Chapter 27 of 100

Chapter 27

16 min read3,961 words

As the saying goes, knowing oneself and the enemy ensures victory in a hundred battles. No written material is more practical than what one sees with their own eyes. Although the eyes cannot guarantee that everything seen is correct, they can serve as direct evidence recorded in one's mind. In any case, eyewitness testimony is the most important evidence.

West Berlin has a population of 1.2 million, occupying more than half of the Greater Berlin area, with a city area that is 62% of the entire Greater Berlin. West Berlin has a delegation in the Federal Republic of Germany to express its political demands, but it has no right to vote. It has its own city government, but it operates under the supervision of the American, British, and French occupying forces.

"Is the other side of this street the territory of West Berlin?" Sherov saw warning signs on the opposite street, and the soldiers on both sides were facing each other, not exactly hostile but certainly not friendly.

"Yes, Comrade Sherov. In the three-occupied zones of West Berlin, the currency of West Germany is used, and the US dollar can also be used as currency!" The speaker was Sherov's comrade, Adalbert, the head of the Technical Supervision Department of the East German Stasi. However, his true identity was an advisor from the First Chief Directorate of the KGB stationed in East Germany, with Soviet nationality, but he was a minority, a Volga German.

"Is that so? This is truly a fatal matter!" Sherov's gaze towards the opposite side was uncertain. Any overt confrontation can be guarded against, but this invisible infiltration is the most terrifying. In Sherov's eyes, West Berlin, situated within the territory of East Germany, is a cancer, draining the nutrients of East Germany and even Eastern Europe. Over time, this will increasingly cause malnutrition in the Eastern European countries.

Currently, the Berlin Wall does not exist, and nothing can block Sherov's view of the opposite side. Not far away, cars flying the flags of the United States, Britain, and France appeared and disappeared, which is quite normal. Part of the recent Berlin crisis is due to the three countries hoping to retain the right for their armies to patrol the entire Berlin.

"Today, I will carefully inspect the checkpoints surrounding West Berlin. By the way, are the patrols conducted by the People's Army or the People's Armed Police?" Sherov asked from the back seat of the car, waiting to set off.

"The patrols are conducted by the People's Armed Police under the Ministry of the Interior!" Adalbert signaled the driver in front to start the car and said, "Even with round-the-clock patrols, we cannot prevent East German citizens from fleeing, which makes us very embarrassed when facing the other side..."

"Who can blame the Americans for being rich? There's no way around it. After all, the main battlefield of World War II was in Europe. The United States won the world war with 400,000 military deaths, and even Azerbaijan suffered more casualties than the United States! If we were to talk about reason, the Iron Curtain speech should never have appeared! Now, because of the Berlin crisis, our homeland is being cursed by those few mouthpieces every day. Those heads filled with excrement never think about who ignored the Soviet Union's demands and hastily established the Federal Republic of Germany? We formed the German Democratic Republic defensively, and we are accused of ignoring the feelings of the German people?" Sherov said these words with a mocking tone, "If we were to talk about reason, our relationship with the Americans wouldn't be like this! So this time, I'm not here to talk about reason..."

Sherov spent three days inspecting all the checkpoints, accompanied not only by KGB members from the Soviet Union but also by military advisors from the Soviet Red Army's Western Group in Germany. After all, he is not a professional soldier and needs these experts to make the right judgments.

"Within the jurisdiction of West Berlin, there are two reservoirs formed by the Spree and Havel rivers being dammed!" The Red Army advisor following Sherov said, holding a high-powered telescope, "The two reservoirs are sufficient to supply the one million population of West Berlin!"

"Is the entire Berlin's sewer and power system still integrated?" Sherov asked, hinting at something.

"Yes, after all, it is one city, and we have not divided it with the United States, Britain, and France!" The Western Group advisors confirmed Sherov's question.

"I see!" Sherov said with an uncertain smile, "Alright, the inspection for today is over! I need to return to the base to think of some solutions. Thank you, comrades of the Red Army, for accompanying me on this idle stroll today..."

These few days of inspections were not fruitless. Sherov saw some unusual things, such as a considerable amount of building materials, including bricks, steel bars, and barbed wire, piled up in some places. This indicates that his German counterparts were making preparations behind the Soviet Union's back. Once the situation develops to a point where the Soviet Union can no longer sit idly by, East Germany, with the Soviet Union's approval, can quickly build the Berlin Wall in a short time.

Historically, Khrushchev was also surprised by the rapid construction of the Berlin Wall. Completing such a large project in such a short time shows that East Germany had been preparing for this for a long time.

Sherov took a cold, detached attitude towards the development of this matter. Since the Germans themselves could make such a decision, he, a Soviet with no direct stake, naturally cared even less. He might even push things along. Sherov did not come to Berlin just to be a foreman. If it were just to build a wall, anyone could do it. He only needed to make a suggestion, and there was no need for him to come in person.

Human needs are essentially about clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. The reason the Soviet Union was in a more difficult position during the Cold War was that, after World War II, the Soviet Union was far from recovering to its pre-war strength, while the United States, which was not affected on its own soil, forced the Soviet Union to fight at a disadvantage, without even the time to develop its economy, while maintaining the confrontation. Even the Soviet Union, as the leader of the socialist bloc, was developing and fighting at the same time, let alone the brother countries that were heavily damaged in World War II.

Specifically, in the situation in Berlin, the wealthy United States used the Marshall Plan to support these countries in their recovery, allowing those countries with a stronger foundation than Eastern Europe to recover quickly, creating a stark contrast with the Soviet side.

Later, the results of the Cold War are often attributed to the victory of capitalism over socialism, but this ignores the fact that the struggle was unfair from the beginning. The result was not the victory of capitalism over socialism, but the victory of a group of imperialist powers over a Soviet Union that was barely not a poor country and a group of poor countries.

That night, the circuit network map and city sewer network map of Berlin, the annual rainfall statistics of Berlin, and the river maps around Berlin appeared on Sherov's desk. "Building a wall is too simple. I want to make West Berlin a dead city, a stronghold that bleeds the other side, making it necessary to pay several times the current cost to continue occupying it..."

West Berlin is like something that should not exist within the territory of East Germany, akin to a holdout in a construction planning area. What Sherov intends to do is to cut off water and electricity, divert the two rivers flowing through Berlin, re-plan the city's power grid, and rebuild the sewers, not just build a wall.

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