Chapter 315
Comrade Stalin arrived at the wedding at 10:30 in the morning, accompanied by Comrade Molotov, who was in charge of foreign affairs, and Gromyko, who had just returned from the United States. In addition to these three people, there was also a young man in his twenties named Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin, who seemed to be a guy that Molotov valued very much.
Of course, if Yuri knew more about Soviet history, no, it should be said that he knew more about history, he would know how outstanding this young man would perform in the future. This person would become a very important role in the history of Soviet diplomacy. He made a big contribution to the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Most importantly, this guy lived long enough and died in 2010.
With the arrival of Comrade Stalin, the wedding officially began. The whole process was very simple. Sherbakov invited Anteliya and her daughter out of the villa, then took Anteliya's hand and handed her to Yuri, and then gave him a blessing. Of course, the main process was the blessing of the guests. Several main guests on the scene, including Comrade Stalin, gave their blessings to the newlyweds.
Throughout the entire wedding, Angelica seemed very excited. Of course, she seemed to have reason to be excited. After all, in the entire history of the Soviet Union, there were not many people who could receive so many blessings during a wedding. No, it should be said that there were not many people who could receive blessings of this "level". To be precise, there was not even one.
The main reason for this is that there are too few people like Yuri. There are not many people who can climb to this position at such a young age as him, and he is the only one who has reached this position but is still unmarried.
After the basic process was completed, at Sherbakov's suggestion, all the guests took a group photo. When the spotlight flashed, this commemorative photo was preserved. The reason why it is meaningful is that this photo includes all the members of the presidium elected at the 19th Congress of the CPSU.
The drizzle finally stopped around eleven o'clock. Comrade Stalin suggested that the members of the Disarmament Working Committee meet here to briefly review the recent work progress.
The service staff of the villa area placed more than a dozen chairs on the southernmost side of the lawn. Including Yuri, everyone involved got some food for themselves, found a chair to sit down, and participated in the meeting by chatting.
Working under Comrade Stalin was not an easy job. The old man never minded promoting young people. In fact, in real work, as long as it did not threaten his personal authority, he did not mind others opposing his opinions. But the key point was that he was very good at surprise attacks. He would suddenly ask about work matters when he remembered. Once someone could not answer, or even answered poorly , it was probably time for trouble. Even if there was no problem at that time, he would label him as "incompetent" in his mind.
Yes, Comrade Stalin never gave face to anyone. As long as someone left him with the impression of incompetence, he would embarrass the other person regardless of the occasion, using sarcasm, scolding, and so on. He was a typical example of simplicity and brutality.
As early as when he served as the Minister of Operations, Yuri was very clear about Stalin's character, so his vigilance was high enough. As long as it was the work he was responsible for, whether it was data or actual work progress, he kept it firmly in mind.
It is not easy for anyone to do this, but it is not impossible. For an official, it is a must. Otherwise, if you do not understand or know the things within your job scope, how can you enjoy the treatment commensurate with your position? Just because you can take notes and read scripts? Then I guess all announcers are qualified to join the presidium.
After all, it was not a formal work meeting, but more like a casual chat at a dinner party, so the conversation was very casual.
In the Soviet Union today, whether it is the core leadership or the middle leadership, the atmosphere itself is not so tense. It is not like what the Western countries described later, where there is a fierce struggle every moment, full of intrigues and deceptions, and everyone wants to kill everyone they see. If that were the case, the Soviet Union's national construction would not be able to be achieved.
Basically, any political struggle with a greater impact occurs when there is a change of leadership, and for ordinary people who have almost zero access to core information, they do not feel any tension.
Even for someone like Yuri, as long as he does the job he is responsible for, he should not think too much and worry about who will come to mess with him. After all, there is Comrade Stalin above him. If he does not want to harm anyone, others cannot cause any trouble.
In a casual way, Yuri talked about the recent specific work of the Executive Bureau, such as: the progress of uranium mining in Western Ukraine and Central Asia, how many prisoners of war and materials the Executive Bureau has invested, and what achievements it has made; the progress of the three secret cities currently under construction; the progress of the development of the Pripyat River Basin; the resettlement of disabled soldiers, etc. Although there are many tasks that do not belong to the two general bureaus under Yuri's specific jurisdiction, he is the chairman of the Executive Bureau, and he must have a clear idea of the work of each general bureau and be able to explain it one by one, otherwise, why is he the chairman?
For Yuri, he not only talks about work progress and gives data, but also occasionally, he will make some new suggestions based on certain problems that arise in the current work. For example, on the issue of the treatment of prisoners of war, his proposal is to keep these people fed as much as possible, while at the same time, ensuring basic medical and health conditions. After all, in the previous stage of work, the loss of prisoners of war was somewhat large, which is very unfavorable to the development of a series of construction work.
When Yuri was speaking, all the members present listened very carefully, because it also involved their work. Comrade Stalin also listened very carefully. Of course, his main concern now was the mining of uranium, which was the top priority of the current work.
On those issues that he was particularly concerned about, Comrade Stalin would always raise some questions. In some places, he asked in detail, while in others, he just asked in passing. However, no matter how detailed his questions were, Yuri would give an answer without hesitation. It can be seen that Comrade Stalin was very satisfied with his performance.
After discussing the work of the Disarmament Committee, Stalin turned his attention to issues in the Far East, but not about Japan, but about the Korean Peninsula.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is also very complicated. At present, there are three governments on the entire Korean Peninsula: in addition to North Korea supported by China and the Soviet Union, there are two governments in South Korea, which is controlled by the Americans according to the previous agreement. One is the Kim Gu Provisional Government supported by the Chinese Kuomintang government, and the other is the Syngman Rhee Provisional Government that fled back to South Korea from the United States.
As far as the current situation is concerned, North Korea is relatively stable, and the work of forming a government is progressing steadily. Although there are some minor problems, they do not affect the overall situation. However, the problem of South Korea is complicated. Its complexity lies not only in the struggle between Lee Seung-man and Kim Gu, but also in the nationalist sentiment that is increasingly incited by Kim Gu's provisional government.
The division of the Korean Peninsula into North and South and the decision to place them under separate trusteeships were agreements reached between the Soviet Union and the United States. In other words, it had been agreed long ago that the Soviet Union would take over trusteeship of North Korea and the United States would take over trusteeship of South Korea. As for the North Koreans' own ideas, they were not important at all.
As for the South Korean government leader, Washington favored Kim Gu, because the Liberation Army in South Korea was mainly commanded by the provisional government led by Kim Gu, which had high support on the Korean Peninsula. As for Syngman Rhee, no one in the world was optimistic about him, and he lacked a sense of presence on the Korean Peninsula.
But Kim Gu was not very honest after returning to the Korean Peninsula. He explicitly opposed the trusteeship agreement reached by the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom on the Korean Peninsula, and even stirred up public opinion in North Korea and launched the so-called "anti-trusteeship movement." In addition, he also opposed the division of the Korean Peninsula into North and South, and insisted on unifying the Korean Peninsula and establishing a completely independent country covering the entire Korean Peninsula.
In order to achieve this goal, Kim Gu not only united Kim Kyu-sik, Ryu Yun-hyung and others who leaned to the left, but also put forward the slogan of negotiating and negotiating with North Korea. The secret envoy he sent arrived in Moscow two days ago with the purpose of gaining Moscow's support. After all, the United States currently lacks a military presence in South Korea.
Fundamentally speaking, this proposal is still very tempting to the Soviet Union, but the key point is that Moscow is not ready to confront the United States at present, and it can even be said that it has no such idea. Therefore, Moscow's attitude is to ignore the relevant suggestions put forward by the Kim Koo government and at the same time, curb any plan of North Korea to advance to the south.
Yuri had no say in similar issues. He was only qualified to attend the meeting, but he had no right to make suggestions. Of course, even if he had the power to make suggestions, he could not raise objections. As a senior official with a military background, he knew very well that the Soviet Union was still far behind the Americans in terms of military strength, not to mention its comprehensive national strength.
