Hitler Kaput or Hitler the Winner. Alternative history as a literary genre
Second Epistle of Peter 1: 21
Alternative story World War II. People have always been interested in knowing what would have happened if ... Such is the property of human imagination. What would happen if you on the 13 on Friday of the 2013 of the year would turn left and not right along the street, as you did in reality ... Maybe that’s where the car would hit you, or maybe the girl of your dreams would be waiting for you there. What would happen if Alexander the Great did not die in Babylon, and Julius Caesar listened to the voice of reason and on the day of March id would not go to the Senate ?! Francis I won the battle of Pavia, and the Marne taxis stalled due to heavy rain? Finally, what would happen if Hitler took Moscow and the Axis powers won in World War II?
One publisher explained to me popularly which books are now especially priced. About the change of history and fellow travelers. So, this: a special commando (otherwise, where did he get the knowledge of karate and muscle tuber techniques?) Falls into a temporary “hole” and ends up ... in ancient Rome, where he sleeps with Cleopatra, becomes the great leader of the Slavs and, creating a new Slavic empire, returns back where he sees a monument to himself!
However, another theme is no less popular: the victory in the Second World War of the countries of the Nazi bloc (Axis: Rome - Berlin - Tokyo) and, above all, of course, Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. There is evidence from the Alternate History Month that the victory of these two countries (Italy, as always, few people are interested in) is most often used in works in English on alternative history. The second popular topic, especially in the United States, is the victory of the southerners in the Civil War between the North and the South. The third most popular is the theme of the revolution in Russia and the change in the outcome of the First World War. The German newspaper Die Welt believes that at least two-thirds of all alternative historical fiction literature is devoted to the victory of the Third Reich in the war.
And the most interesting thing is that this topic was born even before the guns really rumbled on the battlefields, that's even how! It turns out that even when fascism and Nazism in Europe were already widespread, but still not dominated, there appeared works both in the field of fiction and in journalism, where the Second World War was not only predicted, but it was called as its participants those countries which subsequently just had to really fight. That is, in fact, it was futurological work, and many of the predictions of their authors were subsequently fully justified.
In particular, the Pacific War in the 20th Century book was dedicated to the theme of the war in the Pacific. It was written by our compatriot-emigrant, Nikolai Golovin, professor at the Russian University of History and Philology at Paris University, who co-authored with Admiral Alexander Bubnov. In the 1922 year it was published in New York and London, then in the 1924 in Prague, and finally in the 1925 year it was printed even in Moscow along with a preface written by Karl Radek.
In it, the authors analyzed the prospects for military confrontation between the United States and Japan in the Pacific Ocean and made a curious conclusion about the inevitability of the victories of the latter at the initial stage of the war. They considered Great Britain both ... a possible ally of Japan and a potential ally of the USA, depending on the current situation.
The British philosopher and science-fiction writer Olaf Stapledon in the 1930 year wrote the novel "The Last and First People" in which the history of mankind was traced for ... two billion years! During this time, as many as 18 biological species of people are replaced on the planet, including reptilian people (after all, nothing is new under the Moon!) And an equally amazing number of terrestrial civilizations. And what’s interesting, the question there at the beginning is about the future German-Soviet war, although it would seem, why write about the war between the USSR and Germany in the 1930 year? Yes, there were absolutely no prerequisites for her then. There was Rapallo, there was trade ... but here you go ... he wrote this.
The book talks about how Soviet Russia, as a result of NEP, is becoming more and more dependent on the United States, and although communist rhetoric is still preserved in it, it actually turns into their economic appendage. Tensions are growing between Russia and Europe, as the European Confederation fears that, following the complete submission of Russia's resources to US monopolies, the Americans will also want to dominate Europe.
The reason for the war is the publication in Germany of a book in which the physiognomy of the Russian face is described. as containing monkeys and even more - inhuman traits. Moscow demands a ban on this book, Berlin talks about freedom of speech and neither side is inferior to the other. As a result, chemical bombs fall on the main cities of Russia and Germany. From the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, all living things die, not only people, but even animals and plants. The Confederation seems to be winning, but the poisonous gases are carried by the wind and cause irreparable damage to the winners.
As a result, the United States is saving in Europe what can still be saved there, but ... they are taking it into their own hands. Russia has essentially been destroyed, but ... its Russian spirit, culture and, in particular, the ideas of Bolshevism are being adopted by China, which is rising, meanwhile, although America is trying to destroy it with all its might. That is, presumably, their clash is just around the corner!
In 1934 in London, a book was published by the Soviet intelligence agent, an activist of the German Communist Party, Semyon Rostovsky, who called himself the pseudonym Ernst Henry. It was called “Hitler over Russia?” And was a continuation of the book “Hitler over Europe?” In it he described the attack of the Third Reich on the Soviet Union. Moreover, the direct cause of this event, as he believed, was the destruction by Hitler of Ernst Rem 30 June 1934 year. Events such as the Anschluss of Germany and Austria and the ensuing dismemberment of Czechoslovakia were predicted. True, in his opinion, the Japanese Kwantung army had to support the Germans in their campaign against Soviet Russia, and not Italy, but ... England! And Poland, too, is not the victim of the first strike of the Nazis, but one more ally of Germany, together with the Baltic countries. He did not foresee the fact that they would become Soviet. But Turkey, he is an ally of the USSR, clearly in memory of friendly relations in the era of Kemal Ataturk, and victory over Germany is achieved as a result of ... the uprising of the German proletariat, which followed after the attacks of Soviet heavy bombers on German cities. The book was also translated into Russian and published in the USSR in the 1938 year.
In the 1937 dystopian novel of the year “Swastika Night” (or “Long Night”), British feminist Catherine Berdekin (pseudonym Murray Constantine) also described the future victory of Germany and Japan. The action in the novel takes place seven hundred years after their victory in the "Twenty Years War" of the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. The USSR was conquered by Germany to the Urals, the Japanese own the territory of the USA, Australia and again the USSR also before the Urals, however both superpowers continue to fight among themselves, although without hope of success, since their forces are equal. But then it’s quite curious: in the world described by Katherine, homosexuality and outspoken, woman-hating flourish, Christians are marginalized, Jews, of course, completely destroyed. Women are deprived of civil rights, and childbearing is despised. True, the consequences of this are quite predictable - the population of both superpowers is rapidly declining.
An interesting author’s move: Hitler is worshiped there as a blond Aryan god, and when the main character accidentally sees a photograph of Hitler who really existed, he is shocked. True, they kill him there, but he still manages to tell the son the truth, and there is hope that the "long night" will end. By the way, now it becomes clear where George Orwell borrowed many of the plot moves from his novel “1984”. Why come up with something new when a lot of interesting things were invented before you. You just need to skillfully rewrite it!
And here is the novel of the Austrian emigrant Erwin Lessner, “Illusory victory. The Fourth Reich: 1945–1960 ”is interesting primarily because it was written by him during the war, and was published in 1944, and it described ... the revival of German fascism after the victory of the Allies in World War II. Like, yes, the Allies won, Germany was defeated, but then the Nazis slowly but surely regained power. The Fourth Reich arises, led by the new Fuhrer, and the German Navy is not inferior in 1951 the fleet USA. Four years later, Europe and Russia became German colonies - they never recovered from the previous war, and in 1960 Germany again attacked Britain. History will repeat itself!
It does not make sense to talk about the novel by J. Orwell, although the theme of a new war is mentioned there, but it is worth mentioning the book of Jean-Francois Tiriar, published in 1975. This is not a novel, but the work of a political scientist, but it is interesting for its focus. Perhaps he was the first to indicate that the main enemy of Europe is not the USSR, but ... the United States and quite substantiated this!
She wrote that “Hitler did not lose the war in Russia, he lost it the very day that he agreed to“ Spanish neutrality ”(and abandoned Gibraltar) and did not attach due importance to the North African Front. The Reich was supposed to get victory in the Mediterranean Sea ... ”
Hitler's other decisive mistake was the Germanization of conquered lands, where the Germans would have to come as liberators! Moreover, the author placed special hopes on sovietization, as an essentially international concept, which should lead to the mutual integration of Western culture and the new culture of Russia. And by the way, isn’t it that the West has adopted a lot of what we traditionally regard as “the gains of socialism”? And is it not the integration of our achievements in the social sphere into the culture of Western Europe that is more backward in this respect, which as a result made an obvious step forward ?! But Tiriar considered Islam and China more likely as geopolitical opponents of the new Europe.
In 1995, writer and military historian Kenneth Maxi released Hitler's Lost Opportunities in which he identified several bifurcation points when his decision (or not accepted!) Decisively affected the fate of the Reich.
In one story, he shares Europe with the USSR, captures Great Britain and establishes a puppet government in it, and World War II essentially has no place in history at all.
In general, the points of bifurcation, that is, the exceptional turning points of history, have always attracted the special attention of researchers. After all, human society is a construction exclusively inert and it is extremely difficult to turn its development in a different direction. But it is possible, occasionally, and due to a coincidence. What would happen if Ravalyak did not kill Henry IV, and Lenin, diving in the village of Kokushkino, drowned in the 1880 year? Interesting, right? And most importantly - it’s quite possible, that's what. And here is a book by the professor of military history and BBC war correspondent Eric Durshmid, “Victories that might not have happened”, launched in 1999, and it is dedicated to the “theme of His Majesty the occasion”. So he considers the possibility of a complete defeat of the British in Dunkirk in May 1940; and what would happen if the Bismarck battleship were not sunk; what significance would be only one month, if Hitler had started a company against the USSR on 22 in May, and Sorge would not have warned Moscow about the change in the vector of Japanese aggression, which would have prevented Siberian divisions from being transferred from east to west in a timely manner.
For the British, the Near and Middle East was always of great importance. Therefore, it is not surprising that many British alternativeists pay close attention to this particular theater of operations. For example, according to John Keegan, the Barbarossa plan was Hitler's worst choice. Where it would be better to seize the Levant and the Middle East. After all, there was raw materials that he so lacked. And then he had a formal reason: on 3 on April 1941, a coup d'etat took place in Iraq and Rashid Ali, who came to power, turned to Germany specifically for help. Hitler could only help ...
Использованная литература:
1. Stapledon, O. The Last and First People: A History of the Near and Far Future. SPb., M .: ACT, Ermak, 2004.
2. Henry, E. Hitler v. USSR. The upcoming battle between the fascist and socialist armies. M .: State socio-economic publishing house, 1938.
3. Tiryar, J. Euro-Soviet Empire from Vladivostok to Dublin. “Elements”, No. 1, 1992.
4. Maxi, K., Missed Opportunities of Hitler / Transl. and holes ed. S. Pereslegin. M., St. Petersburg: AST, Terra Fantastic, 2000.
5. Durshmid, E. Victory, which could not have been. How blind chance and stupidity changed history = The Hinge Factor (1999) / Per. M. Pchelintseva. M., St. Petersburg: AST, Terra Fantastic, 2002.
To be continued ...
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