Struggle in Soviet Russia

The venue of the Great Kremlin, the hearing preparation room.

Victor sat at the only table in the preparation room, looking at the thick stack of documents he had brought, as he was doing the last-minute preparations before the hearing.

Beside him, Sophia sat there quietly, with a pair of eyes fixed on his face for a moment, as if she wanted to see the nervousness in his expression, but it was a pity that she had nothing to gain. Because at the moment there was no expression on Victor's face, neither tension nor excitement.

Today’s hearing is a hearing of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. It stands to reason that such a hearing is not only attended by members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, but also includes some members, members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and members of the Organization Bureau of the Central Secretariat. You can come as an observer. They have no right to speak, ask questions, or make decisions, but they can listen to the content of the meeting.

However, the nature of today's hearing is too special. It is related to the development of the alliance's intelligence work for a long period of time in the future, and it is mainly foreign intelligence work. Therefore, the nature of the meeting is top-secret content. No one except the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee can participate.

The hearing was determined to officially start at three o'clock in the afternoon. Victor came a little early, and arrived less than two and a half.

During the period before the meeting, Victor re-strokes the ten-page report. During a meeting, it is impossible to be completely unwritten, but at least it must be as small as possible. Look at the manuscript.

In addition, with regard to some data, he also remembered exactly where it was in the file. If a member of the Standing Committee asked questions about certain data, he had to be able to find out the data in the shortest time.

The knock on the door interrupted Victor's thoughts, and the double door, which was obviously out of oil on the shaft, was pushed open from the outside.

Victor raised his head and looked towards the door, just in time to see Comrade Fitin poking in halfway from the outside and beckoning him.

Almost subconsciously, Victor raised his hand and looked at his watch, less than five minutes before the meeting officially began.

With a long sigh, he stood up from the chair, stacked the documents on the table in the order he was accustomed to, held him by Sophia, and turned and walked towards the door.

The venue was right next door. When Victor walked into the door of the venue, he saw Serov and Eitingo already seated in front of the lecture booth, but there was no one in the hearing booth opposite. Obviously, the leaders paid back. No admission yet.

Although the report was submitted by Victor, the content involved is for the entire National Security People’s Committee. Therefore, all the four people’s committees of the entire committee must attend. Moreover, the report submitted by Victor was signed by the remaining three committee members. This is everyone's business, not his own.

Speaking of this, I have to comment on Comrade Serov. As a people’s commissar of the National Security People’s Committee, he has truly implemented the principles of collective leadership in the committee. He does not speak out in any decision-making process. Every committee member They all have the power to make suggestions and vote, which is very rare.

Victor took a seat in the lecture table. His seat was Serov on the right, Fitin on the left, and Eitingo on the right of Serov.

The arrangement of this seat actually reflects the current ranking of members of the People’s Committee of National Security. But this ranking is obviously temporary. If nothing else, once Victor’s report this time is recognized, the leaders of the Politburo agreed to the reorganization of the People’s Committee for National Security, so for the balance of power and national security The number of members of the People’s Committee will be increased to at least nine.

Conventionally, among the five new members, at least two will be responsible for the disciplinary work of the committee department, one will be responsible for administrative supervision, and the other will be responsible for party affairs inspection; one will be in charge of internal intelligence work, in other words, Victor will No longer responsible for the leadership of the internal intelligence department, but the department responsible for external intelligence; one is responsible for organizational work, mainly the organization construction work within the committee department, which used to be in charge of Fijing; one responsible for coordination, Mainly to coordinate with external agencies other than the committee department.

Of course, the specific division of labor depends on Comrade Serov's decision-making. As the head of the committee department, he has an absolute say in this regard.

A more special case is that Victor’s responsibility for external intelligence work has already been determined. Comrade Serov will not make adjustments in this regard. Of course, even if it is adjusted, it is estimated that Comrade Stalin will not agree.

Judging from the work of the past year, Victor's achievements in foreign intelligence work are still convincing, and no one will deny this.

As for Victor himself, he is also more willing to be responsible for external intelligence work. As for internal intelligence work, to be honest, he is a bit reluctant. After all, internal intelligence work involves the supervision of internal party members and cadres in the alliance. Although this work was carried out jointly with the Central Supervisory Committee, the nature of its work has not changed, and it is all very offensive.

It was less than three o'clock in a minute, and noisy footsteps came from the door of the venue. The four committee members hurriedly got up and saluted Comrade Stalin who first entered the venue.

The Politburo obviously attached great importance to this hearing, whether it was Zhdanov who was as far away as Leningrad, Khrushchev who was originally a military commissar on the southern front, and those who went to Yekaterina Castle before. Malinkov, Gubyshev Andreyev, all rushed back, and all the members of the Politburo Standing Committee were present.

Comrade Stalin seemed to be in a good mood. When he walked into the meeting place, he had a smile on his face, and he whispered to the burly Zhdanov as he walked.

After entering the venue and seeing the four of Victor, he walked straight to the lecture booth. When he walked to Fitin, he put the pipe in his mouth into his mouth and shook hands with the four committee members one by one.

With Comrade Stalin acting in front of him, the following comrades of the Standing Committee naturally followed suit and shook hands with Victor and others one by one.

"Comrade Victor Viktorovich," Malinkov walked at the back of the line. He first shook hands with Fitin, and then stopped when he walked in front of Victor. He shook hands with Victor and smiled. Said, "I read your report carefully, what I mentioned in your report, about the invention of the Physics Laboratory of Iowa State University in the United States..."

When he was talking, he was thinking about something, so when he said this, he paused and thought for a while before he continued: "Computers, yes, computers. I am very interested in this thing."

What Malinkov said is what Victor mentioned in the report about the application technology of the ABC computer. This computer has been successfully developed last year. The inventor is Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University in the United States. And graduate student Clifford Berry.

In Victor's previous life, in domestic computer teaching, Ainiac was regarded as the world's first modern computer, but in terms of international recognition, the ABC computer was the real first modern computer.

However, this kind of computer cannot be used for mathematical operations, only logical operations, and is mainly used to solve linear equations.

Solving linear equations, is this function a bit familiar? That's right, this thing is very suitable for solving ballistic parameters, so when Victor gave examples of the importance of computer intelligence in his report, he mentioned this kind of computer that has already appeared. He also pointed out that this kind of computer technology is of great significance to the research and development of rocket technology.

More importantly, the computer invented by Atanasov was only used for teaching. He himself did not pay enough attention to it, so that he did not even apply for the corresponding patent, and did not obtain the official US Attention.

Therefore, Victor mentioned in the report that the intelligence department has now begun to acquire all the technology of this kind of computer, and if nothing happens, the original machine can even be obtained.

Malinkov has been responsible for some practical tasks for a long time. After the outbreak of the war, he took turns serving as the People’s Commissar of the Aviation Industry Department in the People’s Committee of National Defense. Therefore, he paid more attention to these technological things. of.

In addition, the rocket technology research and development project is currently in charge of Malinkov. He naturally also knows the difficulty and importance of the ballistic calculation work. Therefore, he will specifically discuss this matter with Victor.

"I hope the intelligence department can do more to get this technology in hand," Malinkov urged, shaking hands with Victor.

When he said this, the chubby Marinkov looked very kind. This was his second contact with Victor. How should I say, Victor's impression of this person is still very good.

Several members of the Politburo Standing Committee were seated at the hearing, and Boskrebeshev put a document in front of everyone. It was a photocopy of Victor's report.

"Comrade Viktor Viktorovich Tarashev," said Zhdanov, who was in charge of the hearing, when everyone had received the photocopy of the report, "you can start to report."

After hearing this, Victor hurriedly stood up and saluted the members of the standing committee at the hearing. Then he returned to his seat and stated his opinions and viewpoints in the order of the issues covered in the report.

Because the report contains a lot of content, and there are also some extensible content, it takes a long time. However, including Comrade Stalin, every member of the Standing Committee in attendance listened very carefully.