Beria came in person? What was he here for? To discuss? Or what happened a few hours ago? About Belekov?
To be honest, Ustinov didn't want to talk to Beria. The two only had a purely working relationship.
Besides, Beria's status as NKVD really made him very afraid.
Years ago, Beria led the arrests of many high-ranking officials. Those people ended up quite tragic. They were either still imprisoned in the Gulag, or they had long since turned into dust.
If it was purely a work matter, Ustinov would be willing to talk to Beria.
It's just that it's late at night now. If you come here at this time, is there anything else important?
Feeling anxious, Ustinov quickly took off his pajamas and put on a set of decent casual clothes. The lights in the villa were turned on one after another, and all the guards gathered urgently to greet the NKVD comrade.
Three cars parked at the door of the villa without any red tape. Beria had a sullen face. He got out of the car and ordered his subordinates to be alert on the spot and went straight to the living room of the villa.
Regarding this matter, Ustinov was already standing in the large living room on the first floor, waiting with the same serious face.
"What's going on? Do you deserve to visit me in person so late? Can't you tell me clearly over the phone?"
Beria seemed not to have heard. He stood in front of Ustinov and said bluntly: "The Americans are researching a powerful secret weapon. You know this very well."
"Yes, I know about this. What does this have to do with your arrival in person? It is an urgent task."
"It's about Belekov. I'm very confused. How does he know? It seems that man knows a lot."
"Really?" Ustinov patted his confused head and forced out a smile: "I admire this Belekov very much. He is a tactical expert and a scholar, and he also has his own views on military strategy."
Beria still looked serious: "Don't laugh. Now, I just want to ask you one thing."
"Ah? You..."
Ustinov never expected that his dignified People's Commissar of Internal Affairs would actually ask for help from him. Is it true that the Ministry of Internal Affairs no longer has great powers? It is incredible!
"Okay, since you insist, let's go upstairs and talk in detail."
This was not the first time that Beria came to Ustinov's villa in Moscow. In fact, for Ustinov himself, he spent most of his time in the Ural region, especially in Kazan and Perm, both of which are Ural.
As a heavy industrial city in the region, I don’t go back to Moscow often, and my villa is more like a hotel.
Beria didn't care about the guests. He drank a cup of refreshing coffee provided by Ustinov and began to explain his purpose.
"Berekov knows so much, and there are some things we are eager to know."
"Haha, is this what you are eager to know? In this case, you can arrest him and interrogate him."
"You..." Beria's serious face was furrowed, "Are you mocking me?"
"No. Is there any information that you can't grasp? I don't think Berekov is a complicated person. Judging from his appearance, he is quite magnanimous."
"Dear comrade, among those anti-Soviet elements imprisoned in the Gulag, which one is not handsome? This does not mean anything? The 63rd Army Group under Berekov is legally our internal affairs force, but now, their immediate boss
It's Timoshenko. I don't have the authorization from the Supreme Leader to interrogate him. However, Berekov obviously knows a lot about that matter. You saw his expression a few hours ago."
"Yes. His expression looked very excited."
"I don't think he is being mystical. He knows a lot of things. No one knows how much wisdom he has in his mind. In the future, you will cooperate with him, not only on this small weapon test verification issue, but you will definitely have greater achievements.
Cooperation on a large scale. Then, you can intentionally mention nuclear weapons."
Ustinov nodded deeply: "Do you... really believe that he knows a lot?"
"But after all, he knows that compared to us who know almost nothing, his value is still great."
"In other words, you want me to ask him face to face."
"Yes. You don't have to ask straightforwardly or be too formal. I'm worried that he will be very wary. I thought of a peaceful strategy."
"Haha? Do you have any peace strategies?"
Ustinov found it very ridiculous. During the years when Beria was the head of the secret police, he had beaten a group of people into a group of people. His bad reputation was well known but tacitly acknowledged.
But Ustinov couldn't deny one thing. The ruthless Beria had a strong subjective initiative. In terms of supervising the production of the arsenal, he showed the same energy as the Cheka. If he couldn't complete the task, the factory director
Put him in jail. If it is found out that he is deliberately slowing down work, the factory director and those directly responsible will be shot directly. These are not just slogans, some factory directors were actually executed.
Extreme supervision objectively helped the Soviet Union's weapons production to grow rapidly every month.
"I know you like drinking, so entertain Belekov to drink. People may tell the truth after drinking. At this time, you ask him and try to get as much information as possible. This is very important to us. If the United States does it as soon as possible,
If we develop this kind of weapon, we should develop it within a few months, otherwise it will cause a huge disaster to our country's national defense. We must obtain intelligence from any channel, and I think Berekov is a potential breakthrough point."
At this moment, Ustinov only felt that Beria's imagination was too rich. He, Belekov, was also an expert in physics? How is that possible? There is no logical possibility.
After all, the words came from the mouth of "number two" Beria, who had a higher level. Ustinov put his hesitation aside and agreed to it first.
At the same time, Ustinov also became serious. His only responsibility was to manage the weapons development and production of the entire alliance, and he was personally responsible for the specific operations. Beria was just a very qualified and reliable supervisor and expediter.
Since Beria came to kill him in the middle of the night for a few words from Berekov, Ustinov had to think more.
Modern warfare is illustrating the fact that the superiority of military equipment will become a decisive force in the victory of the war and can well make up for the shortcomings of insufficient training of soldiers, at least this is what Ustinov thinks.
What Ustinov remembers most deeply is the "crisis balance principle" proposed by Berekov.
Physicists describe a terrifying prospect for nuclear weapons that do not yet exist. Some people even call it, "huge mushrooms will grow on the flat ground, and high temperature and pressure will crush all living things within a radius of one hundred kilometers."
There must be some intentional exaggeration in this, but it doesn't have to be a killing radius of 100 kilometers, a radius of one kilometer is very crazy.
After all, it is a one-ton aerial bomb, and its absolute killing radius is within a few hundred meters.
However, it does have a lethality with a radius of one hundred kilometers. If this can be realized, any country that masters it can blow the enemy country into a desert.
Think about it for a moment, if the German army launched a lightning attack a year ago and used bombs made with this weapon, Minsk and Kiev would have been reduced to scorched earth on the first day of the war. But the Soviet Union would not sit still and take off from Tallinn the next day.
bombers headed straight for Berlin, razing major German cities to the ground.
This violates the original intention of war. The purpose of war is to rob the other party's resources, which is the concept of "living space" that the enemy clamors for. Each other's cities are destroyed and the population disappears indiscriminately. There is no winner in such a war, so a world war is also
Will not explode.
Co-author: To avoid a total war, we no longer need a non-aggression pact and a million-strong army on the border, and the French do not need to build a Maginot Line. Wu also thought a lot after the meeting. A weapon that can destroy a city in an instant is the best choice.
This is what Belekov means by good deterrence. The current question is imminent, if the United States does it, when will the Soviet Union do it. If the Soviet Union does not, the consequences will be dire.
After thinking for a while, Ustinov felt enlightened, and his whole expression suddenly changed. Just like Beria, he remained absolutely serious.
"Comrade NKVD, I thought about it for a while, and now I really realize that this Berekov has something extremely brilliant in his mind."
"It seems that you have figured it out, which is good." Beria once again reiterated his own thoughts, which also represented the thoughts of the Supreme Soviet: "We must follow the United States closely. If they do it, we will do it right away. Otherwise, we will
An unarmed rich man can only be blackmailed by armed gangsters."
"I completely understand. After the firearms matter is over, I will find time to treat him to a drink. I will try to be as cliché as possible. In fact, I am currently more interested in the new automatic weapons he has developed."
"You will be able to see this matter tomorrow afternoon." Beria thought for a moment, "If...if you are very urgent, it is not impossible to come with me to the Ministry of Internal Affairs now."
"Forget it, Comrade NKVD." Ustinov shook his head and teased, "If I leave with you, will the witnesses think that the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested me overnight? This is not good, very dangerous.
It is easy for people to misunderstand. It would not be a good thing if Comrade Stalin was held accountable."
"Okay. I'll go back first, and you can continue to rest and think about it further."
According to the information we learned before, Berekov has a good drinking capacity.
Ustinov is the "god of wine" among the top leaders of the Soviet Union. Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for the fact that he is very young and has a particularly good drinking capacity.
Beria felt that what he had thought of was a clever plan, and he had also aroused Ustinov's strong interest. By then, with the help of alcohol, Ustinov could pry out a batch of important information from Belekov's mouth.
Isn't it a matter of smooth sailing?
On the way back in the car, Beria was proud of his cleverness.
But then again, Ustinov also bluntly stated that he was particularly interested in Berekov's new gun.
"Now that the prototype gun and bullets are in my hands, Belekov warned me not to move. Who is he? Can he still command me?" Beria couldn't think of that much and ordered his subordinates to conduct preliminary inspections.
Guns are also reasonable.
Even though it was already late at night, Beria, who was used to staying up late at work, cheered up. When he returned to his office, he had to solve another problem immediately and read through the materials submitted by Felyudov.
Soon, as soon as he sat down on his leather chair, the key documents were immediately delivered to him. Felyudov and Kasteura stood at attention obediently, watching Beria carefully flipping through the documents from the corner of their eyes, and
Wait for an opportunity to return all files.
Let’s talk about this document, its contents are recorded in great detail.
The document makes it clear that Berekov's development of the new rifle began when he boarded the military train to Novosibirsk. Beria even learned that Berekov was not just a whim on the train. He had already had it.
The idea in this regard just suffers from the lack of opportunity to put it into practice.
What makes this Chinese person so persistent? Is it really the so-called "internationalist spirit"? If this is true, then this person's ideological consciousness is really high.
Beria did not believe this. He felt that the Chinese had the same interests as himself, the Georgian, which was that he did not want the Soviet Union to collapse, otherwise everything he had gained would be lost.
At first, Beria wanted to get some special information from the reports, but it turned out that they were all about the design bureau's development of weapons. The records were relatively detailed and very boring.
There was something in the file that made him excited, that is, a detailed eyewitness record of the shooting range test, which was more detailed than the description in the previous telegram.
Seeing this, Beria raised his head and looked at Feryudov: "Berekov's new gun has already participated in the target shooting test. Are you sure that what you see with your eyes is the truth?!"
"Yes! I guarantee it with my life!" Feliudov emphasized.
"You'd better not write randomly, you can't escape my eyes."
Beria felt that this was the key point, and his mind was completely aroused.
The document was jointly written by Feryudov and Kastyura. Unlike the reports of the military district and the mayor of Novosibirsk, the records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs personnel were extremely detailed, even including how many bullets Berekov had changed when he fired.
box, how many rounds were fired.
Some of the records in it really surprised Beria. For example, the document detailed how Berekov changed the magazine with one hand. One magazine held thirty rounds of bullets. Beria didn't think there was anything new about it.
However, changing the magazine only takes two seconds, which is really incredible speed.
This is nothing, but the next step is the most critical part, which Beria can hardly believe.
"What? Three thousand rounds of ammunition in an hour? Is this a rifle or a heavy machine gun? Even an automatic rifle, is it really possible? You are talking nonsense!"
Beria suddenly raised his head, looked at Feliudov, and then at Castliula. The two of them straightened their backs like pine trees, but their expressions were as embarrassing as constipation.
"Tell me! Did you actually witness the shooting of three thousand rounds of ammunition? I have read the report submitted before. I always thought that the Siberian Military District was bragging about its results, which is normal. I just can't figure out why you are bragging? Is it different from Bielie?
If you communicate more closely with Kokov, have you forgotten your principles?"
"No!" Castelliura interrupted rashly: "We never lied."
"You're not lying? Maybe there's something wrong with your eyes and you're hallucinating?"
"No! Comrade NKVD, we swear on our lives that what we see is the truth."
"Really?" Beria patted his head carefully and felt that the two proud subordinates he sent out were not idiots. They had high work quality and would not make up reports without conclusive evidence.