Chapter 283
It is definitely not an easy task to set up a department with great powers and covering a wide range of issues. However, Yuri has no choice now. Stalin approved his plan and put him in the position of chairman of the executive bureau, which means that the main work will be handed over to him.
In this disarmament working committee, the five main committee members will definitely not do the specific work. They serve as background boards for the people who do the specific work below. At the same time, they will also come out to reap the benefits after there are achievements in the future - don't be resentful, it is like this anywhere and at any time.
Similarly, within the Disarmament Working Committee, the person who truly holds the greatest power must be Yuri, the Chairman of the Executive Bureau. Great power means great responsibility, so it is natural that the drafting of the departmental structure should be completed by him.
Would Stalin have any objection to Yuri staying overnight in the dormitory of the actresses of the song and dance troupe ? Of course he would have an objection, but this objection was not because Yuri had promiscuous relationships with women, but because he did it at the wrong time and did not know where the focus was. Therefore, the so-called confinement was actually to let him focus on the work he should do now.
The issue of drafting the departmental structure of the Executive Bureau is actually the process of refining the previous plan. Yuri actually had a very specific idea about this. He planned to divide the Executive Bureau into several bureaus, namely:
The First General Bureau: Its full name is “Road Construction and Public Works Construction Bureau”, which is mainly responsible for railway and road transportation construction projects, including the construction of railway hubs and road hubs. In addition, there are also construction projects of ports and border inspection stations.
The First General Bureau has 22 engineering construction corps under it, including the Central Construction Corps, the Northwestern Construction Corps, the North Caucasus Construction Corps, the Volga Construction Corps, the Ural Construction Corps, the Siberian Construction Corps, the Far East Construction Corps and 15 construction corps of the union republics (including the Karelia-Finland Union Republic).
Each construction corps is not only responsible for the construction, upkeep and maintenance of roads and projects, but also has regular training programs.
The Second General Bureau is the Agricultural Production and Construction Bureau, which is mainly responsible for the specific construction work in the areas to be developed, including the construction of swamp drainage projects, collective farm construction projects, land reclamation projects, etc.
The Second General Administration has two large-scale production and construction corps, namely the Pripyat River Basin Production and Construction Corps and the Volga River Basin Production and Construction Corps. In addition, there are several supporting service departments.
Like the Engineering Construction Corps, each Production and Construction Corps also has regular training programs in order to maintain the Corps’ combat capability and achieve the effect of being farmers in peacetime and soldiers in wartime.
The Third General Bureau is the Military Industry Enterprise Construction Bureau, which is mainly responsible for the construction of various types of military industry enterprises, with its main work leaning towards the construction of heavy industry enterprises.
The Fourth General Bureau is the Light Industry, Food Industry and Daily Appliance Construction Bureau, which is mainly responsible for the construction of supporting industrial enterprises except military enterprises.
The Fifth General Bureau is the Veterans Resettlement and Security Bureau, which is responsible for the resettlement and security of disabled veterans, and at the same time, supervises the local governments’ implementation of this work.
According to Yuri's plan, the Fifth General Directorate submitted detailed work reports to the Standing Committee of the Presidium, the People's Commissars and the General Political Department of the Soviet Army twice a year to confirm the implementation of the veterans' resettlement work.
The Sixth General Bureau is the Institutional Guarantee Bureau. Its main task is to formulate corresponding work plans, production plans, and construction plans. At the same time, it supervises the progress of the work of each bureau and provides institutional guarantees for the execution of the bureau's work.
The Seventh General Bureau is the Technical Construction Bureau, which is mainly responsible for the corresponding technical research and development work listed by the various bureaus of the Executive Bureau. At the same time, the establishment of secret cities is also under the unified management of this bureau.
The Eighth General Bureau is the General Affairs Bureau, which is mainly responsible for the planning of supporting facilities in the Engineering Construction Corps, Production Construction Corps, and secret cities, such as the construction planning of schools, hospitals, and housing in the Production Construction Corps and secret cities. At the same time, the bureau will also be responsible for building a series of specialized schools to provide business training services for the various corps.
The Ninth General Bureau is the Prisoner of War Administration Bureau. Needless to say, it is the department mainly responsible for the allocation and management of prisoners of war.
Of course, a series of departments will be set up under each general bureau, and this work will become more detailed and more cumbersome.
Yuri did not put forward any suggestions on the selection of heads of various general bureaus. This was not his responsibility. After all, the Disarmament Working Committee had its own Organization Bureau directly under it.
During the four days of confinement, Yuri was not at all relaxed. He not only wrote a thick proposal, but also a nearly 20,000-word self-criticism, in which he made an in-depth self-criticism for neglecting his personal life style and having affairs with men and women. This self-criticism had to be done, after all, it had to be read in front of Stalin and his core staff.
Comrade Bulganin was very punctual. If he said he would be in solitary confinement for four days, he meant it. At 10:09 am on the fourth day, he came in person and knocked on the door of the solitary confinement room, bringing a message to Yuri: Comrade Stalin wants to see you.
In Comrade Stalin's office, because Stalin himself was afraid of heat, even though it was only early July, the air conditioner in the office had been turned on. The room temperature was at most 16 or 17 degrees, which made Yuri, who had just entered, feel a little cold.
At this time, there were many people in the spacious office, including Malenkov, Molotov , Kaganovich, Andreyev, Zhdanov, and so on. Except for Khrushchev and Voznesensky, all 23 members of the Presidium were present.
Yuri stood by the window and read out his profound self-criticism. When he finished, Poskrebyshev came back with more than 20 copies of the organizational structure of the Executive Bureau of the Disarmament Working Committee.
It can be seen that none of the people present today took Yuri's self-criticism to heart. When he was reading the self-criticism, everyone had a smile on their face but looked distracted. What they really cared about was the work of the Disarmament Working Committee.
Four days ago, the day Yuri was sent to solitary confinement, Stalin had already issued the first draft of the plan for the establishment of the Disarmament Working Committee. Everyone also knew the list of members of the committee and that Yuri had been appointed chairman of the executive bureau.
To be honest, although Stalin was now too authoritarian, there were still many people who held different opinions on this matter, but no one dared to directly oppose it. The root cause was that many of the tasks involved in the Disarmament Working Committee overlapped with the existing departments of the People's Committee.
The overlapping of functions means the question of who will ultimately own the power. The conflict over who will own the power means the redistribution of power, which will inevitably infringe upon the interests of some people and affect their authority.
However, for now, as long as Comrade Stalin has decided on something, even if there are objections, it will not have any effect. What's more, the five-member group of the Disarmament Working Committee is composed of people at the top of the power pyramid in Moscow, and any objections will only be suppressed.
Yuri has no right to participate in the discussions of the presidium members. However, as the chairman of the executive board, he has the right to attend, which is the so-called listening but not the right to speak. This does not mean that he cannot speak, but that he does not have the right to vote.
During the discussion, Stalin would ask him some questions from time to time, and he also specifically mentioned the formation of the Engineering Construction Corps. Comrade Stalin meant that with the end of the war against Germany and the war against Japan that was being prepared, Moscow would definitely become a key coordinate in the world political landscape. He did not like the current appearance of Moscow, which did not even have a fancy skyscraper. Although the city was large, it looked like a town in terms of high-rise buildings.
Of course, as a socialist country, skyscrapers that represent the decadent and corrupt capitalism cannot be built, but it is still necessary to build some high-rise buildings that conform to socialist characteristics.
Comrade Stalin also specifically mentioned the "Palace of Soviets" which was planned to be built at that time but was never realized. His personal suggestion was to make this project the first project to be built by the Engineering Construction Corps.
The so-called Palace of Soviets was a project proposed in 1924 to commemorate the late Lenin. The entire building was planned to be 415 meters high, with the Lenin statue on the top alone being 75 meters high - the Lenin statue is taller than the Statue of Liberty in the United States, and the entire building is taller than the Empire State Building in the United States.
Comrade Stalin attached great importance to this project at the time, and could even be said to be very enthusiastic about it. After the project was finalized, he directly blew up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in order to make room for the project.
As a result, the church was blown up but the Palace of Soviets was not built, and only ruins were left on the original site. Now it seems that Comrade Stalin was still obsessed with this project.
Yuri would never object to the request made by Comrade Stalin. He believed that as long as the newly formed Engineering Construction Corps was given enough time to adjust, it should not be a problem to build such a large project.
When facing this question raised by Stalin, Yuri even thought of the famous "Seven Sisters" in Moscow, which are seven representative buildings in the Stalinist style, including the Ministry of Heavy Industry Building and Moscow State University. Yuri has absolute reason to believe that once the design drawings of these seven buildings are taken out and the concept of "Stalin architectural style" is proposed at the same time, hey, Comrade Stalin should be very happy.
