Chapter 295
It was already late at night. In Gerlyosha's residence, the door of the study was ajar. Bright light shone through the crack in the door and projected onto the carpeted floor in the living room, turning the originally beige carpet into light gray.
Wearing a silk pajamas, Gerlyosha walked quietly to the door of the study with a tray and peeked into the study through the crack in the door.
Looking through the palm-wide gap in the door, you can see Yuri standing in front of the open window in the study, smoking. He is staring out the window with a serious expression on his face and his brows are tightly furrowed. It is obvious that he is not in a good mood.
Gerlyosha sighed softly, hesitated for a moment, and finally pushed open the door and walked in.
It was raining heavily outside the window, but because of the wind direction, no rain came in through the window. However, the temperature in the study was still a little low. As soon as he walked into the door, Gerlyosha couldn't help shivering.
Seeing Yuri standing in front of the window in his pajamas, she hurriedly put the tray with a glass of milk on the desk, picked up Yuri's coat from the back of the chair behind the desk, went over to put it on his back, put her hands on his shoulders, and whispered, "Be careful not to catch a cold."
Yuri didn't say anything, but turned his head and smiled at her, then reached out and patted the back of her hand, then said: "You go to bed first, don't wait for me, I still have work to do."
Gerlyosha nodded, glanced at the cigarette in his other hand, and said, "I've poured you a glass of milk, remember to drink it later, and smoke less, it's not good for your health."
Yuri smiled and nodded, then turned his gaze and looked out the window again.
It was dark outside the window, with only scattered lights across the street. It was not very clear in the heavy rain, and it was hazy. Naturally, there was nothing to see. However, Gerlyosha knew that her man was not looking at the night view.
Although Yuri never talked to her about work, Gerlyosha could still see that he was in a bad mood today. Without asking, it must be because of work, which made Gerlyosha feel scared.
In the past, Gerlyosha was at a relatively low level and she didn't understand the affairs of these upper-class people, let alone what their lives were like. But after following Yuri for such a long time, even though Yuri seldom talked to her about these things, she still learned a lot from some of the people she came into contact with in daily life.
She knew that these high-ranking figures were not as glamorous as they appeared. Compared with ordinary people, although their lives were rich, they came at the cost of peace, which also caused her a lot of worries.
Although Yuri is unlikely to marry her, Gerlyosha is still very satisfied with her current life. She doesn't want anything to happen to Yuri. On this point, she is absolutely sincere. Unfortunately , this matter is not something she can control, nor can it be changed by her will.
Leaning over and kissing Yuri on the face, Gerlyosha walked out of the study with a lot on her mind. For her, this was also a very difficult night.
In the study, the cigarette in Yuri's hand was about to burn out. He took a deep breath and threw the already hot cigarette butt out of the window. Then he turned back to the desk, took a stack of special letterheads for the General Staff and placed it on the table. After a slight hesitation, he finally sat down on the chair and picked up the pen at hand.
The outline of the article provided by Bulganin was placed on the right hand side. In addition, there was another document also provided by Bulganin on the left hand side.
Needless to say, Yuri had already read the outline of the article carefully during the day. The other document was a meeting memorandum, a record of the speeches at a previous meeting of the People's Commissariat of Defense.
The meeting was held a week ago. Participants included the heads of the party and military departments such as Stalin, Bulganin, Zhukov, Antonov, and Kuznetsov. The issue discussed was how to restore the system of dual leadership of commanders and political commissars within the Soviet Red Army system.
In fact, the political commissar system has existed since the day the Soviet Red Army was established. Its purpose is to ensure the absolute leadership of the Bolshevik Party over the army. Under this system, the decisions made by the commanders need to be approved by the political commissar, who has an absolute veto over the command decisions.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, due to the rapidly changing battlefield situation and heavy losses of troops, incidents such as the sacrifice of commanders and political commissars occurred frequently. In order to simplify the command procedures and facilitate concentrated combat , at the suggestion of Zhukov, the People's Commissariat of Defense abolished the dual leadership system of the troops, and the role of the political commissar was greatly weakened.
Now that the war is over, Bulganin, as the head of the General Political Department, proposed to re-establish the political commissar system in the Soviet military system and restore the dual leadership system.
As for Stalin, he obviously agreed with this opinion. In fact, fundamentally speaking, establishing the Bolshevik Party's absolute control over the army through the political commissar system is also in line with the Bolshevik Party Constitution and even the Soviet Constitution. There is no doubt about this.
Of course, from the perspective of military command, the dual leadership system definitely has certain problems. No matter when, it is much better to have one order than two orders. At least it saves a lot of trouble.
But in terms of stance, people always have to stick to principles and standpoints. At certain times, when dealing with certain issues, one cannot simply follow a convenient principle. Just like the political commissar system, the role of political commissars can be weakened during wartime, but in peacetime, when there is no large-scale war, dual leadership is of course safer. In the Soviet state, the party's leadership over the army is a vital part of maintaining national stability.
If Yuri had attended the meeting at that time, he would definitely support Bulganin's position without hesitation and would absolutely agree to restore the status of the political commissar system.
Even if we put aside the issue of his position as a Bolshevik Party member , he would have done so purely from a personal perspective. Why? Because as a general with great prestige in the army, he had to avoid suspicion. This is called talking about politics.
However, according to the minutes of the meeting, Comrade Zhukov clearly disagreed with this principle at the meeting that day. He firmly opposed the restoration of the status of the political commissar system, especially the re-implementation of the political commissar decision-making system in the army. He even used the just-concluded Great Patriotic War as an example, claiming that in 1941, if the dual leadership system of commanders and political commissars had not been abolished under his proposal, the war would not have been won.
When Yuri saw these speeches in the meeting minutes, he felt a little unbelievable. He could not imagine how , or how dry his political mind was, to say such words in front of Comrade Stalin.
Regardless of whether opposing the restoration of the political commissar system violated the leadership principles of the Bolshevik Party, just look at this sentence, make it a shortened sentence, remove the modifying adverbials and complements, and its main body becomes Zhukov decided the victory of the Patriotic War. Damn, Stalin didn't want to hear this, even Yuri himself felt bad after reading it.
Apart from this point, let’s take a look at what kind of impression Comrade Zhukov will have on others if he holds this position.
Comrade Zhukov currently serves as the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Army Group in Germany and the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Army in Europe. He directly and indirectly controls nearly three million troops, all of which are elite troops that have experienced the test of the Great Patriotic War. Previously, he did not agree to the disbanding of troops stationed in Eastern Europe, and now he opposes the reconstruction of the political commissar system. In addition, since taking office in Berlin, he has frequently contacted senior generals, well-known journalists and media from Western countries such as Britain and the United States. During this period, he not only accepted a series of medals and awards awarded by Western countries, but also accepted a large number of gifts, many of which were expensive gifts.
All these things piled up together. If Comrade Beria came to his door and asked him what he wanted to do, he probably wouldn't be able to explain it clearly.
Of course, Yuri knew very well that Comrade Zhukov would not prepare for a rebellion, nor did he have the ability to do so. Even if he had a high reputation in the army, once he was ready to launch a coup, not many people would choose to stand on his side. But the problem was that this was not a question of rebellion or not, but a political struggle.
Once you get involved in a political struggle, you can't let others catch you easily, especially not let others catch you in a fatal way. Yuri thought he was not very good at political struggle, so he chose to join Khrushchev early on. At the same time, he was also working hard on having affairs with men and women, just to avoid being targeted by others.
What about Comrade Zhukov? He tried his best to take credit for himself during the war, and when the war was over, he began to show off his achievements. He had a large army, but he didn't know how to be cautious in his words and deeds. He said whatever he wanted. He wanted to intervene in military affairs and wanted to intervene in political affairs. He contacted foreign forces more frequently than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received more foreign gifts than Molotov.
This... is really a nine-tailed fox. However, nine-tailed foxes are cunning and intelligent. This nine-tailed fox simply has nine big tails, which are specially raised to be caught by others. Moreover, if anyone is caught by any one of them, his life can be easily taken.
For such a person, it is difficult for Yuri to make any other evaluation except to admire his full ability to commit suicide.
With a soft sigh, Yuri stopped thinking about it and started writing his article.
