Struggle in Soviet Russia

However, in the mouth of Major Cherishev, Victor heard another version of the story.

According to the major, the actual situation in the Far East is more complicated than what Victor had heard. According to Cherishev, at least in Khabarovsk, a series of policies of General Apanashenko played a positive role. of.

As for Bolkov, the major did not think highly of him, because the first secretary of the Krai was a native of Khabarovsk. He was the real here before General Apanashenko came to the Far East." "The Tsar", among other things, he has to intervene in even some of the work of the NKVD.

In the Far East, existence like Bolkov is not a special phenomenon. It is so far away from Moscow that some things are not as simple as Moscow officials thought.

Cherishev said very vaguely, but Victor could still hear some problems from his vague hints.

"It seems that the comrade major still has something to hide from us." After sending Cherishev away, Sophia first commanded the two technicians who came with him, and made a radio wave to every room in the whole building. After confirming that there was no problem, he returned to Victor's study.

As a senior commander of the NKVD, the most basic vigilance is definitely there. Although Major Cherishev is a subordinate of Victor and a member of the committee, Victor, who has just arrived, will never trust anyone easily. Sophia organized the detection to make sure that there was no eavesdropping device installed in the room.

"Perhaps, the situation in the Far East is more complicated than we know." Victor sat behind his desk and lighted himself a cigarette. His face was hidden in the smoke. "However, that has nothing to do with us. There is no need for us to be involved in any relationship."

Sophia nodded, closed the door of the study, walked straight to the desk, dragged a chair next to him, and said, "I think there must be a wonderful story behind Cherishev’s three adjustments. It’s just that he now has doubts about us and is unwilling to tell his story. This may be a hidden danger for the development of our follow-up work."

Victor did not speak. His previous life experience told him that local work and central work are completely different things. In many cases, central work seems to be something that should be ordered and prohibited, but it may be a normal state in local work. Knowingly commits it. It is common to commit crimes against the wind.

However, Victor is not a member of the Supervisory Committee. The problems in local work are not under his control. No matter how complicated the situation in the Far East is, he does not want to intervene. The hidden Japanese intelligence network uncovered it, nothing more.

Anti-espionage work will never be as exciting as criminal investigation work. Searching for evidence and tracing clues is not that complicated. For spies, they must pretend to be ordinary people and not be caught. Anyone noticed an abnormality. Once there is a problem with this kind of costume and someone discovers something suspicious, his mission is over, because even if the anti-espionage person will not arrest him immediately, he will arrange a lot of manpower to stare at him firmly.

Especially in today’s Soviet Union, it is in a difficult period of war. Here, as long as anyone is suspected of being a spy or saboteur, even if there is no evidence to prove this, the Anti-Spy Bureau will arrest him first. Then go to find evidence.

So, the first thing Victor needs to do now is to find the suspicious person.

"Where are you going to start?" Seeing that he was unwilling to talk about the situation in the Far East, Sophia turned the subject away and asked.

Victor did not speak. He opened the desk drawer in front of him, took out a document from it, threw it directly in front of Sophia, and said: "Start from here, of course, the work to be done is more concealed. After all, this involves too much. people."

Sophia took the file, opened it, and looked at it.

The document is a piece of information provided by the Foreign Intelligence Agency, which records a list of "Belarusian elements" currently living in the territory of the Puppet Manchukuo, such as Harbin and Fengtian.

The so-called "Belarus" has nothing to do with Belarus. It refers to the members of the White Guards and their families who were exiled from the Soviet Union to Northeast China after the October Revolution in the Soviet Union, especially after the end of the civil war, or the landlords who leaned towards the White Guards. , Rich peasant members.

In today’s Puppet Manchukuo, there are many Belarusians like this. Most of them have been integrated into the social life of the Chinese and no longer want to return to the Soviet Union. However, some people are still dreaming of counterattack against the Soviet Union. Some are even cooperating with the Japanese, hoping that one day they will be able to fight back to the Soviet Union with the support of Japan.

For a long period of time in the past, the intelligence organizations of the NKVD have been monitoring these Belarusians, so they have more intelligence in their hands.

In addition to the list of these Belarusians, the document also refers to Japanese intelligence agencies that use these Belarusians for intelligence work.

In fact, the NKVD does not know much about Japan’s intelligence agencies. This is mainly because there are too many intelligence agencies in Japan. There are many kinds of intelligence agencies. Only those that are relatively active in Manchuria and Mongolia have more than a dozen of them. The biggest, of course, is the "Doihara Organization" under the Kwantung Army, and the "Showa Trade" that uses the name of the Chamber of Commerce to engage in intelligence work.

As a traverser, Victor also has one advantage in coming to the Far East. Although he doesn’t know much about the history of the Soviet Union, he still knows some of the history of the country. At least, he knows that some hidden deep, but the end of the War of Resistance in the previous life. Later, the Japanese spy was picked out. For example, "Man Ying" and "Man Tie", which are not on this list, are also engaged in intelligence work. Obviously, they were ignored by the intelligence personnel of the NKVD.

Man Ying refers to the Manchuria Film Association, and Manchuria refers to the South Manchuria Railway Corporation, especially the latter. The "Manchuria Railway Investigation Department" is an out-and-out intelligence agency that is responsible for Su intelligence investigation work.

For now, Victor actually has some ideas. He plans to start his work on those who regularly visit relatives. The so-called relatives are those Soviets who have relatives stranded in China. In time, he will cross the border and enter Manchuria and travel to the "Xinjing" that he did, which is Changchun to visit relatives.

This kind of regular visits to relatives actually involved a transaction between the Soviet Union and Japan, about the railway transaction.

After the Russo-Japanese War, the imperialist government was forced to hand over the section of the Middle East Railway from Changchun to Lushun to the Japanese government. However, the section from Changchun to Manzhouli was still controlled by Russia.

After the establishment of the Soviet Union, Moscow and the Chinese government signed the "Sino-Soviet Agreement on Solving Unsettled Cases." This section of the railway became an asset under the Sino-Soviet co-management, but it was actually managed by the Soviet Union.

In the more than ten years since then, the staff and garrisons assigned by the Soviet Union to manage this section of the railway have settled in China, and most of their family members have also moved over, forming several cities along the first line of the railway. Settlements of different sizes.

This situation continued until 1935. Because the railway was surrounded by the Puppet Manchukuo and the Japanese garrison, it was subjected to various harassment for a long time. In addition, this section of the railway was a bit of a taste for the Soviet government, so Moscow used the railway to The price of 140 million yen was sold to the Manchukuo government.

The railway was sold, but some Soviets who had settled in China for a long time were used to life there. For various reasons, they didn’t want to come back. So at that time, the Soviet Union signed a supplementary agreement with the pseudo-Manchukuo. Twice a month, Soviets with relatives in the territory of the Puppet Manchukuo were allowed to visit relatives.

Since the outbreak of the war, Moscow has actually planned to ban this kind of family visits taking into account the problems of Soviet-Japanese relations. However, the existence of various practical problems has prevented the implementation of this regulation and has been delayed until now.

Unlike those who cross the border privately, these people who have traveled across the border for a long time to visit relatives are not the focus of the NKVD’s attention. For members of the 88th Brigade, there is a much higher possibility of a hidden spy among these relatives.

However, he couldn't speak out suspicions like this openly. He could only investigate according to it. After all, the issue of visiting relatives involved too many people, and the accompanying interest entanglement was also very complicated. To cite the simplest example, these visitors took advantage of the opportunity of transit to engage in smuggling activities in various entrained ways. This exists in the records of the NKVD, and the NKVDs in the Far East No action has been taken, certainly not because they couldn't see, and God knows there is something messy in it.

For the current Victor, he first needed an opportunity or excuse to break the game. The method of breaking the game must not cause too much backlash, which would arouse the vigilance of the lurking elements. People with entangled interests distinguish it.

Victor came to the Far East to perform the mission, and only brought a dozen people, including more than a dozen guards. Therefore, he needed to use the staff of the People's Committee of the People's Committee of the Far East to handle the case. When he couldn't figure out the situation, If the investigation is done rashly, it may end up in vain.

"I already have some ideas about where to start," Victor said. "I will call Yegrović and them tomorrow to have a short meeting together to determine the tasks."