Chapter 172 Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan
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A week after the symposium ended, "Komsomolskaya Pravda" really followed Seryosha's instructions to change its weekend edition, adding introductions to foreign films. In order to encourage the comrades of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" to continue reforming in the way he said, Sergesha handed over the first advertisement of McDonald's in the Soviet Union to "Komsomolskaya Pravda". Although Volkswagen was the first project introduced by Seryozha to the Soviet Union, it took too long to build a factory, and it was not as flexible as a catering company like McDonald's. Just over a month after Yeltsin returned to China, the first McDonald's restaurant was grandly opened near Moscow. Yeltsin was invited to attend the opening ceremony as the opening guest. As the first American restaurant in the Soviet Union, This McDonald's attracted tens of thousands of customers to line up, and "Komsomolskaya Pravda" also changed from the previous serious news theme, and regarded the opening of McDonald's restaurant as a symbol of Gorbachev's reform. However, what surprised the majority of young people in Moscow was the large advertisement for McDonald’s that was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda. The trick made the sales of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" several times that day.
However, everyone soon discovered that the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" actually published news about Hollywood movies and British rock musicians. I can see the impression. But now "Komsomolskaya Pravda" began to introduce foreign cultures with great fanfare, which made many young people who had given up on this newspaper become readers of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" again.
The good start of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" made the editors of the newspaper office more satisfied with the new line pointed out by Seryozha. Under the request of the Communist Youth League Pravda, some experienced business managers were hired from the Youth Science and Technology Cultural Center under the Youth League Committee to help the Communist Youth League Pravda transform into an enterprise.
Seryozha entrusted this matter to Khodorkovsky, his capable general, who will be responsible for transforming the "Komsomolskaya Pravda", helping this old newspaper to create its own advertising department, and strive to make "Komsomolskaya Pravda" The newspaper is self-supporting and no longer depends on state funding. Khodorkovsky took over this task without hesitation. He quickly took a sales force from the Mediterranean Trading Company and went to work for "Komsomolskaya Pravda".
The reform of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" also aroused Yakovlev's interest. He has lived abroad for a long time and knows what foreign media are like. Yakovlev is supportive of Seryozha's reform of "Komsomolskaya Pravda", including Sergesha's desire to transform "Komsomolskaya Pravda" into an independent media enterprise. Because in Yakovlev's view, the media cannot maintain their independence by accepting financial support from the government, and he did not expect that Seryozha did this to control the newspaper.
Stimulated by "Komsomolskaya Pravda" over the weekend, sales of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" began to roll upwards. Because of the unique perspective of "Komsomolskaya Pravda", many young people no longer regard reading "Komsomolskaya Pravda" as an outdated thing, and becoming a loyal reader of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" has gradually become a fashionable thing among young people.
If you miss the weekend issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda, you will never be able to get into the topic of young people.
Following this trend, Yeltsin's weekend column began to be published under a pseudonym, and its main content was to introduce American life in the form of travel notes. This kind of article doesn't look like a political article at all, but like a travel guide. The reason why Yeltsin wrote in this way was Seryozha's suggestion. Seryozha did this to maintain the overall style of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" and to help Yeltsin attract readers. As for Yeltsin's political views, they were naturally conveyed to readers through these "travel notes".
It will take time for Yeltsin to return to the public in the way of a street politician, and the results will not be seen overnight. However, Xie Liaosha felt that his move to attach importance to the media should be the right move. After all, most of the media is now controlled by Yakovlev, and even Ligachev does not have a media dedicated to speaking for himself.
Ligachev has been busy with the dispute with Shevardnadze during this time, and has no time to deal with the matter of the Mediterranean Trading Company. In addition, there is another big matter that needs to be dealt with by Sergey. That is the issue of withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Just at the end of last year, Gorbachev gave the Soviet military an ultimatum. If the jihadist problem in Afghanistan cannot be completely resolved, all troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan, even though the military is trying to prove its ability to control Afghanistan. , but in the end they returned without success, so the withdrawal of troops was put on the agenda of the Politburo meeting.
You must know that in the early years, because of the frequent escape of Central Asian soldiers on the battlefield, the Soviet Ministry of Defense did not use many undisciplined Central Asian soldiers, and instead recruited trustworthy Slav soldiers from Russia and Ukraine. Now that the troops are about to be withdrawn, what will happen to these people's jobs, and what will happen to their housing problems after they return to the motherland. Everything needs to be dealt with and resolved by Gorbachev. But now that the Soviet Union's finances have not recovered from the Chernobyl incident, Gorbachev actually has nothing to do.
A large number of soldiers returning to the Soviet Union from the front will soon find that what awaits them is not the warm embrace of the motherland, but the cold reality. These people will face practical problems such as employment and housing. Because the war has stopped, the Soviet Union will not be supporting so many troops, but what will these young people who are used to killing do?
Seryozha really needs people now, not to mention, the construction team of Workers' New Town, the Volkswagen joint venture car factory, and the agricultural projects of the Tymoshenko family in Dnepropetrovsk all need a lot of labor , this group of soldiers came at just the right time. However, Seryozha was unable to fully accommodate all the soldiers evacuated from Afghanistan. Besides, where are these young people going to live?
Gorbachev had brought this matter to the Central Work Conference for discussion. Everyone knew that if the resettlement of these people was not handled well, then these people would be dangerous powder kegs that might explode at any time.