Servant of the People in Kyiv

After hanging up the phone, Natalia walked up to Haniyev and handed him a large wad of money.

"This is the money your father and I gave you for your wedding. Go and take Tatiana to buy a big diamond ring. As for the flower girls, do you think you can use your cousin's children or find them from your friends' families?"

Haniyev looked at Tatiana and said, "We have already decided on the flower girls. For the boy, we will use Vyshevsky's son, and for the girl, we will use Yushchenko's daughter."

"Okay, just make it your decision."

Natalia said as she stuffed the money into Haniyev's hand.

Haniyev has not spent his own money since he became the first secretary of Yalta City. He never needs to spend money on weekdays. After being transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August this year, his salary increased by 270 rubles. He usually spends some money on subway rides and meals, but compared with his income, his expenses are still not large. So before he knew it, Haniyev had saved more than 8 rubles in his bank card.

He naturally didn't want to spend his parents' money, but since his eldest son was getting married, Vladimir and Natalia always wanted to do something for their son and daughter-in-law. Seeing his mother's firm attitude, Haniyev put away the wad of money, which was at least 5000 rubles, and said, "Okay, I'll take Tatiana to the Little Birch Grove Mansion to buy a diamond ring."

The Little Birch Grove Store was a special store during the Soviet era that specialized in providing high-quality goods and foreign luxury goods. It appeared during the Stalin era and lasted until the Gorbachev era.

In Moscow, there are more than one hundred Little Birch Grove stores that serve the powerful and support their extravagant and corrupt lifestyle.

After Gorbachev implemented economic reforms, foreign luxury goods and high-quality goods could legally enter the Soviet market. In addition, Gorbachev ordered the abolition of the Little Birch Grove stores, so the number of Little Birch Grove stores in major cities such as Moscow and Kiev has become less and less in the past two years.

However, if you really want to buy the best quality goods or the most comprehensive luxury goods, you still have to choose the Little Birch Forest Store.

With the five thousand rubles given by his mother and the more than one thousand rubles in his own wallet that he had not spent in the past few months, Haniyev took Tatyana to the Little Birch Grove Building store on Khresschatyk Street.

Khreshchatyk Street is the most prosperous commercial street in Kiev. The Small Birch Forest Building located in a corner of the street is the store with the most complete range of goods in Kiev. It is also the favorite store of Kiev's dignitaries. Haniyev has only been there once.

Six thousand rubles was a considerable amount of money in that era. The average salary of citizens in Kiev was only four or five hundred rubles. Six thousand rubles was more than enough to buy a diamond ring.

After shopping in the store for four or five hours, Haniyev was so tired that his waist and legs ached, but Tatyana was still very energetic. At Haniyev's urging, today's shopping trip was finally completed.

In the end, all the more than 6,000 rubles that Haniyev brought were spent, and Tatyana's more than 800 rubles were also used up.

The final result was a pair of Cartier diamond rings, some Gucci perfumes, scarves, wallets, handbags, etc., of which the diamond rings were the biggest item. If the two of them had enough money, Tatiana, who was already overwhelmed by the choices, would have wanted to buy a pair of Cartier watches.

Luxury goods and famous brands are attractive to Europeans and Americans, and they must also be attractive to the Soviets and Khitans. When a person's income is sufficient to support his desires, no matter which country or national culture, the people will burst out with huge purchasing power.

After spending a fortune on a ton of stuff, Haniyev and Tatiana were still a little unhappy when they got home. Tatiana laughed and said, "Isn't it just that they didn't want to give me a gift bag for free? Why are you so angry?"

Haniyev glared and said, "Isn't this worth getting angry about? We spent almost 7,000 rubles, and they have the nerve to ask for money for a few broken bags. 2.5 rubles, which is enough for me to buy bread!"

"All high-end stores have this problem. Don't be angry. At worst, I won't buy from you anymore."

Tatiana said with a pout.

Haniyev waved his hands full of bags of all sizes and said firmly, "No, we can buy them later if you like, but I can't forget the moment they sold me the bags. I must change their bad habits from now on!"

Chapter 164 Marriage (2)

Traditional Slavic weddings were all held in an Orthodox church, but after the establishment of the Soviet Union, it was changed to a family dinner between both parties and the vows were taken under the witness of the organization. Then the parents of both parties gave each other bread and white salt, and the wedding ceremony was completed.

However, with Gorbachev's reforms in the past two years, which have led to a large influx of Western media and cultural information into the Soviet Union, many young people in the Soviet Union have abandoned the traditional revolutionary couple marriage process and instead choose to go to the church and do it in a completely Western way.

Haniyev was a cadre of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Although he knew that Tatyana dreamed of having a wedding ceremony in a church and a white wedding dress, he took his own political future into consideration and did not want to be criticized for holding a bourgeois Western-style wedding in the future, so he insisted on holding a simple ceremony according to the old Soviet tradition.

However, Haniyev did not completely ignore Tatyana's needs. After much consideration, he decided to hold the ceremony in Mother Hill Park. The environment there is good, there is a statue of the Motherland, and Tatyana can also wear a white wedding dress. The only difference is that the church was replaced by a park, the witnesses were changed from priests to organizations, meat and drinks were prepared in advance, and after the ceremony, everyone could have a barbecue in the park to celebrate.

Regardless of the form of wedding, witnesses are very important. In traditional Soviet weddings, witnesses are usually the leader of the work unit or the secretary of the Communist Party of the community. Haniyev's status and position are not low. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he works is too far away from Kiev, and it is impossible for the minister and director to come to witness the wedding, so he did not invite the two leaders at all.

Fortunately, my father Vladimir had worked in Kiev for decades and knew many leaders. He had asked Chernovitsky, the third secretary of Kiev in charge of agriculture, to help officiate the wedding.

Soviet weddings were much simpler and easier than Khitan weddings, so not much preparation was needed in advance. After Haniyev and Tatyana went shopping for two consecutive days and bought wedding rings, perfumes, wedding dresses, and suits, they began planning their honeymoon after the wedding.

Originally, Soviet people were accustomed to spending their honeymoons in resort cities near the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. For example, famous cities such as Yalta, Odessa, Batumi, and Baku were the first choice for Soviet model workers and high-ranking officials to recuperate, and were also holy places for Soviet people to vacation and travel.

Haniyev had lived in Yalta for more than a year and had long been disenchanted with the warm and livable coastal city. However, Tatyana had never had the opportunity to travel to the southern seaside, so naturally she had always wanted to go.

Considering that Bonya was in Yalta, Haniyev was a little worried about the two women meeting each other, so he crossed the Black Sea and decided to set the honeymoon destination near the Caspian Sea. He planned to travel around Georgia, Azerbaijan and the five Central Asian countries, staying there for a month to experience exotic customs and let Tatyana satisfy her desire to live by the sea.

Haniyev is a person who always plans things. After finalizing the process with Tatyana, he began to consult friends or colleagues in several Central Asian countries to make travel plans.

December 31st soon arrived. Today was Thursday, but most of Haniyev's relatives and friends were people with certain power and status. Naturally, they were not bound by the working day and came to Mother Hill Park early.

This is the most famous place in Kiev. Every weekend or holiday there are always many citizens visiting and taking a walk. Fortunately, today is Thursday, so there are few tourists. There are two rows of chairs and some square tables under the steel sculpture of the Motherland. In the middle is a red carpet, leading directly to the base under the Motherland sculpture. It has been decorated with flowers and a semicircular platform has been built, which is obviously prepared for the two newlyweds.

Soon the Haniyev family, Tatyana's mother, uncle, and Yushchenko family arrived.

While the two families were talking, Haniyev's aunt's family and uncle's family also arrived.

Vladimir's father was an old Red Army soldier. Later, he served as the county party secretary. Because his wife died of illness, he married a widowed woman. This woman had a daughter when she married him, and later the two had a little son together.

Therefore, Vladimir has a sister, Tina, who is not his biological sister, and a half-brother, Rebrov. His sister Tina's husband is a deputy chief engineer at the Nikolayev Shipyard, so the whole family has lived in Nikolayev for many years.

As for Rebrov, he joined the Soviet Navy when he was young and stayed in the army to become a professional. Later, because of the Afghan War, he has been serving in the Far East Fleet. Recently, I heard that after the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Rebrov has the hope of being transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, which will then be closer to home.

Haniyev had not met his aunt's and uncle's families much before, but they were relatives after all, so he took Tatiana to talk to his aunt, uncle, uncle, aunt, and cousins.

Tatyana's father passed away a few years ago, but her brother-in-law now holds a prominent position and his family are all senior intellectuals, so he does not seem inferior to the Haniyev family when standing next to them.

Dozens of relatives from the two families stood under the statue of the Motherland and talked happily. Everyone was praising Haniyev's youth and success and Tatyana's youth and beauty. About half an hour later, leaders and friends of the two families also arrived one after another.

Seeing the Pristin family of three and the lonely Sergei coming, Haniyev took Tatyana over to greet them.

Just after saying a few words, Vyshevsky and his wife arrived, holding little Ivan.

"Why hasn't Anatol arrived yet?"

"This guy is a big reporter, very busy all day long. It's good that he can come..."

"Who's talking bad about me?"

Anato walked over with his wife and two daughters and said unhappily.

Among Haniyev's close friends, only Sergei has never had a steady girlfriend. He is a hedonist, so even though he has the best family background and started dating the earliest, he is now the only unmarried one.

After they chatted for a while, Pristin and Anatol turned the topic to Sergei.

Sergei snorted coldly, "I'm a non-marriage advocate. Now, the United States, France, Sweden, and Norway all practice this. How free and unrestrained is that?"

Pristin chuckled, and while they were laughing and joking, it was noon. At Vladimir's invitation, Haniyev and Tatyana came to stand under the statue of the Motherland, and Chernovitsky, who was invited by Vladimir, began to officiate the wedding of the two newlyweds.

After the wedding speech was read, two flower girls appeared holding two ring boxes. Haniyev and Tatyana put wedding rings on each other, and the elders of both families came on stage to give their blessings.

Finally, Vladimir and Natalia brought out black bread and salt and gave them to Tatiana's family. After everyone shared the bread together, the wedding was completed under the witness of the motherland and relatives and friends.

Chapter 165 Promote you to the "Deputy Minister" level

After the wedding, Haniyev and Tatyana became legal husband and wife.

The two kissed passionately, and Poroshenko thoughtfully turned on the tape recorder. Cheerful jazz music started playing in the park, and Vladimir, Natalia and many guests began to move their bodies to the music.

A dance and cocktail party began in Mother Hill Park with the sound of music.

……

It was already evening when they returned home. From then on, Haniyev and Tatiana were real husband and wife. They took out a brand new marriage certificate from their arms, and Tatiana took it and put it in the cabinet in Haniyev's room.

Because Tatiana had been living with Haniyev before they got married, their room had already been tidied up by Tatiana.

"Our flight is on the evening of January 1, 1988. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon. Have you prepared your clothes and belongings?"

After untying his tie and lying on the bed, Haniyev stretched comfortably and asked lazily.

Tatiana took off her wedding dress, revealing her snow-white, voluptuous figure. She then changed into a long Bohemian dress and laid on Haniyev's chest. "We prepared yesterday and will check it out later. We don't need to bring a lot of things. We're not going abroad. We're just touring the Soviet republics. We can buy anything we need with rubles, and there's always someone who can speak Russian."

Haniyev held Tatiana's head and said, "That's true, but we still have to bring the usual things. We need to prepare two suitcases, and we have to bring gifts for everyone when we come back."

Tatiana shook her head slightly and said, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm too tired today. Please relax for me. I don't want to move anymore."

Haniyev said this and pushed Tatyana down with a little force with his palm.

Tatiana snorted in dissatisfaction, but still leaned over, unzipped Haniyev's trousers, opened her mouth slightly and lowered her head.

An hour later, a refreshed Haniyev went to the bathroom to flush. When he came out, he patted Tatyana, who was still rinsing her mouth, and said with a smile, "Hurry up, we still have to finish our meal. We were so busy talking to our friends and old colleagues at noon that we barely ate a bite."

When Haniyev held his wedding ceremony, in addition to his and Tatyana's family, there were also many of Tatyana's classmates and Haniyev's good friends, Potanin's family, and confidants such as Petrov, Alexander, Zagoyev who came from Yalta, as well as his old leaders, old colleagues and old subordinates during Chernobyl, Chekhov, Petrov, Kartov, Grigory and others.

Haniyev hadn't seen many of them for several months or even more than a year, so naturally he had to have a good chat with them. Because there were so many people, he had to chat with them one by one. By the time he finished, four or five hours had passed, and Haniyev was exhausted.

The next day, Haniyev and Tatiana took some gifts to visit his mother-in-law and Yushchenko's family, and then had pizza with the family. Vyshevsky personally drove to pick them up and took them to the airport.

Although there were no clear rules for wedding gifts in the Soviet Union, friends and relatives who attended the wedding could not bring anything empty-handed. They either brought gifts or gave cash gifts directly. Haniyev's old friends and colleagues were very generous. Many colleagues and old subordinates who knew the news but were unable to come because they were not invited also sent cash gifts.

I did a simple calculation last night. Not counting the gifts from relatives, Haniyev received a total of 3 rubles in gifts from colleagues, old classmates and former subordinates. It is hard to say how much of this was the sincerity of his colleagues and subordinates, and how much was just flattery.

However, Haniyev had spent all his savings on the wedding, and his family had just bought a car and had little money left, so Haniyev gave 10,000 rubles to his mother and left 20,000 for the honeymoon.

On the afternoon of January 1, 1988, Vyshevsky, Haniyev and Tatyana took a flight from Kiev Airport to Yalta.

That’s right, the first stop of Haniyev and Tatyana’s honeymoon was changed to Yalta, but Haniyev brought his wife to Yalta not for fun, but to take his new wife to meet the Sherbitskys.

After all, since the Chernobyl incident, Haniyev has been highly valued and well-treated by Sherbitsky. Haniyev is not a person who does not know how to be grateful. Sherbitsky cannot attend the wedding due to his special status, so Haniyev naturally wants to bring his wife to visit his loving father and mother, so that the two old people can have some sense of participation in his major life events.

After leaving the airport, Vyshetsky's driver drove over.

The three of them drove to the Friendship Sanatorium first. When they learned that Haniyev had come with his new wife, the Sherbitskys had already made preparations. The suite was cleaned spotlessly, and all kinds of candies and nuts were prepared in advance.

Approaching the room, Haniyev saw the silver-haired Shcherbitsky and his wife Shcherbitsky.

"My dear father, my dear mother, hello, I really miss you both."

Haniyev kissed the two elders on the cheek and then introduced his wife to them.

Tatiana was also a young lady from an educated family. She behaved very appropriately in front of the two elders. After a few words, the already lonely Mrs. Sherbitsky fell in love with this young man and took her to see the flowers and plants he planted.

Shcherbitsky glanced at Haniyev and Vyshevsky, took off his reading glasses from his neck, and asked, "Where are you going for your honeymoon?"

"Tatyana loves the seaside, so I want to take her to the Caspian Sea. Baku and Batumi are both nice. I also want to take the opportunity to learn more about the beautiful land of the Soviet Union, so I plan to visit Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and other countries."

"The five Central Asian countries are okay, but the three countries west of the Caspian Sea are not so peaceful. You can go there for fun, but don't get involved with the locals."

Shcherbitsky tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest of his chair and said, "The public notice for this batch of cadres nominated by Moscow is almost over. As expected, you are not on the list."

"Yes, it seems that Gorbachev does not trust me."

"Your good friend Potanin has been appointed Deputy Director of the Second Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. He is already one of the youngest cadres in the Soviet central government."

"I know he was promoted. He came to my wedding."

Seeing that Haniyev was in a bad mood, Sherbitsky sighed and said, "Don't be discouraged."

"You are Ukrainian and have connections with me. It's normal that Gorbachev, that idiot, doesn't want to use you. We had already thought of this.

So I've already arranged for our Ukrainian Central Organization Department to start operations, and I'll be able to transfer you back by the 10th at the latest. But I haven't decided where to assign you yet."

Sherbitsky frowned slightly. "You have good abilities, but you are too reckless and bold. You are not qualified to be the governor, and it is easy for you to get into trouble. You can only be the deputy governor. Firstly, you will not be in the limelight, and secondly, you can learn how to coordinate and lead a state.

Son, do you have any ideas? Do you want to go to a certain province, or do you want to be a deputy director of a committee in Kyiv?"

After listening to Sherbitsky's questions, Haniyev was delighted. He finally had the opportunity to become a senior Soviet official.

A deputy ministerial-level cadre in Ukraine is at least equivalent to a deputy bureau-level cadre in the Soviet Union, a position that many people will never be able to reach in their entire lives.

Now that I am less than 28 years old, I can be promoted to the deputy ministerial level in Ukraine. Before 1991, it should not be a dream for me to enter the Ukrainian central government.

Although a deputy minister in Ukraine could only be considered a full director in the Soviet Union, and in some departments it could even be considered a deputy director, if one did not consider climbing to the top of the Soviet Union and only planned to control the core power of Ukraine before 1991, becoming a deputy state-level cadre at this time was indeed an extremely critical step.

Only by being promoted to the deputy provincial level can one be considered a senior cadre in Ukraine and have the opportunity to participate in major events in Ukraine. Haniyev felt that he was finally a step closer to his goal.

As a Ukrainian cadre, Haniyev has a general understanding of the situation in various Ukrainian states. He is well aware that the status of Kyiv Oblast in Ukraine is far inferior to that of Kharkiv Oblast. It can be said that the most important states in Ukraine are in the east, headed by Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk, followed by Odessa, Nikolayev, Kherson, Zaporizhia and other states on the southern coast.

The economic capacity of more than a dozen states in the West and North is far behind these states.

If they had a choice, Ukrainian state-level officials would naturally want to lead the economically developed and industrially prominent states in the east and south, and Haniyev is no exception.

"Is Kharkiv Oblast okay?"

Sherbitsky chuckled. "You're not stupid. If you can become the First Secretary of Kharkiv Oblast, you'll definitely be able to join the central government. However, this province is too important, and you're too young. Promoting you directly to governor of Kharkiv Oblast won't work. You can only join the leadership team first and take your time..."

"It's easy to be an official if you have someone in the court."

This ancient Khitan saying suddenly popped up in Haniyev's mind. He smiled and nodded, "It's all up to you, my dear father, to arrange. I have no objection."

Sherbitsky nodded. "Go on vacation and relax. When you come back, you'll probably be able to go straight to Kharkov and take up your new post. You'll probably be Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Kharkov State Soviet, or what's known as Deputy Governor."

"Thank you!"

Haniyev leaned over and took the back of Sherbitsky's hand and kissed it. After more than a year of getting along, Haniyev had truly regarded the old man as his own father. Like himself, he was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who was loyal to the Soviet Union and Ukraine. Being able to take advantage of Sherbitsky's power to take a shortcut was what Haniyev wanted, and it was also the only way for him to climb higher as quickly as possible and save the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian Republic.

Chapter 166: Thank you Secretary Haniyev

After returning to Yalta, Haniyev did not make it public. Instead, he took his wife to live in the Friendship Sanatorium, ready to spend more time with the Sherbitskys, to relieve their loneliness and to cultivate their relationship. After all, they had not seen or spoken for several months.