Struggle in Soviet Russia

At No. 23 Gogol Boulevard, Victor’s car slowly parked in front of this four-story imperial-Russian building, on the front stairs of 20 knots. Six soldiers with live ammunition were in charge of the security work here, and at the main entrance of the building. Above, the logo of the People’s Committee for National Security has been hung.

Victor got out of the car and looked up at the building. Although the appearance was a bit old, it didn't matter if it was the office.

Climbing up the stairs, when he reached the last step, the sergeant in charge of the class shouted: "Salute!" The six guards saluted in unison.

Victor paid the guards a salute, and stepped quickly into the building.

The building has obviously been re-arranged, at least the walls have been painted. Compared to the outside, the inside of the building looks very new. The most important thing is that the floor is luxuriously carpeted. What is even more surprising is that this old building An elevator was installed in the old building.

Just as Victor walked into the building, the elevator door opened wide, and a tall young man came out of the elevator and greeted him with a smile on his face.

"Hey, Victor, welcome back." The young man is Fitin. Although he is already in his thirties, he is well maintained and looks much younger than his actual age.

"Pavel," Victor smiled after hugging him, "It's really good, at least it's better than I thought."

He was talking about the layout of the building. Feijing obviously spent a lot of thought. Moreover, it is not easy to get some funding at this time of war.

"While you can still use the funds of the NKVD, of course you have to find a way to spend more," Feijing patted Victor's chest with the back of his hand, and laughed in a low voice, "You don't know, I'll call Kobrov. When asking for funds, his face went dark, ha!"

Victor chuckled and praised: "It's not easy for you to get money out of Kobrov's hands."

"It's not that easy," Feijing said, "I've brought the lawsuit to Comrade Stalin. If there is no reply from Comrade Stalin, how could someone like Kobrov give me a good face?"

"Okay," he changed the subject and said, "Your office is on the third floor. I will show you to it. If there is anything missing, I will make arrangements for you."

Today, Feijing is the chief steward of the National Security People’s Committee. He is not only in charge of personnel work, but also in charge of finance and logistics.

During this period, many people wanted to come to the People's Committee of National Security, and some of their relationships even went to Comrade Zhdanov. However, Serov was a diehard, and people who didn't agree with him wanted to come in and couldn't pass his hurdle at all. As for Comrade Stalin...someone must be able to unblock the relationship to him.

Riding the elevator up to the third floor, Fitin led Victor to his office.

One of the characteristics of the architecture of the imperial Russia period is that it has a large space and a high roof. A room is made like a palace, and the roof is often decorated with gorgeous carvings. Victor's office is like this.

Victor’s office is very spacious, about the size of six of his original office. I don’t know where Feijing collected office appliances, such as desks, bookcases, and sofas. They all looked at it. Antique, completely in the style of the old Russian period.

"How about it, are you satisfied?" Feijing stood on the soft carpet in the office, spread his arms slightly, and smiled at Victor.

"This is a bit too luxurious, isn't it?" Victor said, looking around.

"The work must be done well, and the working conditions must be good enough," Feijing came over, patted him on the shoulder, and smiled. "Don't worry, Comrade Stalin approved it. All the decorations here are He approved it personally."

"Oh?" Victor was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect to even ask Comrade Stalin in his office.

"Comrade Stalin's opinion is that if you can do a good job, you should enjoy better treatment," Feijing said in a low voice, "If you do not do well, he will also let you go to the toilet to work. Therefore, intelligence work must be done. We must hurry up, the committee department is newly established, and we have to come up with one or two achievements that will satisfy Comrade Stalin."

This guy really belonged to Comrade Stalin, and Victor nodded his head while thinking silently in his heart.

"I have some thoughts on the work of the Committee for a period of time in the future," Feijing asked him to sit down on the sofa and said, "I have discussed with Comrade Serov before, and he basically agrees with my views."

Victor's expression was focused, listening to everything he said.

Feijing means the main function of the National Security People’s Committee, which is internal and external intelligence work. At the same time, the work of the Anti-Spy Bureau is also the focus.

At present, the committee department has just been established, and the huge intelligence network taken over from the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, the Intelligence Bureau of the Academy of Sciences, and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau of the People's Committee of the Interior needs to face an integration problem. In the past, the two large and one small and three foreign intelligence agencies were not under the control of each other, lacking cooperation with each other, and their respective work was actually separated.

Now, they have all merged under the banner of the People’s Committee of National Security, and they have become a large-scale foreign intelligence agency. The complexity of their work has undoubtedly increased a lot. This has also brought a certain degree of follow-up work to the development. difficulty.

According to Feijing, there are nearly 40,000 staff members of the entire foreign intelligence agency, not counting domestic personnel, but only personnel from various branches abroad. This refers to the registered personnel, that is, the official intelligence personnel. Those informants and peripheral personnel are even more numerous.

Under such circumstances, it is inevitable for the foreign intelligence department to make some personnel changes. After all, the three departments are merged into one. Some places need to lay off staff, and some places need to increase staff, making the work more difficult.

Victor listened to him. Although there was no expression on his face, he was muttering in his heart. He felt that Comrade Fitin was interfering in his work.

However, Feijing quickly changed his mind. He mentioned that he had also presided over the foreign intelligence work for a period of time, which was when the NKVD. When he was in office, he also promoted and appointed some people, some "experienced and trustworthy" people, so he recommended these people to Victor.

Fitin gave Victor a detailed introduction to these people, and gave some comments to these people. According to him, some of these people are very qualified for his current job, and some can be more important. In the post.

Later, he lightly brought the topic to funding, saying that taking into account the complexity of intelligence work and the difficulty of personnel adjustments, the Committee Department can give more support to the Foreign Intelligence Agency in the next three months until After the personnel adjustment is completed, the funding quota is determined.

At this point, Victor fully understood what Feijing meant. The butler just told him that in the foreign intelligence service, there are some people belonging to him. Feijing hopes that Victor can continue to use these people, for those who can really do things. Yes, don't be stingy in promotion. In return, he will give more support to the Foreign Intelligence Agency on the issue of funding.

Victor did not hesitate to agree to this request made by Feijing. In his opinion, Feijing raised this question face to face as an open statement. To be honest, even if people don’t tell him this, he will not. Maybe you know who your subordinates are.

The special nature of the foreign intelligence work determines that Victor cannot make too large adjustments in personnel matters. Therefore, even if Feijing does not mention it, most of his people will not be cleared out.

Therefore, from this point of view, it is not so much that Feijing came to him for an exchange of interests, but it was people who came to make a statement: everyone will be mixed in the same department from now on, and I will not hide my affairs from you. You don't have to beware of me all day. Everyone is eager to work together to do a good job.

Speaking of it, the "Big Three" of the National Security People's Committee are still in the honeymoon period of cooperation. Considering this alone, Victor will not reject Fitin's request.

However, Victor still had an idea in his heart, that is, in the Foreign Intelligence Agency, it is very likely that Fitting not only inserted the dozens of people he said, but how could he reveal all the background to himself.

Well, this is human. No matter when it comes, that kind of absolute mutual trust is impossible. Victor is also human and not a saint. Everyday people have the same suspiciousness, and he is even more suspicious than ordinary people. A little bit more.

No way, who is not suspicious of those who do intelligence work?

"That's right, I heard that you have another residence on Lubyanka Square." When preparing to leave, Fijing seemed to think of something. He said, "Now the NKVD has The residence was put under the name of our committee department."

"Yes, it's been a while," Victor nodded.

"I think so," Feijing hesitated for a moment, and said, "Although that house has been assigned to the name of our committee department, but...there is always a bit far away from the station of the committee department, if you have no personal opinion. , I'm going to put it under the staff dormitory. In addition, I am at No. 45 on Linyin Road to make room for a new house for you. What do you think?"

"No problem," Victor smiled. "Actually, on Lubyanka's side, I have arranged for someone to move out. Now that you have a new arrangement, that would be great."

Feijing nodded, glanced at Victor, and said meaningfully: "This is the best. In the future work, we should stay as far away from Lubyanka as possible."