Lavrushen Lane, Granovsky Street Hospital.

In the drizzle, the parking lot near the hospital was already crowded with all kinds of vehicles, and at the entrances on both sides of the alley, Arbat Street and Granovsky Street together, a temporary isolation post has been built, with live ammunition. The soldiers of the Political Security Bureau blocked all passages leading to the alley. Now, this alley has become a blocked area, and those without a pass are strictly prohibited from approaching.

Under the rain-covered canopy at the entrance of the hospital, Victor was holding a cigarette, his brows were slightly wrinkled, and his eyes were big and dazzling, hidden in the light blue smoke in front of him, making it difficult to see his eyes at this time. What's hidden in it.

Beside him stood a middle-aged man with a bleak expression and a messy hairstyle. This man, like Victor, also had a cigarette in his mouth, but he smoked more fiercely than Victor, and his hands were still slightly Trembling, it seems that the spirit is a little nervous.

This person's name is Gorky, the current Secretary-General of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. He has a very good relationship with Comrade Kalinin. For a long time in the past, his promotion trajectory has been closely related to Comrade Kalinin. To put it bluntly, he Comrade Kalinin was single-handedly promoted, and he is also a genuine cronie of Comrade Kalinin, but unfortunately, his position has risen to this level, and Comrade Kalinin can no longer help him more, but the core of leadership in Moscow. In the middle, it seems that no one is interested in him, and they have tried to win him over. Therefore, his road to promotion may stop there.

Of course, the most important thing is that, as the one who lifted him up, Comrade Kalinin is no longer able to protect himself. After months of suffering, his fragile body, which has been hollowed out by illness, is finally going to strike completely. , Victor received a notice earlier that Comrade Kalinin suddenly fell into a coma at noon, and the doctors are currently organizing rescue, as for being able to rescue... The experts mean that the prospects are not very optimistic.

After all, Comrade Kalinin is an old-timer of the Bolshevik Party, and he is a veteran. His status in the party may not be very high, but his qualifications are definitely old enough. Since the victory of the October Revolution, he has been serving as the nominal leader of the alliance. The head of state of China has a very close relationship with Comrade Lenin and Comrade Stalin, and is a close comrade-in-arms of the leaders of the two generations of the alliance.

Comrade Kalinin has been battling cancer for the past few years. In terms of personal will, he is undoubtedly a strong person, but in today's medical conditions, his strong will is helpful to overcome the disease, but He couldn't turn the situation around, and now, he finally couldn't hold on.

To be honest, although Victor had dealt with Comrade Kalinin many times, he didn't know much about this old comrade, but there was one thing that Victor admired somewhat. It was this old man who always seemed to be submissive to Comrade Stalin, but he once rejected Comrade Stalin's decision in a way of "strength" and saved more than 38,000 rich peasant families in the whole alliance. Attention, Not thirty-eight thousand people, but thirty-eight thousand families.

It was in 1932, when the alliance was implementing the collective farm system, and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee decided to implement a policy of expulsion and exile for the 38,000 rich peasant families who had been expelled from the collective farms at that time. Kalinin at the time was a member of the Politburo and chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, so, as a rule, such decisions required consultation with him.

At that time, all the members of the Politburo had signed the document, agreeing with the resolution, only Kalinin marked the dissenting opinion on it, and he signed the opinion: "I think this action is unfounded". In this way, the resolution was beaten back, and Comrade Stalin, after reconsidering it, also canceled the proposal.

These are what Victor saw from some dusty documents when he was sorting out the old archives of the People's Commissariat for State Security. Today, they seem to be old calendars, and the old comrade who dared to sing against Comrade Stalin once was , not only did he lose his original spirit, but even... he couldn't even breathe.

Looking at the current situation of Comrade Kalinin, we can see that no matter how high a person's social status is or how much power he has in his hands, when it is time to see Comrade Marxism-Lenin, he must go there, and there are no exceptions.

Perhaps because it was almost dusk, the rain had been raining for almost a whole day, and it had a tendency to become larger, but the wind that had been blowing for a long time gradually stopped, and the temperature seemed to have warmed up a little strangely.

When Victor finished smoking a cigarette in his hand, he turned his head to look at the entrance of Arbat Street, and happened to see two Volga sedans driving past the isolation post one after the other, heading straight towards the hospital. When he saw the first car, Viktor knew that Comrade Stalin was coming, because the car in front was Comrade Poskrebyshev's car.

It was different from what people imagined in later generations. Comrade Stalin did not like to bring a large number of bodyguards and guards when he traveled in the urban area of ​​Moscow. More often, he did not even want to bring a guard, and often dispatched In a car, except for the driver and the guards in the passenger seat, there are no other entourages in the car. From this point of view, his behavior as the leader of the alliance is more aggressive than that of the president of the United States. Hu Houyong's demeanor is much more simple.

Almost as soon as the car that Comrade Stalin was riding in appeared at the alley, footsteps came from behind Victor. The sound was very clear, it should be the sound of hard leather soles hitting the floor tiles.

Victor turned around subconsciously and looked into the open door of the hospital, just to see an old-looking woman, supported by a girl in her twenties, slowly approaching the door.

The first time he saw the old woman, Victor hurriedly turned around and nodded slightly towards the other party, as a greeting.

The old woman obviously saw Victor's actions, a faint smile appeared on her wrinkled face, and she nodded slowly towards Victor as a response.

Passing directly by Victor's side, the old woman didn't stop to say hello, but just as she walked to the canopy and waited for the girl beside her to open the umbrella, Comrade Stalin's car also stopped at the shelter. Outside the rain canopy, Comrade Boskrebyshev took the lead to get out of the first car. He obviously also saw the old woman. Therefore, while opening the umbrella, he bowed to the old woman first, and then walked in a hurry. He rushed to the next car and opened the door for Comrade Stalin in the car.

Victor watched from under the sheltered edge, and at the same time that Comrade Stalin bent down and got out of the car, the old woman also supported the umbrella with the girl, and left the sheltered edge from the wind and rain, and came from Comrade Stalin. The car slowly walked over and went straight to the parking lot not far away.

At the moment of passing by with Comrade Stalin, the old woman didn't even look at Comrade Stalin, let alone say hello, she just walked over with her head held high and walked away.

Comrade Stalin, who got out of the car, obviously saw the old woman, but he obviously didn't care about the other party's attitude, as if nothing had happened, he frowned and walked towards the hospital door.

Well, the old lady's name is Ekaterina Ivanovna, the same name as Comrade Kalinin, she is the wife of Comrade Kalinin, and she is also a woman with a high reputation in the Bolshevik Party. , amiable and gentle, not only famous in the Bolshevik Party, but also in the former Comintern. It is very important that she has a very good relationship with Comrade Soong Ching Ling, and she belongs to the kind of close friends.

However, it was this old woman who, in 1937, criticized some of the excessive policies at that time, and then was exaggerated by some ungrateful guy, and finally angered Comrade Stalin, and was exiled because of this. For a while, due to the serious illness of Comrade Kalinin, she was released back to Moscow, ending her imprisonment.

Comrade Boskrebyshev did not put away the umbrella over his head until Comrade Stalin stepped under the canopy. Victor took two steps forward, greeted Comrade Stalin, and whispered: "The situation is not very optimistic, according to Comrade Muskoff suggested that the Central Committee had better do some preparatory work in advance."

Comrade Stalin pursed his lips tightly and said nothing. As if he hadn't heard Victor's words, he walked directly past him and entered the open main door of the hospital.

Viktor looked at Comrade Boskrebyshev who was following him, and when he saw that the other party nodded secretly at him, he was relieved and chased after him.

Regardless of Comrade Stalin's temperament, he doesn't talk about his past grievances with Comrade Kalinin. From the perspective of an old man in his 60s and nearly 70 years old, he was a former revolutionary comrade and his contemporaries. One of the people, when his life is coming to a curtain call, even if it is only out of the mentality of the death of a rabbit and a fox, I am afraid that Comrade Stalin's mentality at the moment will not be good.

In addition, as Comrade Kalinin has been sick all the time in recent years, he can't even sit as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, but he is still a member of the Politburo after all, and in the core power level of the alliance, he still occupies It has a certain status, and the reason why the current core power layer of the alliance can remain stable is that its structure has its own balance. No matter what kind of illness Comrade Kalinin is, as long as others are alive, the part of the structure he supports will not collapse, and the balance of the power structure will be maintained.

And once Comrade Kalinin passed away, this fragile balance would naturally be unsustainable, and Comrade Stalin needed to reconsider the adjustment of this structure.