Chapter 380
Yuri did not want to make any comment on the fact that Leningrad violated its diplomatic consensus with Moscow and hosted the Yugoslav delegation on a grand scale, but deep down, he believed that there were problems with Zhdanov and the entire Leningrad Oblast Committee.
Although the Soviet Union was a union republic, under the leadership of Comrade Stalin, this union republic actually adopted a strict centralized system. Not to mention a state like Leningrad, even the union republics did not have the power to decide their own foreign policy. Therefore, Leningrad violated Moscow's foreign policy and decided on its own attitude and standards for receiving the Yugoslav delegation, which was indeed crossing the line.
Now, speaking only from this perspective, the letter of complaint says that the leadership of Leningrad is creating a divide between Leningrad and Moscow, which is correct. Behind this divide, there are indeed some people who, seeing the growing fame of Comrade Zhdanov, have the idea of creating two central governments in the Soviet Union and are pushing for it to become an established fact.
With such a background in mind, when we look at the issue of voting fraud at the Leningrad Party Organization Representatives Conference, the problem is undoubtedly very serious.
From the perspective of organizational procedures, if the party being elected does not have an absolute advantage in the vote of the local party organization's representative conference, the higher-level party organization, that is, the Central Committee in Moscow, has the right to intervene. The Central Committee can ask the Leningrad local party congress to vote again, or initiate the corresponding organizational procedures to reconcile the contradictions between the supporters and opponents and finally reach a consensus on the vote.
However, when the voting problems occurred at the Leningrad Party Congress, not only did they not report to the higher-level party organization, but they also falsified the votes and made a fait accompli of unanimous approval. What kind of thing is this? In a small sense, this is a violation of the rules and regulations of inner-party democracy. In a big sense, this is really anti-party, because the purpose of this falsification is to isolate the higher-level party organizations from the direct leadership of the Leningrad party organization. To put it more vividly, the Leningrad party organization is shouting to Moscow: We take care of our own affairs, don't interfere.
One was a diplomatic incident, the other was the behavior of the party organization. The combination of the two directly created the external impression that an independent small group had been formed within the Leningrad Party organization, which was clearly distinguished from the Moscow Party Central Committee. In other words, an anti-party group had been formed.
Not to mention that Comrade Stalin was a strong leader and he was old and easily suspicious. Even if he was 20 years younger, he would have thought too much about this kind of thing and would have wanted to find out all the opposition groups and crush them into powder.
Coming out of the Kremlin and driving back to the Central Control Committee, Yuri looked worried all the way. He knew that Comrade Stalin's dissatisfaction with the work in Leningrad had reached a dangerous level. Of course, at this time, he might not have included Kuznetsov, Voznesensky and others in the list of anti-party groups, and it was more likely that he had not thought of killing them.
But as the saying goes, there is nothing bad in this world, but there are good people. Looking at what has happened in the past period of time, are there really so many people in the entire Eastern European socialist camp who tend to sympathize with Yugoslavia and Tito? The answer is of course no. In Romania, among the 200,000 party members who were expelled from the party, I am afraid that a large part of them did not know who Tito was, let alone what he did, but these people were also cleared out.
Therefore, at a certain period of time, people who are implicated in a political event may have nothing to do with this political event. They are just victims of the power struggle.
Yuri could believe that there was an anti-party element in Leningrad who wanted to establish two central committees, but he did not believe how many such people there were, let alone that these people had anti-Bolshevik sentiments. In other words, in the next period of time, no matter how far things in Leningrad developed, there would always be a group of innocent people buried in it and become victims of the power struggle.
Unfortunately, no matter what he thought, Yuri still had to arrange a series of follow-up work according to Comrade Stalin's intentions.
After Yuri took over as the chairman of the Central Supervisory Committee, this powerful department, which now holds great power, has never held a full supervisory committee meeting. Yuri's style is to try not to expand a specific case, but to try to limit the investigation of the case to a small scope. But this time the situation is different. He can no longer use his power to eliminate the possible expansion of the case during the investigation.
The members of the Central Supervisory Committee cover almost all the powerful departments of the Soviet Union. The Supervisory Committee meetings, which all members need to attend, are actually intended to concentrate the power of these powerful departments and focus on investigating and handling a case that has a very large impact.
The meeting was held in the large conference room on the top floor of the Central Control Commission building. Yuri, as the chairman of the Control Commission, presided over the meeting, and Comrade Poskrebyshev, as the representative of Comrade Stalin, attended the meeting.
The meeting was scheduled at 11 a.m. that day and was not officially held until 9 a.m. the next day. The reason for the delay was that there were many important work arrangements that needed to be dealt with in the meantime.
During this period of nearly twenty-four hours, many departments, including the General Political Department of the Army and Navy, the National Security Council, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, have been operating quietly. When Yuri issued a notice to the supervisory committee members, he had already asked them to do the corresponding confidentiality work.
That evening, 16 middle and senior-level commanders of the Leningrad Military District, including Commander General Dmitry Nikolayev-Gusev, were summoned from Leningrad to Moscow by the General Political Department of the Army and Navy in the name of a military construction meeting. They were then concentrated in the Moscow Officers Club and restricted from going out.
At the same time, within the State Security Committee, Comrade Beria personally issued an order, and the Third General Directorate, also known as the Border Guard General Directorate, sent an observation group to the Karelian Border Guard Command, ostensibly to inspect the defense deployment, but in fact to temporarily take over the command of the border guards there.
Although all actions are carried out in secret, it is always difficult to conceal the terrifying waves beneath the calm surface. Therefore, well-informed people can always get the news in advance.
In order to avoid suspicion and to ensure his own safety, Yuri did not return to his residence that night. He convened the four vice-chairmen of the Supervisory Committee for consultations overnight, listened to their opinions, and arranged the investigation of the entire case.
Finally, after consultations, Shkiriatov was appointed head of the investigation team for the Leningrad case.
The leader of this investigation team has enormous power. During the investigation of the case, he has the power to command the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Security Council, and even has the power to mobilize the military with authorization.
Because they only have an anonymous complaint letter, the Supervisory Committee does not know much about the specific situation in Leningrad. Therefore, after the investigation team arrives in Leningrad, they will first start with Kapustin and Razukin. The former is the second secretary of the Leningrad Municipal Party Committee, while Razukin is the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Leningrad. At the same time, he also serves as the director of the counting committee of the Party Congress. Leningrad falsified the votes at the party organization meeting, and at least Razukin could not get rid of the connection.
The reason why Yuri agreed to appoint Shkiryatov as the head of the investigation team was not only because he was the vice chairman of the Supervisory Committee, but also because this person was very close to the Malenkov and Beria group, and it could even be said that he was one of them.
Although it is still unclear who is the driving force behind the storm in Leningrad, Yuri has reason to believe that everything is related to Malenkov and others. This is their counterattack against the Zhdanov group. After forbearing for so long, they finally couldn't help but launch it.
As a newcomer in the core of Moscow's power, Yuri's current position is somewhat detached. This detachment does not mean that his power exceeds that of others, but that on the surface, he has no connection with any party and no conflict with any party.
Just as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection made specific arrangements for the investigation of the case, Yuri, who was the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, suddenly received a call from the Kremlin before nine o'clock the next morning, that is, before the opening of the plenary meeting of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. During the call, Comrade Stalin once again asked about the investigation arrangements for the Leningrad case. At the same time, he asked Yuri for an opinion, that is, whether Comrade Andrianov was suitable to serve as the First Secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Committee and the First Secretary of the Leningrad Municipal Committee.
Andrianov refers to Vasily Mikhailovich Andrianov, who is also relatively young. He was born in 1902 and joined the party in 1924. He had previously served as secretary of the Stalingrad Provincial Party Committee and first secretary of the Sverdlov Provincial and Municipal Party Committee. He is an experienced comrade.
But the problem is that there is still someone who is the first secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Committee and the Municipal Committee. Comrade Popkov is young, strong and energetic... Therefore, when Yuri heard Comrade Stalin's question, he understood what he meant. In Comrade Stalin's opinion, Popkov has problems and he is no longer suitable to continue to hold his current position.
In other words, Comrade Stalin was implicitly expressing his view that the problems in Leningrad were not limited to the Leningrad City Party Committee organization, but that the entire Leningrad Oblast had problems.
