September 17, 1939, Cherkasy ferry, Ukraine. Four pontoon bridges for tanks and trucks have been erected. Borisov, a member of the Military Council of the Ukrainian Front, accompanied by the first secretary of Ukraine, Nikita Khrushchev, the first deputy people's commissar of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and head of the Main Directorate of State Security, Merkulov, rode in a sedan of the military version of the Gas M-1 and staggered past one of the pontoon bridges.

Next to the car, the "blue hats" of the brigade are marching. They were under the joint control of Khrushchev and Merkulov, who had the rank of National Security Commissar of the third rank (equivalent to lieutenant general).

In order to carry out Stalin's target of "tens of percent" for the suppression of the rebellion, Khrushchev and Merkulov worked for several days and nights in a row to revise the suppression plan and mobilize more internal guard troops. At the same time, it is necessary to talk to the first secretary and the head of the internal affairs department in charge of each of the "liberated regions". Explaining to them the "tricks of the anti-rebellion work" -- this is not easy! Compared with the crude method of the German Nazis in history who sent Jews to death camps for extermination, the purge of the Bolshevik Party in the Soviet Union was a very meticulous and artistic work.

Unlike the historical extermination of European Jews, which relied mainly on the SS system, the purge in Ukraine could not be carried out by relying solely on less than 150,000 "blue hats".

There will be millions of Ukrainians who need to be captured in the gulag, and although it does not seem difficult to do it by the strength of the Red Army, that is not the line of GCISM. The line of GCISM is to rely on the people, not on a handful of secret police. No cause of the Bolshevik Party could be separated from the support of the masses, not even a rebellion. In Ukraine, of course, it is no exception!

"We must rely on the working masses of Ukraine, in bourgeois and landlord Ukraine, who are oppressed slaves, for whom we are liberators, their hope."

Although Khrushchev, who had presided over the anti-insurgency work in Left-Bank Ukraine and the Moscow Oblast, was not in charge of the internal affairs department, he was very experienced in the anti-insurgency work -- the anti-insurgency work was by no means committed by a few murderers and persecutors of the NKVD behind the backs of the party and the people.

This is a revolutionary work under the leadership of the Party, supported by the Soviet people, and carried out under the specific responsibility of the NKVD.

And it was not a crime, but a useful clean-up of Soviet society so that the Soviet Union could survive and develop in the midst of a brutal struggle.

Khrushchev said: "Therefore, it is very important to establish party organizations at all levels in right-bank Ukraine, and strong party organizations can not only ensure the high efficiency of the anti-insurgency work, but also suppress the counterattack of the reactionary forces in Ukraine in the shortest possible time." ”

The first step in the Great Purge in Right-Bank Ukraine turned out to be the organization of the people of Right-Bank Ukraine and the development of Bolshevik Party members among them. With the help of the Ukrainian party organizations on the right bank, the purge of the counter-revolution became easier - in fact, there was always a Bolshevik underground in the right-bank Ukraine! Now it is possible to rely on these "underground party members" and the Ukrainian cadres transferred from the Left Bank as the backbone to build party organizations at all levels in the Right Bank Ukraine.

And then it was these organizations of the Ukrainian Bolshevik Party that led the purge of right-bank Ukraine!

Khrushchev stressed: "Arrests should be carried out on a small scale at the outset, only against counter-revolutionaries with solid evidence and popular grievances...... For the vast majority of Ukrainians on the right bank, the first few months were reassuring. Because the bad guys are only a tiny minority, about 1%, and can't be more than 1.5%. There are also those who are arrested and then released, who are wrongly arrested or who have been convicted of meritorious service. We must let the vast majority of the people see the hope of living a good life, and only in this way can the work of suppressing rebellion be carried out relatively easily.

And, again, I want to emphasize one point. The anti-insurgency work must rely on the party organization, on the Ukrainian cadres, and on the Ukrainian people on the right bank. Representatives of the Internal Affairs Forces and the NKVD are only the executors of the suppression. ”

Yes, the entire NKVD is just a tool for suppression. The purge was not decided by the NKVD, and the NKVD leaders did not have such power, in fact they themselves were sometimes victims of the purge!

And in the suppression of the rebellion in right-bank Ukraine, the role of the NKVD is the same. Relying on the masses of the people (exposing), implementing the party's decisions, and systematically eliminating a part of the people. At the same time, it is necessary to keep the remaining people safe and hopeful...... Even those who are caught in it can't make them completely desperate.

Because millions of people will not be sent to the gas chambers, this is not the Soviet style.

The Bolsheviks did not want to destroy people, but to transform them. The future that awaits the vast majority of arrested Ukrainians is not execution, but long-term labor reform. Even if they are sentenced to death by the "three-member committee", they have the opportunity to get their sentence commuted through appeal (the probability of commutation is very high, 95% or higher), and sometimes they can get a commutation without appealing, because no one actually reads the complaint submitted, and the cadre responsible for commutation only has to complete the task according to the target.

Of course, many people will die in the process of transformation, and there will be people who will persist until they are released (most people, no matter how long the sentence is, will not come out until Khrushchev becomes the No. 1 big brother of the Soviet Union). However, there will be some people who will be released halfway through, and joining the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War is a way (the most dangerous tasks will await them), as well as being rehabilitated - there are also indicators of rehabilitation, which is an encouragement to both those who have been arrested and those who are actively arrested. Because the vast majority of people believe that they are innocent and think that they have made a mistake in the organization......

……

"Old man, can Kyiv hold for 6 months?"

Just as Comrade Khrushchev was crossing the river, in Kiev, which was already on the verge of encirclement, two of the most reactionary people in right-bank Ukraine, Petliula and Yev Khan. Konovalets is speaking from a bunker next to a makeshift airport in the center of Kyiv, a converted main road.

The dull roar was constantly heard, it was Soviet bombers dropping bombs - the Ukrainian defense forces did not have an air force, so air supremacy fell into the hands of the Soviet Red Army from the beginning.

However, the bombing of the Soviet Red Air Force was also expected, and the Ukrainians spent 20 years turning Kyiv from a metropolis into a big fortress, and naturally expected a big bombardment - most of the citizens and factories of Kyiv have moved to Lviv in the past 20 years, and almost all of the Ukrainian defense officers and soldiers who remain in Kyiv are uniformed, and there are enough bomb shelters to hide.

"Simon, I think you know the answer." Yev Khan, the number two of the Ukrainian "white bandits". Konovales smiled bitterly, "Although we have a lot of people, we are not good in weaponry and training, and we don't have enough officers. ”

Although the Free State of Ukraine is one of the main subjects of the Polish Federation, the Poles do not really trust the Ukrainians, and it is natural to limit the force of the Ukrainians. Therefore, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have always been Poland's "motley army", there are no good weapons, and there are very few places for Ukrainians in Poland's officer schools.

However, Kyiv is not without heavy weapons, after all, this is a fortress operated by the Polish army for almost 20 years, and naturally there are many heavy artillery, all of which are old guns aided by the French. Most of them were 155mm cannons of the 1890 and 1898 models, with a range of only 6-7 km, and there were 121 of them. In addition, there were a small number (18) of Schneider 155mm 1917 long-barreled cannons, which were aided to Poland by France in 1938.

These 129 heavy guns were placed in a fort carefully designed by French engineers, and they were not easily destroyed.

In addition, the number of water-cooled machine guns and mortars is sufficient. But there were not many anti-tank guns, medium and light field guns and mountain artillery. As for the tank, there is not one!

The main anti-tank weapon was a simple ****** -- gasoline was poured into a wine bottle, the mouth of the bottle was sealed with a strip of cloth, and the fire was lit and thrown out during combat.

"If 6 months doesn't work, then 3 months," Petliura patted Yev Khan. "We can only procrastinate and wait for change...... Dragged to Germany and the USSR against each other, our Ukrainians will have a chance! ”

The way to delay, one is to defend the city, in addition to Kiev, Vinnytsia and Odessa have also made arrangements to hold on; The other method is guerrilla warfare, where half of the units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces have been broken up and scattered to establish guerrilla strongholds.

However, the experience of the civil war in Soviet Russia has taught Petliula and Yev Khan. "Old white bandits" like Konovales, the guerrilla war did little for the Bolsheviks. They have Cheka fighters, they have party organizations at all levels, they can suppress all resistance!

Therefore, holding the stronghold, and moving the population to western Ukraine as much as possible, became the main means of resistance for Petliura.

"Okay!" Yev Khan. Konovaletz nodded, "I'll do whatever it takes to persevere...... The city of Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress, and it is our biggest trump card! ”

Kiev was a big city in Tsarist times and had a lot of fortified buildings, which are now fortified into fortresses. These sturdy structures are also connected by dozens of kilometers of tunnels underneath. It's not that easy to occupy!

"Also," Petliura said to Yev Khan at the end. Konovales said, "Don't die in Kyiv, Ukraine still needs you!" When the airfield in the city center is almost unfortunate, send a telegram to Lviv, I will send Junkers 52 to pick you up, land at night, and then leave immediately, just take a little risk. (To be continued.) )