Chapter 243
Chapter 243
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: December Coup
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This drought's shockwaves didn't just hit the Soviet Union.
When the Soviets halted wheat supplies to the grain markets, it was like a bolt from the blue for Eastern Europe and Asia alike.
Eastern Europe managed to scrape by with grain the Soviets had bought from Korea and redistributed, but Asia's nations were in a different boat.
They trembled at the grain prices quoted by the major exporters.
Even though Korea's supplies to the Soviets had driven prices down, the numbers were still too steep to bear.
"They're trying to gouge us. Keep it up, and we'll dump our own grain."
Korea prioritized massive shipments to its EA allies and friendly nations first.
"Huh?"
"We've still got plenty in reserve."
Of course, Pyongyang couldn't drop prices indefinitely.
Transport costs to silos and storage fees added up.
But Korea's grain releases were enough to pressure the majors.
Cargill and the others scrambled to slash prices in response.
"Four dollars a bushel."
Twice the normal rate, but not impossible to afford.
The grain shock sparked by the drought began to settle.
But the aftershocks were only just beginning.
Inside the Soviet Union, tempers were boiling over the agricultural fiasco.
They'd poured the federation's resources into virgin lands, only for it all to go to waste—no one could stay silent.
"Khrushchev's the miracle farmer who sows in the Soviet Union and harvests in Korea."
The military and party weren't thrilled either.
"It's not pocket change—we're talking six and a half billion in debt. What kind of moronic shit is this?"
The massive IOUs to Korea were humiliation enough for the Second World and the Soviets.
These grumblings eroded Khrushchev's prestige and footing.
Conservatives and the military eyed his weakening position, biding their time to bare their teeth.
But it was still too delicate a moment to show their hands.
As long as loyalists like Secretary Kozlov—who watched the military, defense industry, and KGB—stuck by Khrushchev, treason was off the table.
"Anyone challenging the General Secretary will answer to us."
Outside observers figured the Khrushchev regime had years left.
"He won't be vacating the throne anytime soon."
With the surface calm like that, no one imagined a traitor emerging from Khrushchev's inner circle.
But there was no reason for his inner circle to keep swearing loyalty to a failed leader.
Alexander Shelepin, the party secretary known publicly as the General Secretary's right-hand man, was one who'd turned on Khrushchev over the agricultural debacle.
Shelepin saw no point propping Khrushchev up now that his farm policies had sapped his reform momentum.
He sat down with his successor as KGB chief, Vladimir Semichastny, and whispered about ousting Khrushchev.
"Comrade Secretary. You mean pull down the General Secretary?"
"It's time we made a decision for the good of the state, don't you think?"
"But he did us favors. How can we stab him in the back?"
"Think about who we really serve. If the General Secretary clings on and the federation crumbles, who bears the fallout? The poor people, that's who."
Shelepin pressed Semichastny: they couldn't leave power in the hands of a man who'd botched agriculture and handed Korea the federation's leash.
Semichastny finally nodded after Shelepin's persistent arguments.
He shared the disappointment in Khrushchev's farming failures and pie-in-the-sky reforms.
"But on one condition."
"Name it."
"His personal safety has to be guaranteed."
"You have my word."
With the KGB on board, the plot took shape.
Shelepin, the plot's ringleader, approached Supreme Soviet Chairman Leonid Brezhnev, Ukrainian party boss Nikolai Podgorny, First Deputy Premier Alexei Kosygin, and others to join.
"Comrade Khrushchev's blunders are grave. Let him screw up once more, and the federation's done for."
All the aides Khrushchev had trusted threw in with Shelepin's conspiracy.
They were already seething over his reforms, farm failures, and the huge Korean debt—consensus formed fast.
To flesh out the plot, the conspirators decided to loop in the military.
The snag was Defense Minister Malinovsky.
"Will Marshal Malinovsky turn a blind eye?"
"He's not one to buck the tide."
With KGB assurances, Shelepin reached out to the military.
Only then did conservatives and the brass learn a Khrushchev ouster plot was brewing.
"Khrushchev's own lackeys turning on him? How do we read this?"
"What's not to like? They're as fed up with reforms as we are—no need to slap away the olive branch."
Conservatives and the military decided to join hands with the plotters.
As the conspiracy ripened beneath the surface, party Secretary Kozlov—who monitored the KGB and Soviet military—picked up on something fishy.
The moment Kozlov sniffed KGB involvement, he rushed to the General Secretary.
"Comrade General Secretary. The conservatives and military are stirring."
"Who's behind it? Who's pulling strings?"
"For now, KGB looks suspicious."
"The KGB?"
Khrushchev couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Semichastny's the chairman, and Shelepin's my man. How could they betray me?"
"Comrade General Secretary. The evidence is clear."
"The conservatives could be framing it that way."
Khrushchev brushed off Kozlov's report for now.
But he couldn't shake the doubt entirely.
Khrushchev summoned Ukrainian party boss Nikolai Podgorny to hash it out.
Podgorny nearly spilled the plot right there from shock.
Of course, he didn't confess everything.
Podgorny kept a straight face and lied to Khrushchev.
"No such thing could happen, Comrade General Secretary. You know how loyal your comrades are."
"That's what I think too."
The moment Podgorny left the Kremlin, he alerted the plotters.
"If Khrushchev's getting suspicious, we need to move fast."
The conspirators accelerated the ouster plan.
To that end, they pulled in Moscow Military District Commander Lieutenant General Ivan Kolesnikov.
"This is a coup. Let Khrushchev slip away, and we're finished. Everyone got that?"
The plotters even drew up secret ops plans mobilizing three thousand troops.
In truth, three thousand weren't needed to seize the Kremlin.
The Kremlin Regiment guarding the palace and Lenin's Mausoleum answered to the KGB.
As the plot surfaced from the shadows, Kozlov went back to the General Secretary.
"Comrade General Secretary. This is unmistakably a treasonous plot. You must act against the KGB now."
Khrushchev wasn't deaf enough to ignore repeated warnings from his closest aide.
"I'll sack Semichastny. You take over the KGB. Handle the cleanup thoroughly."
"Yes, sir."
Kozlov finally thought things were on track.
But Kozlov's moves hadn't escaped KGB eyes.
Word of Semichastny's dismissal threw the plotters into overdrive.
"We have to advance the plan."
"To when?"
"Today. No more dallying."
On the evening of December 6, 1962, the coup forces sprang into action.
"Unreported troop movements confirmed, sir."
"It's all prearranged."
Moscow Military District Commander Ivan Kolesnikov turned a blind eye.
The Soviet Defense Ministry pretended not to notice the coup troops either.
Khrushchev and Kozlov caught on too late.
By then, coup forces had thrown up barricades around key offices and the Kremlin, severing all Kremlin-external comms lines.
To keep Khrushchev from issuing orders to the outside world.
With prep complete, the coup troops—using compliant Kremlin Regiment soldiers—moved to arrest Khrushchev.
The Soviet government went limp the instant top man Khrushchev lost contact amid the sudden coup.
"We need to figure out what's happening before we do anything."
But Khrushchev's camp wasn't totally powerless.
His heir apparent, Kozlov, was still in play.
From KGB HQ, Kozlov frantically phoned around for troop support.
Defense Minister Malinovsky refused first.
"Troops cannot be mobilized."
Kozlov fumed at the stonewalling.
"Who the hell does the Soviet military answer to?"
"Comrade Secretary. The army has a duty to political neutrality."
It was lip service—a tacit nod to the coup.
Kozlov ordered Moscow Military District Commander Ivan Kolesnikov to mobilize, but he sided with the coup too.
Kozlov tried spreading word to reachable party members in a pinch, but it fell flat.
"Comrade Secretary. No one—no one—is backing us."
"It's over."
Soon after, with coup troops swarming KGB HQ, Kozlov couldn't hold out.
At the same time, Khrushchev—surrounded by coup soldiers—was dragged to a conference room.
Inside sat men he'd considered friends.
Rage boiled over at the sight.
"I thought of you as friends, comrades. But you didn't feel the same. How could you do this to me?"
Khrushchev couldn't hide his betrayal toward the backstabbers.
"We're not your friends."
The plotters tore into Khrushchev's screw-ups, then announced they'd formally "relieved" him via Politburo meeting.
This wasn't Stalin's day—no executions.
Khrushchev and Kozlov got house arrest; other loyalists were demoted or purged.
The Soviet government spun it as Khrushchev stepping down over farm policy failures.
Officially, sure—but no one bought it.
Everyone knew it was a straight-up coup.
They all knew the truth but played dumb.
Who cared about swapping out an unpopular General Secretary?
Government, party, military—all acted like nothing happened.
But the coup's ripples weren't zero.
"Alright, let's tally up."
The military, having aided the coup, now presented the bill to the victors.