Struggle in Soviet Russia

Thick clouds shrouded the whole of Moscow, and the light rain was like silk threads, connecting the heaven and the earth together. With the warm south wind blowing, the rain was quite lingering and lingering.

The Kremlin, the small white building where Comrade Stalin's office is located, is located in the large conference room on the first floor.

When Victor appeared at the back door of the large conference room, the meeting in the conference room had already been officially held. Looking into the room from the double-opening back door of poplar wood, you could see that the conference hall below the rostrum was filled with shoulder-to-shoulder generals. Star generals and marshals.

In today's meeting, in addition to the three participants of the General Staff who were major generals, the rest of the people with the lowest rank were also lieutenant generals. They came from various front-line operations and various reserve army groups in the base camp.

Sitting at the back door, the one closest to the door is Comrade Shtemenko, the current Deputy Chief of General Staff of the General Staff. Seeing Viktor silently walking in from the back door, he stood up and took the The chair was handed over, and he himself dragged the inner chair and put it behind him.

Victor nodded towards the other party, thanked him in a low voice, then dragged the chair over and bent over to sit on it.

At this time, the meeting has been going on for a while. The one who spoke on the front podium was Comrade Antonov, the chief of staff of the General Staff. He stood in front of a huge map and introduced the so-called "last battle". battle plan.

This so-called "last battle" is naturally the final battle aimed at conquering the German army's old nest, Berlin. When this battle is over, the entire anti-fascist war against Germany should be over.

According to the introduction of the General Staff, so far, the 1st Belorussian Front has reached the Oder River line and seized several major landing sites in the Küstrin area, although the German army organized the so-called Pomeranian Group , but was also completely smashed by that aspect in March.

On the flank of the 1st Belorussian Front, the 1st Ukrainian Front had advanced between Dagstrozze and Penzig, directly forcing the German Nessie line, posing a threat to Berlin from the flank.

According to the next stage of the General Staff's combat plan, the offensive on the periphery of Berlin is mainly in charge of three fronts. The specific arrangements are:

The Belarusian 1st Front, commanded by Comrade Zhukov, continued to advance westward and launched a frontal offensive against Berlin; Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front took the lead in attacking Leipzig. After capturing Leipzig and smashing the German army group in the area, it turned around. Going north, launched an offensive on the southern front of Berlin; Malinovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front attacked the area north of the Oder River, broke through the German defense line along the river, and then launched an offensive in the direction of the Elbe River.

In the battle plan of the General Staff, the entire campaign should be composed of three stages: the first stage is the operational stage in the outskirts of Berlin, the main purpose of which is to break through the German Oder-Neisse line of defense; the second stage The purpose of the operation was to divide and surround the German army group in the peripheral area of ​​Berlin, and at the same time, to advance the front line to the Elbe River before the British and American allies, so as to consolidate the fruits of victory of the post-war alliance; the third stage is the final stage, Take Berlin and force the Germans to surrender, watch out! This surrender refers to surrender to the Soviet Union, not to the Allies.

According to the information provided by the intelligence department, at the most recent stage, a group of people from the German General Staff had made a decision behind Hitler's back, that is, while trying to resist the Soviet attack on the Eastern Front, while thinking about the attack on the Western Front A way to reach an agreement with Britain and the United States to seek the outcome of conditional surrender.

On the issue of Germany, the attitude of the alliance has always been clear, Berlin must surrender unconditionally, must accept severe punishment from the Allied forces after the war, and must provide sufficient war reparations to the alliance. Although at the previous Tehran and Yalta conferences, the United Kingdom and the United States had promised that they would never make peace with the Germans unilaterally, Moscow can trust the sincerity of the Americans, but not the integrity of the British. Therefore, Moscow's attitude is that it must Before the United Kingdom and the United States, advance the front line to the Elbe River, form a siege to Berlin, and prevent the Germans in Berlin from escaping.

The battle plan formulated by the General Staff is of a global nature, and it plans only the campaign goals that the various fronts should achieve. As for how to arrange the specific campaign arrangements, it is the matter of each front. Therefore, after Antonov explained the planning of the General Staff, the commanders of the three fronts went up to explain their respective combat plans.

Viktor sat at the back of the conference hall, holding his small notepad in his hand, and absently listening to the explanation of Comrade Zhukov, the second person to come to power after Antonov.

Today's meeting is actually not directly related to Victor. After all, this meeting is a military meeting, which aims to arrange the next stage of the campaign plan, and the reason why Victor is here is because at the end of the meeting, there are still some things to talk about Regarding the relocation of several important industrial facilities in eastern Germany, the work is led by the People's Commissariat for National Security and the Special Committee. At the same time, it needs the support of the garrison, so it will be discussed at this meeting.

Viktor was not very interested in what Comrade Zhukov said. He was still thinking of a new task explained by Comrade Stalin: the foreign intelligence department of the People's Commissariat of State Security. Intensify the investigation activities against Japan in the Far East.

Yes, for now, the plan for the war against Japan has been arranged in the next step of the High Command. This is not only what Comrade Stalin promised to the leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States at the Yalta Conference, but also other It is also in the national interest of the Union.

After the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Americans in charge of the Pacific battlefield were obviously frightened by the stubborn attitude of the little Japanese outlaws. In order to force the Japanese government in Tokyo to surrender, the Americans organized a campaign against Tokyo some time ago. The massive bombing that almost flattened the whole of Tokyo.

But even so, the little Japan still showed no sign of surrender. On the contrary, their stubborn resistance seemed to become even more hysterical. Just a few days ago, the US military suffered huge casualties during the landing on Okinawa. It must be admitted that The thing is, the U.S. military has been beaten, and they have doubts about the battle plan to directly log in to the main island of Japan.

Under such circumstances, Washington has contacted Moscow four times in a row in the past few days, and repeatedly asked the alliance to start a plan to fight against Japan as soon as possible, in order to contain the Japanese troops in the Far East, to be precise, in Manchuria, thereby forcing the The Tokyo government surrendered unconditionally.

In the face of frequent demands from Washington, although Moscow's attitude has not changed, that is, the alliance will not officially fight against Japan until the end of the war with Germany, but in order to appease the emotions of its allies, Moscow has made some symbolic actions. .

Yesterday morning, Comrade Molotov, on behalf of the Soviet government, issued a notice to the Japanese. In view of the changes in the international situation, Moscow decided that after the expiration of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty, it will not be renewed, which obviously means The alliance was making diplomatic preparations for the ensuing war against Japan.

In today's Pacific battlefield, although the Japanese are still stubbornly resisting, the reality is always reality. After losing many sites in the Pacific, today's Japan is also in a desperate situation. They are dealing with the military conflict between China and the United States. If the Soviet Union is added, Tokyo seems to have no other choice but to surrender.

Therefore, when the news of the Soviet Union's refusal to renew the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty reached Japan, it directly led to the downfall of the Koiso cabinet, but the Japanese apparently have not given up their extravagant hope of continuing to win over Moscow, even if this hope has become very slim. .

For Viktor and the People's Commissariat of National Security he led, the request of the Supreme Command was to find out the basic situation of the fortresses built by the Japanese on the Sino-Soviet border as soon as possible, so that when the subsequent war broke out, the Soviet Union The army can quickly pass through the border area, and the intelligence department must figure out the distribution map and deployment of those fortresses.

This work is obviously not so easy to do, but fortunately, in the past few years, when Victor was in charge of the foreign intelligence bureau, he never gave up the intelligence collection work in Manchuria, where the foreign intelligence bureau has a large scale. A small intelligence network not only includes a large number of Chinese, but also a part of Belarus, and even some Japanese who are inclined to the left.

Through this intelligence network, as well as information provided by friendly parties in China, it should not be particularly difficult to meet the demands of the High Command in the coming months.

On the rostrum, Comrade Zhukov's explanation finally came to an end, and then people from the General Staff Department evaluated Comrade Zhukov's plan and questioned some details of the plan.

At this time, Victor was still distracted, so that he didn't even notice someone walking by, until the person patted him on the shoulder, he suddenly came back to his senses.

Comrade Boskrebyshev was coming. He stood bent over in front of Viktor, made a gesture to him, then turned and walked towards the door.

Victor glanced at the rostrum subconsciously, and was surprised to find that Comrade Stalin, who had been sitting on the rostrum before, had disappeared, and with him, there was obviously Comrade Malenkov who had come to attend the meeting.

Without thinking too much, Victor closed the notepad in his hand, got up and walked out the door.