Olt River Massacre

As the Great War raged, the Holy Roman Empire's fight against the Communist International was not supported by all Imperial citizens, especially among the lower class in the Empire, whose rights seemed to wane with each passing day. Although it was true that the Commissariat had cells of partisan plants embedded across the empire, much of the subversive activity and communist sympathies were organic in nature. Although human rights had certainly improved in many parts of the HRE, not all member states treated their low-born citizens with the same respect or opportunities awarded to those with noble blood. Throughout 1939, the HRE found itself dealing with a worrying number of railway attacks in the Balkans, in particular from these partisan actors who had organized themselves into a guerrilla cell known as the Partidul Național Țărănesc, or National Peasants Party.

These partisans, consisting mostly of Transylvanian commoners, had mounted a surprising level of resistance against Imperial forces, with a focus mostly on sabotaging strategic infrastructure across the empire. Despite their often violent guerrilla tactics, the members were particularly concerned with minimizing the loss of civilian life, as they only wished to attack the state and not what they viewed to be their future comrades. These attacks were successful and consistent enough to warrant an extreme response by the Imperial Geheimdienst, which began a serious investigation into their activities in July of 1939. However they initially found little success in the endeavor, as the decentralized nature of the organization made their activities and plans difficult to track.

In late November, a breakthrough was made in the investigation. The Peasants Party planned an attack on a train shipping Imperial armor down to the recently opened front with the Byzantines along the Transylvanian border. The bombing was scheduled for December 3rd, so Imperial central intelligence quickly forwarded the attack plans to Geheimdienst agents active in Transylvania on November 25th, which gave them a little over a week to plan their response.

Although it remains unclear what prompted this course of action, on the morning of December 3rd, the train carrying Imperial armor had its departure time swapped with a passenger train carrying 438 civilians. The agents, whose names were left out of the official report, ordered local troops to remain on standby. They made no efforts to apprehend the partisans in the lead up to the attack, nor did they do anything about the bombs on the tracks. Around noon, as the train was crossing a bridge over the Olt River, the bombs exploded, dooming all of the passengers on board. Only then did the Geheimdienst task force descend on the scene, apprehending all suspected insurgents in a 5 kilometer radius. Reports of the incident in Imperial media condemned it as an act of terror on the part of the partisans, sparking outrage across the empire, and undermining the principles of the National Peasants Party. Public sentiment for the partisans in Transylvania had been permanently muddied by the incident as well. Although not the sole reason for its passage, the Olt River Massacre, as it came to be known, was cited by Imperial politicians as one of the many reasons for their decision to suspend Habeas Corpus within 50 meters of all rail lines, effective on December 31st of 1939.