Chapter 61: The Defense of Saint Petersburg
A man sat in the trenches outside of Saint Petersburg cleaning his spectacles as he gazed through their lenses and towards the besieged city in the distance. After doing this, he looked down at his watch and noticed that the time had come.
He was quick to shift his gaze towards his fellow communist revolutionaries with an approving expression. Rallying them with a speech before giving them the order to charge the enemy defenses, which by now were so battered that they would crumble under the might of the next assault.
"Brothers of the proletariat! The bourgeoisie and their foolish pawns rest on the wealth which they have stolen from us all! They fight not for some noble cause like we do, but to defend their vile actions towards the people of Russia! Today we bring an end to the Tyranny of the Tsar and those wealthy industrialists who have made a fortune off of our labor! For the revolution! For Lenin!"
The man in question was quite to the contrary not a member of the working class despite pretending as much. But rather, he was a man who was born into a wealthy Jewish family from the region of Ukraine. He was, of course none other than Lev Davidovich Bronstein more popularly known by the name of Leon Trotsky.
He had personally chosen to lead the Siege of Saint Petersburg, hoping to achieve a great victory in the city, and in doing so, bring down the reign of the House of Romanov. No doubt entirely unaware that the Tsar and his family had already fled the city before his siege began.
It was a similar lack of intelligence that allowed him to be so confident. He had no idea that the Iron Brigade had arrived with a Regiment of 36 75mm modern field guns, as well as 100 machine guns which had been strategically placed throughout the city's defenses to ensure that not a single gap was available for the Bolshevik revolutionaries to make use of.
With his barrage having been concluded against the Loyalist defenders, now was the time to charge, and in doing so, end this war before it could continue any longer! With the blow of his whistle, Leon Trotsky announced the charge.
Tens of thousands of the Red Army's soldiers crawled out of the trenches and ran towards the city of Saint Petersburg and the defenses which the Loyalists had made around it. Trotsky himself smiled gleefully as he saw the overwhelming numbers of Bolshevik revolutionaries rush towards victory.
That is, until the unexpected happened.
If Bruno was aware that one of his most hated figures in history was standing in the opposite trench, observing the battle that was about to take place. Then he would have made capturing Trotsky a priority.