Servant of the People in Kyiv

At around 5 o'clock, Natasha, as an ordinary staff member, was approved to leave the hotel after a simple inspection.

Natasha also has relatives in Kiev, but she did not rush back to her home after leaving the hotel. She took the bus twice as instructed by Haniyev before arriving at the Academy of Sciences Street. She got off the bus and walked south. Not long after, she stood in front of a small house.

It was 7 o'clock in the evening. Natasha knocked on the door, and half a day later a gray-haired man came out.

He looked at Natasha, frowned, and asked, "Excuse me, ma'am, who are you looking for?"

Natasha looked around and found that no one was following her. Then she whispered, "My name is Natasha. I'm Victor's secretary. He's staying at the reception hotel in Minsk District and can't leave. He asked me to come find you."

Anatol's face suddenly turned nervous. He quickly took Natasha into his home, poured her a cup of hot tea, and asked, "What did Victor want you to say?"

Natasha seemed to draw energy from the teacup she held. She took a breath and said slowly, "Victor Vladimirevich, along with all the officials in the Chernobyl region, has been isolated in a hotel for investigation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is worried that there may be spies among them who may have betrayed the Soviet Union."

Anato frowned and asked, "How could Victor be a spy? If he were a spy, then there would be no real people's cadres in the entire Soviet Union. You have to understand that he could have embezzled money, but he remained incorruptible. He could have easily gotten by, but he was willing to offend people and be exposed to radiation to save tens of thousands of people in Pripyat."

Natasha's eyes reddened as she nodded, "Yes, Victor would never betray the Soviets. I trust him as much as you do, but some leaders don't trust the Chernobyl officials..."

"Let's not talk about this for now. Haniyev asked me to tell you that the nuclear radiation is a hundred times more severe than officially announced by the Soviet Union. Within the hundreds of kilometers around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, there are currently radiation elements that exceed the human body's tolerance. The main source is the radioactive dust from the explosion and combustion. The Soviet Union fabricated the situation to conceal the disaster and demanded that all units, departments, and communities continue to organize the Kyiv citizen parade to celebrate May Day tomorrow. This will cause hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of Ukrainian citizens to be exposed to radiation, destroying their health and happy families..."

Natasha told Anatoly the true extent of the nuclear power plant explosion disaster, as well as the Soviet authorities' decision to ignore the facts and use the lives of the people of Kiev to create a peaceful scene.

When Anato learned this, he gasped and said in surprise, "Has Godu gone mad? Isn't he afraid that the people will be disappointed in the Soviet Union if they find out the government has deceived them?"

After saying this, Anatoly replied, "Alas, I'm already disappointed with the Soviet Union..."

Anato thought about what Natasha said, and said in his heart: Tomorrow's May Day activities will continue. It seems to be an ordinary celebration, but in fact, if the May Day celebrations start normally tomorrow, a considerable number of the millions of citizens in Kiev will be exposed to serious radiation, which will be a catastrophe for Kiev.

"What do you mean, Victor? What do you want me to do?"

Natasha said quickly, "He told me to tell you that you must expose in the media how dangerous the living conditions in Kiev and the Ukrainian people are, and urge the public to stay home tomorrow. He also asks the Western free world to support and support Viktor in public opinion. He's worried that if the news leaks out, it will be hidden from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Without the attention of the Western free world and the public, his fate will be very miserable.

Viktor also said that in order to convince the people of Kyiv, he asked you to clearly state in your report that he was the real source of the information, that is, to report on him by real name.

Anatol's eyes widened in fear when he heard this. After a moment, he let out a sigh and whispered, "I understand that Victor is taking a gamble and trying to save himself, but his sacrifice is too great.

What if the Soviets are desperate and take him out on him? But as long as he can survive the first wave of danger, the reports and attention will make the Soviets cautious, and he may become a saint in the hearts of the people of Kiev..."

Natasha held Anato's hand and pleaded earnestly, "Victor's life and future are no longer in your hands. The lives and futures of millions of Kiev citizens are also in your hands. Please!"

Anato nodded and said, "Don't worry, I'll go find Mr. Mike right away."

Natasha nodded and turned to leave.

Anato compiled the information he had learned, especially the specific numerical information, wrote a simple report, picked up his bag and pushed the door open, constantly quickening his pace, for fear that he would waste time and fail to publish the report, thus harming the millions of people and more than 100,000 families in Kiev.

Chapter 054 Personal Honor and Disgrace (1)

After Natasha left, Haniyev ate something and then went back to his room to rest early.

Although Haniyev's heart was in turmoil, he kept thinking about the future and even worried that Natasha would not spread the news and even betray him, but he did not betray the Soviet Union in either his thoughts or actions, so he was not worried that he would be affected too much.

Since Natasha would not be back until the next morning if everything went well, Haniyev could only comfort himself and wait until noon the next day to see if the parade and celebration would be held as usual, so that he would know whether his plan was successful.

Haniyev fell asleep in a daze in the late night. The next morning, he was sleeping soundly in bed when he suddenly heard the door being knocked open from the outside. Then a group of men in the uniforms of the Ministry of Internal Affairs rushed in. They wore wide-brimmed hats, blue uniforms and ties.

Gromyk, the head of the sixth group of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, walked to Haniyev's bedside and said in a deep voice, "Haniyev, you are suspected of leaking state secrets. Please follow me back to the bureau for investigation."

Haniyev looked confused, looking at the wide-brimmed hat around him, and behind the gap was Chekhov with a complicated expression. He suddenly shouted: "Why are you arresting me?"

After Haniyev yelled for a long time, Gromyk did not let his men control him by force, but asked Chekonenev to come out and persuade Haniyev.

After chatting with Chekhov for ten minutes, Haniyev changed into a suit and left the hotel with the police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who were not called in.

Originally, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs' request, Haniyev should be arrested directly, but Chekonenev tried his best to protect Haniyev, so Gromyk still gave him some face.

After leaving the hotel and getting into the Ministry of Internal Affairs' car, they crossed several streets. Haniyev looked out the window and saw that the streets of Kiev were empty. All the balloons and banners hung yesterday were drooping weakly. The armed police who arrested him were all dressed very tightly. The empty streets made Haniyev smile and feel happy. He couldn't help humming a little tune.

After a while, the car drove into the end of Frunze Street, which is an ancient castle with Orthodox characteristics. It is very close to the Kyiv National History Museum. It is nominally an annex of the museum and is in the same park, but in fact it is an office space under the Ukrainian Internal Affairs Bureau.

The car entered the park and stopped in front of a building.

After getting off the car, Haniyev was taken inside and then locked up in an interrogation room.

Immediately afterwards, Gromik appeared with several armed police officers and began a lengthy interrogation of Haniyev.

At first, Gromyk's attitude was very friendly. He told Haniyev that he had no business asking him for help, but just wanted to know the relationship between Haniyev, Anatoly, and Reuters and how they contacted each other. If Haniyev told him what he wanted, he could go home.

Haniyev did not sell out his country, so he was not afraid, but he was not stupid either. When all the information was unclear, he could not leak too much information, so when it came to Gromyk's questions, Haniyev pretended to be stupid and even talked nonsense.

Gromik's attitude changed many times, but when he found that Haniyev was unwilling to cooperate, he turned around and left angrily, leaving the two interns and Haniyev staring at each other.

When Haniyev was arrested and interrogated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the city of Kiev was already in chaos.

It turned out that Anato had found Mike overnight and explained the situation. Mike keenly realized that this was an opportunity to expose the corrupt and dark nature of the Soviet Union to the people of the world, so he connected with the three major news agencies overnight.

So at six o'clock this morning, media in Europe and the United States were the first to report on it.

Western news agencies such as Reuters, the Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse also disclosed the true situation of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the morning newspapers of European countries, Moscow, and Kiev, and compared them with the information officially released by the Soviet Union. The radiation levels in the two materials were very different, which directly told the world how clumsy and exaggerated the Soviet Union's falsification was.

While this alone wouldn't implicate Haniyev, it was at his request to verify the authenticity of the Western news agency's information. They clearly stated in their reports that their data came from Haniyev, an official in the Chernobyl region, and directly explained that Haniyev, unable to tolerate the Soviet authorities' deception and persecution of the people of Kiev and Ukraine, disregarded his personal safety and risked arrest or even death in passing on the information.

It was precisely because of the Western news agencies' criticism and exposure of the Soviet authorities that the main leaders of the Soviet authorities knew about it after the news appeared.

They didn't care whether Haniyev had really betrayed his motherland and the Soviet Union. Since the news agency had named him, Moscow directly issued an order to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to arrest Haniyev and interrogate him to see if he was a treasonous spy and how many accomplices he had.

Although Moscow reacted quickly and asked Kiev to quickly buy up all the newspapers on the market to prevent the news from leaking and affecting the celebrations, by the time the Kiev military and the Ministry of Internal Affairs armed police were dispatched, hundreds of thousands of Kiev citizens had already learned of the situation. They protested and refused to go out, and demanded a reasonable explanation from the Soviet authorities.

The situation continued to ferment, and the government's phone was almost blown up by calls from enthusiastic citizens. The news also began to spread in Ossad, Crimea, Kharkiv and other places. Countless Ukrainian people stood up in indignation. Even the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Party ordered to control the situation, but it still failed to control it. Even at noon on May 1st, Odessa's May 1st celebration turned into a protest march.

In any case, after being reported by Western news agencies and the news leaked and spread widely in Ukraine, Haniyev quickly became famous in less than a day.

By the afternoon, news leaked from somewhere that Haniyev had been arrested by the Soviet authorities as people had speculated, and it was rumored that the order came directly from Moscow.

The situation that was already out of control collapsed completely. First, some citizens of Kyiv began to drive around in various communities to connect with each other. By the evening, some intellectuals and college students in Kyiv who had always yearned for the Western world and had special identities put on thick coats, top hats, and walked out with umbrellas, running to the foot of the motherland to gather in protest.

Consuls from various consulates and reporters from Western news agencies were eagerly following this matter. Many reporters even wore anti-radiation lead suits and ran to the Motherland Statue on the east bank of the Dnieper River to interview, record videos, and even report live.

By the evening of May 1st, whether it was Soviet officials and the public who knew about the incident, the Ukrainian people or Chernobyl officials, or the people of Western countries who were paying attention to the incident, everyone knew that there was intervention and attention from Western countries, the involvement of Western news agencies, and that Ukraine was ineffective in suppressing the masses and blocking information. It was obvious that the situation had gotten out of control.

On the night of May 1, 1986, Ukraine's capital, Kiev, had become a burning powder keg. Millions of Kiev citizens and tens of millions of Ukrainian people were extremely angry, and mass gatherings continued to occur with the instigation and support of the West.

But finally they all exercised restraint and did not dare to smash, loot or burn. They just gathered together to march, hoping that the authorities could give a reasonable explanation.

Chapter 055 Personal Honor and Disgrace (2)

Thousands of people gathered under the Motherland statue in Kiev, each holding a black umbrella, wearing a coat and a top hat.

Today is May Day. According to Soviet tradition, people should hold a parade today to celebrate the victory of the proletarian revolution. However, due to foreign media reports and leaks of information, the parade celebration in Kiev came to an end.

But at night, thousands of people came from all directions, wrapped themselves tightly and appeared under the giant statue of the motherland for a silent demonstration, demanding that the Soviet authorities release Haniyev who had been captured by them.

Each of these people was covered tightly, but if you got closer, you could still see that each of them had a face mask or fire mask exposed under their hat and headscarf, and a gray-white lead suit exposed through the gaps in their sleeves.

Obviously, many of these thousands of people were wearing radiation-proof lead suits, masks, and even masks.

This shows that some people were well prepared for this demonstration.

It turned out that when Haniyev arranged for Natasha to deliver the message to Anato, he had already made the worst plan, that is, he was mentally prepared to be arrested.

So in addition to asking Natasha to tell Anato the truth about the nuclear accident, he also arranged for Natasha to communicate with Anato at any time the next day, and asked Anato to contact Pristin, Sergei, Vyshevsky and others, as well as his brother Sidrov and other family members.

Early in the morning of May Day, Anato called the Hanyev family, Pristin, Sergei, Vyshevsky, and Natasha one by one.

So when the newspapers of the four major foreign media agencies were printed, Haniyev's relatives and friends had already taken action.

Pristin and his closest friends and relatives began to spread the news as soon as the newspaper was printed the next morning, and at the same time everyone used their connections to find ways to leak the information.

After the news leaked, there was no need for Pristin, Vyshevsky, Anato and others to follow up. Regardless of whether people believed it or not, out of the desire to cherish life, every citizen of Kyiv who learned of the situation would not choose to go out, and they would also spontaneously call their relatives to remind them.

So after a few hours, everyone in Kyiv knew about it, and consulates and foreign media from various countries continued to follow up on the investigation, so the May Day celebrations naturally came to nothing.

According to Haniyev's arrangement, once public outrage is aroused, the batch of anti-radiation clothing hidden by Haniyev at home can be taken out and distributed to various fields, especially college students, to encourage them to march and demonstrate.

So Natasha, Sergei, Pristin, Sidrov and even Poroshenko drove back and forth between various districts of Kyiv, looking for enthusiastic people in journalists, hospitals, schools, factories and other places, encouraging them to participate in demonstrations and force the authorities to release Haniyev.

Although Haniyev was taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for interrogation, throughout the entire May Day holiday, Natasha, Pristin, Anato, Poroshenko, Grigory and a number of other people did things according to his ideas, and it can be said that they were busy all day.

However, the main component of the demonstrators in the evening march were still the citizens of Pripyat and the militiamen from the forest farm. These were Haniyev's most loyal subjects. They had received Haniyev's care and protection, so most of them were willing to speak a fair word for Haniyev.

That evening in Kiev, more than 3000 people gathered under the iron statue of the Iron Motherland to speak up for Haniyev and demanded that the Ministry of Internal Affairs release Haniyev who was pleading for the people.

Due to the intervention of Western consuls and Western media, Ukraine did not dare to film the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ armed police and army forcibly evacuating people, and could only send the mayor and secretary of Kiev to appease the people.

While the secretary and mayor of Kyiv were communicating with the demonstrators, Gromyk, head of the sixth group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Haniyev had another communication in the interrogation room.

Since Gromyk told Haniyev this time and he had caused a huge commotion outside, Haniyev confirmed through various information that his plan had been successful. Only then did he frankly admit that he had intentionally leaked the true situation of nuclear radiation from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion.

Haniyev clearly told Gromyk that he learned yesterday that the nuclear radiation roentgen number announced by the Soviet authorities today was far from the actual data, and at the same time asked the citizens of Kyiv to continue holding the celebration parade on May 1. This was already a disregard for the lives and safety of millions of Kyiv citizens to continue holding the parade and celebration.

The elderly, children and pregnant women will be more likely to become ill if exposed to radiation. Even if the amount of radioactive dust is small, citizens will still be likely to be infected if they fail to take good personal protection measures.

The Soviet government deceived the people. If no one stood up to expose the scam, on May 1st, hundreds of thousands or even a million people would take to the streets wearing thin clothes without any personal protection, and then the delicate Kiev would be greeted by radioactive dust.

These people will be the relatives and children of the armed police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including Gromik's relatives.

After hearing Haniyev's heartfelt words, Gromik was also moved, and the two young interns beside him were so excited that they burst into tears.

In a country like the Soviet Union, if a grassroots leading cadre dared to go against the central government's decision or even openly confront it, it would require tremendous courage and he would indeed have to sacrifice his future or even everything. Decades ago, he would even have to sacrifice his life.

Judging from Haniyev's behavior and future consequences, his actions will not benefit him personally at all, but will only bring him harm.

Be it Gromyk, Chekhov, Kartov, or even Kravchuk, every leading cadre who knew Haniyev could not understand why Haniyev did this no matter how many times they thought about it. They all came to the unanimous conclusion that Haniyev was a saint who dared to take responsibility and had the people in his heart.

Therefore, almost every official admires Haniyev in his heart, especially those who cannot lift the lid no matter what.

So after Gromik briefly wrote down the confession, he had Haniyev sent down to rest.

Haniyev's confession was immediately presented to Novikov, the First Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. After reading it and finding no problems, Novikov signed it and had it sent to the Mariinsky Palace.

Today's events have put the Central Committee of the Party of Ukraine in a very passive position. The information that the government fabricated to deceive the people was leaked, mass incidents broke out, and there were protests gathered under the iron statue of "Motherland", as well as the attention and criticism from various international forces. All these things made First Secretary Sherbitsky anxious and exhausted. He was also reprimanded many times by General Secretary Gorsuch in one day.

However, Secretary Sherbitsky took time out of his busy schedule to personally call Novikov and ask him to submit the results of Haniyev's investigation to him as soon as possible.

So Novikov sent the last confession of Haniyev obtained today to Ukraine's First Secretary Sherbitsky, and then copied it to the ministers of some key departments, including the Minister of Propaganda and Secretary Kravchuk, the commander-in-chief of the Chernobyl accident response. It was also in the late night of May 1 that he received Haniyev's confession information.

Chapter 056 Personal Honor and Disgrace (3)

Mariinsky Palace

The light in a room on the second floor was bright and warm.

A Slavic-style cashmere carpet was laid on top of the blood-red carpet. A shiny and wide pine square table was placed in front of the window. Under the table was a snow-white bearskin carpet. A white-haired old man was sitting on the sofa behind the table, stepping on the carpet.

The old man was wearing a gray suit and his silver hair was combed back, revealing his not very tall but very broad forehead.

The old man looked very kind, and at first glance he was somewhat similar to General Secretary Ge Ditu. However, he was much older than the General Secretary, and his nose was not as strong and tall as Ge Ditu's, which made him look less courageous and ruthless than Ge Ditu.

After sitting on the sofa and reading documents for a long time, the old man pressed the doorbell.

A few seconds later, a beautiful middle-aged woman walked in, looked at the old man with concern, and asked, "Secretary Shcherbitsky, are you going to take your medicine?"

This old man with slicked-back hair is the supreme leader of Ukraine, a member of the Soviet leadership team, and the soul of the Ukrainian gang - Vladimir Vasilyevich Shcherbitsky.

Sherbitsky was born in 1918 and is now 68 years old. He comes from a working-class family, has served as a soldier, and has worked as an engineer. He has served as a major leader in military factories and cities and provinces. He is experienced and has Brezhnev's trust.

If it weren't for the incident in 63 that caused Sherbitsky to suffer a political Waterloo, people like Gorbachev would have no chance of reaching the core.

However, despite Susuke's suppression, Sherbitsky returned to the center of power a few months after Susuke's death, in May 1972.

He continued to serve as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a member of the Military Committee of the Kyiv Military District, a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, entered the Politburo, and a few years ago was only one step away from becoming the supreme leader of the Soviet Union.

It can be said that if the older generation of leading cadres in Moscow had not wanted the Ukrainian gang to take power and wanted to ensure the basic interests of the Russian gang, Gorbachev would have had no chance of becoming General Secretary at the age of 53. Sherbitsky had a good chance of seizing the opportunity to inherit the throne for the second time.

However, in more than a year, Goritu has gradually stabilized the situation. Sherbitsky could originally compete with Goritu, but after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion on April 26, Sherbitsky gradually lost his bargaining chip.

Sherbitsky is indeed a time-tested leader who has been in charge of Ukraine for decades. Even though he has been overwhelmed by the nuclear power plant accident in recent days and has been repeatedly suppressed and scolded by Gorbachev, which has made him look embarrassed, and the public in Ukraine is boiling with resentment due to the leakage of false information fabricated by the Soviet Union, Sherbitsky remains calm and composed as usual.

He put down the document in his hand, and the light illuminated the words on it. These were Haniyev's confession and related investigation documents sent by Novikov.

"Istromina, I need a cup of coffee to perk up."

Shcherbitsky smiled and nodded at the table.

Istromina agreed and was about to leave when Shcherbitsky suddenly stopped her and said, "Call Novikov over here."

Novikov is the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and an old man who follows Sherbitsky. He is Sherbitsky's right-hand man who helps him control Ukraine even though he is far away in Moscow.

Istomina knew that Shcherbitsky cared deeply about Haniyev, who had spoken out for the people, even more than about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. She thought Shcherbitsky might have sent Novikov to arrange some matters. She considered herself relatively close to the Secretary, but she still whispered a warning, "Mr. Secretary, there's no need to pay too much attention to a low-level official. Perhaps the people of Kyiv will do something for him, but we just need to do something big to temporarily divert people's attention, and then maybe no one will pay attention to him anymore."

Shcherbitsky looked at his secretary and asked, "Istomina, what big things do we need to do? For example?"

Istomina spread her hands and said, "Perhaps it's the crackdown, or perhaps it's the extensive coverage of the Century Hotel collapse in Singapore, and the situation in Mexico six months after the earthquake. It's made the Ukrainian people realize that they're not the most miserable people in the world, and that there are many people more miserable than them."