The Rise of the Third Reich

September 17, 1939, Cherkasy ferry, Ukraine. Four pontoon bridges for tanks and trucks have been erected. Member of the Military Commission of the Ukrainian Front Borisov accompanied Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, and Merkulov, the First Deputy People's Commissar of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Director of the General Administration of State Security, on a GAZ M- 1 A military-style car passed precariously on one of the pontoons.

Next to the car, large groups of "blue hats" were marching. They were internal security forces jointly controlled by Khrushchev and Merkulov, who held the rank of third-level State Security Councilor (equivalent to lieutenant general).

In order to implement Stalin's "tens of percent" counter-revolutionary targets, Khrushchev and Merkulov worked for days and nights, revising the counter-revolutionary plan and mobilizing more internal security forces. At the same time, we also need to talk to the first secretary in charge of each "liberated state" and the head of the internal affairs department. Explaining to them "the secrets of counter-revolutionary work" - this is not easy! Compared with the crude method used by the German Nazis in history to send Jews to death camps for extermination, the Soviet Bolshevik Party's purge of counter-revolutionaries was a very meticulous and artistic work.

Unlike the extermination of European Jews, which historically relied mainly on the SS system, the elimination of counter-revolutionaries in Ukraine cannot rely solely on less than 150,000 "blue hats."

There are millions of Ukrainians who need to be captured in the Gulag. Although it does not seem difficult to rely on the power of the Red Army, that is not the line of GC doctrine. The line of socialism is to rely on the people, not on a small number of secret police. No cause of the Bolshevik Party can be separated from the support of the people, even the purge of counter-revolutionaries. Of course, Ukraine is no exception!

"We have to rely on the working people of Ukraine, who are oppressed slaves in bourgeois and landowning Ukraine. For them, we are their liberators and their hope."

Although Khrushchev, who once presided over the anti-revolutionary work in Left Bank Ukraine and Moscow Oblast, was not the head of the internal affairs department, he was very experienced in the anti-revolutionary work - the anti-revolutionary work was by no means the murderous and persecuted work of a few NKVDs. They commit crimes 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 by the NKVD.

And it was not a criminal act, but a beneficial cleanup of Soviet society so that the Soviet Union could survive and develop in the cruel struggle.

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

The first step in the great purges in Right Bank Ukraine turned out to be to organize the people of Right Bank Ukraine and develop Bolshevik Party members among them. With the help of right-bank Ukrainian party organizations, the action of eliminating counterrevolutionaries will become easier - in fact, there have always been Bolshevik underground organizations in right-bank Ukraine! Now we can rely on these "underground party members" plus Ukrainian cadres transferred from the left bank as the backbone to establish party organizations at all levels in right bank Ukraine.

Then these Ukrainian Bolshevik Party organizations will lead the purge of right-bank Ukraine!

Khrushchev emphasized: “The arrests should be small-scale at the beginning, only targeting counterrevolutionaries with solid evidence and public grievances... For the vast majority of right-bank Ukrainians, the first few months are reassuring. Because there are only a very small number of bad people, about 1%, no more than 1.5%. There are also some people who are released after being arrested, or who have been convicted and punished. We want the vast majority of people to see that they can live a good life. hope, only in this way can the work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries be carried out more easily.

And, there is one thing I want to emphasize again. The work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries must rely on party organizations, Ukrainian cadres, and the Ukrainian people on the right bank. Representatives of the NKVD and the NKVD were merely the executors of the purge. "

Yes, the entire NKVD was just a tool to suppress counterrevolutionaries. The purges were not decided by the NKVD, nor did the leaders of the NKVD have such power. In fact, they themselves were sometimes victims of the purges!

In the anti-revolutionary work in right-bank Ukraine, the role of the NKVD is the same. Rely on the people (expose), implement the party's decision, and eliminate some people in a planned way. At the same time, it is necessary to keep the remaining people safe and hopeful... Even those who are caught cannot be allowed to completely despair.

Because millions of people would not be sent to gas chambers, that was not the Soviet way.

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 reform through labor. Even if they are sentenced to death by the "three-person committee", they still have a chance to get their sentences commuted through appeals (the chance of commutations is very high, 95% or higher). Sometimes they can get commuted sentences without filing an appeal, because the appeal submitted actually No one will watch. The cadres responsible for commuting sentences just complete the tasks according to the targets.

Of course, many people will die in the process of reform, and some will persist until they are released (most people, no matter how long they are sentenced, will not be released until Khrushchev becomes the number one boss of the Soviet Union). However, some people will be released in the middle of the process. Joining the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War is one way (the most dangerous tasks await them), and restoring reputation is another way - there are also indicators for restoring reputation, which is an encouragement to those who have been arrested and those who are actively arrested. Because most people believe that they are innocent and think that the organization has made a mistake...

...

"Old man, can Kiev hold on for 6 months?"

Just as Comrade Khrushchev crossed the river, in Kiev, which was about to fall into the encirclement, the two most reactionary people in the right bank of Ukraine, Petliura and Yevkhan Konovalets, were talking in a bunker next to a temporary airport converted from a main road in the center of Kiev.

The dull roar continued to come, which was the 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 expected. It took the Ukrainians 20 years to turn Kiev from a metropolis into a large fortress, and they naturally expected to face a large bombing. Most of the citizens and factories of Kiev have moved to Lviv in the past 20 years. Almost all the Ukrainian Defense Forces officers and soldiers who remain in Kiev are in uniform, and there are enough air-raid shelters to hide.

"Simon, I think you know the answer." Yevhan Konovalec, the second-in-command of the Ukrainian "White Bandits", smiled bitterly, "Although we have a lot of people, our weapons and equipment and training are not good, and we don't have enough officers."

Although the Ukrainian Free State is one of the main bodies of the Polish Federation, the Poles do not really trust the Ukrainians, and naturally they have to restrict the Ukrainian force. Therefore, the Ukrainian Defense Force has always been Poland's "miscellaneous army" without any good weapons, and the Polish military academy has few places for Ukrainians.

However, there are heavy weapons in Kiev. After all, this is a fortress that the Polish army has operated for nearly 20 years. Naturally, there are many heavy artillery, all of which are old artillery aided by the French. Most of them are 1890-style and 18-gun cannons, with a range of only 6-7 kilometers, and there are 121 of them. In addition, there are a small number (18) of Schneider 155mm 1917-style long-barreled cannons, which were donated to Poland by France in 1938.

These 129 heavy guns are placed in the artillery forts carefully designed by French engineers, and are not easy to destroy.

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

The main anti-tank weapon is a simple firearm - pour gasoline into a wine bottle, seal the bottle mouth with a cloth strip, and light it on fire and throw it out during combat.

"If 6 months doesn't work, then 3 months will do," Petliura patted Yevkhan Konovalets, "We can only rely on delaying and waiting for changes... When Germany and the Soviet Union turn against each other, we Ukrainians will have a chance!"

The way to delay is to defend the city. In addition to Kiev, Vinnitsa and Odessa have also made arrangements to hold on; and the other way is guerrilla warfare. Half of the Ukrainian Defense Forces have been divided into small units and scattered to various places to establish guerrilla strongholds.

However, the experience of the Soviet-Russian Civil War told "old white bandits" like Petliura and Yevkhan Konovalets that guerrilla warfare has little effect on the Bolsheviks. They have Cheka fighters and party organizations at all levels, which can suppress all resistance!

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

"Okay!" Yevkhan Konovalets nodded, "I will do everything I can to hold on... The city of Kiev has been transformed into a fortress, and it is our biggest trump card!"

Kiev was a big city in the Tsarist era, with many sturdy buildings, and now these buildings have been reinforced into fortresses. There are dozens of kilometers of tunnels connecting these sturdy buildings underground. It's not that easy to occupy!

"In addition," Petliura finally said to Yevkhan Konovalets, "Don't die in Kiev, Ukraine still needs you! When the airport in the city center is about to be lost, send a telegram to Lviv, and I will send a Junkers 52 to pick you up, land at night, and then leave immediately, just take a little risk."