Servant of the People in Kyiv

Vladimir was afraid of and hated Shcherbitsky, but was also somewhat grateful to him for promoting his son.

Seeing Haniyev nod, Vladimir said in a deep voice, "The old man has been the First Secretary for over a decade and is a close confidant of Brezhnev. He has deep roots in Ukraine. If he really wants to do something to strive for a comeback, there is some hope. However, power struggles are very dangerous. If you are not careful, you can sacrifice your political future or even your life. Have you thought it through?"

Haniyev smiled faintly. "Of course I've thought about it. Now is the critical point for Gorbachev to implement reforms. The constitution should be revised by the end of this year. By then, political system reform will be the future development trend of the Soviet Union, and people's representatives will participate in politics and make decisions. The political situation changes rapidly, and no one can predict what the future will be like. However, the old man and I are very confident. After all, the old man has a solid foundation, and we have found a plan with a very high success rate."

Seeing his son didn't reveal the details of the plan, Vladimir knew it was a secret, so he didn't ask. He nodded and said, "It's enough for you to understand the stakes. You're the highest-ranking official in our family, and you have the most promising future. I don't have much to advise you. But son, remember, you have parents, siblings, a wife, and an unborn child. You must be cautious in everything you do. You must never recklessly risk your life like you did in Chernobyl or Burkina Faso."

Haniyev nodded and said, "Don't worry, father. I was forced to do so at that time. Who would take risks when they can do things steadily?"

Vladimir finished the vodka in his glass and burped. He said, "A few days ago, Lukchikov, the secretary of the Kyiv State Forestry Committee, came to see me. He's your old boss, and knowing you work at the Education Committee, he wanted to ask you to take care of his son."

Haniyev frowned slightly: "What do you mean?"

"His son is about to take the entrance exam for Kyiv State University, and his grades are probably a little low, so he'd like to ask you to do him a favor and recommend his son for direct admission without taking the exam."

Haniyev sighed softly, "Father, you know what? Since three months ago, many people have used my connections to ask me to help send their children to college. I've basically refused because there's no benefit in doing so. Even if they give us some rubles and gifts, we don't need them, and it will only give people something to talk about."

Vladimir pursed his lips and said, "You want to keep improving and have a chance to join the Central Committee. As a young cadre, it's good to protect your reputation. However, if you help other people's children get into college, you will still gain the gratitude of many people. These people will help you in your official career."

Haniyev shook his head. "They are not my helpers, but my burdens. Father, if I just want to be a provincial official, help them, use my power to win over other senior officials, and form my own social circle, that would be great. It would allow me and my family to thrive in Ukraine and do everything very easily."

But if I want to become the supreme leader of Ukraine, these officials below the department level can't help me at all. I need to win over Mr. Shcherbitsky and other ministers, but these senior officials don't need me to fight for exemptions from entrance exams for their children.

Vladimir's lips moved and he sighed, "You seem to be right. If you want to enter the center, they really don't have the ability to help you."

Haniyev noticed his father's dissatisfaction, thought for a moment, and said, "Hey, Secretary Lukchikov is my old leader after all. I relied on him for my work, work, and promotion from the beginning, so I'll make an exception and help him this time."

Vladimir chuckled upon hearing this. "That's right. We can't be too unkind and make your old colleagues and leaders resent you. It would also be very detrimental to your personal image and reputation."

Chapter 196 People's Daily

After hearing his father's words, Haniyev smiled slightly without further explanation.

For Haniyev, he has a lot of things to do every day, and there are many things and people he needs to care about, so he doesn't want to waste his limited time and energy on things that are not helpful in saving Ukraine. He is afraid that if he takes care of too many mundane matters, it will affect major decisions and future development. If he fails to become the speaker of Ukraine before Ukraine's independence and affects Ukraine's future, Haniyev will never forgive himself.

When people do anything, they will spend their time and energy. Trying to take care of everything means that none of them can be done to the extreme, so outstanding people will always devote themselves to a career.

The Soviet Union was about to disintegrate in three years. Haniyev remembered that not long after the August 19th Incident, the Soviet republics became independent one after another. Now it is August 21st, which means that Ukraine may become independent within three years.

1991 will be a critical year that will determine the fate of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Everything Haniyev wants to do will be in the most critical year of 1991. Only if he becomes one of the top leaders of Ukraine before 1991 will he have the opportunity to change Ukraine's destiny, save the Ukrainian people, and even make a difference.

Time is tight and the task is heavy, so Haniyev dare not relax or be distracted in the slightest.

If it were not for Ukraine and for gaining control of the Ukrainian central government, Haniyev would not have needed to be so anxious or nervous. He could have waited until Ukraine's independence and relied on his huge reputation and influence among intellectuals to run for president. At the same time, he could have taken advantage of the opportunity of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's independence to monopolize national resources and become a big oligarch.

By then, Haniyev will have both fame and fortune, and will have more wealth than he can spend in his lifetime.

But Haniyev still had some pursuits and ambitions, and he had passion and ideals in his heart. He wanted to do something great and make some achievements that would be remembered for generations. Therefore, he had to become one of the top leaders of Ukraine before 1991 so that he could reverse the country's destiny at the most critical moment.

September quickly arrived and the weather in Kiev became cooler than before.

Haniyev has not done much work in the past few days. His main focus has been on studying and adjusting the organizational structure of "Rukh", preparing to formulate a simple organizational management model, and at the same time making careful plans for recruiting personnel, expanding the organization and publicity.

That day, Haniyev was in the office discussing with Drak about selecting some organizational elites of the "Ukrainian People's Movement" in a few days and conducting training and education so that they could become the backbone of the organization and take on the responsibility of propaganda and organizational construction of the "Ukrainian People's Movement".

Everything needs people to do it. If you want to do things well, you must first train and educate the people who do the work.

Haniyev worked his way up from the grassroots level. He knew very well that if the "Ukrainian People's Movement" wanted to grow and develop, personnel were the top priority.

As the Secretary-General of the Ukrainian People's Movement, Drak has been studying many issues related to organization, management and propaganda with Haniyev whenever he has free time, striving to develop the Ukrainian People's Movement into a mature political organization as soon as possible.

When Drake was not available, Ivanov and Gonchar would come. In short, Haniyev would meet with the leaders of Rukh every day to discuss matters.

Makar, who served as Deputy Secretary-General, has been vacant recently as Haniyev handed over the management and operation of the People's Daily to him.

Now it has enough funds, venues and personnel. As the legal organization with the largest number of intellectuals in Ukraine, the thing that "Rukh (Ukrainian People's Movement)" lacks the least is pens.

Therefore, on September 1, the first issue of the weekly "People's Daily" was printed.

Because it contains some content on the "History of the Development of the Ukrainian People" and the works of many great writers, poets, and professors, the members of Rukh have long been looking forward to the "People's Daily".

After the newspapers were delivered to major universities, they were snapped up by professors and students.

A newspaper was sold for 1 ruble, and the first issue of 100,000 newspapers were sold out within one day of its publication. After deducting the cost from the revenue of 100,000 rubles, the People's Daily still had more than half of the profit. Therefore, even relying on the revenue of the People's Daily, Rukh could be financially self-sufficient and hire some intellectuals to run the organization on a full-time basis.

Because the People's Daily was created by a group of intellectuals to promote their own ideology and had no professional journalists at all, it was not positioned as a news newspaper, but as a propaganda newspaper and a research newspaper for literary history. This kind of newspaper could not be published daily like a current affairs newspaper. Therefore, after meeting with Drak and others, Haniyev reached a consensus and positioned the People's Daily as a weekly newspaper.

The September 1st issue of the People's Daily was the first issue of the official newspaper published after the official establishment of the Rukh.

Because of the advance publicity and the fact that all other tabloids of "Rukh" had been cancelled, the 70,000 to 80,000 members in Kiev had been looking forward to "People's Daily".

The first issue of the newspaper was full of useful information, so on the third day after 100,000 copies of the People's Daily were sold, a trend of discussing the content of the newspaper was formed within Rukh. The intellectuals in Kiev were greatly encouraged, and many young people rushed to borrow and circulate the newspaper, and praised the content of "History of the Development of the Ukrainian Nation".

For Ukrainians who have lived under Soviet rule for decades, where the concept of the Ukrainian nation has been blurred, most people do not know the history of the Ukrainian nation's independence. Many college and high school students believe that Ukraine has been a part of Russia since ancient times, and that it was Tsarist Russia before and the Soviet Union now, and that they are just ethnic minorities of Great Russia.

However, in the past two decades, Ukrainian intellectuals who advocate national independence have long promoted their various views and knowledge through various channels. Because many Ukrainians have long been dissatisfied with the Soviet Union's unified allocation of industrial division of labor, this has also made Ukrainian national independence rhetoric increasingly popular.

Therefore, nearly half of the young people in Kiev have accepted the idea of ​​Ukrainian national independence. However, because the history of Ukrainian national independence has never been established and the national historical view has never been clear, the young people in Kiev have only accepted some fragmented and vague national independence history and independence concepts.

After reading the first three chapters of the rigorous, complete and well-organized "History of the Development of the Ukrainian Nation", many intellectuals, teachers and students in Kiev felt enlightened and their national self-esteem was overflowing.

"So Ukraine has such a long history. Kievan Rus was the first civilized country in Eastern Europe created by our ancestors. We are the orthodox of Kievan Rus, so we can't possibly be a branch of the so-called Great Russia or a minority ethnic group..."

"The Ukrainian language and culture are orthodox descendants of Kievan Rus' and the true roots of East Slavic culture. Both the Ukrainian and Russian peoples are branches of East Slavic culture, so Ukrainians and Russians are two equal nations. Ukraine is the oldest country and civilization in Eastern Europe. When Ukraine became an independent nation, Russians were still living in the snow-covered forests, eating raw meat and drinking blood..."

The front page of the first issue of "People's Daily" was filled with the first three chapters of "History of the Development of the Ukrainian Nation". These introductions to the development of the nation and the establishment of culture, which were supported by historical materials and passed down in an orderly manner, were reasonable and detailed, and gave a new perspective to the intellectuals and students in Kiev who had always been vague about the Ukrainian nation.

With the heated discussions among Rukh members and teachers and students in Kyiv, the concept of Ukrainian nation gradually became clear and was recognized by most young people and intellectuals in Kyiv.

The first issue of People's Daily was published in less than a week, and the number of new members of Rukh continued to increase at a rate of hundreds every day. If Haniyev had not already given his notice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had not supported the development of Rukh, this speed of personnel development alone should have alerted the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, and they should have reported it to the central government to suppress and dismantle Rukh.

It was precisely because of Sherbitsky's support and Haniyev's operation that both People's Daily and Rukh achieved great success after September.

Haniyev became more and more confident that he could overthrow Gulenko and support Sherbitsky to make a comeback.

Haniyev believed that the People's Daily could continue to brainwash all members of the Rukh. As long as the number of Rukh members increased, he would be able to use the People's Daily to make the Rukh members and their close relatives and friends become supporters of his will in due time.

"Perhaps within six months, as long as October, November, and December continue to go smoothly, I will have the mass support to compete with the Ukrainian Communist Party by 1989. By then, Russia will have a Yeltsin, and Ukraine will have a Shcherbitsky. I doubt Gorbachev will be in trouble.

By then, when Gulenko steps down, it will be a natural progression for Shcherbitsky to step up..."

"If the old man returns to power in Ukraine, I'll have a ticket straight to the throne of supreme power in Ukraine. I'll definitely become Prime Minister of Ukraine before 1991. The old man is already this old. If he gets sick or loses his energy, Ukraine's big mess will definitely be handed over to me..."

"That idiot Gorbachev is implementing political reforms so that the CPSU no longer has absolute power over the appointment of First Secretaries of the republics. Even if Gorbachev and the others don't want to, I can still take over Ukraine. I'll lead Ukraine to its rise, and at the very least, I'll be known as the founding father of Ukraine, right?"

Haniyev couldn't help laughing when he thought of this.

Chapter 197 Burkina Faso's Concern

June 9, Friday, light rain.

Tatiana, who was already four months pregnant, had gained more than ten pounds and became very sleepy every day. As a socialist country, every pregnant woman in the Soviet Union had the right to free prenatal checkups, not to mention that Tatiana was a family member of a senior official in Kiev.

This morning, Haniyev drove his wife to the hospital for a prenatal check-up.

The Third People's Hospital of Kyiv is one of the top five hospitals in Kyiv. With Haniyev's current level and connections, he can definitely take his wife to the best hospital in Ukraine for prenatal checkups. However, since his old classmate and distant cousin Nikolayevich Pristin is the deputy director of the cardiovascular department of the Third People's Hospital of Kyiv, Haniyev still takes Tatyana to the Third People's Hospital for prenatal checkups every month.

After the routine checkup, Pristin's wife, Eva, a midwife in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the Third People's Hospital, personally escorted Haniyev and Tatiana to the outpatient building. She smiled and said, "Tatiana is in great health, and little Victor is doing well in her belly. I'm sure he will be a very smart and clever boy when he is born!"

For Haniyev, he knew that Tatyana was pregnant with a boy when he took his wife for her first prenatal check-up.

This marks that Haniyev is going to have a son, and the first child of the third generation of the Haniyev family is a boy.

After returning home from the hospital, Haniyev heard the phone ring before he had time to drink a glass of water.

After picking up the phone and listening for a moment, Haniyev said in a deep voice, "Ivan, please pass the telegram to me."

The person who called Haniyev was Ivan, a staff member of the Third Department of the African Department of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ivan and Peter were Haniyev's old subordinates. Although Haniyev had been transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs long ago, Ivan and Peter would contact Haniyev every few months, one to keep in touch, and the other to forward telegrams sent to Haniyev by Burkina Faso.

All telegrams and letters sent by Burkina Faso President Sankara to Haniyev and Potanin must be submitted by the ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will review and transcribe them before forwarding them to Haniyev.

This letter is the fourth letter Sankara has sent to Haniyev since he returned to his country.

In the first three letters, Sankara kept telling Haniyev about the vibrant and flourishing life in Burkina Faso after the revolution, interspersed with some expressions of satisfaction with his relationship with Haniyev and the progress of the First Mining Company.

Thanks to Haniyev's help before returning home, Sankara's alms collection in France was very effective. The French investment projects and the funds raised made Sankara breathe a sigh of relief this year. Burkina Faso also launched many major projects to improve people's livelihood.

In April of this year, First Mining's first gold mine in Burkina Faso began to produce stable output. Although the amount of gold sand collected every day is not large, with the second and third gold mines coming into production, the Burkina Faso gold mine will surely become a cash cow.

However, Sankara wanted to do too many things, and the French aid could not satisfy Sankara's appetite at all. Therefore, Burkina Faso, which was almost impoverished, had a great demand for the gold mine income of "First Mining". Burkina Faso, which was in a state of disrepair, had too many projects to build. It can be said that Sankara was just waiting for this batch of rice to be cooked.

Ivan quickly forwarded Sankara's fourth telegram. Hanyev laughed heartily after reading it. "Bovani has finally fallen. That damned African saint is just an old man who works as a dog for France. If he doesn't suffer a little, he'll have his sights set on Sankara again."

It turned out that the content of this telegram was the longest one in a year. It not only contained Sankara's thoughts and gratitude to Haniyev and Potanin, but also an introduction to Burkina Faso's new look and new construction. Following these contents was Sankara's introduction to the situation in a slightly joyful tone.

Before Haniyev returned to his country, in order to take revenge and deal with Boigny, Sankara adopted Haniyev's advice, taking advantage of the millions of Muslim immigrants in Côte d'Ivoire, making a fuss about the conflicts of religious beliefs, and eventually disrupting Côte d'Ivoire.

After more than ten months of efforts, Sankara's layout and arrangements were not in vain. With the constant instigation and stimulation of the revolutionary cadres lurking in Burkina Faso, mass incidents have broken out continuously in several northern provinces of Côte d'Ivoire since the beginning of 1988, and armed fights and murders have become increasingly fierce.

After June, demonstrations and riots broke out in the Muslim-populated areas in northern Côte d'Ivoire, causing great headaches for the Ivorian government, which already lacked armed forces. In the end, it had to rely on the French garrison to suppress the riots.

However, where there are riots and suppression, there will be bloodshed. Revolutionary cadres from Burkina Faso participated in and even led the religious conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, and riots of varying sizes continued to occur in July, August and September.

Therefore, since June 1988, Côte d'Ivoire has fallen into a semi-chaotic situation. In order to completely suppress the Muslims, Boigny, who has never been willing to develop the military and believes it is a waste of money, began to spend money to recruit soldiers and purchase airplanes, tanks and guns from France to establish a new police force and riot police. He no longer has the energy to interfere in the affairs of neighboring countries and can only deal with the religious disputes in the country.

The complex ethnic and religious composition of Côte d'Ivoire is their only shortcoming. Thanks to Sankara's efforts, the African saint Boigny has fallen from the altar and no longer has the energy to lead the French-speaking countries in Africa to blockade, sanction and deal with Burkina Faso.

Sankara was very happy, not only because of Boigny's setback, but also because Burkina Faso's diplomatic difficulties in Africa were gradually easing.

In his letter, Sankara told Haniyev that recently there have been many more vegetables and fruits imported from other countries on the streets of Burkina Faso, and the lives of the people of Burkina Faso have been much better than before the revolution.

In his letter, Sankara attributed all the changes in Burkina Faso to Haniyev and Potanin, the two top advisers of the National Committee for a Total Revolution in Burkina Faso.

Haniyev was not stupid. He certainly knew that this was Sankara's deliberate exaggeration. He knew that his telegram would definitely be reviewed by senior Soviet officials and then reach Haniyev and Potanin. He wanted the Soviet high-level officials to pay attention to and thank Haniyev and Potanin, and provide them with an additional layer of protection.

Putting away the thick stack of letter paper, Haniyev took a deep breath and said, "First Mining produces over a hundred tons of gold ore every month. Although the amount is not large, it is a good start. It is estimated that the three new mines of First Mining will be put into production by the end of this year. By then, we should be able to see profits..."

Chapter 198 Sankara's Surprise

He went to the study and sat down to think for a long time. After reading Sankara's letter twice, Haniyev took out paper and pen and began to write a reply.

For every letter he received from Sankara over the past year, he would reply and hand it over to the ambassador of Burkina Faso.

This is an exchange between good friends and revolutionary comrades, and is also a work requirement of the President and Supreme Advisor of Burkina Faso.

The contents of Haniyev's first three letters to Sankara were somewhat similar.

Haniyev only praised Sankara and the great progress of the revolutionary cause in Burkina Faso. Even though Sankara's letter contained some inquiries about the work in Burkina Faso, Haniyev did not give any opinions or suggestions in his reply because he did not understand the actual situation.

However, for the fourth reply, Haniyev decided to discuss with Sankara his views on the governance of Burkina Faso and the subsequent development of the revolution.

Haniyev genuinely wanted to help Sankara and Africa's last remaining socialist regime.

However, Haniyev is not a true leader of a country after all. When he was in Burkina Faso, he relied on the prophet's golden finger and familiarity with the revolutionary movement to help Sankara turn the situation around. Relying solely on his personal ability and experience, Haniyev actually does not currently possess the qualities of a national leader.

Haniyev also knows that he still has a lot of room for improvement. Therefore, when he visited Burkina Faso, he actively helped Sankara, participated in and even led the revolution. In fact, it was to practice on the platform of Burkina Faso and accumulate experience in operating and managing the country, and also to accumulate valuable experience and lessons for his future management of Ukraine.

In this reply letter, Haniyev once again congratulated Sankara on his achievements and expressed his longing for him.

Afterwards, Haniyev began to express his personal opinions on the current development difficulties of Burkina Faso in accordance with Sankara's request.

For the underdeveloped countries in Africa, there are many problems that restrict Burkina Faso's development, but for Sankara, the most prominent ones are currently three.

The first and most important problem restricting Burkina Faso's development is that its industries are scarce and it is extremely short of money. Without money, it is unable to develop industries and people's livelihood projects.

However, this problem has been alleviated after receiving aid and fundraising from France. Currently, Burkina Faso's current and upcoming projects are enough to support this small country with a population of only a few million for ten years.

After the current projects are completed and the income from gold mines continues to increase in the future, Burkina Faso will be able to slowly develop industries and invest in projects.

The second problem is Burkina Faso's poor transportation. As a landlocked country, it has no ports, only one railway and a few roads built by the French.

The transportation is not well developed and the lack of ports excludes sea transportation. These two factors have seriously restricted the development of Burkina Faso's import and export business, which has made the situation even worse for Burkina Faso, which already has few goods and raw materials to export.

Therefore, in history, Upper Volta was colonized and managed by the French together with Côte d'Ivoire. The two colonies shared a railway and relied on the ports of Côte d'Ivoire to transport ivory and other materials to other countries.

Later, after the collapse of the French colonial empire, French colonies in Africa became independent one after another.

After its independence, Burkina Faso needed to establish good cooperative relations with the four southern countries of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin and Togo, rely on other countries' railways and ports to develop import and export trade, and improve national income and people's quality of life through the export of raw materials and the import and transportation of goods.

The second problem is that before the chaos in Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso's diplomatic environment was very bad. It could only rely on Benin, which also had a socialist regime, to import some supplies. The relations between Burkina Faso and its other neighbors were close to the level of war.

This is certainly related to Sankara personally and the implementation of the socialist system in Burkina Faso, but it is more about the "saint" Boanira clique in Côte d'Ivoire deliberately targeting Sankara.

Now religious and ethnic problems have erupted in Côte d'Ivoire, and the civil unrest has left Boigny with no time to interfere in foreign affairs.

As Boigny was unable to deal with Sankara, and the success of the Great Revolution forced France to surrender, Burkina Faso's national strength increased, which eased its diplomatic difficulties. Recently, it has begun to negotiate cooperation with many countries in the south.

I believe that isolated Burkina Faso will soon open up the situation, and then it will be able to share ports with the three southern countries.

The third problem is that after the thorough revolutionary people's movement, Burkina Faso purged, suppressed and exiled many intellectuals and officials. The country has now become a country where most government departments are basically controlled by low-educated revolutionary fighters and radicals.

Throughout Burkina Faso, from the grassroots level in villages and towns to provinces, regions and even the central government, 80% of the cadres are newcomers who emerged during the Great Revolution. Most of these people are illiterate or semi-literate. Although the number of illiterate people decreases as one moves towards the central government, the general educational level of Burkina Faso's ruling officials has changed from the average primary and secondary school education to the average kindergarten education.