Chapter 373
Over the past two years, things have seemed to be getting worse in every way.
Internationally, the East-West confrontation centered on ideology is becoming increasingly fierce. Just as that troublemaker said, "From Szczecin on the Baltic Sea to Trieste on the Adriatic Sea, an iron curtain has been drawn across the European continent." In Germany, the friendly atmosphere between the Soviet, American and British Allied Forces in the early post-war period has cooled completely. In Berlin, the area of West Berlin controlled by the United States, Britain and France established their own police station at the end of last year and implemented currency reform. The temporary currency that was originally usable throughout Berlin was unilaterally abolished by the United States, Britain and France.
Not only that, the Americans also made West Berlin the first beneficiary of the so-called "Marshall Plan" and began to build large-scale projects in the area bordering West Berlin and East Berlin, providing citizens with daily necessities, transportation, and even some luxury goods for free. The bright lights and nightlife there attracted citizens from to flee on a large scale.
In the past few months, affected by the exodus of East Berlin citizens and the twelve-hour daily radio propaganda in West Berlin, the police in East and West Berlin, and even the soldiers of the Soviet and American sides, have had several frictions and conflicts, resulting in a certain number of casualties.
The Soviet military cluster in Germany entered a state of emergency in December and has not yet returned to normal. To put it bluntly, Berlin is now a powder keg and military conflict may break out at any time.
In order to prepare for a war that may break out at any time, the Ministry of National Defense has continued to enhance the combat capability of the cluster stationed in Germany over the past two months. The troops that were disbanded three years ago have been largely restored and even further strengthened.
Up to now, the Soviet army group stationed in Germany has been divided into two tactical groups, north and south, with a total of nearly 700,000 troops, including more than 6,000 tanks, nearly 10,000 armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery, nearly 6,000 artillery pieces of various types, and more than 1,500 combat aircraft.
Such a large standing force, stationed in Germany, has brought great pressure to the United States, Britain and France, especially the French. As a result, the tension on the German side has become increasingly intense.
Just a week ago, Charles de Gaulle made a personal proposal through Agence France-Presse, proposing that the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France hold talks to ease the tension of the two-front confrontation in Germany. Comrade Stalin agreed to this proposal in principle. He also specifically sought out Yuri and asked for his opinion, meaning that he hoped to go to London attend the talks.
However, Yuri rejected Comrade Stalin's proposal and instead put the blame on Vyshinsky. The reason for his refusal was very simple. He was neither a diplomat nor a military representative, so he was not qualified to participate in such international talks.
As for the situation in Germany, Yuri's position was that of a hardliner. He even proposed, based on his memories from his previous life, to build a wall between East and West Berlin to prevent East Berliners from fleeing. In addition, he also proposed the establishment of a radio wave control unit to target Western countries, especially Britain and the United States, for broadcasting propaganda to the Soviet Union.
But for the time being, Comrade Stalin obviously did not think of taking those extreme measures. Therefore, Yuri's proposals were not adopted. However, Yuri himself did not care much about it. As the saying goes: Do not meddle in matters that are not your responsibility. The work he is in charge of now is still construction. According to later generations, it is infrastructure construction. International issues are not his responsibility.
However, even the situation in the Soviet Union is now a headache.
In the past two years, the infighting within the Moscow power circle has become increasingly fierce. Since Kaganovich was kicked out of the core leadership, Malenkov was also driven out of Moscow. Beria, an old man in the State Security Committee, has been monitored by Kuznetsov, the secretary of the Central Secretariat. The young and energetic comrade Kuznetsov really didn't give Comrade Beria any face. He not only reviewed Comrade Beria's work every now and then, but also asked the latter to go to his office every Thursday to be questioned.
To put it bluntly, the conflict between Kuznetsov and Beria has now become public, and even ordinary citizens of Moscow have heard about it.
Comrade Stalin, however, never said a word about the conflict between the two men. What's worse, he kept adding fuel to the conflict, giving people the impression that he really wanted the two men to fight each other.
At the New Year's celebration at the end of the year, Comrade Stalin publicly praised Comrade Kuznetsov's work attitude, saying that he was a young man with both work ability and energy. He also said that under his supervision, the security department had made great improvements in both work efficiency and work attitude.
A month ago, while on vacation at his villa on the Black Sea, Comrade Stalin declared in front of all the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee that everyone present was old, and then pointed at Kuznetsov and said that it would be such young people who would be able to lead the Soviet Party and country in the future.
Oh, also at this New Year's celebration at the end of the year, Comrade Stalin also praised another person: Comrade Voznesensky. When he talked with Tito about the future of the Soviet Union, he bluntly said that Voznesensky would be his successor because Voznesensky was not only young, but also had extraordinary talents.
No one knew what was the purpose of Comrade Stalin's repeated public praise of Kuznetsov and Voznesensky, but one thing was certain: these two young and capable guys had become the thorn in the eyes of all members of the Presidium. On this point alone, Yuri could even get confirmation from Khrushchev.
In recent times, Yuri has heard many complaints from Comrade Khrushchev about Voznesensky. In the old man's words, Voznesensky is like a dictator, a great power chauvinist, a Russian national supremacist, and so on. In his eyes, people of other nationalities except Russians are not human beings.
Yuri also understood where Khrushchev's complaints came from, because Voznesensky was now the chairman of the State Planning Commission, and he signed and approved the budgets of various departments and republics. Since the famine broke out two years ago, Ukraine's economic recovery has been very difficult, and it is highly dependent on central funding from Moscow. Voznesensky, who controls the State Planning Commission, has given him a lot of trouble in terms of budget.
In fact, it is not just Comrade Khrushchev, even Yuri himself has been strangled by Voznesensky in the past two years.
The three departments that Yuri is in charge of are all heavily dependent on central budget appropriations . After all, if the relevant budget for the public works construction projects they are responsible for is not approved, the project cannot be carried out.
Initially, when the Palace of Soviets and the "Seven Sisters" projects were being built, the relevant project budgets were allocated in a relatively timely manner. However, with the successful completion of the Palace of Soviets project in the middle of last year, especially after the completion of the two projects of the Ministry of Heavy Industry Building and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building, Yuri's "neck" began to be stuck. This year's annual budget has been submitted, but it has not been approved yet. This is a clear proof.
But unlike Comrade Khrushchev, Yuri did not choose to complain about this matter, nor did he go to Voznesensky to quarrel. This was not because he had a good temper, but because he knew that Voznesensky had a hard time too. The reason why he was choking people everywhere was not because he had that kind of hobby, but because the country was having a hard time and there was no money in the purse.
While thinking about all these messy things in my mind, I unknowingly walked to the foot of the mountain. Under the vigilant escort of the guards, the convoy arranged by the Czechoslovak side had already been waiting in the square at the foot of the mountain.
Yuri collected his thoughts, shook hands with the accompanying Czechoslovak officials one by one, and when he was about to get in the car, he deliberately looked back at the path leading to the mountain.
If I remember correctly, in the past, it was on this mountain trail that someone created many fragmented statues of people and gave them a name: Statue of Victims of Communism. At that time, Czechoslovakia had been destroyed in the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989. The Social Democratic Party, which had been wiped out, made a comeback, and the country's federal system completely collapsed, becoming two completely independent countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In the car, Angelica, who looked more mature and charming, was teasing the child. The child, who was born two years ago, was named Yakov, Yakov Yurievich Kulyokov, nicknamed Yasha, and was two years old this year.
The little guy looks like his mother, with golden hair, a handsome face and a little bit of mischief. As soon as he learned to walk, he ran everywhere, stumbling and causing a lot of worry.
Although Yuri had a mission on this trip to Eastern Europe, he was traveling in his personal capacity, so he brought his wife and children with him.
Since she became pregnant, Anjelia has not returned to work, but she is still a central leader of the Leninist Communist Youth League, and was elected as the deputy secretary of the Central Committee of the League at the beginning of last year. According to the appointment and removal plan issued by the Cadre Bureau of the Central Secretariat at the beginning of this year, she will leave the Central Committee of the League in four months and go to Kalinin Oblast to serve as the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee. As for the child, he will be sent to the kindergarten of the Moscow Military District.
Yuri got into the car, reached out and pinched his son's face. Just as he was about to say something to his wife, he heard someone knocking gently on the car door that had just been closed next to him.
Turning around, I saw the guard who came with us this time standing outside the car door.
He reached out and rolled down the car window a little, and the guard slipped a note in.
Yuri took the note and read it. There was a line of Russian written on it: "Comrade Andrei Alexandrovich died of illness last night. Return to Moscow ."
