Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

Once the Communist Party enters a coalition government, its reforms can no longer be thorough. It can only compromise step by step, making concessions little by little, yielding to this today and that tomorrow. Over time, either the party will change its nature in the process of compromise and forget why it came to be, or it will be caught off guard by those reactionaries who have never given up and suddenly overthrow it from power!

The Communist Party of Nepal is a prime example.

Therefore, in Slava's view, the path of letting Mandela come to power peacefully and then stuffing the Communist Party into a coalition government to slowly grind him down would only lead to the enslavement of black people.

But Slava didn't rule out the possibility that if Mandela himself was willing to support armed struggle and take the path of truly smashing and rebuilding the apartheid economic structure, then the Soviet Union could consider South Africa's peace proposal.

Everything depends on what Mandela himself thinks.

The Soviet Union then replied to South Africa: discussing this peace plan requires listening to Mandela's opinion.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

At the end of December, the Soviet Union sent its foreign minister to South Africa, where he met with Nelson Mandela.

The meeting was arranged in an extremely secluded location. Mandela was escorted to the Soviet delegation's room by high-ranking officials of the South African government, with his escorts standing guard outside the door. Only Nelson and Mandela were inside.

The annual guide does not require translation.

When Mandela walked in, the young leader stood up to greet him. This man had been imprisoned for over twenty years; the prison had left its mark on his face, but he remained full of energy.

The two sat down and began to talk.

Director Nian told Mandela about the current international situation in detail—the extent to which South Africa had been forced into a corner, what the Soviet Union held, the European blockade, the military situation... She also recounted the Soviet Union's suggestions in their entirety.

The Soviet Union could push them to the brink, and continue to support the armed struggle and the South African Communist Party until the revolution completely shattered the old society!

The Soviet Union could also accept South Africa's peace proposal—that the African National Congress come to power through negotiations and elections.

“Mr. Mandela, what we want to know is what you intend to do.”

Mandela thought for a while before speaking.

“I spent twenty-seven years in prison, Ivanova. During those twenty-seven years, I did one thing—I kept learning about the Afrikaans, learning their language, reading their history, and thinking about what they were thinking.”

Director Nian listened attentively.

“I’ve come to understand one thing,” Mandela said. “You can’t defeat them. You can win one war, two wars, but you can’t drive millions of white people into the sea. Their homes are on this land, their children are on this land. For South Africa to have a tomorrow, it has to be a South Africa for all people—for blacks and for whites.”

“If the armed struggle continues, the long-accumulated discontent of Black people will turn into a raging fire that will burn us all to ashes. I am not confident that I can control this fire, so I choose to negotiate.”

"I choose reconciliation."

The director awaits Mandela's next words.

Mandela looked at her: “I know you will be disappointed. You want me to call on everyone to take up arms and fight a revolution to take those mines, those banks, and those lands from the whites and redistribute them. You think that if we don’t do this, blacks will only be free in name, but they will still be poor and oppressed in their hearts.”

He paused for a moment: "You're right."

Political freedom is not the same as economic freedom. I understand this principle. When I was young, I read Mao Zedong's theories and your revolutionary theories. I know very well that if I take the negotiation route, what I will get is a South Africa where blacks are in charge, but whites still hold the reins of the money. Gold mines, banks, and land will not change owners just because the government changes.

My people will get the votes, but they won't get their bread. I will see that day come.

"Then why did you choose this path?" Director Nian asked curiously.

Mandela remained silent for a moment.

“Because I can’t see a future with the other path,” he said. “I’ve had intermittent news from prison all these years, but I know what’s happening outside. I know about Zimbabwe, I know about Mozambique.”

The director recalled Prigozin's report about the empty villages in Mozambique.

"What is the end of a revolution that drives out the whites and smashes everything to start anew? It is when the whites leave with their capital, technology, mining engineers, and banking managers!"

It was agricultural collapse, hyperinflation, the collapse of the state, and endless civil wars. Zimbabwe has provided us with a cautionary tale; what was their fate?

You can certainly say that the Soviet Union will help South Africa, but what have you been doing in Africa? You may have been better than the colonists or the Americans, but you were also plundering gold, oil, and diamonds.

Soviet aid came at a price. You supported our armed struggle, helped us drive out the whites, and even helped us build mines. You weren't so kind; I know that very well. This is no longer the era of the International Brigades supporting the Spanish Civil War.

He looked at Director Nian.

"I would rather have a free but unequal South Africa—a South Africa that I can gradually change step by step—than a Soviet puppet. South Africa must be a South Africa for Africans."

Mandela said, "South Africa thanks the Soviet Union and the brotherly countries of the Third World for their support and help. We can trade with you on very favorable terms, but South Africa's sovereignty must belong to South Africa."

P.S.: Mandela was essentially a nationalist, not a socialist. His alliance with the South African Communist Party in his youth was always strategic. Historically, his first act after his release from prison was to curry favor with Western capital, so I think Mandela would be grateful to the Soviet Union, but he would never turn South Africa into a Soviet-controlled economy. He would balance between Soviet influence and the remaining Western influence—just as leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement throughout history have done.

The room fell silent.

Director Nian didn't try to persuade her any further. She stood up and extended her hand to Mandela: "Mr. Mandela, thank you for telling me all this."

Mandela shook her hand: "May the friendship between the Soviet Union and South Africa last forever, and may the African people always remember anyone who helped them achieve independence. That alone is enough for us to walk side by side for a while."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The director brought Mandela's reply back to Moscow.

Slava listened and didn't dwell on it anymore. Right now, the common enemy of the Soviet Union and South Africa was the apartheid regime in South Africa itself. If Mandela refused to be the hammer, then they wouldn't use the hammer for now.

“If Mandela won’t come with me, then I’ll go find the South African Communist Party!”

The Soviet Union then replied to the South African government that it was willing to accept the peace plan.

South Africa first withdrew its intervention forces from Zimbabwe and then released Mandela, demonstrating its sincerity in these two ways. In response, the Soviet Union relaxed some of its economic controls. The United States and Europe also expressed their support for South Africa to hold new democratic elections and for its nuclear disarmament efforts.

In February 1989, de Klerk came to power. He announced the lifting of the ban on the African National Congress, and South Africa began dismantling its nuclear weapons under international supervision.

Apartheid was ending, Mandela was free, nuclear disarmament was completed, and the whole world breathed a sigh of relief.

Slava then began to implement a different set of actions.

Slava began quietly increasing his support for the South African Communist Party, gradually undermining and concealing the foundations of armed struggle. He didn't believe in parliamentary struggle, but he wouldn't completely extinguish the seeds of that path either.

When that "formal freedom" reveals its deficit in the future, someone will always have to hold onto another option.

The weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons!

Slava believes that it was precisely because the South African Communist Party was willing to fight and hang the oppressors that those oppressors chose to compromise! Not all countries can achieve formal independence through non-violent non-cooperation like India; some reactionary regimes can only be criticized by force!

The Soviet Union went to great lengths to help Mozambique. It called on the international community to help clear the landmines planted in Mozambique, and incidentally criticized the Americans for their actions in Vietnam. Soon, international humanitarian aid arrived, and the entire southern continent, except for South Africa, was embroiled in communism.

The Soviet Union has regained its footing here.

Slava stood in front of the large map in his office, his finger slowly moving upwards from the southern part of Africa to the Horn of Africa in the east.

Ethiopia, Somalia, the Red Sea.

It's right next to the Middle East, right next to the sphere of influence that the United States is now desperately trying to protect.

The United States staked most of its overseas assets in the Middle East, but the Soviet Union was determined not to let the United States have its way!

Chapter 95 Sui Zong's starting point was good, but his execution was flawed.

While revolution was still being exported to Africa in full swing, let's turn back the clock to April 1988.

Every reformer faces a similar dilemma: when reforms are painful but the benefits are still far away, how do you persuade the rest of the group to continue?

Some reformers will bring up the credit card fraud of their predecessors, some will make more compromises, and some will offer some initial benefits to the people to keep them going until the promised benefits are realized.

Give them bread and put on a circus, and the people will naturally be happy.

Inside the Kremlin's General Secretary's office, Slava's face was clouded with worry.

The financial statements for the first and second quarters of 1988 were not optimistic.

He browsed the production data on the terminal in front of him, the amber characters scrolling upwards. The other numbers were all legible, but one column had dropped most noticeably—the level of consumer goods supply had fallen by 7 percentage points compared to the end of last year.

He stared at that column for a long time.

He knew that the reforms to military enterprises implemented at the end of last year had yielded results, but every cut would draw blood; there is no reform without bloodshed!

Departmental restructuring is a matter that affects the whole system. The nine military industry ministries were reorganized according to their technical attributes, civilian production capacity was divested, and new departments were formed... It sounds like just a few words on paper, but in practice, it's a complete upheaval.

Personnel adjustments are needed; if an entire minister changes positions, hundreds or even thousands of subordinates will be affected.

The files had to be transferred; a company's files were moved from one department to another, and decades' worth of accounts and technical data were moved box by box. Because of the internal confidentiality issues of military enterprises, some personnel transfers required constant review and application.

Resources need to be redistributed; the previous supply system, where cross-subsidies were conflated within the military-industrial complex, has been dismantled and now needs to be redistributed.

The means of production need to be transferred; it is necessary to decide which machinery, equipment, and factory buildings will remain, which will be moved, and where they will be moved to.

There's also the issue of rebuilding the supply chain. The military-industrial complex used to be the only reliable supply network in the entire Soviet Union. Now that civilian products have been separated from it, the replacement network hasn't fully developed yet. During this period of transition, if one part of the chain breaks down, a large area below will experience a shortage of goods.

These were all growing pains that Slava had anticipated, and he had to grit his teeth and endure them!

What troubled him most was people. The millions of laborers freed up from the military-industrial ministries needed to be resettled. In theory, these people would be transferred to new civilian departments along with civilian production capacity, and they wouldn't lose their jobs; they would just be producing in a different place.

But this is only in theory.

People are not numbers.

Some people didn't want to leave. The benefits in the military factory area were the best in the entire Soviet Union—it had its own sanatorium, the best housing, and supplies unmatched elsewhere. A veteran technician who had worked in the military factory for half his life, living in a good house allocated by the factory, with his children attending a good school run by the factory, and able to go to the factory's sanatorium in the summer—now, he was told he was to be transferred to a newly formed civilian consortium where nothing was even built yet. Why would he be willing to do that?

Everything he has here is the result of decades of hard work; all his social connections are here. Now, a transfer order is moving him from the outskirts of Moscow to a new factory hundreds of kilometers away—his home is here, his friends, his family, his entire life is here.

Many people don't want to leave.

Under other circumstances, if another leader were to do this, it would be easy to handle! But if an order is issued and someone disobeys the organizational assignment? That becomes a political issue! It's considered ideologically anti-Marxist, counter-revolutionary, and defying central policies!

Workers should think about the country; if you don't lose your jobs, who will?

Koslava couldn't do it because he chose the path he himself had taken—to return to the Soviet Union.

This is something he built himself. He wanted to give frontline workers a voice, the power to be held accountable, a place to voice their opinions, and a place where those opinions would truly be respected!

This system is the source of his reform legitimacy. He cannot, on the one hand, hold high the banner of "the working people being the masters of the country," and on the other hand, turn a deaf ear to the workers' dissatisfaction and opinions, crush them with organizational discipline, and label them as anti-Party elements if they disagree.

He was not Andropov after all. Even though Andropov was his teacher and the benefactor who promoted him, he was unwilling to use the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs like Andropov did.

Some bottom lines are absolutely unbreakable; once broken, they can never be maintained.

Therefore, he had to be patient, patient, listen to those who were dissatisfied, and negotiate, coordinate, offer conditions, and find solutions with those who were unwilling to leave.

The Soviets were people-oriented.

Slava sometimes thought that he had put a shackle on himself. He could have been faster, more ruthless, and more decisive, but when he thought of the individuals forgotten in that grand, sweeping narrative, when he thought of the ordinary workers who could have avoided being harmed if he had just done a better job, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

So be it, it's not 1920 anymore. Back then, the regime was about to collapse, so who cared about Soviet democracy? He's still young now, he has plenty of time, and the alliance can wait.

Slava agreed that slow and steady wins the race.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

There was some unrest in society, the supply of consumer goods declined, and queues became longer. Add to that the ever-restless intellectuals—who love to emerge at times like these, questioning in salons and between the lines of their articles: See? Reforms aren't working, are they? Things are getting less and less with each reform!

There has been a slight sense of restlessness in society, but it is all within a controllable range.

Because the people have their own judgment. No matter how sarcastic or cynical the intellectuals are, as long as their lives have improved compared to previous years, they will still be willing to believe in the Party and in Slava.

Yes, the supply of consumer goods this season has fallen compared to the end of last year, but compared to the years when the whole country was half-dead and the shelves were so empty you could run a horse through them, the current level of "fall" is much better than ever!

There was no large-scale unemployment or layoffs, factories did not close, people did not beg on the streets, no one starved to death, bread was plentiful, and staple food supplies were stable.

Compared to the truly devastating scarcity of the past, what are these minor inconveniences now?

It's just that the queue was a bit long! The Soviets weren't afraid; they were patient!

The general public widely believes that this is merely the growing pains of reform. They have witnessed real hardship and can distinguish between what is "life-threatening" and what is merely "adding to their troubles." Therefore, despite some restlessness and complaints, the people's trust in the Party remains.

This is Slava's greatest asset, and also what he dares not squander.

In 1985, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the people made the wrong choice by electing Gorbachev to power, causing widespread chaos and discontent. Fortunately, the people were willing to give the Communist Party of the Soviet Union another chance, and this time, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union could not let the people down again.

Anxious Slava then asked the Central Planning Commission if they could give a judgment on how long this situation would continue.

The answer was: Ideally, the supply levels of light industry and consumer goods in the Soviet Union would begin to recover in the third quarter, and would increase significantly in the fourth quarter when production stabilized.

Slava believed the answer; he knew that the broken supply chains were being reconnected piece by piece, and the divested production capacity was taking root in new places.

Once you get through this steep, challenging stretch of road, the rest of the journey will be smooth sailing!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"The people's patience is not unlimited," Director Nian said.

That afternoon, the two men were discussing the report on the decline in consumer goods sales.

"It's not enough for you to just let the people know that this is growing pains. Growing pains have to have an end in sight. You have to let them taste some sweetness, let them know that you're not just taking things apart, you're also feeding them."

Otherwise, even the strongest trust can be diluted by the pressure of being pushed through different lines.

Slava knew she was right.

"I think we can start supplying the food basket to a few cities first. We are not fully prepared for short-term delivery, but we can mobilize our publicity department to tell everyone that this method is indeed effective."

After several months, the first phase of the "vegetable basket project" pilot program has produced many noteworthy results.

Slava then agreed to start the propaganda machine to appease the public.