Struggle in Soviet Russia

Spiridonovka Street, also known as Alexander Tolstoy Street in the future, Victor wore a black woolen trench coat and an equally black peaked cap, and walked along the side of the street unhurriedly. Fans of bright windows, and every now and then, he would stop and peek into the store through the windows, acting like a country kid who seemed to be new to everything.

Not far behind him, Varenka was walking with two burly young men. Compared with Varenka, the two young men were a little nervous. They put their hands in their trouser pockets and looked at Frequently looking towards both sides of the street.

The two young people are from the Political Security Bureau, who are specially responsible for Victor's travel safety. According to Victor's current level, the special security authority stipulates that he can be equipped with six guards, and when he travels, he can arrange a guard vehicle. follow. However, Viktor didn't think that in today's Moscow, anyone would want to risk killing him, so every time he went out, he would only arrange two guards with him, and at most that was the case.

After entering the new year, the alliance has improved to a certain extent in the protection of basic consumer goods. Of course, this improvement is limited to local areas, such as Moscow and Leningrad. After all, the alliance needs to first guarantee this kind of Material supply in important cities.

From the window, the shelves in the supply store are basically full, and the queues that used to line up the whole street have disappeared. From this point of view, perhaps as some people say, the alliance must Thanks to the Bretton Woods system promoted by the Americans.

Just last month, the "International Monetary Fund Agreement" finally came into effect. Although the Union has not signed the relevant agreement and has no interest in participating in the US-run, dollar-centered international currency payment system, in general , Moscow still benefited from this agreement, because the Americans really began to implement the policy of gold-for-dollar exchange. As long as the gold was handed over to the Americans, they could get the corresponding amount of dollars from them, and according to the Americans themselves The standard of exchange is to exchange one ounce of gold for every 35 dollars.

Moscow likes this rule, because now the alliance holds a large amount of gold, and in the international market, those cunning bourgeois hoarders have clearly seen this. Therefore, since last July, the international gold The price is falling. As a result, when buying bulk materials, the alliance is obviously going to suffer.

The situation with the U.S. dollar is different. Today’s Americans have a large amount of materials in their hands, but the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar is strong. Therefore, as long as the alliance replaces the gold in its hands with U.S. dollars, it can get the money from the Americans. Getting more supplies back would be very beneficial to alleviating the shortage of supplies that the Alliance is currently facing, even Victor had to admit this.

Of course, as a traveler, Victor also knows that this kind of advantage is only short-term. From a long-term perspective, especially from the perspective of the US-Soviet hegemony, this phenomenon is very unfavorable for the alliance. As for the reason Without further ado, everyone knows what dollar hegemony means to the world.

Spiridonovka Street was not very long. It only took less than ten minutes to go from west to east. Victor walked all the way until he reached the end of the street.

At the end of the street, he crossed the sidewalk, walked to the other side of the street, and finally sat down on a row of chairs by the street, silently lit a cigarette for himself, and took a deep breath.

Although the severe winter has not finally gone away, the traces of spring are already faintly visible. At least, the weather is gradually warming up recently. Although it has not reached above zero, at least the weather of minus 20 to 30 degrees has disappeared. .

Perhaps it was because he had lived in Moscow for a long time, and Victor had become accustomed to the climate here. The weather of minus six or seven degrees was relatively warm for him.

After taking two puffs of the cigarette, Victor reached into his arms, took out a rolled up newspaper from the lined pocket of the windbreaker, slowly unfolded it, and looked at it ten lines at a time.

This newspaper is not any newspaper published within the Union, it belongs to the Central Committee and is specially printed by the news distribution agency of the Central International Department, and only circulates within the Central Committee to help the Central Committee members understand what has happened recently. major event.

In fact, Victor already had the status of a member of the Central Committee a long time ago, but he came into contact with such a newspaper for the first time after he entered the International Department of the Central Committee. Obviously, not every member of the Central Committee can see this stuff. of.

In this newspaper, the first piece of news was related to the International Department of the Central Committee where Viktor is now.

The World Jewish Congress is well-known, most people know it, and in the past few years, especially after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, since the formation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the Union, the committee has sent representatives to the World Jewish Congress every year, This is also allowed by Moscow.

But this Jewish student conference is different. It is held for the first time this year. Although most of the participants identified so far are from the World Jewish Congress, and the invitations are also young Jewish people, but in the invitation letter, The introduction to the conference was very limited, and its purpose and purpose were not clearly stated. Therefore, at the back of this news, the opinions given by comrades Zhdanov, Molotov and others were marked. .

The opinions of these leaders are very unified. They do not support the participation of representatives of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the Union. The reason is that they do not know the nature of the conference, and the organizers of the conference have an ambiguous attitude on certain issues. accepted.

Now is a sensitive period for the restoration of the Zion in Palestine. Among the Zionists, there are two completely different opinions on the issue of the establishment of a state in Palestine: one is to establish a peaceful state, that is, to use the influence of Jews in various countries. force, to put pressure on the British to force London to accept the demands of Jewish statehood. The other is the violent state-building, which advocates the use of various means, including force, to force the British to make concessions, so as to achieve the purpose of state-building.

For the Alliance, it is obviously in its own interest to support the Jewish state-building proposition, but what the Alliance supports is the Jewish demand for peaceful state-building, not the idea of ​​violent state-building. After all, the goal of the Alliance is to weaken the British Influence in the Middle East, rather than driving the outbreak of war, which is in no one's interest in this day and age.

But this World Jewish Student Congress, because it invites young people, its proposition must be radical, sometimes even extreme, so the alliance does not want to have too many entanglements with them.

On this issue, Viktor naturally agrees with comrades Zhdanov and Molotov. He also does not think that the alliance should establish any form of contact with Jewish extremists, because any form of official contact may It will give a false hint to the outside world.

Since January, Viktor has accepted the appointment of the first deputy minister of the Central International Department. Now, apart from the formal minister Comrade Zhdanov, he is the chief steward of the entire Central International Department. Comrade Novo's proposal to expand the International Department of the Central Committee was temporarily shelved by Victor, but the affairs in the entire department were still irritating, and a free day like today is really rare.

The most important thing is that Viktor can’t have time to relax today. The reason why he still has time to hang out on Spiridonovka Street is because his destination is on the square at the end of this street – the diplomatic people of the Union seat of the committee.

Recently, when Victor heard Comrade Stalin talking with Comrade Molotov, he vaguely mentioned one thing, that is, they seem to be preparing for the construction project of the new office building of the People's Committee for Foreign Affairs. Victor knew about Moscow in his previous life. The "Seven Sisters", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building is one of them.

Of course, Viktor has no interest in the new office building of the People's Committee for Foreign Affairs. He is here today to meet with Comrade Molotov - Comrade Zhdanov's report on the expansion of the remit of the Central International Department, Viktor He can temporarily hold off from signing, but he can't never sign. Not to mention his political stance, just considering his current position, he must sign this word, otherwise, as the first deputy minister of the Central International Department, he does not want to see the development of the International Department. , does not think that the International Department should supervise foreign affairs work, then he, the first deputy minister, is too incompetent.

The most important thing is that, if he doesn't sign this letter, Comrade Zhdanov will catch the excuse of criticism, and then the situation will become passive.

In fact, saying a thousand things and ten thousand, everything, in the final analysis, it is Viktor himself who wants to sign this letter, not only because of his current position, but also because he agrees with Comrade Zhdanov's position and views, the alliance The foreign affairs of the republics and the People's Committees of Foreign Affairs should be subject to the supervision of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The party leads the country and leads everything. This cannot be changed at any time.

He's been thinking about this for a while, and now, he's finally made a decision.