Volkov. “I mean no disrespect, but heads of state
follow other protocols, do they not?”
“Call me the devil if you wish,”
said Hitler, “as long as you remain my trusted adjutant, all will be well.”
It was a meeting that had been
planned long ago, but with developments in the war now heating up, the time was
ripe for Adolf Hitler to meet with the shadow to the east, Ivan Volkov, the man
who sat on all that oil, the man who held a knife at Sergei Kirov’s back.
Hitler was no fool. He knew that Volkov’s disposition was not one to easily
bear his trust. The man had schemed and assassinated his way to power over many
long years, ruthlessly eliminating one foe after another until he forged his
Orenburg Federation on the fringes of the Soviet heartland. The one man he
could not outmaneuver had been Sergei Kirov, and now the war would settle their
long simmering rivalry—or I will settle it, thought Hitler.
The place for this meeting was
also symbolic of the Führer’s real interest in treating with Volkov—Ploesti.
Hitler had come by train from Austria, Volkov in a squadron of four airships
that crossed the Black Sea from his territory in the Caucasus. Ploesti was the
oil center of Romania, and Hitler was keen to tour the facilities, where he
made suggestions on how Germany could improve production, and increase oil
flows and deliveries by rail to the Reich. It was his final stop before returning
to Germany, a handshake here with Ivan Volkov, and a word on what was soon to
come in his march to world domination.
Hitler was very pleased with the
outcome of this diplomatic mission to the Balkans in late 1940. It had been his
intention to lay a carpet of federated states all the way from Czechoslovakia
to the Turkish frontier, and to do this he needed the allegiance of Romania,
Bulgaria and Hungary. One by one these nations fell under the shadow of his
control, some willingly, as in the case of Hungary, which had been a client
state since 1938. Others came grudgingly, for Romania had been pro-British and
an ally of Poland at the outbreak of the war. Hitler made Romania a top
priority, pleased when General Antonescu ascended to
the position of Prime Minister there, and then quickly signed the Tripartite
Pact to effectively join the Axis in late 1940. Now Hitler had access to
Romania’s oil producing region at Ploesti, and valuable territory from which he
could stage further operations.
With Hungary and Bulgaria also
cowed, he now planned on the final resolution of the Balkans as a prelude to
the decisive campaigns of 1941 against either Soviet Russia or the British
Middle East. Operation 25, as it was called, was the plan to devour Yugoslavia,
with armies staging on every frontier of that beleaguered state. Hitler would
move the 1st Panzer Group to Bulgaria near Sofia, the XLI Corps to Romania and
the XLVI Corps to Hungary to place a cordon of steel all along Yugoslavia’s
eastern borders. From the north, the German Second Army would stage from
Austria with three Infantry Corps, from the west, the Italian Second Army would
field a similar force, and the whole operation was happening three months
earlier than it did in the history before Kirov staged from Severomorsk.
Now he stared at Volkov across
the conference table, his dark eyes taking the man in, noting every line and
detail of his uniform, the insignia, his military officer’s cap. It was clear
that Volkov saw himself as a military man, while Hitler sat there in civilian
dress, the plain grey suit he often wore, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He sized the man up now, as a man might inspect a tool he was
planning to use for some task. That was all Volkov was at the moment—an
unwitting tool in the Führer’s hand.
So Hitler would make him his
ally, for his longstanding feud with Sergei Kirov was most convenient. He was
tying down nearly forty Soviet divisions along the frontier from the Crimea and
along the Volga all the way to the wilderness of Siberia
follow other protocols, do they not?”
“Call me the devil if you wish,”
said Hitler, “as long as you remain my trusted adjutant, all will be well.”
It was a meeting that had been
planned long ago, but with developments in the war now heating up, the time was
ripe for Adolf Hitler to meet with the shadow to the east, Ivan Volkov, the man
who sat on all that oil, the man who held a knife at Sergei Kirov’s back.
Hitler was no fool. He knew that Volkov’s disposition was not one to easily
bear his trust. The man had schemed and assassinated his way to power over many
long years, ruthlessly eliminating one foe after another until he forged his
Orenburg Federation on the fringes of the Soviet heartland. The one man he
could not outmaneuver had been Sergei Kirov, and now the war would settle their
long simmering rivalry—or I will settle it, thought Hitler.
The place for this meeting was
also symbolic of the Führer’s real interest in treating with Volkov—Ploesti.
Hitler had come by train from Austria, Volkov in a squadron of four airships
that crossed the Black Sea from his territory in the Caucasus. Ploesti was the
oil center of Romania, and Hitler was keen to tour the facilities, where he
made suggestions on how Germany could improve production, and increase oil
flows and deliveries by rail to the Reich. It was his final stop before returning
to Germany, a handshake here with Ivan Volkov, and a word on what was soon to
come in his march to world domination.
Hitler was very pleased with the
outcome of this diplomatic mission to the Balkans in late 1940. It had been his
intention to lay a carpet of federated states all the way from Czechoslovakia
to the Turkish frontier, and to do this he needed the allegiance of Romania,
Bulgaria and Hungary. One by one these nations fell under the shadow of his
control, some willingly, as in the case of Hungary, which had been a client
state since 1938. Others came grudgingly, for Romania had been pro-British and
an ally of Poland at the outbreak of the war. Hitler made Romania a top
priority, pleased when General Antonescu ascended to
the position of Prime Minister there, and then quickly signed the Tripartite
Pact to effectively join the Axis in late 1940. Now Hitler had access to
Romania’s oil producing region at Ploesti, and valuable territory from which he
could stage further operations.
With Hungary and Bulgaria also
cowed, he now planned on the final resolution of the Balkans as a prelude to
the decisive campaigns of 1941 against either Soviet Russia or the British
Middle East. Operation 25, as it was called, was the plan to devour Yugoslavia,
with armies staging on every frontier of that beleaguered state. Hitler would
move the 1st Panzer Group to Bulgaria near Sofia, the XLI Corps to Romania and
the XLVI Corps to Hungary to place a cordon of steel all along Yugoslavia’s
eastern borders. From the north, the German Second Army would stage from
Austria with three Infantry Corps, from the west, the Italian Second Army would
field a similar force, and the whole operation was happening three months
earlier than it did in the history before Kirov staged from Severomorsk.
Now he stared at Volkov across
the conference table, his dark eyes taking the man in, noting every line and
detail of his uniform, the insignia, his military officer’s cap. It was clear
that Volkov saw himself as a military man, while Hitler sat there in civilian
dress, the plain grey suit he often wore, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He sized the man up now, as a man might inspect a tool he was
planning to use for some task. That was all Volkov was at the moment—an
unwitting tool in the Führer’s hand.
So Hitler would make him his
ally, for his longstanding feud with Sergei Kirov was most convenient. He was
tying down nearly forty Soviet divisions along the frontier from the Crimea and
along the Volga all the way to the wilderness of Siberia
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