Chapter 159: Meet Again
For a person who is striving for progress, what is the most important thing in life? Opportunity? Talent? Personality? Personal background? In fact, none of these are important. The ultimate thing for personal development is whether you can save face at the critical moment.
Opportunities have thresholds. When they pass by you, you can’t just grab them with your hand. Most of the time, you still need to pay a price.
Angelia's original duty was to help Yuri find a marriage, but after meeting Yuri, she had other ideas. She felt that Yuri was very pleasing to her eyes, and judging from his achievements, this man would be very helpful to her. Therefore, without any hesitation or thinking, Angelia openly recommended herself to Yuri. This was the first step to risk her reputation.
For Angelia, self-recommendation is only the first step. In the following days, Angelia also used Yuri's contact information in her hand to actively pursue him. Even after she saw Geryosha in Yuri's apartment and knew that Geryosha and Yuri had an ambiguous relationship, Angelia did not give up this active pursuit. In fact, Angelia found out more personal information about Yuri. She also knew that Yuri was a playboy and had unclear relationships with many women. However, she did not think this was a problem: the man she pursued should be like this. How could a mediocre person catch her eye?
Yuri's judgment was correct. The offensive launched by the German army outside Leningrad was indeed a feint. The battle of Schlüsselburg came to an end after less than half a month. Next, the front-line offensives of both the Soviet and German sides fell silent with the arrival of the rainy season.
The absence of war on the Western Front did not mean that people's lives would become better. On the contrary, the anxiety caused by waiting was gradually turning into anxiety. In mid-to-late April, Konev, who was always patient, made four consecutive trips to Moscow. He met with Yuri twice, hoping to launch an active attack on the German army in the Belgorod direction, but Yuri pushed the problem to Stalin.
Konev also met with Stalin and mentioned the issue of active attack, but was scolded by Stalin - Konev himself was not Stalin's preferred commander of the Steppe Front. If someone had not strongly recommended him, this battle-hardened general might have stayed in the position of researcher for the rest of his life. In addition, Stalin had been in a bad mood recently and would lose his temper from time to time. Konev just ran into him.
Konev was not the only one who frequently went to Moscow. Vatutin also frequently went there. The Southwestern Front under his command was now weak in numbers and had almost no place in the plan for the Battle of Kursk. Comrade Vatutin was very dissatisfied with this and hoped to be transferred to the Voronezh Front and actively campaigned for this purpose.
If Vatutin was going to the Voronezh Front, then the current commander of the Voronezh Front, Golikov, would naturally have to leave. Therefore, as soon as the news of Vatutin's activities in Moscow spread, it immediately angered Golikov, who had long been dissatisfied with him. Golikov, who was furious, wrote an article accusing the General Staff of forming cliques and shielding each other when he returned to Moscow to participate in the "May 1st International Labor Day" celebration, and was ready to send it to the "Red Star". Fortunately, he was stopped by Malinovsky, the commander of the Southern Front, who had a good relationship with him. However, from then on, the contradiction between Golikov and Vatutin became public , and it could even be said that it had reached the point where everyone knew about it.
The conflict between Golikov and Vatutin actually reflects the long-standing conflict between the commanders of the field forces and the commanders of the general staff. Zhukov's dominance and Vasilevsky's hidden tactic have, to a large extent, already laid the foundation for this conflict. The entanglement between Golikov and Vatutin is just to ignite this layer of charcoal fire.
As far as the major fronts are concerned, most of the commanders standing in the commander position have conflicts with the General Staff. For example, Rokossovsky, the conflict between him and Zhukov can be traced back to the time when he commanded the 16th Army. Another example is Malinovsky, his situation is much more miserable than Golikov, and he is obliged to take the name of scapegoat. Another example is Tolbukhin, and so on. In fact, the emergence of such contradictions is very normal. After all, the combat plan is formulated by the General Staff, and the specific operations are commanded by the field commanders. The final merits and demerits are judged by the General Staff. No one will take the blame on themselves. For any defeat , the General Staff will not say that the combat plan is wrong, but only that the troops are not good at executing the plan. But in fact, during the Soviet-German War, many defeats were caused by errors in the combat plan.
Of course, conflicts like this are other people's business to Yuri, and he is too lazy to care about them.
During this period of time when the fighting on the front line was calm, the only thing that bothered Yuri was Angelica's pursuit of him.
This woman was very smart. While pursuing Yuri relentlessly, she also spread the news that she and Yuri were already in a relationship. For this, Sherbakov even reported it to Stalin. As a result, many people believed that Yuri was about to get married. Some people who were close to him would ask about this matter whenever they saw him. Yuri could only smile bitterly.
But in his heart, Yuri didn't object to marrying Anjelia. After all, this woman was very beautiful. Apart from her golden hair, her appearance was somewhat similar to Natalia Bagranichnaya. What Yuri admired most was that this woman had a pair of pleasing long legs. When she wore high combat boots, her two pairs of straight calves were absolutely eye-catching.
Of course, outstanding appearance is only a secondary reason why Yuri does not object to this marriage. The most important reason is that the woman has a clear purpose in pursuing him, which is for political reasons. She hopes that this marriage will help her advance. Therefore, even if the two get married, she will not make too many demands on Yuri's private life.
That’s right, sufficient freedom is the only criterion for Yuri to choose marriage. When he was dating Suya and even considering getting married, he also considered it this way. As for feelings... screw it.
…
The sun is shining brightly in Moscow today. The sunny days have lasted for nearly a week, causing the temperature in Moscow to rise a lot. It can be said that the coldness is gone and the warm spring breeze has arrived.
Yuri, wearing a military windbreaker, walked out of the General Political Department building at a leisurely pace. His eyes were illuminated by the dazzling sunlight, making his vision a little blurry, with colorful lights flashing in his eyes.
After standing on the 26-step staircase for a while and feeling his vision returning to normal, Yuri walked down the stairs and headed towards where he parked his car.
This is Maly Lubyanka Square, just across a small alley from Building No. 11 where the State Security Committee is located (look at the Baidu picture of the KGB headquarters building, the building right behind it is the General Political Department Building).
Yuri came here today to visit his old friend Demel, who had fought alongside him in the 34th Brigade. He had just been transferred back from the Western Front and was assigned to the General Political Department as a divisional political commissar. Unfortunately, Yuri came at the wrong time. He heard that Demel's wife had just passed away the day before yesterday, and he had returned to Vologda to handle the funeral.
Yuri was a little depressed because he could not find his friend. He walked back to where he parked his car, lit a cigarette, got back into the car, started the car, slowly left the square, and headed directly towards Red Square. He was going to buy some things at the Gim State Department Store and bring them back to his apartment. It was already the end of the month, and his military quota for this month had not been used yet. It would be invalid in two days.
As a major general, Yuri's salary is pitifully low, but he enjoys several generous allowances, such as allowances generated by military rank, position allowances, post allowances, etc. These allowances added together are enough to support a family of ten with some surplus. Unfortunately, Yuri is alone.
The car drove to Red Square and stopped in the parking lot outside the Jim Department Store. When Yuri got out of the car, a team of patrolling Internal Security Guards happened to pass by.
"Salute!" The second lieutenant in charge ordered the soldiers to stop and salute Yuri. After receiving the salute in return from Yuri, he commanded the team to continue moving forward.
It was the eve of May Day, International Labor Day, and with the improvement of the war situation, various units and departments in the Soviet Union distributed some welfare benefits. As a result, many people came to the department store to shop, and the crowds of people presented a prosperous scene.
Yuri followed the crowd into the store. He didn't rush to shop, but wandered around boredly to see if there was anything new.
In fact, during the war, even in the largest department stores in the country, the things people could actually purchase were extremely scarce. More than 80% of the items were food and daily necessities. Clothing fabrics and the like were mainly khaki fabrics, which were military products converted for civilian use .
Yuri walked around the huge department store but didn't find anything he particularly wanted to buy. When he was hesitating whether to leave, a figure suddenly jumped in front of him.
"Baolianka? Is it really you?" A pretty little face almost came up to him, with a look of surprise on his face. He opened his mouth slightly and shouted a series of questions, "It's been such a long time since we last met, why didn't you come to see me?"
