The first update

The abolition of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has always aroused the dissatisfaction of certain vested interests, and the chairman of the KGB, Kryuchkov, is the most subtle, and the relationship between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB is very mysterious, even in Beria's time, when the name was still the KGB or an organization subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

However, the owner of the Lubyanka was not so easily captured, and he went to Yanayev's Kremlin apartment to argue with the General Secretary of the Soviet Union in an attempt to get him to preserve the traditions of the CPSU's Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he did not want to disperse the power firmly in his hands among the various departments. And then let the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs go from being high up in power to being ministries that enjoy only certain special powers.

"The tradition in the Soviet Union is that there is a functional department that can firmly monitor and control the behavior of everyone, and reducing the power of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is undoubtedly a wrong choice." Kryuchkov's deeper words are that you, General Secretary, are actually going down to the KGB.

But Yanayev's determination to cut the Ministry of Internal Affairs could not be denied by him in a few words, and in the Kremlin's leader's apartment, Yanayev, sitting on the sofa, refuted Kryuchkov's views on the spot.

"Yes. From the Cheka to the General Directorate of Political Defense, to the NKVD, its functions have included our current Ministry of Public Security, State Security, Ministry of Justice and the armed forces, which integrate political defense, domestic counter-espionage, foreign intelligence, and social security, and gradually evolved into a huge organization, managing labor camps, directly subordinate internal affairs troops, and even branches sent by the Soviet Red Army! ”

Yanayev stared at Kryuchkov, and he said word by word. "The rights of one sector even cover all aspects. Anyone would be wary of this department. Although the Ministry of the Interior actually belongs to the Council of Ministers. But if the Council of Ministers is not held by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the KGB, they will take the Council of Ministers into account? I'm afraid that only our colleagues in the political-political bureau can suppress your arrogance, right? ”

From Andropov to Go-Erba-Chev, and now Yanayev, almost all of them are working for the balance of power, starting with the reduction of the KGB's right to supervise the people, and now further decentralizing certain powers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is like a victim precisely dismembered with a scalpel, step by step from a stout strong man to a wretched worm who has lost his limbs.

Still, Yanayev kept the most basic for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Maintain social stability and unity in the country. In this regard, instead of curtailing the powers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yanayev expanded their powers.

"But without a strong department to oversee and lead the rest of the department, it's easy to make it difficult to get things done." Kryuchkov said that he was trying to change Yanayev's mind with his words.

"So you're saying it's good for me to keep a department that could carry out a coup d'état at any time? Comrade Kryuchkov? Yanayev chuckled and shook his head, as if he were telling a joke to Kryuchkov.

"Do you remember what I told you earlier? We don't need democracy and freedom, because those are lies concocted by despicable and shameless politicians in the West. In the same way, we do not need the centralized rule that has developed under the pretext of national security, because the concentration of power will lead to terrible political struggles. IMHO, you can look at how many of the successive government leaders of the USSR were elected to power? Stalin killed Trotsky, and Khrushchev got Beria in a coup d'état. And he himself was put to an end by his dear student Brezhnev. Gor-Bachev was a little luckier, after all, Andropov and Chernenko died one after the other. Only then did he have a chance to come to power. ”

Yanayev did not mind telling Kryuchkov about this: "At the beginning, I did not limit myself to the post of general secretary for more than eight years, that is, in order to prevent the pros and cons of the life of the chairman, including political struggles. Now I am reforming the Ministry of the Interior, also to prevent political turmoil that will happen again, so that there can be a smooth transfer and transition of power. ”

"But Comrade Yanayev, how are you going to supervise the party and the hostile elements after that?" Kryuchkov asked.

"The ideological-intellectual-morphological struggle is no longer the main factor, economic development is the most important thing in the Soviet Union. Do you still notice that posters of reaching American imperialism are put up everywhere now? Those things are long gone. Yanayev's deliberate downplay of the political struggle does not mean that the Soviet Union is not wary of the United States, which will always be the evil empire in Yanayev's heart.

"And although there are occasional political frictions with the West, we have also accelerated the transformation of the economic market. Not only did it restore the measures of Lenin's NEP to some extent, but it also modified the shortcomings of the Stalinist system. Although for a moment, it is not obvious what they have achieved. ”

Yanayev's approach was more inclined to state control of the economic lifeline and then reform the market economy. The vast majority are modeled after China's reform system. It is much better to control the political situation than to be taken over by the oligarchs.

"So, the same Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB have very different functions than before. It's more important for you now to focus on homeland security. In particular, the rise of extremism and national separatism in the Russian member states should be all the more vigilant in this regard. ”

"So Comrade Kryuchkov, now you know why I am trying to weaken the power and functions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs?" Yanayev put his hands on his knees and looked at Kryuchkov, who was silent in front of him. It has already been said that the Ministry of the Interior is now the function of homeland security, and as for other important tasks such as ideology, ideology, form, and form, they have been entrusted to the Soviet Propaganda Department and the Central Committee, the Central Committee, and the Secretaries-Secretaries-Division, and they no longer have to worry about these things.

Kryuchkov knew that there was no point in dwelling on it any longer, so he simply chose to respect Yanayev's decision. My instinct told me that going against the general secretary would not end well.

"Farewell, General Secretary Yanayev." Kryuchkov got up and left after saying to Yanayev, and after the weakening of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there was no doubt that the KGB would be next, and Yanayev would never want to have a department in the country that could challenge authority.

"GRU." Yanayev whispered, as the intelligence department of the General Staff of the army, Yanayev also began to have ideas about this department. Although these intelligence agencies, which are outside the ministry, have always been unpopular and unwelcome, that is why Marshal Beria has been present in the People's Security Council, while the GRU has only had General Berzin.

The GRU, also known as the All-Union Military Intelligence Directorate, was initially responsible for the military intelligence of the Soviet army. It contributed much to the Soviet Union in the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, but on a much smaller scale than the State Security Council. The biggest difference between the two is that the GRU plays a greater role at the military level, while the KGB plays a greater role in maintaining the country's political order, but their authority is also higher than that of the GRU. And most importantly, the KGB was to some extent subordinate to the government, and the GRU was subordinate to the military intelligence apparatus of the General Staff of the Soviet Army.

It is clear that the GRU was also used by Yanayev to distract the power departments of the KGB, especially the Main Directorate of the Border Guards, which was well known to have a large number of border guards. The Main Directorate of the Border Guards heads the Border Military District, the Border Troops and the Outposts. Although the headquarters of the border troops is small, the total number of border guards exceeds 220,000. For a large country like the USSR, which had long borders, this was the minimum amount allowed by real needs.

At the end of the eighties, Kryuchkov wrote to Go-Bachev, telling him that he urgently needed to expand the border guards, improve their material conditions, and increase their financial inputs. Border guards already account for half of the total budget expenditures of the National Security Council, and a considerable part of them is used for updating or maintaining the borders for technical equipment, military technical weapons, construction of target facilities, communications, and payment of salaries to major units.

The removal of the Border Guard Service from the rubyanka and its subordination to the GRU means that the budget of the National Security Council will probably be cut in half, and the powers of the KGB will be cut in half. Because Yanayev's previous disarmament actions also made those in the Soviet General Staff Office complain, and the expansion of the GRU's functional authority can be used to silence these people. See, Moscow doesn't treat the GRU as an outsider. So on the issue of disarmament, you'd better give me some pause.

"In this way, the ideal equilibrium has finally been reached, and the reduction of KGB power should be long, not radical in the short term."

After the abolition of the Border Service, the KGB finally returned to a relatively safe level for Yanayev. At least like the CIA in the United States, it has rights, but not enough to reach a position above the party.

After writing down a series of names on paper, Yanayev put aside his pen and placed the list on one side of the table. In addition to Kryuchkov and Pugo, there were Comrade Sergei of the 1st Main Directorate, Comrade Slitchenkov. As a three-member group of the current KGB, their power to call the wind and rain in the government can be described as not small.

In the past, Yanayev relied on the hands of the KGB in his actions against government corruption, but Yanayev was also worried about corruption and bureaucratic problems within the KGB, so Yanayev chose to ignore and compromise with some KGB officials during the purge.

And after gradually consolidating his power, Yanayev finally won the opportunity to rectify. He wanted to let the entire Soviet system know that no one had authority over the party. (To be continued.) )