Chapter 881 Psychology

Purge is a science!

It is the crown of the human psychology hall. A truly successful purge worker must be an outstanding psychologist who fully grasps the weaknesses of human nature and can use simple words to make a person fall into despair and collapse, and then use a few more words to make a completely collapsed person rise a glimmer of hope in his heart... For this can be said to be an illusory hope, some people can even shout "Long live the executioner" on the execution ground!

But such purge psychologists are rare even in the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs.

In fact, experts who have mastered advanced purge psychology are a threat to the Soviet regime, so they must be purged in time to ensure that the purge work is firmly in the hands of the fatherly leader.

So by June 1943, there were not many purge psychologists in the Soviet Union, and masters who could purge a group of fully armed anti-GM family soldiers and Siberian labor reform soldiers were even rarer. At least under Comrade Abakumov, the second-level political commissar (military rank) of national security, there were almost no such people.

Even Abakumov, the genius in the purge who was most trusted by Beria, had no experience in carrying out purges in an unreliable army (most of those who had such experience were Trotskyists). He showed his talent only in the Soviet Union's economic sector, and he had never worked in the labor camp system, so he lacked understanding of the mentality of those prisoners who had stayed in Siberia for several years or even more than ten years.

And this lack of experience was very fatal to Leningrad in June 1943.

Before the "June Purge" in Leningrad officially began, Abakumov made the first fatal mistake - the news of the purge leaked, and it was already known to the whole city and the whole army!

Although Kuznetsov (who also lacked experience in domestic revolutionary struggles) and Abakumov characterized it as a "rumor", it was actually a serious leak! The source of the so-called "rumor" was probably Leningrad City W and the branch of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs in Leningrad!

During the days when Leningrad was surrounded, some cadres in Leningrad also lost confidence in the cause of GCism, thinking that Russian Empress Olga would soon return to Petrograd, which was loyal to her...

If the political commissars of the era of domestic revolutionary struggle were still there, they would definitely not ignore this problem, let alone purge the enemies in the army when there were huge loopholes in their own internal forces. Moreover, they would not ignore that a considerable part of the current Leningrad army is "old reactionaries" who came out of Siberian labor camps. These people who have been taught by the party for many years are the most dangerous enemies in the struggle against counter-revolutionaries.

Abakumov, who lacked experience and did not master the psychology of counter-revolutionaries, but was a little too enthusiastic about work, immediately devoted himself to the work of counter-revolutionaries after the enlarged meeting of the city party on June 10 and the subsequent meeting of the party party of the front (he was also a member of the party party of the front and the head of the counter-espionage department of the front).

Based on past experience and the practice of the internal affairs department, Abakumov immediately became anxious and issued their respective anti-counterrevolutionary targets to the heads of the counter-intelligence departments and special departments at the army, corps and division levels under the front's counter-intelligence department - including the number of people to be investigated, the number of people to be sent to the punishment camp, the number of people to be arrested, the number of people to be released after investigation (someone must be released so that the investigated people can have a fluke mentality) and the number of people to be released by the punishment camp.

However, it was completely beyond Abakumov's expectations that the various anti-counterrevolutionary targets had just been issued and the large-scale arrests and investigations had not yet begun, but the news had already leaked!

"Damn it, they're arresting people again!"

"Is the news reliable?"

"Of course! It's spread throughout the military and divisional headquarters. 20% of the people will be tried, 10% will be arrested, and a three-person committee has been set up to sentence them to death!"

"Where are the arrested people going? Siberia?"

"How is that possible? We just came from there! If we're caught, we'll be sent to a punishment camp, and there's no way out!"

"Punishment camp? Damn it, we're dead now..."

"I'll die, at worst we'll fight!"

"Fight? What can we fight with?"

"Guns! We have guns!"

In a forest near the southern front of Leningrad, Kaminsky heard his superior, Lieutenant Colonel Voskoponiko, the commander of the 644th Regiment of the Red Army, mention guns and fighting.

"We're not factory cadres now," Lieutenant Colonel Voskoponiko, with a gray beard, threw a cigarette butt on the mud, then patted his sidearm, "We have guns, and... Russia is a few kilometers south!"

"Run now?" Kaminsky hesitated.

Of course, they can run now. The 644th Regiment is a cannon fodder regiment on the front line. Once they leave the front line, they will be in a "vacuum zone". As long as they bypass the Soviet army's own minefields, they can enter the German and Russian control areas. If they are not killed by German and White Russian snipers, they can successfully abandon the light and join the dark.

After the rumors of the purge spread, many abnormal disappearances occurred in the "cannon fodder troops" on the front line. The 644th Regiment was the same. Dozens of people disappeared within a few days. Some were from Leningrad, and some were labor reform soldiers from Siberia. The deputy political commander Ivanov had lost his temper and scolded the deputy political battalion commander and the deputy political company commander several times.

But Kaminsky was reluctant to be a deserter... because the prizes for escaping to the White Russians alone were limited, and he would be an ordinary citizen of Petrograd in the future, and he would have to live in poverty for the rest of his life.

If he wanted to be reused in the White Russians, he had to take his troops to join them!

"Let's see..." Voskoponiko snorted coldly, "There are many people who don't want to die!"

"But there are not many reliable people..." Kaminsky whispered.

The reliable people came out of the labor camps with Kaminsky and Voskoponiko. They were all uncles whose lives were ruined and would not believe in the Bolshevik Party again... Many of them were old party members. They had been deceived once, so how could they be deceived again? Even if they could get some benefits now, they would definitely have to go to Siberia for labor reform!

The unreliable ones were the "anti-GM family soldiers" in Leningrad. These people were just about to be unlucky, and they were different from those who had been reformed in Siberia.

"Send someone to contact them first, negotiate the terms, and give up the position..." Voskoponiko ordered, "We have to let the queen make us nobles!"

"Okay!" Kaminsky nodded. "I'll let Vaznetsov go. His wife starved to death in the labor camp, and he has no children, so he has nothing to worry about."

"Okay! Let him go." Voskoponiko continued, "From now on, don't go alone. Bring a few reliable brothers with you. Eat and sleep together, and don't leave your gun. If they want to do it, open fire first!"

"Got it!"

...

When Kaminsky and Voskoponiko were talking secretly, he didn't know that he was actually on the investigation list - it wasn't that the comrades in the counterintelligence department had noticed his and Voskoponiko's conspiracy, but that someone was needed to fill the quota. Arresting people based on quotas is a rigorous science. You can't just arrest soldiers and not officers, but there are quotas at all levels.

And Kaminsky filled the quota of the major level. For the time being, it's not an arrest, but an investigation.

According to the information obtained by Comrade Fedorchuk, who was responsible for taking Kaminsky to the Army Counterintelligence Department for investigation, if Kaminsky's attitude was good, he would most likely be sent to death in the punishment camp. If his attitude was not good... then he would have to choose between release and execution.

What? He could be released if his attitude was not good?

In fact, it was like this... resist to the end and go home for Christmas! This was also a practice in the Soviet Union. However, because their trials were easier, there was no need for a court hearing, and a three-person committee could make the judgment, so most of those sentenced to execution were those who resisted to the end.

As for what resistance was, in Fedorchuk's view, not saying anything even if you were beaten to death and enduring the torture was the most serious resistance. Fedorchuk had worked in the military's internal security department for so many years, and he had only heard of one case of resistance by shooting, which was when Marshal Yegorov fired a gun when he was arrested. It seemed that he shot and killed two blue hats who were trying to arrest him, and then shot himself.

Fortunately, there was only one such vicious incident (maybe more than one, but it was definitely rare), otherwise the anti-counterrevolution work would not be as easy as it is now... If the Cheka fighters were likely to be shot to death every time they performed a mission, who could bear it?

It is precisely because all kinds of arrests are one-sided violence - basically, as long as a group of blue hats appear in front of the arrested person, the unlucky person will be weak, and someone will shout: "So-and-so, you are arrested!" The arrest is completed.

If it is not an arrest, but just an investigation, then the other party's attitude will be even better, guaranteed to be more obedient than a sheep, for fear of angering the investigators.

So Comrade Fedorchuk and his comrades all thought that it would be easy to complete the work of taking the investigators (not just Kaminsky, there are many people to be taken away) to the Army Counterintelligence Department today.

"Is Comrade Kaminsky here?" A "blue hat soldier" who followed Fedorchuk to the 644th Regiment's station asked loudly.

Not long after, a major in his forties with a scruffy face and a somewhat downtrodden look was escorted over by several old soldiers. These old soldiers were holding PPSh submachine guns and looked ferocious!

Fedorchuk thought: I should transfer these old guys from the 644th Regiment to the counterintelligence department.

"Kaminsky?" Fedorchuk looked at the old major with contempt, "Come with us."

"Clatter, clatter, clatter..." Then Comrade Fedorchuk heard the sound of a bolt being pulled!