Chapter 289
Although the Soviet-German War has ended, the smoke of gunpowder has not really left the Soviet territory. This is the reality today.
Over a period of nearly two weeks, Yuri inspected several migration camps in the three Baltic countries, focusing on the disbanding of several ethnic troops in the three countries. He also provided a series of instructions on the expansion of the workers' annihilation battalions in the three countries.
Small-scale fighting took place not only in the three Baltic countries, but also in Western Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Western Belarus and other places, where guerrillas of all shapes and sizes were active. In Poland, especially in eastern Poland, the remnants of the Polish National Army were still resisting stubbornly.
In fact, the current problem in Poland is not just the resistance movement of the National Army, but the anti-Semitism wave that has emerged and is intensifying. The Poles who have just escaped from the clutches of the Germans are now targeting the Jews who have just left the concentration camps. Just last week, a massacre of Jews broke out in Krakow, which is incredible.
Of course, Poland’s problems have nothing to do with Yuri now, and even issues related to the war have nothing to do with him, including the war against Japan that has just broken out in the Far East.
Just last week, after Moscow issued the order to conduct combat operations against Japan, the Soviet Trans-Baikal Front and the 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts launched a full-scale attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army entrenched in Northeast China.
The operational plan was formulated by the General Staff, but not by Yuri . Instead, it was led by Antonov himself, and the commander-in-chief of the battle was Meretskov.
In the initial battle plan, the entire battle was divided into three phases: the first phase was the land combat plan; the second phase was the South Sakhalin Campaign and the landing operations in the Kuril Islands; and the third phase was the Japanese mainland combat plan.
In the first phase of the combat plan, there are three main attack directions: from Trans-Baikal to Xing'an Mountains and Fengtian; from the Heilongjiang coastal area to the Songhua River; and from the Primorsky Krai to Harbin and Jilin.
To ensure the smooth implementation of the campaign, the Soviet army mobilized more than 1.5 million troops, nearly 30,000 artillery and mortars, nearly 5,500 tanks and self-propelled artillery, more than 5,000 aircraft, in addition to hundreds of surface ships.
During this week, the Soviet army's advancement on all fronts was very smooth. If it was in the early days of World War II, the Soviet army's advancement would not have been so smooth. After all, at that time, the Japanese army's individual quality and command ability were much stronger than the Soviet army. But now, with the end of the Soviet-German War, the Soviet army, which was trained in the war against Germany, is no longer the same as before the war, whether it is the individual quality or the command quality of the commanders. However, the Japanese Kwantung Army, due to the drag of the southward route, has completely become a third-rate force.
Furthermore, the gap in weapons and equipment between the two sides was too great. Although the Japanese Zero fighters could maintain their advantage over the Soviet fighters in certain areas, the number of fighters on both sides was too different. To put it bluntly, the Japanese planes were almost drowned by the Soviet aircraft. As for the armored forces... the Japanese tanks and armored vehicles were okay for dealing with the anti-Japanese armed forces in China, but if they were used to deal with the Soviet T-34 or even the Stalin tank, it would be too funny. The scene was no different from the fight between sheep and cattle.
However, in the border battle, the 17 fortified areas built by the Japanese army did cause considerable trouble to the Soviet army. However, by this time after the end of World War II, fortress defense operations were far behind the times. Those huge fortified areas did cause some trouble to the Soviet army, but that was all.
The war in the Far East had nothing to do with Yuri, but the outcome of the battle was related to him because the Executive Bureau had taken over the management of the prisoner-of-war camps. In other words, under Comrade Stalin's order, almost all free labor was managed by the Executive Bureau of the Disarmament Working Committee.
For this purpose, a department similar to the Prison Administration Bureau had to be added to the Executive Bureau's subordinate institutions. This department was under the dual management of the Disarmament Commission Executive Bureau and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, mainly because the Executive Bureau did not have its own internal security forces and lacked the armed forces to manage the prisoner-of-war camps.
…
In Onega Bay, on a patrol gunboat traveling from southeast to northwest, Yuri, dressed in a military uniform, stood quietly at the bow, looking through the morning mist at the hazy land a few hundred meters away.
Although it is already August, this place within the Arctic Circle can still make people feel a little chilly. However, this situation will improve to a certain extent after the sun rises completely.
The land in the mist ahead is the famous Bolshaya Solovki Island, which belongs to the Arkhangelsk Oblast and is one of the six islands in the Solovetsky Islands. In addition to it, there are Bolshaya Muksarma Island, Anzersky Island, Malay Muksarma Island, Zajatskie Island and Piossiy Island.
The reason why Bolshaya Solovetsky Island is famous is, to a certain extent, because it is a trading island. In the old Russian era, the trade here was quite prosperous, and even merchants from Britain came here to trade. As for now, it is because the famous Soviet Solovetsky concentration camp is located on this island.
The Solovetsky concentration camp was once not very famous and was no different from other prisons in the Soviet Union. The real change came in 1933, when a Jew named Naftali Frenkel turned the concentration camp into the freest and richest prison in the entire Soviet Union.
Frenkel was a smuggler who was arrested by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs for illegal entry and was thrown into prison in 1923 for ten years.
This Jew was very business-savvy, and when he was about to be released from prison, he wrote a letter to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs at the time, suggesting that operational reforms be made to concentration camps and prisons throughout the Soviet Union, abolishing the previous education-based reform method and replacing it with labor-based reform.
In other words, prisoners will no longer be arranged to listen to boring and meaningless education classes all day long, but will be made to work outside. In addition, a trade system will be established within the prison. Prisoners will no longer have the right to enjoy free living rations. All will be allocated according to their work. Those who can work and create value can eat well, live well, and even have "life luxuries" such as cigarettes and chocolate. As for those prisoners who cannot work or create value, they can only starve to death in prison.
Frenkel's suggestion was noticed by the devilish Comrade Yagoda, who then introduced him to Comrade Kaganovich. Finally, Frenkel, who was a smuggler, jumped from a prisoner to the director of the Solovetsky concentration camp. In the following years, his career was smooth sailing. Even during the Great Purge, he was not implicated in any way. He also went to Siberia to preside over the construction of the railway and became a genuine official.
To put it bluntly, the labor camp system that continued in the Soviet Union for decades was created by Mr. Frenkel. The reforms he initiated turned prisons into profit-making machines in the Soviet Union over a period of decades. In return, millions of innocent people died while serving their sentences.
Before the outbreak of the war, the composition of the prisoners in the Solovetsky concentration camp was different from that in other concentration camps. Those who could come here for reform and labor were basically so-called political prisoners, often experts, scholars, and people in the literary and artistic circles. As for those criminal offenders, they had no chance to come here.
The gunboat docked at the island's pier. First, two sailors jumped onto the pier and put a cable on the pole. Then, a burly and handsome captain walked onto the pier. Without waiting for him to stand firmly, he turned sideways to support Yuri who was following closely behind.
The captain's name is Magomed, and his full name is Magomed Ivanovich Shchennikov, from Donets. Magomed's grandfather once served in the Cheka Committee and later died at the hands of Dönitz's bandit army, while his father served in the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs and died in the Battle of Kiev in the early days of the Soviet-German War. From this aspect, Magomed is definitely a third-generation red with a good family background, but his starting point is a bit low, and the key is that his grandfather and father are not of high rank.
Magomed himself had been trained in Gazna and was proficient in several skills such as shooting and driving. He was promoted to captain of the Internal Guard years ago.
Arseny eventually left and went to the 2nd Far Eastern Front, where he continued to serve in the 15th Army as commander, and Magomed was his successor. This young man had taken over Yuri's position as captain of the guard.
The core of the Solovetsky concentration camp is the Great Solovetsky Monastery, which became very famous in later generations. However, this monastery has now been completely transformed into part of the prison. With the monastery as the center, the entire island is the labor area and prison area of the concentration camp.
The management of the concentration camp was not strict. The guards did not restrict the prisoners' space for activities. Except for the only dock on the island, the prisoners could go anywhere. If they were capable, they could even swim to the mainland.
Before Yuri came to the concentration camp, the relevant departments had contacted the concentration camp management department. Therefore, when Yuri got off the pier, the concentration camp management staff were already waiting there.
Yuri came here today with two purposes. On the one hand, it was to inspect, because this concentration camp was now under his jurisdiction. On the other hand, it was to take away several prisoners who were very important to a plan he was about to implement.
