Why did Trotsky think it was good to let Kirikazević? This is completely out of the principle of choosing the lesser of two evils, anyway, Lao Tuo can also see that the position of the secretary of the municipal party committee cannot fall into his hands no matter what, so how to minimize the threat is what he needs to consider.

In the eyes of the people at the time, the two candidates proposed by Stalin were more reliable than Wufeng Jevic in terms of ability and qualifications, especially Svanidze, who had to be capable and qualified, and had been trained for so many years and was well versed in politics. If Swanidze comes to power, then Yue Fei will definitely not have good fruit to eat.

Trotsky also thought so, so between Swanidze and Misty Wind, he decisively chose the latter, probably because Old Toto thought that Misty Wind Jevic was better to deal with. Trotsky's choice made Li Xiaofeng's close assistant Yakov dumbfounded, because when Li Xiaofeng proposed to let Wufeng Jevich compete for the post of secretary of the Leningrad Municipal Party Committee, he was not optimistic about Wufeng Jevich at all, thinking that he had no hope.

When the final results came out, Yakov also had to sigh: "Andrey. Petrovich is a person who can create a miracle, and when everyone is not optimistic about Kirikazevich, only he thinks that Kirikaze Jevic can laugh at the end. It turned out that he was right, but what surprised me even more was that Andrei. Petrovich told me at the outset: 'Trotsky's choice is one and only Misty Windjevic. This assertion is completely correct, and it also indirectly proves that he completely saw through Trotsky and Stalin, and completely understood these two people! ”

Of course. Yakov didn't just say that. There were other things he didn't say explicitly. Because in his opinion Trotsky made a rather stupid choice: "According to what I know about Foggy Eve Vic, this kid was born to be an official, and he knows everything about politics. Petrovich's surroundings have not only broadened his horizons. I'm sure this kid will be a blockbuster! ”

Later, as Yakov said, it was true that the foggy wind jevic was amazing. However, at that time, Li Xiaofeng needed to consider not only the outstanding young people who were in the fog, but also Rokossovsky, Chuikov, Meretskov, Malinovsky and Tolbukhin. Let's be honest. In recent years, Li Xiaofeng has attracted a group of outstanding military talents in the army. It's just that he has attracted too many outstanding talents, and the resources at hand are inevitably insufficient.

What resources are insufficient? Of course, the channels for promotion are insufficient, and the higher you climb in the army, the more difficult it is to climb, for example, from the rank of colonel to major general, you can get stuck 90 percent of the officers. And the competition on each step is extremely fierce.

Previously, Li Xiaofeng's focus was on Rokossovsky, after all, this person who has been with him for the longest time and has the greatest achievements in the future, it is really unreasonable not to focus on training. After ousting Tukhachevsky from power, Li Xiaofeng made Rokossovsky the commander of the First Guards Mechanized Army, which was still called the First Mechanized Infantry Army at that time. Fiercely brushed up on the experience of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Because of his outstanding achievements, Rokossovsky was soon promoted to lieutenant general. Especially after the Battle of the Harakha River, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Army underwent a major adjustment in its establishment, and the title of Guards was added by the way, which made Rokossovsky's resume look good. At the end of 1937, Li Xiaofeng arranged for Rokossovsky to enter the senior commander training class of the Frunze Military Academy again, and if nothing else, in 1939, Li Xiaofeng was able to promote him to general and find him a commander in a certain group army.

In addition, at the end of 1937, the ranks of some senior commanders were adjusted, and Li Xiaofeng was promoted to general because he was in charge of the General Political Department. At the same time, Triandafilov was promoted to general, while Ubolevich was promoted to the new batch of Soviet marshals along with Voroshilov, and Kuznetsov, who had distinguished himself in the Spanish Civil War, was promoted to vice admiral. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the mustachioed Sukhoi, who is familiar to us, was promoted to general because of his outstanding leadership of the Chinese Aid Air Force.

Trotsky was the most injured in this wave of rank adjustments, and several of his leaders at the highest levels of the army were not promoted without exception, even if Tukhachevsky, Khalepsky and Gamarnik were outstanding in Spain, but who made them quit active duty?

Of course, it was not only Li Xiaofeng who gained a lot, but Stalin also gained a lot, Timoshenko was promoted to general and took charge of the Kiev Military District, Zhukov was promoted to lieutenant general and took over the position of commander of the First Cavalry Army. Tsaritsyn's artillery king Kulik became the chief of artillery and was promoted to general. It is worth mentioning that Vasilevsky, who began to rise to prominence, was promoted to major general, and served as the head of the training department of the Army Operations Department of the General Staff.

In addition to these people, for the time being, a number of relatively neutral officers were also promoted, such as Shaposhnikov, who was promoted to general and became commander of the Leningrad Military District, and Konev, who was promoted to lieutenant general and transferred to the commander of an infantry corps.

A dazzling series of changes bode well for the future struggle in the army, but in a progressive sense, a large number of later excellent commanders began to replace the antiques of the October Revolution and could play a greater role in future wars.

In this series of changes, Li Xiaofeng has spent a lot of time on the young people under him, such as Malinovsky and Tolbukhin, who were previously unknown. Compared with Chuikov and Meretskov, they were still going around at the division level and below, and at best they were cadres at the deputy division level. And they didn't catch up with the experience of the Haraha River, and when the Spanish Civil War broke out, these two studied at the Frunze Military Academy, which was really unlucky. It's very difficult to get them up.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng took a lot of effort and sold a lot of favors to stuff these two into the First Guards Mechanized Army, one was the commander of the 1st Guards Tank Division (Tolbukhin), and the other was the new commander Meretskov as the chief of staff, as long as he seized the opportunity in the future. There is a chance to watch xiàn.

The only thing that disappointed Li Xiaofeng was that he was unsuccessful in wooing Vasilevsky. The young general, who came from the First Cavalry, chose to follow his old bosses Budyonny and Voroshilov. Appears dismissive of the olive branch of a certain immortal.

However, Li Xiaofeng was not too disappointed, anyway, his subordinates already had Rokossovsky, Malinovsky and Tolbukhin, as well as Chuikov, who was able to write and martial arts. There are too many cattle, so they don't care about just one Vasilevsky. Moreover, in Li Xiaofeng's view, Vasilevsky is a bit exaggerated, whether it is the recovery of Crimea or the capture of Königsberg, to be honest, it is very ordinary, and in the case of absolute superiority, it can still fight like that. I'm really a little sorry for the prestige.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng was not too frustrated with the failure to recruit Vasilevsky, and soon forgot about it, because with the annihilation of the German volunteers, Spain once again became the focus of the Politburo.

The final battle of annihilation lasted nearly a week, and the German resistance exceeded Tukhachevsky's estimates, and in the end the two sides would fight over almost every inch of land, and it can be said that there was a huge price to pay for not moving forward. If the Red Army did not have the support of naval heavy artillery, I am afraid it would be difficult to take this hard bone.

In the end of this war of annihilation, the situation was quite urgent, because Khalepsky, who was blocking the Nationalist army in the north, could not hold on. With the strength of two brigades, it lasted five days, and finally under the repeated onslaught of Franco, regardless of his sacrifice. The line of defense was declared lost, and by the time the annihilation of the German volunteers was finally completed, the Nationalists were practically only five kilometers away from the encirclement of the international columns!

It was precisely because of Franco's sudden arrival that Tukhachevsky did not have time to clear the battlefield and entered a new round of fighting, which also indirectly led some Germans in the encirclement to escape. The most famous of these was the later Blitzkrieg Guderian, who was mortally wounded and the commander-in-chief of the German Volunteers was carried out of the encirclement on a stretcher by adjutants and orderlies.

When Tukhachevsky learned about this, he regretted it considerably, especially when Guderian easily settled Poland and France with a blitzkrieg, and at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he quickly defeated Eastern Poland into Ukraine and Belarus, inflicting considerable casualties on the Red Army. Tukhachevsky regretted it more and more, and said to the people around him more than once: "If I can eliminate Guderian in Spain, the sacrifice of our Red Army soldiers will be even smaller, too careless!" ”

However, at that time, Guderian was not so famous, and Tukhachevsky did not know which onion his opponent was. At that time, Tukhachevsky was quite satisfied with the annihilation of the German volunteers, and at that time he thought: "The overall situation of Spain has been decided!" ”

Objectively speaking, Tukhachevsky's judgment was right, without the German volunteers, the Nationalist Army would not be afraid at all, and in the ensuing battle, the Nationalist Army would be completely defeated. At the end of May, Franco hastily evacuated Cadiz with the remnants under the cover of the German and Italian navies and fled to Spanish Morocco across the Channel. His defeat meant the end of the Spanish Civil War, which had lasted for more than two years, and the victory of the Popular Front.

However, it must also be noted that this victory was imperfect, as the Popular Front only recovered Spain proper, while Spanish Morocco and the Baleari Islands remained under Franco's control.

It must also be noted that at the end of the civil war, the expression of the Popular Front was very clumsy, and if it were not for the strength of the international columns, it would be really difficult to say what the result was. And it was precisely because of the poor strength of the Popular Front that the political situation in Spain did not fundamentally improve, the remnants of the Falangist continued to engage in covert sabotage, and the anarchists began to break away from the Popular Front and constantly cause trouble for the so-called complete freedom of the central government in Madrid. At the same time, the Catalans' demand for independence grew stronger, and they were at odds with Madrid.

In any case, the situation in Spain is still one word - chaos. Lacking control and courage, Madrid's central government was like a whack-a-mole, struggling to hold on for more than a year, and then declared its downfall.

Of course, there was another crucial reason for the collapse of the central government in Madrid, and that was the deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union, a trend that was evident at the end of the civil war and even more pronounced after the end. Madrid insisted that all international columns must be withdrawn from Spain by October 1938, and it was at odds with the Soviet Union in terms of military spending.

Madrid, for its part, demanded that the Soviets forgive most of their war debts, as well as the "return" of the gold previously sent to Moscow's treasury. This was by no means acceptable in the eyes of the Soviet side. It's been made clear before. Except for one piece of arms and supplies, which are gifts. Most of the rest will have to be paid for by the Spanish government. As far as Spain's treasury gold is concerned, it has long been insolvent, not to mention paying it back to you, you have to make up the difference, okay!

Anyway, over the issue of money, the two sides had a rather unpleasant quarrel, and the Soviet Union finally tore up the post-war economic assistance program that had been reached with the Popular Front. Not only was there no more aid, but the Soviets also insisted that Spain would have to pay for military supplies during the civil war. This is non-negotiable. After going back and forth, the two sides were completely torn apart, even if Luxemburg, Liebknecht and Dimitrov mediated from it to no avail.

And this directly led Spain into chaos and turmoil for the next two decades, to put it mildly, if it were not for the sudden outbreak of World War II in 1939, which diverted the attention of Germany, Italy, Britain, and France from Spain, otherwise this gang of teasers would have been even worse.

Anyway, when World War II was over and another Spanish cabinet came to power to restore relations with the Soviet Union, and the Spanish advisers of that year returned to Spanish soil to help the current cabinet pacify the "separatist forces", they were surprised to find that the country's economy had regressed by at least 50 years. In the words of Kuznetsov, who returned to Spain again: "Populism kills people!" ”

After talking about the Spanish comics. Let's move on to the international arena, Germany and Italy, although in Spain they were strongly resisted by the Soviet Union. Not as successful as it was in history. But in other respects, especially in the policy of appeasement towards Britain and France, it was an unprecedented success. On March 11, 1938, with the connivance of Britain and France, the Nazis easily completed the so-called "unification" of Germany and Austria. This was followed by constant pressure on the Sudetenland, preparations for the dismemberment and annexation of Czechoslovakia.

To tell the truth, at this stage, Britain and France had to express their sincere sorry for their status as international leaders and annex Austria, the British only protested casually twice, and the French were better and pretended not to see it. On the contrary, the Soviet Union has always been a strong opponent of the atrocities of the Nazis, and has more than once shouted internationally: "The League of Nations must come up with effective means and mistakes to protect those who tremble under the iron hooves of the Nazis!" ”

As for the shouts of the Soviet Union, Britain and France did not listen to it, but instead sneered, and even blamed the Soviet Union for many things. Not surprisingly, the gang would soon sell Czechoslovakia to Czechoslovakia and force Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland.

As an aside, in the case of Czechoslovakia, there was a clown who later insisted that he was a victim of the Nazis and World War II, and that was Poland. At the time of the German annexation of Czechoslovakia, the Poles also cut the corpse of Czechoslovakia. These footcloths have never figured out their position, and they are naïve to think that their position on the British and French sides is completely different from that of Czechoslovakia.

But the stupid footcloth would never have imagined that in March 1939, Czechoslovakia fell, and half a year later, it was their turn.

After the Nazi annexation of Austria in March 1938, a series of quarrels erupted in the Politburo over the future direction of the international situation. It was not a battle of lines, but after the annexation of Austria, even Stalin admitted that Hitler's ambitions were beyond imagination, and the connivance of Britain and France could easily make Hitler take risks.

There is no dispute between the two sides about guarding against Germany, but how to prevent it is. Trotsky's views were more direct and tougher, and he demanded that the Nazis be immediately united with the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, including Czechoslovakia, to press the Nazis back by forceful means.

Stalin, on the other hand, was adamantly opposed to this, arguing that the international community of Eastern and Central Europe, including Czechoslovakia, would not have much international weight even if they were united, and would not be sufficient to deal with Germany, which had high ambitions. Moreover, this vote country is the hardcore little brother of Britain and France, and naturally it will not be of the same mind as the Soviet Union. This half-hearted alliance is completely useless!

Stalin believed that only the Soviet Union could curb the Nazi ambitions, but the Soviet Union was not fully prepared for it, and what was needed now was to buy more time, preferably to temporarily paralyze the Nazis, and prevent the despicable means of Britain and France from succeeding. Stalin demanded that relations with Germany and Italy should be temporarily improved in the near future, preferably by a non-aggression pact.

To tell the truth, there is some truth in Stalin's opinion, and historically, the small countries of Central and Eastern Europe are really useless and unreliable at all. Czechoslovakia, for example, only knew that it blindly trusted Britain and France, and did not think that it was in control of its own destiny.

It is true that the USSR could only fight the Nazi ambitions on its own, and it was right to buy the necessary time. The discussion of the Politburo also confirmed Stalin's opinion, and at this time, an accident occurred...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to cjsky, fat fly, agz00025, hzwangdd and comrades Juventus!