At a first glance, this is an alt-history novel, but in reality, it is a postmodernist satire. Written by a Ukrainian author (1957-2008), this book is considered the first Ukrainian alt-history SF, written during 1995-1997 the English title can be translated as 鈥楶rocession in Moscow鈥�. This version is an audiobook, narrated by late Ukrainian rock musician .
However, if one takes the story as a serious attempt of showing what-if then it ought to be a 鈥榩roof鈥� for Russian propaganda claims that Ukraine needs to be 鈥渄e-Nazied鈥�, for the plot is that Hitler agreed to support Ukrainian nationalists and they quickly formed an army that was essential in taking Moscow and throwing the Soviets behind the Ural mountains.
The story starts with the protagonist, an officer of the Ukrainian army Dmytro Levytsky returning to his hometown Chernivtsi to visit his father in October 1941 before traveling to Moscow, where on November 7th should be held a joint Victory Parade of Axis powers. The date alone should strike a history fan, for there was and it should look highly unlikely that Axis would have chosen such a date. Together with using Ukrainian 芦谐邪褉邪蟹写禄 (ok) as a translation of German 鈥榟eil鈥� or naming Hitler by his would-be name-patronymic 鈥楢dolf Adeloisovych鈥� at the beginning clearly shows that it isn鈥檛 a serious attempt to reconstruct would could have happened, but a mockery of alt-history genre as such.
There maybe a few words about alt-history in post-Soviet countries. During the USSR every school boy or girl was taught the history of the USSR, which despite the title, was a very slightly modified Russian imperial narrative, as it was formed in the 19th century. Therefore, after the fall of the USSR, all former republics except for Russia had to slowly form / return to own historic narratives. And because these new narratives were just popularized, it was hard to start what-ifs, for esp. for older generations these new narratives were already what-ifs to what they learnt in schools and alt-history thus hasn鈥檛 been in demand. Later, in the 2000s onward in Russia the genre morphed to a quite strange beast 鈥� novels about 锌芯锌邪写邪薪褑褘 ('those, who were accidentally dropped into the past鈥�) of two main varieties: [1] a modern Russian drops to the WW2 and singlehandedly helps the Soviets to win the war, e.g. by supplying drawings of AK-47 assault rifle; and [2] a modern Russian drops to the 19th or early 20th century to modernize Russian empire and prevent Bolshevik putsch. There are scores and scores of such novels, usually quite weak and filled to the brims with Russian chauvinism.
So, back to the book. It isn鈥檛 a single continuous narrative, but a score of sketches, written in different styles, from a group of Axis officers in train鈥檚 coupe headed to Moscow (German, Romanian, Hungarian and Ukrainian) who discuss how each of their countries will create a great European empire while belittling an officer, who just left the coupe, and this repeats with different speakers and different officers leaving. Then suddenly we shift to Stalin鈥檚 bunker, where he finds out that some of his comrades left him and quickly turned anti-communists, while others are still with him and those others he decides to kill in advance 'just in case'. Just to give the 鈥榝eel鈥� of the style, here is my translation of a small piece with comments.
[Stalin]: Prepare three sabotage groups, no, four, or wait. Beria - one, Voroshilov - two, Budenny - three, Molotov - four, Khrushchev - five ... 鈥擝ut Khrushchev has not yet fled, Comrade Stalin, 鈥� the general interrupted the leader. 鈥擬aybe before he escapes, we should declare him a Ukrainian spy*? Stalin asked. 鈥擳here are already documents, witnesses and an arrested radio operator of the spy Khrushchev, who acted on the instructions of Ukrainian nationalists among the Soviet government under the pseudonym "Corn"**. Arrest? 鈥擨mmediately! 鈥� shouted Stalin. - I suspected him for a long time. Ha! Bold Nikita! Or like the khokhols*** say Fox Mykyta****? Khrush! May beetle! And I think to myself, why on May Day parade he wore a Ukrainian embroidered shirt? And he was not ashamed to trample our mausoleum with his Little Russian boots, oiled with tar! Ours, my with Lenin*!
* While born on the territory of modern Russia, Khrushchev started his party and political career in Donbas industrial region (Ukraine), has married a Ukrainian and therefore is viewed by a lot of Russians as a Ukrainian. ** After Stalin鈥檚 death Khrushchev headed the USSR and attempted a lot of quick fixes, including a shift from wheat to corn in the agriculture *** khokhol 鈥� a slur for Ukrainian **** a wordplay 鈥� Bold Nikita sounds similar to Fox Mykyta, a satiric poem of . in Ukrainian khrush means chafer, which is called a May beetle in Russian. * after Stalin鈥檚 death in 1953 and to 1960 Stalin鈥檚 mummy lay beside Lenin in the mausoleum.
The book gets weirder as the story progresses, quoting from the school review of this very novel, from a schoolbook on history from the 1970s, etc. etc. There are a lot of things that need a context, which was available o the majority of readers in the 90s, but which is less graspable by newer generations, like describing heroic actions of young Ukrainian boy scouts against the Soviets in a style parodying pompous propaganda of heroic actions of young Soviet pioneers against Nazi.