Struggle in Soviet Russia

When Petrozavodsk entered November, it was like being put into a cold storage with the maximum power, and the temperature dropped to more than minus 20 degrees, which seemed to herald another severe winter this year.

The horse head of Lake Onega, a convoy of more than a dozen cars stopped under the hills outside the pier. Victor, who was sitting in the first car, took the lead to push the door and get out of the car. The ridge line above the mound climbed away, and behind him, followed by a large number of the main leaders of the Republic's ministries from their respective cars.

At this time, it was still snowing in the sky, and the snowflakes were fine and dense, not the kind of fluffy snowflakes, but the ice particles that I met.

Climbing all the way up from the bottom of the hill, Victor covered the white steam in his mouth and turned his head to look at the surface of Lake Onega.

From this position, you can overlook the boundless Onega Lake. Because of the fine snow, the surface of the lake looks foggy, but the ice layer that has been completely frozen is still clearly visible.

The second person to climb the hill line was Comrade Andropov, the second secretary of the Central Committee of the Republic. Like Victor, he immediately turned around and looked back, frowning at the ridge line. Directions to Lake Onega.

Yesterday morning, Viktor was still in Moscow. In the afternoon, after receiving a report from the meteorological department, he hurried back to Karelia.

According to the report of the meteorological department, this wave of snowfall was brought by a polar cold air. In the next two days, there will be continuous large-scale snowfall in the entire Eastern European plain. In some areas, there may be snow disasters. , and even further natural disasters caused by extreme cold weather.

The Karelia region itself is located in the extreme north and has rich experience in dealing with extreme cold weather. In addition, the local agriculture is not very developed. Therefore, the natural disaster such as snow disaster will not affect the local area. too big.

But now there is a very critical problem, that is, affected by the war, several major cities including Petrozavodsk, the winter heating system with public heating as the main form has not been fully restored, this sudden The polar cold current is likely to bring unexpected losses to the entire Karelia region.

As the first secretary of the Karelian-Finnish Soviet Republic, although Viktor did not concurrently serve as a people's commissar of the People's Committee, he was influenced by the party and government of the Union. As the first secretary, he also held a certain degree of government work. Therefore, he also needs to pay enough attention to these issues related to the national livelihood of the Republic.

"The work that needs to be urgent now is the heating guarantee work for major cities, including Petrozavodsk, Medvizhgorsk, Kondopoga, etc., whose public heating systems have not yet been restored," he said in a statement. Behind Andropov was Comrade Verolainen, the chairman of the People's Committee of the Republic. Can't wait to say, "My opinion is that the Consumer Goods and Residential Services Commission must make arrangements immediately to release the supply of heating wood and oil in several major cities."

The situation in Karelia is actually not much different from the situation in Siberia. In the cold winter, the more rural areas are, the less you need to worry about heating. On the contrary, urban residents will encounter untimely heating, or even unsafe predicament. The reason for this is also very simple. After all, the Alliance is a country rich in forest resources. In rural areas, there is no shortage of wood for heating, but in cities, it is different. Public heating cannot be guaranteed. In some cases, this issue needs to be addressed by the Consumer Goods and Residential Services Commission.

This cold wave came too suddenly, and the temperature dropped too fast. In the words of the meteorological department, it is "once in decades". If the heating problem is not solved first, it will really kill people, and it is not Die one or two.

Victor stood on the top of the **** and stared at Lake Onega, which had been completely frozen... He was also responsible for sorting out the hydrological data of Lake Onega before, knowing that in previous years, the It would take more than half a month for the lake to freeze like this, but this year's situation is very special. It has just entered November, and this big lake has frozen into a lump of ice.

The freezing of Lake Onega is not good news for the Karelia region today. You must know that the transportation facilities in the entire Karelia region have been severely damaged in the war in the past few years, not to mention almost The completely destroyed railway transportation line, and even the road facilities are basically in a state of paralysis. In terms of transportation, the only one that can really rely on and can operate effectively is only water transportation.

According to Victor's plan, after he took over the work in the Karelia region, he planned to promote the restoration and reconstruction of the transportation industry first, and use this to open up the situation, but the time he took over the work was not right. At the juncture of the late autumn and early winter, at this time, it is definitely not possible to engage in engineering projects. Therefore, the related work can only be pushed to the warmer weather next year.

In addition, even if Viktor took office at just the right time, it may not be easy for him to put his limited resources into the reconstruction project of the transportation industry first. The State Planning Commission controlled by the comrade is very strict in the allocation of the budget. It can even be said that they have reached the level of economic construction at the central and local levels of the alliance through the allocation of the budget. In other words, they will give "guiding opinions" on the use of the budget, and in less pleasant terms, they are indirectly or even directly interfering with the budget use rights of the ministries and commissions of the People's Committee, the republics and states.

No matter Comrade Malenkov or Comrade Beria, they are all highly disgusted with the State Planning Commission led by Woznetsensky. Of course, there are reasons for the different political positions of the two sides, but more, it should be They are dissatisfied with the finger-pointing of the Planning Commission.

Of course, it is not only Malenkov and Beria who are dissatisfied with the Planning Commission now. There are many cadres who have the same attitude as them. Among them are Popov, Khrushchev and Bonoma Company. Ko, as far as Viktor knew, because the Planning Commission interfered with the budget control work of the republics, the arrogant Comrade Ponomarenko even went to Comrade Stalin to sue the Planning Commission.

An interesting point is that in the post-war reconstruction work arrangement, Comrade Ponomarenko and Viktor have a very close position. The former also advocates giving priority to the restoration and construction of the transportation network in Belarus, which will be the main part of this year's budget. For the restoration of railway and road facilities to Poland, Moscow, Kyiv, Leningrad, etc. via Minsk.

But just like the resistance Viktor suffered from Comrade Voznesensky, Ponomarenko's idea was also opposed by the State Planning Commission, and Voznesensky's suggestion to Belarus was equally It is also to let them spend this year's budget mainly on restoring industrial and mining enterprises in Belarus.

The decision of the Planning Commission was of course unacceptable to Poonomalenko. The latter was also a territorial official after all. He had his own position on how to arrange work, and wanted people like Bonomalenko to be a tool. People, honestly accept the command of the Planning Commission, how can it be so easy? Therefore, the two sides finally took the case to Comrade Stalin, and the final result was that Ponomalenko won.

On similar issues, Comrade Khrushchev, who was far away in Ukraine, adopted another strategy. He did not oppose the people in the planning committee of Voznetsensky, but directly accepted the advice of the other party. , and invested a lot of resources and energy in the mine drainage problem in the Donets mining area.

When Viktor just returned to Moscow, he saw the report submitted by Comrade Khrushchev to the People's Committee. During the month, we worked hard and drained a total of 120 million cubic meters of accumulated water in the mine, and repaired nearly 900 kilometers of landslides and so on. In short, Ukraine has done a lot of work, and as for the results... According to Comrade Khrushchev, since the destruction of the entire Donets mining area by the German army was fundamental, the related drainage and mine passages The restoration work will continue for at least six to nine months, and the production resumption work in the mining area is expected to be basically completed by the beginning of the following year.

Therefore, as the chairman of the People's Committee, Comrade Kosygin carefully considered the work report of the Ukrainian side, and asked Comrade Stalin for instructions. The reply he gave was to ask Comrade Khrushchev to put the production recovery work in the mining area aside first. First, focus on the restoration of agricultural production. At this point, Comrade Khrushchev has completely left the Planning Commission aside, and he has to do what he has to do.

As a young cadre, Viktor certainly doesn't want to offend people. If possible, he also hopes to be as smooth as Comrade Khrushchev, but the problem is that smoothness requires a price, and this price is not paid by himself. , that is, the local losses pay the bill, just like Comrade Khrushchev's tact, paying for him is Ukraine's wasted three months.

Victor didn't want to do that. Compared to him, he was more willing to learn from Comrade Poonomalenko's approach. Coincidentally, he was also like Comrade Poonomalenko and was not afraid of offending those in the Planning Commission.