I have to admire the spirit of death of the footcloths, that is really hard to surpass all the time to die. AS FOR THE POLISH SPIRIT OF DEATH, LI XIAOFENG CAN ONLY SAY NOZUONODIE, IF YOU ARE WILLING TO DIE, YOU CAN DO IT!

However, in order to prevent the Poles from being unlucky together with the Soviet Union, from October 1939, the General Political Department took the lead in starting a rectification campaign against the Minsk Military District. In the past, when Stalin fell, almost the entire team of the military region, from the commander to the political commissar to the chief of staff, was affected, and it can be said that the entire team was facing a comprehensive blood change.

In order to stabilize people's minds and restore the combat effectiveness of the troops of the Minsk Military District as soon as possible, they can only quickly cut through the chaos. On October 15, Shaposhnikov was transferred to the post of commander of the Minsk Military District, and Bulganin was appointed political commissar, and began to adjust the manpower structure of the military district in an all-round way. A large number of officers who had participated in Stalin's rebellion were transferred from their posts, and more than a dozen leaders at the army level alone fell.

After this adjustment, the Minsk Military District is indeed a little chaotic, and the officers seem to be panicked, but this is also a matter of no choice. Who made this big deal for Stalin?

Of course, not all the officers of the Stalin group were transferred, and some remained, such as Bagramyan, like Grechko. Although these two officials were not high, they could be regarded as the backbone of the Stalin clique in the army. According to the number of ways in which Stalin carried out the Great Purge, these two would definitely not have survived.

Fortunately, this is not a great purge, and for officers like them who are not too "trapped", it is still better to save them. Of course. To say that the career has no impact at all. That's also impossible. They had previously become leaders at the rank of full division or deputy military level, but they were demoted and retained. They became the chief of staff or deputy division commander of the division.

Of course, the adjustment of officers is only one aspect, and more importantly, the adjustment of the branches of the service, Tukhachevsky, who has long seen that the first cavalry is not pleasing to the eye, will not be polite this time, and almost cut off the cavalry of the Red Army, and only three of the thirteen cavalry divisions in the era of the Big Three (the first, second and fourth cavalry divisions) were left, and the rest were disbanded and transformed into motorized or mechanized units. As for the horses. Artillery is still useful.

As the commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps, Zhukov was extremely dissatisfied with such a blatant suppression of the 1st Cavalry and the Voroshilov-Budyonny lineage, and he stupidly wrote a letter to the Military Commission to express strong condemnation.

I have to say that sometimes Zhukov is ignorant of current affairs, the big bosses in the background, Stalin, Voroshilov and Budyonny have all fallen, and the first riding set is the child raised by the stepmother, not to mention suppression, it is normal to be killed. Not to mention that Tukhachevsky's reason is quite good: cavalry will no longer be of any use in future wars!

This conclusion was generally recognized by the Central Military Commission, and Zhukov was a small lieutenant general and a small army commander who went against the trend of the times. Isn't this looking for abuse? So Tukhachevsky taught him how to behave in minutes and removed him from the post of commander of the 1st Cavalry Army. Let him immediately go to study at the newly established Military and Political University of the Red Army.

What is this Military and Political University of the Red Army for? Don't think that it is an institution for training political cadres, this university is actually a reform institution, which is equivalent to labor education. The object of its education was the erring commanders of the Red Army, and this was the institution that Li Xiaofeng had specifically proposed to set up to re-educate the military members of the Stalin clique.

To put it mildly, the people who went to this university were people from the Stalinist system, and it belonged to the institutions used to place commanders who were not particularly wrong and who were not suitable for the time being to remain in leadership positions.

Therefore, cadres who go to the Military and Political University of the Red Army are generally not called advanced study, but study, which are two completely different concepts. In fact, this is still Tukhachevsky's noble hand, originally according to his intention to kill chickens and monkeys, waiting for the Stalinist system to come out and clean up one or two. It was Li Xiaofeng who interceded with Zhukov, which gave the future marshal a chance to mend his ways.

Fortunately, Zhukov is not really stupid, and soon he understands that his arms can't twist his thighs, the first riding set is over, and there will be no more Voroshilov and Budyonny to support them, they no longer have crazy capital, they can only clamp their tails and be people.

At the Military and Political University of the Red Army, Zhukov was not alone, and his old superior, Timoshenko, was also studying here, and the two brothers had some sighs after they met. Of course, they are lucky, and some of them don't even have the opportunity to learn. For example, Kulik, the former Tsaritsyn cannon king, who was considered a core member of Stalin's anti-party clique, was directly involved in the plot to assassinate Lenin, and was sentenced to death after a secret trial.

To tell the truth, at the end of 1939, there was a great upheaval not only in the Minsk Military District, but also in the Central Military Commission. Stalin's crushing defeat also led to a reorganization of the power structure of the Military Commission. Frunze was still the chairman of the Military Commission, Sverdlov was the deputy chairman, and Tukhachevsky, as the People's Commissar of Defense, according to Trotsky's idea, had to be the deputy chairman. However, this proposal was strongly resisted by Xiao Si, and finally it was not resolved.

According to this round of adjustments, the members of the Central Military Commission have been legally determined: the chairman and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the People's Commissar and his vice members for national defense, the chief and deputy leaders of the four general departments, and the directors of the three operational departments under the General Staff.

To tell the truth, when the results came out, Lao Tuo was really speechless, originally he wanted to stuff as many people as possible to the Military Commission, thinking that in addition to Tukhachevsky and him, he would have to occupy one or two more places. The result? It was true that two more places were occupied, and the deputy head of the General Armament Department, Khalepsky, and the head of army operations, Yakil, were elected members of the Military Commission. But the most critical thing is that he himself was kicked out of the Military Commission.

As Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and General Secretary of the Party, Trotsky had no other position in the army, and naturally he was out of the game, and was only qualified as an alternate member of the Military Commission, as well as the chairman of the Soviet Union, Ruzutak, and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Livinov, who had only the right to speak, but not to vote. Anyway, Trotsky felt that he had picked up the sesame seeds and lost the watermelon. But whoever let this be a collective resolution, he can't oppose it if he wants to!

In accordance with the new statute of the Military Commission. The CMC will meet at least three plenary sessions a month. It was presided over by the chairman of the Central Military Commission. Discuss the most important affairs of the Red Army. However, in case of special circumstances, additional ad hoc meetings may be held. The resolutions adopted at the meeting were issued and implemented as orders of the Central Military Commission in the form of orders of the People's Commissar of Defense and instructions of the General Staff.

Among them, the General Staff of the Red Army is the chief representative of the People's Commissariat of National Defense, and in addition to having jurisdiction over the operational, training, and educational departments of the Red Army, it will also be responsible for the specific planning of the Red Army's strategy and operational plans.

In order to better coordinate and mobilize and improve the efficiency of logistical work, the Red Army's military districts were re-divided into five large military districts, replacing the original 16 military regions and two front armies (the Baltic Front and the Far Eastern Red Banner Front) with five large military districts. The five major military districts are: the Moscow Central Military District, the Crimea-Caucasus Military District, the Central Asian Military District, the Far Eastern Military District, and the Siberian Military District.

This reform reorganized the command system of the Red Army. The command system has been adjusted to the following levels: Central Military Commission, large military region, front army, group army, and army. Among them, the original 16 military regions were directly transformed into 16 front armies. For example, the aforementioned Shaposhnikov was the commander of the Minsk Military District at the beginning of his tenure, and after the reform, he was the commander of the Belarusian Front.

This readjustment means that the Red Army has changed from a state of peace to a state of war, in which the new large military region is more like a headquarters in a certain strategic direction, and has the power to command all arms within the military region in a unified manner, and to avoid the ruins of the three armed forces of the navy, army, and air force, which means that the Red Army has taken a crucial step toward a composite force.

Of course, there is not only good news in this transformation, but also a lot of bad news. First and foremost is the issue of equipment. Even through Li Xiaofeng's efforts, the Soviet Union's industrialization process was faster than in history. The industrial capacity was also stronger than in history, and a large number of new weapons and equipment entered service with the Red Army ahead of schedule. However, it must be noted that the industrial base of the USSR was still weak. The explosive rapid increase in production has also brought a series of problems.

First of all, the quality of the equipment is quite unstable, and the products produced by the old factories with strong technical force are completely different from those produced by the new factories built after 1929. A considerable number of workers and technicians in the new factory have poor technical level and lack of experience. For example, the B2 diesel engine and gearbox produced by the tank and armored vehicle production plant in Chelyabinsk generally have only two-thirds of the life span of the Kharkiv side.

What's even more terrifying is that there is really no guarantee of reliability, for example, the 19th Mechanized Infantry Division of the Ukrainian Front reported that the average fail-free cycle of the gearbox is only ten hours. In a field exercise organized in 1939, half of the division's tanks either lay on their stomachs or broke down, just after running 30 kilometers. The remaining half was also stop-and-go, and after fifty kilometers, another third of the tanks stopped because the engine overheated or the gearbox ran out of oil. After the entire 100 kilometers of training, only one-sixth of the T-34 persisted to the end.

Note that this is not an isolated case, but a general phenomenon. According to the statistical structure of the troops visited by Ubolevich, of the 2,000 T-34s that have been put into service in the whole army, only 35% are in good condition. The vast majority of the T-34s were plagued by gearbox failures, and the tank crews could only make do by demolishing the east wall and replacing the west wall.

At that time, Ubolevich reluctantly admitted to the Military Commission: "The performance of the T-34 tank is advanced, but because it is too advanced, and our industrial capacity is limited, it has led to a series of troubles." Among them, the problem with the gearbox is the most serious (the Kharkov and Leningrad gearboxes are actually quite improvised, the reliability and longevity are not good, but the Chelyabinsk ones are even worse). Judging from the feedback from the technical department, it will take time to completely solve the problem of the gearbox, and I am afraid that there will be no major improvement in one to two years. After thorough study and discussion, the only suggestion that the General Armament Department can give at this stage is to equip each T-34 with two sets of gearboxes......"

This solution to the problem is indeed painful, but this can't be blamed on Ubolevich, the industrial level is here, he is a clever woman who has no rice!

In fact, it is not impossible to solve the problem of the gearbox, for example, the T-54 produced by NORINCO does not have this problem at all, although the reliability and life of the same grade products in Europe and the United States cannot be compared, but it is still a level stronger than the Soviet Union. Moreover, NORINCO made full preparations for this world war, and spent huge financial resources to train a large number of excellent workers and technicians. And the production capacity of the production line is also strong enough. It is perfectly possible to provide the Red Army with a better product.

Then why didn't the General Armament Department make large-scale purchases? The reason is simple. One is the issue of face, after all, NORINCO is a Finnish enterprise, and the big Soviet Union can't even catch up with a small country, which is too embarrassing. Secondly, Ubolevich still wants to give the country more opportunities, the hurdle of machining must be overcome, it is true that North Industry can now provide better products, but it is impossible for the Soviet Union to completely use North Industry products, right? What are the consequences of being subject to others. Ubolevich knows too well.

Therefore, he would rather be a little more painful now, pay more economic costs, but also raise the level of domestic machining, in the long run, this price is worth it!

It should be said that Ubolevich is still very far-sighted, and it is precisely because of his persistence, because he gave the country the opportunity, gritted his teeth and survived this painful period, so that the level of machining in the Soviet Union has been qualitatively improved.

And that's just a matter of equipment. Even more serious than the problems with equipment was the poor quality of the population in the Soviet Union. Although from the beginning of the statehood. At the insistence of Lenin and Trotsky, education for all and literacy were carried out. But after all, the time is still too short, and in less than two decades, it is almost impossible to completely reverse the problem.

On the whole, the Red Army soldiers were generally of low literacy, coupled with all sorts of bad Russian habits, such as alcoholism, and tempers of the fighting race. Anyway, the Red Army soldiers looked rough compared to the German devils. Especially in order to prepare for war, the Red Army began to carry out a round of large-scale expansion from 1938, from 100 divisions to 300 divisions.

According to Trian Dafilov's observations: "The newly expanded troops had little combat effectiveness to speak of, and the vast majority of the soldiers had received only three months of minimal military training, and were only able to shoot guns...... As for the grass-roots command personnel, because of the rapid expansion, their quality is also uneven, and a considerable number of platoon commanders and company commanders are young people who have just graduated from military academies, and they only have limited military qualities and do not have much combat experience...... As for the middle-level commanders, there is no problem with their experience, the vast majority of them are veterans of the domestic revolutionary war, they are not afraid of war, and they are even full of expectations for future battles. However, their understanding of war is still at the level of the First World War and the domestic revolutionary war, and they lack the understanding and imagination of war under new technological conditions. In addition, a considerable number of middle-level commanders have the problems of low cultural quality and simple and crude work methods......"

According to Trian Dafilov, immediate action must be taken on these issues, whether by surprise training or by combat learning of war!

Through the past four five-year plans, the Soviet Union has made unprecedented achievements in coal, steel, oil and infrastructure construction, but at the same time, we must also see that there are too many shortcomings left by Tsarist Russia.

After four five-year plans, the Soviet Union was indeed very impressive in many areas, but the degree of refinement was insufficient. For example, in the oil industry, the level of exploration, exploitation and processing in the Soviet Union is far from the world's advanced level. For example, gasoline, the Soviet Union had a low polyoctane number of impurities, which led to low life, low output and high energy consumption of Soviet automobile and aircraft engines. This is also one of the reasons why the performance of the advanced engines imported by the Soviet Union from abroad is generally lower than that of the original after localization.

Not only gasoline, but also bauxite, which is vital to the aviation industry, was also lame in the Soviet Union, which initially had almost no large-scale bauxite, and most of the aviation aluminum had to be imported. Later, it was easy to find a large bauxite mine through exploration, but immediately faced a painful problem, and the electricity was not enough.

The Dnieper hydroelectric power station was actually intended for aluminum and steelmaking, but it was built too late, in 1939. That is, before 1939, the aluminium industry in the USSR was in a semi-lame state. Why did the Soviet Union have so many "wooden" planes in World War II? Do you really think it's because of the ease of wood processing and the abundance of wood in the Soviet Union? The main thing is that Ukraine has fallen, bauxite and hydroelectric power stations are gone, and there is not much aluminum to be smelted, so you can only make do with wood!

At this time, the situation was similar, as of 1939, Li Xiaofeng had been importing a large number of aviation aluminum materials through American channels, which would meet the growing demand of the Red Air Force. And after Germany occupied western Poland and the Soviet Union declared neutrality, the United States suddenly announced the control of the export scale of aviation duralumin under the shameless pretext of maintaining world peace and limiting the arms race.

What is even more infuriating is that the Americans regard aviation duralumin as a restricted export material, but they do not care about the problem of oil exports, allowing oil-poor Japan to import American crude oil at will, so that Japan's war machine can fully operate.

The shameless behavior of the Americans caused great trouble to the Soviet Union, that is, the construction of the Dnieper hydropower station, which did not make the Soviet aviation industry immediately lose its rice. However, in order to solve this problem, Trotsky also showed great courage: "From 1940, within two years we will build at least three large aluminium smelters to solve the problem of the shortage of aluminium for aviation...... The supporting power plant can be made larger, and China's coal and oil resources are abundant, so there is no need to completely rely on hydropower to make aluminum! This investment, I think, has to be the highest priority. Dedicated funds to do this as quickly as possible! (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank xuyiqing1985, sabcdefg, members of the Dead Regiment, Xingmu Stone, agz00025, Kamen Angel 555 and Comrade Juventus!