In Moscow, thick gray clouds shrouded the entire city, and the fine snowflakes mixed with the drizzle fell from the sky rustling, adding a bit of chill to the entire city that had just warmed up for a few days.

On the boulevard, on the sidewalk, which is only 20 meters away from the People's Commissariat for National Security Building, Victor walked unhurriedly with an umbrella. A middle-aged man wearing a royal blue uniform of the People's Commissariat of National Security, looking at the epaulette of this man, he is a major general.

The middle-aged man is Vasily Scepanovich Ryasnoy, currently the head of the First General Directorate of the People's Commissariat of State Security, which is the General Directorate of Foreign Intelligence, and at the same time, the current twelfth member of the entire commissariat. One of the members of the presidium, when Victor left the field of foreign intelligence work and went to preside over domestic intelligence work, it was this person who disbanded his post in the Foreign Intelligence Bureau. Of course, he was also recommended by Victor. Otherwise, With his background in the work of the NKVD, it is not an easy task to get to the current position.

It is no secret that Comrade Riasnoy is from Beria, at least to many people in the core of Moscow's power. However, after receiving the recommendation of Victor, he entered the After the People's Commissariat of National Security, especially after he entered the presidium of the committee, the relationship between him and Victor became closer. During the period when Victor left the People's Commissariat for National Security, he did not miss out from the Riyadh. Snowy here for news.

Previously, in order to avoid suspicion, Victor had not contacted Riasnoy for a long time. After all, the scope of work of the two sides did not overlap in the slightest. Continuing to maintain blatant contact would have a very bad impact. However, the situation is a little different now. After Victor took up the position of Director of the Secretariat of the Central Secretariat, he was connected with the work of many departments.

The position of director of the secretariat does not seem to be very conspicuous. In a general sense, only the position of "Secretary-General of XX" has sufficient weight, but in the final analysis, this also needs to be divided into "secretariat" What department's "secretariat" is, the secretariat of the Central Secretariat is naturally extraordinary, and the director of this department cannot be measured in the "general sense".

This position is to serve the secretary of the Central Secretariat, that is, Comrade Stalin. The director Viktor himself has little power. He cannot issue orders to any department because his position does not have that power. However, any department is dealing with him. You need to maintain enough respect and jealousy for him, because the accountability, inquiries, or suggestions he makes all represent the position of Comrade Stalin. This is like no one can regard the secretary of the municipal party committee secretary as just a chorus.

Because he took up the post of director of the secretariat of the Central Secretariat, Victor started to openly contact with sensitive figures like Riasnoy again, because this was also his job requirement. The work of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and this gave Victor a pretext to intervene in the work of the People's Commissariat of State Security.

Of course, according to reasonable procedures, when Comrade Stalin needs to ask about the work of national security, he will make a request to Victor, and then Victor should contact the deputy secretary of the Secretariat in charge of national security work, that is, Comrade Kuznetsov, And obtain relevant documents or report materials from him, or directly report to Comrade Stalin by Comrade Kuznetsov.

However, as long as Comrade Stalin did not make a clear request, Victor did not choose to contact Comrade Kuznetsov, but bypassed him and directly contacted the relevant departments of the People's Commissariat of State Security. Reasonable procedures are only conventions, not clear regulations. Victor's work is only responsible to Comrade Stalin and assisting Comrade Stalin in his work. As long as he meets Comrade Stalin's requirements in his work, the specific work process is not important.

Victor's actions are actually very offensive, and what he specifically provoked is Comrade Kuznetsov, who is in charge of national security work, but he is not in the same camp as Comrade Kuznetsov after all. , Even if he doesn't take the initiative to provoke the other party, the other party will not have a good impression of him, so he doesn't care what the other party thinks of him.

To be honest, Victor's approach still had a certain influence on Comrade Kuznetsov. After all, he greatly reduced Comrade Kuznetsov's exposure in front of Comrade Stalin.

Just imagine that Comrade Kuznetsov, the Deputy Secretary of the Secretariat, was promoted by Comrade Stalin to be in charge of national security work. Some small groups and groups have restructured the power composition of the People's Commissariat of State Security and the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

But after a period of time, every time Comrade Stalin asked about the work of the national security department, the reports and materials he got were all submitted by the actual heads of the two security departments. Comrade Kuznetsov said this. The deputy secretary in charge seems to have become an invisible man. What would Comrade Stalin think? Will he think that Comrade Kuznetsov is not suitable for this position, or will he think that his assistant, Viktor, is playing a role in it?

Well, even if someone opened up everything, even if Comrade Kuznetsov took the initiative to file a complaint in front of Comrade Stalin, and exposed what Victor had done, would Comrade Stalin put the blame on Victor? No, he won't, he may be dissatisfied with Viktor, but he will also see more clearly the incompetence of Comrade Kuznetsov - if you can't do your job well, you can't do it well, no matter the reason, it's not in essence will change. The most important thing is that a power struggle is a power struggle, and it is resolved at which level it belongs to, whether it is to flip the table or ask for help from the leaders, it is all illegal. Anyone who violates it will be swept out.

The black Volga sedan that Varenka was driving was parked on the side of the road. Victor walked to the side of the car. Before Varenka came to open the door for him, Riasnoy, who was holding a stack of documents in his arms, had already taken the lead. He stepped forward and opened the door for Victor. When Victor got into the car, he handed the documents in his arms to Varenka, and bowed his waist to say goodbye to Victor in the car.

Inside the car, Victor nodded to Riasnoi, then took a document sent by Varenka, opened the title page, and read it with great interest.

This time, Comrade Stalin wanted to know the situation in the Far East, especially the situation in Japan and the U.S. policy toward Japan. Victor came here because he wanted the intelligence information.

The document in Victor's hand was related to a recent work of the New York Intelligence Station of the Foreign Intelligence Service. The purpose of this work was to use public opinion in the United States to launch a public opinion attack on MacArthur himself.

The situation is now very clear, the Americans' decision on the Japan issue is actually decided by MacArthur, and the Americans' tough attitude towards the alliance on the Japan issue is also dominated by MacArthur. Therefore, in Japan, and even on a series of issues in the Far East, MacArthur's presence became a stumbling block for the Alliance to push Japan's policy, and the Alliance had to remove this man from Japan before it could hope to force the Americans to make concessions on Japan. .

Manipulating public opinion to attack a public figure is not a new skill that the People's Commissariat of National Security has recently cultivated. When Victor was in charge of the committee, he was already doing this work. This time, the public opinion against MacArthur The attack was a large-scale exercise in the United States.

Recently, MacArthur has received a lot of criticism in the United States. He strongly advocated retaining Japan's imperial system and removing Emperor Showa from the list of war criminals. His attitude in this regard has aroused public dissatisfaction in the United States. .

In order to amplify this dissatisfaction, the Foreign Intelligence Service, through a series of newspapers and radios in the United States, has hyped up the Pearl Harbor incident, the Bataan Death March and the heavy casualties suffered by the Americans in the Battle of Iwo Jima. And the cruel way the Japanese army treated American prisoners of war. The purpose is to use such propaganda to open the wounds that Americans have healed and remind them how painful it was to be abused by the Japanese.

At the same time, in order to increase Americans' dissatisfaction with MacArthur himself, the Foreign Intelligence Agency also spun a scandal for MacArthur himself, which probably means that MacArthur accepted bribes from the Japanese, and it was precisely because of this that he was stubborn. Demand to keep the Emperor of Japan.

This bribe came from Higashikuri Minohiko, who was the Japanese royal family and the uncle of Emperor Showa. In order to win over MacArthur and retain the emperor's status, Higashiku Ninohiko sent the famous Japanese movie star Setsuko Hara to MacArthur's bed. , and in order to buy more Americans, under the impetus of Higashikuri Minohiko and Kido Koichi, Japan also organized tens of thousands of women to create a comfort women's association, under the slogan of protecting the country, openly confronted the Japanese and US military launched sexual bribery.

This kind of propaganda is well-rounded, and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau even produced a photo of MacArthur and Setsuko Hara standing side by side. The eyes of the two when they looked at each other were rather ambiguous.

At present, it is not clear whether such propaganda is effective, but in Victor's view, this method may not play a decisive role, but for those in the United States who are not used to MacArthur, such reports , is a very useful weapon.