Chapter 17: Peeping
Nowadays, the Soviet Union's social welfare policies have basically become complete, especially in terms of housing. As early as 1928 during the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union began to implement housing subsidy policies and established a relatively complete housing welfare system.
As the most important and powerful department of the country, the housing policy of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs is naturally more generous. Although Dmitry is single, because of his high rank as a colonel, the housing allocated to him by the Ministry of Internal Affairs is actually an over-standard three-bedroom apartment.
This three-bedroom apartment is located right next to Maly Lubyanka Square. It not only has convenient transportation, but is also very close to the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, just a few minutes' walk away.
The new residence in the old building was just cleaned up by the logistics department today, and the first guest Dmitri received was Yuri. In Yuri's own words later, the twelve-year feud between him and Dmitri should have started from this day.
They had been in contact with each other for a while before, but Yuri didn't know that Dmitri also loved vodka and could drink a lot. In his living room, which was not yet completely tidy, the two of them each had a bottle of vodka, a plate of pickles and a plate of roughly cut sausages, and they drank until they were drunk.
"Bolenka, you are still young." After drinking a bottle of vodka, Dmitri's face did not turn red, but turned pale instead, a very unhealthy white. "Young people should have ideals and aspirations. Well, they should set a five-year plan for their lives, just like formulating a five-year socialist economic development plan."
Lying on the faded sofa, Dmitri was teaching Yuri in a slurred voice. While he was talking, he picked up the two empty bottles. When he realized that both bottles were empty, he threw the bottles aside dejectedly, lit a cigarette for himself, and continued: "You must complete this five-year plan within the deadline. Yes, you must do everything possible to achieve this goal. Don't care about other people's eyes, and don't care about what others say behind your back."
"Remember what I said," Dmitri said while burping as he moved closer to Yuri, "Those who always have the opportunity to gossip about you behind your back are often the ones who cannot decide your fate. As for those who can truly decide your fate, they will not bother to gossip about you."
“You’re right, Deka,” Yuri responded casually, also a little confused.
"So, my opinion is," Dmitri continued to hum, "Yuri, you should stay as far away from those women with bad political backgrounds as possible, instead of getting closer to them. At least..."
Dmitri was talking excitedly. He suddenly came close to Yuri and said in a sneaky voice, "At least, no one else can notice it. Yes, that's right. No one can notice it."
After saying this, he suddenly retracted his face, waved his arms unconsciously, and complained: "Beware of those villains, those villains who are always planning to overthrow you behind your back. Unfortunately, there are too many such villains now, everywhere. You may be able to feel their presence, but you don't know where they are hiding... Remember, Baolianka, you must always remember that this is a dangerous country."
"Oh, really? I didn't feel that." Although he had drunk a little too much, Yuri still felt something was wrong. Dmitri's words were inappropriate, and he was resentful. Apart from anything else, if Dmitri sobered up and remembered what he said, Yuri would not have a good time.
Yuri understood everything in his heart, and quickly changed the subject. He thought of the idea of the "T-clip", and he coughed dryly and changed the subject: "However, Olga, oh, you know, the girl I like a little bit, putting aside her political background, she is still a very smart person."
"Well, smart people need to be treated with more caution," Dmitri interrupted, "because you can never tell what those smart people are thinking..."
Hearing that the colonel was still trying to change the subject, Yuri quickly interrupted him and continued: "Like I said, Olga is a communications soldier. In the training school, their major subject is communications maintenance."
Yuri took the opportunity to bring up the concept of "T-shaped wire clamp", but the credit for this little invention was put on Olga.
Although he had heard some unpleasant news from Julia before, Yuri was still skeptical about it. The most important thing was that he really had some feelings for Olga. It was based on this feeling that, to some extent, he felt that Olga's little thoughts were not so unforgivable.
He was a "hero" who had made great achievements on the battlefield, a commander, and not a technical soldier. The invention of a small wire clip seemed insignificant to Yuri. But such a small invention was obviously much more important to Olga, who had a not-so-glorious political background.
The vigorous "Stakhanov movement" has not gone far. If such a small invention is used on Olga, with a little publicity, it is not difficult to put the halo of an activist who "fully masters the technology of the profession and is good at making the most of it" on her head. Who said that "Stakhanov's glory" can only shine in the production field? Doesn't the army need it? Look, Comrade Olga has obviously proved one thing for everyone, that is, the army also needs to promote and carry forward Comrade Stakhanov's spirit.
Yuri explained it very carefully and in detail, but Dmitri, who was already drunk, listened in a daze. He even fell asleep on the sofa before Yuri finished introducing the details.
Looking at Colonel Dmitri lying on the sofa, with his mouth open and snoring loudly, Yuri was speechless. He suspected that the colonel had invited him to Moscow just to have a drink with him.
Struggling to sit up from the sofa, Yuri walked to the corner of the living room, took a military coat from the hanger, returned to the sofa and covered Dmitri with it . He was wondering whether he should leave when he heard someone knocking on the door.
Worried about waking up Dmitri, Yuri quickly walked to the door and gently opened it.
A second lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs wearing blue trousers was standing outside the door. He obviously didn't expect that the person who opened the door was not Dmitri, and he couldn't help but be stunned.
"Hello, who are you looking for?" Yuri stood inside the door, looked at the other person and asked.
"I'm looking for Comrade Colonel Dmitri," the lieutenant glanced at the epaulettes on Yuri's shoulders, hesitated for a moment, saluted him, and said, "Excuse me, is he here?"
"Comrade Colonel has gone to bed," Yuri said, "Is it urgent ?"
"Oh, that's right," the lieutenant's eyes passed over Yuri's shoulder and saw Dmitri sleeping soundly on the sofa. He hesitated and took out a file bag from under his armpit, handed it to Yuri, and said, "This is the document that the special department of the committee needs to pass on to Comrade Major."
"Can I pass it on for you?" Yuri looked at the document and asked uncertainly.
"Oh, of course," the lieutenant handed the document to Yuri and said, "Please be sure to give it to Comrade Colonel as soon as he wakes up."
"Okay," Yuri took the file bag and nodded.
"Then I won't bother you anymore, Comrade Captain," the second lieutenant saluted again, said politely, and turned away.
After seeing off the second lieutenant of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, Yuri closed the door and weighed the documents in his hand.
The document bag was quite heavy and thick, so I guess there was a lot of stuff in it, but I didn't know what it was. Looking at the cover of the document bag, there was a special chapter of the Special Department of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, and the abbreviation of a person's name, followed by the words "For Comrade Colonel Dmitri".
Yuri returned to the sofa with the documents and sat down. He looked at Dmitri who was still snoring, then looked at the file bag in his hand, and felt a surge of deadly curiosity.
What was in the bag? What was inside? Did Dmitri get a new appointment? Where was he going? What was he going to do? And so on. Questions like these kept popping into Yuri's mind, making him want to open the document bag.
They say curiosity kills the cat, which is absolutely true. Although Yuri knew that most of the things in the file bag had nothing to do with him, driven by curiosity, he couldn't help but want to take a look.
Dmitri slept like a dead dog, and in this damn house , there was no third person except him and himself. Yuri comforted himself in his heart, it’s okay, just take a look, no one will know.
After a brief ideological struggle, Yuri's curiosity finally overcame his reason. He looked at Dmitri again, then carefully untied the drawstring on the file bag and took out the contents.
There were only two things in the bag. One was the appointment letter issued by the Special Department of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. This thing proved that Dmitri was indeed promoted. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and served as the director of the Special Department of the Leningrad Military District of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. In addition to the appointment letter, the remaining thing was the case file. Yuri just took a look at it and was shocked by what was involved.
As the newly appointed director of the special department of the Leningrad Military District of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the first thing Dmitry did after his promotion was to join the "60-city Circuit Military Tribunal" chaired by Vasily Vasilyevich Ulrich as a representative of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs and investigate a number of military generals including Grigory Mikhailovich Stern.
