It was snowing, and the cold wind - purga - was blowing freely here.
The medium-sized Caucasian man moved steadily in his gray overcoat. He was burdened with heavy thoughts, and with power.
That man is me.
Power. Why did I take it? Why did I do all that I did?
Power. I took to myself absolute power, because that this is the custom and the tradition here, and even after the Revolution, some things need time to be changed.
I took all that power because that there were other people who wanted it, but who could not use it. Who will waste it - all of it or parts of it.
I needed that power. I took it and I held on to it, and I used it. I used it to make things work. I took it to use it in a required way. I took it from the people of thirteen great republics, only one of which was trully and forever great, and another of which was my native home. I missed it sometimes. Oh well. Anything for the Revolution.
The irony of it all, though. I was the leader of Russia. Of a Socialist Russia. It was ironic.
The Russian Empire, perhaps the worst enemy of progress in the world, the center of reactionary groups... has been transformed. We started the revolution, and crushed the reactionaries. I personally commanded in Tsarytsin. I later had that city renamed in my name. Why not?
After the death of Ulyanov, I had to take over. I had to commit atrocity after atrocity to keep myself in control. I did it for the Union, for noone else could use power.
Trotsky? He will start a war with the world. Kirov? He will not last and be overthrown. Beria? He was pathetic. Tukhachevsky? Tukhachevsky... It is a shame that he had to be removed. He too could have been given power, and would have been used as a figurehead.
No way.
For better or worse, I brushed off the remnants of capitalism. Ulyanov had no time to bring Socialism one step closer to Communism, but I did. I slaughtered millions, and sacrificed my conscience, for I cared not for it.
Anything for the Revolution.
I commited atrocities unspeakable, atrocities that made and still make the social-democrat traitors shiver in their boots. I needed to make the Union strong, for it was - and still is - surrounded by enemies of the Revolution, by capitalists and fascists, by social-democrats and militarists. Communism is inevitable, but who am I to sacrifice the Bright Future coming in a few more generations, rather then kill off an entire generation to speed up the building of Communism? The Capitalists will not be allowed to strangle the First Socialist Revolution. They MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO DO SO.
Communism needs not a human face, it already has one. Socialism needs not a human face, for such a face will mean surrender of our positions. There is no time for humanism now - there is only time for building Communism.
And to build it, one needs to secure his positions. Soviet Union must prevail. It must SURVIVE. To do so, it needs to protect itself, it needs to ally with the more progressive states and remove threats to its existance. Once we are safe, we could build Communism. Once we build it, the world will follow our example.
I walked back to Kremlin. I had a lot of work to do.
