There was an officer standing in the door, and he was only heard repeating the phrase: "Please take off your coat, comrades commanders, please take off your coat......"

I saw that the officers in front of me had all taken off their overcoats and lined up in front of the cloakroom to store their clothes. I also took off my soldier's overcoat and walked along.

The female sergeant at the depository, when she took the coat, looked at me curiously and asked me with some hesitation: "Comrade Lieutenant, is this your coat?" ”

"That's right!" I think she asked a lot of redundant questions, and I personally handed her what it was, who else could it be, "This is the military coat I am wearing." ”

"But this is an ordinary military coat worn by a soldier, you are a lieutenant, and the rank on the coat is a sergeant. I'm afraid you're mistaken, so I'll ask. Are you sure? "She has a very friendly attitude, after all, this is a special time, and the people who can enter the Kremlin are not ordinary people.

"Oh." As it turned out, I quickly explained to her: "My dear, I came to Moscow in a hurry and did not bring any winter clothes, which I temporarily borrowed from my comrades in the hotel. ”

"Understood." She handed me a number plate, "Please keep it, this is for when you come out to pick up your clothes." Break a leg! ”

"Thank you!" After receiving the number plate, I walked briskly into the conference hall and sat down in the back row.

On the rostrum, there were several long rows of long tables covered with red tweed tablecloths. Shortly after I sat down, the members of the Bureau appeared on the stage.

At the forefront, a man in a gray uniform with all buttons attached, a pair of shiny boots with oiled on his feet, a pipe in his right hand half-raised at his waist, and a brisk step walked calmly on the rostrum, followed by a group of marshals and high-ranking generals two or three paces away.

I have seen his photos more than a thousand times, and I often see his old man imitator on Red Square in later generations, and his classic beard impresses me even more, so as soon as he appeared, I recognized him without hesitation: he is Stalin!

When Stalin appeared, everyone in the hall rose from their seats, and I was no exception, and the thunderous applause mingled with the crash of chairs flipped back.

Without too many pleasantries, after the members of the Bureau were seated, the meeting was called to order. However, it was not Stalin who presided over the meeting, but Marshal Shapostnikov, the General Staff of the Red Army. Marshal Voroshilov, whom I knew, was also on stage, but I did not see Zhukov's shadow.

My eyes never took off Stalin, seeing him sitting in the farthest row next to the Presidium. After a few minutes, he stood up, lit his pipe, and began to walk slowly behind the Presidium. He walked quietly back and forth, sometimes sitting in his distant seat for a moment, and then rising again in order to continue his slow, serene walk.

From time to time, Stalin interrupted the speakers, asked them a few questions, or wrote some brief interjections.

There was silence in the hall, but when Stalin slowed down his already slow silent footsteps, and looked intently at the speaker, or raised his pipe slightly, the silence became all the more pronounced, for everyone understood what he was going to say. At that time, the people standing on the podium involuntarily fell silent and turned to Stalin's side.

The meeting lasted several hours. One after another, the military chiefs of the various armies took the rostrum to speak, and most of their names were very unfamiliar to me, after all, I knew only famous World War II generals such as Zhukov and Chuikov, and the older generation of marshals such as Voroshilov, Timoshenko, and Budyonny.

Almost all those who spoke pointed out in unison that although the equipment and quality of our soldiers were absolutely inferior to those of the German army, the soldiers showed tenacity, and in the face of the enemy's three-dimensional attack, they still nailed themselves to their positions like nails, and did not retreat a single step until they fought to the last one. Even the generals of the Southwestern Front, who had broken through the encirclement of the Germans, were in this position.

I have no interest in listening to such clichés. As a person from later generations, I am well aware that before the outbreak of the war, the Soviet Union was very inadequately prepared for the German attack. Although he believed that the Soviet-German war was inevitable, he still wishfully fantasized about delaying the outbreak of war as much as possible. Before the war, the whole country was paralyzed and careless, and before the war, it exported a large number of strategic materials such as grain, coal, and non-ferrous metals to Germany in accordance with the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact." It was Stalin's error of judgment that made the Soviet army, although materially prepared, not spiritually prepared. The sudden outbreak of the war left many officers and men at a loss, and everything from the front headquarters to the troops at all levels fell into confusion. Mental unpreparedness, combined with the rapid offensive of the Germans, led to the rout of the Soviet army on all fronts. After the originally well-prepared material reserves were captured by the Germans, they naturally became the materials of the enemy.

The German generals had fought in Europe for many years, had rich combat experience, and knew how to form a local advantage over the Soviet army in terms of troops. Although the number of weapons of the Soviet army was large, its quality was far inferior to that of the German army, and the German army was a surprise attack, so the Soviet army's numerical advantage was not well played, so that the overall strength of the weapons was at a disadvantage, which was also one of the reasons for the defeat of the war.

What's more, a large number of experienced military chiefs were purged in the Great Purge a few years ago. Instead, a large number of low-ranking and young officers were replaced, resulting in the low military and cultural quality and lack of experience of the commanders of the Soviet army from corps to battalion, and the obsolescence and rigidity of tactical thinking, resulting in a low overall combat effectiveness of the troops. This situation can be seen in the Soviet-Finnish war: as many as a million Soviet troops attacked the Finnish army, which had only 200,000 men, but was repulsed by the Finnish army on all fronts due to poor command. Although the Soviet Union was the last to win, it paid a heavy price in casualties. The Soviets were still inferior to the Finnish army, which was far inferior to them, and even less to the German army, which was far more powerful than the Finnish army.

Although I am well aware of the reasons for the defeat of the Soviet army in the early days of the war, if I were to speak on the stage, I would take this advice as if I had been asked to jump from an airplane without a parachute. It's just an international joke, and on this occasion, there are some things that you know what is going on, but you can't say that you are killed. Rashly say it, being sent to Siberia for labor reform is quite light, if you annoy someone, it is possible to directly evaporate from the world.

Originally, I had planned to stay below until the end of the meeting, but the ensuing dispute between Admiral Konev and Shaposhnikov changed my mind.

The former commander of the Western Front, Colonel-General Konev, preached: "...... The Germans gained the initiative on the battlefield entirely by their superior strength, especially by tanks and air forces. In order to illustrate the power of the enemy's assault, I will give only one example to prove it: the enemy attacked 4 infantry divisions of the 30th Army with 20 divisions, and the enemy threw in more than 400 tanks, and the soldiers of the 30th Army showed great tenacity and had to retreat. Retreat, you know the way, is the most complex form of combat, and it requires high fighting qualities. ……”

"Come on." Shaposhnikov interrupted him, "When will your complex form of battle end, and how long will our troops retreat?" When will it be able to fight tenaciously? It's also a strategic issue for me. Brought the Red Army to the ground, and you still say that the fighters had no experience in retreating. ”

"Yes, we did not study this form of combat before the war, we were preparing to fight on the territory of the enemy,...... I don't want to argue, but on this point, we paid a huge price in the war. Konev did not back down and debated with him-for-tat.

"Oh, I see, all the mistakes you have made are my fault,...... In my opinion, the leaders of the Western Front completely lack strategic foresight and are not good at improvising and improvising to command combat troops,......"

I think General Konev's words are still very reasonable. As for Shaposhnikov, I look down on him very much. Although he had a high prestige in the Soviet army, he always clung to the concept of World War I: organize strong defensive positions with artillery and machine guns, wait for the enemy to come and break the bloodshed, and scoff at the advanced theory of armored warfare at that time. The fact is that in the face of Guderian's tank attack, the Soviet army, which lacked experience in anti-tank warfare, although armed to the teeth, still behaved helplessly and could only retreat one after another.

I took the pen and notebook of the commander next to me, and without hesitation, I wrote the words: "I request to speak", and when I wrote my rank and name, and when I wrote about my unit, I thought about it, should I write "Leningrad Front" or "Leningrad"? At the end of the day, the Leningrad Front was written. Then he tore the paper off and touched the shoulder of one of the colonels sitting in the front row with a purely mechanical gesture.

The man half-turned, glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, and then stretched a hand with five fingers open over his shoulder. Then I shoved the folded note into the general's palm.

After a minute, I realized that I had just done something stupid that I had done again: unlike most speakers, I knew the real reasons for the defeat of the Soviet army, and it was easy to say too much to lose a speech if I rashly asked to speak at such a meeting without preparing a speech in advance.

The next thought was: get the note back and don't let it reach the Bureau. I even lifted up slightly, glancing at the backs of the people sitting in front of him, trying to judge by their movements—who had been handed the moldy note in an instant. But it was all in vain! It seemed that all the people in the front row were sitting motionless, or intently taking notes.

At this point, I began to console myself with the illusion that perhaps the note had disappeared after a long journey in the middle of the rows of commanders, or that someone was busy taking notes and had left the note aside and forgot to teleport it to the front.

When I saw a tall soldier with a tightened leash and a well-trained posture popping out of the side, collecting a large pile of notes from the front row, ready to hand them over to the Presidium, I was almost completely relieved: there were so many notes asking for speeches, no one would notice my note.

Even so, I kept looking at the soldier mechanically. With a light step, the man reached for the small ladder leading to the presidium, holding the note in front of his chest. He walked a few steps, bypassing rows of seats, apparently trying to squeeze into Shaposhnikov, who was presiding over the meeting, but when he saw Stalin coming straight towards him, he hurriedly turned around, then ran a few steps back, put the note in front of a general who was sitting at the end of the table, ran down the small ladder to the stage, and disappeared. The general sorted out the notes, folded them neatly, and passed them to the people sitting next to them, and they soon reached Shaposhnikov, who was arguing.

When Stalin came to the middle of the two debaters, the argument came to an abrupt end. After Konev left the podium, Shaposhnikov looked through the pile of notes in front of him, then stood up with a frown, and handed one of them to Stalin, who was standing in front of him. Stalin took it with his left hand, which did not hold a pipe, looked at it, did not speak, then handed the note back to Shaposhnikov and nodded silently.

Then the audience heard Shaposhnikov proclaim: "Now I invite Comrade Oshanina to speak, Leningrad Front!" ”