Struggle in Soviet Russia

Well, there may be many flaws in Woznetsensky's body, but there's only one advantage that Viktor appreciates, and that is his daring to speak up and stand his ground.

What is the situation in Ukraine today? Victor believes that most of the people present tonight have a good idea. Just like what Voznetsensky said, the war has a great impact on Ukraine. For the "central black soil area" mentioned by Woznetsensky, this area is of course not only in Ukraine, but refers to the fertile black soil belt of the entire Ukrainian plain, the so-called "granary of Europe" in the traditional sense, refers to this area. In Ukraine, this fertile black soil area has about 20 million hectares, accounting for nearly 40% of the entire Ukraine's arable land.

And when the Germans were forced to withdraw from the area last year, they not only burned everything, they also blew up a large number of hydroelectric dams and reservoirs on the Dnieper. Take the Dnieper No. 1 hydropower station as an example. The Germans blew up the entire hydropower station together with the reservoir embankments in the water storage area. It is said that the flood caused by the bombing of the reservoir had a maximum flow rate of more than 35,000 cubic meters at its peak. Meters per second, the consequences of this powerful flooding are catastrophic, and the flooded areas cannot be recovered at least in the short term.

As far as Victor knows, since the liberation of Ukraine last year, the government of the Ukrainian republics led by Comrade Khrushchev has been trying to repair the various reservoirs and hydropower stations on the Dnieper River, but the progress is obviously not so smooth.

The flooding of the Dnieper River not only brought about downstream floods, but also a series of related problems. For example, the destruction of several hydropower stations on the Dnieper River directly caused the problem of power shortages in post-war reconstruction work. If the related facilities cannot be restored as soon as possible, then the industry in Ukraine cannot recover. For another example, the Alliance has been expanding agricultural production in Ukraine for a long time. As early as during the 15th and 2nd Five-Year Plans, a water conservancy irrigation system was formed that relied on the Dnieper River. When the German army retreated, This system was fundamentally damaged, and the direct consequence was that the rich black soil areas on both sides of the Dnieper River were either in the midst of floods or floods, or in drought and water shortages, making it difficult for agricultural production to resume.

According to experts' assessments, it will take at least two to three years to restore agricultural production in Ukraine to the pre-war level.

Of course, these are only the problems of facilities, and in addition to the damage of facilities, a more serious problem is the lack of labor.

According to the information provided by the Internal Intelligence Service, the Ukrainian Reconstruction Committee has counted the current population of Ukraine. It is blunt to say that in the past few years of war, an entire generation of young people in Ukraine has been wiped out, with a population of more than 700. The vast majority of the losses were young people, and this loss accounted for 17 percent of Ukraine's total population.

In addition, in the liquidation after the war, hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities were relocated out of Ukraine, which made Ukraine's labor shortage problem even more serious. large-scale production activities. What’s worse is that compared with Ukraine, the situation in Belarus is even more serious. The war has reduced the population of Belarus by nearly one-third, and many villages and towns have even become no-man’s land.

Therefore, the cruel reality proves that if the agricultural production in Ukraine is to return to the pre-war level, it is definitely not something that can be accomplished overnight. .

However, within the scope of the entire alliance, the problem facing Moscow now is that the supply of food is seriously insufficient. After all, when the two granaries of Belarus and Ukraine are out of production, there is nothing else to be found in the vast territory of the alliance. The place can fill the void, so the pressure naturally falls on Belarus and Ukraine to solve the problem of feeding the citizens of the Union.

In fact, in Victor's view, rather than simply extracting the agricultural production capacity of Belarus and Ukraine, the alliance should focus on the development of agricultural resources in Siberia, the Far East and other places, especially the Far East, where the agricultural conditions are still very high-quality. , the key is that the development efforts given by Moscow are not enough.

In fact, in the past history of the Union, counting the period of God Russia, the development of the Far East has almost never stopped. The big development has always been advancing, but unfortunately, for some reason, the results of the development have not been satisfactory. Victor believes that there may be many reasons behind this, such as war, climate factors, insufficient attention, and so on.

Aside from Siberia and the Far East with poor climate conditions, there are also a series of undeveloped areas with very good climate conditions in the Union, such as the swampy belt of the Propiat River Basin and the uninhabited areas of the Volga River Basin. For example, the black soil belt of the Don River Basin, etc., etc., the alliance has a vast territory and a population of less than 200 million. How can it be so stretched on the food issue?

“My assessment is that after the end of the summer harvest this year, it is impossible for Ukraine to complete the intended amount of grain collection,” Voznetsensky continued to state his point,” Nikolai Sergeye Comrade Veitch's pompousness does nothing to help the Alliance's food security strategy, on the contrary, he will only cause us more trouble."

Everyone at the table was silent, waiting for Comrade Stalin to give his final judgment.

Woznetsensky's last remarks pointed to a problem that the Planning Commission is currently working on, that is, whether the alliance should invest large sums of money to purchase food from the international community for emergencies.

As far as the current international situation is concerned, the price of food remains high due to the war. However, the Soviet army has obtained a large amount of money and wealth during the attack on Berlin, and precious metals such as gold are also numerous. Quite a few, if Moscow is willing to solve the problem of the food crisis through procurement in the international market, it is still feasible only from the current point of view.

Of course, it is only feasible to a certain extent, because it is foreseeable that if the alliance conducts bulk grain purchases in the international market, it will inevitably push up international grain prices. In addition, the National Procurement Committee may not The ability to rely solely on international procurement can meet the huge food shortage of the alliance. If this burden is really placed on the procurement committee, it is estimated that Comrade Dvinsky will go crazy directly.

"What is the attitude of Comrade Panteleimon Kondratievich?" Comrade Stalin asked after a long silence before turning to Comrade Zhdanov.

Panteleimon Kondratievich is referring to Ponomarenko, the current first secretary of the Belarusian Soviet republic, and at the same time, he is also the chairman of the Belarusian People's Committee, in other words, in Belarus, the Polish Comrade Normalenko combines the power of the party and the government. If you take into account his status as a lieutenant general, then his influence in the Belarusian military is also great.

In the core of power in Moscow, Ponomarenko is not yet ranked in the first echelon. However, he is a person that Comrade Stalin trusts very much. From this point of view, this person's situation is similar to that of Viktor.

Comrade Zhdanov pursed his lips and glanced at Comrade Molotov, who was sitting across from him. Seeing that he had lowered his eyelids, he had no intention of opening his mouth, and said, "Georgi talked about Belarus before. Given the situation, Pantelehimon seems to be quite confident in completing this year's grain purchase task."

Hearing what he said, Comrade Stalin nodded, and then said nothing. He just held up the wine glass in front of him, gestured to the people at the table, and took a sip of wine on his own.

In the ensuing period, no one talked about the issue of grain requisition anymore, as if there was no disagreement among those present today on this issue. However, Viktor is very clear that after the summer harvest, if Comrade Khrushchev and Comrade Ponomarenko cannot successfully complete the task of requisitioning grain, or, in other words, if the requisition of grain leads to problems in the situation in Belarus and Ukraine, Then both of them are responsible for this, and the planning committee led by Woznetsensky has the opportunity to get out of these troubles. .

To be honest, for today's Victor, he is more and more anxious about going to Karelia to take office. He felt one thing, that is, the management of local work is completely different from the work of leading an agency such as the People's Commissariat for National Security. Relatively speaking, the complexity of the former is far greater than that of the latter, because local management The work is more comprehensive, involves more content in all aspects, and involves a wider range of interests. In the process of related work, as long as there is any negligence or insufficient consideration of any issue, it may cause incalculable trouble.

The most important point is that when he left Moscow and went to Karelia to preside over his work, he naturally stayed away from the center of power in Moscow and away from Comrade Stalin's side. As a result, what he achieved in his work, It will be reduced, and the mistakes made will be enlarged. These are inevitable, and he must be mentally prepared for this.