. It was during this great retreat that Mao Zedong took control of the CCP and further developed his irregular warfare strategies. They reached their destination almost exactly one year later; the northern province of Shaanxi.


  • March 1935. The United Baltic Duchies of Terranihil's parliament is stormed by NKVD agents and local collaborators dressed as the "Baltic Ultrarepublican Party", which abolishes the monarchy and sets up the Republic of Terranihil. Germany intervenes. An infantry corps of 23,000 men in total crosses the Memel River, intent on restoring order, and stopping the "Rotsturm" once and for all. However, over six months of hard fighting, they are ultimately defeated by the Republic's Soviet-trained forces, with the expeditionary corps being annihilated in the Battle of Riga. Seeing the failures in their wartime doctrine, equipment, strategy, tactics and industry, the German government orders the creation and implementation of Generalkriegsplan IV, which contains a total reformation of every branch of its armed forces, alongside an industrial plan for total war. This event signals a realisation within the German government that World War II is inevitable.


  • November 1935. The British General Elections of 1935 are inconclusive. The BUF and the Democratic-Leninists agree to form an unlikely coalition, to bring them legitimacy. In response, so does Labour and the Social-Liberals, alongside many of Britain's minor parties; by a small margin, they are victorious. Britain's dire economic and political situation is turned around by the ruling "Democratic Coalition", repealing the few authoritarian acts that the BUF was able to pass through, and conducting investigations into their members and collaborators. It is this government which foresees a great war in Europe is approaching, and begins an armaments program disguised as a jobs and public works one.


  • February 1936. Shortly after reaching Shaanxi, Leon Trotsky had met in person with Mao Zedong. In February of 1936 the result is made evident; 30 divisions of the Soviet Army cross the Chinese border to establish a "security cordon" in the provinces of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and the western half of Inner Mongolia. Chiang's NRA counter-attacks, but their defensive efforts are futile and the Gobi Desert Campaign results in a total Soviet-Communist victory. The captured regions are turned over to Mao Zedong's control, while his Red Army begins receiving military advisory, weapons and training en-masse from the Soviet Union. These efforts are cut short the following year when the Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, and the Japanese politely ask the Soviets to stop supporting their wartime enemy (the Chinese Communist Party).


  • July 1936. A number of Spanish generals attempt a coup by force of arms, but are unsuccessful, transforming years of bottled up political tensions into the Spanish Civil War. Both sides of WW2 intervened in this conflict, testing out their newest tactics and weapons against each other with Spanish blood. The conflict ended in March of 1939 with a nationalist victory, bringing about the rule of Caudillo Francisco Franco.


  • July 1937. The genie is out of the bottle, and no one would be able to put it back in. With yet another false-flag attack, the Second Sino-Japanese War begins; one of enormous proportions and unthinkable massacres. The worst of these would perhaps be the Rape of Nanjing, which ocurred on December of 1937. To sustain their war effort, the Japanese began importing oil, iron, coal and even weapons from the Soviet Union, solidifying their alliance. However, a point of conflict between the two nations would be Mao Zedong's CCP, which controlled a significant region of China thanks to Soviet intervention. To resolve this issue a treaty is signed by Mao's and Japan's representatives in Moscow; the Japanese Empire would abstain from any decisive offensive actions against CCP-controlled regions, concentrating their efforts on destroying Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist government. In return, Mao would refuse Chiang's offer to form a united front, and the Chinese Civil War would continue, thus putting the KMT in a two-front war.


  • February 1938. As the Oceanykan Council declares its intent to condemn fascist Italy, the Japanese Empire and Germany's NSDAP as a show of will to gain favour with Oceanyka's three major ethnicities, supporters of the Natalist Home Front begin to protest in the streets of Cestlep. They are chased out through gunfire by the Federal Army's Military Police, declaring war on Cestlep to reverse globalisation and destroy foreign influence within the nation. Soon, seeing a Soviet victory as inevitable in a new Great War, the supposedly allied Revolutionary Party also declares war, formally beginning the Oceanykan Civil War.


  • May 1938. Labour day celebrations are in full swing within Paris, with the usual public executions of Germans, ex-collaborators and capitalists. Consul Jacques Doriot announces the French government's refusal to recognise the Lorraine Sanitary Cordon, and French Red Army units move in. German garrisons in the region are taken by surprise and are mostly disarmed without bloodshed. Germany begins to mobilise and prepare for war, but they are informed by the Danubian government that as the French had not violated Germany's territorial integrity, they would not intervene in an offensive war. This confirms German suspicions that the Danubians would not be a reliable ally following their 1930 elections; soon after, a damning Abwehr report detailing the true extent of NKVD infiltration within the Danubian government reaches the Kaiser's desk. In response, the Deutsches Heer drafts the Totalerkriegsplan "Endsieg", which envisions Germany not fighting a two-front war, but on every metre of its frontier with its surrounding neighbours.


  • December 1938. The Danubian Federation's government, in a bloodless self-coup, announces the abolition of the Habsburg throne and the creation of the Danubian Workers' Federation. Soon after, they are admitted into the COMINTERN as an independent ally of the Soviet Union. The German government enters a period of uncertainty and a political crisis erupts, as it finds itself surrounded on all fronts by communist states. Overtures towards the United States of America and the Republic of Great Britain are unsuccessful; their remaining allies (the Kingdoms of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Yurislanzia, Demark and Poland) are formalised into a single military command structure; the Stahltpakt, or the Steel Pact. As part of Totalerkriegsplan "Endsieg", Germany activates the Bürgerarmee (made up of reservist Freikorps units including the SS) and a new organisation, the Volksturm, which would draft non-essential personnel to form part of the Luftwaffe's air defence corps or as last-stand combat formations. The German arms industry begins to produce a new line of last-ditch hypersimplified firearms to arm its Volksturm units, which would prove vital in the defence of the Reich.


  • April 1939. German diplomats finally convince their American and British counterparts of the gravity of the situation. They organise the London Trans-Atlantic Conference, which is disguised as a trade agreement for the reporters. The Republic of Great Britain agrees to enter a defensive alliance with the German Empire, believing a Franco-Soviet dominated Neosocialist/Trotskyist Europe to be a real possibility. The United States of America's delegation, aware of its population's dominant anti-war sentiment, promises neutrality and continued access to American resources, products, arms, fuel, technology and munitions to both participants. Leon Trotsky correctly assesses that a trans-atlantic alliance is imminent; Soviet and French naval commanders are instructed to warn American convoys to turn back, and open fire if they refuse.


  • February 1939. Mahatma Gandhi returns from his political exile, landing in the port of Vadodara. From here he proclaims the formation of a new Indian Federation, embarking on military campaigns throughout central and northern India, opposed by nearly every independent princely state within the subcontinent. Eventually, two blocs emerge to oppose him; the German-supported, Muslim-majority Union of Tradition and Order and the southern American-supported Congress of Princes, which would both later develop into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Princely Confederation respectively. 


  • July 1939. The Eight World Congress of the COMINTERN is convened in none other than Vienna. During this meeting, Leon Trotsky announces that the world revolution is near, decrying Germany as the "last remaining bastion of reactionary thought in Europe". The German leadership correctly interprets this as signalling that the COMINTERN is ready to pursue a war to annihilate the Hohenzollern throne. Partial mobilisation is ordered.


  • August 1939. Against all odds, on the 25th of August a citizen of the Soviet Union assassinates Genrikh Yagoda, who at the time was director of the NKVD. The culprit: an NKVD agent from the Volga region, who in reality was a double agent working with the Abwehr. Furthermore, letters and interrogations pointed towards him being compromised by SS agents, directly under Himmler's orders, making him a triple agent. Conflicting evidence signalled towards the American Military Intelligence Division and even towards the Japanese Kempeitai. For the exterior observer, this seemed like yet another diplomatic crisis between the two titans of Europe; field armies were called to the frontier, sabers were rattled, and interceptors sortied out. In secret, the Abwehr and the NKVD began to pursue communication through underground channels to exchange information, and figure out who exactly this man worked for. However, none of their allies had been told about the escalating threats being a show while negotiations and talks proceeded in the shadows, not the prelude to actual war. A critical mistake.


  • September 1939. The 1st day of said month, the French Red Army invades Germany. World War II begins.