Germany does not seek survival

If the election starts like this, Faust can imagine what the result will be. In the worst case, the National Socialist Party may only elect one representative, Faust, which would be too tragic.

Therefore, Faust has another requirement for the left-wing coalition, that is, the election method of the constitutional convention must adopt proportional representation.

Generally speaking, election laws are divided into two types: the constituency system and the proportional representation system. The constituency system divides the country into several constituencies, and you vote for specific candidates in the constituency.

The proportional representation system is different. When voting, the voters do not choose specific candidates, but directly vote for parties. Finally, the seats of members of parliament are allocated according to the proportion of votes obtained by each party.

The constituency system favors large parties with a long history because they can put forward reputable candidates in every election across the country.

Proportional representation is beneficial to new parties like the National Socialist Party. The National Socialist Party now has national recognition thanks to Faust, but when it comes to each state locally, the National Socialist Party is certainly unable to nominate a large number of candidates known to local people.

The Spartacus League was also a well-known political party, but there were few powerful candidates at the local level, so Liebknecht also supported proportional representation. Kautsky was relatively neutral on this issue, but since two of the three left-wing coalition parties demanded the use of proportional representation, Kautsky no longer opposed it.

The constituency system is definitely most beneficial to Albert, but Albert now does not want to bother with these trivial issues. He is anxious to obtain the title of President of the Provisional Government so that he can use this identity to contact the Allied Powers. Therefore, he agrees to most of the conditions of the left-wing coalition.

Thus, without Faust's objection, the conference came to a successful conclusion. Thousands of Berliners burst into warm cheers. Parades continued from day to night that day, and the new Provisional Government of the German Socialist Republic was finally officially introduced.

One month after the provisional government was finalized, on December 13, 1918, the election for the Constituent Assembly was formally held. After the Constituent Assembly ended, it would decide the state system of the German Republic.

Chapter 175 Visitors from Moscow

After several days and nights of fierce fighting, Berlin was slowly restoring order. After Faust led his troops into Berlin, he first returned to his "own home", which was the apartment that the imperial government had arranged for Faust.

The barricades on the road were still stained with blood. The iron bed frames moved by the workers and the curtains taken down from the theater were mixed together, casting uneven shadows in the dawn light. It was hard to imagine that the military and civilians of Berlin used such simple barricades to resist the attack of the German army's first-class elite troops.

The power of the people should not be underestimated.

The gilded patterns on the curtain were soaked with blood. I don't know which company used the "Ring of the Nibelung" stage set to block the first wave of shotgun shells.

Faust cleared the fallen snow from above. On the other side of the barricade, the Berlin citizens immediately cheered loudly when they saw Faust. Several armored vehicles rolled past from the other corner of Wilhelm Street.

If there is a black bear logo on the armored vehicle, it is under the flag of the Berlin Peace Army controlled by the Social Democratic Party, because the founder of the city of Berlin was Albrecht I, the "Big Bear", the Marquis of Brandenburg in the Middle Ages. Later, the black bear logo on the silver shield became the coat of arms of the city of Berlin.

The Peace Army controlled by the Social Democratic Party and the Berlin Police both use the black bear as their logo.

Some other armored vehicles were painted with the black, red, and gold tricolor flag. Some even had a blue tail added to the end of the black, red, and gold tricolor flag, which was the symbol of the People's Naval Division.

Others added an umbrella-shaped pattern of golden wheat ears, hammer and compass to the black, red and gold tricolor flag. This was the symbol of the Red Guard, proposed by Liebknecht, symbolizing the alliance of German workers, peasants and intellectuals.

The rest were some soldiers wearing red sleeves on their arms. There was a white circle in the middle of the red sleeves, and a black sickle and hammer pattern in the white circle. They were naturally the armed forces of the National Socialist Party.

Four political parties, five armed forces, this is the situation the people of Berlin are currently facing.

On the street, Red Guard workers were using a crane to try to turn over an armored vehicle left behind by the royalists. The vehicle had been attacked by cluster grenades fired by Berlin soldiers and civilians, and its chassis had been severely damaged, but some people still felt that it was worth repairing.

The bulky armored vehicle fell to the side of the road, and the crane flipped over on both sides but failed to overturn the vehicle.

The armored vehicle was blocking Faust's way home. He watched the workers operating the crane and tried to flip it over twice with great effort, but still failed to lift the armored vehicle, so he walked forward himself.

"Help me, fellow workers."

Faust rolled up his sleeves, stood in front of the armored vehicle, and called on other workers to come and help. In fact, with Faust's strength, he was enough to lift the armored vehicle by himself, but in order to avoid being too shocking, Faust took the extra step and called on others to help.

"Come here, it's Comrade Faust. Comrade Faust wants us to help him together!"

After the Battle of Berlin, Faust remained very popular in Berlin. The workers around him just shouted a few times and a large number of onlookers flocked over.

Finally, among the many workers, four of the strongest young workers came to Faust and helped Faust to lift the armored vehicle back with his hands.

The crane also exerted force at the same time, and the armored vehicle that was originally stuck in the snow was lifted up at a 90-degree angle and lifted back steadily after Faust shouted.

Faust clapped his hands and smiled, "So-called salvation is never about standing alone against a vast army. It's people like you, one by one, who form the word 'people' and who can defend Berlin."

As soon as Faust finished speaking, he immediately aroused cheers and applause from the crowd.

In fact, the fact that Faust was so friendly with the people of Berlin without any guards had already made Faust's prestige grow day by day.

You have to know that the Battle of Berlin had just ended. Today's Berlin is still a place where all kinds of people gather together, and the situation is still turbulent. Many royalists and counter-revolutionaries are still hiding in the city. If you are not careful, you may be killed.

Therefore, regardless of party affiliation, politicians from the Social Democratic Party, the Independent Party and the Spartacus League either stayed at home or were accompanied by a large number of guards when going out during this period.

Only Faust showed such a fearless spirit, which of course made the citizens of Berlin secretly admire him.

When Faust returned to his apartment, the "Green Balloon" cafe downstairs had been destroyed by the war. It must have been a fire from somewhere else nearby that spread and burned down the entire cafe.

Faust's apartment was upstairs and luckily hadn't suffered any damage. Everything in the house was still the same as when Faust left Berlin. Even the bunch of cornflowers that the little maid Lala had put in the vase in the living room was still there, but the flowers in the vase had long since withered.

Faust was accompanied by only one guard, Vasily, who came from the Habsburg royal family. Some time ago, Austria had also experienced a royalist counterattack, and many royalist politicians wrote to Vasily, hoping that he would join the rebellion.

Of course Vasily refused.

"In Austria, there is a group of royalists plotting restoration and planning to organize a White International, a grand alliance of Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, and White Russians to jointly oppose the Entente, the Soviet Union, and possibly us German revolutionaries."

The so-called White International was, of course, a joke that could not stand up to scrutiny. However, many members of the Habsburg royal family participated in it, and Vasily was also wooed. He reported all the relevant intelligence truthfully to the Stasi and the Cheka.

Because Vasily had some prestige in Austrian Ukraine, this group of restorationists wanted to pull Vasily to be the so-called Protector of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

This plan was, of course, a pipe dream and very unrealistic, but Faust became interested in it. He ordered Vasily to contact these international royalists. Not long ago, a group of royalists instigated a rebellion in Salzburg, Austria, and even Empress Dowager Josephine of the Austro-Hungarian Empire participated in it. Faust instructed Vasily to contact this group of people and even helped to send some captured Austrian weapons to this group of royalists.

This kind of thing can be considered a serious conspiracy. If it gets out, it will definitely have a very bad negative impact on Faust's reputation and the reputation of the National Socialist Party.

But Faust didn't care at all. He was more concerned about whether these people could help Faust contain the Vienna Provisional Government and ensure the safety of the flanks of the National Socialist Party's rear base after funding the Austrian royalists through Vasily's channel.

Vasily reported truthfully: "After the Austrian royalist army launched a rebellion in Salzburg, because the young Emperor Charles I refused to restore the throne, they now seem to have unanimously elected Empress Dowager Josephine as their leader. This rebel army has already occupied Salzburg and Linz. We have provided the rebels with 5,000 rifles and 600,000 rounds of ammunition..."

Faust waved his hand and said, "You must keep this confidential, Comrade Vasily. Do you understand?"

"Of course, Your Excellency, please rest assured."

Faust looked at Vasily again and asked, "The Habsburgs are your family too. Their eight hundred years of rule are gone just like that. Vasily, have you ever considered joining the royalist movement?"

Vasily seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said seriously, "Sir, even the emperor has abandoned the empire. I also believe that the era of the Habsburgs is over. Restoration is impossible. The monarchy and aristocracy are destined to be eliminated by the times."

Faust smiled and asked, "How's the situation in Ukraine?"

Vasily was once one of the candidates for the monarch prepared by the Habsburg royal family for Ukraine, and many Ukrainian nationalists have recently contacted him.

Vasily answered honestly, "After the German and Habsburg armies retreated, a handful of Ukrainian politicians formed a Directory to replace the puppet regime installed by the Germans. However, this new regime, established by the Ukrainians themselves, lacked weapons. They could not withstand the attacks of the White Russians in the east, the Soviets in the north, or the Poles in the west."

After several years of war, the Ukrainian territory has been devastated by looting and massacres. The Ukrainian native army, like the armies they are fighting, has taken in many local tyrants. All parties are interested in looting and massacring Jews, but have little interest in liberating the country.

The great war in Eastern Europe is just beginning, and Faust is well aware that this chaos will not end easily unless millions of people are killed.

"The Polish influence is expanding rapidly. After the outbreak of the German Revolution, the Polish Legion immediately launched a rebellion and occupied Warsaw. Piłsudski's six regular army divisions are an irresistible force in Eastern Europe. Now, the Polish Legion is expanding in all directions. Besides Warsaw, there are also Łódź, Krakow, Lviv... No one knows where the Polish ambitions will end."

Faust sat on the sofa, counting on his fingers. All of Piłsudski's actions were under Faust's plan. The Poles were forming a breakwater in Eastern Europe, which just prevented the 200,000 German troops in Eastern Europe from returning home.

However, if Poland is allowed to expand recklessly, it may become too powerful to be controlled in the future.

While Faust was pondering, another soldier knocked on the door. It turned out that there were visitors. There were two visitors. One was Liebknecht, whom Faust was very familiar with. The other had curly hair and wore a white shirt inside and a black woolen coat outside.

Liebknecht introduced Faust: "This guest is from Moscow, Comrade Faust. He is the representative sent by the Soviet Union to contact us, Comrade Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev."

Chapter 176 Female Stalin

Zinoviev.

The man spoke German with a thick Russian accent. He smiled and nodded at Faust. "Mr. Faust, we have heard of your great name for a long time. We have heard of you even from Moscow. Haha, if it weren't for you, we Bolsheviks wouldn't have to move from Petrograd to Moscow."

Faust was a little confused. Was the Soviet envoy Zinoviev praising himself for the heavy blow he dealt to Tsarist Russia and creating opportunities for the Russian Revolution, or was he blaming himself for his activeness which led to the German occupation of Petrograd?

Faust smiled, not taking it personally. "Mr. Zinoviev... have you come all the way from Moscow? Eastern Europe has been in turmoil lately. From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, I'm afraid there's been a lot of fighting! How did you get here? I bet it must have been a rough journey."

Zinoviev smiled and shook hands with Faust. "Who says not? Moscow is surrounded by battlefields everywhere. We have no choice but to disguise ourselves and enter the German-controlled area. Only in Riga, where the Germans hold the area, is the situation relatively stable. After arriving in Riga, we can take a boat to Lübeck and then reach Berlin."

"I've been so tired from the journey, so tired from the journey."

Faust couldn't help feeling a little apologetic, because the main reason why the situation in Eastern Europe was so chaotic was that Faust had planned and planned in order to stop the German troops on the Eastern Front from returning home, which led to the current situation.

As a result, the German troops on the Eastern Front were unable to return to Germany, but this caused a lot of trouble for the Soviet Union.

Liebknecht raised his hand, motioning for everyone to sit down. "The situation in Soviet Russia has not been very good recently. Comrade Zinoviev has contacted us on behalf of the Soviet Union, carrying a mission from Moscow. Only by uniting the Russian and German revolutions can we truly achieve victory in the world socialist revolution. Unity is mutually beneficial, while division is mutually detrimental. The revolutionaries of Germany and Russia must unite and work together."

Zinoviev's eyes were very distant, and he said:

"Seventy years ago, the Communist Party announced its program to the world. This program is the 'Communist Manifesto' written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the greatest prophets of the proletarian revolution. Today, the moment of the final decisive battle has arrived. Comrade Lenin believes that the revolutionary proletariat of all countries must unite to have a chance of victory. We must eliminate the corrosive opportunism and social patriotism in the communist movement and unite the forces of all truly revolutionary proletarian parties in order to win this decisive battle for the destiny of mankind."

"This war has made humanity, through hunger, cold, plague, and cruelty and barbarity, recognize the contradictions of the capitalist system. The proletariat has awakened. If the war of 1870 exposed the lack of strong mass support for the social revolutionary program of the First International, thus dealing a blow to the First International, the war of 1914 revealed that the powerful mass workers' organizations were still no match for the political parties that had become appendages of the bourgeois state, thus bankrupting the Second International."

"Today, we should organize the Third International."

Faust solemnly repeated Zinoviev's words: "The Third International, the Third International."

Liebknecht said: "The First International foreshadowed future development and pointed out the path of its development; the Second International united and organized millions of proletarians; the Third International is an international of open mass struggle, an international of revolution, an international of action."

In terms of specific action strategies, Liebknecht was more flexible than Luxemburg and closer to Lenin of the Soviet Union. However, Liebknecht's obsession with world revolution was as strong as Luxemburg's.

Therefore, when Zinoviev arrived in Berlin, Liebknecht was overjoyed and completely accepted the Soviet Union's ideas. In Faust, Liebknecht also directly criticized:

"German revolutionaries should quickly learn the tactics of the Bolsheviks. Germany's great misfortune is that we have no Bolsheviks, only a party of traitors like Ebert and a party of slaves like Kautsky. We should now hasten the alliance of Red Germany with Soviet Russia."

In this regard, it was Luxembourg that was more cautious about cooperation with the Soviet Union.

In fact, Luxemburg's opposition to Lenin had a long history. Even before the outbreak of the World War, Luxemburg and Lenin had many old grudges, and both sides had written articles attacking each other's national policies.

Lenin always advocated that the proletarian revolution should also have the nature of national liberation. It should liberate the many small ethnic groups under the oppression of Tsarist Russia, grant these small ethnic groups full autonomy, and even help these small ethnic groups to establish independent countries.

According to Lenin's proposition, the right to national self-determination means that the nation demanding separation shall hold a referendum to decide whether to realize separation and establish an independent state; if it decides to separate, it can freely separate from the "alien collective".

Luxembourg completely disagrees.

Luxemburg first believed that Lenin's treatment of these small ethnic groups and his desire to grant them autonomy was nothing more than a utilitarian attempt to use national self-determination in exchange for their support for the revolution. However, the result would inevitably be that national self-determination would become a tool used by the bourgeoisie of these small ethnic groups to oppose the revolution.

The most typical example is Finland.

Then, in terms of the specific implementation of the national self-determination policy, Luxemburg also felt that Lenin's hope of using a referendum to decide whether a nation should be independent was also unrealistic, because there was no revolutionary party to do sufficient mass work, and the peasants and workers in the border areas often lacked independent ideology and basically obeyed the command of the petty-bourgeois intellectuals of their own nation. If a referendum was held, the result would certainly not be what Lenin wanted, and would definitely go against Lenin's ideas.

Luxemburg herself was a Polish Jew living in Germany. As an Eastern European Jew, she was more aware of the conflicts between the various ethnic groups in Eastern Europe than Lenin. As a minority in Germany, Luxemburg had a convert fanaticism similar to that of the Georgian Stalin. Like Stalin, she was more supportive of large nations in ethnic policies.

In Germany, Luxemburg, as a Polish Jew, strongly opposed Poland's independence from Germany. Luxemburg was even more radical than Stalin. She even opposed the establishment of an autonomous national region.

Luxemburg herself is particularly opposed to nationalism and patriotism, but because of her background, sometimes her nationalist tendencies appear particularly strong.

For example, on the issue of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Luxemburg strongly opposed Lenin's signing of the Treaty on the grounds that Lenin's signing of the Treaty would give the German army a respite. She believed that Lenin should rather fight the German army to the end even if it meant the deaths of countless Russians, so as to create opportunities for German revolutionaries. As long as the German revolution was victorious, all problems would naturally be solved.

Luxemburg was definitely not a pacifist or democrat in the traditional sense. On some issues, she was actually more like a female Stalin, even worse than Stalin.

In addition to the issue of national self-determination, Luxemburg was also particularly dissatisfied with Lenin's peasant land policy and proletarian dictatorship policy.

Luxemburg believed that Lenin's peasant policy was to unconditionally distribute the land equally to the peasants. This approach was highly speculative, just like Lenin's encouragement of independence for small ethnic groups in Russia's border areas, in order to gain the support of small ethnic groups and peasants for the revolution.

But didn't Lenin consider the consequences? Distributing the land among the peasants would create countless petty bourgeoisie. Later, the revolutionary government would inevitably nationalize the land from the peasants, which would lead to a situation of gratitude and resentment, and the revolutionary regime would forge a deep hatred with the peasants.

Faust had read some of Luxemburg's articles criticizing Lenin's peasant policies, and he felt that Luxemburg's accusations in this regard were somewhat untenable.

Because the situation in Russia was different from that in Germany, Germany had a small number of farmers and its rural areas were well developed, so after the revolution, it was possible to skip land reform and go directly to the stage of cooperatives and people's communes. However, Russia had a large number of farmers and its rural areas were backward. Without land reform to win over the farmers, there was no material basis for directly implementing collectivization.

As for the question of whether the proletariat should establish dictatorship or democracy, Lenin and Luxemburg were arguing about this when they were alive. Even after their deaths, and even a hundred years later, it seems that the left is still arguing about this issue, and no one can give a satisfactory answer.

When Zinoviev came to Berlin this time, the first thing he brought up when he contacted Liebknecht was Lenin's plan - Lenin was planning to establish the Third International. Moscow certainly hoped that the revolutionary groups in Germany could be integrated into a German Communist Party and join the Third International.

Liebknecht was delighted. "The time is ripe now. At least half of the Independent Party will agree with this idea. What do you think, Comrade Faust? If all goes well, we can use this period of time to reorganize the Independent Party, the Spartacus League, and the National Socialist Party into the Communist Party of Germany. This will strengthen the party unprecedentedly."

In his heart, Faust must be reluctant to let the National Socialist Party become a part of the German Communist Party. In that case, both Faust's personal influence and the influence of the National Socialist Party would be easily assimilated by the German Communist Party, and they would lose their independence in actions and propositions.

Faust said calmly, "Dr. Liebknecht, I believe we have reached an agreement with the Social Democratic Party. It is not practical to destroy or create a new party before the elections to the Constituent Assembly are over."

Liebknecht was a little disappointed: "This is a rare opportunity."

Zinoviev smiled and said, "Comrade Faust is right. There is no need to worry about the KPD for the time being. The most urgent task is to replicate the Bolshevik path of victory in Germany. For example, you should reorganize Soviets throughout Germany as quickly as possible."

Chapter 177 Soviets

Soviet is the Russian word for "committee". After the November Revolution in Germany, workers', peasants' and soldiers' committees were established in various places. In terms of meaning, workers', peasants' and soldiers' committees and Soviets are actually the same thing.

However, the "Soviet" that Zinoviev emphasized here was obviously intended to distinguish it from the workers, peasants and soldiers' committees that had been established in various parts of Germany.

"The Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committees possess certain Soviet characteristics. For example, they combine legislative and executive powers, concentrating both legislative and executive powers. However, as far as I know, there are still many Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committees in Germany that retain the characteristics of bourgeois democracy and are merely legislative bodies without executive power."

The problems pointed out by Zinoviev were correct. For example, the newly established Greater Berlin Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee was a typical representative legislature with only legislative power. The executive power was delegated by the Greater Berlin Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee to the provisional government with Ebert as president.

In addition, the Russian Soviet has another characteristic, which is the production unit representative system.

“Under the Soviet system, electoral units and the grassroots organization of the state are not divided according to geographical areas, but according to economic and production units. Only factories have the right to vote for Soviet representatives.”

If Germany had adopted Zinoviev's suggestion, abolished general bourgeois democratic elections, and completely replaced them with Soviet elections based on the production unit representative system, that would certainly have been most beneficial to the Spartacus League.

Because the supporters of the Spartacus League were almost all concentrated in factories, in contrast, the supporters of the Social Democratic Party and the Independent Party included a large number of petty bourgeoisie who did not work in factories, such as shop assistants, clerks, small shop owners, doctors, lawyers, clerks, farmers, soldiers... and so on.

These petty bourgeoisie are relatively weak in Russia, but are numerous in Germany and constitute a particularly powerful class force in society.

Faust said calmly, "This is a good idea, but once it's brought up, it's bound to be met with strong opposition from the Social Democrats and drive a large portion of the Independents into the counter-revolutionary camp. In my opinion, it's better for the Soviets not to bring up this idea at this stage, or to bring it up later."