Chapter 77 The Puppet Chernenko
To be honest, Seryozha did not feel that Gaidar was so outstanding just by relying on the interview at Yakovlev's house. Being able to read and being able to do things are completely two concepts. However, since he agreed to take over Gaidar, and the other party was an expert "down to earth" from the National Economic Reform Commission, Seryosha had already thought of a wonderful position to deal with this guy, that is, the chief economist of the Foreign Trade Bank. Since economic theory is Gaidar's strong point, let Gaidar take the position of chief economist to cheer for Serezha's foreign trade policy!
February in Moscow is cold, and New York, thousands of miles away, is also not a warm season in February. But Gromyko's heart was as hot as midsummer. Just after he came to the United States with anticipation, as expected, the Secretary of State of the United States secretly contacted him. And told Gromyko the great news that the successful re-elected US President Reagan wanted to meet him to discuss mutual trust between the two countries and regional security issues.
How Gromyko wanted to immediately disclose this news to the media of all countries in the world and to the comrades of the Central Committee of the CPSU! But Gromyko just held back, because the Americans chose a "secret" interview. Moreover, Gromyko didn't know what conditions the Americans wanted to put forward. What if the negotiations broke down during the meeting, making the relationship even more rigid, or what if the American lion opened his mouth?
Gromyko finally consulted General Secretary Chernenko. Chernenko was extremely excited when he heard the news. He was already tired of the arms race with the Americans. Although Andropov's tenure as general secretary was short, some of Andropov's reform measures appeared to be very effective. If the Americans are willing to let the Soviet Union take a breather in the arms race, the Soviet economy may be able to return to a normal track.
Gromyko quickly left the affairs of the United Nations General Assembly to his assistants, and he himself did not show up again. Gromyko hopes that too much news will not leak from the media before the meeting again. Mainly because Gromyko didn't want Gorbachev's men to notice.
And what was Gorbachev doing during this time? He is now busy receiving the members of the Central Committee who have come to Moscow to attend the Congress of the Supreme Soviet. Gorbachev's successor position has basically been determined now, and General Secretary Chernenko's perennial inability to govern has given Gorbachev more power. Gorbachev's purview now includes agriculture, economics, education, ideology and foreign affairs. Everyone has seen his hard work this year, especially after Gorbachev returned from the UK, basically everyone has regarded him as the successor of General Secretary Chernenko.
The Congress of the Supreme Soviet gave Gorbachev and local cadres a chance to get to know each other. Of course, there were not a few members of the Central Committee who took the initiative to come to encourage them to work. Gorbachev doesn't want to make a wish now, just to cause trouble for himself. He just wants to continue to consolidate his position in a low-key and low-key manner.
Gorbachev was waiting, Gromyko was waiting, Seryosha was waiting. But General Secretary Chernenko, who was supposed to be in charge of the overall situation, was trying to adapt to breathing in the ward.
Chernenko suffered from severe emphysema. As early as the election for the next leader after Andropov's death, Chernenko concealed his illness from comrades in the Party Central Committee and Politburo. Chernenko originally thought that he would have time to fulfill the mission entrusted to him by history and lead the Soviet Union out of the predicament, but he no longer has this time.
The supreme leader of the Soviet Union will never retire, and only the moment of death will be finally relieved. Since Chernenko's condition worsened, almost every public event will torture him to death. At the October Revolution commemoration ceremony, Chernenko stood on the Lenin Mausoleum for nearly three hours against the cold wind and heavy snow. After returning, Chernenko could not even believe that he was still alive.
Chernenko is now worrying about how he will deal with the upcoming Congress of the Supreme Soviet.
This is the last session of the Supreme Soviet of the Twenty-Sixth Congress. It was impossible for Chernenko not to attend. He was even a little afraid of these activities now. For the first time, he felt the torment of power. Khrushchev, who was ousted from power, must have experienced this feeling, and Brezhnev, who was emptied after a stroke, must have experienced it too. Now it is Chernenko's turn.
During this year, Gorbachev miraculously changed from Chernenko's opponent to Chernenko's reliable partner. Instead, Gromyko became the biggest obstacle in Chernenko's economic reform process.
Recalling Gromyko's deeds in the past year, he tried every means to obstruct Gorbachev's visit to the United Kingdom and Western Europe to improve relations. He also prevented East German leader Erich Honecker from traveling to West Germany for the historic meeting between West German leader Willy Brandt. It seems that Gromyko did not want to give the Soviet Union a moment's respite.
Chernenko was temporarily forgetting his illness due to the divergence of thinking in his mind, when a knock on the door made Chernenko notice his physical pain again.
"General Secretary, here are the documents sent by the Kremlin today!" A secretary put a large stack of documents at Chernenko's feet, Chernenko raised his hand, and the other party immediately understood Chernenko's the meaning of. So he began to read sentence by sentence to Chernenko. After Chernenko listened to the contents of the entire document, if he nodded in agreement, the secretary would use a photocopier to add Chernenko's autograph to the signature at the end of the document.
"Aren't I deceiving myself?" Chernenko suddenly sighed in his heart.
In this way, the efficiency of handling official affairs is extremely slow, and Chernenko will lose his patience in a short time, and ask the secretary to directly add signatures to all the documents without even looking at them. In fact, this habit of Chernenko has now spread to the ears of members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. If the Politburo does not want Chernenko to veto any issue, it only needs to put this document at the bottom.
Although Chernenko has tried his best to prove his existence, he has in fact been evacuated by the staff around him and the Politburo. Chernenko doesn't even have the strength to sign now. It looks like he is still in control, but in fact he is just doing useless work.