第1章 ソビエト編 政治局の再編]（2/2）

After Chernenko\u0027s Red Square funeral on March 13, Romanov could finally begin to rule over his Motherland.

He sat at his desk in the Kremlin, rubbed his tired eyes; took a sip from the Georgian tea sitting on his desk, and flipped open the report with the KGB emblem and signature seal.

Since Stalin\u0027s death in 1953, the Soviet Union had suppressed the East German unrest in 1953 at the request of the East German class brothers, formed a joint force to suppress Imre Nagy in Hungary in 1956 so that Hungary remained loyal to the socialist path of Janos Kádár, and intervened militarily in 1968 to suppress the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. . The sister country of Poland was very unstable, with anti-Soviet sentiment and nationalism infesting the Polish socialist regime.

At least on the surface, the Warsaw Pact remained stable...

The economic reforms introduced by Kosygin were gradually scaled down and halted, and the Soviet economy was coming to a halt.

The destruction of the trade with the West, the door of which had been closed after the Cuba crisis, had also begun to have its effect. As more of the world\u0027s grain is diverted to countries that have a higher rate of productivity, even though the situation of the Western allies improve, the demand for oil will increase and the West will likely start selling more oil to the Eastern Bloc, especially given the weakening of the Eastern Bloc due to the failing economy.

The major problem facing the country is the inefficient government bureaucracy.

One hour has passed.

He was able to become the general secretary, but he faces inevitable collapse of the regime.

At that moment, there is a knock on the door.

\"Come in.\"

A young man, dressed in a sharp suit, walks into the room. His hair is slicked back, and he has a worried look on his face.

\"Comrade General Secretary, Comrade Chairman Grishin has arrived.\" The young man said nervously, was he afraid because he was facing the nominal supreme power holder?

Romanov nodded and said, \"Good, I will go and see Comrade Grishin.\"

\"Very good, comrade.\" The young man said, before hastily leaving the room.

That was his special assistant, undoubtedly one of the smartest men in the country. It\u0027s just unfortunate that he\u0027s useless...

Inside the room, Romanov smiled and said to Grishin: \"Comrade Grishin. How good to see you. What brings you here?\"

Grishin laughed and said: \"I was, but I got a report that you wanted to see me immediately.

\"Yes, please sit down.\" After gesturing, Romanov sat down with him on the sofa and talked. \"I would like to discuss the problem of the serious aging of the Politburo members. We are all quite old, and it is only natural that our bodies cease to work efficiently. This is perfectly normal. What is not normal however is the number of members with serious health conditions. I would like to propose a slight reshuffling of the senior leadership so that we can continue to function properly for the good of the people.\"

Grishin frowned and said: \"But what about the state of the nation? Would you not need to take a break to deal with this?\"

\"\u0027Dealing\u0027 with it would mean that the would simply send us into permanent retirement.I think that for the sake of old comrades to retire with peace of mind and provide valuable advice, the Soviet Central Advisory Board should be established. This would restructure the senior leadership of the CPSU.\"

Grishin shook his head and said: \"But what about the people\u0027s needs? The people need their leadership to help them.\"

Romanov calmly replied, \"Of course, the Central Advisory Council can still discuss policy issues with the Politburo and retain the villa and allowances corresponding to the position.\"

\"You would abandon power and live like a retiree?\"Romanov smiled and said: \"This is not a real withdrawal, we can remain in power in the Central Advisory Council. Will you support me? Comrade Viktor.\"

Grishin was silent for a few moments, before he said: \"If it is the will of the people then so be it. I will support you.\"

\"The people will thank you, and next, I need to recall Kosolapov, and I need to remove Gorbachev, Chebrikov, Ligachev, Ryzhkov and Shevardnadze from their membership and alternate positions.\"

\"What?\" Grishin said, taken aback.

\"The five have simply become too elderly to be useful. They cannot keep up with the younger generation. And while their experience is invaluable, they are beginning to fall out of favor with the people, and with reason.\"

After a pause, Grishin said: \"Very well, comrade, you may do as you wish.\"

\"I\u0027m glad you agree.\"

\"So... is there anything else?\"\"By the way, I need to launch a massive anti-corruption campaign and investigate Brezhnev\u0027s daughter. We all know what she has done, and this Soviet reform must be opened with her blood.\"

\"I\u0027ll do my best to uncover what she\u0027s done,\" Grishin said, shrugging.

\"Good. I\u0027ll be seeing you soon, comrade.\"

As he left, Grishin thought to himself: Well, he may very well have a point. The old guard are dying out, and it\u0027s time to make way for the young upstarts. Perhaps he does have a little more wisdom than his age would imply.

April 8, 1985

Meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Romanov dismissed Gorbachev, Chebrikov, Lyagachev and Ryzhkov from the Politburo and Shevardnadze from the Politburo as alternate members, and sent Gorbachev and Shevardnadze to the Mongolian People\u0027s Republic as ambassadors to foreign countries.

Lacking any meaningful opposition, and with a loyal Politburo, Richard Ivanovich Kosolapov became a member of the Soviet Politburo, and then Romanov rehabilitated Malinkov and Kaganovich and restored their party membership and treatment as former Politburo members.

\"Do you think this is a threat?\" Mikhail asked.

\"I don\u0027t know, but I\u0027m sure the media would have a field day if we didn\u0027t do anything,\" Romanov said. \"The population is fickle, and prone to complain about their leaders. It\u0027s better to nip this in the bud now.\"

\"Do you really think this will help you?\" Mikhail asked.

The CPSU cited lack of funds and the holding of public meetings as reasons for the massive reorganization. The Politburo, purged of reformists, was finally able to reluctantly reassure Romanov. At the Politburo meeting, Romanov made a speech saying: \"Comrades, the Eleventh Five-Year Plan did not produce excellent results! The plan was too long, there were too few technological advances, and there was a clear need to increase efficiency in all areas! Let our future successors thank us for the radical break with the past.\"

He took a small sip of water and continued, \"The workers smell the blood of the bourgeoisie and are already demanding these changes! The world communist movement, also inspired by our example, will come to us tomorrow with their ideas. Comrades, we are in the last moments of history! Tomorrow, we begin a new era! The year is 1985, and in another fifteen years, all mankind will usher in a new century! These fifteen years will be a crucial turning point for the Soviet Union, and the whole country, the whole Party and the entire Soviet arms force must be ideologically prepared for it!

Under the leadership of the Supreme Soviet, we must adhere to the principles of socialism and at the same time carry out reforms of the economic system. Some comrades may say: Why don\u0027t we implement a market economy? Why not give up the Iron Curtain and open up to the world?

This is a total ideological mistake! Was it the Supreme Soviet that first delivered the Iron Curtain speech? Was it the Supreme Soviet that united three quarters of the world to blockade the capitalist countries? Was it not the Supreme Soviet that was the first to stand by the people, to defend their rights, to denounce their oppressors? Why should we give up all these gains?!\"

\"Because things change, comrades,Under the offensive of capitalist propaganda, under the temptation to use public power for personal gain, some comrades have forgotten the teachings of Lenin! Forgotten for whom the blood of the Patriotic War was shed!Please, comrades, it was not for ourselves! It was not for our children! It was not for our families! It was not for our nations! It was for the ideals of Communism, for the future of humanity!

We must defend the Iron Curtain, not only for ideological reasons, but because the capitalist world is a very dangerous enemy that could destroy us. We must be strong, and depend on no one but ourselves.

Comrade Solomantsev, Chairman of the Central Supervisory Commission! I hope that the party members of the entire Soviet Republic will maintain revolutionary purity, Comrade Bobkov, Comrade Fedorchuk, the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs need to cooperate fully with Comrade Solomentsev in the investigation and trial of corrupt elements who use their power for personal gain! In particular, the corruption and smuggling of Brezhnev\u0027s daughter and Churbanov should be seriously investigated and tried severely according to the law, while the KGB should guarantee the safety of witnesses.\"

Solomentsev stand up. He feel the muscles in back hurt after staying in one position for a long time.\"We\u0027ll make sure these traitors are hit where it hurts!\" he says, grinning.

An uneasy feeling comes over him. He knows that this new period of reform will probably be the most difficult part of the entire undertaking.A tired General Secretary Romanov nodded and said, \"Good, sit down Comrade Solomentsev.\" Everyone sits down, although a lot of them continue to whisper amongst themselves.

\"In addition to this, I propose to establish Leningrad and the Baltics as a pilot experimental zone for economic reform, to open the stock market and issue a few shares; state enterprises are to be slowly demutualized.\"

This is met with a mixture of approval and disapproval from the audience.

Petras Piatrovich Grishkevichus, Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania, said.\"This is a dangerous path for the party to take, comrade.\"

\"Why?\" asks the general secretary.

\"Because if we fail, it could spread to the rest of the soviet nations, and become a serious threat,\" says Grishkevichus.

\"That is a risk we will have to take!\" replies the general secretary.

\"I will consult with my fellow Lithuanian comrades, comrade,\" he replies.

\"Very well,\" says the general secretary. \"In other business...\"

\"Now there is a wrong economic construction situation in the Soviet Union, where wages in all sectors of the Soviet Union have been steadily increasing since 1967, while prices have remained the same. This allows the people to have an excessive flow of money at the same time there is a phenomenon of anti-economic laws of finished products and raw materials prices are still cheap. This situation encourages hoarding and the black market, which drains funds from the economy and creates a wrong incentive structure. This situation must be fixed in the interests of the party and the people. I propose that enterprises should be empowered to set their own prices and this will encourage the people to buy from the stores and it will stop the black market.\"

Gikhonov frowned and spoke. \"This is a very complex system to manage and I oppose this policy, comrade. The best way to combat the black market is with the strong arm of the government, comrade.\" The government still has to solve the problem, but the black market was the first step.

After a grueling debate, the policy was adopted that prices should be freely set by the enterprises.Because the Soviet Union was basically a state-owned enterprise and the anti-speculation department would not allow pricing beyond Romanov\u0027s control.

Not surprisingly, the policy was not popular among the enterprise directors who would like to exploit the situation to reap the benefits.But Romanov shut them up by demutualizing the dividend system of state enterprises.

After thinking about this, Romanov said to the Politburo members: \"In addition, due to price increases all state employees, especially civil servants and the military, salaries and allowances are to be adjusted upward. In the long term, this is necessary to adjust the wages of all state employees to free market prices. This is to protect the people who are suffering from rising prices due to a shortage of goods.The government has the long-term interest to serve the people, not the short-term profit. I propose that all state employees should receive a basic wage and the rest of their income is to come from private activities or savings. This policy is to protect the average citizen from falling into poverty because of state policy.\"

\"This is ridiculous, comrade. Only the rich people can afford to save!\" Kosolapov argued.

\"No, on the contrary it is to prevent the employees of the state from falling into poverty and corruption! Without adequate allowances it is impossible to guarantee the cost of living for civil servants and the army, and we will never let soldiers who shed their blood for the sake of the fatherland live in the streets! At the same time, civil servants are engaged in mental work for the sake of the working people and the motherland. They should be able to live decent and dignified lives. In the long term, this is good for the economy, good for society and good for the country.\"

It took about a month for the government to settle all the new policies and for industrialists to raise their prices on goods.Romanov\u0027s endeavors were not useless. By raising the price of goods, he forced industry to fulfill its social commitment; otherwise, the people would not have had enough money to buy many goods.

In a way, this is how market economic systems work.Ordinary citizens saw immediate relief from their shortages, which caused anger and hatred among many citizens. The public complained about the state\u0027s inaction to stop price increases. Along with it Romanov met with criticism. However, it was a different matter for the few shares issued in Leningrad.

Leaving aside the issue of economic reform, Romanov could only feel a headache when he opened the Soviet national survey, which The population of the Union was divided into nationalities and these formed distinct groups with their own cultures, not to mention if you took the republics into account, there were even more differences.

The policy of encouraging a single culture and language was very successful, while research into particular cultures was not as much due to the demands of foreign countries and the various republics.Despite the fact that, now the first secretaries of the constituent republics are fighting nationalists but still nationalist sentiments appear unstable potential.

Romanov fell into thinking that the Soviet Union was not essentially a state at all, but a federation of states with a bunch of republics. Worse, historical reasons and revolutionary traditions led to the elevation of a number of otherwise autonomous republics to the status of constituent republics. Ukraine, for example, and it even has a seat in the United Nations with Belarus.

However, in reality there is not enough power to these entities and the central government has most of the control.

The population of these republics are not united.

In fact, the only thing that kept the whole thing together was the sheer size of the territory and a fear of the common enemy, and while the fear was still there, the size of the Empire was no longer a threat.

The common enemy would be gone soon, and then what would happen to the republics? He didn\u0027t know.

These thoughts were done in bed by two o\u0027clock in the morning and sober. It was just a sense of impending doom, but it\u0027s hard to shake off all night. His wife, Anna Stepanovna, opened her eyes from sleep to look at him and said, \"Still awake?\"

\"Just thinking,\" he said. \"You really shouldn\u0027t open your eyes when you do that.\"

\"Hmm, you have strange thoughts sometimes.\" She yawned.

\"There are too many things going on in the Soviet Union, and the Politburo still has the Dnepropetrovsk gang with the conservatives and moderates, and the economy has to be transformed.\"

\"I did not know you expressed an opinion on current events,\" she said.

\"I don\u0027t express opinions. I\u0027m just thinking.\"

\"Well, you should put down those thoughts, comrade.\"

He pulled her to him and said, \"Still, I have you.\"

\"And I still have you.\" She kissed him.