Chapter 189: Public Opinion War
"The prosecutors from Moscow took my husband without saying a word, and although they were sent by the central government, they can't help but let our family meet! Later, we hired a lawyer, but the lawyer has not seen my husband until now, and every time I went to the premises of the Central Working Group, they said that they were still investigating, and that we should go back and wait for ......news," said a woman with a sad face and tears in front of a reporter from Komsomolskaya Pravda. Her husband, the secretary of the Georgian Party Committee in charge of organizational work, was taken away by a team sent to Georgia by Ligachev a few months earlier, and no one has seen him since.
The reporters sent by Komsomolskaya Pravda came to investigate the matter. This was specifically requested by Seryosha, and now the top and bottom of the Komsomolskaya Pravda are obedient to Seryosha, and Seryosha has completely taken control of the newspaper. This was no ordinary news lead, and Seryosha had set the tone for the interview long before the men left Moscow, that is, to investigate the interference and meddling of Ligachev's people in the affairs of the local government. The reason why Seryosha wanted to do this was to use public opinion to give Ligachev some eye medicine, and Seryosha knew very well that the readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda were young people, and they were the most easily incited. It is easy to be influenced by public opinion. This is exactly what Seryosha is going to take advantage of.
Under the guidance of the local Georgian comrades, the reporters from Moscow first found the relatives of the secretary of the Georgian Party committee, who was in charge of organizational work. Secretary Habiishvili had been under the control of Ligachev's men for a few months, and the reason given was that when Habiishvili was the first secretary of Abkhazia, part of the public construction funds had been misappropriated. After Habeishvili was taken away, a number of local Abkhaz officials were taken under the control of Lijachev's team.
"Madam, are all of these cadres of ethnic Georgian nationality among these cadres taken away?" The reporter of Komsomolskaya Pravda suddenly interjected and asked.
"Mostly, but two ethnic Abkhaz cadres and several ethnic Armenian cadres were also taken away, and the rest were ethnic Georgian cadres." Habeishvili's wife thought for a moment and replied truthfully.
The reporters weighed in their hearts that according to Secretary Ulyanov's instructions, the direction of their investigation was mainly whether the investigators from Moscow had committed illegal acts in the process of enforcing the law; at present, it seems that extended detention is a problem, but this kind of thing is too common in the Soviet Union, and party cadres must first be examined internally by the party organization, and then handed over to the judicial organs after the facts of the crime are confirmed. However, General Secretary Gorbachev has put a stop to such acts, and now the investigation is initiated directly by the judiciary. However, there are strict legal regulations on the time for which the judicial organs can control criminal suspects, a week at most, and now that Habiishvili has been taken away for more than a month, the inspectors from Moscow have neither filed a lawsuit against Habiishvili nor given a clear explanation, and they have also refused to allow Habiishvili's lawyer to visit him, saying that the matter involves state secrets, and this itself has many problems.
"Mrs. Habeishvili, we also want to interview the wives of several other officials who have been taken away, and want to know about their situation, can you contact them?" The reporter asked cautiously.
"Of course, we're all crazy now, only you can help us!" Mrs. Habiishvili said with a sad face.
After the interview, the reporters compiled a document and sent it back to Moscow by telegram, and Seryosha saw the report for the first time. He soon had a general idea of the situation in Georgia. Ligachev's team in Georgia was sent under the guise of investigating corruption cases, but in reality it was to crack down on local authorities and allow the central government to pass through its decrees. On this point, the interests of the current first secretary of Georgia, Secretary Patiashvili, and Ligachev coincide. The Soviet Union was too big, and many local officials felt that Moscow was far from the emperor, especially at the critical time of the Soviet reform, if the central government lacked control over the localities, it would cause the government decree to be incompatible, and the reform could only be idled between the top leaders in Moscow, and would not sink into the lives of the ordinary people in the Soviet Union. But is it easier to clean up the local real power? Of course it's not easy.
Mr. Ligachev wants to fight corruption against local vested interests, but in Georgia, where most of the local officials are locals. Patiashvili, a Russian, simply can't hold the line. Speaking of how stubborn the character of the Georgians is, it can be seen from Stalin. But now these are not the most important, the important thing is that Seryosha and Shevardnadze now have the same interests, both to keep their rights and not to be deprived by Ligachev, this is a life-and-death contest, Seryosha of course has to use all means.
So Seryosha took up his pen and deleted the press release, saying that "most of the press release were, but two Abkhaz cadres and several Armenian cadres were also taken away, and the rest were Georgian cadres." The sentence was changed to "All are cadres of ethnic Georgians!" After the change, Seryosha asked Komsomolskaya Pravda to prepare a special report on the Georgian issue.
The reason why Seryosha changed this way was to get more Georgian cadres to stand up and confront the Ligachev working group in Tbilisi, and Shevardnadze was a Georgian, so only by calling on Georgian cadres to confront the central working group could Seryosha effectively support Shevardnadze's confrontation with Ligachev in the Central Committee. As long as Ligachev can't handle Shevardnadze's tough bone for a day, Seryosha will be safe. At present, it seems that the contradictions between the local Georgian officials and the central working group are not fierce enough, and Seryosha wants to use the force of public opinion to tell those Georgian officials that Ligachev is here to deal with you, and that the Secretariat he represents does not trust you and should no longer have any illusions.
After reviewing the manuscript, Seryosha called the investigative team in Georgia again and asked them to continue digging into the various wrongdoings of the Ligachev team in Georgia, which Seryosha intended to make into a long report. Although Seryosha did not clearly state how the news should be written and who was the main target of the investigation, the head of the news investigation team still understood Seryosha's intentions, and a public opinion war involving the struggle within the Moscow Politburo had already begun.