Chapter 360
In the dimly lit large office, only the screen hanging on the west wall projected light and shadow. Two technicians were nervously fiddling with the film and projector. In the almost unreal projection of light and shadow on the screen, one could see heads moving around in the large office, but there was no sound at all.
Yuri sat in the second row on the left. On both sides of him were Antonov and Vasilevsky, and in front of him were Beria and Voroshilov.
The air was filled with a pungent smell of cigarettes. There were more than twenty people present, including Comrade Stalin, and almost all of them were heavy smokers. In the dim light, one could even see tiny dots of red light, which were lit cigarette butts.
Soon, two technicians wound the film onto the pulley of the film projector. Then, the projector made a hissing sound, and jumping images began to appear on the gray screen, accompanied by crackling sounds.
Antonov left his seat, walked to the front of the screen, and began to introduce the images projected on the screen.
The image is actually a movie, a silent movie without sound. Of course, this is not a movie in the traditional sense, but a surviving video record of the scene when Americans detonated the first nuclear bomb at the Los Alamos test site.
There is no doubt that this video is an absolute secret among secrets for the Americans, but through the pervasive spy network of the intelligence department, Moscow still got it. Of course, the price paid was very heavy, but it was still worth it.
The first twelve minutes of the film are very dull. It was obviously shot with a fixed camera because the lens is always aimed at the distance of the desert. A small town and the figures of people in the town can be seen in the lens.
However, those figures were obviously dummies, because they stayed in one position for a long time. If the film camera had not been hissing, some people would have misunderstood that it had malfunctioned.
Staring at a still camera for more than ten minutes was very boring, but at least there was Antonov's introduction on the side. He mainly introduced the corresponding parameters of the nuclear bomb tested by the Americans, including its power, etc., and he explained it in great detail.
During Antonov's introduction, noises of surprise or suspicion were heard from time to time in the large office.
Most of the people present today are military generals, including commanders from various military regions in the Soviet Union and major military regions stationed in Eastern Europe. They have never come into contact with something like an atomic bomb and do not understand the relevant situation.
Perhaps for future generations, as long as they talk about the atomic bomb, no matter who they are, they can imagine how powerful it is and how terrifying the mushroom cloud is when it explodes. However, in the era when Yuri lived, not to mention ordinary people, even the senior generals of the Soviet army did not change much about this new weapon. In their imagination, this is just a super-large bomb, but according to normal thinking, the power of a bomb is closely related to the amount of explosives it contains, or in other words, to its size. So, even if the bomb is powerful, how strong can it be? Can it really blow up a city? Then this bomb must be as big as the Red Square? How can such a huge bomb be dropped on the enemy's position?
Yes, this is the general thinking of everyone. Because no one has ever seen it, and no one has used it, it is difficult to imagine what it looks like. Therefore, before seeing its true power, even the most cautious senior Soviet generals did not take the atomic bomb seriously. Therefore, when Antonov introduced the parameters, the noise contained surprise, but more of it was doubt.
Yuri sat quietly in his seat, not saying a word, just smoking his cigarette. As a time traveler, he was not so surprised and suspicious, because he knew what the atomic bomb was. It was really a prop invented by humans to destroy themselves. The emergence of the atomic bomb made it possible for humans to return to ancient times overnight.
After more than ten minutes, the long-fixed picture began to change. However, the picture played at this time was obviously slow, because there was a countdown in the lower right corner of the picture, and the change in the number of seconds was in the form of "0.0000". From "0.0001" onwards, a white arc dome appeared at the horizon, and at "0.0006" seconds, the white arc had become the shape of three-quarters of a lantern.
At "0.0016" seconds, the shape of a mushroom head had appeared. Although the picture was not very clear, we could still see the edge of the umbrella below the mushroom head, which was the dust cloud caused by the scary shock wave.
This mushroom-shaped explosion rose up quickly in the next few seconds and grew rapidly... The large office was silent.
Yuri turned his head and glanced at Vasilevsky beside him. This marshal had never been exposed to information about nuclear weapons before, and the scenes in the video obviously gave him a huge shock. His eyes were wide open and he refused to look away from the picture on the screen for a moment.
When the seconds in the lower right corner of the screen read 4 seconds, a bright white light flashed from the screen. Although this was a broadcast image and the picture clarity was not very high, the white light still suddenly illuminated the huge office. Even Yuri, who was mentally prepared, couldn't help but turn his head.
Then, the video playback speed suddenly increased, and the screen began to shake noticeably. The dust waves caused by the shock wave surged over, but before the dust waves came, the town not far away had been completely destroyed. The houses were like building blocks that had been kicked hard, and they fell apart in an instant. The truck with a bucket rolled on the sand, and then suddenly flew into the air like a high jumper with legs...
The image on the screen suddenly darkened in a violent tremor, and all the images disappeared, and the large office became dark again. In the next few seconds, no one spoke, and there was no sound except the hissing sound of the film machine.
After about ten seconds, someone finally turned on the lights. Antonov was still standing at the edge of the curtain, looking at Comrade Stalin who was sitting in the center of the front row, as if waiting for the next instruction.
Comrade Stalin sat in his seat, expressionless, still holding his pipe in his hand, as if thinking about something.
After a long time, he raised the hand holding the pipe and waved it towards Antonov's position.
After receiving the order from the big boss, Antonov coughed dryly and gestured to two technicians hiding aside.
Soon, two technicians came over and started busying around, replacing a new roll of tape.
The picture soon reappeared on the screen. Unlike the silent film just now, this time the film had sound.
Seeing the auditorium-like building and the fat man in a robe shaking hands with someone on the screen, Yuri knew what this part of the video was about, and Antonov's subsequent commentary also confirmed his guess.
That's right, this is the speech titled "The Pillars of Peace" that Churchill gave in Fulton, USA. The politicians from the country of troublemakers have jumped out again. It is a pity that this country, which claims to be a gentleman but is actually a villain, was not strangled by the Germans in the war. It can be said responsibly that 50% of the conflicts that broke out in hot spots around the world after World War II were caused by this despicable guy, but it doesn't even know it.
In his previous life, because of his position and height, Yuri's understanding of the "Cold War" was the confrontation between the socialist camp and the capitalist camp, but now, he has a different view.
Churchill's speech was two days ago. At present, the specific situation has not spread in the Soviet Union and not many people know about it. However, based on his memories of his previous life, Yuri knows some inside information.
In Yuri's view today, Churchill's real starting point for making such a speech was not necessarily to start a cold war, nor was it necessarily to be truly anti-communist. In fact, his main purpose should still be to protect Britain's interests in Europe.
Just as the United States sees America as its territory, Britain also sees Europe as its base, but World War II completely destroyed this former empire, and the Soviet Union's expansion in Eastern Europe also made the British feel threatened. Not to mention that Moscow is now expanding its influence to Turkey and Iran, which are also the British sphere of influence.
For these reasons, the British felt that they must limit the expansion of the Soviet Union's influence, but they obviously could not do this on their own. Therefore, Churchill, as their spokesperson, delivered this speech with the sole purpose of uniting with the United States to limit the expansion of the Soviet Union's influence.
However, no matter what Churchill's real purpose was in delivering this speech, it is certain that his goal was achieved, and no matter what the reaction was in the United States, at least in the Soviet Union, from Stalin, he had felt the pressure.
Yuri believed that Comrade Stalin summoned the highest commanders of various military regions and overseas corps today to watch these two videos. His purpose was definitely not to put pressure on everyone, but to prepare to make some military strategic arrangements.
If nothing unexpected happens, a series of new policies will be introduced in the next few days, which will inevitably include military arrangements in the East-West confrontation area. The largest part of them should be the arrangements for anti-nuclear and chemical defense strategies. Before the Soviet Union's atomic bomb came out, an overall defensive stance was necessary.
