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

Who will buy the soybeans grown by the consortium? According to the approval document, any excess output can be sold at an agreed price that is no more than 15% higher than the state-set purchase price.

Who can I sell it to?

The local oil mills are the consortium's own processing segment; there are no market transactions involved in the internal transfers, so there's no question of negotiated pricing.

Sell ​​to buyers from other regions? The alliance does not have independent grain buyers; the entire grain circulation is monopolized by the national procurement system—soybeans can only be sold to state-designated purchasing stations, which buy at the state-set price. When the people in the alliance took the "15% increase" approval document to argue with the purchasing station officials, they glanced at it and said, "I did not receive this notice," and that was it.

We can't possibly sell all of the consortium's production to the black market, can we?

The lack of price signals acts like an invisible wall, blocking all attempts at reform.

One evening, three weeks after the consortium began operating, Slava was finally able to look at the weekly operations report.

The fertilizer did arrive, but the new soybean varieties recommended by Professor Kolossov were mixed up with ordinary varieties by the seed station staff and sown together, making them indistinguishable. The oil mill reported that their equipment was severely outdated and needed to be replaced, but the consortium's budget simply couldn't cover the equipment purchase. Moreover, if the equipment purchase had to go through the approval process of the State Material and Technology Supply Committee, it would take at least two months.

Slava's reforms were just an anomaly in this vast system, and anomalies are ostracized.

There is absolutely no possibility of moving only one part while leaving the others untouched.

This is precisely the obstacle that all those who have attempted to implement partial reforms within the framework of the Soviet planned economy have encountered throughout history.

Historically, Andropov himself encountered the same problem in his 1983 experiment of empowering industrial enterprises—although enterprises were given a certain degree of autonomy, they still faced state-set prices and planned targets, and autonomy became the power to distribute more bonuses rather than the power to optimize operations.

Earlier reforms like Kosygin's, the Shekino experiments, and even earlier attempts like Khrushchev's various machinations, all ultimately lead to the same problem: without changing the price system, all micro-level incentive adjustments will eventually be reabsorbed by macro-level distortions.

Historically, the "National Agricultural and Industrial Committee" established by Gorbachev in 1985 would have encountered the exact same problem.

Goethe's plan to merge five agricultural ministries into a single super-agency only created an even larger bureaucratic monster, where various factions continued to vie for positions and share the spoils.

Now it was Slava's turn to face this problem that had troubled his predecessors and successors. He thought his solution was superior to that of his predecessors, but when it came to practical implementation, he found that theory was theory and system was system. His knowledge was no more effective than Kosygin's in 1965 or Andropov's in 1982 in the face of reality. They were facing the same wall—it required power, time and the consensus of the entire society.

Slava has none of these three conditions.

That evening, after finishing his overtime shift, Slava went out for a walk to clear his head; he was truly at his wit's end.

He did his best, and this is the best result he could achieve with the hand he currently has.

No matter how advanced and scientific his ideas are, without sufficient power, his actions in the face of the wheels of history are nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

"How's the progress? Are we able to report back to Director An?" Director Nian asked.

There was a faint scent of earth and grass in the air. Spring plowing was over, and the soybean seedlings in the fields had already sprouted several centimeters tall, their lush green leaves resembling a thin layer of down growing on the earth.

The setting sun shone on her silver hair, gilding every strand with gold.

"According to the planned targets, it was done quite well. But according to my own standards, it's a far cry from the results I wanted."

"What's wrong with it?"

"The problem is that I can only do the bare minimum. One sentence from President An is worth ten thousand of mine. If I say ten thousand sentences, it's useless. It's like the whole world is against me."

"Who do you think you are to be targeted?"

"I'm like a student who's still answering questions when the exam bell rings for the final exam. I'm desperately trying to find a glimmer of hope, but as you can see from reality..."

Slava sighed, and Director Nian walked over to him and leaned against him.

"Isn't this cold water more exciting than the Ice Bucket Challenge? What else can you do with it?"

"capable!"

"Do you still dare to do it?"

"You dare!"

"Okay, very spirited!"

Director Nian nodded in satisfaction: "Let's go back for dinner! The cafeteria has meat pies today, they'll be gone if we go too late."

The two walked back along the path by the river, the setting sun slowly sinking behind them, leaving a last orange-red afterglow on the water.

On the opposite bank, the lights of Heihe City were already on, and the scattered lights were reflected on the river surface and stretched into thin ribbons of light by the current.

Summer in the Far East is short, lasting less than three months from June to August, followed by a long autumn and an even longer winter.

The union is operating with difficulty and stumbling along, while something new is happening in Moscow, 6,000 kilometers away.

Chapter 32 Andropov's Legacy

Moscow, June 16

Andropov was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR today.

This title is the official title of head of state, and together with the title of General Secretary, it signifies the complete unification of party power and state power—a path that Brezhnev took thirteen years to complete, Andropov accomplished in just seven months.

President An's power had reached its zenith, but during this time he began to live a secluded life. He did not receive the American girl Samantha when she visited the Soviet Union, leading many outsiders to believe that his condition had worsened.

That's correct; Andropov was officially diagnosed with kidney failure in April.

This disease is curable, but it certainly cannot be cured within the alliance. If he were willing to go to the West to try some experimental treatments, it might be effective—but Andropov is unlikely to put aside his current affairs to go to the West for treatment.

He knew his body well; his kidney disease had been present for a long time. During his tenure as General Secretary, the KGB's medical team had been using various methods to control the rate of deterioration. However, control did not equal a cure. The two organs in his lower back that were gradually losing their function were like two old filter pumps, processing less and less waste each day, while more and more toxins accumulated in his blood. This manifested itself in increasingly frequent periods when he needed to interrupt his work for dialysis treatment.

Conservatives in Moscow have begun planning a list of candidates for the next General Secretary of the Soviet Union.

Andropov calculated that, given the current medical conditions and the rate of disease progression, he might have one to one and a half years of effective working time. During this period, he must complete what needs to be done, or at least make it irreversible. Otherwise, once he falls ill, his successor might be able to overturn all his reforms and start over.

He must leave a sufficient legacy.

The young talents he promoted have shallow foundations; if he moves too fast, they won't be able to defeat the conservatives. He needs more time, more...

PS: Many people want to know why Electric Stick didn't get rid of Show Dog, but I want to say that Electric Stick's death was a victory of dialectics, and so was Show Dog's rise to power. While the Palu trainers don't understand the Hallelujah whirlwind, even if one Show Dog is eliminated, there will be countless others. If the four mischievous cats can't defeat Show Dog, it just means the historical process hasn't reached its peak yet. Show Dog will at least guarantee the trainers' leadership. Only after Show Dog's decades will the Palu trainers understand the necessity of the Hallelujah whirlwind. Moreover, Electric Stick left the Palu trainers five Silver Bibles, their most precious treasure. What happens next depends on the countless Palu trainers.

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 June plenary session was held in the Sverdlov Hall of the Kremlin.

Hundreds of Central Committee members sat in chairs with red velvet covers, facing Andropov's face, which was even thinner than when he took office.

Andropov wrote his own speech—well, at least the core paragraphs were; his secretaries and advisors only polished some transitional paragraphs and official clichés, such as the necessary embellishments like "under the correct leadership of the Party" and "under the brilliant guidance of Marxism-Leninism."

While the committee members below the stage were dozing off as if they were attending a morning meeting, President An finally began to get down to business:

"...Comrades, we still do not fully understand the society in which we live and work, nor have we fully revealed its inherent laws—especially economic laws. Therefore, we have to act in an irrational way of trial and error."

Holy crap, it exploded.

Hundreds of people simultaneously stopped flipping through their notebooks, adjusting their posture, and whispering; all their attention was fixed on the thin figure on the podium.

The fact that a Soviet general secretary and the top leader of a Marxist-Leninist party publicly admitted at a plenary session of the party’s central committee that the party’s method of governing the country was “irrational trial and error” was unprecedented in the seventy-year political history of the Soviet Union!

Even when Khrushchev vehemently criticized Stalin in his secret report to the 20th Party Congress, he never raised such a direct question about the rational foundation of the system itself!

If Comrade Brezhnev were alive, I wonder what he would think. It seems that An is planning to give a 70/30 assessment of Brezhnev's legacy.

Andropov continued. He mentioned that the Soviet Union "has not yet fully reached the stage of advanced socialism described in textbooks," that "a pragmatic attitude is more important than any theoretical dogma" in economic construction, and that "we must admit that our understanding in many areas remains superficial and has not penetrated to the level of regularity."

Slava wasn't at the meeting; he was still out there in the Amur region, 6,000 kilometers away, conducting his own practice. He received the full text of the speech the next day and was startled when he read the phrase "seeking truth from facts."

The concept of "seeking truth from facts" is not a frequent name in the Soviet political lexicon. It is more like it was borrowed from the political discourse of Old Zhong next door. Deng Xixian picked it out of Chairman Mao's vocabulary, cleaned it up, redefined it, and made it the philosophical cornerstone of reform and opening up.

Slava mentioned this concept more than once in countless conversations with Andropov over the past two years, each time it naturally came up when discussing a specific issue in the Soviet Union and encountering the awkward situation of dogma being out of touch with reality.

Clearly, Andropov remembered this concept and incorporated it into his own thinking.

Slava's efforts to shake up history were not in vain.

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.

In the same June, on the other side of the world, Americans continued their psychological warfare game, and they're going to escalate it even further.

In April 1983, the U.S. Pacific Fleet launched the largest naval exercise in the history of the North Pacific. Three carrier strike groups—centered around the USS Enterprise, USS Midway, and USS Coral Sea—carried tens of thousands of sailors from the Aleutian Islands toward the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula, the location of the Soviet Pacific Fleet's nuclear submarine base and the heart of the Soviet Far East strategic nuclear forces.

The simultaneous presence of three carrier strike groups on our doorstep is an extremely aggressive military posture in any international practice during peacetime, but the Americans have done much more than that.

During the exercise, carrier-based aircraft launched from the USS Enterprise and USS Midway repeatedly flew over Soviet military installations in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands for close-range reconnaissance, taking numerous photos of Soviet radar stations, airfields, and missile sites with their onboard cameras. The Soviet air defense forces did not respond with any effective interception throughout the entire process.

The Soviet forces exercised restraint; the fighter jets that took off did not fire and shoot down the American aircraft. However, this restraint was later interpreted by Andropov as a disgrace rather than a virtue.

If you can't even stop people from flying over your head to take pictures, what will you do if they fly over and drop bombs next time? What if they swagger over to Moscow next time?

General Kamensky, commander of the Far Eastern Air Force, was held accountable for failing to respond promptly and effectively to provocative actions by the United States.

Following this incident, Andropov issued a clear order that a strong response must be taken to draw a clear line, otherwise the provocations by the US military would only escalate.

These increasingly audacious probing actions were essentially no different in nature from the last round of reconnaissance by the German army on the Soviet border on June 21, 1941.

The only difference is that this time it wasn't a Messerschmitt flying over, but an F-14.

These words quickly reached the heads of the major military districts, and Slava read them in mid-June through the KGB branch in the Amur region.

He was convinced that Andropov was comparing Operation Barbarossa to the US military's Pacific exercises, which meant that Andropov was no longer just thinking the US might be preparing something; he was starting to think the US was actually preparing something. And the decisions made by someone who is certain the enemy is about to attack and someone who is merely worried about the possibility of an attack are on entirely different levels.

He recalled the letter he had sent to Andropov in April regarding the nuclear early warning review mechanism.

He didn't know if Andropov had seen the letter—judging from the feedback he received, the letter had most likely been filed away by Andropov's secretary as a non-urgent matter, or Andropov had seen it but felt it was inappropriate for a Far Eastern regional party secretary to express his opinion on nuclear strategy issues, so he didn't respond; or perhaps he had seen it and considered it seriously, but felt that any suggestion to lower vigilance would be irresponsible given the current situation of being under pressure from all sides.

Regardless of the situation, the result is the same.

The most dangerous autumn of '83 was still approaching, and the excellent shooter '83 would still arrive, but he could do nothing but write letters in Amur, 6,000 kilometers away.

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.

Things took a turn for the better in early July.

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, a relatively moderate figure in the Reagan cabinet (though "moderate" in the context of the Reagan administration was only relative to the hawks like Defense Secretary Weinberger who were eager to drop nuclear bombs on Moscow the next day), finally won a crucial round in his ongoing contest with the Pentagon hawks at the end of June.

He made a statement at a closed-door meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the gist of which was that “strength and realism can deter war, but only direct dialogue and negotiation can pave the way for lasting peace.” This statement was leaked to The Washington Post by a senator’s aide and appeared on the front page of the newspaper the next day.

Schultz's statement signifies that the negotiators within the Reagan administration have finally begun to exert effective checks and balances on the confrontational faction, at least publicly, their voices are no longer completely suppressed. This is a positive sign for Moscow: Washington is not monolithic, and there are people around Reagan pushing for dialogue rather than confrontation.

Andropov seized upon this signal. On July 4th, America's Independence Day, he wrote to Reagan proposing that both sides eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons to humanity. Reagan's response was equally unexpectedly positive:

Reagan suggested that the negotiators from both sides hold discussions on this matter in Geneva.

Andropov decided to recall Slava, as he needed to let the reformists within the party lead the negotiations.

He didn't want war, but the Americans didn't give him any other options.

Chapter 33 I am a...hero (8K)

"Given that the Geneva negotiations require personnel with experience in international affairs and diverse knowledge to participate in the preparatory work, with the approval of the Central Secretariat, Comrade Velikoslav Ivanovich Ivanov of the Amur Regional Committee has been temporarily transferred to Moscow to participate in related work..."

After receiving the transfer order from Gorbachev, Slava immediately began packing to return to Moscow, where he would be replaced by Nian Dao.

There's a lot to report back to in Moscow this time, so I need to prepare well.

During the eight-hour flight from Blagoveshchensk back to Moscow, Slava reviewed all the intelligence reports on the international situation he had accumulated over the past few months.

US Pacific exercises, Andropov's directives on drawing red lines, the escalation of Operation Ryan, the latest progress on the deployment of Pershing II missiles, and clues gathered from various overseas intelligence stations regarding a possible large-scale nuclear war simulation exercise by NATO in the fall...

He shook his head as he flipped through the pages. Trying to get the Geneva negotiations going in this sweltering heat, where tensions were running high? Too difficult.

Just one spark could wipe out this hard-won cooling down.

This negotiation cannot be delayed any longer, because the Elite Shooter 83 exercise will be held in November. He knew that in the history before his time travel, the Soviet intelligence system misjudged this exercise as a real nuclear attack preparation, and Moscow's nuclear forces were once on high alert. Human civilization was only a few key figures away from its end, thanks to their calm judgment.

If, under these circumstances, several more incidents of US aircraft violating Soviet airspace were to occur...

Slava dared not think any further.

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.

He met Andropov one evening in late July after returning to Moscow.

The location was a government sanatorium on the outskirts of Moscow. Andropov's health no longer allowed him to travel to and from the Kremlin every day, and he increasingly conducted his daily work at this sanatorium, only making an appearance inside the red walls for the most important meetings and receptions, despite his poor health.

He had been diagnosed with kidney failure six months prior and had to undergo dialysis every so often; it seemed unlikely he would live past 1984.

The villa's garden was planted with birch trees and lilacs. The lilacs had already faded by the end of July, but a sweet, lingering fragrance still remained in the air. Andropov sat in an outdoor wicker chair with a blanket draped over his knees. Slava noticed that his ankles were much more swollen than when they last met. An enamel mug sat on a small table beside him, the tea inside seemingly untouched.

"Ivanov, it seems that you have indeed gained a lot of valuable experience during this period."

“You’ve lost weight,” Slava said, sitting down in the chair next to him.

Andropov didn't answer, and then the two of them simultaneously turned their gaze to the row of birch trees at the end of the villa's garden, neither of them saying a word.

Over the years, their relationship has transcended the traditional superior-subordinate relationship. Many times, Slava felt that President An looked at him like a father looking at a good-for-nothing son.

The two men left unsaid what they wanted to say about these trivial matters.

"Let's get down to business," Andropov said after a short pause, pulling the blanket up over his knees.

"How are your preparations for Geneva going?"

"The technical aspects of the negotiation framework are being handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What I can do is mainly to provide some suggestions on the strategic direction. But I would like to talk to you about something else first."

"what's up?"