Anna took the envelope, took out the letterhead, and read the contents of the letter carefully. The more she reads www.biquge.info the tighter her brow becomes. This is not because Manturov's handwriting is ugly, nor because his Russian diction is not good enough.

In fact, the letter was not at all problematic in terms of language, Manturov used the most precise and proper words, there was no problem with the grammar, and his font, although a little "unique", was acceptable.

"Comrade Secretary, do you really want to send this letter to Comrade Stalin?" Anna asked, frowning.

"Sure, you see that the new paragraph has been written, it is addressed to" Dear Comrade Stalin ', and on the cover of the envelope is the address of the Moscow Kremlin, of course, to Comrade Stalin."

The reason why Anna frowned was not because Manturov's payment and mailing address were wrong, nor because the tone of the letter was inappropriate, Manturov, who had always worked hard and was good at grasping the psychology of others, would not make these mistakes at all.

"Comrade Manturov, as soon as you took office, you sent this letter to Comrade Stalin, are you not afraid of being purged?"

Obviously, it is the content of the letter that is in question. Manturov wrote this letter to Stalin to report (complain) about the problems of the Great Purge in the localities, and put forward a series of proposals to change the policy of the purge.

But the Great Purge was initiated by Stalin himself, and the policy of the purge was also set by him. Isn't it against Stalin that he suddenly wrote a letter pointing out the problems that existed in the Great Purge and that he wanted to revise the policy of the purge? Isn't this not in line with Stalin's line?

Indeed, in the USSR at that time, almost no local cadres dared to give Stalin any opinion. Because they feared that they would be purged by Stalin, who was a stingy and stubborn man who would not accept any opinion. But is that really the case? Not exactly.

Manturov crossed his legs and said solemnly: "Don't be afraid, Comrade Stalin is an enlightened leader, he has high political wisdom, he cannot be the kind of person who refuses to accept opinions and face problems."

His principle in launching the Great Purge was good, that is, to purge the reactionary figures lurking in the party, but by now, a large part of the people who have been purged are cadres who are loyal to the party.

They were all reported for lack of evidence, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs rudely sent them to work in the Gula camp without conducting a detailed investigation into the cases. ”

"Comrade Manturov, I also believe that Comrade Stalin was an enlightened man, but in this letter you also pointed out that some of these problems are related to Comrade Yezhov, and you are not worried about his ......"

In fact, Manturov's purpose in writing this letter was to get rid of Yezhov, although Yezhov's name was not mentioned throughout the letter.

When Ekh was the first secretary of the party committee of the West Siberian Territory (the predecessor of the Novosibirsk region), Yezhov, an ally of Ekh's anti-party group, issued an order to Mironov, then head of the state head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to cooperate with Ekh's purge efforts and not to investigate or stop a single case in question.

As a result, the regional bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs became an instrument of the Ekh to sabotage the party organization and was used by the Yezhov-Ekh counter-revolutionary group. During the purge, Manturov tried everything to save his life, and when there was a conflict between Yezhov and Ekh, he reported Ekh to Stalin and used Yezhov to get rid of Ekh.

"I'm not worried. I am sure that Comrade Stalin will make an appropriate decision. Manturov said calmly.

Before that, no one dared to report such a big man as Yezhov. He was the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he wielded too much power. Whoever offends him will have to lose his head.

However, after Ekh, Yezhov's ally, was purged, Stalin had already learned about the affair between Yezhov and Ekh from different sources. Manturov also learned about this from secret sources, so he chose this time to write to Stalin to point out the problems of the Great Purge.

"Well, the wording, tone, grammar and so on in the letter are fine, but are you sure you want to send this letter?" Anna asked.

"Since it's all right, let's send the letter quickly."

…………………………………………………………

On the morning of January 6, the letter was delivered to the Kremlin and came to Stalin.

Stalin carefully read the letter. Halfway through the book, his brow furrowed, and his tiger-like yellow-brown eyes began to show a look of displeasure.

The letter was not very much, but Stalin spent a lot of time reading it. With his pipe in his left hand, he picked up the phone in his right hand and called the Secretariat.

"Inform Comrade Andreyev, Zhdanov and Kaganovich to come to my office, I have important matters to discuss with them."

Andreyev, Zhdanov and Kaganovich were all secretaries of the ********** and members of the Central Organization Bureau. But in addition to the three of them and Stalin, there was one other person who held these positions, and that was - Yezhov.

"Do you want to call Comrade Yezhov?" Stalin's secretary asked.

"Don't call him, this matter has nothing to do with him. By the way, is Andrei Aleksandrovich (Zhdanov) in Leningrad? That's for them to come here tomorrow and have an emergency meeting. ”

Zhdanov, who was the secretary of the Leningrad City Party Committee and Oblast Party Committee, immediately rushed to the railway station and rushed to Moscow after receiving the news.

The next day, the three Central Committee secretaries came to Stalin's office to discuss the purge.

Soon, they came to a consensus to accept Manturov's suggestion to change the policy of the Great Purge from total to targeted killings.

That's when the show begins.

Kaganovich, who was Yezhov's political enemy, began to attack Yezhov, pointing all the problems pointed out in the letter to Yezhov, believing that Yezhov should be held responsible for them.

Stalin had long expected that Kaganovich would attack Yezhov and that his position would definitely be biased, so he decided to listen to the opinions of the other two before making a statement.

The truth-seeking Zhdanov, after reading the contents of the letter, also supported Kaganovich's position. And Andreyev, who was the most handsome and the most reluctant to express his position, finally believed that Yezhov was at fault on the issue of the Great Purge and also needed to bear part of the responsibility.

Two days later, on January 9, 1939, the Central Committee of the CPSU issued the "Decision on the Fact of the Erroneous Dismissal of the Families of Those Arrested for Counter-Revolutionary Crimes", in which the plenum unanimously called for "not to accuse people without sufficient reasons, but to distinguish between wrongdoers and saboteurs".

Under the resolution of the Plenum of the Central Committee, the method of the Great Purge began to change from general purges to targeted purges, and Manturov's opinion was adopted by the Central Committee, and his name was remembered in Stalin's heart. The Great Purge began to enter the final stages.

Soon Yezhov began to be appointed People's Commissar of Water Transport, and the actual control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs fell to Beria.