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19. The Battle of Sescastri

Stilin’s manuscript was not very well organised. Instead of a connected narrative, he seemed to have written about particular episodes at different times as the mood took him. These were generally bound together with white tape, or sometimes stapled, and all put together in a general heap. Some of the sheafs were yellowing and dog-eared. One was prominently labelled ‘SESCASTRI’. I took it from the pile and began to read.

We joined the Red Army as it finally approached the borders of Twentyland. As it became clear that the Germans were going to lose the war, the Resistance had gathered itself for a new effort. If the weakened Germans could be thrown out by Dubitanian efforts, a measure of independence might be achieved and Russian influence limited. It would also be no small thing for national pride to be able to say that we had freed ourselves, instead of simply being assimilated by another bloated empire.

The surviving members of the Twenty found that they now had renewed support. Many who had previously despaired took heart; others prudently calculated that joining the resistance now would give them a stronger position in the post-war nation. Moreover, the Germans, weakened by the removal of every man they could spare to fight the Russians, looked increasingly vulnerable.

A great uprising was planned and carefully timed; when we rolled into Andrania with the Red Army, we found that Nipoli was already in the hands of the Twenty and the Germans were keeping up only a last stubborn resistance in the suburbs of Andra, which they abandoned at our approach. Twentyland was a geographical reality again. Obertin, Tabula, and Hofstadt met us on the road and we all entered the city together in triumph, with cheering crowds on every street. We set up a base in the foyer of the grand Municipal Hall of Andra, the only part of the building still intact; the retreating Germans had vengefully attempted to destroy it with explosives. The first evening was given over to celebration, but after that we ran into trouble.

In Sescastri, a whole range of different groups had come together to rise against the Nazis; democrats, Royalists, ethnic and religious parties were all represented. Naturally members of the Twenty played the leading role. With weapons they had brought out of hiding, improvised or stolen, these heroic partisans had actually succeeded in displacing the demoralised Nazis, taking control of the centre and East of the city. Obertin and our other colleagues urged the Russians now to lose no time in pressing forward to reinforce them. Larvartin, to all our astonishments, opposed this.

Obertin and Tabula assumed at first that Larvartin wanted the resistance to have time to take full control of the capital before the Russians arrived; they assured him that Sescastri would be completely out of Nazi hands within twenty-four hours, but stressed that there were great risks involved and that it was imperative the Russians got on the road as soon as possible. But that was not the way Larvartin was thinking. The rebels, he said were not the true champions of the people of Twentyland, but the undigested remains of reactionary Dubitania. These people were as much the enemies of Twentyland as the Germans, and if the two were at each other’s throat, we should not intervene until they had finished. Hofstadt said nothing to this: he simply left the camp and went to join the socialist Resistance in Livorin with a group of his personal allies and friends. Obertin and Tabula remonstrated with Larvartin, but could not shift him.

For their part, the Russian commanders said they planned to move forward immediately, whatever the locals thought about it. But Larvartin told them that he was acting on Comrade Stalin’s personal instructions; he produced an envelope which he said contained specific guidance; no one was to advance on Sescastri until he, Larvartin, was satisfied that the time was right. The Russians were not really convinced by this, but there was just enough doubt in their minds to make them decide to wait a little longer. After all, it was nothing to them if the Germans and Dubitanians fought among themselves for a while.

The next day the rebels succeeded in ejecting the Germans from Sescastri completely, and even captured a few slightly damaged tanks. The German forces fell back on Belparica. For a day, no-one moved. In Andra, Obertin and Tabula desperately tried to persuade the Russians to move forward, but their efforts were cancelled out by Larvartin, who continued to insist that the time was not right. The Russians had requested clarification from Moscow, but since this was allegedly a matter of personal instructions from Stalin, only Stalin could give this, and for the moment he failed to do so. Tabula obtained advice from his British contacts, but this was a tactical mistake; the Russians raised their eyebrows; maybe Larvartin was right, they thought, and settled more firmly in Andra than before.

The Germans were now being reinforced by others who had evacuated from Yugoslavia. They noticed the Russians’ loss of momentum, and smarting at their expulsion by ordinary citizens, launched a counter-attack on Sescastri. It began with a prolonged bombardment which smashed many of the city’s great buildings, previously undamaged, and forced the Resistance into what shelter they could find. Desperate messages were sent to the Russians asking for their immediate assistance.

On the second day of what was now the full-scale Battle of Sescastri, Obertin left Andra in disgust and hurried back to the capital to give what help he could; Tabula tried to keep up the pressure on the Russians. They now received a message from Stalin; they were not to hesitate, it said, but should press ahead as Comrade Larvartin instructed. Surely, insisted Tabula, this was clear – they must press ahead as soon as possible. No, said Larvartin; read the message carefully; they were to press ahead as he instructed, and only as he instructed. And he instructed them to remain in Andra for the time being. The Russians shrugged and sent a further request for clarification.

In Sescastri, the Resistance fought valiantly, but ordinary men and women armed with knives and Molotov cocktails were ultimately no match for German troops with tanks and machine guns. The Germans took their time, advancing systematically street by street, leaving no building standing and no man, woman or child alive.

Now at last the Russians decided to move forward, but they moved slowly and cautiously and instead of the main Fergastri road, they took the slower route via Nivilli. In Nivilli they paused again for another twenty-four hours, hoping that further clarification might now arrive; then they moved on again, reaching the outskirts of Sescastri the following day. At that point they came into contact with some lightly-armed German forces, and halted once more. The Germans had thrown a cordon round the entire city to block off the Resistance’s escape. By now they had reduced most of the city to ruins, and the shattered remnants of the Resistance were pinned down in a tiny area of the eastern suburbs.

Now at last Larvartin said the Russians might advance; when they did so the Germans fell back on Belparica again without attempting to defend the wreck of Sescastri.

I don’t think anything contributed so much to Larvartin’s unpopularity as his betrayal of Sescastri. Until the terrible battle began, the city had been relatively intact; afterwards two-thirds of the population lay dead in the streets and most of the buildings had been pounded to rubble. He was so unpopular at first that even the Russians felt they had to install someone more neutral as Prime Minister. Of course, his actions were entirely consistent with the principle he followed throughout his career: that it is more important to eliminate one’s rivals than one’s enemies.

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