Servant of the People in Kyiv

After spending three days getting to know the situation in Georgia, Haniyev and his wife left Tbilisi for their next stop -

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Baku is different from Tbilisi, which is located in the valley of the Caucasus Mountains. Baku is a maritime city on the west coast of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea is full of oil fields. Two of Azerbaijan's largest oil drilling rigs are located near the port of Baku.

Azerbaijan is the richest country in the Caucasus region, so the capital is well-built, with buses and subways extending in all directions. The city is lined with green trees, and gardens, fountains, castles, and mosques are perfectly integrated. Walking on the streets, Haniyev and Tatyana felt an advanced and unique civilization, which is a completely different climate and culture from Russia and Ukraine, giving the two a real vacation travel experience.

After walking a few steps from the subway station in the ancient city, the Haniyev couple arrived at the Caspian Sea. The beach here is not as clean as those in Yalta and Batumi, and does not seem suitable for swimming, but the environment is still beautiful. Twenty meters above the beach is a spacious green belt and benches under the shade of trees. Many Middle Eastern people and locals are lying on the benches to rest, or sitting on carpets laid on the lawn to drink coffee.

"This is already Asia, and many people are Muslims. The architecture, culture, environment, and even the plants here are completely different from those in Ukraine. It feels like we've traveled abroad."

Tatyana was very excited as it was her first time traveling so far. She hugged Haniyev's arm and chattered non-stop. In her eyes, everything seemed rare and magical.

"We have crossed continents, so of course there are big differences with Ukraine..."

Haniyev chuckled and observed the street scenes and pedestrians in Baku while talking to his wife.

The people here were very relaxed and dressed appropriately, without the nervousness of the Georgians at all, which made Haniyev secretly amazed.

"I remember that Azerbaijan and Armenia were fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The war lasted for three years, on and off, until 2020. It ended in 23 when Azerbaijan completely occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. At that time, both countries became the protagonists of international news, and the wife of the Armenian president had to go to the battlefield to fight..."

In later generations, the Nagorno-Karabakh region was actually controlled by Armenia, and Azerbaijan eventually took it back because Armenia decisively sent troops to occupy Nagorno-Karabakh after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

It is now 1988, and the Nagorno-Karabakh region is still under the actual management of Azerbaijan, but perhaps the Nagorno-Karabakh issue will soon break out between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

After two days in Baku, Haniyev did not see the conflicts and signs of independence that he wanted to see, but he and Tatyana experienced the relaxation of vacation.

As expected, a small country has both resources and the status of a big country. This is Azerbaijan, the small doll in the Russian nesting dolls. The wealthy Baku has a sense of satisfaction that surpasses that of the people in Kiev.

Because Baku has a good climate and a Middle Eastern atmosphere, Haniyev and Tatyana stayed here for a few more days.

It was not until January 18 that Haniyev and Tatyana decided to leave Baku the next day and take a boat across the Caspian Sea to Krasnovodsk, the largest port city in Turkmenistan.

According to the travel plan made in advance by Haniyev, the couple can take a train from Krasnovodsk to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, and then take a train to Samarkand, the capital of Uzbekistan, after playing there for a few days. The subsequent itinerary will also be mainly based on railways.

The five Central Asian countries are all landlocked, and railways are the most convenient and fastest means of transportation.

After washing up in the evening, Haniyev went to bed first, turned on the TV, and changed channels while waiting for Tatyana to take a shower.

Since there are few Russian-language channels on Azerbaijan's television, Haniyev can only keep changing channels.

Suddenly, the Soviet state television was switched to the TV, and Haniyev saw an extremely short message:

Comrade Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov died of illness at home on January 14, 1988, at the age of 86.

General Secretary Gorbachev attended his memorial service and delivered an important speech, in which he commented on Malenkov...

"Honest Malenkov is dead, and even the memorial service is over?"

Haniyev put down the remote control and thought of the supreme leader of the party and the country who had long faded from the memory of the Soviet people. He did not expect that he had not paid attention to state affairs for just a few days, and Malenkov had died of illness for several days.

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was the successor designated by his father Stalin before his death. He was also the youngest member of the central leadership team at that time. In 1953, he served as the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, ranking first in the party. It can be said that he was the supreme leader who shouldered both party and government responsibilities.

However, because Malenkov was too honest, his right-hand men at the time were Beria's faction and Khrushchev's faction. After he succeeded to the throne, he relied heavily on the old marshal Voroshilov and veteran cadres such as Kaganovich, Molotov, and Khrushchev. He lacked the political acumen to unite with them to overthrow Beria, the initiator of the Great Purge, and defined the seven people headed by Beria as an anti-party group and executed them.

Without Beria's party fighting against Khrushchev and others, the honest man Malenkov was no longer a friendly leader, but an hateful obstacle.

In the end, Marshal Voroshilov and Khrushchev and others worked together to damage the prestige of Malenkov, the supreme leader of the party and the country, in less than two years. They eventually criticized him in many central meetings and forced him to resign from his leadership position.

In order to make Malenkov admit his mistakes, the old marshal Comrade Voroshilov stood up and first reviewed his own guilt, saying that he should not have sheltered and protected Malenkov, which led to him committing many serious mistakes in succession and almost subverting the cause of the Party and the Soviet Union.

In the end, the honest man Malenkov lost all his positions in the central government and was sent to the Republic of Kazakhstan to serve as the director of the Ustkamenogorsk Hydroelectric Power Station. He worked in this position for decades until he retired and was approved by Moscow to return to the capital to retire.

Malenkov's fate was from 1953 to 1955, after which he was demoted again and again until he was labeled an anti-party criminal and sent to the Kazakh Hydropower Station.

After that, Khrushchev came to power and began his drastic policy of "de-paternalization" and "cornization of agriculture".

The honest man Malenkov was in power for a very short time. The current official Soviet documents no longer acknowledge the fact that Malenkov was the third-generation supreme leader. Only Comrade Khrushchev, the core of the third-generation leadership, is acknowledged.

Malenkov's experience should have served as a warning to the entire socialist world. The great leader of Khitan at that time was very keenly aware of it, but unfortunately not everyone has the vision and skills of a great man.

There is destined to be more than one Malenkov in this great storybook of history. It has been a common practice since ancient times for people to repeat the same mistakes despite knowing the lessons of the past. Repetition is the underlying color of history.

Chapter 169: Nagorno-Karabakh Dispute

On January 19, 1988, Haniyev and Tatyana left the historic and numerous old city of Baku with a large box of local gifts and a large box of clothes.

The two were planning to go to the pier to catch a boat, but they had to wait for a long time for the bus, and taking the subway meant they had to walk two stops to get there.

It was indeed inconvenient to not have a taxi. Haniyev sighed and headed towards the subway station. As soon as the two walked out of the old city and turned a street, they saw the Azerbaijan People's Palace of the Soviet Union in the distance, which was very lively.

Nearly a kilometer away, Haniyev could see that Lenin Square in front of the People's Palace was crowded with people waving red and blue striped flags.

Haniyev recognized that it was the flag of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was impossible for people from the Armenian Republic to go to the People's Palace of the Azerbaijan Republic and wave the flag. It was obvious that these people were most likely Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast is the full name of the "Nagorno-Karabakh Region" which is very famous in later generations.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region has been a concern for both Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades, and has resulted in the deaths of too many innocent people from both countries.

This autonomous region belongs to Azerbaijan, but its residents are basically Armenians. The state Soviet is also composed of Armenians and is highly autonomous and very close to Armenia.

Historically, similar to the division of Georgia, Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast's clamor to be incorporated into Armenia, and the civil strife between the two countries broke out before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Haniyev originally thought that he would not be able to see the exciting drama between Azerbaijan and Armenia fighting for the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region during his honeymoon, and would not be able to understand the conflicts between the two countries, their views on the Soviet Union, and the independent forces that emerged through this incident.

Unexpectedly, on the day I left, I saw some Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region petitioning and causing trouble in Lenin Square.

The People's Palace of the USSR in Azerbaijan is an extremely magnificent building, built between 1936 and 1952. In front of the building is Lenin Square and the statue of Lenin. It is the highest power center in Azerbaijan and the office place of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Party and the Soviet.

Haniyev took his wife and walked a few quick steps, wanting to get closer to see what was happening.

The Armenians gathered in Lenin Square all spoke Russian. They did not make any noise, but just waved the Armenian flag and expressed their demand for the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast to be incorporated into Armenia.

Guards from the People's Palace surrounded the group, and several Azerbaijani officials came out of the People's Palace and began loudly scolding the Armenians.

Haniyev could not hear clearly what they said, but he could understand the gist of it. Within half an hour, a group of Azerbaijani Interior Ministry police appeared. They waved batons and knocked all the gathered Armenians to the ground and took them away.

The Azerbaijanis who were watching cheered and applauded, but the captured Armenians cursed from time to time.

Looking at the devastation on Lenin Square from afar, Haniyev sighed softly, "Comrade Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, could you have imagined that the great regime you personally created would soon crumble?"

Having witnessed the brutality of the Azerbaijani police, Tatyana was already terrified. With a pale face, she hugged Haniyev and whispered, "Let's go quickly."

Looking down at his petite wife, Haniyev stroked her hair and said, "Let's go."

Haniyev was in no mood to inquire about the Azerbaijanis' attitude towards the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, as the onlookers had already expressed it clearly.

Now that Azerbaijan can treat the Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region so cruelly, it will only make the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region turn to Armenia more decisively. It will not be long before the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan becomes public and intense.

Haniyev knew without thinking that the United States was behind this conflict to some extent. After all, the conflict in Georgia had already been triggered. As Georgia's neighbors, how could Azerbaijan and Armenia not be aware of Georgia's internal conflicts? How could the Americans and British who entered the Caucasus countries not take advantage of the conflicts between the countries?

Haniyev suddenly remembered the collapse of socialism after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and Yugoslavia followed suit.

Regardless of whether they were friends of the Soviet Union, as long as they were socialist regimes, 1991 was a disaster, and the role played by the United States and NATO was very easy. They only needed to follow the trend and promote the internal contradictions of various socialist countries, and the brothers would fight against each other and get bloody.

Dark and difficult days are approaching.

Haniyev sighed softly, hugged his wife, and walked forward firmly while pulling the suitcase.

The episode in Azerbaijan did not affect Haniyev's good mood for too long. After he and Tatyana took a big ship out to sea and saw the vast Caspian Sea and the drilling platforms that occasionally appeared in the field of vision, Haniyev's mood suddenly improved.

Pointing to the huge offshore oil rigs in the distance, Haniyev said, "These oil giants represent the great vitality and powerful productivity of our Soviet Union. The oil extracted from the Caspian Sea is sent to Ukraine and Russia through oil pipelines. Like blood, it drives every move of this red giant, the Soviet Union. Tatyana, do you believe that people will always admire the great Soviet Union?"

Tatyana wasn't interested in politics, but after spending so much time with Haniyev, she had developed some political interest. She nodded and said, "When my dear Victor becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union, you will be the leader of this red giant and will surely unleash even greater vitality and productivity on the Soviet Union!"

"I think so too, but it's too late..."

"What's too late?"

"Born too late..."

The couple lay on the railing, enjoying the sea breeze, looking at the sea view and chatting. Haniyev and Tatyana were in a very relaxed mood. They didn't return to the cabin to have dinner until dusk after watching the sunset.

It takes twelve hours to get from Baku to Krasnovodsk by boat, or half an hour by plane. Since they were going there for fun, Haniyev and his companions chose to take the boat.

After dinner, the two people who were fascinated by the breeze on the boat took two cups of coffee to the deck to chat, and did not return to the room to rest until 9:30 in the evening.

At around six o'clock in the morning of the next day, the ship entered the port and docked at Pier 3 of Krasnovodsk Port.

After getting off the boat, Haniyev and his wife asked four or five people before they found a Turkmen who could speak Russian. After about ten minutes, Haniyev finally figured out where to take the bus.

Chapter 170 Vice Minister of Education

Not long after arriving on the east coast of the Caspian Sea, Haniyev and Tatyana soon discovered that Turkmenistan's economy and people's living conditions were inferior to those on the west coast, especially Baku.

The number of Russian speakers here has also dropped sharply compared to West Coast countries.

But since we are out for fun, there will always be various emergencies.

Haniyev was well prepared. He found the station and bought two tickets to the capital Ashgabat. After wandering around for a long time, the couple finally got on the train.

The train from Krasnovodsk to Ashgabat takes a day and a night, less than 300 kilometers but takes 23 hours. This makes Haniyev, who is used to flying and the Khitan speed in his previous life, a little depressed.

However, the conditions of the sleeper berths on the train were pretty good, only the bathroom was relatively dirty. Haniyev and Tatyana knew that they couldn't ask for too much when they were away from home, so they just held their noses and stayed there.

When the two arrived in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, Haniyev immediately took his work permit and went to the best hotel to stay.

After a good wash and a quiet night's rest, Haniyev and Tatyana finally felt refreshed.

Turkmenistan is not a country with a long history. Before the Tsarist Russia ruled here, the country was a nomadic regime on horseback.

The capital Ashgabat has a history of just over a hundred years, and the city experienced a major earthquake of nearly magnitude 10 in 1948, which almost destroyed the entire city. The capital was later rebuilt with the help of the Soviet Union.

Therefore, the city of Ashgabat has no historical heritage and lacks historical sites. Although there are some great buildings from the Soviet era, they are far less magnificent than those in Ukraine. Therefore, this city is not very attractive and is only suitable for short-term residence to observe and experience the lives of local people.

After breakfast, Haniyev and Tatyana returned to their room and called home using the hotel phone to report their safety.

In this era without mobile phones, we can only communicate through landlines.

Today is Friday, and it was my mother, Natalia, who answered the phone.

After half an hour of communication, Haniyev learned that the situation at home was basically unchanged from when he left, but the transfer order from the Central Organization Department of Ukraine was issued on January 18.

Haniyev was transferred back to Ukraine from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and temporarily served as deputy director of the State Committee of National Education of Ukraine.

This position is also at the vice-ministerial level, but it is completely different from what Sherbitsky said before. At that time, he was talking about the deputy governor of Kharkiv Oblast. How did it suddenly become the deputy director of the State Committee of National Education?

Haniyev was very surprised when he heard this, and knew that some changes must have occurred.

"Which position holds more weight, the deputy mayor of Shanghai or the vice minister of education?"

Haniyev changed his mind and shook his head.

Although he was a little surprised, he thought that the official document had already come down, and the rank of deputy director was the same as that of deputy governor. Besides, even if the State Committee of National Education was not as good as the Kharkiv Oblast, it was not a bad unit in the ministries. The most important thing was that he was finally promoted to a "deputy ministerial" cadre, which was a great thing.

Thinking of this, he didn't think about calling Yalta to inquire, thinking that he would know the situation when he returned at the end of the month.

Haniyev didn't take it seriously at first. After hanging up the phone, he called Potanin in Moscow. After a few words, Potanin hung up because he had something to do.

Today's call was the second call Haniyev made to his family and Moscow while out playing. If he didn't contact either side for too long, Haniyev would feel like he had lost his eyes and ears.

After hanging up the phone, Haniyev felt more and more upset. He gritted his teeth and couldn't help but call Yalta.

After Vyshevsky answered the phone, without waiting for Hanyev to ask, he said: "Are you asking about your promotion and appointment?"

"Yes, it seems that what was mentioned before was not the National Education Commission."

"There's nothing we can do. The old man told Gulenko about his intention to promote you, and he also asked the Organization Department of the Central Committee to put it into operation. However, Gulenko was a little timid and was afraid of offending Gorbachev, so he just transferred you back and didn't assign you a position at first. It wasn't until a few days ago when Sherbitsky remembered to ask about it and put pressure on you that the Organization Department of the Central Committee decided to appoint you to Kharkov. But at that time, Kharkov already had two deputy governors, and there were no vacancies. After all, Kharkov is a good place, and countless eyes are watching it. If you are slow, you will not be able to catch up.

The old man thought that he couldn't let you delay, so he arranged for you to join the leadership team of the National Education Commission as deputy director, and to resolve your deputy provincial level. This way, you will have the opportunity for lateral transfer or promotion in the future.

Haniyev nodded, remembering how he felt after leaving Yalta, and said, "It seems that it's inconvenient to do anything if you're not in a position. This is the case with Sherbitsky, and it's the same with me."

Sherbitsky is no longer the First Secretary of Ukraine, but he is still a member of the Soviet Supreme Presidium and the Politburo, and one of the leaders of the party and the country. However, he now has only the title but no real power, so as time goes by, his control over Ukraine has gradually loosened.

Haniyev originally thought that he had a sure thing in mind when it came to the position of deputy governor, but he failed to get it. After being disappointed, he fully understood Sherbitsky's mentality and understood why he had repeatedly expressed his intention to find an opportunity to return to the political arena and serve as the First Secretary of Ukraine again. It was because he could not bear the feeling of powerlessness at the loss of power.

However, Gorbachev would certainly not agree to let him return to the position of First Secretary of Ukraine. At least, unless there is a major accident, Sherbitsky should retreat to the second line until retirement.

Haniyev was somewhat resentful towards Gulenko, the First Secretary of Ukraine, whom he had never met. He felt that this old man was blocking his way. If his promotion speed was affected because he did not serve as the deputy governor of Kharkiv, and interfered with his plan to save Ukraine before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, then Gulenko would be a national sinner of Ukraine and a historical sinner whose crimes could not be forgiven even if he died.

"Since Gulenko didn't promote me wholeheartedly this time, it will be difficult to count on him in the future..."

"Now, if I want to maintain my rapid promotion, I need the support of Shcherbitsky. I have to find a way to get him back... Even if I can't completely reinstate him, I have to consolidate his power and status in Ukraine..."

After hanging up the phone, Haniyev squinted his eyes and thought, "It seems I really need to find some Ukrainian independence forces. Maybe using them to pressure Gulenko will help consolidate Sherbitsky's power..."

Haniyev has unknowingly grown into a politician who is good at calculation and fighting, and Gulenko has unknowingly become his imaginary enemy. Haniyev has also really begun to plan for Sherbitsky's comeback in his mind.

Chapter 171 The Tenth Education Committee

It was February 10th when Haniyev and Tatyana finished their tour of the five Central Asian countries. They flew back to Kiev from Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan.