"My old subordinate?"

Katia stood up and said to her husband, "Yes, do you remember Anna Romanova? When you were still the secretary of the Novosibirsk regional party committee, she was your assistant. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

"Anna?" Manturov, who has a great memory, certainly does not forget this beautiful secretary with the royal blood of Tsarist Russia. "She's been transferred here?"

"Yes, she is now the deputy head of the Moscow City Party Committee Office."

"Where's Yasha?" At the mention of Anna, Manturov immediately remembered his old friend, Anna's boyfriend - Yakov. "He was also transferred to Moscow?"

Katya smiled lightly and said, "Comrade Yakov is amazing, he is now the deputy director of the State Security Directorate. ”

"General Directorate of State Security...... Deputy Director? This kid is rising pretty fast. ”

Since Manturov became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Yakov's career has been smooth sailing. He first rose to the position of the Novosibirsk Oblast of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, became the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Novosibirsk Region, and then, after the NKVD was merged into the NKVD, he was favored by Merkulov and promoted to deputy head of the Main Directorate of State Security.

Compared to Manturov, Yakov's promotion was not very fast. He was just 30 years old when he became deputy director of the General Directorate of State Security. And Manturov, who was of a higher rank and had already become deputy prime minister, was only 27 years old at this time.

Katia walked up to Manturov, stroked his face, and said with concern: "Honey, what are you thinking?" ”

"I didn't ...... What the. ”

"Are you wondering why Yakov became the deputy head of the National Security Service?" Katia, who was attentive, guessed his mind from her husband's eyes.

"Yes," Manturov did not intend to hide anything in front of his wife, "Yashata, the relationship between him and Beria is no better than that of Serov, Kobrov, Gripov, Fedin and others, and he should not have a deep level of seniority in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he has not done anything earth-shattering like Serov, how did he rise to the position of deputy head of the General Directorate of State Security so quickly?" ”

Yakov once purged Ekh, and also indirectly purged Yezhov, so that Beria smoothly seized control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from Yezhov, and established Beria's leadership position in national security, which was naturally valued by Beria. It was not surprising that I would be promoted to such a position. ”

Katya's analysis makes a bit of sense, but it is too superficial and does not explain why Beria did not put Gripov, Fedin and others in this position, alongside Serov and Kobrov, but chose Yakov.

In Manturov's view, Beria promoted Yakov for two main reasons. First, Yakov once pulled Ekh and Yezhov from power, and if Beria could pull Yakov to his side and use it for his use, maybe Yakov could be used to pull Zhdanov, Voznesensky and other potential political enemies from power.

Second, it is also possible that Beria wanted to use Yakov to improve relations with Manturov and draw him closer to his political group.

At that time, the Beria group was not very powerful, and in addition to the subordinates in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Ministry, Beria's political allies were only Mehris, the head of the General Political Department of the Red Army, and Malenkov, the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

This clique has a certain amount of power in military and party circles, not to mention forces in the security and anti-counterterrorism departments.

However, in the government, the Beria clique is in a weak position, and his opponent, Zhdanov, has installed many cronies in the central government, including Nikolai Voznesensky, chairman of the State Planning Commission and deputy prime minister, and Deputy Prime Minister Kosygin, who control the lifeblood of the country's economy and hold a lot of real power.

Beria had long realized that Mehris's little power in the Red Army alone would not be able to gain sufficient military power. In addition, Mehris has many enemies in the army, and he is annoying, and sooner or later he will be squeezed out of the army.

At present, Manturov is in the army, holding important positions, not only Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, but also a member of the Supreme High Command, deeply trusted by Stalin, and supported by Zhukov, Timoshenko, Shaposhnikov and other generals, and his influence in the army is not small at all.

In addition, he held the position of deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars in the government, mastered the work of Soviet industry and defense construction, made great contributions to the country, and was deeply respected by Stalin and held a certain amount of real power, which made him a key target for Beria.

If Beria succeeds in pulling Manturov into his clique, his influence will infiltrate the government and the army, and in the fierce power struggle in the future, he will be able to use his military power and the real power of the government to achieve a greater victory.

However, Manturov is not a man who is willing to be taken advantage of, nor is he willing to be complicit in villains.

In his eyes, whether it is Beria, or Mehris and Malenkov in the Beria group, they are all out-and-out villains; The political enemy of the Beria clique, Alexander Voznesensky of the Leningrad faction, was a gentleman and a good communist.

Manturov, who insisted on integrity, would rather risk being killed by Beria and join the "Leningrad faction" headed by Zhdanov, risking his life to oppose Beria, rather than joining Beria's gang of villains.

Of course, in the case of choice, Manturov, for the sake of his own life and that of his wife, did not consider defecting to the Leningrad faction, but chose a sensible route and moved closer to the "Old Guard".

The so-called "Old Guard" was another high-level political force in the Soviet Union in addition to the Leningradites and the Beria-Malenkov clique, which was led by Voroshilov, Molotov, Mikoyan and Kaganovich, and was always strong, but did not have any conflict with the other two political forces.

Manturov's marriage to Voroshilov, his father's life-saving grace to Kaganovich, all set the stage between him and the Old Guard.

In the eyes of Beria and Zhdanov, Manturov had always been on the side of the "Old Guard", and his marriage with Voroshilov, as well as his close political cooperation with Molotov and Kaganovich, were widely known.

However, because Manturov's "strategic value" is so high, even if he is in the camp of the "Old Guard", the other two camps are still trying to dig into his corner.

Would Beria deliberately pull Yakov to his side in order to increase the relationship with Manturov, and then pull this young man in through Yakov's connections?