Volgograd, formerly known as Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad.
Situated on the banks of the Volga River, the city is nourished by the abundant Volga River, which has historically served as the southern breadbasket of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union.
The Battle of Stalingrad in July 1942 became a turning point in the Second World War, after the war, the people here built a brand new city on the ruins, the Soviet Union did its best to help the city to rejuvenate, the largest hydroelectric power station in Europe was built here, it provided sufficient electricity for the whole city, and it became the center of the Soviet metallurgical industry, especially the production base of electrolytic aluminum and special alloy steel electric furnace steelmaking.
Seryosha was in the city for the first time, and he was joined by Yakov, the head of the Moscow Trading Company, who had come here to discuss the export of electrolytic aluminum.
As a small company that has just been established, it is impossible for the Moscow Trading Company to get involved in this field in the short term, although there is Secretary Gorbachev's matchmaking, but in front of these old state-owned enterprises, the small Moscow Trading Company is nothing at all, and Secretary Gorbachev is in charge of agriculture after all, if there are no good conditions, Seryosha wants to take away the share he wants from here.
Seryosha was not without his means of dealing with these aluminium producers, and the Swiss Romanov trading company, a partner of the Moscow Trading Company, could provide sufficient wheat, and now domestic grain in the Soviet Union was much more important than industrial raw materials.
Seryosha believed that his conditions could not be refused.
Yakov was in charge of the specifics of the negotiations, and Seryosha did not intend to get involved.
He is now waiting for the outcome of the negotiations in the hotel restaurant, and at the same time thinking about the question of when to negotiate with state-owned enterprises one by one, which is not only time-consuming, labor-intensive, but also inefficient.
Now it is the Moscow Trading Company that is on the dominant side, and what can be done to make these enterprises come to the door on their own initiative Under the system of a planned economy, Seryosha's Moscow trading company could not give full play to its advantage in holding grain.
This was the most important reason why Seryosha's trade was always inseparable from the help of the bureaucrats.
It is necessary to know that every product of every enterprise is not worried about sales under the planned economic system, and the state arranges production plans for enterprises, and as long as enterprises concentrate on production, the state is completely responsible for the sales of products.
When the transaction is completed, the income from the sale of the product is automatically transferred to the corporate account of the national bank, and the cash is used only when the workers are paid.
But when the workers walked into the store with their pay, they found that there was nothing to buy.
The things in the store are either old and outdated, or they are supplied by ticket.
So everyone can only take the money and run to the black market to buy high-priced food.
Although official prices have not changed, ordinary people are really feeling the high cost of living.
Seryosha's Moscow trading company would be a dead end if it cooperated with the other party in this way, and the other party would have to arrange a production plan for Seryosha's order.
By the time the Romanov trading house got the product, they didn't know that it was the Year of the Monkey, and this model was a disaster for spot traders who were very sensitive to prices.
While Seryosha was distressed, the waiter informed him that there was a phone call on the counter.
Seryosha couldn't wait to walk to the telephone, picked up the microphone and asked, "How about the other party, did the other party agree?"
They agreed, but they couldn't guarantee a stable supply to us, and they had a lot of concerns about their difficulties, they couldn't arrange too many production tasks for the workers, because there was no way to increase wages, and the workers wouldn't agree.
So they can only hand over the remaining stocks to us during the off-season," Yakov said with emotion.
"What can you do about it," Seryosha asked Yakov on the phone.
"I'm going to send someone to the electrolytic aluminum factories in Siberia to ask if we can solve the problem of supply, and the government's control over industrial raw materials is too rigid for us to do," Yakov complained helplessly.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning, let's take a step and watch a film first" Seryosha also said helplessly, this is a problem of the system.
It can't be solved by the power of one person.
"Smilyakov, director of the Industrial Technology Export Bureau, was sentenced to death, and General Secretary Andropov sent an investigation team to Uzbekistan to investigate the chaos of cotton subsidy funds," Seryosha made a phone call, and a guest at the next table subconsciously read the newspaper headline.
Seryosha was taken aback "Comrade waiter, please give me a copy of today's newspaper" Seryosha quickly hung up the phone and stopped the waiter, he wanted to see what was going on "Comrade, the newspaper you want" The waiter put a local Volga daily newspaper on Seryosha's desk, and then left, the front page of the newspaper was impressively written: Smilyakov, the head of the Industrial Technology Export Bureau, was sentenced to death, and the pictures accompanying the news of the execution were Smilyakov when he was the head of the bureau and when he was a prisoner, Seryosha looked at the two photos and could not believe that it was the same person.
Smilyakov was thin, gray-haired, and looked like he had aged twenty years overnight.
This picture is simply so shocking that even Seryosha felt a little scared in his heart.
Since the time of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union has never shot an incumbent official, and that was during the Stalin period.
Who would have thought that would happen now.
And Smilyakov is not the only one to be sentenced to death, he is also followed by Sokolov, the manager of the gastronomy department of Moscow's No. 1 Food Mall, whose execution is scheduled for tomorrow.
Seryosha looked at the long list of people involved in the case attached to the newspaper and looked at the positions they held.
He couldn't believe it was happening.
Seryosha felt an irrepressible fear in his heart, and he even began to doubt his own mode of operation, doubting that he would one day be like Smilyakov.
What Seryosha did not know, almost the entire Soviet bureaucracy was now shrouded in fear.
Andropov's way reminds people of the Stalin era, how many officials in so many regions of the country dared to pat their chests to ensure their innocence, after so many years everyone has become accustomed to President Bo's tolerance, and now Andropov tells everyone that your good days are over. t1706231537: