Chapter 277
On Lermontov Square, Yuri's car was parked in the parking lot outside the Ministry of Heavy Industry. When he got out of the car, he held the military cap in his hand and looked towards the square four-story office building belonging to the Ministry of Heavy Industry.
In his previous life, Yuri didn't know much about Russia or the Soviet Union, but among the little he knew, there should be a towering Stalinist building here. Yes, the Ministry of Heavy Industry Building, one of the famous "Seven Sisters" in Moscow. It is a majestic building that stands on par with the main building of Moscow University, the Leningrad Hotel, the Model Workers' Apartments, the Cultural People's Apartments, the Ukraine Hotel and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building. They are the embodiment of the advantages of socialism and are red skyscrapers.
Now, these buildings have not yet appeared, in other words, the true Stalinist architectural style has not yet taken shape.
The image of the Model Worker Apartment emerged in Yuri's mind. This collective apartment built on the banks of the Moscow River specifically for people in the literary and art circles currently only has the podium part at the bottom, and the main part is very small, which does not reflect the majestic momentum of the Stalinist architectural style at all.
Thinking of this, Yuri seemed to have some idea in his mind, but the idea was very vague and he couldn't grasp it.
"General," Arseni saw him staring at the front door of the Ministry of Heavy Industry for a long time, not moving or speaking, and couldn't help but call out tentatively.
"Ah, it's okay," Yuri's thoughts were interrupted. He put his military cap on his head and said, "Come on, let's go in."
The meeting of the "Special Committee" was scheduled to be held in the conference room on the third floor of the Heavy Industry Ministry Building. When Yuri entered this spacious conference room, half of the seats in this large conference room that could accommodate more than 200 people were filled with people. Most of these people were wearing casual clothes, and a small number were wearing military uniforms.
"Hey, Yuri," seeing Yuri walking in from outside the door, a man in military uniform stood up first, greeted him with a smile, and gave him a warm hug while saying hello.
"Hey, Alexei," Yuri hugged him with a smile and patted him gently on the back twice.
Alexei Alexandrovich Kuznetsov, a guy who was a politician but liked to wear military uniform, was also the commander who actually commanded the entire Leningrad to resist the German attack during the Leningrad Blockade.
This man is young enough, having just turned 40 this year, but because of his outstanding performance during the Battle of Leningrad, there are reports that he will soon replace Comrade Zhdanov, who has been transferred to Moscow, as the first secretary of the Leningrad Oblast and Leningrad City.
During the war, Yuri and Kuznetsov had many interactions and were relatively familiar with each other, but not to the point of hugging and greeting each other when they met. However, this person has always been so outgoing and warm to others.
Originally, Yuri planned to exchange a few polite words with this guy and then quickly find an inconspicuous place to sit down, but he obviously underestimated Kuznetsov's enthusiasm. After the hug, this guy actually held Yuri's arm and refused to let go.
He pulled Yuri to a group of people on the right side of the front row, raised his voice, and said with a smile: "Come on, comrades, let me introduce you."
As he said this, he dragged Yuri to his side and said, "Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov, who came from Kingisepp, is the most outstanding and most accomplished commander in the Red Army, and also the youngest commander."
Warm applause broke out from the rows on the right, attracting everyone's attention.
Yuri was speechless. He was reborn and was parasitic in this body. Once upon a time, he had forgotten where his hometown was. Now he suddenly remembered that his previous hometown was Kingisepp, the Kingisepp in Leningrad... Leningrad, damn Leningrad!
Out of the corner of his eye, Yuri noticed that a few more people seemed to have come into the entrance of the conference hall. He glanced over and saw Malenkov and Zhdanov, both smiling, walking in from the door. On the left of Malenkov was a tall and thin guy, who was Vyshinsky.
Kuznetsov seemed not to notice the situation at the door. He began to introduce the people present to Yuri one by one. This is Comrade Voznesensky, this is Comrade Rodionov, this is Comrade Kharitonov... all of them were officials from Leningrad Oblast or promoted from Leningrad Oblast.
Yuri Qiang smiled and shook hands with each guy, until Zhdanov and others went up to the rostrum, and this damn show stopped. But even so, Comrade Kuznetsov let him go and found a seat for him in the front row on the right side near the middle.
Even though Zhdanov had just been transferred from Leningrad to the Moscow Central Committee, Malenkov still couldn't compare to him in the ranking of the Presidium Standing Committee. As for Voroshilov and Vyshinsky, they couldn't compare to him either. So, Zhdanov was in charge of presiding over this meeting.
The first item of the meeting was to emphasize the working principles of the "Special Committee", including what aspects of work should be done, what points should be focused on, who will be responsible for presiding over the specific tasks, etc. Among them, Zhdanov specifically mentioned the issue of the arrest of experts in related fields, which was a key point that Comrade Stalin specifically explained.
Next, it is the specific work arrangements for each sub-district, especially the issue of work focus. According to Zhdanov, after this conference, each sub-district will hold its own meeting to determine the detailed work arrangements.
It was said that Zhdanov was chairing the meeting, but from beginning to end, he did not give anyone else a chance to speak. After he finished speaking, he just symbolically asked for the opinion of the veteran Voroshilov. After making sure that the other party had nothing to say, he directly announced the adjournment of the meeting.
This meeting gave Yuri the feeling that... the conflict between Comrade Zhdanov and Comrade Malenkov was really deep. The former seemed to have no intention of giving the latter any face at all, and even completely regarded the latter as a deputy, an insignificant person.
What is Malenkov's current position? He has many titles: member of the Central Committee, member of the Organization Bureau of the Central Committee, Secretary of the Central Committee, member of the People's Commissariat of Defense, Deputy Chairman of the People's Commissariat and Chairman of the Economic Restoration Committee.
But there was no way. No matter how many titles he had, he was no match for Zhdanov, because Zhdanov was now a member of the Standing Committee of the Presidium of the Central Committee.
According to the domestic system, Zhdanov was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, while Malenkov was not. Among the Leningrad officials headed by Zhdanov, not to mention that Zhdanov himself would not give face to Malenkov, even Voznesensky, who ranked third, would not give him face.
Although he was the initiator of the "Special Committee", he did not even get a chance to speak at the first meeting of the committee, but on the surface Malenkov did not have any opinion at all. Even at the subsequent group discussion meeting, he spoke in a calm tone.
In Yuri's opinion, although Malenkov was young and had no experience in grassroots work, he was well-mannered enough.
The so-called group discussion was an internal meeting of the Special Committee's German Department. At this meeting, Yuri had the opportunity to speak. He was mainly responsible for introducing the factory conditions in several major German cities. Because he was not responsible for this work during the war, he could not say much. All in all, he spoke for less than half an hour.
This time, Yuri learned his lesson and did as Khrushchev reminded him. He answered whatever Malenkov asked and did not mention anything that was not asked. As for his own opinions and suggestions, he did not offer any of them because that was not within his job scope.
This is how work is. It doesn't mean that if you are diligent and do more work, you will definitely get good results. More often than not, the more you do, the more mistakes you make, the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make, and if you do nothing, you will make no mistakes. Don't be naive and think that if you work hard and do more work, your boss will pay attention to you one day. In fact, most of the time, if you do more work, your boss will pay attention to you, but most of the time, he will pay attention to the mistakes you made. As for the right part, sorry, that's what you deserve.
Attending a large-scale meeting in the Kremlin, followed by a brief conversation with Khrushchev for less than half an hour, and then a special committee meeting of the Ministry of Heavy Industry, this was all Yuri did on his first day back in Moscow.
After the meeting of the special committee, Yuri went to the General Staff again, especially to the Operations Department. Originally, he wanted to inquire about the formulation of the plan for the war against Japan, but unfortunately, all the main operational staff were invited by Comrade Meretskov. Yes, this lucky guy got the opportunity to command the war against Japan.
Giving up the idea of going directly to Meretskov, Yuri, who was really bored, went straight back to his residence. Several years of war had made him accustomed to the high-paced and stressful life. Now that he had some free time, he began to find life very difficult to endure.
For the next three days, Yuri lived a life of going from his residence to the General Staff Headquarters, and then from the General Staff Headquarters back to his residence. Moreover, there was actually no work for him to do at the General Staff Headquarters, so he basically just showed up and then went home.
On the third day, a major from the General Staff's General Directorate brought him the unpaid wages and allowances from the war years, totaling more than 30,000 rubles, a huge sum of money. Yuri then remembered that he seemed to have not received any salary during the war years.
Also on the afternoon of the third day, he finally received a call from the Kremlin saying that Stalin wanted to see him.
