red moscow

Chapter 2626

While the farce of siege and search of the British embassy was still going on, an unexpected person came to see Sokov.

Seeing this person appear, Sokov couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise: "Comrade Khrushchev, why is it you?" According to Sokov's idea, an important meeting was about to be held in Moscow, and Khrushchev should be busy with the meeting at this moment. How could he have time to visit him?

"Misha, I want to talk to you."

After hearing what Khrushchev said, Yakov quickly opened the door of the duty room and said to the two men, "I'm going to go out for a walk. You guys can talk slowly."

  After the door was closed again, Sokov wondered to himself, could it be that what he said on New Year's Day had an adverse effect on Khrushchev, and he came here specifically to settle the score with him?

Before Sokov could speak, Khrushchev said, "Misha, I came here to apologize to you."

  Sokov was stunned after hearing that Khrushchev apologized to him. Could it be that the sun rose from the west?

"Comrade Khrushchev, why do you say that?" Sokov asked tentatively, "Is it because of what I said to you on New Year's Day?"

Khrushchev nodded and said to himself: "Since the beginning of last year, I have completed the task assigned to me by Comrade Stalin and restored the municipal public welfare facilities in Warsaw. After sorting out the work at hand, I made the restoration of Ukraine's industry and agriculture my primary goal.

There are many problems in the economic recovery work in Ukraine. Although this work has been going on for almost a year, it is still far from what Comrade Stalin had asked. His expectation for Ukraine, the granary, was to provide enough grain, meat and other agricultural products for the post-war country. But our actual level is only 25% of the pre-war level.

In order to find solutions to the problems, I often traveled around Ukraine. In July, I visited the southern regions, and in the fall, I spent several weeks in western Ukraine and the Ukraine of the Transcarpathians.

Thanks to my unremitting efforts, with the return of evacuated materials and people gradually returning to workshops and homes, and also due to the unprecedented patriotic enthusiasm inspired by the war, various reconstruction projects made rapid progress. By October 1945, Ukraine's coal production had recovered to 10% of the pre-war level, steel to 40%, pig iron to 23%, and manganese to 30%. More than 54 large and medium-sized industrial enterprises and more than 4000 handicraft cooperatives resumed production. The agricultural sown area reached 3000% of the pre-war level, and grain and sugar beet production reached 71% and 1940% of the pre-war 80 level respectively. "

"That's a really good result." Sokov took the opportunity to praise the other party.

"But the actual situation is not optimistic." Khrushchev continued: "Although I have tried my best, the grain procurement plan for 1945 has not been completed, because tens of thousands of hectares of grain and corn have not been harvested until November, and we lack both manpower and machinery. In order to remedy the problems that occurred last year, we can only strengthen this year's spring sowing, but we are faced with a lack of machinery, horses and oxen on the farm. Some people suggest that dairy cows can be used temporarily for sowing, but this will definitely affect the production of milk, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of dairy products on the market."

Hearing this, Sokov realized that Khrushchev had also discovered that there might be a food crisis this year, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade Khrushchev, how do you plan to solve these problems?"

"I heard from Marshal Zhukov that you once suggested to him that we bring the tens of millions of German prisoners of war held in Siberia to Ukraine to help us start production in the new year." Khrushchev looked at Sokov and asked, "Is this true?"

"That's right, Comrade Khrushchev. I once made such a suggestion to Marshal Zhukov. Unfortunately, he rejected it outright."

It was obvious that Khrushchev had learned about this from other sources, so he did not know the details: "Why? Why did Marshal Zhukov reject your proposal?"

Seeing that Khrushchev seemed to know nothing about the matter, Sokov explained to him: "Marshal Zhukov said that once these hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war are transferred from Siberia, first of all, it will increase the pressure on the already tight railway transportation; secondly, after these prisoners of war arrive in Ukraine, special prisoner-of-war camps will be built for them, and special troops will be assigned to guard them, which is a waste of manpower; the last point, and the most critical issue, is that with the arrival of these prisoners of war, a large amount of food must be drawn to feed them, which will aggravate the problem of food supply tension in Ukraine."

  After listening to Sokov's story, Khrushchev fell into deep thought. He was thinking about Sokov's proposal to transfer German prisoners of war held in Siberia to Ukraine to assist local residents in spring ploughing. Was it right or wrong?

After thinking for a while, Khrushchev still couldn't come up with an ideal answer, so he said embarrassedly: "This matter is of great importance. I will report it to Comrade Stalin in person and listen to his opinion."

Sokov nodded and agreed, "Comrade Khrushchev, I think it is absolutely necessary to transfer German prisoners of war to assist in the spring farming production in Ukraine. If you think that the transfer of hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war will increase the transportation pressure of the railway department and have an adverse impact on the local food supply, then we can only transfer a part of the prisoners of war, for example, 30,000 to 50,000 people, so that the adverse effects can be minimized."

"Misha, what you said makes sense. If we transfer hundreds of thousands or even millions of prisoners of war all at once, it might cause instability in Ukraine, after all, the hostile forces in the country have not been completely eliminated." Khrushchev expressed his concerns, "If they attack our prisoner-of-war camps and release all the prisoners, then these people will cause Ukraine to become even more chaotic. Therefore, I think it is advisable to first transfer 30,000 to 50,000 prisoners of war to assist the local farm members in spring ploughing."

Seeing that Khrushchev agreed with his opinion, Sokov struck while the iron was hot and said, "Comrade Khrushchev, I still say the same thing. According to various information, Ukraine will suffer a severe drought this year, which will lead to a significant reduction in grain production. If you fail to complete the grain collection task assigned by your superiors, it will probably have an adverse impact on you. Therefore, I think that during the spring plowing this year, we should focus on planting drought-resistant potatoes and corn to ensure that there will be no serious food shortage this year."

"Well, I will consider what you said." Khrushchev's attitude was much better than that on New Year's Day. He nodded and said, "When I go to see Comrade Stalin, I will discuss this matter with him. I hope he can agree to this plan."

Sokov did not feel relieved when he heard Khrushchev's words. Although he had put forward all the suggestions he could, it was not up to him to decide whether Stalin would agree.

Khrushchev chatted for a few more words and then stood up to leave.

As soon as Khrushchev left, Yakov opened the door and walked in, asking curiously: "Misha, what did you talk about with Comrade Khrushchev?"

"What else could it be? Of course it was something mentioned on New Year's Day."

"What, you brought it up again?" Yakov asked in surprise, "He's not angry, is he?"

"No." Sokov shook his head and said, "I think he was somewhat moved by my proposal at that time, otherwise he wouldn't have come here specially today."

Sokov didn't want to say too much, so he changed the subject in time: "What's the situation outside?" "The tents that Lieutenant Colonel Bezikov and his men brought have been set up on the open space of the embassy." Yakov said, "The tents are not only equipped with stoves for heating, but also mattresses for sleeping. Lieutenant Colonel Bezikov and others have discussed and divided everyone into three groups, who will take turns to keep warm and rest. In this way, let alone letting us stay here for two or three days, even if we stay for ten days or half a month, it won't be a big problem."

"It's cold outside, just don't let the soldiers get frostbitten." Sokov continued, "By the way, what's the situation in the embassy? Have the internal security troops who were searching inside come out?"

"Not yet." Yakov shook his head and said, "If I were to lead someone to search such a large embassy building, even if we searched it thoroughly, it would only take an hour or so at most. Now the internal security troops have been searching inside for four or five hours, but they haven't come out yet. I really don't understand what there is to search for."

"As long as the British don't bow their heads, the search in the embassy will not stop." Sokov said to Yakov: "The rooms that have been searched can be searched again. If people in the embassy ask, they can explain that they suspect that suspicious elements have sneaked into the searched rooms from other routes. The purpose of re-searching is to catch these cunning enemies. If we follow their search method, we can search until tomorrow morning."

"Won't the people in the embassy resist?"

"Do they have the guts?" Sokov said disdainfully. "When we first blocked the embassy, ​​those British soldiers who tried to break out of the building just wanted to test the waters and see what our army's attitude was towards them. If they were weak and could be bullied, they would rush out of the building for various reasons and even take back control of the entire embassy. But unfortunately, those British soldiers were severely beaten by our men, and while they were being beaten, they also lost their last bit of courage. Believe it or not, when I send two soldiers into the building and beat up the staff they don't like, they dare not even fart, their courage has long been frightened away."

Sokov wanted to see the heating conditions in the tent with his own eyes, so he opened the door and walked out. After walking a few steps, he saw a large group of people rushing out of the embassy building. Among the crowd, he could see several people wearing white shirts and tied up. They should be the suspicious elements arrested by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As the troops passed by, Sokov called out to the colonel: "Comrade Colonel, why are you retreating?"

"Comrade General," the colonel replied politely, "We have arrested all the suspicious elements in the embassy. Our mission has been completed, so we naturally have to go back."

After saying this, he raised his hand to salute Sokov and Yakov, then turned around and left with the troops.

Sokov saw someone among the internal security forces carrying a walkie-talkie. He presumably received an order from their superiors during the search, so they immediately stopped the search operation in the embassy building and evacuated with the captured people.

But Yakov did not notice the radio operator with a walkie-talkie in the crowd, and asked Sokov in confusion: "Misha, this is strange. How does this colonel know when to evacuate the embassy building?"

"Look, did you see the walkie-talkie on that guy's back?" Sokov pointed at the radio operator's back and said to Yakov, "It must be their superiors who gave them the order to retreat through the radio. Otherwise, how could they retreat so quickly?"

"They have all withdrawn, so what about us? When can we withdraw?"

"I don't know." Sokov shook his head and said, "As long as our superiors don't give us orders, we will continue to stay here and blockade the embassy."

When Bezikov saw the internal security troops withdraw, he also came over and asked: "Comrades Generals, the internal security troops have withdrawn. When will we withdraw?"

"I don't know." Sokov answered straightforwardly, "As long as we don't receive orders from our superiors, we will continue to stay here. By the way, are there any soldiers with frostbite?"

"Not yet." Bezikov said with a bit of a smile: "This unit was originally planned to be sent to London to participate in the victory parade, but unexpectedly it was transferred to blockade the British embassy. It was really unexpected."

At the same time, the British ambassador, counselor, military attaché and first secretary were standing at the window looking down.

When the internal security troops evacuated the embassy building just now, they couldn't help but feel secretly happy, thinking that the most difficult period was over. But when they looked out the window, they saw that the internal security troops who entered the building to search had evacuated, but the troops on guard outside still stayed where they were, and even set up a few tents in the open space in front of the building, apparently planning to set up camp here.

"Mr. Ambassador," the counselor, who had the lowest presence in the entire incident, said, "When do you think the troops on guard outside can be evacuated?"

"I don't know." The ambassador shook his head and said, "This force is obviously not from the same system as the one that entered the building. Although I don't know why that force suddenly withdrew, I have a bad feeling that this force may stay outside for a long time."

"In the reply from London, it was repeatedly emphasized that Mr. Churchill's speech only represented his personal views and had nothing to do with our country. After all, he is no longer the prime minister." The counselor continued: "But if we reply to the Russians with such an answer, do you think they can accept it?"

"Mr. Ambassador, we have to try our luck," the military attaché said with lingering fear, "If they don't see our reply for a long time, and send another army like this into the building tomorrow, I'm afraid it will cause panic."

"What is the extent of our losses?" asked the ambassador.

"The four people who were arrested were all agents who used the identity of embassy staff as cover. In addition, more than a dozen staff members were injured to varying degrees during their search and arrest because they did not cooperate."

"They are simply a bunch of barbarians," the ambassador said angrily. "I will lodge a serious protest with their Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding their barbaric behavior of wantonly beating up embassy staff, and I will ask Molotov to give me a satisfactory answer."