Chapter 280
Yuri's disarmament plan submitted directly caused an earthquake in the Kremlin. Yes, an earthquake. The consequence of this earthquake was that in the following two weeks, Comrade Stalin convened consecutive meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee, the Executive Bureau and the "Five-Man Group (Stalin, Beria, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Malenkov)" to discuss the feasibility of this plan.
This disarmament plan can be said to have broadened the Soviet Union's existing disarmament ideas to a great extent. It made everyone realize that disarmament should not be a simple matter of letting the disarmed soldiers return to their hometowns, but should allow them to play the role they should play to the maximum extent.
As far as the Standing Committee of the Presidium is concerned, almost everyone can find something of interest in this plan.
For Stalin, he was very interested in the establishment of the Engineering Construction Corps and the Production and Construction Corps. At the same time, he was also very concerned about the construction of secret cities. In addition, he also felt quite novel about the proposal to name the disbanded Guards and Special Honor Corps and to establish large-scale industrial and mining enterprises directly under the jurisdiction of the People's Committee.
It has to be admitted that after the victory of the anti-fascist war, Comrade Stalin's thinking also changed. He began to become more or less ambitious. He wanted to complete several large-scale engineering projects in his lifetime and leave a deeper mark of his own on the map of this country. Yuri's plan undoubtedly catered to his appetite.
As for Kaganovich, his main job now is railway transportation. Therefore, the establishment of the Engineering Construction Corps is directly related to his interests. In Kaganovich's work list, the railways and bridges destroyed in the war in Ukraine, Belarus, Karelia and other places need to be reconnected within the next two to three years; the railway from Moscow to the Ploiesti oil field in Romania also needs to be built in the shortest time; in addition, he also wants to complete the construction of the Siberian Railway branch line network project that was conceived before the war during his term of office.
There is no doubt that these projects will require a large amount of labor, and if this plan can be passed, it will largely solve the difficulties he faces.
As for Beria, he was not interested in engineering or anything else, but he was interested in the construction of secret cities. There was no doubt that the launch of this series of work would hopefully extend his power to deeper Soviet territory. At the same time, any secret city would be designed with a top-secret technical function, and Beria needed to use these things to consolidate his position.
As for Malenkov, he seemed to be interested in everything. Of course, if he had to choose the focus, he would definitely pay more attention to the work that Comrade Stalin was interested in.
In short, everyone can find the part of this plan that interests them. However, this also presents a problem, that is, the plan may be dismantled. Whether it is the nine-member Executive Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee or the five-member group, they all hope to take away the part of the plan that overlaps with their own functions, and Stalin himself is also hesitant on this issue.
…
The morning light shone into the smoky office through the spacious and bright floor-to-ceiling windows. Stalin, who had not slept all night, sat behind his desk, smoking his pipe and frowning as he looked at the minutes of the meeting in his hand. Last night, the nine-member meeting of the Presidium's Executive Bureau lasted the entire night, but the final decision had still not been made.
Leadership is a kind of wisdom. No one can take all aspects of a problem into consideration on his own. Therefore, collective wisdom is needed to discover and raise problems. As a decision maker, Stalin's approach is to combine the decisions of the 25-member Presidium, the 9-member Executive Bureau, and the five-member group, and then eliminate the dross and retain the essence according to his own ideas, and finally come up with the most reliable plan.
After reading the minutes of last night's meeting, Stalin took out a sealed document from the drawer. This document was a summary of the contents of several meetings in the past two weeks and could generally be seen as a summary of the institutional setup.
According to the results of the meeting , the "Disarmament Working Committee" will be under the leadership of the People's Committee, and the Chairman of the People's Committee will concurrently serve as the Chairman of the Disarmament Working Committee. In other words, Stalin, as the Chairman of the People's Committee, will concurrently serve as the Chairman of the Disarmament Working Committee.
Taking a pen from the table, Stalin circled this item, meaning that this item could be approved.
The first level of the committee is naturally the members of this committee. According to the discussions in the past period of time, it seems that everyone needs to join, such as the heads of the railway transportation department, the industrial department, the agricultural department, etc. But obviously, Stalin himself felt that this was unrealistic.
After taking a puff of his pipe, Stalin took a thick document from the right side of the table. This was the plan submitted by Yuri. He flipped through the plan, found the key part of the proposal, looked at it carefully, thought for a moment, and then wrote his name directly in the list of members: Stalin himself is of course the first, and this cannot be missing.
Then he thought about it and wrote Beria's name on it. This guy was the vice chairman of the People's Commissariat and was in charge of the work of the State Security Committee. With this person, Stalin felt that he could control the overall situation.
Kaganovich is also needed. He is also the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and is mainly responsible for transportation. This is a major task in the Disarmament Working Committee, so it is necessary to have him to coordinate the relevant work.
Voznesensky, well, this person also needs to be used. He is also the deputy chairman of the People's Commissariat and has been in charge of the work of the Planning Commission, which is also a major function. Whether it is the development of the Pripyat River or the development of the Volga River basin, it is inseparable from scheduling.
Although Bulganin was a guy of average ability, he was after all the vice chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and was in charge of military affairs, so he was also needed in the matter of disarmament.
Stalin paused at this point. There were four people. Since it was a committee, it should reflect the principle of democratic centralism, so the number of people should be odd. An even number would make people laugh and be a stupid mistake. But who should be the fifth person?
Malenkov? Although he trusted him, Stalin still had doubts about his ability, especially his ability to govern. Moreover, the work he was in charge of had nothing to do with the overall situation of disarmament.
Voroshilov? Never mind. This old friend is already old. Let him have a good rest.
There was no need to think about Kalinin. He probably didn't even have much time to rest, as Comrade Lenin was already waving to him.
Zhdanov? Stalin frowned, and seeing that Voznesensky’s name had been written, he no longer considered him.
Kosygin? No, it couldn't be him. We couldn't give those cliques in Leningrad any more chances.
After much consideration, Stalin wrote Andreyev's name on the list. This guy was in charge of the Agricultural Committee, so he could see if he was suitable.
After deciding on the committee members, Stalin began to consider the committee's subordinate executive bodies. According to the results of the discussions in the past few days, the committee should have four direct subordinate bodies: the Secretariat, which is mainly responsible for managing data, files, and corresponding official documents and official letters; the Executive Bureau, which is responsible for the overall command of disarmament work and is also the most important department of the Disarmament Working Committee, actually managing the specific work of disarmament; the Organization Bureau, which is mainly responsible for the personnel work of the Disarmament Working Committee; and the Budget Bureau, which is only responsible for the financial budget issues involved in disarmament work.
Among these subordinate institutions, Stalin first considered the specific candidates for the Executive Bureau, especially the chairman of the Executive Bureau.
The pen in his hand tapped on the paper, making a bunch of tiny dots. After about half a minute, he put down the pen and picked up the telephone receiver on the table.
He shook the handle, and when the call was connected, Stalin said: "Put me on the line at Comrade Lavrenti Pavlovich's home."
Comrade Stalin's hotline naturally had absolute priority, and the operator quickly connected the call to Beria's home.
The busy tone of the phone sounded three times, and then Beria's voice came from the other side.
"What is Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov doing these days?" When Stalin heard Beria's voice, he asked without even saying hello.
On the phone, Beria didn't even think about it and directly sent Yuri's daily schedule for the past two weeks.
According to Beria's report, Yuri had been quite idle in the past two weeks. In the first week, he just showed up at the General Staff Headquarters every day, and then went to the house of a woman named Geryosha to hang out. During this time, he also went to the movies with the woman and sat in seat 49 in row 5. The movie was the newly released "The Traitor's Death".
However, the situation changed this week. At a performance organized by the General Staff, the young general comrade met an actress from the Red Flag Song and Dance Troupe named Ligia Gordeyevna Romanova. Now, the two of them have gone to bed. The young general stayed in this woman's dormitory last night.
"Doesn't he have any idea of restraining his private life?" Stalin said angrily on the phone, "I think it's time for Andreyev to have a good talk with him!"
Andreyev is not only in charge of the work of the Agricultural Committee, he is also the chairman of the Central Supervisory Committee.
After hanging up the phone, Comrade Stalin picked up the pen again and wrote the name of Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov on the position of Chairman of the Executive Bureau.
