Chapter 241 Honecker Resigns
Since Hungary and Austria agreed to open the border, some smuggling organizations active in East Germany have found an absolutely safe smuggling channel, which is to receive Hungary, Austria and other countries and flee to West Germany. Since then, the people of East Germany have started a large-scale flight. Families have disappeared without a trace, even overnight. In Berlin, a large number of houses have been left empty and become ownerless. Many young men and women lived in it openly and turned it into their love nest.
The world is changing so fast that the Socialist Unity Party of Germany has no time to adapt. Erich Honecker, who has served as the first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party for a long time, has gone from a wise leader to an enemy of the people in just a few weeks. Because Comrade Honecker adopted a policy of restricting going abroad and media control after the mass flight of the population, these two policies made the people who were already on the verge of the outbreak completely quit, and they took to the streets , calling for the relaxation of restrictions on foreign travel and the media. The wealth of the East German people in the socialist camp is second to none. Their rebellion against the government was not due to material dissatisfaction, but in the final analysis because of the constant kinship between the two Germanys. Almost every family has relatives living on the other side of the Berlin Wall, and the act of smuggling to the other side, which would have faced life-threatening danger, has now been opened by Hungary, and it will face a hundred times the pressure to seal this gap.
The voices of opposition do not only come from the people. Within the Socialist Unity Party, there are many cadres who are dissatisfied with Honecker's position as first secretary for a long time. In particular, Honecker ordered the abolition of mutual visa exemption with neighboring Czechoslovakia and the ban on West Germans from entering East Germany. These two policies were the trigger for massive popular protests. As the ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany must stand up and take responsibility to appease the anger of the people. On this issue, Comrade Honecker absolutely cannot stay out of it.
Under the critical situation, Comrade Honecker urgently convened a Politburo meeting to discuss countermeasures. It is a pity that Honecker has now lost his former prestige. Even within the Politburo, there are not a few members who publicly criticized Honecker, especially General Erich Milk from the military. In front of all members of the Politburo, he accused Chen Honecker of serious crimes, claiming that if Honecker did not resign, his reputation would be discredited.
It is precisely because of the loss of the support of the army that Honecker can only call his illness and announce his resignation. His successor, Egon Krenz, was just a puppet set up by the opposition led by Erich Milk. Comrade Honecker, who had suffered all his life, bid farewell to his job in the midst of opposition, and returned home to take care of himself.
However, Egon Krenz made some changes in line with public opinion. He first announced the amnesty of East German citizens who had fled to West Germany, as well as those who participated in demonstrations. And try to accept the demands of the people and formally contact the West German government. Seeing the olive branch offered by East Germany, the West German government was very excited. They have already seen the weakening of the Soviet Union's control over Eastern European countries from a series of changes in Eastern European countries. If the Soviet Union stopped meddling too much in East Germany's internal affairs, could West Germany further improve relations with East Germany? This idea is very tempting.
Things happened so fast that Seryozha, who had just solved the problem of withdrawing 200,000 troops from Poland and Hungary, now had to prepare in advance to deal with a larger wave of withdrawals. General Secretary Gorbachev is now busy with his meeting with US President Bush in Malta at the end of the year. Gorbachev is eager to improve relations with the United States, hoping that increasing trade with the United States will help the Soviet Union's economy get out of trouble. The current trade treatment of Poland and Hungary simply makes Gorbachev salivate. Seryozha believes that Gorbachev has been blinded by the sugar-coated shells of the Americans.
Seryozha is now very dissatisfied with Walesa's move to cross the river and demolish the bridge. He decided to give Walesa a little color and let him know who is the boss.
Therefore, after signing a ten-year natural gas supply contract with Enron, Seriosha notified the Polish Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation that the prices of natural gas and oil delivered to Poland will be raised to the same level as West Germany from next month. Because Poland is no longer an ally of the Soviet Union, naturally it cannot enjoy the preferential treatment of the socialist family.
After Seryozha's order was issued, the Polish side protested and angrily denounced the great power chauvinism of the Soviet Union and the unforgivable crimes committed against Poland during World War II. Seryozha didn't bother to care about them. He directly cut off the gas pipeline and oil pipeline leading to Poland. Even detained all the trains leading to Poland. At Sergey's request, the Gorky Brotherhood also stopped grain trade with Poland, and Sergey wanted Walesa to taste the bitter fruit he had planted.
Now Seryozha's natural gas terminal in Poland has started supplying natural gas, and the closure of natural gas supply to Poland will not affect trade with other Western European countries. Because natural gas can be transported by sea or to Europe through gas pipelines passing through Ukraine, little Poland has no place that can threaten the Soviet Union.
The Polish side is very disapproving of Seryozha's trade embargo measures, because they are now backed by the United States. Walesa even publicly claimed that cutting off trade ties with the Soviet Union was a farewell to Poland's suffering history. Seryozha did not respond. He is still organizing domestic enterprises to step up production of more slab houses to accommodate those withdrawing troops from Eastern Europe who are about to return home.
Seryozha has already learned from the Ministry of National Defense that if all the Soviet Red Army stationed in Eastern European countries are withdrawn to the country, it is estimated that there will be millions more unemployed people at once. The housing and work problems of these people are now weighing on Seryozha's shoulders, and it is hard to breathe. How can more than one million jobs be created at once? Now that the Leningrad Special Economic Zone has reached the limit of its capacity, it is simply impossible to accommodate millions of Eastern European withdrawals within a few months.
Seryozha thought about it, and felt that in this situation, there was no other way but to continue to develop the heavy industry that the Soviet Union was good at. Seryozha knew that the Soviet Union lacked light industry and needed to import agricultural products from abroad on a large scale. However, the low efficiency of Soviet agriculture is not a problem that can be solved in the short term. On the contrary, vigorously developing private-scale industries is a good way to accommodate a large number of unemployed people. Think about the future Foxconn, almost a factory can accommodate more than 100,000 employees. However, Foxconn's manufacturing industry is not suitable for the Soviet Union. The Soviets are more suitable for resource industries such as metallurgy and petroleum.
After adjusting his thinking, Sergei decided to follow the example of Stalin's industrial construction and build several new industrial bases in areas rich in domestic resources.