I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 70

After the Southern Group Army retreated massively from the Eastern Front, the Soviet Army was able to gather a huge strategic reserve force again by cleaning up the front line.

During the debate on where to deploy this newly formed reserve front army, the strategic reserve of the Soviet Army, I noticed something.

A terrible problem that would bother the Soviet Army and the people for a while.

We were able to deal with the problems that the Soviet Union had experienced in actual history quickly with my future knowledge, swift response, and bureaucracy grinding.

But this butterfly effect caused an unexpected problem in a completely different place.

“No, Marshal Zhukov. Why do you look so gloomy?”

As the Southern Front was divided into the Balkan Front, the Carpathian Front, the Caucasus Front, and the Southwestern Front Army and came under Stavka’s direct command, Zhukov was able to step down from his position of being responsible for the largest unit of the Soviet Army.

Zhukov, who came to the center, was now virtually acting as the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Army without a position, and began to lead the war in coordination with Vasilevsky, who was performing the duties of chief of staff instead of Shaposhnikov, whose condition was getting worse.

He asked me when I saw him frowning even though nothing was wrong. Zhukov blushed unexpectedly. 

He had such an overwhelming jawline and a masculine appearance, but he shouldn’t blush when he heard my question…

“Ah… It’s nothing. Comrade Secretary General.”

“It seems like something is wrong. What is it? What’s the problem?”

Zhukov, who was hesitating, had to confess the truth.

“I… That is… I have a cavity…”

“What? A cavity? How old are you to get a cavity?”

“…I’m sorry.”

Some of the generals gasped when I retorted in surprise.

Do you guys have cavities too? Is this Stavka or the 4th elementary school in Moscow, class 2-3? Aren’t you ashamed of your age?

“Don’t you all brush your teeth before bed? Ew, gross. Don’t come near me!”

“Well… That is, I…”

No, I think I knew without him saying it. 

Zhukov tried to sneakily hide the American Coca-Cola bottle on his desk, but he couldn’t avoid my eyes.

Well, it was a well-known fact that Zhukov liked cola. 

In the actual history of 1944, Zhukov tasted Coca-Cola at a meeting with the Allied leaders and became so addicted to cola that he secretly contacted the United States to smuggle it.

I knew very well that he received a special cola made with a transparent color so that he wouldn’t be branded as a pro-Western reactionary who got hooked on American drinks. 

At least in the actual history.

The Soviet Union now was importing chocolate, candy, cola, and other snacks by the container through Lend-Lease from the United States for the welfare of the frontline soldiers. 

Because we defended Ukraine, food was relatively less scarce, and what we chose instead of ordinary food for the people was sweet snacks.

Sweet foods had a clear effect of enhancing human happiness, and cola, which gave calories and happiness quickly to the soldiers who needed a lot of calories from working and fighting hard on the front line, was a very useful item. 

When I was in the army, I was happy with just choco pies and Matsta…

Anyway, Zhukov, who had tried one by one of the snacks that were delivered, had already gotten used to cola and got a cavity. 

No matter how much of a soldier you are, aren’t you ashamed of being a marshal and having a sweet tooth?

“Comrade Secretary General, the truth is that not only Marshal Zhukov, but also… we have received reports that the incidence of cavities has increased on the front line. After the distribution of American snacks, the proportion of soldiers receiving dental treatment in the field has increased…”

“Sigh…”

I lost my words.

***

‘There is no doubt that the Americans are evil reactionaries…’

Private Nikolai couldn’t say anything.

As sweet foods were distributed in piles to the soldiers, there were a lot of soldiers who got cavities in the barracks. 

Nikolai was one of them.

The first dental treatment he ever received was a huge shock to him. 

Anesthetics and painkillers were scarce even in field hospitals or for seriously injured soldiers, so patients who had cavities or extractions did not receive enough painkillers.

“Ughhh…”

“Ugh? Ugh… Uh… Ah…”

Nikolai’s squadmates were in a similar situation. 

They were all hooked on eating American chocolate and ‘marshmallowsha’, and thus they all got one or two cavities, depending on the individual.

When Ivan, who was the first to go and get his tooth pulled, came back and groaned in pain, the squadmates refused to get dental treatment in fear, but the higher-ups made it mandatory for all soldiers to get dental check-ups from the military dentist after realizing the seriousness of the cavity problem.

The squadmates were writhing on the barracks floor, pressing their sore cheeks to the ground, trying to disperse the pain that was coming. 

Ivan, who had received dental treatment a while ago, was laughing at his comrades who were squirming on the floor, thanks to his slightly relieved pain.

“Hehehehe, you should have gone sooner… Huhuk…”

And he too gasped as he touched his sore spot while laughing.

Of course, some soldiers still couldn’t give up the sweetness of chocolate.

They made fires with fuel from various places and made straws with ladles to melt chocolate and suck it. 

The soldiers who had experienced the horror of dental treatment gave away their rationed chocolate for a much cheaper exchange rate, such as a few cigarettes or a pair of thick socks, and these chocolate fanatics succeeded in getting more chocolate than before.

Some soldiers even stood in military court for stealing some military fuel or dismantling mines and using the explosives inside as fuel to make hot chocolate… But as the old saying goes, when the top makes a policy, the bottom makes a countermeasure, and the soldiers somehow consumed something sweet.

Nikolai didn’t smoke and he happened to have a few pairs of socks left, so he managed to exchange them all for chocolate.

He collected all the rationed chocolates that his squadmates had refused and ate hot chocolate every day. 

One day, Nikolai felt a sharp pain in his tooth that had already been treated by the dentist.

“Huhuk…!”

“No, Sergeant, do you have another cavity?”

After the storm of extraction had passed, the human worms who had been writhing in pain on the barracks floor were back to their normal selves. 

They grabbed Nikolai by his cheeks and dragged him to the military dentist.

Nikolai resisted strongly, but he couldn’t suppress the majority effectively since his nose was already broken. 

How dare they do this to their squad leader? 

He thought that, but he couldn’t open his mouth.

“Ughh! Ugh…!”

“Hahaha, Sergeant! If you keep avoiding dental treatment, you might suffer more later! Let’s go to the military dentist quickly!”

‘No, you bastards! Just leave me alone!’

Of course, the squadmates either pretended not to hear or ignored Nikolai’s inner scream.

They didn’t hear it in the first place.

As they dragged him into the field clinic, a female soldier at the reception looked at him squirming.

“What are you here for?”

“Well, our squad leader got a ca! vi! ty! again, can you believe it? Hahahahaha!”

“Really? How did that happen? He already had one tooth pulled out before.”

The female soldier giggled. 

Her dark brown eyes disappeared between her eyes that curved like crescent moons, and her plump peach-colored cheeks turned red. 

Hahaha, he got another cavity? 

The dentist is busy right now, so you’ll have to wait a few minutes.

Nikolai forgot what he was going to say.

“Ka…ti…a Pa…blovna?”

“Yes? What did you say?”

The squadmates who had forced him to sit on the waiting chair left him with a smirk. But Nikolai lost interest in them.

The female administrative soldier who was sitting in front of the clinic, Katia Pavlovna, peeked into the dentist’s office and then walked over to Nikolai with quick steps.

‘No, no. No.’

Nikolai waved his hands, and she smiled with her eyes that looked like crescent moons. But Katia Pavlovna was bored with her reception work, so she chattered away with her bird-like voice.

“It’s so boring to see only patients every day. They all come here holding something and whine for some medicine that will make them not hurt. The dentist says do this or do that, but I think he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I heard some soldiers calling him a quack, you know?”

Nikolai was not very good at talking in front of women, and he couldn’t speak because of the pain, so he just nodded while looking at her brown eyes and her shiny brown bob hair.

“Oh! The treatment is over. You can go in now!”

She laughed again, as if something was so funny. How old was she? Did she just finish 10th or 11th grade?

The Secretary General said that boys and girls were the future of the nation and strictly prohibited the conscription of minors. 

So even if she was an administrative soldier, she must have been an adult if she was working as a soldier near the front line. 

But if he looked at her innocent and naive smile, he couldn’t tell how old she was. Was she just going through puberty? 

He could guess her slender figure under the oversized military uniform that was bigger than her body.

Nikolai had such trivial thoughts as he sat on the dental chair with his mouth open.

The dentist, who had examined his mouth thoroughly, looked puzzled. 

Then he called out to Katia outside.

“Hey! Administrative soldier! This guy… Can you bring me his chart?”

“Yes!”

There was a rustling sound outside for a moment, and then she brought a piece of board with some papers attached to it. When their eyes met, she giggled again and ran out. 

The dentist looked at Nikolai, who was staring blankly at her back, and snickered.

He looked at the chart again and his face became more serious.

“Nikolai Sergeant? Open your mouth again.”

He closed his mouth as if his jaw was going to fall off, but then he opened it as wide as he could. Aaahhh… The dentist examined his teeth carefully and then said something shocking.

“It looks like you had a healthy tooth pulled out instead of a cavity. Hahat?”