I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 843: Different Lines Like Different Lines

George has been working hard for 30 years, but he still hasn't been able to completely change the barbarism in the bones of some Russians who appear civilized on the outside.

The good news is that as time goes by, more and more Russians receive modern education, and many Russian cities, such as Vladivostok and Alexandria, have developed into models of modern cities. However, in the vast rural areas, many staff members still have a rude attitude, and they lack patience even when facing Russians.

Guchkov's work was very efficient. With the arrival of a large amount of relief food in the disaster area, the investigation into the disaster also made significant progress.

However, when George received the report submitted by the Ministry of the Interior, he couldn't help but have a headache.

In the North Caucasus region, where the situation is most serious, the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested Gobrinsky and Litman, heads of the Vyshskaya district.

Both men were veterans of the last World War.

After the end of the civil war, Russia carried out a large-scale military reduction. In order to strengthen its control over the rural areas, Russia placed a large number of veterans in rural areas to work, which achieved very good results.

These veterans really do not know how to manage the countryside in a civilized way. Their only advantage is their loyalty and they will follow orders to the letter.

It was based on this premise that Goblinsky and Litman completed their grain collection mission while also causing a serious food shortage in the Vyshskaya district.

As the investigation deepened, the Ministry of the Interior discovered more problems.

During the interrogation by the Ministry of the Interior, Goblinsky and Litman argued that the tasks set by the border region were too harsh and far exceeded the local capacity, so the staff had to complete the grain collection task in an "unconventional way."

The Ministry of the Interior continued its investigation and arrested four assessment and evaluation personnel.

Last winter, these four assessment and evaluation personnel were ordered to verify the grain production in the Vishskaya district in order to determine this year's grain collection standards.

The four men did conduct a field investigation, but they only visited state farms in the Vishny District and did not conduct a comprehensive assessment of all villages.

Russia's state farms and self-employed farmers are two completely different systems.

The state-owned farms are strong and efficient, and they make extensive use of agricultural machinery and fertilizers. The wheat is growing well. The assessors determined that the yield of winter wheat per acre is no less than 10 quintals. Based on this, the grain collection standard for the entire Vishskaya District is determined to be 5.7 tons.

After the wheat harvest, the state-owned farms in Vishskaya District not only successfully completed the grain collection task, but also had surplus wheat to sell after removing the food rations.

After selling the excess wheat, the state farm in Vyshskaya District purchased four more tractors, and wheat production will continue to increase next year.

In sharp contrast to the state-owned farms, due to insufficient forage production last winter, the number of oxen in the Vishskaya district continued to decrease, with more than 600 cattle and 500 horses dying throughout the winter. At the same time, due to the snow disaster, about 1.5 acres of winter wheat in the entire Vishskaya district were completely lost.

"The assessors only had one month to conduct the assessment, which was not enough time to visit all the farms in Vishskaya District. So after inspecting the state-owned farms, they reduced the per-acre yield of the state-owned farms by 1 percent and finally set the total amount of grain to be collected."

Makarov added that the evaluators also seemed to be not responsible.

So who is responsible for this?
The Interior Ministry concluded that Goblinski and Littman, who had done their jobs conscientiously, should not be punished.

George felt that the person who wrote the report had restrained himself. After reading the entire report, George felt that Goblinski and Littman should not only not be punished, but should be commended. Otherwise, no one would work honestly in the future.

Even if there is, they will bargain.

From this perspective, the evaluators were not at fault. After all, when they set the standards, they lowered the standards by 30% based on those for state-owned farms, taking full account of local conditions.

But were those who starved to death and those who were hung from the ceiling and tortured wrong?

When George studied history in his previous life, he never understood why the bearded man had to carry out a major cleanup.

Now, in addition to cleaning out the Hebrews who have infiltrated the Russian government and army at all levels, it is also necessary to clean out these old stubborn people who refuse to admit their mistakes.

“Since the damage was discovered last winter, why weren’t adjustments made in a timely manner?”

George hated both the callousness of Goblinski and Littman and the dogmatism of the evaluators.

Goblinski and Littman found that the standards far exceeded the local capacity, so they could report to the higher authorities instead of torture and complete the task at all costs.

The evaluators only inspected state-owned farms, and no matter how they whitewashed it, they could not escape the suspicion of being "lazy."

Local officials are also responsible. They disregard the lives of the people for the sake of political achievements and take human lives lightly, which is a very distinctive Russian tradition.

Think about those soldiers who rushed forward one after another without fear of death. This is both bravery and fearless heroism, but also a lack of respect for life.

Makarov was speechless. The world was not black and white, and it was not one person's responsibility for what happened.

What caught George even more off guard was that the famine in the area around Kiev had already attracted international attention, not only causing ridicule from the British, but also causing controversy for the Russian government.

We can't blame the British for taking advantage of the situation.

Russia has been in the limelight in recent years. Its endless stream of welfare security policies has overwhelmed governments around the world and sparked widespread controversy among the people of various countries.

An interesting reality is that many British and French people are still unwilling to admit that what is reported in the newspapers is true, and believe that Russia is conducting false propaganda.

This is understandable. After all, those who are truly capable have either immigrated to Russia or at least have the ability to visit Russia.

Those who are neither able to immigrate to Russia nor able to travel to Russia can only comfort themselves in this way.

The British reports on this incident were seriously inaccurate. Even the Russian government had not yet counted how many people had died, but the Times was impatient to claim that more than 10 people had died in the areas around Kiev alone.

After being reprinted twice, this number quickly became 50.

Stimson, who was visiting Russia, asked Guchkov hypocritically whether he needed help from the United States after reading the report in The Times.

Guchkov was so angry that he simply sent Stimson out of the country to avoid being an eyesore to the Americans.

On his return to the United States, Stimson visited Berlin.

No one knew what the conversation between Stimson and Moustache was about, but the next day, Stimson and Moustache held a joint press conference, not only putting aside their past grudges, but also announcing closer cooperation.

Little Karl came to George to explain that it was the United States that took the initiative to lift tariffs on German imports, and Germany only responded symbolically and did not lift the ban on American goods.

George had no time to care about little Karl at the moment, as Guchkov was facing a serious crisis of trust.

Since the end of World War II, the news that Russians see in newspapers every day is win, win, win. Today, Australia is accepted as a younger brother, tomorrow Mannerheim goes to the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as an "angel" to mediate, and the day after tomorrow Andre denounces Britain and France in the League of Nations.

Suddenly, newspapers began reporting on people starving to death around Kiev, and the memory of the dead began to attack the Russians.

The last time people starved to death in Russia was during the civil war, when the Second Government imposed heavy taxes in order to raise military rations, leading to widespread food shortages among the people and a severe famine.

Since the end of the civil war, there has been no more starvation in Russia.

Even among the new immigrants who had just arrived in the bitter cold of Siberia, no one starved to death.

As soon as the news of the famine in the areas around Kiev came out, some people demanded that Guchkov be held responsible and step down immediately.

Guchkov promised to resign voluntarily after the situation calmed down, and public opinion temporarily calmed down.

In December, calls for Guchkov to step down arose again. Guchkov had no choice but to submit his resignation to the Duma.

The Duma decided to hold general elections in January next year.

When Guchkov came to see George, Felix happened to be there.

"Great! From now on, we are a fishing trio." Felix warmly welcomed Guchkov to join.

"Now I finally understand why you quit at the beginning—"

Guchkov looked a little lonely.

"It was because someone didn't want to be the Tsar, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here fishing!"

Felix pointed the gun at George.

If the Tsar were still alive, he would definitely be the person primarily responsible.

"Do you want to run again?"

George encouraged Felix to make a comeback.

"In no mood!"

Felix is ​​enjoying his life now.

What's so good about being president? Endless meetings, endless documents to deal with, and intrigues with different people every day. The key is that it's a thankless job and you can never satisfy everyone.

Relying on the wealth accumulated by the Yusupov family over hundreds of years, Felix can enjoy life without restraint after stepping down, without having to worry about other people's criticism.

When Felix was in power, he was questioned for extravagance even if he used the Yusupov family's cruise ship at his own expense.

Now if Felix wants to buy a new cruise ship, he can buy a new cruise ship; if he wants to fly a plane, he can just build an airport. Not only do newspapers no longer attack Felix, but they praise his consumption and provide rare high-paying jobs for many Russians.

The Yusupov family’s cruise ships alone have hundreds of staff members whose only task is to provide services to members of the Yusupov family at all times.

It is impossible for the Yusupov family to go out to sea every day, so while the cruise ship staff receive high salaries, they spend most of their time enjoying the various entertainment and leisure facilities on the cruise ship for free in the name of maintenance.

"I originally wanted to use five to ten years to completely break the old order and gain more living space for Russia—"

Guchkov’s mistake was that he only focused on grand narratives and ignored the concern for ordinary people.

“This is not a task that we can accomplish in one generation.”

Felix is ​​self-aware that it took Britain and France more than one generation to build the existing international system.

Guchkov looked at George, and he remembered that George said yes.

"If you just want more living space, you have already done it."

George was generally satisfied with Guchkov's work.

During the years when Guchkov was in power, Russia not only made significant progress in the Far East, but also opened up the situation in Africa. More and more Africans awakened and joined the anti-colonial war, with remarkable results.

The international situation that Russia is facing now is completely different from when George was reborn.

"I hope that in the future when Russians mention me, they won't just think of the famine in Kiev—"

Guchkov was upset.

What George didn't expect was that someone was not afraid of the challenge. Vasily took the initiative to approach George for the January election.

"why?"

George also didn't know why Vasily wanted to run for election.

If Vasily wants to run for election, he must first retire from the army and then he can run.

"Alexander and Felix are too conservative, have no ambition at all, never take the initiative, and cannot lead Russia to a higher peak!"

Vasily had great ambitions.

George frowned. Vasily did have ambition, but he didn't necessarily have the ability to match it.

As a soldier, Vasily is basically qualified.

But it does not mean that Vasily can become a qualified politician. Don't forget that different professions have different worlds.

George couldn't directly discourage Vasily's enthusiasm, as that would hurt Vasily's self-esteem.

"If you are willing to run for election, I can stay in Constantinople honestly, but look at Karl, can he lead Russia to the top?"

Vasily was equally dissatisfied with Mannerheim.

Mannerheim was the Duma's preferred candidate.

"At least Carl is more experienced in diplomacy."

George had no problem with Mannerheim.

Don’t think that Mannerheim in this time and space is honest and doesn’t have many opportunities to show off.

Mannerheim in another time and space was the founding father of Finland. He not only withstood the pressure from the little mustache, but also made the Red Russia humiliated. Objectively, this led to the little mustache thinking that he had seen through the strength of the Red Russia and he took the risk to launch an attack on the Red Russia.

From this point of view, Finland under Mannerheim's leadership directly changed the course of World War II.

"Diplomats are only good at quarreling and can only show their strength at the negotiation table. Russia is not good at quarreling and we prefer to take direct action."

Vasily is a man of action and is indeed a good fit for Russia.

If Russia plays tricks on others, it will probably have to help others count the money after being sold out.

"You can't solve problems only through violence, most disputes are resolved peacefully."

George became worried.

"The dispute cannot be completely resolved by peaceful means alone. Why didn't you accept the interim government's advice?"

It is rare that Vasily knows how to use his own spear to attack his shield.

When the Russian Empire was just overthrown, the Provisional Government did want to negotiate with George.

It's not that George didn't talk about it. The red line he drew was the safety of Nicholas' family. In the end, it was because Nicholas' family was missing that George was completely forced to rebel.

"Okay, is there a successor you would recommend?"

George asked Vasily for advice.

"Andre is on the train."

Vasily's recommendation was someone George couldn't refuse.

(End of this chapter)