Chapter 345
Of course, in front of Comrade Stalin and several members of the Central Presidium, Yuri would only choose to elaborate on the contents that had already been determined on paper. As for his own speculations, judgments, or suggestions, he would not say them out. After all, he was not a decision maker, but only an executor. What he needed to do was to complete his tasks, not to give any opinions or suggestions to the decision makers.
The office was very quiet. Only Yuri was giving a report. The rest of the people were listening carefully, or at least on the surface. Only after Yuri had finished presenting the entire content did Comrade Stalin briefly ask a few questions and then point towards his desk. It seemed that there was something on the desk that he needed to see.
Yuri glanced at the doctor who was measuring Comrade Stalin's blood pressure, turned and walked to the desk, only to see a photocopied publication on it. Just by looking at the cover of the publication, Yuri knew that this thing came from the United States.
That’s right, this is a school magazine launched by the United States Army War College in July. The writers of the college named this issue of the school magazine “Special Issue on World War II Battle Cases”. This thick publication lists a series of classic battle examples that occurred in World War II.
These classic battles are judged and ranked from the American perspective, and the battle ranked first in terms of influence is the Normandy Landing. Montgomery was rated by this publication as the Allied general with the greatest influence on World War II because of his command of this battle.
The second place was the Battle of Moscow. The reason given by the Americans was that this battle reversed the situation on the Soviet-German battlefield. The Soviets switched from strategic defense to strategic offense starting from this battle. Zhukov was rated as the second most influential Allied general in World War II by the publication because he commanded this battle and ultimately won the victory.
The third place is the Battle of Stalingrad. The reason for it being on the list is that after this battle, the German army basically lost the ability to take the initiative to attack and was forced to switch to strategic defense. The commander of this battle was still Zhukov. At the same time, when introducing this battle, the publication specifically mentioned Yuri, who was just beginning to show his talent, and believed that it was this battle that laid the foundation for Yuri, the youngest and most outstanding senior commander in World War II, to have a command style: calm and tenacious.
The fourth place is the Belarusian Campaign commanded by Yuri. The reason for the list is that it completely destroyed the Germans' will to resist and directly closed the coffin lid of the German Third Reich. It was equivalent to directly breaking the backbone of the Germans. From then on, the Germans could not fight a decent counterattack. It was because of the command of this battle that Yuri was rated by the publication as the third most influential Allied general in World War II.
Then came the Pearl Harbor attack, and the general on the list was Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet...
Yuri flipped through the publication from front to back and found that Mr. MacArthur was ranked last. Ahead of him were a series of generals such as Rommel, Guderian, Eisenhower, etc. The domineering General MacArthur was ranked only about 14th or 15th. It was really embarrassing. This was a publication of the United States Military Academy.
Although this thing looked very satisfying, Yuri did not pay too much attention to it. He just glanced through it quickly, put the publication back on the table, and turned to look at Stalin who had just stood up from the sofa.
"How is it?" Comrade Stalin looked at him with interest and smiled, "What do you think?"
What does this mean? Yuri was a little suspicious, but he reacted quickly without hesitation. He smiled and said, "Americans always like to exaggerate, but they are also self-contradictory. In their view, the opening of the second front is the most important in the entire war against Germany, so the importance of the Normandy Landing Campaign is placed first. But later, the importance of the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad were emphasized. One reversed the offensive and defensive situation of the Soviet-German War, and the other made the Germans switch from offense to defense. The Battle of Belarus closed the coffin for the Germans. So what is the importance of the Battle of Normandy? Carrying the coffin?"
His words made everyone in the room laugh. Comrade Stalin also chuckled, and the topic was changed. Yuri secretly broke out in a cold sweat, because the key point was that the question raised by Comrade Stalin was really difficult to answer.
Comrade Stalin seemed to have put the matter aside after changing the subject. He raised some issues regarding the work of the Executive Bureau, mainly focusing on the fact that after Yuri came back, the work of the Executive Bureau should be picked up as soon as possible, especially the supply of materials for nuclear weapons research and development and the construction progress of the Palace of Soviets.
In total, the conversation lasted no more than twenty minutes. Seeing that the senior leaders seemed to have some work to discuss, Yuri prepared to say goodbye and leave after reporting his work and answering Comrade Stalin's questions.
"Yuri," Beria, who had never spoken, suddenly said as Yuri was about to leave the office, "If you don't have anything special to do, you can go to Lubyanka and go to the Personnel Bureau for a routine political review. They will mainly ask about your personal experience during several time periods, and you need to supplement it."
Yuri's heart suddenly rose, but he didn't show any panic on his face. He just nodded to Belia and said, "Then I'll go now."
Beria was sitting on the sofa next to Stalin's desk. When he saw Yuri's gaze, he smiled, pushed his eyes upwards, and then turned his gaze to Comrade Stalin.
Yuri did not stay any longer, nor did he dare to look at Comrade Stalin's expression. He turned around and walked out of the office.
Slowly closing the double doors of the office, Yuri turned around, took a deep breath and calmed himself down. When Beria had just told him to go to the Lubyanka for political review, he broke out in a cold sweat. You know, in the past few years, countless people were recruited to the Lubyanka by this order and never came out again.
However, when he calmed down, he realized that this political review should not be a bad thing, otherwise he would not have the opportunity to enter Comrade Stalin's office today.
Just now Beria said it was a "routine" political review, and that I needed to supplement my personal experiences from several time periods... Yuri walked in the corridor until he went down the stairs, thinking about these words in his mind.
The NKVD does have regular political reviews, but these reviews are usually conducted without notifying the person being reviewed, and most of them are secret reviews. In addition, it is strange to add some personal experiences in several time periods, because Yuri's personal experience should not have any blank parts. From his predecessor to his rebirth in this world, the life experience of each time period is very clear and can be found in the archives.
Therefore, what Beria said about supplementing his personal experiences in several time periods should be a very targeted review, which requires him to make a clear explanation of a certain vague time period and may even require him to provide witnesses.
Generally speaking, in the Soviet Union, personal political review would not be so strict. To be more specific, there are only three situations in which such strict review will occur: first, when measures are being taken against the person under review, that is, when someone is to be brought down, this method will be used to pick on faults; second, before arranging any important top-secret tasks for the person under review, this process is necessary, after all, it is necessary to confirm whether the person under review can be really trusted; third, when the person under review is to be assigned an important position or an important level, this process is also necessary, which is the same as arranging him to go to the Central Party School for closed-door study for several months.
The reason why Yuri was panicked before was that he had never gone through this process. He had gone through the review before, but was not asked to add any personal experience. That kind of review was purely a formality, and it was not notified to him in person by the big devil Belia.
Fortunately, he did not show cowardice in front of Comrade Stalin. Otherwise, being ridiculed would be a minor matter. It would be too unfair if some unnecessary disturbance .
Back in his car, Yuri didn't even pay attention to Kryuchkov. All he was thinking about was the review. His heart was beating very fast. Based on various signs, he felt that the biggest possibility of this review was to prepare for the subsequent awarding of medals. To put it bluntly, he really had hope of getting the coveted title of Marshal of the Soviet Union a year after the war ended.
Ha, now that I think about it, it was the right decision to go to Tokyo to be the damn deputy commander-in-chief. Otherwise, Comrade Stalin would probably not let him get his wish so quickly. The most likely possibility is that he would let him catch up safely for a few years, and then... then maybe this matter would be over.
Is this possible? If you think about it carefully, it is indeed very possible. Why do you say that? It's very simple. Comrade Stalin just wants to compete with the Americans. Because Yuri's tough attitude in Tokyo caused tension between him and MacArthur. No matter what the reason for his removal from the position of deputy commander-in-chief was, Comrade Stalin would think it was the Americans' trick. Therefore, under pressure from the Allies, he had to arrange for Timoshenko to replace Yuri, but when Yuri returned to Moscow, he not only did not punish this young and energetic general, but also added a marshal's star to his collar. Therefore, this marshal's star is not only a reward for Yuri, but also a statement made to the world.
