Facing the question raised by Viktor, Varenka didn't answer, just looked in the rearview mirror and shrugged, which meant it was obvious, and he didn't know why.

Victor frowned, and the first reaction in his mind was that the bureaucracy in some departments needs to be rectified. It took so long to wait for a car to be repaired, so that it is better to report for a repair. Go buy a new one, what's not the bloated bureaucracy?

However, this idea flashed in Victor's mind, and then he laughed silently. To a certain extent, his way of thinking "listening to the wind is rain" is itself a manifestation of bureaucracy form.

"Tell Sophia later and ask her to prepare a document and ask me to sign it," after thinking for a while, Victor said, "When handing it over to the equipment department, let them hurry up. In addition, if the car can be repaired, try to repair it as much as possible. one time."

"Okay," Varenka nodded and said cheerfully.

As he spoke, the Volga car turned into the entrance of the Kremlin, drove past the Armory Square, and went straight to Comrade Stalin's office building.

Today's Kremlin has no mystery for Viktor. He has his own office here, and he comes to work in this office building dedicated to Comrade Stalin almost every day. In addition, the entire Kremlin has hidden secrets, such as underground passages, and for example last April, after it was determined that the American nuclear weapons had been successfully tested, the underground nuclear defense command center secretly built under the armory, etc. These hidden existences, Victor all He is an insider, and from this perspective, we can also see what level his position in the core power hierarchy in Moscow has reached.

The Volga sedan parked steadily under the steps in front of the office building, preventing Varenka who was trying to get out of the car to open the door for him. Victor took the documents and got out of the car with an umbrella, then followed the stairs all the way upstairs and entered. the white office building.

Instead of going directly to Comrade Stalin's office, Victor went back to his own office first.

He hid in his office, got a cup of coffee, woke up first, warmed his body, carefully sorted out the documents he brought back, worked out a sequence of reports, and put what he needed to add in the He went through it carefully in his heart, and when he was sure that there was no problem, he left his office and went upstairs to find Comrade Stalin to report on his work.

Today is Monday. By convention, this is also the day when Comrade Stalin received reports from foreign officials. The so-called "foreign officials" refer to leading cadres who do not work in Moscow or in agencies directly under the central government, such as state party secretaries, municipal party secretaries, heads of large state-owned enterprises, and non-Moss military region officials. The commanders of the military districts and so on.

Under normal circumstances, these cadres "stationed abroad" do not come to Moscow easily, but when they have important matters to report to the Central Committee and to Comrade Stalin, they need to wait for Comrade Stalin's summons. will be scheduled on Mondays of the week.

It must be acknowledged that there seems to be an invisible chain of contempt in any country’s government agency system. The staff of the central ministries and commissions despise the staff of various local agencies, and in each local agency, they are directly subordinate to the core leaders. The staff of the agency look down on the staff of general government departments, the staff of general government departments, and the staff of lower-level government departments... And so on, most people do not regard township cadres as state cadres .

But in fact, the more grass-roots state cadres, the more in place and specific the real power they hold, the more comfortable their lives will be. On the contrary, those cadres in the country's core leading institutions live three times a day. Shocked, always worried that his position will be coveted by others, always worried that someone will engage in some conspiracy behind his own.

In the Union, such a situation also exists. Take the Kremlin as an example. People working in the office building of Comrade Stalin, even if they are just a service staff, will not send those who come to report for work. Cadres are too serious, even if it is the secretary of the state party committee of a certain state, who enters this office building, the people who should be in line have to queue up honestly, and if the waiting room is overcrowded, they have to wait in the corridor, even a cup of tea. Can't drink.

In the past, Viktor also had such an experience, but as he was valued by Comrade Stalin, every time he came back, Comrade Boskrebyshev personally received him, so he waited in the corridor for Comrade Stalin to be summoned. The number of times was very limited, and he didn't know much about the rules here, and after he had an office in this office building, he realized how hard it was to see Comrade Stalin, and many did not work in Moscow. , At the same time, the non-local cadres who have no important affairs even need to wait in Moscow for a month or two before they can really meet with Comrade Stalin, and the meeting time will probably not exceed five minutes.

As far as Viktor learned, two representatives of the Moscow-Kazan Railway Bureau came to Moscow last month. They were the all-union representatives of this year's "Saturday Volunteer Labor" and came to accept Comrade Stalin's summons.

"Saturday voluntary labor" is a tradition left over from the period of Comrade Lenin. Specifically, it was initiated by 15 workers from the Moscow-Kazan Railway Branch during the counterattack against the Kolchak white bandits in 1919. , they used Saturday to repair three locomotives by voluntary labor, and their deeds caused a sensation in the alliance at that time, so the alliance added such a fixed voluntary labor activity. This tradition has been passed down in the Union for a long time. Even after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia, which inherited its main legacy, has not abandoned this tradition.

As the original advocate of "Saturday Volunteer Labor", the Moscow-Kazan Railway Branch has also become a star unit. Over the past so many years, almost every year on Saturday Volunteer Labor Day, representatives of this unit will come to Moscow to accept the leadership of the central government. Summoned by people and interviewed by newspapers.

It was these two representatives who waited for a full month in Moscow in order to receive Comrade Stalin in person, and only last week did they meet Comrade Stalin with satisfaction.

Well, after all, Viktor is not an employee of the railway bureau. He is now Comrade Stalin's assistant in the Central Secretariat, so he doesn't need to wait in line to meet Comrade Stalin.

Similar to the situation every Monday, a long queue had formed in the corridor on the second floor, waiting to meet Comrade Stalin, crowding the corridor.

Holding the materials brought back from the People's Commissariat of State Security, Victor bowed his head slightly, passed it through the crowd with a blank expression, and went straight to Comrade Stalin's office.

The door of Comrade Stalin's office was closed, and Victor raised his hand and knocked on the door. He vaguely heard someone say something inside the door, and he pushed the door directly and walked in.

Comrade Stalin's office was filled with smoke, and in front of the sofa in the center of the room, in addition to Comrade Stalin, there were two other people sitting, namely Comrade Nikolai Novikov and Comrade Andrei Gromyko.

Seeing Victor coming in from outside the door, Comrade Stalin and Comrade Novikov stopped their conversation and turned their attention. Only Gromyko stood up from the sofa and nodded at Victor with a smile.

"Comrade Stalin, the People's Commissariat of State Security has the latest information on the Far East," Victor smiled and nodded at Gromyko, then said to Comrade Stalin.

"You came just in time," said Comrade Stalin, nodding at him. "We are discussing the issue of the Americans. You can sit in for a while, and maybe you can express your opinion later."

Victor nodded, took the document originally under his arm in his hand, walked quickly to an empty sofa, and sat down with a relaxed expression.

"Go ahead, Comrade Nikolai," Comrade Stalin said, taking his eyes back and looking at Novikov, who was obviously old.

In general, as a former leader of the People's Committee for Foreign Affairs, Comrade Novikov made outstanding contributions to the Union's foreign affairs. However, in the years before the outbreak of the war, his diplomatic thinking and the Union's major policies The policies did not match, so his position was quickly replaced by Comrade Molotov. However, with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the relationship between the alliance and Britain and the United States quickly became closer. Comrade Novikov was reused again out of practical needs. This is also the reason that Comrade Molotov failed to remove him from the diplomatic The root cause of being kicked out of the People's Committee.

After the war, Comrade Novikov's diplomatic thinking seemed to have changed a little. He began to become more pragmatic. A series of propositions and suggestions he put forward were highly recognized by Comrade Stalin. , his health is not very good, therefore, there is no greater energy and ability to replace Comrade Molotov again.

Although Viktor is also in charge of foreign affairs now, he will not easily express his position in front of Comrade Novikov, especially at this moment, Comrade Novikov and Comrade Stalin are talking about the issue, he is just beginning to be in charge of the work of the Central International Department. Young cadres, not very familiar.

At this moment, what Comrade Novikov is talking about is the issue of the North African region, that is, the issue of the Tripoli region, which is an area that the alliance is trying to intervene. negotiation.