Big Time 1958

"In view of Comrade Yuri Yefimovich Serov's outstanding sensitivity and vigilance in national security work, he is now awarded the rank of general. I hope that Comrade Serov can perform better in national security work in the future. Complete the country's tasks." Rushchev made the announcement after brief consideration.

   In this way, two years after taking over as chairman of the KGB, Serov was further awarded the rank of general by the Central Presidium of the Soviet Union. At the age of thirty-eight, he successfully broke through Khrushchev's restrictions on the ranks of the KGB and became one of the few generals. Historically, after Khrushchev stepped down, Brezhnev broke through this restriction in order to win over Semichasny and awarded Semichasny the rank of general, and later Andropov. And Serov broke through this limit during Khrushchev's tenure.

   Later, Mikoyan, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, awarded Serov the Gold Medal of Hero of the Soviet Union, the second title of Hero of the Soviet Union that Serov received, as a recognition of the outstanding acumen he showed in his work in Indonesia.

"Itvasov has reached the age of retirement. Brezhnev once proposed a new candidate for first vice-chairman, but you were not in Moscow at the time, so Comrade Khrushchev did not agree. Now you are back, The meaning of the first secretary is still up to you to decide, after all, this is the tradition of your security agency. Do you understand?" Mikoyan said earnestly after awarding the Serov medal, "Old Ivan adopted an excellent child, you are better than mine. Several kids are excellent."

  Old Ivan refers to Marshal Bagramyan, both Mikoyan and Bagramyan are Armenians. As for the children Mikoyan was talking about, it was his children. Mikoyan was a rare person among the Soviet high-level people who were full of children and grandchildren. Every time they took a family photo, they were very lively. There were nearly 20 people in their family.

   "Comrade Itvasov's retirement is the loss of our safe work, but I will choose an assistant!" Serov did not expect that when he was not in Lubyanka, Brezhnev was going to the KGB Serbs. However, Khrushchev will not allow this department to be controlled by others, so Brezhnev will not mention it a second time later.

   After returning to Lubyanka, Serov got acquainted for a few days to see if there was anything different after he left. After confirming that there was no problem, a meeting of the presidium was held. First, he praised Itvasov for his work, and then said that he had already had a candidate for the new first vice-chairman of the KGB. Lieutenant General Bobkov, as a professional anti-revolutionary worker, his ability is trustworthy. The official appointment will be announced at the National Security Conference three days later, and Comrade Itvasov will also be at the National Security Conference. Attendance, we will say goodbye to Comrade Itvasov at the conference, and hope that Comrade Itvasov can live a relaxed old age after retirement..."

   Shelov's words aroused applause, and at the same time, the new director of the General Bureau of Personnel became a young cadre he secretly cultivated. The KGB Personnel Directorate is of course very important. The reason why it has been slow to act against the Personnel Directorate is that Bobkov has good abilities and is not a subordinate of anyone. In this case, it is better for him to replace Itvasov this time than for Brezhnev to arrange for someone to come in.

At the National Security Conference a few days later, the new KGB first vice-chairman, General Philip Denisovich Bobkov, met with the country's security cadres and was given the opportunity to speak, "As a young Communist A soldier and an experienced fighter, in order to adapt to future work in the security services, I was sent to study at the "Smersh" school in Leningrad. When I first walked through the school gates, I was in time for a total solar eclipse, surrounded by It was dark. I thought to myself, "Will this be a good omen? "Of course, everyone has a different idea of ​​how a security system works, and it's often an illusory yearning from literature. After school started, it was a completely different scene - we get it. : What awaits you are the tedious daily affairs that require full effort, especially a wealth of knowledge and skilled skills.”

"Today I was nominated by Chairman Serov to become the first vice-chairman in charge of domestic security work. I am very excited. Our work is very important. There are some tedious things happening in the Soviet Union every day, even some trivial things. These things don't seem important, but if we don't deal with them, the impact will spread all over the country, so today I attended this conference with a nervous mood, I hope comrades will join me and protect this country, thank you." After Admiral Bukov finished expressing his emotion, he bowed slightly, showing good self-cultivation. The whole auditorium burst into applause.

"Khrushchev still doesn't worry about other commissars putting people in the KGB..." Brezhnev, who returned to his home, unloaded the burden, and he would not hide from Kirilenko and Chernenko's side My own opinion. A man always has a few friends, and he must also trust some people.

"What's the reason? We need our own people in this department, and Serokoff is not enough." Kirilenko thought for a while and asked, "Is the problem with Sherepin? That strong-armed man doesn't want him The area of ​​​​is infiltrated? Or is it some other reason?"

"It was Podgorny that had a problem, and that's why Khrushchev held fast to the KGB's rights, fearing that there would be a second Podgorny." Brezhnev's perspective on the problem is comparable to his Left and right hands are more tricky.

  Why did Khrushchev trust Shelepin so much? " Chernenko asked very incomprehensibly about this matter.

"Because?" Brezhnev said with a wry smile, leaning back on the sofa helplessly, "Because Sherepin is young, Khrushchev is almost seventy years old, and he and Sherepin are completely staggered in age. On the contrary, my age is more embarrassing. Fortunately, Sherepin is not like Kozlov and Podgorny, who are so close to my age, I can still deal with him slowly in the future."

   "Sooner or later we have to deal with those young people." Kirilenko took a deep breath and said to himself, "Sooner or later..."

"Serov's military rank has been raised again, and now he should be the number two among Sherepin's friends, right?" Chernenko turned to Serov's question, "I don't know that in Sherepin's eyes, Semichasny and Serov who is more important."

"It should be Serov in terms of position, and Semichasny in status. Semichasny, like Andropov, became the secretary of the Central Committee. Organizational rights are more important, and it is important to get Shelepin's people out of the Secretariat. Yes." Brezhnev actually didn't tell his two assistants about some things. Khrushchev had planned to add Serov as an alternate member of the Central Presidium after Serov returned, but he didn't know how to stop it at the time. It was Suslov's words that let Serov settle for a while, otherwise he would have a headache now.

   "Chairman, the Kremlin has asked us to evaluate this project." In Serov's office at the KGB headquarters on 11 Lubyanka Square, Servanov pushed the door in and handed in a report.

   "Let me see!" Serov took a look and his expression became very serious. This is a big project. Simply put, it is the century project carried out by the Soviet Union in history, the North-South Water Diversion. This project can be seen at a glance that it is a huge project specially made to solve the agricultural problem of the Soviet Union.

  The distribution of water resources in the Soviet Union is seriously unbalanced. The former Soviet Union is one of the countries with the most abundant freshwater resources in the world. The whole territory has been flat for many years. The average river runoff is 4,387 billion cubic meters, accounting for about 9% of the world's average annual river runoff, ranking second in the world after Brazil. The average runoff per square kilometer is only 197,000 cubic meters, which is less than that of many countries in the world, but the per capita river runoff is about 16,000 cubic meters, which is 1.5 times the world's per capita annual runoff.

   The distribution of surface runoff in the Soviet Union did not coincide with the distribution of industry and population. Most of the runoff is distributed in the sparsely populated northern and eastern regions, flowing into the ocean in vain and underutilized. The major industrial areas of the former Soviet Union, most of the cities and major agricultural areas, are distributed in the southwestern part of the country, that is, the central semi-humid area. The surface runoff is insufficient and unstable, which often brings periodic droughts. Such as the lower Volga River, the North Caucasus, southern Ukraine, northern Kazakh and southern Western Siberia and other major grain-producing areas, due to low precipitation, lack of water sources, droughts occur from time to time, making agricultural production very unstable, and frequent alternations between rich and poor.

The first step of this North-to-South water transfer project has actually started. Three years ago, Khrushchev approved the decision to dig the Irtysh-Karaganda Canal. This is just a sub-project of this plan. Said once the plan was completed. The agricultural problems of the Soviet Union will surely be alleviated.

"Let the General Administration of Internal Defense Intelligence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Administration of Frontier Defense Forces follow up at the same time, and call our geologists and scientists to evaluate this plan. If there are no side effects or there are few side effects, immediately report to the Central Presidium to submit a safety report, and the speed should be Quick, I don’t want to see an evaluation that takes four or five years, I only give you one year to investigate the river conditions and geological conditions involved,” Serov did not dare to neglect this plan. The century project that started with Khrushchev and ended with the map of Yugo should start as soon as possible.

  According to the biggest idea of ​​this plan, the benefits brought by this project are simply outrageous, and it has a strong role in promoting industrial agriculture. From power generation, to agricultural irrigation, to the link to the river network are all benefits. Not to mention the impact on the environment, no matter how big the price is. (To be continued~^~)