Chapter 192 Tukhachevsky's Vigilance

"Mikhail Nikolayevich, what do you think of the German tanks?"

"Not as good as ours," Tukhachevsky said truthfully, "Their Type 2 tank is significantly inferior to our T-26, BT-2, and BT-5. The combat weight of the Type 2 is only over 7 tons, while our three tanks are all over 10 tons and 11 tons. Moreover, the Type 2 is not powerful enough, with only a 140-horsepower engine, while our BT-2 and BT-5 both have 400-horsepower engines, which is a clear advantage. As for the German Type 3 tank, which has not yet been finalized, its performance is similar to that of the BT-7, and it is no match for the T-28 tank at all. However, their Type 4 tank is likely to have performance that exceeds that of the T-28, and it needs to be taken seriously."

"Type 4?" Stalin smiled indifferently, "It was only started to be developed last year. According to the speed of the Germans, it would be good to be able to mass-produce it in 1939. By then, we will have more powerful tanks."

Although the Soviet-German relationship was good in this time and space, the Soviet Union was still very vigilant and always on guard against Germany. As one of the few "professionals" in the top ranks of the Soviet Red Army, Tukhachevsky paid particular attention to the threat of Germany.

"But the Germans' level of use of mechanized forces and their wheeled vehicles are obviously better than ours."

"Oh?" Stalin said casually, smoking his pipe, "It's normal that their wheeled vehicles are better than ours. Our automobile industry is imported from Germany."

In this time and space, Germany's automobile industry is much stronger than in history. In 1935, Germany's automobile production exceeded 500,000 units (nearly double the historical level). Although it is much worse than the United States' annual production of several million units, it still ranks first in Europe, more than twice the Soviet Union's 150,000 units. The Soviet Union's automobile industry was established with the help of Germany. Many models were copied from Germany. Although it began to design independently during the second five-year plan, it was ultimately not as good as their German teachers.

"But how can their level of use of mechanized forces exceed ours?" Stalin asked again with some confusion. "We started to form mechanized troops during the civil war, and in the early 1930s, we began to build mechanization on a large scale."

"Comrade General Secretary, although we started early in mechanized troops, their officers and soldiers surpassed us in technology." Tukhachevsky explained, "We are building socialism on the basis of a backward country, while they have always been an advanced country, especially in education, with many high-level schools, and the level and number of technicians trained are still far greater than Soviet technicians. Therefore, they also have many high-level technicians in their army, and the level of using high-tech arms is naturally higher than ours. Our level in this regard is very unsatisfactory. Not only is the level of military technicians poor, but even the level of engineers and technical workers in factories is not very strong, so the quality of products is..."

Say that the level of education and engineering and technical personnel in the Soviet Union is not as good as that of Germany...Is this a criticism of the party's policy on intellectuals?

Stalin frowned slightly, analyzing Tukhachevsky's words in his heart.

In fact, Tukhachevsky's complaint is not unreasonable. Because of the Soviet Union's successive anti-counterrevolutionary campaigns, intellectuals, especially the old intellectuals in the Tsarist Russia, have always been the targets of attack. Before the Great Purge began, many "old professors" and "old engineers" in universities and factories had already been unlucky as "saboteurs" - the purge within the Soviet Union did not start with the Great Purge in 1934.

It was only from the Great Purge that the leading cadres of the Bolshevik Party began to suffer misfortune on a large scale. Before the Great Purge, in addition to Trotskyists and various spies, intellectuals were the main targets of the purge. The most famous of these was the "Schacht Case" - it had nothing to do with Schacht, the current president of the German Imperial Bank, but was caused by a coal mine accident in the city of Shakht in Kazakhstan. Later, it gradually expanded to all walks of life, mainly attacking old intellectuals, and also designated the Soviet Academy of Sciences as "the center of counter-revolutionary activities against the Soviet regime". In the autumn of 1929 alone, 650 people were purged in the Academy of Sciences.

After the "Schacht Case", the "Industrial Party" case and the "Laboring Peasant Party" case once again hit the old intellectuals of the Soviet Union and the expert cadres in charge of industry within the party, because more than 3,000 technical cadres and intellectuals were arrested in these two cases.

Although the number of people arrested in the Schacht case, the Industrial Party case, and the Labor and Peasant Party case cannot be compared with the later Great Purge, most of those who were hit were top experts left over from the Tsarist era. Considering that most of the scientific and technical personnel in the Tsarist era fled abroad, the number of these old experts was not large, and they were all masters of their industries. Therefore, the purge of them did have some adverse effects on the level of education and technical research in the Soviet Union.

Moreover, due to the "composition theory" in the Soviet education system, many students with poor backgrounds but very good academic performance could not enter university for further studies. As a result, the quality of Soviet college students was also slightly low.

With a large number of old experts either undergoing labor reform or standing aside, these politically reliable newcomers were naturally reused. They became the technical backbone of various industries, so the quality of Soviet products during this period was always somewhat poor, and it was also very difficult to maintain them. The quality of the personnel responsible for maintaining military technical equipment was often worse than that of the people who produced them...

"Product quality and technical personnel level cannot be improved in a short period of time," Stalin interrupted Tukhachevsky, "and we have no possibility of war with Germany now."

"Comrade General Secretary," Tukhachevsky interrupted with some concern, "we should not underestimate the threat of Germany. Germany is now implementing a war policy. They are preparing for war, and the preparations are going very smoothly."

"I know, aren't we preparing too?" Stalin waved his hand holding the pipe, "but before White Poland is eliminated, there is no possibility of war between us and Germany."

Tukhachevsky wanted to speak again - he did not agree with the policy of joining forces with Germany to eliminate Poland, because Germany was obviously a more dangerous enemy than Poland - but Stalin had no interest in listening anymore.

"Mikhail Nikolayevich," Stalin said, "I will now assign you a task. Together with Comrade Berzin, you will lead a military delegation to Germany to visit their tank factories and mechanized units. This time they will be open without reservation, so you must observe carefully."

"Comrade Berzin is going too?" Tukhachevsky was a little surprised. Berzin was the director of the Military Intelligence Bureau and was in charge of intelligence work. He did not understand tank production and mechanization.

"Yes," Stalin nodded, "He will go with you."

...

"Yan Karlovich," Natalie Lesinskaya called the name of the very handsome middle-aged man who was riding with her on Arbat Street, "I didn't expect General Secretary Stalin to send you personally."

"Why didn't you expect it?" The man's name was Yan Karlovich Berzin. He smiled silently, "I have experience in this area."

It was he and Yurovsky who killed Tsar Nicholas II. Yurovsky has now become a Soviet hero (posthumously), and there is a full-length statue of him in the Cheka headquarters at No. 2 Lubyanka Square. Berzin escaped the pursuit and now became the head of the Red Army Intelligence Bureau.

"I thought they would send a smaller figure," Natalie Lesinskaya looked at Berzin, "I know you must have some other mission, and Hersman must know it... I'm afraid your mission will be difficult to complete."

She came to the Soviet Union as Hersman's special envoy, bringing the "Iron Fist-1935" military exercise summary report and the drawings of the No. 2 and No. 3 tanks.

After receiving the report and drawings, Stalin did not shirk any responsibility and decided to send the Bolshevik "gold medal killer" Berzin to personally preside over the "Slovak Incident" - that is, Hersman's plan for the Slovak Bolshevik Party to expose the "truth of the death of Štefanić" (the leader of the Slovak ethnic group), assassinate the Czechoslovak president, and create unrest in Slovakia.

Once something happened in Slovakia, and it involved the assassination of the president (whether dead or not, it was a big deal), the Czechoslovak authorities would definitely suppress it. At this time, politicians from the Slovak National Socialist Party will go to the League of Nations to "file a complaint" and demand national self-determination to achieve the separation of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine.

The League of Nations will accept the complaint and send an investigation team to Czechoslovakia. There is no doubt that the results of the investigation will definitely be unfavorable to the Czechoslovak authorities. After the investigation, the League of Nations will most likely make a resolution to hold a referendum to decide the future of Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine... Of course, in order to ensure the fairness of the referendum, Czechoslovakia will be temporarily occupied by German, Austrian, Polish and Hungarian troops before the referendum begins.

After losing Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine, Czechoslovakia lost half of its territory and at least 40% of its population - since Czechs and Slovaks live together, the Czechs will also lose part of their population after the referendum. Czechs may also become a minority in Bohemia and Moravia (later the Czech Republic).

In this way, Hersmann can promote a new referendum in the Czech Republic - a referendum for Czechs to join the German Empire!

Berzin listened to Natalie's words, smiled and nodded, "Although the hope of success is slim, it is still worth a try."