Struggle in Soviet Russia

Facts have proved that Victor's concerns are not unfounded.

In late February, with the arrival of the Red Army Army Day, the Soviet army advanced more rapidly on the southern front. It can be seen that the two main forces of the Southwest Front Army and the Voronezh Front Army hope to arrive on the Army Day. Before implementing the redeployment, move the front as far as possible to the west.

During this process, the Internal Intelligence Agency under Victor’s command also returned a large amount of information. There was definite information showing that the German army had assembled a new corps on the Dnieper River. Therefore, the Soviet army continued in this direction. Advance, it is likely to encounter risks.

However, the advancement of the Southern Front was so smooth. After Vatutin was transferred to the Southwest Front Army as commander, the main force of the Southwest Front Army Lien Chan won the battle. In just a dozen days, the front line was pushed near the Dnieper River. Its fastest advancing front-line unit is even only 29 kilometers away from the Dnieper River.

On the right wing of the Southwest Front, the Voronezh Front also made rapid progress. They liberated Kursk, Kharkov, and Belgorod, and quickly pushed the front to the line of the Donets River in Ukraine.

Such results made the base camp overjoyed. Comrade Stalin and his staff believed that the troops on the southern front are very hopeful that they will push the front line to the Dnieper line in the first half of March. At that time, the Soviet army can be on the line of the Dnieper River. Stop offensive, switch to defense and rest the troops.

But the cruel reality tells everyone that the battlefield situation really changes rapidly. When one side is advancing, maybe the enemy on the opposite side is already planning a sharp counterattack.

At the end of February, the German army turned to the counterattack on the southwest front. The entire battle was launched on the Mius River front line. The German side Manstein defended the Mius River front line with a group of troops and used the remnants of the 1st and 4th Armored Groups. The troops were the main force and used a cruel "anvil tactic" to smash the troops of the Southwest Front Army between the Dnieper and Donets.

Comrade Vatutin, who was beaten up, made a mistake. After the troops between the Dnieper and Donets were defeated, he did not try to organize defenses in the east of the Donets because of fear of being surrounded by the Germans. Instead, the troops quickly retreated.

In fact, he did not have an advantage in the strength of the German forces in front of him, and had no ability to encircle and annihilate his regiment. If he could organize a defense east of the Donets River, Manstein’s troops would have to Retreat back to avoid being outflanked by the Soviet Voronezh front on the right.

As a result, the retreat of the main force of the Southwest Front exposed the left wing of the Voronezh Front. The German forces under the command of Manstein seized this fighter, and after only three days of rest, they began to attack the left flank of the Voronezh Front.

On this line, the Voronezh front held on for nearly a week, but the Germans finally broke through the line of defense, and the entire front collapsed. Then, first Kharkov was lost, and after turning to the sky, Belgorod was also lost, and the Soviets. Had to retreat continuously until the Oboyan area in Kursk became stable.

In just ten days, the Soviet army retreated hundreds of kilometers on the southern line, and the good situation formed after the Battle of Stalingrad became embarrassing again.

………………………………

Moscow, the building of the People's Committee of National Security.

In front of the open window of the office, Victor was holding an ashtray in one hand and a cigarette in the other, standing in front of the window with frowning brows, and staring blankly at the light rain outside.

This is the first light rain since the beginning of spring this year. The rain was very small, silky and silent.

Looking into the distance from the window, you can see the guards in ponchos checking the passing vehicles on the boulevard where the fresh green has been drawn.

Since the "tree-lined avenue shooting" happened a week ago, the people of the Political Security Bureau have stepped up the security investigation of the entire boulevard. People who are not living nearby can basically not enter this street.

The so-called boulevard shooting was not a major event. It was an alcoholic soldier who ran up to the boulevard to behave drunkenly. He fired a total of three shots and was controlled by the guards. Two of them were shot at the sky. Only one shot hit the big tree on the side of the street.

Naturally, the end of this neurosis would not be good, because he was a soldier, and the military court's punishment was very serious. He was sent directly to Siberia for labor reform for ten years, and he could not leave the exile within ten years.

Because of this incident, the General Political Department conducted another disciplinary inspection within the army, mainly aimed at the problem of alcoholism in the army. Now, the guy who was drunk and shot everywhere has become a target of hatred by the soldiers. NS.

The knock on the door came from behind, pulling Victor's thoughts back from the inexplicable place. He turned around and looked in the direction of the door.

The door of the office was not closed, and it was Sophia in a military uniform standing at the door.

"Come in," Victor said, nodding at her.

Sophia walked in with a document, walked straight to the desk, put the document on his desk first, and then said: "There are two documents sent from the General Political Department that need your signature. "

"What document?" Victor asked without looking back, still looking out the window.

"Yes..." Sophia picked up the file again, looked at it, and said, "It's Yefim Afanasyevich... Sha..."

"Shajinko," Victor turned around, interrupted her kowtow, and said with a smile.

"Aha, is this Shajinko?" Sophia laughed, "I can't read this word at all."

Victor didn't say anything, he walked back to the desk and took the file.

Shajinko is the current director of the General Political Department. To be precise, he is the acting director. Since Mehlis was demoted, this person has been in charge of the daily work of the General Political Department. Needless to say, this is also Burga. Comrade Ning's people-the General Political Department is the basic board of Comrade Bulganin, and no one can get in.

What's interesting is that Shajinke is also very low-key, but also very stubborn. This person does not have much culture. Like Abakumov, he went to school until the fourth grade of elementary school. Perhaps because of this, his writing is ugly, not like Russian, but like some inexplicable cuneiform writing.

But even so, he still likes to write any documents or the like by himself, and he doesn't need a secretary to ghostwrite. Victor really has a headache looking at the documents he sent, and it takes too much effort.

Victor looked at the two documents, both of the same nature, regarding the punishment decision of the dereliction of duty: one on Kulik and the other on Golikov.

Needless to say, Kulik, his business has been delayed for too long, and this time it finally came to an end. The document now has Shajinko's signature, and Victor signs it again, and he can directly submit it to the Central Supervisory Committee.

The second document is a bit interesting. Compared with Kulik, the penalty was decided too quickly, not even half a month.

The Golikov involved in the second document refers to Philip Ivanovich Golikov, the former commander of the Voronezh Front. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he was responsible for commanding this front.

In the German counterattack at the end of February, the left wing of the Voronezh Front was exposed because of the retreat of the Southwest Front under the command of Vatutin. Although Golikov sensed the danger and hurriedly deployed a line of defense on the left flank, in the face of the German offensive, this line of defense was defeated for three days and collapsed.

Subsequently, in less than two weeks, the Voronezh Front Army successively lost several cities, including Kharkov, Belgorod, and Kursk, causing Comrade Stalin to furious.

Of course, if you want to be held accountable, this matter is a bit difficult to say. In fact, if it were not for Vatutin’s hasty retreat, which led to the exposure of the Voronezh front army’s left wing, Comrade Golikov’s troops would not lose that much, let alone retreat hundreds of kilometers at once, and almost even organized defense. Can't get up.

But the same fact is that although Vatutin’s southwest front army was defeated and collapsed, the German army was unable to effectively encircle and wipe out the collapsed southwest front army, so the loss of the southwest front army was not great. To put it simply, although Vatutin's troops were defeated, they were not annihilated.

Moreover, because he retreated in time and quickly deployed the second defensive line, the lost chassis was not very large. To use Vasilievsky’s report to describe Vatutin’s defeat, it’s just " Attack frustrated".

But Comrade Golikov was different. His troops lost too much. The entire Voronezh Front Army was killed and the captured soldiers were more than 40,000, nearly 50,000. In addition, he failed to organize the second. Road defense line, the overall defeat of the front army, this responsibility is a little big.

Of course, the most important point is that Comrade Vatutin has someone speaking for him, such as Comrade Vasilevsky. Otherwise, how could defeat become "frustrated offensive".

But Golikov was more unlucky. Not only was there no one to speak for him, there was also a great man staring at his position as commander of the Voronezh Front. Therefore, Comrade Zhukov's evaluation of Golikov's fiasco was: " The commander of the front army made a serious mistake of underestimating the enemy's offensive capabilities. During the retreat of the troops, there was still a panic of lack of order."

In fact, this evaluation made by Comrade Zhukov fits Comrade Vatutin's head, and it is somewhat reluctant to press it on Golikov's head, because he has not retreated at all and has been resisting.

But there is no way. Comrade Stalin believed in Zhukov and Vasilevsky, but he would not believe in Golikov. Therefore, he became a very good scapegoat.