Struggle in Soviet Russia

Sitting on the row chair and smoking a cigarette, Victor stood up, stretched his waist lazily, and straightened the peaked cap on his head. Then he turned around and took a step toward the diplomatic people not far away. Go to the location of the committee building.

Before coming here, Victor had already contacted Comrade Pavlov. Of course, the Pavlov mentioned here, of course, is not referring to Dmitry Grigorievich Pavlov, the unlucky one The guy was shot years ago. "Pavlov" here refers to Vladimir Nikolaevich Pavlov, also a young and promising comrade, the same age as Viktor.

Long before the war broke out, when Viktor was still a captain in the NKVD, Comrade Pavlov was already the Minister of the NKVD's Central European Department, as well as the Union Embassy in Germany. The position of the first secretary, Victor is nothing compared to others.

As for now... Well, now Comrade Pavlov has left the NKVD, and when he was serving in the Union Embassy in Germany, he was valued by Comrade Molotov, and was thus taken by He was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and served as secretary to Comrade Molotov.

When contacting Pavlov before, Victor made it clear that he was going to visit Comrade Molotov today and asked him to make arrangements in Comrade Molotov's itinerary. At this time, Victor was stuck Came at the appointed time.

Crossing the road with few pedestrians, Viktor took Varenka and the three to the downstairs of the People's Committee for Foreign Affairs. Just as he was walking up the stairs in front of the building, there was a tall, tall man in front of him. The handsome young man walked over to meet the group of them, and when Victor was still a dozen steps away, he stretched out his hand, continued to speed up his pace, and said with a smile: "Hello, you Well, Comrade Viktor Viktorovich, I am the secretary of Comrade Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, Pavlov, we talked on the phone before."

Obviously, this young comrade Pavlov was very warm and polite in his attitude towards Victor. Of course, this is not without reason. Young people who have entered the top ranks of the People's Committee of Foreign Affairs after reaching the age of 30 can definitely be regarded as young and promising. Such people will definitely have a bright future. Ordinary veteran cadres, even if they are higher in position, will try their best to avoid being with them. They clashed, after all, others are the future. But the problem is that Victor is as young as Pavlov, but he has a higher position than the latter. He is already a member of the Central Committee at the age of 30, and he has already begun to lead the departments directly under the Central Committee. Therefore, compared to Pavlov, his future is obviously more promising.

Based on this, it is absolutely reasonable for Comrade Pavlov to show some enthusiasm and politeness.

"Hello, Comrade Vladimir Nikolaevich," Viktor stretched out his hand, shook hands with him, took over the topic with a restrained smile, and asked, "Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Do you have time now, comrade?"

"Yes," Pavlov said with a gesture of invitation, guiding Viktor and his party upstairs, and said with a smile, "Comrade Chairman has just sent off Ambassador Smith, and is now waiting to meet you in the office."

The "Ambassador Smith" he said was referring to Walter Biddle Smith, who had just come to Moscow to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. His predecessor had returned to Washington, including Harriman, George Kennan and others. He was transferred back to the United States. Although the Americans said that their term of office had expired, in fact, Victor was very clear that the members of the U.S. embassy in the Soviet Union, including Harriman, were all affected. Due to the influence of the domestic political situation in the United States, they were all transferred back to the United States for review because of their status as "Soviet spies".

In general, the current international situation is quite friendly to the Soviet Union. The British and French are not strong enough to have an influence on the foreign policy of the alliance, while the Americans are busy fighting with each other. The eradication of the so-called "Soviet spies", this wave of infighting, is actually not much different from the alliance's anti-revolutionary expansion campaign in the 1930s, but not so many people were shot, but because of suspicions However, there are not many people who lost their jobs, were forced to leave the United States, and even lost their reputations.

"Come on, don't keep Comrade Vyacheslav Mikhailovich waiting," Victor's thoughts were quickly pulled back, and he smiled at Pavlov and said.

Comrade Molotov's office is on the fifth floor of the building, room 13. Interestingly, the number "13" is not auspicious, but as an old Bolshevik and a proper materialist, Comrade Molotov is obviously Don't care about this, it is said that after Litvinov resigned from the post of the People's Commissar of the People's Committee for Foreign Affairs and was replaced by Comrade Molotov, he chose the office in this room, and it has been four years now. In the past, he did not change rooms.

The group took the elevator to the fifth floor, Varenka and two guards were arranged to the waiting room, and Victor followed Pavlov directly to Comrade Molotov's office.

This is the first time Viktor has walked into Comrade Molotov's office. To be honest, in terms of the size and luxury of the office, Comrade Molotov's office is not only better than Malenkov and Beria in terms of standards. The standard of the office of this comrade is higher, even much better than that of Comrade Stalin. At least the thick carpet on the floor is not found in Comrade Stalin's office.

Of course, making the office so luxurious is not because Comrade Molotov is greedy for enjoyment. In the final analysis, this is determined by the nature of his work. Most of the guests who usually appear in his office are from So-called international friends abroad, therefore, to a certain extent, his office can be regarded as a window to the outside world, so he still needs to pay more attention to it.

When Viktor walked into Comrade Molotov's office, the old comrade in charge of the Union's diplomatic work was sitting on the sofa in the middle of the office, flipping through documents. He held a cigarette between the fingers of his left hand, and a document in his right hand. Because he was so focused, he didn't realize that the cigarette between his fingers was about to burn out.

Comrade Pavlov stood at the door, raised his hand and knocked on the open door, saying: "Comrade Chairman, Comrade Viktor Viktorovich is here."

"Um...hiss..." Almost at the same time, Molotov's cigarette burned out, and a long string of cigarette butts scalded his fingers. .

"Please come in," he subconsciously shook off the cigarette butt, then bent over to pick up the cigarette **** that had fallen on the carpet, pinched it in the ashtray, put down the document in his right hand, and looked at the door while saying.

Hearing Comrade Molotov's voice, Victor didn't wait for Pavlov to invite him. He took two steps forward and walked straight into the office. When his eyes fell on Comrade Molotov, he smiled: "It's the first time in your office, Comrade Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, and it must be admitted that your office is really enviable."

"Hehe, everything is necessary for work," Comrade Molotov stood up from the sofa, waved his hand to invite Viktor over, and said with a smile, "Actually, I prefer Alexei Nikolai. Comrade Yevich's office, at least in that office, doesn't have to be as restrained as here."

Alexey Nikolayevich, of course, is Kosygin. Today Kosygin is the Chairman of the People's Commissariat, and before Comrade Molotov was transferred to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, his position was the People's Commissariat Chairman, the office he used in the past is the office that Comrade Kosygin is using now. Of course, the conditions of that office are incomparable to those here.

"Sit down and have something to drink?" Inviting Viktor to the sofa, Comrade Molotov gestured towards Pavlov at the door and asked.

"Tea," Victor made a simple choice.

Comrade Molotov nodded again to Pavlov, and then invited Viktor to his seat again.

"Well, it's been a while since I accepted the work of the Central International Department." After the two of them were seated, Comrade Molotov asked Victor without waiting for him to speak, "Do you have any thoughts on the current work?"

Viktor is not a follower of Molotov, but the relationship between the two is not bad, after all Viktor did Molotov a big favor.

The most important thing is that Comrade Molotov is not a man with too much ambition. To put it more bluntly, he is a man who is cautious to the point of timidity, and at the same time is easily satisfied. As I said before, among the many old guys around Comrade Stalin, there is no one who really wants to replace him. Those who are really ambitious are almost all relatively young cadres, such as Malenkov, For example, Bella and so on.

Comrade Molotov really does not have much ambition. He is very satisfied with his current situation. Therefore, the purpose of all his struggles is to maintain the current situation. After so many years, he has become accustomed to Comrade Stalin who decides everything. , and then he arranges work according to Comrade Stalin's instructions. If he is really allowed to sit in Comrade Stalin's position, he probably really doesn't know what to do.