Chapter 194 Red and White Face
"Comrade Commander," Fezhuninsky asked anxiously after a short silence, "Just like Comrade Zhdanov said, this young man is in a high position, so it's inevitable that he will be a little youthful and hot-tempered. What do you think, if we do this, will he take advantage of the situation and really make things bigger?"
Govorov frowned and thought for a while. He really didn't have much dealings with Yuri. In fact, Yuri started out in the central and southern fronts of the war against Germany, and didn't have much intersection with Leningrad. Therefore, he was not very familiar with the main commanders of Leningrad. The person who was most familiar with Yuri was Zhdanov. After all, he had a junior who was very familiar with Yuri and had had many dealings with him.
However, Zhdanov was a shrewd man, and it was not easy for anyone to get anything out of him.
"Comrade Zhdanov has a broad vision. Since he made such an arrangement, it means he is quite confident," Govorov said after a long while, sighing. "And from the information I have received, Comrade Yuri is usually low-key and not arrogant, so... the problem should not be too serious."
If Govorov had not paused at the end when he said this, Fezuninsky might have felt more at ease. But he paused, which meant that he himself was not sure, so how could Fezuninsky feel at ease?
Since the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the Supreme Command has sent many representatives to battlefields in various directions. For example, Shaposhnikov, Timoshenko, Budyonny, and even Khrushchev have served as representatives of the headquarters in some important battles. When they were supervising the battles on the front line, they had unpleasant things happen with the commanders on the front line, especially Khrushchev, whose tough and ruthless style still makes many people feel scared.
Now, the young comrade Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov was appointed as the representative of the headquarters to come to Leningrad to supervise the battle. This general, who was less than 30 years old, had made great military achievements. Comrade Stalin expressed his admiration for this young man on many occasions without any reservation. It was also because of this that this young man was able to stay in the hot position of the Chief of the General Staff Operations Department for so long. You know, Stalin was very picky. Almost every Chief of Operations Department could not stay in office for long. Yuri not only sat firmly in that position, but even when he went to the southern front to supervise the battle and came to Leningrad to supervise the battle, the position of Chief of Operations Department was not removed, but was kept for him.
Now there is news that the battle plan for the Battle of Leningrad was also drawn up by Yuri Arkhipovich, and once the battle is over, this young man will continue to serve as the Chief of Operations as the Deputy Chief of the General Staff. According to private information disclosed by Comrade Zhdanov, Comrade Stalin has instructed the General Political Department to discuss whether it is appropriate to award this young man a First Class Order of Suvorov after the battle.
That was the First Class Order of Suvorov. As a front-line military commander, it would be a lie to say that anyone would not covet such a medal. But as for jealousy, at least for Fezuninsky, he did not have much such emotion. He was worried that this young man who was at odds with Zhukov would vent his anger during the battle in Leningrad. What's more, they now had a handle in the hands of others.
The jeep crawled slowly on the snowy road, carrying the heavy weight of General Govorov and the anxiety of Fezhuninsky. They were worried that Yuri would take advantage of the situation and complain to Moscow. This complaint might not have a big impact on them, but it would definitely bring bad luck to many people in the troops they commanded.
It was also on the road leading to Sverikul village, but it was the road from Ropsha to Sverikul. Also escorted by two armored vehicles, two jeeps were moving slowly forward in the wind and snow.
In the second car, Yuri, sitting in the back seat, was looking through a letter sent by the Leningrad Military Committee.
The letter was sent by Comrade Zhdanov, Chairman of the Leningrad Military Committee, and the content involved was part of the recent self-examination of the Leningrad Front. At the beginning of the letter, in the name of the Leningrad Military Committee, it severely criticized the Leningrad Front's negative performance in recent operations, and at the same time, gave the Military Committee's attitude towards this incident.
How should I put it? The attitude was very harsh. For some of the listed troops, the Military Committee even believed that the numbers should be cancelled, and for some commanders who were not good at commanding operations, they even gave the opinions of trial or even execution. At the end of this letter, there was a note written by Zhdanov himself. In the note, the old man asked Yuri for his opinion on the handling of the matter, and politely told him that if he thought the decision of the Military Committee was feasible, he should sign it , after all, he was the representative of the headquarters.
"Old fox," Yuri cursed with a smile after reading the letter, then threw it aside and ignored it.
Although he was young, Yuri was no fool. He could certainly see the strategy of retreating to advance contained in this letter.
Zhdanov obviously knew that the Second Shock Army did not fight well at the beginning of the battle. Of course, he was also worried that Yuri would take the opportunity to lose his temper and, like Khrushchev, stir up a bloody storm in the Leningrad Front - after all, everyone knew that Yuri was very close to Khrushchev, and Khrushchev had done such a thing.
Therefore, the old fox Zhdanov took the initiative to make his position clear, pretending to dig deep and deal with the case severely, and even raised the severity of the matter a lot, as if he was going to shoot thousands of people. In fact, his approach was not really to carry out a purge, but just to shut Yuri up, so that he could not do anything, or in other words, to make it difficult for him to continue to hold on to the matter. And when Yuri finished his inspection, at least he was not keeping such a close eye on it. How to deal with the whole matter was still up to him as the chairman of the Military Committee.
To be honest, Yuri was somewhat dissatisfied with Zhdanov's behavior. Of course, his dissatisfaction was not because Zhdanov took it lightly, but because this guy obviously wanted him, Yuri, to be the bad guy, while he himself was the good guy. He used Yuri as a tool to win people's hearts.
Is there such a cheap thing in the world? Yuri didn't think so. He had never thought of doing a purge, after all, he had suffered greatly from it. Although he was very dissatisfied with the progress of the Leningrad Front and was angry about some low-level mistakes on the front line, he had never thought of shooting anyone for it. That was not his style.
Now, Zhdanov wanted to take advantage of him and play the good guy, but Yuri didn't want to give him such an opportunity.
After nearly three years of fighting, the entire periphery of Leningrad was destroyed. All the way from Lopsha, countless villages and towns along the way were basically turned into ruins. Even some places that were not destroyed by the war were burned down by the hastily evacuated German army.
Yuri was very confused. In his opinion, the outcome of the war was already very clear at this point. The defeat of the German army was inevitable. It was not unforeseeable that the Soviet army would advance westward and eventually enter Germany. But at this time, the German army was like crazy. They set fire to the road of retreat in Ukraine and burned all the buildings they could see along the way. They also adopted the same strategy in Leningrad. Whether it was military facilities or houses, they were all burned down by them. At this time, it was not only the SS who were doing murder and arson, but the Wehrmacht was also doing this. Could it be that these Germans did not think that they might be retaliated by the Soviets in the future?
In fact, after the end of the Battle of the Right Bank of the Dnieper River in Ukraine, especially after the liberation of Kiev, facing a devastated Ukraine, there were voices in the Soviet military, including at the top, calling for revenge against the Germans. Some even suggested wiping the Germans as a nation off the map.
This is a kind of hatred, a hatred coming from both sides of the war. Perhaps the shame condensed in blood and fire can only be washed away through blood and fire.
It was almost noon when we set out from Ropsa. Due to the snow and the difficult road conditions, it was completely dark when the convoy was still more than ten kilometers away from Svirikul village.
The area around Svirikul was still a German battle zone two days ago. After the Soviets broke through the German direction and advanced deep into the area, they did not carry out a cleanup in this area. Therefore, it is possible that a small group of German troops are still active in this area. In order to ensure Yuri's safety, the Leningrad Front not only arranged casual armored vehicles for him, but also had Soviet fighter planes cruise every fifteen minutes from Lopsha to Svirikul during the day.
When the convoy approached the village of Sverikul, the armored vehicle responsible for clearing the way first discovered the skiing troops coming to greet them. Then, the convoy continued to move forward and finally arrived at its destination at nine o'clock in the evening.
The jeep with anti-skid chains slowly stopped in front of the mill outside the village entrance. A colonel in a military coat ran up quickly, opened the door for Yuri, stood up straight, saluted, and said loudly: " Comrade Stalin's representative, good evening!"
This title is a bit confusing, but it is not wrong at all. You know, more than a year ago, the representatives of the headquarters were all called "officials of Comrade Stalin". Later, because Voroshilov did not like this title, it was finally changed to "Delegate Comrade".
