Struggle in Soviet Russia

In Comrade Serov’s office, Victor was sitting on the sofa with his elbows on his knees, clenching his fists against his chin, and looking at the map placed on the small table in front of him with his eyes.

"Now, the situation is like this," Serov personally poured two cups of tea and brought them, placing one of them in front of Victor, and said, "Since the outbreak of the war, the losses in several large-scale battles have been too great. There is a serious shortage of troops. The People’s Committee of National Defense has accepted the proposal of the General Staff, and will transfer several divisions from the Siberian side to supplement Moscow’s peripheral defense lines. As for the Far East, considering the threat from the Japanese, the Red Flag Far East Not only cannot the relevant troops be mobilized, but they also need to be strengthened. Therefore, the General Staff is also very embarrassed."

The map in front of Victor is the current overall situation of the Soviet-German battlefield. From this map alone, you know how bad the situation the Soviet army is currently facing. In just one month of the war, the alliance has lost almost all of Belarus. , The whole of Western Ukraine and the vast areas of the Baltic Sea coast.

Of course, the loss of the country is still secondary. The main reason is that the loss of military strength is too serious. The loss of nearly a million troops will hurt everyone. If such a large loss is thrown on the Japanese, It is estimated that they will surrender.

"Comrade Beria has fought against the People's Committee for National Defense, hoping that the internal guards can become independent combat units to participate in the war, and he even hopes that the border guards can do the same," Serov said, sitting on the sofa opposite, "but was The National Defense People's Committee rejected it. Of course, I actually don't support this proposal. After all, the war is tense now. Except for the German invasion, everything else is secondary. If you think about it too much, it will be detrimental to the country. "

Victor is not easy to comment on this kind of thing. He can't always say that he doesn't support Comrade Beria's position, right? Although Serov treated him well and valued him very much, he would not confess his thoughts to others stupidly.

In fact, in Beria, Victor has already seen the relevant resolutions of the People’s Committee of National Defense. Regarding the issue of the People’s Committee of the Interior, the NPC’s order is: All in order to win the war, all obey the needs of the war, this is the most important thing. Basic principles. Of course, as the NKVD, Beria is not without gain. As a representative of the NKVD, he has also become a member of the NKVD.

"In order to better serve the war, the People’s Committee for National Defense decided after discussion and decision," Serov put a thick document on the map and pushed it in front of Victor, saying, "During the war, the People’s Committee of the Interior In addition to the various tasks of the period, it should also take on the functions of civil air defense, military service registration, guarding military warehouses and other important facilities, placement and screening of evacuees, and anti-spyware. Taking into account the actual situation, after discussion by the committee, Comrade Beria tends to follow the model of base camp representatives and establish a'special committee' within the committee. The members of the special committee are responsible for the work related to the combat direction of all fronts."

He paused. He looked at Victor, who was calm, and said, "I have recommended it to Comrade Beria, and he also agreed. You will be responsible for the security committee of the Western Front."

After hearing this, Victor wanted to stand up and thank him, but Serov waved his hand to stop him.

"Today, this special committee has a limited number of people, including Comrade Beria, me, Comrade Merkulov, Comrade Kruglov, etc., plus you, there are only nine people in total," Serov continued. " Although the number is small, the responsibilities are heavy, especially for the Western Front, Southwest Front, Southern Front, and Leningrad. There is a lot of work that needs to be arranged immediately."

Opening the document in front of him, he motioned to Victor to read it, and at the same time continued: "First of all, the establishment of prisoner-of-war camps and prisoner-of-war transfer camps must be the first priority. The escape phenomenon of prisoners of war must be strictly prevented; The establishment of the Melsa squad, the National Defense People’s Committee’s recommendation is that 30 to 40 Smersa squads need to be set up in each direction. A platoon system can be adopted, with a squadron headquarters for every ten squadrons. Three to four squadrons set up a squadron headquarters."

The so-called "Smelsa squad" is the squad, and the pronunciation of smelsa in Russian is Smelsa.

Victor saw the document in front of him. According to the provisions in the document, the members of Smelsa squad must select elite soldiers or agents. They are mainly responsible for the rear activities on the front line, and the targets are spies, saboteurs and separatists. There are also traitors who preach the doctrine of defeat and the doctrine of subjugation. The person in charge of each squadron has the authority to impose a sentence of not more than five years in prison on a suspect; the squadron headquarters has the right to impose penalties on suspects in exile and the same level of imprisonment; the brigade headquarters has the right to impose penalties on suspects. Make a shooting sentence.

From this perspective, the power of these Smelsa squadrons is indeed great. Of course, this also reflects a problem from the side, that is, in the rear of the front and within the Soviet-controlled area, related espionage and sabotage activities. It has reached the point where it is rampant, and the People's Committee for National Defense has already abhorred it.

"Furthermore, the members of the various fronts must organize as many motorized task forces as possible and deploy them to the enemy's rear," Serov continued. The hard and fast rule can be a team of a few people, or a team of a dozen or more than 20 people, and even arrange independent missions to infiltrate. In short, we must play our due role in guerrilla operations behind enemy lines."

It wasn't until this time that Victor suddenly realized that he seemed to have forgotten to take notes. Damn it. How could he not take notes in the face of the leadership's work arrangements?

Quickly took out a small notebook and a pen from the pocket of the uniform, and put them directly on his knees, and Victor began to take notes seriously.

"The final issue is the relocation of labor camps in various directions, the establishment of military service registration stations, and the construction of transit camps for retreating troops." Unfortunately, Comrade Serov seemed to be about to finish talking. He finally added, "You should have experience in these tasks. No need for me to add more."

Reaching out, picking up the documents on the desk, and placing them directly on Victor's lap, that meant telling him that there was no need to memorize them, and the entire document could be taken away.

"There is a lot of work to be done, and it is very cumbersome. You need to solve the problems of personnel, weapons and equipment, especially the ideological problems of personnel," took a cigarette and handed it over. Serov smiled and said in a slow tone. "Don’t make a joke like Comrade Amayak Zakharovich."

Victor's mouth twitched, and he wondered, Comrade Kobrov should be able to feel Serov's malice, right? After all, his younger brother has become the latter's joking stalk, and he will bring it up to mention it from time to time.

Of course, Victor also knew that the task he took over this time was very heavy, and the burden was heavy, but for people in official careers, the heavier the task and the heavier the burden, the more it means that the future is boundless and the promotion is in sight. Moreover, as Serov said, once he went to the Western Front, he would be a member of the "special committee" of the NKVD. In this subordinate committee, there were only nine people including Beria, then With Victor being one of them, does it mean that he is already ranked in the top ten in the NKVD? Calculated in this way, he should not be far from being promoted to the junior inspector of national security, right?

"Well, Comrade Victor Viktorovich, now you tell me, do you have the confidence to do this job?" Serov seemed to see that he was distracted, so he coughed slightly and asked.

"Yes, I have the confidence to do this job well," Victor nodded subconsciously.

Serov smiled, got up and went back to the desk, took out a red box and a document-like thing from the drawer, and returned to the sofa.

"Here are your medals and archives," Serov said with a smile when he handed the things to Victor. "The General Political Department originally planned to arrange a ceremony for you and the people who gave honors at the same time, but Beria Comrades refused for you. Haha, you should also understand that we are a special department. Too high profile is not a good thing for you. Previously, the General Staff Headquarters used arbitrarily without the consent of Comrade Beria. After posting your photo in the "Red Star", Comrade Beria has been annoyed to come to Comrade Stalin to file a complaint, so you can rest assured that this kind of thing will not happen again in the future."

After all, the NKVD is a special organization that integrates national security, espionage, and public order. As one of the important members of this department, Victor's personal image should not appear in newspapers. However, the General Staff has always been at odds with the NKVD. When they published Victor’s image in the newspaper, they did not even consider asking the NKVD’s opinions. The Ministry’s status is relatively high. It has previously robbed a lot of resources from the People’s Committee of the Interior, such as the command power of the internal security forces, the command power of the border guards, military intelligence agencies, and so on.

"For these two days, now in Moscow, take a good rest," Serov chatted with him again, and until the end, he told Victor, "And that... Lieutenant Nino, is this the name? We are in Moscow with her. Turn around, two days later, the committee will arrange several assistants to go to Vyazma with you, and the committee has new arrangements for Lieutenant Nino."