Soviet Godfather

A black Volga car slowly parked in front of the gate of the Friendship Hotel, the most luxurious hotel in Gorky City, and the hotel attendant hurriedly stepped forward to open the car door for the guests. Chernenko got out of the car, tidied up his police uniform, put the big-brimmed hat on his head straightly, and strode into the gate of the Friendship Hotel. He is here today to attend the engagement banquet of the son of Zhukovsky, the leader of the port of Gorky.

Led by the service staff, Chernenko walked into the banquet hall of the Friendship Hotel. Chernenko handed over the hat and the briefcase he was carrying to the staff who kept the items at the door. Grabbing a glass of wine, he found a corner and sat down quietly, then lit a cigarette. Although he received Zhukovsky's invitation, he actually had no friendship with Zhukovsky, it was just a courtesy invitation. Since coming to Gorky, this is the first time to participate in this kind of activity. As an outsider, a cadre promoted by the Rockets, Chernenko almost became the public enemy of the Gorky City Ministry of Internal Affairs system. The officialdom in Gorky City is the same as in most places in the Soviet Union. Every department is controlled by some old guys. Although the Soviet Union has a retirement system, some old leaders retired in time and still hold on to the power of the past.

In fact, this phenomenon has almost become a common practice in Soviet officialdom. This feature began to appear from the beginning of Stalin. In the last few years of his life, Stalin's health deteriorated year by year, but he still held the highest power in the country. It is said that the current General Secretary Brezhnev's health is not very good. Therefore, it is not surprising that cadres like Chernenko who violated the rules of promotion in the officialdom were isolated in the officialdom.

Like Chernenko, as partners in Mrs. Zhukovsky's business, Mikhail and Seryosha also received an invitation from Mrs. Zhukovsky to attend his son's engagement banquet. The daughter-in-law is the daughter of a high-ranking Ukrainian official, and they were naturally warmly received by Mrs. Zhukovsky. Mikhail took the relationship with his wife, so naturally many of the officials' wives knew him. Seryozha came here today to expand his contacts. Gorky City is the machinery manufacturing center of the Soviet Union. It exports a large number of mechanical products to foreign countries every year. Seryozha is now doing oil smuggling business, most of whom are Zhukovs. Mrs. Kee's relationship is escorting him, and if he wants to continue to expand his business, he will naturally need some official backers.

Seryozha now smuggles a train of crude oil to Poland every week. According to the quotation given by William, he earns about US$10 per barrel, and a train has 15 fuel tanks. Each tank can hold 40 tons of crude oil. Each ton of crude oil is roughly equal to The capacity of 7 American-made barrels can be calculated in this way, and each smuggling trip can earn more than 40,000 US dollars, of which about 10,000 US dollars will be given to Mrs. Zhukovsky. Otherwise, where would she get the money to hold such a luxurious engagement banquet. A train seems to be able to pull a lot of oil, and it is indeed a lot. The total of 15 fuel tanks is only 600 tons. And a simple small oil refinery has an annual processing capacity of 50,000 tons, and can process more than 100 tons of crude oil per day. Such a small amount of oil cannot even meet the needs of a small oil refinery. If we use an analogy, the demand of the market is like a vast sea, but now Seryozha can only stand on the beach and pick up shells.

The banquet was about to begin, and the guests all sat in their seats one after another. Seats are arranged according to the work unit. People from Gorky Port sit together. The Gorky Automobile Factory transports a lot of goods through Gorky Port every year. Hayer was also fortunate to sit with them, but none of these big shots knew Mikhail, and they probably wondered who these two young men were, so they just greeted Sergei and the others out of politeness. They might have known each other if Yuri was here, but Mikhail did not dare to introduce himself as Yuri's younger brother to them.

The table behind Seryozha is the police officers of the Ministry of the Interior. The people at this table are all wearing gray uniforms, so they are very recognizable. This made Seryozha feel very nervous, you must know that he is a fugitive. Although he didn't dare to look back at them all the time, Seryozha's attention was all on these policemen. Who knows if anyone will recognize him. The policemen at that table were sitting quietly listening to the emcee on the stage introducing the engaged couple, clapping their hands from time to time, which was actually the same as listening to a report during a meeting.

Chernenko was probably the most conspicuous among them, because he was the youngest among the people at the table, and the others were either gray-haired or bald. He leaned close to Mikhail's ear and asked softly, "Who is that young man at the police desk over there?"

Mikhail turned his head, observed the policemen carefully, thought for a while, and said uncertainly: "It seems to be the deputy director of the branch of our automobile factory, who seems to be called... called... By the way, It's Chernenko." Mikhail finally remembered.

"Why is he so young? Could it be that the backstage is particularly hard?" Seryozha asked again suspiciously.

"It shouldn't be that the backstage is hard. I heard that he has been rejected in the internal affairs bureau." Mikhail said.

"Being rejected, how can you take the position of deputy director at such a young age?" Seryozha was completely confused.

"I heard that he came from Leningrad six months ago. He was an outsider. He was just an officer at the beginning. I don't know how he got promoted. There are rumors that he was transferred to Gorky City to investigate black market transactions and official corruption. If it is true, we should be careful about this guy, he is our deadly enemy!" Mikhail replied.

Seryozha stopped asking, "rumors", official rumors are not groundless rumors, they always have some degree of credibility. Seryozha took out his own lighter and put it on the stand. It was a zippo, and the casing was electroplated, just like a mirror. Seryozha secretly adjusted the angle with his fingers until Chernenko could be clearly seen in the reflection of the lighter casing.

Indeed, as Mikhail said, the people on Chernenko's left and right were talking with the people next to him, but Chernenko sat in the middle but no one talked to him. He didn't seem to care at all, he should eat and drink, as if the people around him didn't exist.

Seryozha's mind was completely on the policeman. If Chernenko really came to investigate black market transactions, then Seryozha was his target. The black market in Gorky City is in the factory area of ​​the Gorky Automobile Factory, and everyone in Gorky City knows it. This happened to be Chernenko's jurisdiction, and it was impossible for him not to know why he didn't act. Mikhail only bribed ordinary policemen, but never sent him money. Yes, he wanted to catch the real boss behind the scenes. It used to be Popov. There were quite a few officials in Popov's address book. Since he was investigating black market transactions and corruption, it made sense.

First he was targeted by Gusinski, and now it seems that the police have no intention of letting him go. Seryozha felt that the danger was approaching him step by step.