"Comrade Manturov, what do you think of the development of military supplies and the defense industry of the Red Army?" Kaganovich posed a question to Manturov, who had just become a "Hero of the Soviet Union", giving him a chance to make suggestions for improvement. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At the moment, relations between the USSR and Finland have reached a point of deterioration. Fifteen days later, on November 30, the Soviet Union will declare war on Finland, a small Nordic country known in history as the Winter War.

However, in this war, the Soviet Union, which had a clear advantage in military strength and industrial productivity, actually planted a heel on the territory of Finland and suffered great losses.

The Finnish army suffered only 25,000 casualties, and at the cost of 70,000 casualties, the Soviet Red Army suffered 126,000 casualties, for a total of 600,000 casualties. It was one of the greatest defeats in the history of the Soviet Red Army.

But at this time, it was useless for Manturov to do anything, the Soviet Union had 15 days to start this war, and the shortcomings exposed by the Soviet Red Army in the war involved all levels of the army, including logistics supply, military command, personnel training, troop transfer, and other aspects of serious problems, leading to tragedy.

"Comrades," Manturov began to express his opinion on the logistical supply of the Soviet army. "According to my observations, our army does have a lot of problems in terms of logistics supply."

"Please." Stalin, sitting in the middle, seemed happy to listen to the young man.

"First of all, in terms of food supply, we don't have a supply of canned food, and we don't have concentrated food, but Americans eat all canned food. In this way, the Red Army soldiers often had to take their lunch boxes to the marching kitchen to eat. Manturov expressed his views on the logistical supply of the Soviet army very superficially.

Kaganovich, who used to be the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, nodded and said: "No way, our industrial technology is backward compared to the United States, the industrial base is not as good as theirs, the quantity and quality of production in the food processing industry are limited, and it is impossible to guarantee that the five million Red Army will receive a sufficient amount of canned and compressed food." ”

"Comrade Kaganovich, you are right, so when I was in Novosibirsk, I launched a plan to expand the food processing facilities in the city of Novosibirsk and build a food processing plant in Kemerovo. At present, the project is progressing well and is expected to be completed within half a year and put into production.

In addition, there are great hidden dangers in the tinned rice cookers used in our army's mobile kitchens. I think everyone knows that the metal surface of the tin-plated rice pot is coated with a layer of tin to prevent the iron inside from coming into contact with the air and avoiding rust.

However, the tin of the tin-plated rice pot is easy to fall off, and people will be poisoned if they eat the tin that falls off, and this kind of rice pot will generally be scrapped after three months. In this way, we have to make new tin-plated rice pans, or send thousands of tinsmiths to the front line to re-tin-plate rice pans. This is not only a waste of manpower, but also a waste of material resources.

Therefore, I highly recommend the production of stainless steel pots, because pig iron does not oxidize, and the life of iron pots is as long as the life of the kitchen.

In addition, in terms of equipment, our army lacks a sufficient number of mortars and submachine guns, and the effectiveness of close strikes against enemy troops is limited. At the Nomenhan station, our army also lacked the supply of anti-mosquito equipment, and many Red Army soldiers, commanders, and staff, including me, were plagued by mosquitoes for a long time.

The Red Army also lacked a special logistical supply department with overall leadership over the supply organs, which slowed down the efficiency of the supply system and also placed a great burden on the workload of the General Staff, the military districts, and the Fifth Division of the troops.

In terms of the military industry, there are only two production centers for tanks and armored vehicles in our country, one in Leningrad and the other in Kharkiv, both of which are in the western regions of our country, and not in the Urals and Western Siberian regions of the strategic rear. In this case, our tank production facilities will be vulnerable to destruction by the Western enemy.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop large-scale military-industrial facilities in the Urals, Siberia, or in Central Asia. In such a deep area, no country's bombers can fly there, and it is difficult for the enemy to cause damage to our military industrial facilities in any way, and we can ensure the supply of military industry to the front line under stable and safe conditions. ”

Stalin nodded and said, "Very well, we will study these questions carefully."

You have long raised the question of military-industrial production to us, so in January 1938 I approved your plans for the Novosibirsk military-industrial complex and allocated the necessary resources for the establishment of a third large military-industrial production center in addition to Kharkov and Leningrad. How is the project progressing so far? ”

"At present, the construction of the plant has been 70% completed, and the machine tools and materials required for production are also ready. Our state government has worked closely with the three people's commissariats in charge of the munitions industry and has also provided appropriate assistance to the relevant departments, financially, administratively, materially, and humanistically. ”

"Very well, your contribution to industrial construction in the Novosibirsk region is obvious to all, and the Novosibirsk region you govern has become a model among many states in the Soviet Union, and I hope you will continue to carry it forward."

After several rounds of conversation, Manturov discovered that Stalin, like in numerous historical archives, was not a harsh, unapproachable man. However, at some point, Stalin would have behaved more stubbornly and might not be able to listen to statements that contradicted his views.

"Comrade Stalin, how should we understand the extreme negativity of the war in the West? How do you think the war will play out next? Manturov used this question to test Stalin's views on German expansion.

Stalin took a puff of his cigarette and replied with a smile: "The French government, headed by Daladier, and the British government, headed by Chamberlain, did not want to seriously fight against Hitler.

They still hoped to encourage Hitler to fight the Soviet Union. As early as 1939, they rejected the proposal to form an anti-Hitler alliance with us, with no intention of avoiding Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.

In my opinion, it is not in their own right for the West to do this, and they will eventually have to pay the price for such short-sighted, self-serving policies. ”

Stalin said the same thing to Zhukov (see Zhukov's memoirs), and he foreshadowed the occupation of France by the Germans and the bombing of Britain by the Germans in the near future. These two old imperialist countries have finally paid the price they deserve for their selfish policies.

Manturov tried to take this opportunity to reveal to Stalin the script of the development of history. "The capitalist elements of Western countries have always carried out a counter-revolutionary, anti-Soviet, anti-communist position. They are always thinking about how to kill us, but they don't want to think about the consequences of the Sith expansion for themselves.

But apart from the capitalist camp, I think we in the Soviet Union should remain vigilant against fascist countries such as Germany and Italy. Because fascism itself is anti-communist, their anti-communist stance is clearly shown in their theories and articles.

Adolf Hitler also repeatedly expressed his hostility towards the Slavic peoples, regarding the Slavs as an inferior people. In "Mein Kampf", he also mentioned related ideas, and also put forward the idea of occupying the territory of the Soviet Union and enslaving the Soviet people. We must not allow his plot to succeed! ”

"Comrade Manturov, I also agree with you, capitalism, of course, does not like the existence of our socialist regime, and the essence of fascism is also anti-Soviet.

But so far, we have had to adopt an attitude of cooperation with Germany, so that we can get their industrial products from Germany, and we can avoid opposing the fascist and capitalist camps at the same time, when the technological level and industrial level are inferior. ”

"I think so too. But Comrade Stalin, Comrade Molotov, in any case, we must be vigilant against the fascist camp in any case. They are already preparing for a new round of war, and once they win a future war and eliminate some of their neighbors, such as Poland and France, they will point the finger at us.

So, I think we should be ready for everything for this potential war. As I said earlier, we can develop the military industry, strengthen the training of troops, establish a system of registration and training of reserve forces, and improve the logistical supply of troops, so as to improve the combat quality of our Soviet Red Army in all aspects. ”