Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (1890–1986), Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. Molotov positions of diplomacy for much of that time, eventually become the Foreign Commissar of the Soviet Union, holding the position from 1939 through 1949, including World War II. He lent his name to a non-aggression pact forged between the USSR and Nazi Germany in 1939.

Molotov fell out of Stalin's favor in 1949, losing the Foreign Commissar position and being gradually frozen out of Stalin's inner circle. Upon Stalin's death in 1953, Molotov nonetheless remained a staunch and vocal supporter of Stalin until his own death in 1986.

Molotov was known for his ability to suppress any expression of emotion in diplomatic negotiations.

Vyacheslav Molotov in The Valley-Westside War
In an alternate where a nuclear war erupted in 1967, Vyacheslav Molotov was the Soviet Union representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency well into 1967.

Liz Mendoza discovered this fact while reviewing old periodicals. In the home timeline, Molotov had been indeed appointed to the IAEA in 1960, but was removed from that position (and from all other public positions) and expelled from the Communist Party in 1961. Her parents realized Molotov's continued presence at the IAEA in this alternate meant its "breakpoint" was before 1967. This fact also suggested that the Soviet leadership had been more hardline than it was at that point in the home timeline, and so the Soviet Union was probably responsible for starting the war.

Vyacheslav Molotov in Worldwar
Vyacheslav Molotov (1890-1986) was one of the central figures immediately before during, and after the Race Invasion of Tosev 3. A negotiator infamous for his ability to keep an absolutely neutral countenance, Molotov went from Foreign Commissar of the Soviet Union during the reign of Joseph Stalin to succeeding Stalin as General Secretary of the Communist Party.

The Race Invasion
In this capacity he was responsible for negotiating with his country's friends and foes. In 1939, he helped forge a non-aggression pact with Germany. In 1941 and '42, he negotiated with the Allies after Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Then in 1942, with the arrival of the Race, Molotov found himself negotiating with all human powers actively fighting the Race, as well as with the Race itself.

Shortly after the invasion, Molotov traveled to Atvar's bannership, the 127th Emperor Hetto, where he was the first to inform Atvar that humans did not organize themselves politically into empires only, but into a variety of other political systems little understood by the Race and collectively referred to as not-empires. He relished the opportunity to horrify Atvar by admitting that his government had come to power by murdering an emperor, a crime of unspeakable horror to the Race (though it was attempted, and failed, on one occasion in their history).

Molotov also attended Big Five meetings in London, met Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, attended an Anglo-American-Soviet summit in New York City, and held a clandestine meeting with Joachim von Ribbentrop in the North Sea. As vice-chairman of the War Commissariat, he also played a role in the planning of the USSR's strategy in resisting the Race within its own territory.

The Peace of Cairo
Molotov represented the Soviet Union at the Peace of Cairo in 1944, when Atvar agreed to treat with representatives of the Big Five diplomatically. Molotov generally was as aggressive as possible in assuring a favorable agreement for his country, but he did not oppose the Race's colonization of Poland for fear that, if left in human hands, this might precipitate another war between his nation and Germany. To this end he also opposed his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop's attempts to force the Race to yield Poland to Germany.

General Secretary
When Stalin died, Molotov became General Secretary of the Soviet Union, a position he held when the Colonization Fleet arrived. He served in that capacity for many years, despite an attempt in 1963 by NKVD chief Lavrenti Beria to launch a coup against him. During this coup, Molotov was saved only by Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukov. For several years, he was indebted to Zhukov and often felt he continued to serve as General Secretary only at the general's sufferance. However, though Molotov feared Zhukov might attempt to supplant him, the latter never did.

Molotov supported Mao Tse-Tung's resistance to the Race in China, though not to the full extent Mao wanted him to. Molotov also arranged for an attack on Australia that consisted of missles armed with warheads full of ginger, which caused Lizards under the blast radius to become both inebriated and sexually active. As Fleetlord Atvar was present at the time, this created a small scandal. The Soviet Union's role in this attack--more a prank, though it was useful as a test of Australia's anti-missile defenses--was apparently never discovered.

In 1965, Molotov was approached by German Chancellor Heinrich Himmler (through Ambassador Paul Schmidt) about attacking Poland, expelling the Race, and dividing the country. Himmler was quite convinced that the Race did not have the will to fight back. Molotov quickly realized that Himmler was operating from his Nazi ideology rather than from facts. He knew that the Race had the raw power to defeat such an invasion, and punish the invaders. Moreover, Molotov had not changed his position a generation earlier at Cairo--reinforced in 1962 when the Colonization Fleet arrived--that it was preferable to have the Race on the USSR's Polish border rather than the Germans. He declined the offer, and made sure that news of the meeting got back to the Race.

Himmler's sudden death seemed to have resolved the crisis, until Ernst Kaltenbrunner was announced as his successor. For Molotov, this was terrible news, as Kaltenbrunner was just as rabid a Nazi as Himmler. Kaltenbrunner renewed Himmler's offer, and again Molotov declined.

The Race-German War of 1965 and the Treaty of Moscow
Almost immediately, Kaltenbrunner launched an invasion of Poland. The resulting war proved a disaster to Germany, which vindicated Molotov, but the use of atomic bombs by both sides in Poland did environmental damage to Soviet territory, and the crippling of Germany did much to advantage the Race, and in turn disadvantage the Soviet Union, which now had to face the Lizards as the dominant force in Europe, though they had previously had only a peripheral presence on the continent.

Molotov did play a part in bringing the war to an end, when Ambassador Paul Schmidt, now acting under Walter Dornberger (who succeeded Kaltenbrunner, a casualty of the war) asked Molotov to broker peacer. Molotov brought Schmidt and the Race's ambassador to the Soviet Union, Queek, together in the Kremlin.

The Warren Crisis
Later, when relations between the Race and United States suddenly and unexpectedly soured (the Race had learned President Earl Warren had ordered an attack on the Race's Colonization Fleet in 1962 that killed thousands of Race civilians, though Molotov was not aware of it at this time), Molotov, fearful that the USSR could become the sole free power on the planet, reluctantly made it clear to the Race that he would stand with the U.S. if the Race attacked it. Fear of the possible damage both countries could do to the Race in such a war helped spur the Race to compromise. Molotov attended Warren's funeral in Little Rock and shared his condolences with Warren's successor Harold Stassen.

Death and Legacy
Prior to Molotov's death in 1986, he was the last surviving leader of the first generation of Tosevites to deal with the Race. The Red Rocket Force named its first interstellar starship the Molotov in his honor, and a great compliment was paid to the late Commissar in 2031 when former Fleetlord Atvar, recalled to Home, hoped that the starship would not cause the Race as much trouble as its namesake had.

Vyacheslav Molotov in The War That Came Early
Vyacheslav Molotov was a prominent figure within the Soviet Union and without. For example, the Molotov cocktail was a last resort weapon used by the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Nationalists christened the weapon "Molotov cocktail" to draw attention to the fact that the Republicans had strongly communist leanings and received substantial support from the USSR. Prominent Republican leader (and fervent communist) Magdalena Flores went by the nickname La Martellita.

Vyacheslav Molotov in Joe Steele
Vince Scriabin, known to everyone as the Hammer (d. 1953) was a close ally of United States President Joe Steele. Like Steele, Scriabin's family were immigrants from the Russian Empire. Scriabin saw to it that Steele's rival for the Democratic nomination, Franklin D. Roosevelt, died in a fire in July, 1932. With Roosevelt gone, Steele won the nomination and then the Presidency in short order, and began implementing his authoritarian policies in the United States. The Hammer was one of those responsible for seeing Steele's policies implemented, including purges of the military and the Supreme Court.

Steele died in 1953, shortly after he was re-elected to a sixth term. A power struggle erupted between Scriabin, President John Nance Garner, and GBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Vyacheslav Molotov in Southern Victory
Vyacheslav Skryabin (1890-1925), known as the Hammer, was one of the leaders of the socialists in Tsaritsyn, their last holdout in the Russian Civil War (1917-1926) before the forces of Tsar Mikhail II defeated them and restored the Russian Empire.