"In view of Comrade Yuri Yefimovich Serov's outstanding sensitivity and vigilance in national security work, the rank of general is hereby conferred, and it is hoped that Comrade Serov will be able to perform even better in national security work in the future. Pen %Fun %Cabinet www.biquge.info "Khrushchev announced the news after a short period of consideration.

Thus, two years after taking over as chairman of the KGB, Serov was further awarded the rank of general by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the USSR. At the age of thirty-eight, he managed to break through Khrushchev's restrictions on the rank of the KGB and became one of the few generals. Historically, this restriction was broken by Brezhnev in order to win over Semychasny after Khrushchev stepped down, and awarded Semychasny the rank of General, and later Andropov. And Serov broke through this limit during Khrushchev's tenure.

A little later, Mikoyan, chairman of the Supreme Soviet, awarded Serov the Gold Medal of Hero of the Soviet Union, Serov's second Hero of the Soviet Union, in recognition of his remarkable acumen during his work in Indonesia.

"Itvasov has reached retirement age, and Brezhnev once proposed a new candidate for the first deputy chairman, but you were not in Moscow at the time, so Comrade Khrushchev did not agree, and now that you are back, the meaning of the first secretary is to let you decide for yourself, after all, this is the tradition of your security organs. Got it? After awarding Serov the medal, Mikoyan said earnestly, "Old Ivan has adopted an excellent child, and you are better than several of my children." ”

Old Ivan refers to Marshal Baghramyan, and both Mikoyan and Marshal Baghramyan are Armenians. As for the children mentioned by Mikoyan, they are his children, and Mikoyan is a rare kind of person in the Soviet top who has a full house of children and grandchildren, and every time he takes a family photo, it is very lively, and there are nearly twenty people in his family.

"The retirement of Comrade Itvasov is a loss for our safe work, but I will choose an assistant!" Serov did not expect that when he was not in the Lubyanka, Brezhnev was ready to go to the KGB Cypriots. However, Khrushchev would not allow this department to be controlled by others, so Brezhnev would not mention it a second time later.

After returning to the Lubyanka, Serov got acquainted with it for a few days to see if anything was different after he left. After confirming that there were no problems, a meeting of the presidium was convened, at which he first praised Itvasov's work, and then said that he already had a candidate for the new first deputy chairman of the KGB, and said, "The head of the Main Directorate of Personnel, Philip? Denisovich? Lieutenant General Bobkov, as a professional anti-rebel worker, his abilities are trustworthy. The official appointment will be announced at the National Security Conference in three days' time, and Comrade Itvasov will also be present at the National Security Conference, where we will bid farewell to Comrade Itvasov in the hope that Comrade Itvasov will be able to live an easy old age after retirement......"

Serov's words caused a round of applause, and at the same time the new head of the Main Directorate of Personnel turned into a young cadre whom he had secretly trained. Of course, the KGB's General Directorate of Personnel is very important, and the reason why it has been slow to take action against the General Directorate of Personnel is mainly that Bobkov himself is capable and does not belong to anyone's subordinates. In this case, it is better to let him take over Itvasov's post this time than to let Brezhnev arrange someone to come in.

A few days later, at the National Security Congress, the new KGB First Deputy Chairman Philip ? Denisovich? Colonel-General Bobkov met with security cadres from all over the country and was given the opportunity to speak, "As a young Communist Party member and an experienced fighter, in order to adapt myself to the work of the security services in the future, I was sent to study at the school "Smelsh" in Leningrad. When I first walked through the school gates, it was just in time for a total solar eclipse and it was dark. I thought to myself, "Could this be a good omen?" "Of course, everyone has a different idea about the work of a security system, and it is often an illusory yearning that comes from literature. When school opened, it was a completely different situation - we understood that what awaited us was a tedious daily affair that required all the effort, especially a wealth of knowledge and skill. ”

"Today I received the nomination of Chairman Serov to become the first deputy chairman in charge of internal security, I am personally very excited, our work is very important, some tedious things happen every day in the Soviet Union, even some trivial things, these things do not seem important, but if we do not deal with them, the repercussions will spread throughout the country, so today I attended this congress with a nervous heart, I hope that comrades will work with me to protect this country, thank you." After General Bobkov finished expressing his feelings, he bowed slightly and showed good cultivation. The entire auditorium burst into applause.

"Khrushchev still didn't worry about other commissioners inserting people into the KGB......," Brezhnev, who returned to his home, unloaded his burden, and he would not hide his thoughts by Kirilenko and Chernenko's side. A person always has to have a few friends, and he must also trust some people.

"Why? In this department, we have to have our own people, and Serokov himself is not enough. Kirilenko thought for a moment and asked, "Is the problem with Sherepin?" That strongman doesn't want his domain to be infiltrated? Or is it something else? ”

"It was Podgorny who had a problem, so Khrushchev clung to the rights of the KGB, fearing that a second Podgorny would appear." Brezhnev looked at the problem from a much more subtle angle than his left and right hands.

Why did Khrushchev trust Sherepin so much? Chernenko asked very incomprehensibly.

"Because?" Brezhnev smiled bitterly and leaned back on the sofa and said helplessly, "Because Sherepin is young, Khrushchev is almost seventy years old, and the ages of him and Sherepin have been completely staggered." On the contrary, my age is more awkward, but fortunately, Shelepin is not like Kozlov and Podgorny, who is so close to my age, I can deal with him slowly in the future. ”

"Sooner or later we're going to get rid of those young people." Kirilenko took a deep breath and said to himself, "Sooner or later, ......"

"Serov's rank has been raised again, and now he should be considered the number two person among Shelepin's friends, right?" Chernenko turned to the issue of Serov, "I don't know who is more important in the eyes of Sherepin, Semychasny or Serov." ”

"In terms of position, it should be Serov, and in terms of status, it should be Semychasny, and Semychasny became the secretary of the Central Committee like Andropov, and the right to organize is more important, and it is important to get Shelepin's people out of the Secretariat." There were some things that Brezhnev didn't actually tell his two assistants. Khrushchev was ready to add Serov as an alternate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee after Serov returned, but he didn't know how to stop it at that time, or Suslov spoke to let Serov settle for a while, otherwise he would have a headache now.

"Chairman, the Kremlin asked us to evaluate the project." In Serov's office at the KGB headquarters on Lubyanka Square 11, Servanov pushed the door open and handed in a report.

"I'll see!" When Serov took it, his expression became very serious, this is a big project. To put it simply, it is the project of the century carried out by the Soviet Union in history, the diversion of water from the north to the south. At a glance, it is clear that this project is a huge project specially designed to solve the agricultural problems of the Soviet Union.

There was a serious imbalance in the distribution of water resources in the Soviet Union, which was one of the countries with the richest freshwater resources in the world. The whole territory has been flat for many years. The average river runoff is 4,387 billion cubic meters, accounting for about 9% of the world's total land average river runoff, second only to Brazil and ranking second in the world. The average runoff per square kilometer is only 197,000 cubic meters, which is less than that of many countries in the world, but the per capita river runoff is about 16,000 cubic meters, which is 1.5 times the world's per capita annual runoff.

The distribution of surface runoff in the USSR did not coincide with the distribution of industry and population. The vast majority of runoff is distributed in the sparsely populated northern and eastern regions, flowing into the ocean and underutilizing. The main industrial regions of the former Soviet Union, most of the cities and the main agricultural areas, are located in the southwestern part of the country, the central semi-humid region, where surface runoff is insufficient and unstable, often bringing periodic droughts. For example, in the lower reaches of the Volga River, the North Caucasus, the southern part of Ukraine, northern Kazakhstan, and the southern part of Western Siberia, the main grain-producing areas such as low precipitation, insufficient water sources, and droughts occur from time to time, making agricultural production very unstable and alternating between abundance and shortage.

Three years ago, Khrushchev approved the decision to dig the Irtysh-Karaganda Canal, which is only a sub-project of this plan, and it can be said that once this plan is completed. The problems of agriculture in the USSR would certainly be alleviated.

"Let the General Administration of Domestic Espionage, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Administration of Border Guards follow up at the same time, convene our geologists and scientists to evaluate this plan, if there are no side effects or relatively few side effects, immediately report to the Central Presidium to submit a safety report, the speed should be fast, I don't want to see an assessment and evaluation for four or five years, I will only give you one year to investigate the river situation and geological conditions involved," Serov did not dare to slack off on this plan, The project of the century, which began with Khrushchev and ended on the map of Go, the sooner it began, the better.

According to the plan's biggest picture, the benefits of the project are simply too many, and they will have a powerful impact on industrial agriculture, from power generation to agricultural irrigation to river networks. Not to mention affecting the environment, no matter how big the price is, you can afford it. (To be continued.) )