Struggle in Soviet Russia

The rainstorm is like weaving, and the sky is overcast like night.

Northwest of Moscow, at the intersection of Leningrad Boulevard and Volokolamsk Highway. From here, going straight to the northwest is the Leningrad Highway leading to Leningrad, and to the southeast, it connects with the first Tver. -Connected to Yam Street.

Just beside the open land on the north side of the fork, a black Moskvich car and three GAZ trucks with rear bucket tents parked on the side of the road.

Wearing a brown-green raincoat, Victor leaned against the car with his back expressionless, watching the soldiers coming off the truck, escorting the prisoners wearing black hoods from the truck and kneeling them. by the road.

There are a total of 6 prisoners to be executed here today, including Smagulov, the former director of the Lower Oguliki military warehouse, and the remaining five are all former staff members of the military warehouse.

From yesterday's arrest to today's sentence of death, the entire trial process did not exceed 6 hours. The reason why Victor appeared here was because Comrade Stalin personally called him and asked him to come over to supervise the execution of the death penalty.

Victor knew very well that this was Comrade Stalin’s deterrence against him. He was telling himself in this way that if the bombing of the Auguliki military warehouse was not handled well, the next batch of people who were shot could not be sure. He has his name.

"Comrade Colonel, all are ready!" The soldier escorted all six prisoners to the side of the road, and a second lieutenant who didn't even wear a raincoat ran over and saluted Victor.

Victor didn't even bother to speak, he just nodded and waved his hand again.

The second lieutenant saluted again, then turned and ran away, and gave the order to execute.

With a few shots, six corpses fell in the grass on the side of the road. Victor waited until the last corpse stopped twitching, then turned back to the car-for today's Victor, look at a dead person or something. , It can't constitute psychological pressure at all. Perhaps this is also a kind of well-informed one?

In the car, besides Varenka sitting in the front seat, there was a woman sitting in the back seat surprisingly.

The woman wore the uniform of the NKVD and a large brimmed hat on her head. Judging from her collar, she was obviously a captain.

This woman can be regarded as Victor's old acquaintance, oh, to be precise, his old subordinate, Sophia who worked with him when he was in Lviv.

Sofia used to work in the Ukrainian NKVD. She was injured in the Kharkov offensive campaign and had been recovering from the rear. Yesterday, she came to Moscow to accept the commendation from the Committee, and visited Victor by the way. She originally planned to return to the Stalingrad front line the day after tomorrow, but Victor stopped her and transferred it directly to the Internal Intelligence Service.

For Victor, the last two days have been a special period. It is obviously not a bad thing to have a few more comfortable people around him, not to mention that Sophia has rich experience in intelligence work, and such people will always use it.

"Go ahead," Victor let out a sigh of relief when the car started moving, and leaned his sour back directly into the backrest of the seat, then said to Sophia who was sitting next to him.

"Through yesterday’s half-day investigation, the relevant information provided by the Civil Police Headquarters includes the situation of 49 foreign personnel," Sophia looked at the documents in his hand and said, "Among these people, only two left yesterday, and the rest 37 people are still staying. The two people who left were verified by the Department of Transportation. One of them got on the train to Nizhny Novgorod and the other went to Ulyanovsk. The police in the two places have been contacted, and the person going to Ulyanovsk has been controlled, but there is no news from Nizhny Novgorod for the time being."

Victor nodded and asked, "Anything suspicious?"

Sophia shook his head and said: "Including the two suspects who left, all these foreigners have reasonable reasons for staying in Moscow. They all have letters of introduction issued by relevant departments, and those who visit relatives have proof materials provided by their relatives."

After a pause in her tone, she added: "If there is anything suspicious, it is this person..."

With that said, she handed the materials in front of Victor, pointed to a person above and said: "This person is here to visit relatives in Moscow, and the visitor is his brother, named Grigory Grigory. Vicki Dmitrenko. And this Dmitrenko, who worked in the Lower Oguliki military warehouse, was a cook in the warehouse area. He was also one of the dead in the explosion yesterday."

Victor took the material and took a closer look at the suspect on it.

"Are there more detailed materials? For this... Achim Dmitrenko." There was no detailed information about the suspect in this material, and he asked somewhat dissatisfied.

"This person only came to Moscow from Nizhny Tagil not long ago," Sophia said. "The ministry has already contacted Nizhny Tagil, and we have to wait for more specific information to be sent there."

Victor did not speak, he pursed his lips, and returned the materials in his hand to Sophia, then asked: "How is the situation on the Political Security Bureau?"

Sophia hesitated for a moment, and said, "It's not going well."

"Why?" Victor raised his brows and asked, "Isn't Comrade Stalin's reply already given to them? What are the questions?"

The situation of the Political Security Bureau is very special. Although it belongs to the leadership of the People's Committee of the Interior, its personnel relations are highly confidential and do not overlap with the personnel department of the Committee. Victor wants to investigate the people involved in the security work of the Oguliki military warehouse. First, he must figure out what talents are available, and this involves the personnel secrets of the Security Bureau. Therefore, before launching this investigation, he also specifically obtained the permission of Comrade Stalin.

"The Security Bureau has already provided a list of some personnel," Sophia said, closing the hair hanging from his hat, "but they refused to provide a list of the victims in the explosion. Comrade Getzmanov believes that we will doubt it. It is ridiculous that the target of the comrades is determined to sacrifice, so..."

Getzmanov, whose full name is Anatoly Anufriyevich Getzmanov, is the rank of Colonel in National Security, just like Viktor. In the State Political Security Bureau, he is not The identity of the director is only the first deputy, but because the post of director of the Political Security Bureau has been vacant for a long time, he is actually the direct person in charge of this department.

In Sofia’s remarks, Getzmanov’s position has been revealed. He believes that the guards who died in the bombing of the Lower Ogulki military warehouse should not be the subject of suspicion, so he refused to share the information of these people. Hand it over.

From a certain perspective, Getzmanov’s idea is also reasonable, at least human nature, but from a realistic perspective, this assumed view is very problematic. If this logic can say If it makes sense, is there any suicide attack in this world?

As far as personal feelings are concerned, Viktor can also understand Getzmanov’s ideas. After all, he is the head of the Political Security Bureau, and the NKVD’s investigation into the Political Security Bureau has already aroused dissatisfaction within the bureau. After all, there is no normal person in this world who likes to be the object of others' suspicion.

However, understanding belongs to understanding, and work belongs to work. When a guillotine is suspended above his head, what reason does Victor have to be emotional?

"Go to the Kremlin," Victor said directly to Varenka without a trace of expression on his face.

Now that he is going to the Kremlin, Victor’s purpose is not to go directly to Comrade Stalin to give a short report. He went to see Getzmanov. Yes, the headquarters of the Political Security Bureau is located in the Kremlin. The Palace Security Bureau has one office, which is also a manifestation of its particularity.

Since yesterday, with the establishment of two “red lines” in his residence and office, Victor also has the right to enter and leave the Kremlin directly, but his right does not mean that the person in his car also has this right. Therefore, when his car drove past the Kutafia Tower, it was still stopped by the guards. The tug on duty refused to give any accommodations and insisted that Sophia wait outside the tower and not allow her to enter the door.

The Kremlin's guards belonged to the Political Security Bureau. The news that Victor wanted to investigate the Political Security Bureau was spread yesterday, but what happened today is actually that he was targeted by others.

Regardless of the guard on duty, it is only a tug, but the requirements of others are in full compliance with the regulations. Sophia is indeed not allowed to enter the Kremlin, but in the past, the guards will also give a certain tolerance, such as inviting her to it. Waiting in the duty room for a while, instead of letting her go outside the tower to get in the rain.

Sitting in the car, Victor’s lungs almost exploded. The experience in his previous life has already told him what is meant by "Hell is good to see, and the little ghost is difficult to deal with." In most cases, the rules are the greatest.

Today’s matter, if he insisted on bringing Sophia in, he obviously broke the rules, but if he allowed Sophia to wait outside the palace gate and stand in the heavy rain, would he, the leader, do it in the future?

"I'll wait outside for a while," Sophia said, looking at Victor's iron-green face in the car, "Anyway, there is a raincoat on the car."

"Or, let's go back first and come back later." Varenka has been with Victor for so long, and it is natural to see that he is now on the verge of rage. It is not a wise decision to engage in affairs at the entrance of the Kremlin, he Said in a low voice.

Victor said nothing, he pushed the door and got out of the car and walked straight to the guardhouse of the tower.

The guard in the raincoat looked at him indifferently, let him walk into the guard room, picked up the phone, he was just performing his duties, and there was no need to worry about Victor complaining to anyone.