Chapter 139 Getting into the role
Moscow is dry and cold in winter. Fortunately, it snowed yesterday. It was a heavy snow. The three-inch thick snow covered the entire city. Everything was silver-white, as if entering a fairy tale world.
The Presidential Building in the Kremlin was called the Privy Council Building during the Russian Empire. It is a three-story building with a yellow exterior that makes it look solemn and majestic. When Lenin was alive, he chose a small room on the third floor of the building as his office. After Comrade Stalin came to power, he moved his office from the third floor to the second floor, named Office No. 1.
Yuri, who served as the Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff, now also has an office on the first floor of this building. He needs to work here for nearly 8 hours a day, waiting for Comrade Stalin's call at any time. He will return to the General Staff on Kirov Street for the rest of the time.
At that time, the General Staff Building located on Arbat Street had not yet been built. Before the outbreak of the Battle of Moscow, the General Staff was near the Belorusskaya Metro Station. Later, the Battle of Moscow broke out and the German army launched a bombing of Moscow. Because the old site of the General Staff was inconvenient for transportation, it was moved to an ordinary building on Kirov Street near the Kirov Metro Station, where it remains until now.
It was after Yuri took office as Minister of Operations that he learned that there was a secret subway line directly leading to the Kremlin under the current General Staff Building. A subway train consisting of four carriages was responsible for the transportation mission of this secret line. There were a total of four similar subway lines under the Kremlin. The guards of the 9th Bureau of the State Security Committee were responsible for the security of these subway lines.
Yuri was appointed as the Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff. This proposal was opposed Even Comrade Shaposhnikov, who was ill, believed that Yuri had no experience in the General Staff and might not be qualified for this important position. When Stalin asked Zhukov for his opinion, the general gave the opinion that Yuri was qualified for the position of commander of an army group or even a front, but he might not be able to do well in the position of Chief of the Operations Department. Recently, Rokossovsky, who was highly valued by Stalin, also called Stalin specifically. He believed that Yuri should stay at the front to command operations instead of being transferred to the rear to formulate combat plans. It can be said that in the entire Supreme Command, including the People's Commissariat of Defense and the military system, the only person who recognized Yuri for this position was Khrushchev, and no one else.
However, the real decision-making power was in the hands of Comrade Stalin after all. No one could guess his thoughts. This leader with an iron will, in the last lesson, rejected Shtemenko, who was personally recommended by Beria and recognized by many military generals, and forcibly put Yuri in this position.
Regarding this point, Yuri once asked Khrushchev for his opinion indirectly. Khrushchev just smiled but did not give him any answer. Afterwards, Yuri thought about it and believed that the reason for this situation was that Beria, as the head of the State Security Committee, already had great power, so Stalin did not want him to extend his hand to the army.
The selection of the Minister of Operations was not only based on the candidate's ability, but Stalin must have also considered more balancing factors. This was a political consideration, a political tactic, and a covert struggle.
A full half month has passed since he officially received the notice to return to Moscow to handle the transfer procedures. During this period, Yuri has only been to the Kremlin once, but has not met Stalin. His main task is to familiarize himself with this new job while waiting for Comrade Stalin's call.
Yuri is very diligent and hardworking. He works more than 14 hours a day, but even so, he still feels that time is not enough, mainly because there are too many things he needs to record.
At this stage, Yuri first had to figure out which troops were in the main combat directions of the Soviet Army, from the front to the army group, and then to the army and division level, the number of each unit, its location, the task it was responsible for, the area it defended, the situation of the main commander, the equipment, etc. How familiar did he need to be with these? For example, when it came to Smolensk, he had to know which troops were fighting in this place, which troops were heading there, who were the commanders of these troops, what their resumes were, whether the troops were fully staffed, how many people there were, how many artillery pieces there were, how many tanks there were, etc.
At the same time, he also had to deal with the Equipment Department. He had to know how many military factories there were in each place, the output of these military factories, which railways were used to transport the equipment they produced, the carrying capacity, and so on.
Yuri must memorize all this complex and even voluminous information. The most important thing is that the battlefield dynamics are changing all the time. The same troop may be here today and in another place tomorrow. Its commanders will also be replaced, the troops will be reduced, and the equipment will be damaged or supplemented. This means that the information he has must be updated from time to time.
During this period, Yuri could be said to have been in a very anxious situation, so much so that even after returning to Moscow for such a long time, he had not had time to see Geryosha.
The General Staff building was built in 1864. It is a somewhat old building, but it underwent some renovations inside some time ago, so it looks relatively new.
The wooden floor of the corridor is very textured. When military boots step on it, it will produce a thudding sound in the corridor. Yuri likes this sound, which is a bit strange. He doesn't know why.
Yuri had just finished a meeting with the directors of several operations departments of the Operations Department. When he walked out of the meeting room, his steps were a little hurried. The Communications Department had already sent him the latest battle reports from the front line, and he had to digest them as quickly as possible.
"General, what would you like to eat for lunch?" Arseni chased after him and asked in a low voice. It was almost noon, and he went to prepare lunch for his leader. During this period, Yuri had been eating and living in the General Staff Headquarters and had not gone out.
"See what's in the cafeteria and just pick some up," Yuri said without turning his head, keeping his pace unchanged.
Arseni responded and turned to go downstairs. The cafeteria was in the courtyard in front of the building.
Yuri's office was in a room on the east side of the second floor. The office was spacious, about 60 square meters. When Yuri returned to the office, his desk was once again piled with various documents, all of which were delivered to him by the orderly. Some of them were intelligence from the intelligence department, and some were the latest war reports from various places.
There was no time to waste. Yuri went straight back to his desk and sat down, starting to look through the documents by category based on the information sent last time.
I didn't know how long it had been, but I heard the faint sound of a door opening, followed by the sound of light footsteps.
Yuri was reading the latest battle report from the outer areas of Leningrad. The Mars Campaign plan had allowed the Soviets to open up a corridor 8-11 kilometers wide between Lake Ladoga and the city's defense line, breaking through the German blockade. However, due to limited manpower and the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets were unable to continue to expand their victories on this front and were only engaged in limited conflicts with the Germans. The latest battle report showed that the area around the Mga Station, where the Germans had a large concentration of troops, was strengthening its defense, with its main defense hub located in Sinyanovyi.
Yuri was distracted by the information on the document and did not even look up to see who was coming . He subconsciously thought that it was Arseni who came back with food, so he said without raising his head: "Put it here first, I'll eat later."
The visitor didn't say anything and the office was still so quiet.
Yuri ignored it and continued reading his documents.
After a while, Yuri suddenly felt something was wrong. He smelled a strong smell of cigarettes, the pungent smell of Mahe tobacco. Arseni didn't smoke, and he had no reason to smoke in his office.
With a hint of doubt, Yuri raised his head and looked across the table. He saw an unexpected person standing opposite his desk.
The man was a burly man, wearing a French-style uniform jacket with a closed collar and an old wide-brimmed military cap without a badge on his head. His left arm was hanging in front of his chest, his hand was under the elbow of his right arm, and his right hand was holding a pipe in front of his chest - who else could it be but Stalin?
Yuri never expected that Stalin would suddenly appear in his ide's office, and so quietly. He was startled and instinctively stood up and saluted: "I'm sorry, Joseph Vissarionovich..."
"It's okay, Baolenka, don't be nervous," Stalin said with a smile, swinging his right hand holding the pipe before Yuri could finish his words.
He paused, and while looking at the furnishings in the office, he casually said, "Are you used to your new job? I heard that you haven't left the General Staff Headquarters for a while, and you sleep less than six hours a day. This is not good, it will ruin your health."
"It's not bad, Comrade Stalin," Yuri said, "It's mainly because I just took over a new job and I still need to adapt and learn a lot, so I have to hurry up."
"Well," Stalin was obviously satisfied with his attitude and nodded with a smile - Stalin was a very serious person, and some people might never see his smile in their entire lives.
He was silent for a while, and then he said: "I plan to issue an order in the near future to ask the Voronezh Front to launch an offensive in the direction of Kharkov to recapture this area. What do you think?"
