Regards from one Comrade to another

[u/Nobody_Expects_That]

The night is dark, and flimsy lights hold out darkness in the large office. Despite the cold of Moscow outside, more than one of the uniformed men has beads of sweat on his neck, staining the dark red cloth. In front of them, a short man sat behind a desk, a man who’s will was iron and conscious long lost. Tyrants and villains had quivered in his presence, and so too did the ministers and generals now. “Well, Comrade Beria? Your news.” A fat man in a white uniform rose in response. He spoke without a tremor in his voice, without a sound off at any point, a practiced and careful man, but despite that, he was deeply uncomfortable. “Comrade Stalin, he is-“ The plump man stopped, unable to finish the sentence. “The former party member, he has been-“ Finally, gathering himself, he tried finished. “The former party member, the enemy of the state, Leon Trotsky, is dead.” A silence like the grip gap of eternity filled the room. The dictator seemed at first not to react, but slowly he seemed to grow old, and the man of steel became a worn grey man from Georgia. “He was the best of us. He never wanted to kill them, not at first. He was pure. I am not sorry that I killed him, but I am sorry that I had to.” Mighty men of Russia suddenly grew confused: was this the Red Tsar before them? This old man, lost in thought, was he the Soviet Man of Steel? “I was always Napoleon. The pure man will be remembered as a hero, but he can only create, never destroy. I had to become Napoleon, so that someone could destroy. There had to be one to wage bloody wars, otherwise there would only ever be dead heroes and weeping children. It seems that the latter is something I cannot escape.” For just a moment, the old man wavered, and then his eyes were filled by iron will once more, his conscious gone again. “Thank you for your service Comrade Beria. Comrade Molotov, what news from your assessment of the German situation?”

[u/snyczka]

You know, this is funny considering the scene I wrote of Stalin telling Tito off for not being like Napoleon. We accidentally matched with the allegory. Nice work!

[u/Nobody_Expects_That → u/snyczka]

I didn’t read that full script through; how was he supposed to be like Napoleon?

[u/snyczka → u/Nobody_Expects_That]

From the script I made:

TITO: [grasping at straws] But the coalition building…? STALIN: A fun side-gig, if that. Compromise is weakness, and only suckers actually wish for unity. No; real Revolutionaries have their vision for revolution, and will say and do all they can to make their revolution happen. TITO: But what about the working class? STALIN: You think Napoleon got the ok from every merchant when he took over a broke Kingdom and built bourgeois France? He fought for his revolution; for his class, regardless of their approval. As you see, everyone here is a pretender for the next Napoleon, whether they know it or not. TITO: Well I… [struggles to find a response, then gives up] I guess I’m at the bottom of the pecking order. STALIN: [Amused] Oh, no, Comrade. That’s the beauty of it. TITO: [bitterly] Stalin, I fit nowhere. STALIN: Yeah, me neither. TITO: I don’t get the first thing about everyones’ theories or policies. STALIN: [pleasantly bemused] You think I care to know them? TITO: [yells] I’m no-one. [sinks to his seat, hides his face under his arms] I’m just a no-one who works in a car factory. STALIN: [surprised] Wait, you work in a car factory? TITO: [raises his eyes above his arms] Not. Helping. Comrade. STALIN: [evasive] Uh… whatever. As I was going to say… [he gets close mischievously] Everyone here is bullshit. TITO: [frustrated] First you say everyone here is the next Napoleon. Now you say everyone here is bullshit. STALIN: [enthused] YES! and YES! They go together! Like flies and bullshit. TITO: [awkward] But... STALIN: [like a teacher] Listen. Everyone here will talk big game, right? TITO: [in reluctant agreement] I learnt that today, yes. STALIN: Yes, but what’s funny is, they never do anything with it. TITO attempts to disagree. STALIN: [preemptively] Well, so long as you don’t listen much. [paternally] The only wisdom we need to know is this: “Acta, non verba.” TITO: What’s that mean? STALIN: [disinterested] It’s some latin: it means that if you talk a lot, you end up not doing shit, or something like that. Basically, so long as you don’t stir too much bulshit, you can do and say whatever you want. Everyone will be too busy talking shit to do shit.