Chapter 46 The Candidates for Visiting Britain Are Determined

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"Will the general secretary attend today's regular meeting of the Politburo?" Gorbachev sat in his office quietly waiting for the answer. General Secretary Chernenko has been feeling unwell recently, and was admitted to the hospital again a week after he was discharged from the hospital. According to regulations, if General Secretary Chernenko cannot attend, he will appoint a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo to preside over the meeting instead. The last time Gorbachev presided over the regular meetings of the Politburo. And this time, for the sake of balance, perhaps Gromyko would be responsible for presiding over the meeting. However, Gorbachev still harbored a glimmer of hope.

Gorbachev has a plan for the workers' new city that needs to be discussed at today's meeting. Gorbachev intends to use the model of the workers' new city to carry out a large-scale housing renovation plan in Moscow, bringing back the Khrushchev era. The tube buildings built were transformed into a modern comprehensive community like the Workers' New Town. In fact, it is most appropriate for Seryozha to handle this matter, but the import of grain by the Ministry of Foreign Trade is more important. Later, Yakovlev recommended to him a comrade from other places - Yeltsin, the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk State Party Committee. He has a good resume background in architecture, municipal engineering and even industrial construction. The most important thing is that he is still a member of the Central Committee, so he can be assigned to be the head of the Ministry of Construction, so that he can control the building in his own hands. .

There were less than ten minutes left before the regular meeting, just when Gorbachev was about to leave the office in disappointment. His dedicated phone rang suddenly, and Gorbachev was overjoyed. He returned to his seat to calm down. Then he took a deep breath, picked up the microphone and put it to his ear and said, "This is Gorbachev, please speak!"

"Secretary Gorbachev, I'm sorry that I'm not feeling well today. I'm afraid I need you to preside over today's regular meeting! Please tell the comrades, and say sorry for me!" General Secretary Chernenko panted on the phone Said gruffly.

"Take care of yourself, General Secretary! I hope you will recover soon!" Gorbachev said in a calm and passenger-friendly tone, but the corners of his mouth could not help but curl up, and now he can hold Gromyko's head again.

Gorbachev happily picked up the folder and walked out of the conference room. The cadres who met him along the way stopped consciously and said to him: "Secretary Gorbachev!" Gorbachev thought to himself, when can Secretary Gorbachev be replaced by Gorbachev? General Secretary Qiaofu will be fine.

In the conference room of the Supreme Soviet, several Politburo Standing Committee members sat in their seats in advance! Each of them has received comrades from the General Secretary's Office and knows that today's meeting will be chaired by Gorbachev. Many people originally thought that if General Secretary Chernenko did not attend, it would be Gromyko's turn to preside over the meeting this time!

Gorbachev sat in the position of General Secretary Chernenko, and everyone looked at him unconsciously. Gorbachev cleared his throat, and then announced: "General Secretary Chernenko is not feeling well, so he won't be here today. He asked me to say sorry to everyone! Today's meeting is presided over by me, let's follow the procedure !Everyone will briefly talk about the issues that need to be discussed on their side, Comrade Gromyko, let's start with you!"

Gromyko glanced at Gorbachev with complicated eyes, and then opened his folder. He started to introduce the affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the rest of the Standing Committee listened carefully. Everyone had about five minutes to speak. The 12 members of the Standing Committee (Chernenko was not present) took turns to complete a round for exactly one hour, and then they would have specific discussions on some key issues, such as the voting. In this way, it is considered efficient for a regular meeting to end within three hours.

After a round of speeches, everyone roughly understood what everyone was doing. Gorbachev's topic was about the new municipal planning in Moscow, while Gromyko's was about the candidates to visit Britain. Obviously, neither of these two things is so easy to handle.

This kind of thing often happens. If there is a serious disagreement on a certain issue during voting, no one can persuade anyone. As long as it is not very urgent, it can be postponed to the next regular meeting! The issue of candidates to visit the UK has been arguing for several months. Gromyko wanted to go to the UK by himself, so he obstructed Gorbachev in every possible way. Gromyko was an old comrade, with much stronger political background than Gorbachev, so in this matter, he was able to put the issue aside every time. However, when it comes to the visit to the UK, Gromyko has a little disadvantage. He is an expert on the diplomatic front, but the main topic of this visit to the UK is trade. In this matter, the Secretariat has much greater say than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, Gromyko is not the best candidate for this visit to Britain, but he would rather not go than let Gorbachev go.

"Comrades, now we are voting on the candidates for the visit to the UK again! Since the British side has issued an invitation to me, I will not express my opinion! Okay, comrades who agree to re-appoint the candidates for the visit to the UK, please raise your hands! ’ announced Gorbachev.

Unsurprisingly, several of Gromyko's allies raised their hands, though not more than half of them. But since many members of the Standing Committee of Brezhnev's faction will abstain on this issue, it is almost 50-50 every time.

"Comrades who oppose the reappointment of candidates for the visit to Britain, please raise your hands?" Gorbachev then asked.

Gorbachev glanced over, and those members of the Standing Committee who supported him raised their hands one after another. One, two, three... Wait, why did Tikhonov support himself? Everyone in the Dnepropetrovsk Gang raised their hands. What day is it today? Am I dreaming?

The smile on Gromyko's face began to fade away. Why did Tikhonov support Gorbachev? What kind of deal did they strike? Why isn't there any wind coming out? Gromyko looked at Gorbachev in surprise, and he found that Gorbachev seemed a little surprised too? For Chernenko's great gift, neither of the two stakeholders was prepared.

"Okay, comrades! It seems that everyone has already had an opinion. Thank you for your support. I will be responsible for the task of visiting the UK this time!" Gorbachev tried to calm himself down. He knew that he had won As long as he won a key battle with Gromyko, as long as he didn't mess up the mission of visiting Britain and proved that the party still needed him, he would not retire at the party congress one and a half years later. At that time, a large number of young cadres trained by Andropov will be able to be promoted to the central government, and their strength will be enhanced.