Red Moscow

While the farce of the siege and manhunt of the British embassy continued, an unexpected person came to see Sokov.

Seeing this person appear, Sokov couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise: "Comrade Khrushchev, why is it you?" According to Sokov's idea, a major meeting was about to begin in Moscow, and Khrushchev should be busy at the moment. How could he have time to visit me when he was busy with the meeting?

"Misha, I want to talk to you."

After hearing what Khrushchev said, Yakov quickly opened the door of the duty room and said to the two of them: "I'll go for a walk, and you guys can chat slowly."

After the door closed again, Sokov thought to himself, could it be that what he said on New Year's Day had a negative impact on Khrushchev, and that he came to settle accounts with him?

Before Sokov could speak, Khrushchev said first: "Misha, I'm here to apologize to you."

Sokov couldn't help but be startled after hearing this. Khrushchev apologized to himself. Could it be that the sun was rising to the west?

"Comrade Khrushchev, why do you say that?" Sokov asked tentatively: "Is it because of what I said to you on New Year's Day?"

Khrushchev nodded and said to himself: "Since I completed the task assigned to me by Comrade Stalin at the beginning of last year and restored the municipal public welfare facilities in Warsaw, I returned to Ukraine. I have carried out the work at hand. After sorting it out, he made the restoration of Ukrainian industry and agriculture his primary goal.

There are many problems with the Ukrainian economic recovery work. Although this work has been carried out for almost a year so far, it is still far away from the requirements made by Comrade Stalin. His expectation for Ukraine, the breadbasket, is to provide enough grain, meat and other agricultural products for the post-war country. But our actual level is only 25% of what it was before the war.

In order to find solutions to problems, I often visited various parts of Ukraine. In July I visited the southern states; in the autumn I spent several weeks in Western Ukraine and the former Subcarpathian Ukraine.

Thanks to my unremitting efforts, as the evacuated materials were relocated and people returned to their workshops and homes one after another, and because of the unprecedented patriotic enthusiasm inspired by the war, various reconstruction efforts made rapid progress. By October 1945, Ukraine's coal production had returned to 40% of pre-war levels, steel to 23%, pig iron to 30%, and manganese to 54%. More than 4,000 large and medium-sized industrial enterprises and more than 3,000 handicraft cooperatives had resumed production. The agricultural sown area reached 71% of the pre-war level, and grain and sugar beet production reached 80% and 50% respectively of the pre-war 1940 levels. "

"That's a really good result." Sokov lost no time in praising the other party.

"But the actual situation is not optimistic." Khrushchev continued: "Despite my best efforts, the grain purchase plan for 1945 has not been completed because tens of thousands of hectares of grain and corn have not been harvested until November. , we are short of both manpower and machinery. In order to remedy the problems that occurred last year, we can only strengthen spring sowing this year. However, we are faced with the lack of machinery, horses and cattle on the farm. Some people have suggested that cows can be temporarily used for sowing. But this will definitely affect milk production, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of dairy products on the market.”

After hearing this, Sokov realized that Khrushchev had also discovered that there might be a food crisis this year, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Khrushchev, how do you plan to solve these problems?"

"I heard Marshal Zhukov say that you once suggested to him that the dozens or millions of German prisoners of war detained in Siberia should be brought to Ukraine to help us launch production in the new year." Khrushchev looked at Soko The husband asked: "Is this true?"

"Yes, Comrade Khrushchev, I once made such a suggestion to Marshal Zhukov. But unfortunately, it was directly rejected by him."

Obviously, Khrushchev learned about this from other channels, so he did not know the details: "Why? Why did Marshal Zhukov veto your proposal?"

Seeing that Khrushchev seemed to be unaware of the matter, Sokov explained to him: "Marshal Zhukov said that once these hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war are transferred from Siberia, it will first increase pressure on the already tight railway transportation. ; Secondly, after these prisoners of war arrive in Ukraine, special prisoner of war camps have to be built for them and special troops are deployed to guard them. This is a waste of manpower; the last point, and the most critical issue, is that with these The arrival of prisoners of war will also require a large amount of food to feed them, thus exacerbating the food supply problem in Ukraine.”

After listening to Sokov's story, Khrushchev fell into deep thought. He was thinking about Sokov's proposal to transfer German prisoners of war detained in Siberia to Ukraine to assist local residents in spring plowing. Is it right or wrong?

After thinking for a while, Khrushchev still could not come up with an ideal answer, so he said nonchalantly: "This matter is of great importance. I want to report it to Comrade Stalin personally and listen to his opinion."

Sokov nodded and agreed: "Comrade Khrushchev, I think it is completely necessary to mobilize German prisoners of war to assist in spring plowing and production in Ukraine. If you think that the transfer of hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war will intensify the transportation of the railway department, The pressure will have an adverse impact on the local food supply, then we can only transfer a part of the prisoners of war, say 30,000 to 50,000 people, so that the adverse impact can be minimized. "

"Misha, what you said makes sense. If hundreds of thousands or millions of prisoners of war are transferred here at once, it may cause instability in Ukraine. After all, the hostile forces in the territory have not been completely eliminated." Khrushchev Expressing his concerns, "If they attack our army's prisoner-of-war camp and release all the prisoners of war held there, then these people will cause the Ukrainian region to become more chaotic. Therefore, first transfer 30,000 to 50,000 prisoners of war, and come over I think it is still advisable to assist local farmers in carrying out spring plowing.”

Seeing that Khrushchev agreed with his opinion, Sokov struck again while the iron was hot and said: "Comrade Khrushchev, I still say the same thing. Based on the analysis of various information, Ukraine will suffer from a severe drought this year, which will reduce the grain output." A substantial reduction in production. If you fail to complete the grain collection tasks assigned by your superiors, I am afraid it will have an adverse impact on you. Therefore, I think we should focus on planting drought-resistant potatoes and corn during spring plowing this year to ensure that there will not be a serious grain shortage this year. ”

"Well, I will consider what you said." Khrushchev's attitude was much better than that on New Year's Day. He nodded and said, "When I go to see Comrade Stalin, I will discuss it with him. I hope he can agree to this plan."

Sokov didn't feel any sense of relief when he heard Khrushchev say this. Although he had put forward all the suggestions he could make, whether Stalin would agree to it was beyond his control.

Khrushchev chatted for a few more words, then stood up and left.

As soon as Khrushchev left, Yakov opened the door and walked in. He asked curiously: "Misha, what did you and Comrade Khrushchev talk about?"

"What else could it be? Of course it's something to mention on New Year's Day."

"What, you mentioned this again?" Yakov asked in surprise: "He's not angry, is he?"

"No." Sokov shook his head and said, "I feel like he was a little moved by my proposal at that time, otherwise he wouldn't have come all the way today."

Sokov didn't want to say too much, so he changed the topic in time: "How is the situation outside?"

"The tent brought by Lieutenant Colonel Bezikov has been set up in the open space of the embassy." Yakov said: "The tent not only has a stove for heating, but also a mattress for sleeping. Lieutenant Colonel Bezikov The school and the school have agreed to divide everyone into three groups and take turns to stay warm and rest, let alone two or three days, even ten days and a half, it won’t be a big problem.”

"It's cold outside, just don't let the soldiers get frostbite." Sokov continued to ask: "By the way, what's the situation inside the embassy? Have the internal affairs troops who were searching inside come out?"

"Not yet." Yakov shook his head and said, "If I were to lead people to search such a large embassy building, no matter how careful the search was, it would be over in a few hours at best. People from the internal affairs forces are inside now. After four or five hours of searching, nothing came out. I really can’t figure out what there is to search for.”

"As long as the British do not bow their heads, the search in the embassy will not stop." Sokov said to Yakov: "The rooms that have been searched can be searched again. If people in the embassy ask, they can explain He said that he suspected that some suspicious elements had sneaked into the searched room through other means. The purpose of searching again is to find out these cunning enemies. If they follow their search methods, there will be no problem until tomorrow morning. "

"Then the people in the embassy won't resist?"

"Do they have the guts?" Sokov said disdainfully: "When we first blocked the embassy, ​​those British soldiers who tried to break out of the building just wanted to throw stones and ask for directions to see what our army's attitude was towards them? What if? If they were weak, they would rush out of the building for various reasons, and even take back control of the entire embassy. But unfortunately, those British soldiers were beaten severely by our men, and they were beaten at the same time. , and have lost their last courage. Believe it or not, when I send two soldiers into the building to beat and kick the staff who don’t like it, they don’t even dare to fart. Their courage has long been frightened. Broken."

Sokov wanted to see for himself how well the tent was heated, so he opened the door and walked out. After walking a few steps, I saw a large group of people shouting and cheering out of the embassy building. In the crowd, I could see several people wearing white shirts and being tied up. They should be the suspects arrested by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

When the troops passed by, Sokov stopped the colonel: "Comrade Colonel, why did you withdraw the troops?"

"Comrade General," the colonel replied politely, "we have arrested all the suspicious elements in the embassy. Our mission has been completed, so naturally we have to go back."

After speaking, he raised his hand to salute Sokov and Yakov, turned around and left with the troops.

Sokov saw someone carrying a walkie-talkie among the internal affairs troops. They must have received an order from their superiors during the search, so they immediately stopped the search operation in the embassy building and took the arrested people with them. Evacuated.

But Yakov did not notice the radio operator carrying a walkie-talkie in the crowd, and asked Sokov with a confused look: "Misha, it's really strange. How does this colonel know when to evacuate the embassy building?"

"Well, did you see the walkie-talkie on that man's back?" Sokov pointed to the back of the operator and said to Yakov: "It must be their superior who gave them the order to retreat through the walkie-talkie. Order, otherwise how could we retreat so quickly."

"They have all withdrawn, but what about us? When can we withdraw?"

"I don't know." Sokov shook his head and said, "As long as our superiors don't give us an order, we will continue to stay here and blockade the embassy."

When Bezikov saw that the internal affairs troops had withdrawn, he also came over and asked: "Comrade generals, the internal affairs troops have withdrawn. When will we withdraw?"

"I don't know." Sokov answered simply, "As long as we don't receive orders from our superiors, we will continue to stay here. By the way, are there any frostbite among the soldiers?"

"Not yet." Bezikov said with a bit of laughter: "This unit was originally intended to be sent to London to participate in the victory parade, but unexpectedly it was transferred to blockade the British Embassy. It was really unexpected."

At the same time, the British ambassador, counselor, military attaché and first secretary were standing at the window looking down.

When the internal affairs troops evacuated the embassy building just now, they couldn't help but feel happy, thinking that the most difficult period was over. Unexpectedly, standing at the window, I saw that the internal affairs troops who entered the building to search had evacuated, but the security troops outside still stayed in place, and even set up several tents in the open space in front of the building. It seemed that they were planning to Set up camp here.

"Mr. Ambassador," the counselor with the lowest presence in the whole incident said, "when do you think the troops on guard duty outside will be able to evacuate?"

"I don't know." The ambassador shook his head and said, "This troop is obviously not from the same system as the troop that entered the building. Although I don't know why that troop suddenly evacuated, I have a bad feeling. , this force may be out there for a long time.”

"The reply from London repeatedly emphasized that Mr. Churchill's speech only represented his personal views and had nothing to do with our country. After all, he no longer holds the position of Prime Minister." The counselor continued: "But we gave this reply. , go and reply to the Russians, do you think they can accept it?”

"Mr. Ambassador, we have to try our luck." The military attache said with lingering fear: "If they don't see our reply for a long time, sending such an army into the building tomorrow will probably cause panic."

"What are our losses?" the ambassador asked.

"The four people who were arrested were all agents using their identities as embassy staff as cover. There were also more than a dozen staff members who were injured to varying degrees because they did not cooperate during their manhunt."

"They are simply a bunch of barbarians." The ambassador said angrily: "For their barbaric behavior of wantonly beating the embassy staff, I will lodge a serious protest with their Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ask Molotov to give me a satisfactory answer. ”