Chapter 292
As August approaches, Moscow's summer heat has fully manifested itself, especially in the afternoon. Not only is the temperature high, but it is also hot and humid. The cicadas in the trees outside the building are chirping non-stop, which makes people feel more irritated in addition to the stuffiness.
In the not very spacious office, Yuri stood in front of the air conditioner for a while, blowing away the boredom in his heart, then turned around and looked at the two guys sitting on the sofa.
Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov, People's Commissar of Armament of the USSR. Well, to be precise, he should be the People's Commissariat of Armament of the USSR Council of People's Commissars, which is roughly equivalent to the director of a department under the State Council.
In the just-concluded Soviet-German War, Comrade Ustinov worked diligently and conscientiously, and made outstanding achievements in the post of supervising the production of weapons and equipment, for which he was praised by Comrade Stalin. After the establishment of the Disarmament Working Committee, he was appointed Director of the Third Directorate of the Executive Bureau, and concurrently served as Chairman of the People's Commissariat of Weapons and Equipment of the People's Committee.
The other one was an old lady who looked to be over fifty years old. She had a donkey face, which was long and wrinkled, and she looked like she had suffered a lot and had a deep hatred. Moreover, this girl had been silent since she entered the door, without saying a word. All of Yuri's questions were answered by Ustinov.
The old lady's name is Olga, Olga Grigorievna Shatunovskaya, a senior member of the Bolshevik Party, who had participated in the revolution before the October Revolution and had a very good relationship with Comrade Kirov. After Kirov's death, she was involved in a bad case. Fortunately, she was not executed, but kicked to Kolyma. She did not return to Moscow until last month.
Logically speaking, this old lady should not have had the opportunity to return to Moscow, but I don't know how Comrade Stalin remembered her. Not only did he transfer her back to Moscow, but he also made her the vice chairman of the Supervisory Committee. At the same time, he also served as the chairman of the Sixth Bureau of the Executive Bureau of the Disarmament Working Committee, that is, the Institutional Guarantee Bureau.
So far, only these two people have taken office among the nine directors of the Executive Bureau. As the head of the Executive Bureau, Yuri himself also serves as the chairman of the eighth and ninth general bureaus. In other words, the chairmen of five general bureaus are still not in office.
As the head of the Executive Bureau, Yuri was also having a headache. Looking at the two guys in front of him, Ustinov was a little easier to deal with, as he was less than 40 years old and not much older than him. But Olga was different. She was a revolutionary of the same generation as Stalin and Lenin, and her qualifications were older than Khrushchev. Who was leading whom when such a person was assigned to the Executive Bureau?
Fortunately, the old lady was only the chairman of the Sixth General Bureau, which was not a critical department, otherwise Yuri would have had even more headaches.
Today's small-scale meeting is just to make everyone familiar with each other. There is nothing too important. In addition, Yuri needs to leave Moscow and go to the Far East in the next two days. He needs to hand over . He hopes that Ustinov can stay in Moscow and handle the daily affairs of the Executive Bureau.
The sudden ringing of the phone interrupted Yuri's newly adjusted train of thought. He waved at the two of them and said, "That's it for now. If there is anything specific, I will make arrangements."
After saying this, he reached out and picked up the phone receiver.
"Come to my office," Stalin's voice came from the phone before Yuri could speak, his tone heavy and serious.
"Okay, Comrade Stalin," Yuri stood up straight and said subconsciously.
The phone was hung up quickly without any further ado.
Yuri looked at the microphone, his eyes swept over the two people opposite him, and waited until the two got up and went out. Then he put down the microphone, took the military jacket on the hanger and put it on, put on the military cap, and walked out.
After leaving the office, Yuri did not go upstairs directly. Instead, he went to the next room first and told Kryuchkov to find someone to fix the air conditioner in the office. No one knew what was wrong with the damn air conditioner. Not only did the noise become louder, but the cooling effect was also poor.
To be honest, the office conditions in the Kremlin are not that good, especially the office building where Comrade Stalin is located. The problem of aging equipment is very serious.
Comrade Stalin had the habit of working at night and sleeping during the day. As long as he was in the Kremlin, any construction work could not be done. Only when he went to Kuntsevo could the technical workers use the limited time to do some repair work.
He went up the stairs to the second floor and went straight to Comrade Stalin's office. He had been working here during this period. When Yuri went to see Stalin, he would no longer queue up, but would just go and knock on the door. As long as there was no important person in the office, he would be the first to talk about his own things.
Today, since it was Comrade Stalin who called him, he would not wait any longer.
Pushing open the double door of the office, in addition to Comrade Stalin, there were also Voroshilov, Timoshenko, Budyonny, Antonov, and Vasilevsky. In addition to these people, there was a guy sitting in a wheelchair near the window.
The guy in the wheelchair is quite impressive. Although he doesn't have much hair and even has one leg missing, he is one of the most senior and experienced generals in the Soviet Navy, and his talents are widely recognized.
Not long ago, this man was just appointed as the Chief of the Navy General Staff. It is said that when this appointment was proposed, it was Stalin who called him personally. He refused on the grounds that he was "disabled" and had lost a leg. However, Stalin said to him: The previous Chief of the Navy Staff did not even have a brain but still worked as usual, so his lack of a leg was nothing.
That’s right, this person is Ivan Stepanovich Isakov, one of the most powerful figures in the current Soviet naval general system.
Unlike the situation in Japan during World War II, and of course, unlike the situation in the Americans, the Soviet Navy has always been a combat branch subordinate to the Army. This is related to the Soviet national military strategy, because the Soviet Union's ambitions have always been on the Eurasian continent and have never expanded to the ocean.
This is not to say that the Soviet Union did not yearn to conquer the ocean, but that it never had the time to do so. If we count back in time, we will know that since the victory of the October Revolution, the Soviet Union has never stopped fighting wars on the continent, so how could it have the energy to conquer the ocean?
As soon as he saw the situation in the office, Yuri knew what Stalin asked him to do today. It must be related to the ongoing war in the Far East, probably about landing on the Japanese mainland.
After entering the office, Yuri first saluted Stalin who was standing beside the desk, then turned around and closed the door.
The whole office seemed to be waiting for Yuri to arrive. After he closed the door, Stalin tapped his pipe twice on the ashtray, turned his eyes to Antonov, and said, "Let's start, Comrade Alexei Innokentyevich."
Antonov nodded, walked to the wall where the military map was originally hung, and turned on the newly purchased projector .
Timoshenko walked to the window and drew the curtains on several windows.
Soon, an aerial photo appeared on the projection screen. The picture was not very clear, but it was still possible to distinguish that it was an aerial photo of the port.
"This is a photo taken by the 2nd Far Eastern Front Air Force two days ago showing the ships moored at the Danguanwan Naval Port," Antonov said, standing in front of the screen. "According to intelligence provided by the United States, in order to respond to our actions in the East China Sea and Bohai Sea, the Japanese army recently mobilized a part of its Pacific Fleet to return to the Danguanwan Naval Port. The fleet includes three battleships, two cruisers, 14 destroyers, and an unknown number of submarines."
With a click, the picture on the screen changed, and an aerial image of the airport appeared. Antonov went on to say, "In addition, in Hokkaido and the main islands, the Japanese shore-based aviation force has about 900 fighter planes."
The pictures changed one by one, and at the same time, Antonov said: "The existence of these armed forces poses a huge threat to our landing operations, especially in the navy. Our fleet is not enough to deal with the Japanese home fleet."
At this point, the image on the screen suddenly changed to a document in Russian, but it came from the US Embassy in Moscow.
"In addition, we just received a note from the United States," Antonov glanced at Stalin , and said, "Washington has clearly stated that it hopes that the scope of our army's attack will end at the Russo-Japanese demarcation line in the old Russian era. The demarcation line extends eastward. The area north of the demarcation line is controlled by our side, and the area south of the demarcation line is controlled by the US military."
Yuri also glanced at where Stalin was standing, but because of the dim light, he couldn't see Stalin's expression.
The so-called Russo-Japanese demarcation line was mainly aimed at North Korea. This demarcation line was the famous "38th Parallel" in later generations. According to the original Russo-Japanese secret agreement, the area north of this line was controlled by Russia, and the area south of this line was controlled by Japan.
The Americans say that this line extends eastward, and the range to the north includes Sakhalin and the Southern Kuril Islands, but South Korea and mainland Japan are obviously not within this range.
Yuri didn't know how the Soviet Union and the United States negotiated in the previous life, but at this moment, it seemed that the Soviet Union would obviously not agree to such conditions, because the entire Korean Peninsula was currently within the Soviet army's sweeping range.
Because of some changes in the evolution of history, it was only August 1944 at this time. In other words, compared with the history of the previous life, the Soviet-German War ended more than a year earlier, and the Soviet Union launched the war against Japan more than a year earlier.
