You are the General Secretary, the highest leader of the capital-P Party. It is neither fully capitalist nor socialist but is a little of each as benefits the executives of the dictatorship.
Beneath you are your chief female protégés who lead the power centers within the power center that is the Party.
There’s the Second Secretary of the Party Secretariat. In the Party Secretariat, the General Secretary (you) appoints the very highest officeholders, the Second Secretary appoints the somewhat high officeholders and three ordinary members of the Party Secretariat appoint the slightly high officeholders.
There’s the Politburo of the nine most senior Party members. In theory, they supervise even you, as they appoint the Secretariat. In reality, since they in turn are appointed by the Party Congress who all owe their jobs to you, they too obey you in particular and the Secretariat in general. The Politburo has you and the Second Secretary as members. But since you appointed a fierce rival of the Second Secretary as a member of the Politburo and let her pick four other Politburo members, you feel rather smug about your skill at divide and conquer. Neither the Second Secretary nor the Politburo leader would dare launch a coup, not when it was unclear who was stronger of the two.
A third protégée was a Field Marshal, not of the military but of the Secret Police. As the only Field Marshal of the Secret Police, she was of course its Director. She was a member of the Politburo.
A fourth protégée was another Field Marshal who headed the Party’s High Military Committee. All 5 members of the Committee were picked personally by you, were generals and had powers over the military so broad that only the General Secretary could cancel their personnel appointments. The only catch was that the Secret Police sought to wield the Military Police as a tool to grab control of the Military from its officers and for itself. Thus just as the Second Secretary/Politburo Leader head each other’s fiercest opposition faction, so too do the Secret Police Director and the Military Chairwoman.
Finally there was the ninth member of the Politburo, with no power base in the Secretariat, the Politburo or the Secret Police. In fact, she hadn’t even had an official government job. She was a young billionaire heiress used by the Party as an intermediary to the business community at home and abroad.
As the five women offered their deepest sympathies, it was clear that the balance of power that you had carefully constructed would be unbalanced. Your small family had died out aside from you. Your house servants were inevitably shuffled off to better things once they proved their worth. Your best asset was the Party and whichever Party Leader was entrusted with your care would have to be most trustworthy. The balance of power would come to an end and you would going forward have a true second in command, someone so important that she would clearly be your successor. You would have to choose your caretaker carefully. After thinking it over, you pick…
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