Struggle in Soviet Russia

Of course, I believe that everyone at this time hoped that this hasty decision was made under Zhdanov's suggestion, and only in that way would they have the opportunity to compete for the position of the first secretary of the Moscow State Party Committee and the Municipal Party Committee. , but if this decision was made by Comrade Stalin himself, then ... Popov was out of luck.

Getting an affirmative answer from Viktor, Malenkov frowned involuntarily. To be honest, he most hoped that this decision would be made by Zhdanov. , What do you think about the position of first secretary of the municipal party committee, but because he hopes that Zhdanov will gain more hostility from people.

Viktor knew that Comrade Malenkov had been in trouble recently, and it wasn't a small one.

Just last week, a letter from the Urals was delivered to Comrade Stalin. The letter was from a man named Vasily Smirnov, an engineer at a machinery factory in the Urals and a member of the Bolshevik Party.

In this letter, Smirnov responded to the central government that in the factory where he worked, and even in all the factories in the Ural, there were cadres who did not know how to do it, forcibly intervening in technical work by virtue of administrative orders. In order to make achievements and improve efficiency, these layman cadres completely ignored a series of technical standards, and even ignored product quality problems, unsafe production, ignoring quality problems, etc. These distressing phenomena are threatening Union for industrial production.

As the current head of the Internal Intelligence Bureau, Viktor learned about Smirnov's situation. From this person's file, he is nearly sixty years old this year, and he is indeed an experienced mechanical engineer. And the problems he reflected in the letter do exist. It can even be said that such problems exist not only in the industrial areas of the Urals, but even in the entire alliance.

How should I put it, in the wars of the past few years, the alliance has been plagued by the shortage of various strategic materials all the time. The more weapons, ammunition, and various equipment are worn out on the front line, the tighter the supply in the rear. As the highest authority of the wartime alliance, the People's Commissariat of National Defense does not consider issues such as quality and production safety when issuing various orders.

Take tanks as an example, the People's Commissariat of National Defense will only issue production tasks to the various tank factories below according to the needs of the war. Such orders are often dead orders. How many tanks will a tank factory produce in a long period of time, and how many difficulties and accidents will occur in this process, that is not a question for the People's Commissariat of National Defense to consider at all.

Therefore, it can be said that the problem reflected by Smirnov is actually a problem that will inevitably arise under the wartime system, and it is also a common problem that is difficult to overcome. What is certain is that this kind of thing will never happen It won't just happen within the alliance, it's certainly the case in Germany, the UK, and even the US.

So, having said that, those who hold leadership positions in the corresponding manufacturers and enterprises are facing pressure from the higher-level departments. What can they do? Obviously, other than putting pressure on the people below, they have not many choices. As a result, the situation reflected in Smirnov's letter inevitably emerged, which is what he called "cadres who do not know how to do it forcibly intervene in technical work by means of executive orders."

Smirnov should be an upright member of the Bolshevik Party, which Victor will not doubt, but to be honest, his thoughts are a bit naive. If the time is pushed back a year and a half, it is estimated that his letter As soon as it is delivered, he will cause trouble for himself, and maybe a hat of sabotage will be buckled on his head.

But this old man was obviously lucky enough. His letter came at the right time. Right now, the war will soon be over. The large number of tanks and planes produced in the rear are no longer scarce materials. Therefore, , the importance of military production is not so high, and some issues that could not be investigated in the past can now be taken out and talked about.

Therefore, this letter from Smirnov quickly became a weapon used by some people to attack Comrade Malenkov, and it was a very useful weapon.

In the past few years of war, Comrade Malenkov was in charge of the main industrial work. He was even the main person in charge of the aircraft manufacturing industry. In the industrial concentration areas in the rear, many cadres were directly appointed by him. After all, He is also in charge of the cadre and personnel work of the Secretariat.

Therefore, when this letter appeared, there were voices that criticized Malenkov immediately, arguing that in his work in the past few years, he had promoted and appointed many cadres who were incompetent, rough in work style, and unrealistic. In the process of organizing industrial production in the rear, these cadres made very mistakes, and Malenkov needs to be responsible for this.

Since the Viktors were not in Moscow for some time in the past, he did not know enough about the progress of the matter, and all he knew was that, despite the criticism of Malenkov in this regard, Comrade Stalin never So, in Victor's view, Malenkov is indeed in trouble right now, but these troubles should not be fatal to him, as long as Comrade Stalin still trusts him, there will be no problem.

Of course, at this time Viktor didn't know yet that what Malenkov encountered this time was not as simple as a little trouble. There was a catastrophe waiting for him not far ahead.

In addition, those who were not fully aware of the imminent danger, not only Victor himself, but Malenkov himself, were not sufficiently alert, and because of this, he was still thinking of launching a counterattack against Zhdanov.

Having received the exact information from Viktor, Comrade Malenkov's attention was diverted, and he only commented: "Comrade Georgy Mikhailovich has a talent and a great deal of courage, but he He has a violent personality and is not good at dealing with other comrades. It may not be appropriate for him to take over the work of Comrade Shcherbakov. After all, people who are familiar with Comrade Shcherbakov's work style will definitely not accept it. Comrade Georgy Mikhailovich's style of work."

Viktor didn’t know Popov well, but if Malenkov’s assessment of Popov’s character was correct, then he was indeed not suitable for the position of first secretary of the Moscow Oblast and City Committee.

As I said before, Comrade Shcherbakov has a kind personality. He is not the kind of person who likes to blush with his subordinates and comrades. He has been working in Moscow for five or six years, and people in related positions have long been I'm used to his work style, if at this time, suddenly replaced by a grumpy person, it is estimated that most people will not be able to accept it.

And once the person who is the first secretary of the state party committee and the city party committee has a terrible relationship with his subordinates, and the related work cannot be carried out, there may be serious problems at that time.

However, Malenkov apparently only said casually on this issue, and he did not mean to oppose Popov's inauguration. Therefore, after a brief evaluation, he changed the subject and asked Victor about the situation in East Prussia. When he learned that Victor was tracking the whereabouts of a batch of works of art, he also persuaded a few words. In his opinion, the works of art did not have much value, at least they were far less precious than those of the German factories and research institutes in East Prussia. .

The two walked side by side on the Red Square after the rain for a while. Malenkov gave Victor some advice, mainly on the issue of local work. He also saw it. This time Comrade Stalin threw Victor in East Prussia. Go, maybe with the purpose of letting him get acquainted with the local work.

Victor came from national security work, and he is indeed experienced in this field, but as an aspiring and ideal young Bolshevik party member, of course he cannot be obsessed with this work all the time, he should fully explore and utilize his talents, in Make more prominent contributions in more important positions.

As a political ally, Malenkov certainly hopes that Viktor can go further. To a certain extent, Viktor is also the youngest and most promising figure around him.

Of course, for Victor, he is not a junior brother who doesn't understand anything now. He will accept some of the suggestions given to him by Malenkov, but he is insensitive to those suggestions for presiding over local work. After all, Malenkov The husband himself has no experience in presiding over local work. In comparison, Victor is more willing to listen to Beria's advice in this regard.

The two talked for a while on the Red Square, about half an hour before and after, and then parted at the gate of the palace. Comrade Malenkov wanted to go back to his own office, while Victor was going to say goodbye to Comrade Stalin. He couldn't stay long in Moscow this time. After attending Comrade Shcherbakov's funeral, he would go back immediately. He didn't even have time to go home to see it.

When Victor left the Kremlin again and took the car to catch the plane, it was almost noon. He was sitting in the car, and he was still thinking about a question: Comrade Stalin took him to East Prussia this time. Did he also plan to let him go out to avoid the limelight?

However, this thought disappeared in his mind just after a while. After all, Comrade Stalin was not his father, so how could he take care of him so much.