Chapter 59: The Calm Composure of the French Banner-Men

With immense willpower, Koman dragged his gaze away from the luscious fruits hanging on the slender branches. Yet, feeling aroused, he could only conclude that youth truly had its drawbacks, forcing him to mentally engage in various political debates just to distract himself.

He was still holding the Gulag’s administrative regulations, obtained at a German prisoner-of-war factory in Sverdlovsk, otherwise known as Yekaterinburg. The document turned out to be far less important than he had imagined; after all, who couldn't draft a set of administrative regulations?

First-hand observation was an absolute necessity. Knowing that seeing is believing when it came to the operation of POW factories, Koman had delayed his schedule in Sverdlovsk by a few days.

While official regulations were dead letters, practical matters like organizational models and labor allocation had already been dutifully recorded in Koman’s diary.

The delay also accounted for the time it took Pavlov to communicate with his superiors and clear Koman’s proposed trip to Central Asia. Since he had already inspected Sverdlovsk, proposing an inspection of Central Asia naturally followed.

That was simply how bottom lines were breached; after all, Koman wasn't asking to inspect POW camps in Siberia or the polar regions.

The request was ultimately approved by General Riasnoy, the top commander of the Gulag. This time, Koman’s stated justification was to study the Soviet historiography of national unity. He was always able to find a suitable pretense for his objectives, even if it meant exposing some supposedly classified French intelligence in the process.

For instance, he mentioned that four hundred thousand African service members had already secured the right to settle in mainland France, a development certain to provoke discontent among the domestic French population.

While France had a historical tradition of experimenting with various political theories, putting a theory into practice was an entirely different matter.

Although this was primarily De Gaulle’s promise, it was impossible for the French people not to harbor resentment.

Koman cared little for the opinions of the French public. To him, the united front value of the French nation paled in comparison to that of the Algerians, and the settlement of four hundred thousand French troops in the metropole served merely as an excuse to facilitate his inspection of Central Asia.

Successfully executing de-radicalization in Central Asia was a milestone event of profound positive significance to the Soviet Union—a view naturally shared by the vast majority of Soviet cadres, including Pavlov.

Therefore, when Koman expressed interest in his own mental definition of de-radicalization—specifically, the eradication of the Religion of Peace—Pavlov was delighted, sensing in Koman a latent potential for atheism.

"Naturally, one must begin at the educational level," Pavlov explained enthusiastically, detailing the Soviet efforts toward de-radicalization. "Religious content was excised, replaced with 'scientific atheism' education, emphasizing that religion is the 'opium of the people.' Religious texts were burned, and propagation channels were severed. Church-donated lands were nationalized, cutting off the economic lifeline of the mosques, while traditional rural social structures favorable to the spread of religion were dismantled, weakening its influence over the peasantry."

Even if Pavlov had not personally implemented these measures, he had heard them described countless times by his comrades in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As for macroeconomic policies at the top levels, the Soviet government had abolished polygamy, child marriage, the veiling of women, and other traditional customs, banned the operation of religious courts, and replaced them with the Soviet legal system.

"Didn't they raise pigs in the mosques?" Koman asked skeptically. This wasn't the Soviet Union he thought he knew; the fact that Pavlov omitted such a symbolic event meant he was definitely holding something back.

"This... was merely an episode during the execution phase," Pavlov replied, looking slightly embarrassed. In truth, he didn't know; he had never paid attention to the specifics of that matter, and could only introduce it to Koman based on official policies and descriptions from his comrades. Having never heard of raising pigs in mosques, he steadied himself and said, "Still, you cannot deny that the methods worked."

"That is true," Koman nodded solemnly, determined to apply these methods to Algeria. "I imagine many countries will study Soviet-style experiences."

As a modernist believer, Koman held no aversion to the methods of atheist states. Adaptation was certainly required to fit the specific conditions of the North African colonies, rather than blind imitation.

On his first day in Tashkent, Koman focused purely on recovering from the exhaustion of the long train journey. Crossing the Ural Mountains did indeed bring a climate vastly different from the European part of the Soviet Union. No wonder that since the Tsarist era, these Russian bears had constantly pushed in every direction in search of a warm-water port.

In the evening, Koman set to summarizing the Soviet historiography of unity. The Soviet version was a history of Russification centered on the Russian people. Stalin had designated the Russians as the most outstanding among the Soviet nationalities, and backward nationalities were expected to learn the virtues of the Russian people to ultimately complete the formation of the Soviet nation.

Historiographies of unity existed in every country; only truly homogenous nation-states could afford to ignore them. America’s historiography of unity was clearly meant to bridge the divide between whites and blacks, though Koman could see the result: an absolute trainwreck. The rise of the Donald Trump phenomenon itself was proof of the American people's rejection of that particular brand of unity narrative.

It was equally certain that France distributing textbooks in Africa telling black people "We are all Gauls" was also part of a unity narrative.

More extreme attempts, such as Turkey going a step further and outright denying the existence of the Kurds by labeling them "Mountain Turks," proved even more perilous.

However, during the era of the Great Chanyu Erdogan, the concept of the "Mountain Turks" had utterly failed.

To be honest, it was doomed from the start—not merely due to Turkey's demographic proportions, but more crucially because the Kurds were a trans-border nation. Influenced by their kin in Syria and Iraq, the Kurds in Turkey were bound to be affected. This was not something the Turks could simply brush aside by closing their doors and talking to themselves about "Mountain Turks."

The Kurds within Turkey’s borders accounted for over one-fifth, nearly a quarter, of the national population. When combined with Kurds from other countries, they exceeded one-third of the Turkish population. How could any ordinary nation ever forcefully assimilate that?

"There are still too many Algerians. Thinning out their numbers wouldn't be a bad thing."

Koman had to consider the possibility of resorting to brute force against the Algerians. Drawing from his observations in the Soviet Union, he intended to use a combination of measures to keep Algeria anchored to France. If this territory remained un-independent, it would serve as France's springboard to control Africa; if it became independent, it would act as a fortress blocking France's control of the continent.

After a day of rest, Koman followed a Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs officer to observe German prisoners of war clearing wasteland. Win, and you were a noble Germanic, the finest race on earth; lose, and you were a pariah fighting American blacks for ecological niches in the cotton fields.

As he was thinking this, a POW clearing the land apparently failed to work efficiently enough and was promptly lashed with a whip by the supervising elderly Central Asian man. Koman offered a sincere, mocking smile. "I wonder who is better suited for cotton-picking: a Germanic or an American black slave?"

"Lieutenant Koman, are you engaging in racism?" asked Sokolova, a female officer from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, tilting her head as her voice flowed past his ear like pleasant music.

"No, no, no. The dog I keep is as black as they come," Koman replied with a smile, carrying the serene composure of the French colonial elite.