"That's not enough." The Russians continued, "In the summer of 1937, Stalin restored in the army the system of political commissars, which had been abolished by Lenin long before the end of the civil war. The reason for the political commissar of military commanders in civil wars. Mainly because the Soviet revolutionary regime could not fully trust these military commanders: most of them were old officers in the tsarist army not so long ago. And now, the composition of the officers has completely changed, they were all raised and educated under Soviet power, and Stalin has given them political commissars, clearly showing his distrust of these officers. What is more, Stalin used the same means against the enemy to destroy them. It is now difficult to understand whether Stalin's frenzied purge of Red Army officers was due to the fact that he never trusted them in the first place, or whether he thought that they could no longer be trusted. In short, the arrest of a large number of officers has sharply reduced the prestige of military commanders in the troops, and accordingly, there has been a lack of discipline and low morale in the army, which can no longer be called a powerful military force. If your country took advantage of this opportunity to attack the Soviet Union, there would undoubtedly be a great victory. ”

The Chinese only smiled at the suggestion made by the Russians, and instead of answering, he nodded and signaled the other party to continue.

"In August 1937, the bloody wind of purging Red Army officers reached Spain. Many Soviet officers who served as advisers in the General Headquarters of the Spanish Republican Army were recalled to the USSR by Voroshilov and executed without any trial. Among them were the brigade commanders Kolev and Varua (their pseudonyms in Spain), who helped the Spanish political axe in the creation of the Republican Army, and the commander of the Soviet tank brigade, Golev, who was an adviser to the commander of the Madrid Front and was responsible for the entire defense of Madrid. Jan, who was once Voroshilov's best friend and drinking companion? Berzin was also killed, the chief military adviser to the Spanish political axe, under the pseudonym 'Grishen'. ”

"Ironically, two days before Golev's arrest, there was a solemn ceremony in the Kremlin where Kalinin personally placed a medal of Lenin on his hands in recognition of his exploits in the Spanish Civil War."

"This detail you just said shows that even your members of the Politburo Standing Committee don't know who is blacklisted. Only two people decided on this list and other similar matters - Stalin and Yezhov. When the Chinese heard this, the look of surprise on their faces did not subside, "If there is any reason why Stalin eliminated the old Bolsheviks in order to protect himself, then it is simply incomprehensible that he destroyed his own army, shook the pillars of his own regime, and eliminated the excellent generals he personally selected and appointed." ”

"I know that among foreign envoys in Moscow there is a widespread talk about 'madmen in the Kremlin'. It is believed that only a person with a nervous disorder, only a person who suffers from a persecution mania, would do such a strange and cruel thing. However, none of them were right, and this free-wheeled reader was not crazy. As soon as the full inside story of Tukhachevsky's case is revealed, the whole world will understand: Stalin knows exactly what he did. The Russian said.

"I had tried my best to understand the details of the Tukhachevsky tragedy, and I especially wanted to know what the marshal and his comrades-in-arms said in court. I have met many friends and acquaintances who have come to Spain on assignments, and who, from the point of view of their duties, should have known the details of this trial, because the task of interrogating and guarding the accused was, as a rule, carried out by them. However, when I asked about the Tuchevsky case, they shrugged: they had not even heard of the trial until the newspapers announced that the Red Army generals had been arrested and shot. ”

"It wasn't until October 1937 that I got what I wanted to know from Szpiegel Glyas. It turned out that no court trial was organized for Tukhachevsky and seven of his comrades-in-arms, who were secretly shot on Stalin's orders. It can be inferred from the panicked behavior of the leaders alone. At that time, it was suddenly announced that all passes to enter and leave the Kremlin were invalid, and our troops were put on alert! As Frinovsky said: 'The whole country is in a moment of life and death', and it is not possible to try and then shoot, as in normal times, but to kill them first and then the court to give a verdict! ”

"After Tukhachevsky and others were executed, Yezhov summoned several high-ranking generals such as Marshal Budyonny and Marshal Bryucher to a meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He informed them of Tukhachevsky's 'conspiracy' and asked them to sign the pre-prepared 'court verdict'. These involuntary "judges" had to sign, knowing full well that if they did not sign they would be immediately arrested and become Tukhachevsky's 'accomplices'. ”

"I would like to ask, since the generals who signed the fake verdict knew that Tukhachevsky and others were shot without trial, could Stalin tolerate these insiders continuing to live in the world?" Hearing this, the Chinese asked again.

"Your question is very good, Stalin answered your question with practical actions." The Russian smiled bitterly and said, "After using the names of these high-ranking generals to formally cover up the crime of killing Tukhachevsky and others." Stalin could not wait to turn his guns on the heads of these judges. Obviously, their only 'crime' was to know about Stalin's dirty crimes. In less than a year, the 'judges' who 'tried' Marshal Tukhachevsky were arrested and shot one after another. They are the commander of the Air Force, Marshal Arksness, the commander of the Siberian Military District, Marshal Bryukhel, the commander of the Leningrad Military District, the commander of the Leningrad Military District, the commander of the Belarusian Military District, Belov, and the commander of the Transcaucasian Military District Kashlin. No charges have been brought against them, nor have they been tried of any kind. They were immediately suppressed. I think you understand that when I use the word 'repression' here, I take the most direct and dangerous meaning of the word. ”

"Among the 'judges' who 'tried' Tukhachevsky, only two survived, namely Marshal Budyonny and Shaposhnikov. Budyonny was a non-commissioned officer in the Cossack army of Tsarist Russia in the past and later participated in the revolution. Already during the Civil War, he became Stalin's confidant and drinking companion. This man is very thick-skinned and not good at talking, but he is good at drinking and hunting women, especially his female secretaries. ”

"Budyonny, with a big beard and a small brain, hehe." The Chinese smiled, "For such a Budyonny, of course, Stalin has no need to worry and be wary." He thought for a moment and asked, "Alexander?" What about Egorov? It's been a long time since we've heard from him. ”

"Stalin, in his falsification of the history of the civil war in order to disparage Trotsky and highlight himself, repeatedly turned to Egorov to act as an 'impartial' witness for him. Stalin had four drinking friends who met regularly. Egorov was one of them. Their gatherings were usually held in Budyonny's dacha instead of Stalin. Having become the supreme reader, Stalin rejected almost all such flattery from his old friends, but his friendship with Egorov remained the same. Moreover, Stalin and Egorov were still referred to as 'you', as if they were confidants. So, when Stalin began to massacre the top Red Army generals in a systematic manner, none of us 'well-informed' people could have imagined that this butcher's knife would be cut at Egorov. ”

"In the summer of 1937, a good friend of mine returned to Spain after a vacation at home. He was very close to Yegorov's daughter, so he knew Yegorov very well. He told me such a strange thing. ”

"After getting rid of Tukhachevsky, Stalin advised Yegorov to occupy the deceased's luxurious dacha. But Yegorov shook his head and refused: "No need, thank you!" I'm a bit superstitious...... 'he didn't think that Stalin would spare neither the cautious nor the superstitious. At the end of 1938, Yegorov was abruptly dismissed from his post as Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and disappeared forever. ”

"Missing......" Chinese nodded and didn't ask any more.

After this purge, there were few high-ranking generals left in the Red Army, but Stalin refused to give up, and he ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to continue to arrest middle and high-ranking cadres of the army one after another. This is a special precautionary reference that he has taken. Stalin believed that the high-ranking officers who had escaped the repression would not forget the tragic death of their comrades, and would always fear that the same would happen to them. In Stalin's words, this state of mind is an 'unhealthy mood'. And to get rid of this 'unhealthy mood', Stalin believed that there was only one way to do it - to cut down the grass and eradicate it. ”

"It's not just about the military. This wave of lawless terror has swept across the country and in every field. It's not manageable. The scariest thing about this wave is that no one knows what's going on. The victims of the new wave of repression are no longer the party opposition that they once had. Rather, there were some people who contributed to Stalin's seizure of power, and many of them were even his closest comrades-in-arms. Rumors of a 'madman in the Kremlin' have penetrated deep into the ranks and masses inside and outside the party. ”

"Who do you know of Stalin's 'own people' who have been killed?" The Chinese asked.

"In the second half of 1937 and in 1938, the repressed important officials of the Soviet political axe — dare I say they never participated in any faction against Stalin — were: People's Commissar of the Ministry of Heavy Industry Memilauk, People's Commissar of the Ministry of Finance Glinko, Deputy People's Commissars Chernov and Yakovlev, People's Commissar of the Ministry of Trade Weitzel, People's Commissar of Posts and Telecommunications Khalepsky, People's Commissar of the Ministry of Defense Industry Pushmovich, People's Commissar of the Ministry of Justice Krylenko, People's Commissar of the Ministry of State Farms Karmanovich, People's Commissar of the Ministry of Education Brenov, People's Commissar of the Ministry of Water Transport Yang Song, Yenukitze, Akulov and Winshricht, three former chairmen of the All-Union Central Executive Committee, Governor of the State Bank Mariyashin, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Antipov, Deputy People's Commissar of the Ministry of Heavy Industry Serebrovsky, Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Trade Elieva, Politburo Commissars Koshur and Luzutak. All of these people were loyal to Stalin, and I dare say that they did not understand to the death of Stalin why Stalin wanted them to arrest them, and why he had to kill them. ”

"We can already see how crazy Stalin was in destroying his loyal comrades-in-arms and destroying his own state apparatus." The Chinese nodded.

"What I just told you is only some of the Soviet political axe members and Politburo members who were killed. As for important officials who have been repressed in Ukraine, Belarus and other union republics. It's just too many to count. In addition to those who were shot, many people committed suicide, such as the chairman of the Ukrainian political axe, Lyubchenko, the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, Chervyakov, and so on. In fact, by the end of 1937, the People's Commissariat of the USSR and other national institutions were left without a leader. All industrial and mining enterprises are in a state of semi-paralysis. Everywhere there is a demand for a new executive leader, a new manager, a factory director. Stalin, however, did not dare to use the surviving old cadres of the Central Committee, because they had some dealings with the purged cadres in the past. The exigencies of the situation forced Stalin to go the way of indiscriminate refill, and many of those who, under normal circumstances, would not even be qualified to be ordinary clerks, were now suddenly promoted to head important state institutions, and even to head a ministry. ”

"As an example, I would like to cite one more thing that I know that can be called first-hand. One evening, two representatives of the Party Central Committee suddenly arrived at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Trade. They asked the dean and members of the party committee to recommend two politically reliable college students who were also qualified for 'leadership positions'. After a meeting, the party committee of the academy proposed two people, one named Chivyarev, and the name of the other I forget. The two deputies asked the dean to send the two college students to report to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee as soon as possible. Two days later, when the teachers and students of the institute opened the newspaper they had just received, they were so shocked that they could not believe their eyes: the newspaper was published with a political axe announcement appointing Chivyarev as People's Commissar of Foreign Trade! But this Chivyarev was not long ago a very ordinary clerk of the Soviet Union's commercial agency in Germany. Another university student also became a member of the political axe - became the people's commissar of another ministry. ”

"It is well known that the Caucasus is the homeland where Stalin grew up. However, the leaders of the republics of the region did not escape Stalin's bloody repression. He knew all the leaders there and knew that they were especially disgusted with him, because they knew his past well. He had to 'get rid of' them before they remembered to write their memoirs. This task fell to the former head of the Transcaucasian Internal Affairs Sub-Directorate, the then secretary of the Central Committee of the Transcaucasian Party Ravlenty? Beria's shoulders. ”

"June 1938. Stalin with the most famous old Bolshevik Budu in Transcaucasia? The nearly twenty-year 'duel' between the Muddivani has finally come to an end. Moodyvani was the chairman of the Georgian Soviet Political Axe and had known Stalin since childhood. He was one of the first to see through Stalin's ambitions to usurp power. The 'duel' between them began long before Lenin was alive, in the early twenties. At that time, Moodywani often quarreled with Stalin, and Lenin sided with Moodyvani almost every time. ”

"When the interrogators sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to persuade him to slander himself and other Georgian leaders with false confessions, Moodivani replied: 'You want me to believe Stalin's promise that he will not harm the old Bolsheviks, right?' Let me tell you, I have known Stalin for thirty years. He won't be at ease if he doesn't slaughter all of us, from nursing children to blind old ladies! Mudiwani refused to slander himself and died at gunpoint. ”

"Terrible." Listening to the Russians' story, the Chinese let out a heavy sigh, "Only the Bolshevik totalitarian regime can give birth to such a madman, and when Bolshevism spread to our country, many such madmen were born in our country, but fortunately, thanks to the effective handling of the political axe, it did not cause such a monstrous disaster." ”

"I think the reason why there are no such madmen in China is because the Chinese people woke up early." "To put it mildly," the Russian said, "I don't think the Chinese political axe has done a very good job of stopping the spread of Bolshevism, and of course, as an Asian country that is close to the United States in terms of system, it is inevitable that such a situation will appear in China." ”

"Do you know why the Soviet Union is in chaos now, and Germany is still ally with it?" The Chinese asked.

"Germany and the Soviet Union could not have become an alliance in any respect, but now the alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union is about to become a reality." "However, I do not think that this reality cannot be understood from another point of view," the Russian replied. Because from a geographical point of view, Germany and the Soviet Union need a stable rear if they want to break the yoke of Britain and France, and the Soviet Union wants to recover the lost territory from China, and from this point of view, Germany and the Soviet Union have common interests, so it is not difficult to understand that the two countries are aligned. You know, Mr. Strassell, like Stalin, was very realistic in many cases. They can all remove any obstacle for their own benefit. ”

"If Germany and the Soviet Union form an alliance, the Soviet Union will have no worries about the future, and will go all out to develop eastward and attack our country." A look of worry flashed in the Chinese's eyes, "This is not good news

(To be continued)