Germany does not seek survival

Piłsudski told Smetona: "The Poles and Lithuanians have a traditional friendship that dates back half a millennium. As long as the Germans do not order the Polish Legion to harm the Lithuanians, I am certainly willing to lead my troops to fight in the north."

Piłsudski followed the flow of the Vistula River and slowly turned his gaze to the estuary of the Vistula River, a bay that the Poles called Gdansk and the Germans called Danzig.

"I'm determined to go north and cooperate with Faust. Let's see what mysterious plot this suddenly emerging German hero has!"

Chapter 66: The Theory of the National Socialist Party

Piłsudski's statement of intention to go north was certainly a good thing for Faust, but then again, even if Faust had not expressed goodwill to Piłsudski through Colonel Sikorski, Faust did not think that Piłsudski would really have a way to refuse him.

At least up to now, most of the land in Russian Poland has been occupied by the German army. The Polish Legion is nominally subordinate to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but in reality the Austrian army itself can hardly protect itself and needs to obey the command of the German General Staff, let alone the Polish Legion.

The General Staff has made a decision and ordered the Polish Corps to accept the surveillance of the Grossdeutschland. Not to mention that the Polish Corps only has three divisions, even if the Polish Corps has thirteen divisions, it is still not worth mentioning in front of the million-strong German army on the Eastern Front. Piłsudski has no ability to resist the Germans.

Piłsudski could also choose to be stubborn and refuse the German orders, just like the "Oath Crisis" of the Polish Legion in later history, refusing to obey, resulting in more than 10,000 Polish Legion soldiers being imprisoned in prisoner camps.

Faust offered the Poles a better option, and after careful consideration, Piłsudski had no reason to refuse it.

In Königsberg, the Greater Germany Regiment had a rare opportunity to rest for a whole month. While Faust calculated the timetable for the drastic changes in Russia, he also used this one-month window to further reorganize the troops under his command.

When the National Socialist Party was in Romania, it had already required the Greater Germany Regiment to establish a National Socialist Party Party committee branch in every company, and to set up a soldiers' representative council affiliated with the National Socialist Party in every squad and platoon.

However, these measures will not produce immediate results just by Faust drafting a charter himself, like clicking on the technology tree in the game.

Everything still requires time, and in addition to time, cadres and personnel are also needed.

The problem of cadres is very serious. The general education level of German soldiers in 1917 can be said to be the best in the world. Even the soldiers from the poorest backgrounds have at least completed elementary school. A country with a literacy rate of 99% should not be short of party members and cadres. What it lacks mainly are party members and cadres who are loyal to socialism.

The National Socialist Party's 25-point program is very beautiful, and Faust has tried his best to take care of various groups of people and all aspects in the program. However, the German soldiers who have generally received primary and secondary education are not stupid. Everyone knows that a beautiful program must come at a price.

So, what is the price of the 25-point program?

Faust did not deceive everyone on this point. He knew that any deception would only lead to the worst consequences for the National Socialist Party and the German people. Therefore, he felt it was necessary to explain clearly to everyone from the beginning what Faust wanted to do in the future.

The second party congress of the National Socialist Party was about this matter.

This time, the meeting was held at the William Barracks in Königsberg. There was a Lutheran chapel in the barracks that was built during the reign of Frederick the Great. Lutheranism emphasizes frugality, and the chapel was simply decorated. It did not look as magnificent as the Romanian churches.

"Some of my new Party members often ask me, 'Hey, Mr. Faust, your 25-point program is all very good, and everyone loves every word. The only question is, what's the cost? Implementing the 25-point program will cost money. Where will the money come from?'"

This time, Faust asked the man with a mustache and Sorge to distribute a pamphlet to everyone. The title of the pamphlet was "ABC of National Socialism". The content of the pamphlet was the outline of what Faust would say at the party congress today.

"That's a very good question, because all political issues boil down to economic issues, and economic issues boil down to where the money comes from and how it's spent."

Faust held high the ABC of National Socialism in his hand and preached to these soldiers who had just joined the National Socialist Party for less than two months:

"On the economic front, we want to increase pensions for the elderly, abolish usury, protect civilian commerce, and establish comprehensive health insurance to protect the health of Germans. Each of these requires money. Where will the money come from? In the first chapter of our pamphlet, 'The ABC of National Socialism,' we state that the state's responsibility is to take from the rich to provide for the poor."

"In times of war and revolution, there is a more definite goal: to seize wealth from the trusts and land from the princes, thus solving the two major problems of capital and land."

In this regard, of course, some people question: "This violates the Lutheran principle of the sanctity of private property!"

Someone else took the opportunity to talk about the story of the Potsdam Mill. This little story is very famous. It tells that Frederick the Great decided to build Sanssouci Palace on a high ground separated by a wall from a windmill. As a result, the mill just blocked the scenery in front of Sanssouci Palace. Frederick the Great wanted to buy the mill and demolish it, but the miller sued the king on the grounds that the royal palace affected the wind power of his windmill and caused huge losses.

The Sanssouci Mill in Potsdam has since become a holy place symbolizing judicial independence and fair adjudication. As the saying goes, "The wind can come in, the rain can come in, but the king cannot come in." After the unification of Germany, this little story, whose authenticity is difficult to verify, has become a noble legend that promotes the "sacred virtue" of the Hohenzollern dynasty in respecting bourgeois legal rights.

Faust disagreed: "This requires us to clarify our view of property. I believe that a religious reverence for private property will inevitably stifle the possibility of German socialism. Baron von Stein said this at the time, which is very inspiring for us today: if a country wants to achieve freedom and honor, it must give the oppressed part of the country property and the right to co-determination."

Faust went on to say, "In the time of Baron von Stein, the oppressed were the serfs. They cultivated the land but had no property, not even ownership of their own bodies, so they had to be emancipated. When Baron Stein emancipated the serfs, he couldn't find any wasteland to allocate to the serfs for farming, so he confiscated it from the Junkers. At that time, any Junker who dared to claim that his land was private property and inviolable would be a traitor to Germany and be sentenced to death by the Hohenzollern dynasty."

"It's self-evident that private property was designed for a small peasant society, because land could be divided into small plots for cultivation. Every household could be self-sufficient with just a small plot of farmland. However, as agriculture developed in medieval Germany, as we all know, every village began to need to dredge rivers and build water conservancy facilities. At this time, water conservancy projects were no longer private property that could be divided into small plots. Churches, village communities, free cities, commercial alliances... In ancient Germany, these organizations began to build water conservancy projects, which we call public works."

"In the industrial sector, things behave differently from smallholder farming. Land can be divided into small plots, but dams cannot. Similarly, factories cannot be divided. In some large industrial enterprises, each factory is interconnected to form a larger industrial complex. If this industrial complex is broken up into smaller parts, each part will lose its production capacity."

"Therefore, industrial production must be socialized. No one can cultivate the land like a farmer, and no single household can run an industrial complex. However, in terms of ownership, the ownership of enterprises that require the whole society to unite to produce belongs not to society but to individuals. This is logically illogical."

"Mr. Faust!"

Someone in the audience grumbled, "Sir, the world has always been like this, for thousands and hundreds of years. If companies don't belong to individuals but to society, what should we do?"

A bespectacled platoon leader also stood up. He looked quite cultured. "Mr. Faust, what exactly is socializing an enterprise? If the National Socialists seized power in Berlin tomorrow, what would you do with Krupp immediately? Shareholders, workers, property, profits, guidelines—what would you do?"

Another young officer, who had just graduated from the Officer Candidate School, chimed in, "Yes, what does the socialization of enterprise entail? Germany's railways have never been the domain of private investment, but rather the domain of the state and government. Mr. Faust's talk of socializing enterprise seems to mean turning most German companies into the Prussian State Railways and the Imperial Tobacco Monopoly."

Someone else mentioned, "In ancient times, the Hanseatic League, due to financial difficulties, once nationalized the brothels in Hamburg and Lübeck. Mr. Faust, the Hanseatic League also implemented socialist transformation of brothels!"

The educational level of German soldiers was not low. As the ace elite of the German army, the soldiers who were able to join the Great German Regiment were of course the best in the entire army. Many of them graduated from liberal arts high schools, and many people, like Faust, had university degrees. The officers had all received very strict military academy education.

These people's level of thinking must be very high, and it was within Faust's expectations that they would have such a discussion.

Simple empty talk, or arguments that merely stir up passionate emotions, may inspire people in the short term, but in the long run, it will be difficult to convince most educated Germans.

Therefore, during the rise of the Nazis, Hitler's eloquence had to be based on the academic foundation of theorists such as the Strasser brothers, Rudolf Jung and Gottfried Feder.

Chapter 67: Socialized Raising

Simply shouting "confiscate the land of the princes" and "nationalize the property of the trusts" is very simple. It does not require Faust. Any German soldier who is drunk can shout it out.

However, in order to make those educated elite German troops accept the revolutionary theories of the National Socialist Party, Faust had to make it clear what to do after "confiscating the land of the princes" and "confiscating the property of the monopoly trusts."

"What to do after the revolution? Let me tell you. Open your little pamphlet, The ABC of National Socialism, and turn to Chapters 2 and 3. These two chapters contain the National Socialist Party's answer to the great question, 'What to do after the revolution?'"

The second chapter of the ABC of National Socialism is titled "The Socialized Securities Revolution of Wealth," and the third chapter is titled "Birth Theory and Property Tax."

The "socialized securities revolution of wealth", as the name suggests, is how to manage these assets after the forced confiscation of the princes' estates and trust properties.

In principle, the way the National Socialist Party managed these assets in terms of ownership was to securitize the assets and redistribute the corporate property of the monopoly bourgeoisie to the people of the country in the form of securities stocks.

But if this is all that is achieved, then at best it is just a petty-bourgeois "rob the rich to help the poor" policy. It is nothing more than the equal distribution of land that many ancient regimes have carried out, except that what is being distributed is not land, but enterprises.

The key point is that after these companies are securitized, people are actually unable to manage the corporate securities they obtain. As a result, they will definitely sell the securities in their hands to a few people at low prices, and cultivate a group of new oligarchs.

During this process, the state should organize several large-scale investment funds, and the people should be forced to invest the corporate securities obtained from the "equal distribution of land" into certain investment funds, which will be used to manage the business. The people can then obtain dividends from the securities during the operation process.

To describe this process more vividly, we can compare it to the "people's commune collectivization" in the industrial field. The "people's commune collectivization" first wins over the masses and changes the old production relations through land reform and land distribution. After the land is distributed, the farmers who have received the land are re-gathered in the form of "people's communes".

In the National Socialist Party's "socialized securities revolution", it is similar to the so-called "Rhine model" and "people's capitalism" after World War II. That is, with the development of joint-stock companies and the issuance of a large number of small stocks, the ownership of capitalist enterprises has been dispersed, and a large number of small stock holders have become co-owners of joint-stock companies. Asset owners have retreated to a secondary position in managing enterprises, and leadership has been concentrated in the hands of professional managers in the technical production knowledge community.

This theory does have some truth to it. By dispersing capital ownership, that is, by issuing small stocks, new capitalists can be created, ultimately creating a classless society where "everyone is a capitalist."

The problem is that under the system of people's capitalism, workers holding a small amount of stock cannot have much influence on corporate management. Only those who own a controlling amount of stock are real capitalists.

However, if the small amount of stocks held by each worker can be united into a fund, then this fund can have a strong influence on corporate management. In modern times, this is the case with pension funds and national annuities in many countries. The problem is that this gives rise to new problems, that is, the owners of the workers' fund are indeed workers rather than capitalists, but the managers of the workers' fund, that is, the specific operators, are definitely not workers, but some professional managers.

This will cause the same problem as general nationalization, that is, the ownership of the assets does belong to the workers, but the management rights of the assets are managed by officials in general nationalization and by professional managers after the socialized securities revolution.

The National Socialist Party's prescription for this is that the people can obtain immediate benefits directly from the socialized funds through dividends, and every once in a while, which can be five, eight or ten years, all funds should implement "timed mandatory redemption", and the securities assets should be returned to the hands of the holders, giving them the right to choose a state-owned fund again.

This approach is not without precedent in history. At least in terms of land, many countries have actually made similar attempts. After implementing the equal-field reform, many countries will stipulate that after ten or twenty years, all the land distributed to each person must be re-nationalized and then redistributed again.

The most famous example here is Russia's communal land. The communal land in Tsarist Russia was jointly owned by its members and distributed equally on a regular basis. After the reform in 1893, it was stipulated that the communal land should be redistributed at least once every twelve years. Well... counting from then on, twelve years after 1893 was 1905 when the revolution broke out, and twelve years after 1905 was 1917 when another revolution was about to break out.

In the eyes of the Russians, every redistribution of village land is a general settlement of social contradictions, but the results are often unsatisfactory.

This is not surprising, because the Russians' administrative capabilities are very limited compared to the great powers. In fact, they are unable to handle the nationwide village land redistribution every twelve years. Therefore, the redistribution process is bound to be full of problems, such as power rent-seeking and corruption. The move was originally intended to ease social contradictions, but instead intensified class contradictions.

The socialized securities revolution proposed by the National Socialist Party was also unrealistic for a country like Russia where capitalism was still immature. Russia had never had a relatively developed securities market, and in this regard, let alone experience, it had not even made many attempts. Most Russians had never dealt with finance or securities in their lives.

The socialized securities revolution is not necessarily a more efficient policy than the general nationalization revolution.

The National Socialist Party chose the socialized securities revolution because, firstly, "socialization" rather than "nationalization" was a more popular trend of thought among German intellectuals and financial professionals at that time. Secondly, unlike Russia, the Germans had a very bad impression of "nationalization" in terms of their concepts.

In terms of thought, August Bebel, the late left-wing leader of the German Social Democratic Party, was a theoretical pioneer of the socialized revolution. Kautsky was also an expert in this field. During the brief revolutionary period after Germany's defeat in World War I, Kautsky served as chairman of the Socialization Committee in the Ebert government.

The third chapter of the pamphlet "The ABC of National Socialism", "Theory of Origin and Property Tax", is even more shocking.

The title of this chapter mentions "theory of origin", but it is more like "theory of justice" than "theory of origin" because it emphasizes more on "fairness and justice".

The beginning of Chapter 3 states that justice has priority in the social system. Justice is the norm for measuring national laws and social organizations. That is to say, any laws and systems, no matter how efficient and well-arranged they are, must be reformed or abolished as long as they are unjust.

The problem here is how to define "justice".

Therefore, a lot of space is devoted to explaining "justice" from a philosophical perspective in Chapter 3.

So-called justice refers to some principles recognized by all people, and these principles must be acceptable to all people under the assumption that everyone is equal by birth.

This hypothetical state of "equality of origin" assumes that people cannot know that their specific habits, hobbies, specialties, social background, etc. in reality will affect the characteristics of their ideas. Once members of society are brought into this primitive state of equality, the principle of maximizing utility will absolutely not be passed by people.

Because the principle of maximizing utility allows, under certain conditions, the interests of a minority to be harmed in order to maximize the group's utility. However, in the hypothetical state of "equality of origin", it is impossible to support utilitarianism because no one can predict whether his rights and interests will be harmed at that time.

This is what the "theory of origin" means. Each person's family background determines his or her social concepts, and different family backgrounds will inevitably lead to different social concepts.

One person is born into a wealthy family and another is born into a poor family. This is the greatest unfairness. A socialist country should eliminate this unfairness. Only in this way can we establish a true social concept of equality for all.

This kind of equality is, of course, equality of opportunity rather than equality of results. However, for a revolutionary country, equality of opportunity will certainly bring greater competitiveness, while equality of results will inevitably make society lose the motivation for progress.

Therefore, to eliminate the differences in equality of origin, we must start from the source, from the aspect of "equality of opportunity", rather than from the process, from the aspect of "equality of results".

Then, only "equality of origin" can bring about true equality of opportunity. To eliminate inequality in origin, we must eliminate family differences. The best way is to socialize the family. In short, from the infant stage, people are not in a small peasant family, but in another kind of socialized family that an industrial society should have.

In other words, only by achieving socialized upbringing can we realize true "equality of origin", and then create true equality of opportunity. Only true equality of opportunity can make a society full of vitality and progress brought about by fair competition.

In contrast, the vulgar "theory of origin" gives different social treatment to each person based on his or her origin. For example, landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, gangsters and bad elements are restricted in going to school and working, while poor peasants with a good family background can get preferential treatment in education and work. Or people of aristocratic origin are given privileges, while people of commoner origin are treated harshly. Or ethnic minorities, women and blacks are given preferential treatment, or vice versa, white people are given preferential treatment.

The vulgar origin theory requires different treatment based on different origins, but the National Socialist Party's origin theory is different. It emphasizes the pursuit of equality for all people from the beginning of their origins.

For a very simple reason, the success of rich second-generations in running a company, even if the success is achieved in compliance with legal and social moral norms, is most likely because their parents gave them more resources, or at least their better family background enabled them to receive a better education. If poor children can achieve the same success in running a company, it is very likely that the poor children have stronger management capabilities and are more conducive to promoting social progress.

In the 20th century, there were still people like William II who were able to inherit a lot of political power purely by bloodline.

But in general, people have generally accepted that political power is a kind of property that should not be inherited through blood.

However, by the same logic, people actually think that money can be inherited through blood. Isn’t this ridiculous?

In the 20th century, if an official wanted to pass on his position to his descendants when he died, people would say that this was immoral, illegal, and wrong. But if a capitalist wanted to pass on his property to his descendants when he died, people would have no moral condemnation at all!

How ridiculous!

The contents of the second and third chapters of "The ABCs of National Socialism" did not actually have much impact on the ordinary soldiers in the Grossdeutschland Regiment who had a slightly lower level of education. However, for those officers with a high school or university degree or above, the contents of these two chapters were very exaggerated and had a great impact on their entire world view.

Chapter 68: Chude Lake

Revolutionary socialists rallied around the national banner because they believed it was the only way to put socialism into practice; committed nationalists moved left because, for them, the fate of the nation had to be entrusted to the new ruling class.

When the fate of the country and the nation is in danger, the National Socialist Party will surely stand out, but before that, it will not be able to truly win the hearts of the people by just a few passionate slogans.

The ability to use the people's support also requires the National Socialist Party to innovate in revolutionary theory.

This thin booklet, "The ABCs of National Socialism", has left an indelible impression on the hearts of hundreds of National Socialist Party members after today's party congress.

When the Party Congress adjourned, every participant took away more than one copy of "The ABC of National Socialism", and Faust knew that today's preaching had indeed ended successfully.

The illegal publication "People's Observer" printed privately by the National Socialist Party also found a larger market. In addition to the Grossdeutschland Regiment, this newspaper also flowed into Colonel Sikorski's Polish 3rd Division. In addition, some other German troops stationed in Königsberg also began to circulate "People's Observer" and "ABC of National Socialism".

These unique National Socialist calls, unlike the Social Democratic Party, which was suspected of being a "German traitor" in the eyes of many German soldiers, seemed more in line with the soldiers' values ​​at first glance, so they were more popular among grassroots officers and soldiers than the Social Democratic Party's clichéd propaganda.

Good news kept coming. The next day, Manstein returned to Königsberg from Berlin. He was in a hurry, carrying a black briefcase. He first went to the Eastern Front General Headquarters to visit Prince Leopold, the successor of Marshal Hindenburg, and then went to the Wilhelm Barracks to meet Faust.

"Major Faust, the General Staff has approved your proposed Eastern Master Plan!"

Manstein's voice boomed, his expression excited. "General Ludendorff has approved this plan, and it will be implemented starting next month. I have also informed Prince Leopold of the relevant plan. His Royal Highness has instructed that a special group be established under the Operations Department of the Eastern Front General Headquarters to be responsible for implementing the Eastern Master Plan."

Manstein's confidence was unwavering, as if he had shaken off the gloom of possible German defeat. "General Ludendorff believes that, based on the overall Eastern plan, we should also seek opportunities to expand the Kingdom of Courland's rule based on future military developments. Ideally, this could extend eastward from Estonia, demarcating the border with Russia along the Narva River and Lake Peipus."

"We must also expand Kurland's territory west of the Narva River, inch by inch and foot by foot."

Ludendorff made slight changes to Faust's version of the "General Plan for the East", and the extent of these "slight changes" was so great that the original blueprint of Faust's Eastern European isolation wall was completely unrecognizable.

"Then there's Lithuania. We can't allow Poland to become too powerful, so Lithuania should also become part of Courland. Poland's territory should be limited to Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russian Poland in Russia. East of the Vistula River, we should exploit Russia's internal ethnic conflicts and support a Belarusian Kingdom with a Hohenzollern king. In the south, we should cede Ukraine, Russia's most important hinterland, and establish a monarchy there as well. The Austro-Hungarian Empire can only choose between Poland and Ukraine for the throne."

Faust touched the back of his head. Lithuania and Poland would be taken over by Piłsudski and the Polish Legion after the war. The German plan would not have much impact on Poland.

As for Belarus and Ukraine, Rosa Luxemburg said:

"... Ukrainian nationalism in Russia is completely different from Czech, Polish, or Finnish nationalism. It is nothing more than the pure confusion and foolish ideas of a few dozen petty-bourgeois intellectuals. It has no basis in the economic, political, or spiritual conditions of the country and no historical traditions, because the Ukrainians have never formed a nation or established a state, and have no national culture of their own except the reactionary romantic poetry of Shevchenko."

Rosa Luxemburg's discussion of Ukrainian nationalism always carries a bit of the convert fanaticism unique to her as a Polish-Jewish minority in the great power of Germany, that is, she disdains the right of small nations to self-determination. However, it also shows that the foundation of nationalism in Ukraine and Belarus was still very weak in this era.

It would certainly be difficult for Ludendorff to establish the Belarusian and Ukrainian states on the ruins of Russia. Without the help and protection of major powers and major nations, the two newly established states would be like a candle in the wind, disappearing in a flash.

Faust asked, "Captain Manstein, I think this is an obvious question. Lithuania has two million people, Latvia has a population of one and a half million excluding the Baltic Germans, and Estonia has a population of one million. What's worse, the other side of the Narva River is close to Petrograd, which is one of the most densely populated areas in Russia. Every step of the expansion of the Kingdom of Courland will bring an astonishing number of foreigners to this new country."

Faust spread his hands. "Even if, after the Russian Revolution, the new government handed over all the Volga Germans to us, and the German army immigrated another million from our country to Courland, Courland would only have two or three million Germans. With over two million Germans ruling over six million foreigners, the foundation of the new state would be extremely fragile."

"Also, Lake Peipus is a sacred place for the Russians. Seven hundred years ago, Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod defeated the Teutonic Knights during the German Eastward Expedition at Lake Peipus. The Battle of the Ice Lakes was a national holy war of great significance in Russian history. Seven hundred years have passed since the Battle of the Ice Lakes, and the Germans have not been able to reach Lake Peipus again. However, the Russians have continued to advance, expanding their territory into East Prussia."

The Battle of Frozen Lake was a decisive victory for Russian expansion against German forces, as significant as the ancient Battle of Tannenberg, where the Poles defeated the Teutonic Knights.

Obviously, Ludendorff had already created a military miracle in the modern Battle of Tannenberg, and he was looking forward to creating another miracle in the modern Battle of Frozen Lake to rewrite the ancient unfulfilled Manifest Destiny of the Germans.

Manstein certainly understood this. He blinked and said, "I argued this point with General Ludendorff, but he disagreed. He believed that once the war on the Western Front ended, Germany would have ample time to organize even larger-scale immigration to Courland. In just one generation, Germany could have sent 10 million people to Courland, permanently driving the Russians out of the Baltic."

Faust's "General Plan for the East" was based on the idea that Germany would inevitably be defeated in the long run. Both Faust and Manstein could see that the German army had no material way out and could not break through the Western Front. However, Ludendorff still had hope for a decisive victory on the Western Front, so he made another major upgrade to the "General Plan for the East".