Servant of the People in Kyiv

Haniyev walked over quickly, gave them a warm hug, and then asked with a smile, "Where do you want to get a drink?"

Among the five people, the one with the best family background is Sergei, who works as a janitor at Kyiv National University, and the one who is doing the best is Pristin, a formal doctor at the Third People's Hospital.

When the five of them got together, they always had to find a place to drink, and it was usually Pristin who found it. All decisions for the small group were made by these two people, Haniyev and the other two. Anato, an intern reporter at the Moscow News Agency's Kyiv office, and Vyshevsky, who drove a car for the Kyiv bus company, both followed the decisions of the three.

After listening to Haniyev's question, Sergei smiled.

Pristin whispered, "Let's go with Sergei to his dormitory at the school. The wine and meat are ready."

Chapter 022 Reuters

Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University is the best university in Ukraine and one of the three best universities in the Soviet Union. It is a top university along with Moscow State University and Leningrad State University.

Although Sergei was a school worker, he did not need to be responsible for any actual work because his father was the secretary of the provincial planning committee. He was also assigned a dormitory on campus.

The campus is quiet at night, but a room in the staff dormitory is steaming hot. The school has sufficient funding, so the old man in the boiler room can always make the heating in the staff dormitory very hot.

Haniyev, Pristin, Anato, and Vyshevsky all took off their clothes except for their shirts, and Sergei even changed into a navy shirt. The five of them sat around a broken wooden table. On the table was a food bag. When the bag was opened, it revealed pickles, a piece of butter, black bread, a plate of sausages, a piece of salami, a small knife, and half a bottle of vodka.

At this time, they had already drunk half a bottle of vodka, the room was hot, the skin of the five people was still red, and their spirits were gradually becoming excited.

Everyone greeted each other first and learned about their recent situation. Haniyev boasted about how he had brought down Korchagin and at the same time expressed his gratitude by clinking glasses with Pristin.

Everyone knew that Haniyev had always been a man of ideas and means, so it was not surprising. They just cursed Korchagin and said he deserved to die.

The others also talked about their recent situations and experiences one by one, and after a few words, Anatole became talkative.

Since Anato is an intern reporter at the Moscow News Agency, a private enterprise established after Gorbachev took control of the empire and began to reform, it has developed rapidly. At the same time, it has had a lot of contact with foreign media in recent years, so Anato's words reveal his yearning for the United States, France and Britain.

Haniyev felt a sinking feeling in his heart when he saw that the other people no longer had the gnashing of teeth of their fathers and grandfathers when talking about NATO countries, but instead expressed yearning and envy. He knew that if most young people in the Soviet Union had this mentality, then the banner of Soviet ideology would really be impossible to hold up.

Haniyev recalled the envy of his classmates and relatives for the high-quality life in the so-called Western free camp and their yearning for the society portrayed in Hollywood movies, and could not help but sigh. He knew that no matter how good a country's system sounded, economic development was the top priority. If the people's food, drink and clothing were not as good as others, it would be difficult to strengthen the so-called faith.

After all, socialism is also about making everyone equal and prosperous together. But now the Soviet Union was poor from before World War II to the 1980s. Not to mention the distant past, even the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, as the arena for the battle between the free camp and the democratic camp, the German Democratic Republic has been clearly defeated since 1979. From economic development to people's living standards and spiritual enjoyment, the German Democratic Republic has failed. Therefore, the entire Soviet Union is actually filled with an atmosphere of capitulationism. After becoming the general secretary, Gorbachev has been carrying out reforms in the hope of changing the Soviet Union's development model, learning from the successful experience of the West, and thus allowing this great empire to rejuvenate.

Haniyev didn't like to hear his old classmates' envy and praise of the so-called free world in the West. He knew that no matter what he said now, he would not be able to change their impression, so he could only change the subject.

After chatting for a while, Anatol suddenly smiled mysteriously and said, "I plan to change to another department after I become a regular employee next month."

Pristin snorted coldly and said bluntly, "Are you stupid? The salary of a regular reporter at the Moscow News Agency is over 300 rubles, and there are allowances for business trips. Where can you get such a high salary? A TV station? That's not good."

Anato shook his head and said, "I heard that Reuters will set up an office in Kiev next month. I want to go to Reuters."

"Foreign companies, this is good."

Pristin and Sergei both looked envious. The honest Vyshevsky asked, "Although Gordian knot has allowed foreign media into the country, they can't register companies here. If you give up your job and Reuters can't pay your pension insurance, what will you do in the future?"

"Pension insurance? Who needs that when they can work for a foreign company?"

Anato snorted coldly, "I've already met with Mr. Mike, the head of the Reuters branch. He admires me very much. After I start working at the Reuters branch, I'll earn $500 a month, which is over five hundred rubles. With such a high salary, why would I need a pension? Besides, I'm going to work hard to go abroad in the future..."

Anato excitedly spoke of his NATO dream, thinking that as long as he could immigrate to any NATO country in the future, he would be able to live a life of luxury.

In addition to Haniyev and Vyshevsky, Pristin and Sergei were very envious.

Vyshevsky is a person who is easily satisfied. For him, having wine to drink and meat to eat is happiness. Therefore, he does not quite understand the idea that young people of his generation want to immigrate to countries such as the United States, Finland, and Sweden.

Haniyev shook his head slightly and wanted to get up and go home, but suddenly remembered that Reuters was one of the four major news agencies in the world, and was in the same NATO camp as the other four agencies. If there was any news that was unfavorable to the Soviet Union, they could probably report it together.

Haniyev wanted to use the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion two months later as a stage, take advantage of this major accident to plan ahead and make achievements, and demonstrate the skills of an outstanding iron-blooded politician facing a disaster, so that First Secretary Sherbitsky would appreciate him, and it might even be possible to get Gorbachev's attention. Only then could he jump out of the grassroots and have the opportunity to enter the center of power in Ukraine and even the Soviet Union.

Haniyev was not a fool. He knew very well that if he wanted to make use of the explosion of the nuclear power plant, his life would be in danger. Secondly, being too prominent in this incident might not necessarily be a good thing. He might even be treated like a flea by the Soviet high-level officials who deliberately downplayed the accident and be banished to the cold palace or even crushed to death. Therefore, Haniyev had to find a way out for himself, which was to come into the sight of foreign media.

After all, in Haniyev's memory, after the nuclear power plant explosion, the Soviet authorities blocked the news and deceived the people. However, after the radioactive dust caused by the accident drifted to Northern Europe, European countries took the lead in reporting on the Soviet nuclear power plant explosion, which lifted the lid. Then the people of Ukraine, Belarus and even Moscow were furious and extremely disappointed with the Soviet authorities.

Haniyev plans to get to know Mr. Mike from Reuters through Anato, and work as a part-time reporter for Reuters to provide them with news materials. In this way, when he throws himself into the political gamble in the future, they can become his golden ticket to immunity from death, or even the promoter of his promotion opportunities.

Chapter 023 Poroshenko

The five of them drank until late at night and finished the entire box of vodka.

It was not until 9 o'clock the next morning that Dohanyev was the first to wake up. He shook his head and went straight to the table to pour a cup of cold tea and drank it. Only then did he feel much better.

Today is Thursday, a working day, but Pristin and Vyshevsky can take a day off, Anato has free time, and Sergei has nothing to do, so there is no need to get up early.

Haniyev simply washed up and woke up the four of them, saying, "Hurry up and wash up, let's go to the restaurant to eat something."

Half an hour later, the five of them went to the campus restaurant to eat with a faint smell of alcohol. Sergei greeted the boss skillfully, and then ordered pork chops, mashed potatoes and pie.

After a while, the five of them had eaten most of the meal and were lying comfortably on the sofa in a daze.

At a table in the distance, a young man who was eating Soviet-style dumplings appeared. When he saw Sergei, he wiped his mouth, stood up and walked over.

"Mr. Sergei, I hope you can return my videotapes to me. If you agree, I can provide them to you for free in the future. I also learned about your favorite Hollywood movies, so I can prepare more Hollywood blockbusters for you in the future."

This handsome young man with regular features looked at Sergei with a serious expression and a pleading tone.

Sergei smiled and said, "I'm glad you figured it out. You should know that the videotapes you sold were contraband, so it's completely reasonable for me to confiscate them from you.

We have communicated several times. I mainly know that it is not easy for you to come to Kiev from the south to study at university, so I want to take care of you. Otherwise, I would have sent you to the Academic Affairs Department long ago.

Um, how about this, you can come to my dormitory to get it during lunch time."

The young man bowed and said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Ergai. Please continue. I will pay for this meal for you and your friends."

After saying this, the young man turned and left. Pristin asked, "Who is he?"

Sergei smiled and said, "There's a student from Odessa, a freshman who enrolled last year. I caught him secretly renting out videotapes of banned movies, so I confiscated all his tapes. He's been trying to get back at me several times, but he's quite good at dealing with people, so I didn't want to really punish him, so I decided to let him go."

Anato frowned and said, "He doesn't look much younger than us. I thought he was also an employee, but I didn't expect he was actually a student."

"He was admitted to the Department of International Relations and International Law at Kyiv State University after completing his military service. I heard his father is Jewish, but his last name is his mother's. Although he's from a small town, he has a good business sense, worthy of being a descendant of the Jewish people..."

After listening to Sergei's words, Haniyev suddenly remembered the oligarch in later generations who personally took control of state power and asked, "What's his name?"

Sergei thought for a moment and said, "I don't remember exactly, but his name should be Peter Alexeevich Poroshenko, and he's twenty-one years old."

Haniyev was immediately certain that this young man was the future candy king, one of the top ten richest men in Ukraine, and a representative figure in the oligarchs' participation in politics. He was the businessman president Poroshenko who had personally dragged Ukraine into the abyss. The change from pro-Russian to completely leaning towards Russia in eastern Ukraine was all the work of this man.

It was Poroshenko who showed the Ukrainian people that there is no lower limit to the oligarchic rule, so they have high hopes for Zelensky, who has played the role of president, and think that even if they elect an actor as president, he will be better than the oligarch president who only knows how to extort money.

Although Haniyev looked down on Poroshenko's governing ability and character, he secretly admired his business talent and ability to get along with everyone.

Haniyev felt that since Poroshenko was destined to become a world-class billionaire, he might as well invest in him before he became successful and become an angel investor of this future Ukrainian billionaire. When his business grew bigger, he could also sit back and enjoy dividends as a shareholder.

As a close friend, Sergei saw that Haniyev seemed interested in Poroshenko and said with a smile, "He's a poor student whose business is not even respectable. Are you interested in him?"

Haniyev nodded and said, "I think he has a talent for business. You all know that the General Secretary wants to carry out reforms, and opening up private capital to participate in management is inevitable. We can get to know Poroshenko better, and there may be opportunities for cooperation in the future."

Sergei remained noncommittal and said, "Then you can go later and talk to him."

The five people were about to leave after breakfast. Vyshetsky was the only newly married groom among the five, and he was the first to wave goodbye.

Pristin also went home to catch up on his sleep because he had to work the night shift.

Just as Anato was about to leave, Haniyev stopped him.

"Please help me make an appointment with Mr. Mike from Reuters. I'd like to be a part-time reporter and provide him with some news material. However, I'm a government official, so I need you to cover for me by handing over the news material."

Anato smiled and nodded, saying, "That's no problem. If you provide some news material and it's accepted, the payment will be between 50 and 200 rubles per article. I'll help you contact them when I get back."

After Anato left, Haniyev and Sergei went to his dormitory to rest. Not long after, they heard a knock on the door.

Sergei said, "The door is unlocked, please come in."

The door was pushed open, revealing Poroshenko's square face. He walked in with a smile, carrying a large backpack behind him.

"Mr. Sergei, and this gentleman, I'm here."

Sergei nodded and turned around to pull out a cardboard box from under the bed. Inside the box was a stack of black, slightly heavy videotapes. Each videotape was covered with white tape with the name of the movie written on it. The first one was "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial".

Haniyev laughed and said, "These are just sugar-coated bullets designed to corrupt proletarian revolutionary fighters, aren't they? Damn capitalism is using movies to infiltrate corruption and hedonism into us. Sergey, do you have a movie player? I think we need to watch something that seriously criticizes American capitalist thought."

Sergei lit a cigarette and puffed away, "I only have it at home. It's inconvenient here, so I didn't bring it with me."

Poroshenko hurriedly said: "Gentlemen, I have a player. If you want to watch it, I will bring it to you."

Sergei rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "Don't you have Sophie Marceau's "Wild Love"? Bring it over so we can watch it together."

Sophie Marceau is the French sex goddess and also a popular sweetheart of men from all over Europe. The films she shot in the past two years were nude and revealing. While they were very popular, they were also demonized in the Soviet Union, so the films she starred in were naturally banned.

However, even the ban couldn't stop Soviet men from secretly watching, so Sergei said that even Haniyev became interested and said with a smile: "If there is a video of Sophie Marceau, let's watch it for a while."

"Okay, I'll get it right away." Poroshenko said and turned to leave.

For a hot-blooded man, alien movies are just for fun, while Category III movies are the real deal.

Thanks to Sophie Marceau's passionate film "Wild Love", Sergei quickly formed a posthumous friendship with Poroshenko and Haniyev.

Although Haniyev is also a master who has seen the chaos of infantry and cavalry fighting, Sophie Marceau's sexiness is not vulgar and can make people excited, which is more exciting than those who just pick up guns and do it, so he and Sergei reached a consensus and asked Poroshenko to use his connections to get more movies starring Sophie Marceau.

Poroshenko naturally agreed readily, and at the same time felt complacent about having a relationship with Sergei and Haniyev.

Chapter 024 Visiting the Old Leader

In a blink of an eye, it was the fourth day since Haniyev returned to Kiev.

Sergei and Haniyev have talked a lot with their younger brother Poroshenko these days and have become friends.

Poroshenko obviously has some ideas about politics, but his background makes him more eager for money. However, this does not affect his desire to get to know some second-generation officials and powerful people in Kiev through Sergei. At the same time, he is very enthusiastic about Haniyev, the young secretary of the forest farm, and seems to have determined that Haniyev has connections with the capital and is destined to become a high-ranking official in the future.

Gorbachev's reforms have only just begun. Before the conservatives headed by Sherbitsky are completely defeated, Comrade Gorbachev's road to self-destruction has not officially begun, so Haniyev's friendship with Poroshenko is just a small move.

If the Soviet Union really goes down the path of disintegration in the future, he can consider cooperating with Poroshenko when doing business in the future, or even suggest him to do candy business. In this way, if he doesn't do well, he can have a considerable income, and if he does well, he can have an extra white glove. After all, in the CIS countries after the disintegration, the rich will always live the best. If you don't have money, don't even think about becoming an official, but with enough money, what official can't you not be?

As the big boss of Goose City, the president is nothing more than a cow, horse, or dog to look after his industry. If he gets tired of playing behind the scenes, he can choose to go into battle bare-chested and use the presidential power to engage in corruption.

It was already February 1986, and there were only five years left before the Soviet Union collapsed. However, Haniyev was still just a small forestry secretary. He knew that with his connections and abilities, he could be promoted step by step from a small forestry secretary. Before he could be promoted to mayor, the Soviet Union collapsed.

If he cannot earn strong political capital and quickly get promoted by taking advantage of this major accident, then Haniyev will no longer focus on his career, but will consider how to make money. After the "indestructible alliance" collapses in the future, he will strive to become an oligarch who is "not interested in money" and "unhappy."

It was Sunday morning. Haniyev had returned to the State Forestry Committee the day before and had a meal with his old leaders and colleagues. He also chatted with Lukachikov, the secretary of the State Forestry Committee, for half an hour in his office and agreed to visit Lukachikov's home on Sunday morning.

The so-called visiting is actually the tacit gift-giving. After all, Lukachikov's attitude was also procedurally polite at the beginning. It was not until Haniyev said that he had brought him some local specialties, such as honey, furs, etc., that Lukachikov suddenly became enthusiastic.

Haniyev changed into a suit and coat in the morning, then drove the pickup truck his father gave him when he took office in Chernobyl, and took his younger brother Sidrov out of the alley.

About half an hour later, they turned from Lesya Avenue and arrived in front of the old staff housing compound of the Ministry of Education. Haniyev parked the car and took out two barrels of wine, a barrel of honey and a wooden box filled with bear skin from the car while there were not many people around. The two brothers carried them into the staff housing compound.

Since Haniyev had brought the drunk Lukchikov back several times before the New Year, the external staff member from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who was guarding the door recognized Haniyev, gave him a cigarette and said hello, and the two Haniyev brothers entered the family compound.

Although it is early spring now, Kiev is located at a high latitude, so it will still be very cold throughout the spring, and municipal heating will not end until the end of next month.

Therefore, although there are a lot of green vegetation in front of the buildings in the family compound at this time, except for the pine trees which are still green, the other flowers, plants and trees are still in a withered state.

The community is quiet and the roads are very clean and tidy. Although each building looks old, it still has a sense of history.

For Haniyev and Sidorov, although the house here does not look high-end, it was one of the goals they struggled for in the first half of their lives.

Because although not all the people who can live in this residential building are leaders of the Ministry of Education, they are at least leading cadres of the state government agencies. It can be said that the lowest administrative level is two or three levels higher than Haniyev's current level.

In fact, Haniyev's father Vladimir originally held a relatively high position and was allocated an apartment in the agricultural committee's family compound. However, years ago, his father was transferred to the farm as a secretary, so they moved out of the apartment.

Because of the loss they had experienced, both Haniyev and Sidlov were determined to return to their original homes and even move into a residential area that was more upscale than their original community.

Hanif looked at the houses, searched around and took out a note from his pocket, which said that Lukachikov lived in the east unit on the third floor of Unit 4, Building 16.

Haniyev's memory is not very good sometimes, so he always has a notebook in which he records important things, times and places.

This time, worried that he might have found the wrong door, Haniyev copied Lukachikov's home address from the notebook onto a piece of paper before leaving.

The two brothers followed the alley to find Building 16, and then moved the gifts to the 3rd floor. Panting heavily, Haniyev knocked on the door, and it was pushed open after a while.

A short, but still very beautiful middle-aged woman frowned and asked, "Who are you?"

Haniyev bowed slightly and said, "I'm Haniyev. Madam, have you forgotten? I sent a secretary back a few years ago. He used to be the deputy director of the Resource Development Office of the Forestry Commission. Now he's working as a secretary at the state-owned forest farm in Chernobyl."

The woman first stared at the Haniyev brothers with a frown, then looked at the barrels and boxes at their feet, nodded, turned around and shouted, "Lodov. Your subordinate Haniyev is here."

Then Lukachikov's voice was heard: "We have an appointment, bring him in."

The woman made room, and Haniyev and Sidrov carried the gifts in and placed them in the living room. Sidrov smiled and nodded at Lukachikov, who was sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper, and then left.

After a few simple greetings, Haniyev opened the gift he had brought and introduced it to Lukachikov and his wife: "This is the best skin from the spring hunt at the forest farm. On ordinary days, you can't even kill a bear in four or five years.

I'm lucky this year too. This bear's fur is intact and shiny. Even high-end supermarkets don't have coats of this quality. Secretary and Madam, I think there's enough for you two to make two sets of coats...

This is honey made by wild bees in our forest farm. It's sweet and healthy. You can keep it for tea or making cakes. This quality honey costs 20 rubles for half a gallon in the department store in Kyiv...

And this is the wine made from wild grapes in our forest farm. It tastes pretty good. It would be good for you two to drink to relieve your fatigue..."

Listening to Haniyev's introduction, even though Lukachikov and his wife had seen the world, they were still delighted by the bear skin and the whole barrel of honey in the wooden box.