If you help us, I believe that we will achieve this goal together... How? You will help?... - Edward Gierek in Gdańsk Shipyard on January 25, 1971.
People's Republic of Poland
10 May 1974 P.C./ 1639 C.C.Y.
Wesoła military training ground
10:00
Soldiers gathered on the assembly square. They were not just any soldiers, but members of the newly formed 1st Infantry Division of the Kingdom of Altaras.
They were armed with newly produced or sometimes stored in Polish warehouses military equipment from the Second World War times, but mixed with, for example, electronic equipment from the 70s such as radios or radars.
It was a very interesting appearance, namely, to the untrained eye they looked like soldiers of the 1st Tadeusz Kosciuszko Infantry Division, which was the beginning of the People's Polish Army.
Conscripts of Atlaras taking the military oath before their king on the fields of the military training ground.
Of course, they differed in details, such as their newly manufactured helmets were more like the wz.31 Salamadra helmets, and not Soviet helmets like the Poles then. The reason this helmet was called so is that the IIRP developed a special paint for their army that was applied to the helmet. If you look closely you can see that the lumps on the helmet look like what salamanders wear.
You will ask why was this done? Because the paint kept the light from reflecting off the helmet. Needless to say, this helped a lot in ambushes of Polish soldiers in 1939.
Of course for many Japanese or Americans or westerners in general these helmets look very similar to American M1.
You could say it's a copy, but in this case it's an American copy only that the Americans added an extra plastic helmet under the steel helmet and a few significant differences, but in general you could be mistaken if the Salamander doesn't have its own paint.
The Altaras chose this helmet for one reason, to distinguish themselves from the Poles wearing the wz.67 helmet. Another thing is that the 67 was modeled after the 31. Going back to the description, another change is that they wore Polish rogatywka but with a star from their flag instead of an eagle.
Needless to say, the introduction of the Polish cap into the Altaras armed forces came as a surprise to the Poles, who remembered the Soviet pressure to change the cornets into Soviet style caps. It was only thanks to the persistence of many military men that this did not happen.
The biggest difference was their banner specially sewn for this division by a group of tailors from the capital Altaras. It was modelled on Polish banners, but of course with changed colors of Gruwald's cross being on Polish ones and with the emblem of Altaras kingdom.
In a nutshell, these soldiers were the beginning of the modernization of the Altaran military. It was a division made up of volunteers from all branches of their armed forces and new people interested in joining the regular forces.
Needless to say, it was the result of the Polish-Altarans agreement signed and announced in the Kingdom. It is interesting to note that the division itself is organizationally modeled on the original 1st Infantry Division, or more accurately its original organization.
The actual 1st Division is already mechanized today and it would be foolish to open the same organization in the Army, which was just becoming quite modern, let alone talk about its mechanization.
It is true that Altaras could afford to buy the appropriate equipment and licenses, but so what if there is no adequate technological and production base for its maintenance. It is easier to organize it into something more than medieval banners, which is de facto their army.
The soldiers themselves felt the tension, they had been trained since the end of the so-called Majówka. That is, a week in which there are two or, if you prefer, three holidays making it free from work. This year it was exceptional, because the 1st of May fell on Wednesday, which made the whole week free.
Poles simply took a vacation on May 1st. What Poles do then surprised everyone, namely barbecue. With lots of fire-roasted meats such as sausages, which quickly Altaran soldiers liked being a few classes better than theirs, or liver and a few other very tasty delicacies, plus this year's Majówka is special because for the first time in many years there was no lack of meat for everyone.
The holidays themselves were very strange for everyone. Namely, the 1st of May was celebrated as Labor Day. For the invited Japanese it was the least, because they know such holidays from their world. What rather surprised them was, of course, the Japanese from the embassy transferred from the PRL, how this holiday is celebrated.
Namely, on this day there are parades in all cities and towns filled with marching factory workers and farmers from the PGR. There are also scouts and young people from party organizations. Full of Polish flags and banners.
For the rest of the natives, that is the soldiers of Altaras with their princess Lumies, as for a French-similar-speaking country their names do not have too much in common with French, and envoys from countries met by Japan that is Que-Toyne and Quila the momentum of the parade in Warsaw was simply unimaginable and showed them the Polish economic power.
And the happiness coming from the crowd of people in the march and watching was contagious even though they did not understand what the Commendatore and the people were saying.
For the Japanese, who attracted all Polish language students, both current and former, a few things caught their eye. First of all, there were less communist slogans and, consequently, images of great communists than expected and, as the relocated Japanese ambassador told them, there was only enough to complete the formalities.
Even better were the portraits of only Polish communists with the exception of Marx and Engels. The lack of any Soviet connections was however understandable, it is supposed to mean a dissociation from the Soviet Union and its attitude towards the Polish nation, but it is also quite obvious information for the Japanese.
More significant are two facts unnoticeable to anyone outside Japan. Namely, quite a strong presence of national slogans both in the speech of the first secretary and, what is more surprising, the presence of a person who had never been at the May Day parade before and who had the opportunity to make his own and surprisingly free speech by the standards of the Polish People's Republic. Namely, the presence of the Primate of Poland and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of the Catholic Church.
Fragment of Gierek's speech on the occasion of transfer and 30th anniversary of People's Republic of Poland.
It was a serious surprise for Japan and a clear signal that PRL intends to change partially and the Cardinal's speech, made right after Edward Gierek's speech, is full of clearly Catholic teaching and should know that for Poles and some of those in power, including Gierek himself but silent about it, it is a miracle of God. Because in truth it is a miracle.
They escaped from the boot of the Soviet Union and the threat of nuclear annihilation and can be a World Power, and add to this that they can go their own way without the risk of intervention by the Soviet Army.
How could you call it anything other than a miracle sent by God Himself for the afflicted Polish nation? And the fact that they have to deal with a possible war is nothing with the destruction if the Cold War became Hot and with living under communism imposed by Poland's eternal enemy, Russia.
Self-confidence in speeches and happiness on the parade, which was not feigned as in previous years, radiated. For Japan it was a signal that they do not have to be too afraid of Poland, but it also means that we are not afraid of what the world will throw at us and if necessary we will show why.
Needless to say, after seeing this, the Japanese intelligence started to look for the reason of this confidence. Fortunately for Poland, for a long time Japan tried to find out, trying to steal information from Poland, not knowing that they had the answer all the time and Polish counter-intelligence all the time laughed at them and made them laugh.
Because which of the Japanese agents could have known that all they needed to do was to look on the Internet, and more precisely on Wikipedia?
Reading a few articles from this site, mainly about the Northern Group of the Soviet Army, would have given them an idea. Eventually the Japanese did but after the fact and just by sheer coincidence.
Coming back to holidays, on May 2nd there is a small and very strange holiday called Flag Day, causing the whole country to be draped in Polish flags. Why do Poles celebrate because of their flag? The foreigners did not know why and after a short deliberation concluded that Poles are strange.
If only they knew that it was just because Poles needed a reason for their vacation on May 2nd and so that it wouldn't be empty on May 2nd they just invented this holiday. Because it looks strange to go to work between two days off. Well at least for Poles, Japanese would say different.
The third holiday was the strangest, namely the 3rd of May Constitution Day. Even for Japan it was a very strange holiday. What the hell for to celebrate the establishment of a legal act? Yes, it is the second constitution in the world after the American one and the first in Europe, ahead of the French one by a few months, but what is interesting about it.
Well, for Poles it became a holiday by coincidence as a commemoration of the last act of the tragedy which tore Poland for 123 years between its neighbors.
And it is a reminder of the sad truth not to trust too much in your allies and that Poles can rise above and correct their mistakes even though it was already too late.
What no one knew from outsiders and the Japanese only found out when their Cold War ambassador said this was the first time this holiday had been officially celebrated since it was banned in 1951 and the ban itself was lifted immediately after the move without objection.
Because of the passing of this constitution there was a war in defense of it by the intervening Russia, needless to say that after learning this history the Poles gained a lot diplomatically from the natives who knew similar stories on their own skin.
Another aftermath is the fact that Targowica, because of the announcement of the confederation there giving consent to Russia to overthrow the constitution, became a synonym for supreme treason in the Polish language. Ironically, the name of the town Targowica comes from the Polish word for Market, and yet what is treason if not selling?
Coming back to our soldiers standing on the Polish parade ground in the Polish summer heat. The strange fact is that despite the fact that they are lower than before, there was no significant or rather no change of climate.
This oddity has been an object of research for Polish scientists but it will take many years before they finally discover the truth. It is not hot of course as in Japan in their "summer" although warmer than in Altaras. Well, the climate in the interior of the continent does not spoil.
Of course they listened carefully to what they were going to do. Because the previous roll call at 8 a.m. was rather general for all the soldiers and in order not to disturb the Polish soldiers in training, what the Altaran soldiers were going to do was discussed in detail two hours later. Needless to say, it gives more time to prepare for the exercises.
"Today we are going to conduct exercises with tanks, to be more precise, we are going to teach you how not to panic in front of them and how to interact with them," said Jan Pączek, the Polish officer leading the exercises.
The soldiers looked at each other with concern. Pączek waited a moment and then added, "The tanks you will be practicing with are T-34-85s on which our comrades from the armored regiment are trained. For safety reasons, the tanks and tankmen with whom you will cooperate will be ours; your armored comrades need more time for training after all they have arrived only recently."
The soldiers slightly nodded their heads because they knew why. The reason was that while for regular infantry they took regular infantrymen right away and for artillery or light support such as mortars archers and siege equipment operators.
So to armoured troops and everything what is more complicated than cannon or rifle was taken already with big selection of candidates. To tankmen were taken mainly blacksmiths, carpenters and other professions connected with the possibility of repairing iron elements, even if it was only their own tools.
It is easier to explain to such people than to teach from scratch to someone who cannot even read or write, let alone know anything about metallurgy. After all, this is not World War II or the Red Army, they have no such need. Another thing is that the T-34 was often repaired by a prisoner blacksmith.
Another thing that you need to find people with proper height for tanks. And they would have to know more than to aim and shoot in more or less that direction.
Another thing, of course, were sapper units which also needed such builders or carpenters. Or logistic, medical and communication units.
So a lot of work to find people who could operate in more specialized areas. It is not necessary to convince anyone that in such a medieval-renaissance kingdom finding the right people takes more time.
Therefore the future infantry regiments arrived the fastest and the easiest to train. Fortunately, most of them did not need to be trained from the basics, which are known, but simply adapted to the battlefield of the 20th century.
Many of them were also knights who spent a lot of time training and already had a pretty good discipline. Among ordinary infantrymen there were also not too many problems, although it was necessary to let them know that charging at the enemy was not the only solution.
Surprisingly archers assigned to fire support units had the easiest time, after all this weapon works similar to bows only it makes loud boom when fired. But the general principle in aiming is similar.
"Did you understand everything, soldiers?" asked Pączek. A loud response in Polish from the soldiers. ''Yes, sir'' confirmed the understanding. That's right, sir, not comrade. It was simply impossible to translate for them to say comrade and comrades, so they said sir.
The other thing was that it was allowed to mix sir and comrade in the Polish Army. Why? Well, sir is faster, although it's recommended to say comrade in a normal situation. Sometimes it leads to funny situations, when someone has a slip of the tongue and says panie towarzyszu. Needless to say, it quickly became an object of jokes among soldiers.
After confirming the understanding of the Pole who spoke French. Individual regiments moved towards the place of their training. Of course the Altarans did not speak French, but something similar to it.
For the Poles it was the same as if they tried to speak to a Czech or Slovak in Polish. Of course they would partially understand each other, but only partially. Fortunately, Altar is quite similar to French as Polish to Czech and it was possible to get along with guessing those words which they did not know.
Soldiers marching to their destination sang. Of course because Altaras had no such thing as marching songs they sang Polish songs.
In this case they sang Kalina Malina. It was a song from western Mazovia and only God knows if it went from Polish weddings to the army or vice versa. And what they sang was approximately this in English
The raspberry Kalina in the forest was in bloom,
The raspberry Kalina in the forest was in bloom,
Many a girl has loved a soldier
Many a girl has loved a soldier
She loved a soldier, she liked a soldier
She loved a soldier, she liked a soldier
And she wrote tender letters to him
And she wrote tender letters to him
Of course, they would partly twist it, for example by singing Polish cz into similar to French sh, but closer to Polish sz. The songs themselves were a way to teach them at least partly to speak Polish. It was easier for them than for real Frenchmen, but it was not easy after all. Their princess was especially eager to learn, she quickly fell in love with Polish country.
She liked Polish cuisine and especially its sweets. Needless to say, her love for Poland and its people was quickly reciprocated by the Poles themselves, who made the princess quite comfortable without the intrusive UB men.
After a few minutes' march, the marching soldiers reached their destination. Then each of the three regiments was assigned to a different T-34 company. The training began with getting used to the tank attacking the infantry. The first attempt turned out to be a failure, despite meeting the machines earlier, most of the soldiers ran away from the tanks in panic. It took a few minutes to gather everyone.
''It was scary even if those showgs were shooting blanks.'' Tarkun said to his friend Anrud. Anrud only nodded at that, they would still be terrified by the onslaught.
The tank commander who was standing next to them laughed at that, understanding what they were saying ''First of all these are czołgi and not showgi, how you confuse cz with sh I don't know, and secondly there is nothing to be afraid of, we are blind inside in the majority of cases when you fall on your knees it is more difficult for us to catch you.
A simple hole will suffice. And secondly, a dug-in infantry regiment will easily stop an armored strike'' Altarans only looked without a word at the tank commander.
The Polish officer in charge of training only shook his head and said to himself ''It will be a long day'' His Altaran counterpart assigned to control the training soldiers only quietly giggled.
People's Republic of Poland
13 May 1974 P.C./ 1639 C.C.Y.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko Academy of Mechanized Forces - Wroclaw
In this officer school future Altaran officers were trained in the art of infantry combat. Specially for this purpose were appointed officers of older age serving during the Second World War. Surprisingly, most of them were former officers of the Polish Armed Forces from the West who came to Poland and did not return to the West when they were purged from the army. Many of these officers were extremely suspicious when this offer came to them.
Only some of them accepted the offer after being restored to their rights as officers and having their services to Poland recognized. Another matter, even these were distrustful. Of course the rest were Poles from LWP from times of II WW and after.
The reason why they did so is simply because most of the officers then were Soviets! And these had largely already left the country and the others were approached with reserve.
Another thing is that most of the current lecturers are already focused on mechanized infantry fighting and it is simply a waste of time to train them in the art of fighting ordinary infantry.
They chose primarily veterans with extensive experience and knowledge of fighting with post-Soviet equipment. Altaras officers, in addition to training and command proficiency, were required to learn more than enough Polish to be able to communicate with the Polish ally without any problem.
They were in a special class for them where they were taught everything related to being an infantry commander and had Polish lessons, which well were hard for some. "So what's the difference between Może and the Morze?'' asked Karolina Wędzki, a Polish teacher hired especially for the occasion.
One of the officers raised his hand. The officer called Taar stood up and said, ''Może with a Ż means that we can do something, like maybe we'll go home, and Morze with a RZ means a big body of water that isn't an ocean, like the Entrelazon Sea between us and the Philades continent.''
Wędzka nodded with appreciation, it's not easy for foreigners to learn the difference so quickly, especially since both letters are read the same way. "Well, Mr. Taar, can you tell us why it is spelled like that?'' The officer looked at her and after a moment ''I don't know.''
She smiled and then started to write on the chalkboard. ''You see, Ż and RZ are spelled differently even though they are read the same way because, first of all, they used to be pronounced differently.
Secondly, because Ż stands for native words and RZ for words borrowed from foreign languages. Such a morze comes from Latin mare. The other thing is that the RZ used to be pronounced with a soft r like the Russian morie, which means sea.''
The sound of understanding went through the room like a wave. ''Well, now we'll start, who can tell me some words with U and Ó?'' The groans of a few people in the room were a clear answer to what they thought of the letters. The teacher only giggled slightly.
Parpaldia Empire
15 May 1639 C.C.Y./ 1974 P.C
Esthirant
17:00
Throne Room
A man was kneeling before his emperor. He was the head of the 3rd Department of Foreign Affairs named Kyos. He was responsible for diplomatic relations with the so-called barbarian countries. Heading the largest department, he had the enormous power to liquidate entire countries and turn them into colonies of Parpaldia.
Now he knelt before his emperor, who was about to give the next liquidation order.
''Rise, Kyos, I have a task for you. You are to send a messenger with a message to our ambassador in the Kingdom of Altaras. His task is to issue demands that their king will not agree to in order to give us an excuse to attack them.'' The emperor said indifferently and then added in a threatening tone, ''Do you understand your task?''
Kyos nodded nervously and then added ''Yes my lord.'' The emperor looked at him blankly. ''Do you have anything else to say?''
Kyos licked his lips and said, ''Yes my lord, the ambassador convey to me that this barbarian kingdom has allied itself with a newly discovered other barbarian kingdom.''
The emperor looked at him questioningly ''What about it? What do we care about an alliance of insignificant states?'' Kyos said nervously, ''The point is, sire, that they have supposedly offered to upgrade the Altaras armed forces, which it has accepted.
And in a few months, their fleet will receive eight new ships, called chasers, produced by this country. To make matters worse, it is rumored that they have begun to distribute their goods, easily displacing our gifts from that country.'' Kyos looked at the Emperor to make sure he had not irritated him.
The Emperor thought for a moment and then replied ''Never mind, if their messengers arrive here pass on our standard demands.
No upgrade will surpass our technology but it is worth finding out what these barbarians have as soon as they bow to us.'' Then he showed with his hand that the audience was over.
Kyos didn't wait too long and started to leave when he heard ''Wait, what is the name of this country?''
Kyos looked over and thought for a moment then smiled when he remembered it ''My lord they have a stupid name, it is called the Polish People's Republic.'' Hearing this the Emperor laughed "You are right what a stupid and simple name."
Then with the Emperor's approval Kyos walked out leaving the Emperor laughing. What they both didn't know was that the Polish messengers had already arrived only to be quickly annoyed by the attitude of the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs or more precisely the 3rd Department of Foreign Affairs and like the Japanese they bounced back from the officials.
Of course, in contrast to Japan, treating people like garbage for the Poles is nothing new, just go to any Polish office to quickly find out that decent officials are scarce while the masters of life and death are so many that you can easily put one on top of the other and climb on the moon to steal it like in some Polish children's movie.
People's Republic of Poland
25th July 1974 P.C/ 1639 C.C.Y
Forest in Bieszczady Mountains
23:46
A car driving through the forest stopped. After a while two people got out of it. Both were dressed in gray coats and hats, an outfit that did not belong to lumberjacks. The car was the already legendary Syrena produced by FSO.
It was a flagship example that communism could also work. It was not a bad car, and in the 21st century it is a true collector's rarity. The production itself was supportly by FSM, and became an export hit to the countries Poland met, including Japan itself, where there were many people willing to buy a car that was old for them but newly produced for Poles, at a price that was already quite low for Japan.
No wonder, as it is still produced.
But this particular model did not belong to civilians. It was a property of UB men and was used for many tasks. The current task was to remove a member of the so-called "new left". Jacek Kuroń, a member of the left-wing part of the opposition.
Contrary to his own legend he was the same communist as the authorities but he was from a different faction of communism. Although he was against totalitarianism, he was not against the ruling ideology.
Earlier he was alive because there was the West which looked at such things as disappearance of a member of the opposition forever and additionally, the new left which inspired Kuroń gained popularity.
Now he was redundant, and in fact a threat to the ruling party, which after finding out from the Japanese Internet and Poles living in Japan, although the latter did their best to oppose the People's Republic of Poland, thanks to the Polish intelligence service which used the more radical leftist Japanese students to find out a lot about what happened after April 1, 1974.
Kuroń was on the list of those to be shot. Catching him was not too difficult, he was invited to one of the secret UB collaborators, and when he left the house after the conversation he was caught a few streets away.
This secret collaborator was "Bolek", better known to the world as Lech Walesa, the future leader of Solidarity. At the behest of the UB, he arranged a meeting with Kuroń at his home to discuss a new approach to the struggle against the communist regime.
He was to gather the workers of the Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard, who thought like him. The initially suspicious Kuroń, after several meetings with Walesa in different houses, believed him and began to meet at Walesa's house with his comrades to promote his views in the shipyards of the Tricity.
Unfortunately, he did not know that the meeting he had with Walesa on July 25 was his last, and when he left the house and headed towards Gdansk train station he was kidnapped by the UB. The meeting itself took place in the evening so that no one noticed his disappearance.
Back in the forest. UB men opened the baggage compartment and took Kuroń out, not caring if he was all right. After all, he was about to rest under the ground forever.
Bound and silenced with a gag by the agents he tried to resist. To no avail unfortunately for him. Then they entered the forest, after a few minutes they reached their destination.
They met another person there, a secret UB collaborator who had previously worked with them at a time when the UB was the SB and was smashing UPA bands. The area itself was not new to the UB, which Kuroń did not know.
People, mainly Ukrainians, had already been disposed of here before. A few times soldiers of anti-communist partisans from the NSZ, called "Żołnierze Wyklęci", had been sent here. It's ironic that all the people here were patriots and nationalists or even Nazis in the case of the Ukrainians, and they hated each other for good reasons, but now they were joined by the communist Kuroń.
''Are all ready?'' The lower of the agents asked.
The co-worker nodded ''Of course, the pit is deep, no one will find it.'' The taller one nodded and then turned to Kuroń ''
''Get up!'' Then, seeing that Kuroń didn't want to, he forcibly moved him and pushed him down. Then, seeing that Kuroń didn't want to do it by force, he moved and fell down.
''Comrade Citizen Kuroń. You are sentenced to death by the Court in Warsaw for your actions aiming at overthrowing the People's Republic of Poland, past and future. Any last words?'' said the taller of the agents.
''Yes, I have, and where's the trial? And for what actions we have freedom of speech! Your couldn't...'' He hadn't finished when the bullet from the Tetetka of the lower agent pierced through his skull and Kuroń fell into the pit.
The taller one looked at the shorter one ''Łysy, you could have let him finish.''
Łysy shook his head ''I won't listen to his bullshit Rudy, a democrat is fucking found. Fucking motherfucker with rotten brains and that poison from the west.''
Rudy just sighed at that ''But you know it was all of us from the east that spread that poison?'' Łysy waved his hand at that.
Rudy shook his head and then turned to TW ''Should I help you, comrade?''
TW only shook his head ''No need, the other thing is that it's better for you to disappear and the sand on your shoes won't help you.'' Rudy only nodded and then said goodbye to him.
After a few minutes both agents left. The old TW said quietly: ''The wind is changing, once they buried those on the right who couldn't give up because they were going to die anyway, now they bury those on the left, I wonder how many will disappear here.''
Then he started to trample the ground and when he had finished, he started to whistle as he went towards his lodge.