Chapter 320
In front of the stairs at the door, Yuri chatted with Vasilevsky for a few words. When Kryuchkov, carrying a bag, caught up from behind, the two ended their conversation. Then, Yuri went up the stairs, went straight into the building, and rushed to Comrade Stalin's office.
There were not many people in the corridor on the second floor. It was not as busy as usual, but it was as quiet as usual.
Yuri went directly to Poskrebyshev's office, but Comrade Stalin's chief secretary was not in his own office. Instead, a guy in military uniform was standing by the window smoking.
When Yuri walked in, the man turned around, revealing a round face with a big mustache.
"Hey, Ivan, why are you here?" Yuri said with a smile on his face, closing the door casually.
The man standing by the window smoking was Baghramyan, who had once commanded operations beside Yuri. After the surrender of the German army in the Courland Peninsula, he was responsible for the establishment of the Baltic Military District. Now, he is the commander of this military district.
Seeing Yuri appear in the office, a trace of embarrassment flashed across Baghramyan's face, but he immediately put out his cigarette and said as he came forward: "I received an order yesterday to rush back to report the situation in the military region to Comrade Stalin. By the way...by the way, I gave Comrade Stalin some suggestions on Comrade Zhukov's problem."
"Oh?" Yuri shook hands with him and asked without any emotion, "It's probably not a good idea to discuss this issue with Comrade Stalin right now. How is it? Did you gain anything?"
Baghramyan shook his head, hesitated for a moment, and said, "I was asked to come to this room to carefully consider my position."
Yuri didn't say anything else. He squeezed the other's hand hard and sighed softly when he let go.
Yes, just now when they were downstairs, Zhukov behaved so rudely, but Yuri didn't care at all. The reason for this was very simple, that is, he could fully understand the mood of the Marshal at the moment.
Just before winter, Comrade Zhukov once again expressed his views on the disarmament issue. He was very dissatisfied with some of the arrangements made by the Disarmament Commission in the disarmament work, especially the arrangements for retired commanders. The worst thing was that he made this statement when he was interviewed by American reporters. Therefore, the Washington Post made a special headline on the front page and exaggerated his statement in the newspaper.
Comrade Stalin was extremely furious at Zhukov's behavior. After enduring for more than half a year, Comrade Stalin finally decided not to tolerate it any longer. He brought Zhukov back to Moscow and asked him to stay at home and reflect on his mistakes.
Of course, confinement was obviously not the ultimate means of dealing with Zhukov. Initially, Comrade Stalin intended to send this arrogant guy to prison, and Comrade Beria even prepared the relevant materials.
However, during the years of war, Zhukov had accumulated enough reputation for himself. Of course, there were people who were hostile to him in the military system, but more people still admired him. Moreover, in the eyes of almost everyone, it was too much to fabricate a lot of charges against a person like Zhukov and then put him in prison. Therefore, many people defended and spoke for Zhukov, including some people who had grudges against him.
In this way, Zhukov was eventually labeled as corrupt - this was not really an accusation, but a true statement of facts. After all, he did accept a lot of gifts and presents, and most of them came from Western countries.
The final decision of the Central Committee on Comrade Zhukov, made through a decision made personally by Comrade Stalin, was to remove him from his posts as Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Army in Germany and Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Army, cancel his qualifications as a member of the Central Committee and a member of the Council of People's Commissars, and transfer him to Ukraine to serve as Commander of the Odessa Military District.
Today's Soviet Union is not the later era. In Ukraine, there are several military regions of various sizes, and among them, the Kiev Military District is a general military district. As for the Odessa Military District... If you make an analogy, you can imagine it as a sub-military district under a large military district in the country.
Comrade Zhukov fell directly from the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Army to the position of commander of an inconspicuous small military district. The gap was so great that it was estimated that most people could not bear it.
Even so, Comrade Stalin did not think of letting him go. Why did the Central Supervisory Committee make such a big move during this period of time? The reason was Zhukov's corruption, which was truly heartbreaking.
All in all, Comrade Zhukov has been in a very embarrassing situation in recent times. After several years of high spirits, he suddenly ended up like this. It would be strange if he was in a good mood.
Not many people really stood up and spoke out about Zhukov's dismissal. Yuri did not expect that Baghramyan would still be obsessed with this issue until now. He probably really pissed off Comrade Stalin.
However, if you think about it carefully, this is not difficult to understand. After all, Baghramyan has a close relationship with Zhukov, and he is...how to put it, he is the kind of low-key but stubborn person.
After a brief chat with Baghramyan, the office door was pushed open again and the bald Poskrebyshev walked in.
"Hey, Yuri, " Poskrebyshev said, greeting Yuri first, "Comrade Stalin is waiting for you."
After a pause, he turned to Baghramyan and said, "Comrade Ivan Khristoforovich , Comrade Stalin asks you to go back immediately. Your main task now is to handle the work at hand and not to interfere with the decisions made by the Presidium of the Central Committee."
After saying that, he turned around, smiled and said to Yuri: "Come on, Yuri, let's go there now."
Yuri looked at Baghramyan with some sympathy, then turned around and followed Poskrebyshev out of the office. In his opinion, Baghramyan should be relatively lucky, at least Comrade Stalin did not do anything to him, and now sending him away may not be a sign of letting him go.
Following Poskrebyshev out of the office, Yuri took his briefcase from Kryuchkov who was waiting in the corridor and entered Stalin's office.
When Yuri walked into Stalin's office, he saw a man standing in front of Stalin's desk, talking to Stalin, who was sitting behind the desk smoking a pipe. The man was thin, wearing a gray Lenin suit, with messy hair on his long head, looking unkempt, and his thin face was full of wrinkles, giving people a feeling of deep hatred.
Seeing Yuri following Poskrebyshev in, the man smiled and nodded at Yuri as a greeting.
Yuri knew this person, but they had never dealt with each other. He was the current Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan, Muraval Shagadaev.
Don't underestimate this man. He is very popular in Tajikistan. To put it bluntly, he is the most prestigious person in Tajikistan since Abdurrahim Khodzhabaev was purged in 1938.
In Moscow, many people dislike this guy, including Comrade Stalin, but this does not prevent him from continuing to sit in the position of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan. The fundamental reason is that he can handle all the affairs in Tajikistan.
Don't think that in the Soviet Union during Stalin's era, the power core in Moscow could settle all the affairs of the union republics. That is impossible. Centrifugal tendencies exist not only in Ukraine and the three Baltic countries. It can be said that among all the dozen or so union republics, except Belarus, almost all countries have a certain degree of centrifugal tendencies, but the centrifugal sentiments vary in severity.
What Comrade Stalin discussed with Shagadaev was the issue of food distribution. Taking into account the current actual situation in Tajikistan, Shagadaev hoped that Moscow could allocate 200,000 tons of food to his country.
In fact, among all the Soviet republics, the centrifugal tendency of the five Central Asian countries should be the lowest. The reason is very simple. They need a lot of economic assistance from the Soviet Union, the most important of which is food.
Take Tajikistan as an example. Nine-tenths of its territory is mountainous, and the area truly suitable for growing grain is less than one-tenth of the area. Even in the few plain areas, the soil is not very good, and it is more reliable to grow cotton and fruit than grain.
According to last year's data, Tajikistan 's annual grain production is only 140,000 tons. It is undoubtedly a dream to rely on this grain to feed its 3 to 4 million people. Therefore, they need food allocated by Moscow to survive.
The Soviet Union's policy has always been to collect large amounts of grain from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other republics, and then distribute them uniformly, a large part of which was sent to the five Central Asian countries.
It is precisely because of this that, in the early stages of the Soviet Union's disintegration, all the republics were clamoring to separate, but the five Central Asian countries remained silent. There was nothing they could do about it; they were just a group of poor relatives, and they didn't even have the confidence to speak out.
Listening to the conversation between Comrade Stalin and Shagadaev, Yuri had only one thought in his mind: Comrade Kaganovich's life will probably become increasingly difficult. Tajikistan needs food, and the remaining countries in Central Asia must also be the same. In this case, if Ukraine cannot produce a good harvest next year, Comrade Ka will definitely be in trouble.
