Struggle in Soviet Russia - Chapter 620

“My view is that a confrontation is inevitable between the alliance and the United States, even with the Western countries headed by the United States.” In Comrade Stalin’s office, Victor held a plate in his hand. There is a lunch specially prepared by Comrade Stalin’s full-time chef.

Although this lunch was prepared in a hurry, it still looked very rich, at least for Victor’s appetite. However, his attention at the moment was not on the plate in his hand, but on the content of the point of view he was expounding.

“Although Churchill gave a speech at Fulton that was intended to provoke a contradiction between the Soviet Union and the United States,” Victor unconsciously stirred his fork in the tray, and said in his own way, “but As we can be sure, the dominant consciousness in the United States has not formed a unified opinion, and Washington still has doubts on the issue of direct confrontation with the alliance. Moreover, my point is that even if the United States has formed a unified view , to make confrontation with the alliance as its dominant policy in the diplomatic field, but considering that we and the Americans both have strategic nuclear weapons, Washington will definitely not want a real war between the Soviet Union and the United States. .”

Having said this, he stopped, pondered for a while, and added: “As I said before, when only one of the opposing sides has nuclear weapons, there will inevitably be a situation of nuclear blackmail, and the party without nuclear weapons will In a weak position, as we faced in the first half of last year. And once both sides of the confrontation have nuclear weapons, then there will be a nuclear balance situation, in which case, the Soviet Union and the United States directly broke out On the contrary, the possibility of military conflict will be reduced to the lowest probability, because none of us can afford the consequences of completely angering the other side.”

“So, my point is,” concluded Victor, “that in the future, the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States is unlikely to take the form of a direct military conflict. Instead, it will be concentrated in all areas except military conflict. It will include economics, culture, diplomacy, military strength, etc., all of which are based on comprehensive national strength. Among them, the cultural field can also be regarded as the field of ideological output, and it will also be a confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. an important aspect.”

This is the time for the Politburo meeting to adjourn, and it is also the time for the bigwigs to enjoy their lunch. Because there is no right to speak in this kind of meeting, Victor can only have a meeting with Comrade Stalin and the Politburo members during the adjournment. Opportunity to express personal opinions.

On the surface, this recess lunch period is really not serious. When Victor was explaining his point of view, everyone else was eating lunch. I don’t know if anyone was listening to what he said. .

But having said that, such “garbage time” is probably a dream for 99% of the officials of the alliance. If nothing else, just like Popov, who is the secretary of the Moscow State Party Committee and Municipal Party Committee. Comrade, I am afraid that there are not many opportunities to speak on such occasions. The key point is that there is no time limit for Victor’s speech during this time period.

As for whether someone is listening carefully, this Victor does not need to pay attention, because as long as Comrade Stalin is listening, it is enough, and what he said is more accurate. For these people present, as long as Comrade Stalin is listening carefully, they have to fight. Get up and listen carefully, otherwise, if Comrade Stalin wants to discuss this topic later, the person who doesn’t know anything will probably be out of luck.

Of course, the real situation at the scene is that when Victor expounded these views, not only Comrade Stalin listened carefully, but several other comrades present also listened very fascinatedly, including Zhidano, who had no good feelings for Victor. comrade husband.

That’s right, no matter what the mutual perceptions are in private, at least for the comrades present, the views expressed by Victor are still very insightful.

Prior to this, Victor once proposed the concept of “nuclear blackmail”. Today, this concept is not only adopted within the alliance, but also has become a common term in the political field in the international context. During the interview, this concept was quoted.

The concept of “nuclear balance” is also very vivid. The most important thing is that the concept of “nuclear balance” proposed by Victor is very reasonable and very predictable. Everyone just needs to think about it to understand that when “nuclear balance” occurs, the possibility of a direct war between the Soviet Union and the United States is indeed reduced, because neither Washington nor Moscow can afford to suffer a consequences of nuclear bombing.

It’s like two people slashing each other with knives. When they both put knives on each other’s necks, **** scenes are often less likely to occur, unless one of the two is crazy.

“Comrade Viktor Viktorovich, I agree with your point of view,” when Viktor concluded his last sentence, there was a long silence in the office. After about half a minute, Comrade Malenkov, who frowned slightly, spoke first, he said, “But I have a question for you to answer.”

Victor was about to say something, but Comrade Stalin, who had put down his plate, interrupted and asked, “I have a question too.”

After a pause, he did not wait for Comrade Malenkov to raise his question first, and then said to himself: “In your statement just now, you mentioned a question of comprehensive national strength. I want to know, this comprehensive What does national power mean?”

“I also want to ask this question,” Comrade Malenkov laughed. “According to what Victor talked about before, this comprehensive national strength should be the combined force of all fields including economy, military, and culture. Well, this is a very interesting concept. , I don’t think it’s that simple, so hopefully Victor can explain it for us.”

“Comprehensive national strength?” Victor was a little confused. In the era before his rebirth, this concept was already a bad word. Even elementary school students could say a few words to it. Is it possible that in today’s era, comprehensive national strength The concept has not appeared yet?

This is a blind spot in Victor’s thinking. He only knows what the comprehensive national power is about, but he doesn’t know when the concept appeared. In fact, in the time and space of his previous life, this concept was In 1987, it was first proposed by the Japan Institute of Comprehensive Research, but the specific meaning of this concept was not given an accurate generalization in the world until Victor was reborn.

“Comprehensive national strength should be regarded as…” Victor hesitated for a moment and said, “It should be regarded as a concept that can be used to summarize the overall strength of a country. From my personal point of view, when measuring the overall strength of a country When it comes to war, we should not only look at its military strength or economic strength, but also consider more factors, especially in the process of confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. Consider the issue of national strength comprehensively. Generally speaking, I think the overall strength of a country should include both hard power and soft power.”

“Oh?” Comrade Stalin’s face showed an expression of interest. He leaned forward slightly, looked at Victor, and said, “You can talk more specifically.”

“Hard power, we can regard it as physical strength, including military strength, economic strength, technological strength, population, resources, etc. Generally speaking, it is the strength that can be seen and touched,” Victor explained. “Soft power is relative to hard power. Its size is intangible, but it can still be measured. It includes our cultural system, way of life, values, institutional composition, etc., and various external influences. In general, it can be seen as the influence of the alliance on the entire international community.”

Comrade Stalin nodded, obviously understanding what Victor said. In fact, these things are very basic and not too complicated, but no one has proposed such a concept before, so it sounds relatively unfamiliar, Just fresh.

In fact, in today’s era, soft power, let alone related concepts, has not been proposed, and its specific things have also not received the attention of the international community. What countries generally pay attention to is mainly the so-called hard power. It is things such as the economy and the military. As for soft resources such as information, public opinion, and culture, no country has paid enough attention to it. The comprehensive penetration of information into military, diplomatic, cultural, political and other fields requires It was only in the 1960s and 1970s after the Cold War that countries began to really pay attention to the issue of cultural export.

Victor did not discuss too much on the issue of hard power. After all, the work he is currently in charge of is less related to the content of hard power. Moreover, what he is trying to sell to Comrade Stalin and the political commissars today is soft power. Something about strength.

“My opinion is that in the future confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, how to further expand the alliance’s international influence and how to build the alliance’s soft power advantage will be an important part of the confrontation, and it can even be said to be the main content.” Put down his plate, picked up the napkin on the table with one hand, and continued, “In terms of building soft power, we must take the first step, and the main tool to carry this first step is Moscow. Radio, what we need to do is let the voice of Moscow spread all over the world.”