"Will the general secretary attend today's Politburo meeting?"
said Gorbachev, sitting quietly in his office, waiting for an answer.
According to the rules, if General Secretary Chernenko is unable to attend, he will appoint a member of the Politburo Standing Committee to preside over the meeting in his place, and Gorbachev presided over the last regular meeting of the Politburo.
And this time, for the sake of balance, perhaps the task of presiding over the meeting will be in the hands of Gromyko.
Still, Gorbachev had a glimmer of hope.
Gorbachev has a plan for today's meeting that needs to be discussed at today's meeting, and Gorbachev intends to use the model of the workers' new city to carry out a large-scale housing renovation program in Moscow, transforming the buildings built during the Khrushchev era into modern complex communities like the workers' new city.
In fact, it is most appropriate for Seryosha to operate this matter, but the import of grain by the Ministry of Foreign Trade is more important.
Later, Yakovlev recommended to him a comrade from the field, Yeltsin, the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional party committee.
He has a beautiful resume background in construction, municipal engineering and even industrial construction, and most importantly, he is also a member of the Central Committee, so he can be arranged to be a leader in the Ministry of Construction, so that he can control the building in his own hands.
There were less than ten minutes left before the regular meeting, just as Gorbachev was about to leave his office in disappointment.
His special phone rang suddenly, and Gorbachev's heart suddenly rejoiced, and he returned to his seat to calm down.
Then he took a deep breath, picked up the microphone and put it to his ear and said: "This is Gorbachev, please speak" "Secretary Gorbachev, I'm sorry that I'm not feeling well today, I'm afraid I need you to preside over today's regular meeting in my place, please tell the comrades, I'm sorry for me," General Secretary Chernenko said on the phone, panting.
"Take care of your health, the general secretary hopes you can recover soon," Gorbachev said in a calm and passenger tone, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up, and now he could crush Gromyko again.
Gorbachev happily picked up the folder and walked out of the conference room.
The cadres who met him along the way all consciously stopped and said to him: "Secretary Gorbachev is good" Gorbachev thought to himself, when would he be able to replace Secretary Gorbachev with General Secretary Gorbachev.
In the conference room of the Supreme Soviet, several members of the Politburo Standing Committee had taken their seats in advance, and each of them had already received the comrades from the General Secretary's office, knowing that today's meeting was chaired by Gorbachev.
Many people originally thought that if General Secretary Chernenko did not attend, it would be Gromyko's turn to chair the meeting Gorbachev sat in the position of general secretary of Chernenko, and everyone looked at him unconsciously.
Gorbachev cleared his throat, and then announced: "General Secretary Chernenko is not feeling well, he will not come today, he asked me to say sorry to everyone, I chaired today's meeting, or follow the process, everyone will first talk about the issues that need to be discussed on their side, Comrade Gromyko, let you start first."
Gromyko glanced at Gorbachev with complicated eyes, and then opened his folder.
The rest of the Standing Committee members listened attentively, and each of them had about five minutes to speak.
Twelve members of the Standing Committee Chernenko did not attend the round for exactly an hour, after which there will be specific discussions on a number of key issues, and the vote will be taken.
In this way, it is efficient for a regular meeting to end in three hours.
After a round of speeches, everyone roughly understood what everyone was doing.
Gorbachev's topic was Moscow's new municipal planning, while Gromyko's topic was about the selection of people to visit Britain.
Obviously, neither of these things is so easy to do.
This kind of thing often happens, and if there is a serious disagreement on a certain issue during the vote, no one can convince anyone.
As long as it is not very urgent, it can be postponed to the next regular meeting, and the question of who will visit Britain has been raging for several months, and Gromyko wants to go to Britain by himself, so he obstructs Gorbachev in every way.
Gromyko was an old comrade, much more politically educated than Gorbachev, so he was able to put the issue on hold every time in this matter.
However, Gromyko had a disadvantage in visiting the UK, he was an expert on the diplomatic front, but the main topic of this visit was trade.
The Secretariat's say in this matter is much greater than that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Therefore, Gromyko was not the best person to visit Britain, but he would rather not go than let Gorbachev go.
"Comrades, now we are voting again on the question of the candidates to visit the UK, and since the British side has extended an invitation to me personally, I will not express my opinion, okay, comrades who have agreed to re-appoint candidates to visit the UK, please raise their hands," Gorbachev announced.
Not surprisingly, several of Gromyko's allies raised their hands, though not more than half of them.
However, since many members of the Standing Committee of the Brezhnev faction abstained from voting on this issue, almost every time it was a five-to-five meeting.
"Comrades who oppose the reassignment of candidates to visit Britain, please raise your hand," Gorbachev then asked.
Gorbachev's gaze swept over, and the Standing Committee members who supported him raised their hands one after another.
One, two, three, etc., why did Tikhonov support his Dnepropetrovsk gang all raised their hands, what day is it, I'm not dreaming The smile on Gromyko's face began to be unbearable, why did Tikhonov support Gorbachev, what deal did they reach, why didn't the wind come out at all, Gromyko looked at Gorbachev in surprise, and he found that Gorbachev also seemed to be a little surprised, for Chernenko's big gift, no one was prepared for the two people with relevant interests.
"Okay, comrades, it seems that everyone has already had an opinion, thank you for your support, I will be in charge of the mission of this visit to the United Kingdom" Gorbachev tried to calm himself down, he understood that he had won a crucial battle with Gromyko, and as long as he did not mess up the mission of the visit to Britain and proved that the party still needs him, he would not retire at the party congress in a year and a half.
When the time comes, a large number of young cadres that Andropov has trained for himself will be promoted to the Central Committee, and his own strength will be enhanced. t1706231537: