On February 20, 1942, the USSR State Defense Committee underwent a reshuffle. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The purpose of this reshuffle, which has increased the number of members of the National Defense Commission from six to eight, is to strengthen the powers and capabilities of the National Defense Commission in wartime economic management, national economic management, transportation system and logistics management, and at the same time to solve the problem of insufficient manpower in the committee.

In the field of the national economy, Stalin appointed Nikolai Voznesensky, chairman of the State Planning Commission and professor of economics at Leningrad University, as a member of the National Defense Committee in charge of this area.

He has extremely rich experience in economic management, and as a professor of economics, he has extremely rich knowledge of economic management, and is one of the few cadres who was quickly promoted during the Great Purge.

In terms of the ability to work economically, Voznesensky was not at all below Manturov, and even a level above Manturov. But he was unruly, not good at dealing with others, and offended Beria and Malenkov, the two bigwigs, and even privately called Malenkov, the secretary of the Central Committee, "Marina".

As a result, in 1949, Beria and Malenkov, who had made a comeback, set a trap for Voznesensky and others, creating a sensational "Leningrad case".

Subsequently, Voznesensky, Alexei Kuznetsov (secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and former first secretary of the Leningrad City Committee) and others were shot, and almost all cadres promoted by Zhdanov (former second secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, who "died of a heart attack" in 1948) were purged.

Of those implicated, only Kosygin (later Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, also known as Prime Minister of the Soviet Union) and Shepinov (later Minister of Foreign Affairs) survived the purge. The reason why they survived is still a historical secret.

The second person appointed to the State Defense Committee was the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (Deputy Prime Minister) Anastas Mikoyan, who was in charge of the logistical supply of the Red Army.

This Mikoyan also has extremely rich experience in the production, trade and material supply of the food industry, and has served as the People's Commissar of Material Supply, the People's Commissar of the Food Industry and the People's Commissar of Foreign Trade, and has also made good achievements in material allocation and production management, and it is also very suitable for him to be responsible for logistics management.

The addition of Mikoyan and Voznesensky did not attract any objections, after all, these two men are worthy of such a high position in terms of ability and qualifications, but this does not mean that the reorganization of the defense committee will be supported by everyone.

Because, in addition to the introduction of Mikoyan and Voznesensky, the reorganization of the State Defense Committee included the creation of an additional deputy chairman. The new vice-chairman, who had great powers, not only to coordinate all aspects of industrial production, but also to intervene in other matters of the National Defense Committee, was Manturov.

Manturov was the youngest member of the National Defense Committee and the fastest promoted cadre in the Soviet Union. The reason for his successful promotion was not only because of his political achievements and great contributions to the country, but also because he was able to win the support of Voroshilov, Molotov, Kaganovich and others, and won the appreciation of Stalin.

Moreover, every time he was promoted before, almost none of them touched the interests of the Zhengguo-level cadres such as Beria, Malenkov, and Zhdanov, and did not arouse their fierce opposition, so he was naturally able to be promoted smoothly.

But this time, the situation is a little different, and the political effect of having Manturov as deputy chairman of the National Defense Committee can be even greater than appointing him as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.

Why? The election of Manturov to the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee would at best allow Manturov to be "on an equal footing" with Beria, Malenkov, and Zhdanov (of course, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the USSR and the Politburo still have ranks), but putting him in the position of deputy chairman of the National Defense Committee will have some flavor of overriding them.

Prior to this, there was only one vice-chairman of the National Defense Committee -- and that was Molotov, who was the first deputy chairman of the People's Commissariat of the Soviet Union. No one objected to Molotov being the deputy chairman at all, because he had enough qualifications, and his position was high enough (he was also the second person in the Soviet government, second only to Stalin), and his relations with other people were also handled well, and it was a matter of course to be the deputy chairman.

But what about Manturov? His own highest post is nothing more than a deputy prime minister, and the ranking is not yet the highest. In the National Defense Committee, there are many people with a higher ranking than him, 5 of the 8 people are Politburo Standing Committee members, Beria, Mikoyan, and Voroshilov are all well-known Zhengguo-level cadres, and their seniority is deeper than that of Manturov, but why not choose one of them?

Actually, Stalin once considered this, but who of the three people could be qualified for the position of deputy chairman of the National Defense Committee? Who has made significant contributions to national defense construction? It seems that there really isn't.

Comparing military exploits and political achievements in national defense construction, it seems that there is really no one who can compare with Manturov. Neither Beria, Mikoyan, nor Voroshilov made any significant contribution to the Soviet Union's national defense, and Manturov alone contributed more than the three of them combined.

Although Malenkov also made a lot of contributions to the Soviet Union's aircraft production and greatly increased aircraft production, his ability and contribution were relatively simple, so he could only do something in aircraft production, and his ability in other aspects was still relatively weak for the time being, or he had not yet shown it.

If we look at these aspects, Manturov is indeed the best choice for this new vice-chairman.

It was Manturov who made great contributions to tanks, airplanes, trucks, shipbuilding, and even the metallurgical industry, construction, etc., and it would be too wasteful to let him only be in charge of the production of self-propelled guns and trucks, and it would be better to give him more power to coordinate the affairs of all the defense industry, and even the industrial production of related raw materials.

That's why Stalin planned to add a deputy chairman, Manturov, a man with a wider range of abilities, so that he could make full use of his abilities and make greater contributions to the country.