Main text Chapter 10 The Great Purge

The assassination of Yanayev caused considerable fluctuations in the Soviet political situation, which was already undercurrent. The Soviet authorities could not accept the bad news of losing two top leaders in two days. But fortunately, the bullet only flew past Yanayev's shoulder, so he only suffered some superficial injuries. Even the doctor who was bandaging the wound exclaimed that this shot was a blessing in misfortune.

Of course, no one would know that the gunman who attacked was the GRU's best sniper, and had rehearsed this seemingly impromptu assassination more than a dozen times.

The injury of the top leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union gave the soldiers under martial law a reason to expel the demonstrators in a fair and just manner. The people, who were originally disorganized and had little fighting capacity, had long since lost their fighting spirit after Yanayev's strongman-like speech. When the shield police cleared the area, the birds and beasts immediately dispersed. After everyone dispersed at the entrance of the White House, Yeltsin's body was carried out by GRU assassins and secretly transported to the hospital morgue.

Then in the afternoon of the same day, the news that Russian President Yeltsin committed suicide in fear of crime was repeatedly played on the TV screen, announcing that the Soviets would not let Yeltsin and his associates who tried to destroy the country go. When some political allies who had secret deals with Yeltsin saw this news, they took out pistols in despair and stuffed them into their mouths.

For them, they would rather commit suicide than be arrested by the KGB.

However, there are still many intellectuals who advocate Western-style democracy and freedom who looked down upon the news, which was hailed as the people's victory, and said disdainfully. It’s just that these flies who are still dreaming about democracy and freedom don’t know that the catastrophe is approaching in the cold winter. Only then will they realize that being imprisoned in the special mental hospital of the KGB's Fifth Bureau is a complete summer vacation enjoyment compared to the torture they suffered.

Yanayev sat on the hospital bed in a happy mood and watched the news on the TV. Martial law had only lasted for just half a day, and the center of Moscow had basically settled down, except for small-scale conflicts that had occurred in some places. Except for that, everything else has returned to its usual orderly state. The scripts that were originally planned for major riots became a secret that no one knew with the death of Yeltsin.

KGB agents were deployed outside Yanayev's ward. The attackers had not been caught this time, so they did not dare to relax for a moment. If anything happened to Yanayev, the last leader to save the Soviets had also completely disappeared.

Prime Minister Pavlov came specially from the Kremlin to express condolences to the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. He was sitting next to Yanayev. As the organizer of the Emergency Committee, Pavlov was particularly concerned about Yanayev's physical health. focus on. When he walked into the ward and saw Yanayev's rosy face and a friendly greeting to him, the stone hanging in Pavlov's heart finally fell.

Yanayev raised the white gauze wrapped around his shoulders and said with a smile, "I really don't know if that gunman's shooting skills are really that bad, or if he has reached the point of perfection?"

Pavlov also smiled, but then he put on a serious face and said, "It's time for us to discuss the future of the Soviet, General Secretary Yanayev."

Pavlov has changed Yanayev's title from vice president to general secretary, and Yanayev cleverly captured his expression.

"Gorbachev's bad reforms brought the Soviet economy into the abyss. We must abolish all Gorbachev's political and economic reform plans and work out new plans to stop this. Of course, reforms are not a slap in the face. It can be done in one go. I analyzed the case of Gorbachev's failure." Prime Minister Pavlov sounded like he wanted to teach Yanayev a lesson, so Yanayev pretended to listen. look like.

"Gorbachev's political multi-party system and parliamentary politics were the deep reasons for the decline of the Soviet socialist system. Because our socialist country can essentially only be a country with the dictatorship of the proletariat. What is the dictatorship of the proletariat? It is the transition from the last exploiting class society, the capitalist society, to the proletarian society, that is, the communist society. Gorbachev even gave up on the most basic and core principle of the socialist path, and he still tried to privatize the economy on the condition of begging for economic assistance from capitalist countries led by the United States. To fundamentally change the economic foundation of socialism. Oh my god, this stupidity shakes the foundation of our economy."

Pavlov basically summarized the problems that emerged from Gorbachev's reforms. Since the Soviet Union's problems stemmed from the economy, Yanayev did not mind repeating what he learned in the textbook.

"Since we've mentioned the economy, I want to say a little more." Yanayev organized his words and said slowly, "Since 1900, the Soviet economy has been in serious trouble. This economic crisis can be said to be the most difficult period since the war. The economic growth rate has dropped sharply. The growth rate of national income and industrial output value has almost dropped by half compared with the same period before, such as the national income from 4.7% to 2.4%. And since the beginning of this year, our economic situation has become even worse, with a 2% drop in total social output value, a 4% drop in national income, and a 3% drop in labor productivity. Although we all realize that the rigid system will bring serious consequences, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev are just trying to make repairs, without fundamentally touching the root of the economic problems."

"So?" Pavlov's eyes lit up. It seems that Yanayev has already figured out the reform strategy in his mind.

Yanayev waved his hand, indicating that Pavlov wanted to hear him finish. "There is a serious shortage of consumer goods, and the market supply is extremely tight. Some reports indicate that only 5% of products are in sufficient supply, and the remaining 95% are actually in short supply. The supply of food, which is closely related to residents' lives, is even tighter. Among the 211 kinds of food, 188 are subject to a ticket supply system. Isn't this the fault of our country's leaders? Of course, I am not particularly good at economics, so I can only point out some problems. The specific methods have to be handed over to those professional economists."

"But we started implementing it last year. A series of economic adjustment policy measures, such as the growth rate of industrial products urgently needed by the people must be 12.4 times higher than the heavy industrial products needed by the country, and the investment in the material production field will be reduced by 12 billion rubles compared with 1989, while the investment in the agro-industrial complex, light industry, and daily life services will be increased. The investment in the agro-industrial complex alone will increase by 8 billion rubles. Strengthen agricultural construction. In addition to the extensive implementation of the leasing and contracting system in the future, agricultural investment will be structurally adjusted, with a focus on increasing the modernization of agricultural product processing departments and storage equipment. "Pavlov said the government's document measures word for word.

"But many of these reform measures are emergency measures. The Soviet Union's economic situation is unlikely to change significantly. Adjustment and austerity policies will generally not produce significant results until 1995. Because many adjustment measures are difficult to work in the short term, such as the adjustment of economic structure, which takes time. And the government must cut spending and reduce the proportion of military spending in total spending." At this point, Yanayev scratched his head. Gorbachev left him with a mess full of holes. The army had already complained about Gorbachev's cuts in military spending. If he continued, there was no guarantee that someone would follow suit and stage a coup. But if he didn't cut military spending, it would be a headache to continue paying a huge amount of maintenance costs for the Soviet steel torrent.

"You mean if possible, we still need to continue to disarm?" Pavlov frowned. "Now the Soviet Union is unstable everywhere, and we need an army to maintain stability."

When Pavlov said this, Yanaev suddenly realized that Gorbachev had left him not only a mess, but also a colorful venomous snake would occasionally emerge from the dense holes and spit out its scarlet tongue at him. Now everything is extremely urgent and impatient, but the only thing he can do is to take it slowly.

Yanaev suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of a way that was not a good idea, but could temporarily solve the problem of military expenditure.

"Perhaps, we can learn from the neighboring countries and let the army do business to raise part of the military expenditure?" Yanaev said thoughtfully, holding his chin. According to national conditions, the Soviet army's business can only exist in the form of foreign trade, and the gray income involved is another thorny problem to be solved.

"The military doing business?" Pavlov was a little confused about Yanayev's idea with a stunned expression, "Is this to make our country's violent machine align with Western capitalism?"

"No, the military doing business is a very complicated matter. There is no rush for this matter. We still need to discuss it with Defense Minister Yazov and General Varennikov of the Army Department. But now I have thought of the best candidate to preside over economic reforms." Yanayev said.