Struggle in Soviet Russia

St. George’s Hill, outside the bright yellow walls of St. George’s Cathedral, the turbulent crowd blocked the water at the entrance of the cathedral. Banners and flags fluttering in the crowd fluttered above St. George’s Hill.

On the periphery of the crowd, the people responsible for maintaining order are a large number of militia members dressed in civilian clothes and carrying various old-fashioned rifles on their shoulders. Don’t get me wrong. These militias are militias in the true sense, not paramilitary organized by the People’s Committee of the People’s Committee of the People’s Internal Affairs Bureau. unit. They were spontaneously formed by citizens of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Jewish and other ethnic groups in Lviv, with the purpose of "resisting the oppression of Polish landlords and capitalists and preventing the destruction of Polish anti-Soviet elements" as an unofficial organization.

From the purpose of this organization, it can be seen that the fundamental reason why Moscow allows such organizations to exist is to use contradictions between ethnic groups as a tool to combat the population advantage of Poles in the Lviv region and strengthen the Soviet regime in the region. control.

For the time being, the Soviet Union has relatively weak control over Western Ukraine, especially the part of Western Ukraine east of the newly regained Curzon Line. The big figures in Moscow are very clear that simple military occupation is not the same as true. Control, in this area, the country still has a lot to do.

Use the contradictions between ethnic groups to improve the status of Ukrainians, Jews and other minorities against the populous Poles; use the contradictions between religions to improve the status of the Orthodox Church against the Catholic Church, which has a majority of believers; use the contradictions between classes, Use the workers and peasants at the bottom to fight the rich peasants and the bourgeoisie. Wait and so on, these are all strategies to strengthen control.

Under the urging of these strategies, the militia organizations and workers’ unions in the Lviv region were very active. They actively reported and exposed the rich peasants, capitalists and anti-Soviet elements, cooperated with the People’s Committee of the Interior to take actions, arrested spies, saboteurs, and confiscated them. The ill-gotten gains of bad elements. To a certain extent, their enthusiasm is higher than that of the People's Committee of the Interior, after all, their thinking contains elements of revenge and grievance.

Victor's jeep drove through the crowd, slowly entered through the main entrance of the church, drove a distance along the upward ramp, and then stalled and parked on the side of the road.

His gaze projected from the car window and looked at the arch with an iron fence in front of the road. There, more than 20 monks in monk robes were leaving the church with salutes. They were Catholic monks. , May have lived here since a very young age. But now, they must leave St. George’s Church, or integrate into society and be ordinary people, or leave Lviv and go to the former Polish area controlled by the Germans.

In the Soviet Union’s religious policy, the Leninist principle of "separation of state and religion" has always been pursued. Bolshevik party members are atheists and cannot support the development of a certain religion in an administrative way. However, in Western Ukraine, this policy was temporarily revised. The People’s Committee of the Interior was ordered to take over the assets originally belonging to the "Oriental Catholic Church", especially churches and monasteries, and then hand them over to the "Moscow and All-Russian Orthodox Church". "By using this administrative method, we will fully support the development of the Orthodox Church in Western Ukraine and stifle the influence of the Catholic Church.

According to the plan, Moscow and the All-Russian Orthodox Church will accept 73 churches and monasteries originally belonging to the Catholic Church in the Lviv region, and this St. George’s Cathedral is just one of them.

Since the relevant orders were issued, there have been several violent conflicts between Catholics and Orthodox Christians in Lviv city as the center. You know, since the "Great Split" in 1054, the contradiction between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church has lasted for nearly a thousand years. In the Lviv region, with the support of the Polish government, the Catholic Church has been suppressing the Orthodox Church in the past. , Everything is reversed, it is conceivable how intense the conflict brewing in it is.

From Victor’s personal point of view, the use of religion to increase influence in the newly occupied area is actually understandable, because it is easier to use religion to form an alliance between the people of the newly occupied area and the entire Soviet state. A cultural community, which is a national strategy, will not take care of the emotions of a certain individual.

In addition to religion, Lviv’s education system has recently been facing shocks. According to Moscow’s order, all large, medium and small colleges and universities in the entire Lviv region are now excluding teaching content on Polish language and Polish history. , It is the teaching content of Ukrainian and Russian that has been strengthened. Affected by this, a large number of educators who originally taught Polish language and Polish history lost their jobs, and some were even thrown directly into prison.

In the face of the strong will of the state, ordinary people who happened to get in the way are very sad, and their families may lose their source of livelihood and transform from the original middle class into proletarians overnight. Of course, this is not the most tragic. The most tragic is that some families will become fragmented in the storm.

As the head of the People’s Committee of the People’s Committee of the Interior in Lviv, what Victor was ordered to promote there was not actually a law and order strengthening movement, but a complete change. Driven by this change, the social atmosphere in Lviv today is actually deformed. Some are trying to resist, some are enduring silently, and some are celebrating.

In the past two weeks, the NKVD has received more than one hundred thousand reports, reports, and reports. The crimes involved are all sorts of strange things. Whoever said bad things against the Soviet state, who sympathized with a certain rich Polish peasant. , So and so who have been to Warsaw... Yes, even going to Warsaw has become a crime in the eyes of some people and needs to be liquidated.

Most of the reports and reports like this are of no value. It may be caused by conflicts between neighbors or simple jealousy. But the problem is that as long as a similar letter reaches the People’s Committee of the Interior, someone must be required. To deal with. After being screened, most of the reporting letters will be handed over to the Civil Police Headquarters to work hard, but some of them need to be verified by the national security department. As a result, the already stretched manpower is even more inadequate, which makes Victor a very headache.

With the support of guns, the handover of St. George’s Cathedral went very smoothly. Although the priests of the Eastern Catholic Church protested and even wrote a letter of complaint to Moscow, it was useless. From today, this church is still returning. Orthodox church.

When the Orthodox Christians who came to celebrate dispersed, Victor’s jeep drove out of the church. Although he did not show up during the whole handover ceremony, he himself was always here. In his capacity, he was not suitable to stand out and show his face. .

Sitting in the back seat of the jeep, Victor looked at the streets of Lviv outside the car. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, the streets of Lviv today are much more bleak than before. I remember when I first came to Lviv, this The streets of the city are still very prosperous, and there are many shops selling all kinds of goods, many of which are from all over the world.

Nowadays, many shops on the street are closed. Only some shops selling daily necessities are still open. Of course, most of these shops belong to the "Consumer Goods and Resident Services Committee". In other words, they are all state-owned. Store. The remaining part is mainly owned by private shops run by Jews. Compared with the shocked Poles, Jews are much more courageous, and they still do business as they did in the past.

Compared with the large number of reduced stores, there are a lot of various propaganda posters and slogans on the streets, most of which promote the happy life of the Soviet family, and some are portraits of leaders.

Seeing those portraits, Victor couldn't help but think of another case: According to the report by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Police Headquarters, a despicable anti-Soviet gang appeared in the urban area recently, and their anti-Soviet methods and methods are every night. They were dispatched to tear up portraits of Lenin and Stalin everywhere in the city.

If possible, Victor is more willing to regard this kind of thing as a prank. Behind the so-called case, there may be a few Polish children, at most a few idle young people. The biggest reason why they did this may be because From my parents, I heard some remarks against the Soviets.

But at such a moment, as the head of the People’s Committee of the People’s Committee of Lviv, he had to pay great attention to this case. Strongly political, his attitude reflects his political stance and political sensitivity.

Ten minutes later, the jeep stopped in front of the headquarters building of the People's Committee of the Interior.

Victor got out of the car and tidied up his military uniform before stepping up the stairs and walking towards the main entrance of the building. Along the way, whether it was the sentinel in charge of the security work or the staff coming in and out, all stopped to salute him. This young lieutenant, who was less than 30 years old, was the top leader of this violent department.

All the way back to his office, Victor had just taken off his general hat and hung it on the coat rack at the door when he heard the door knocked on the door he had just closed.

"Come in," he said with a sigh of relief after unbuttoning the two buttons on the front of the uniform.

The door was pushed open from the outside, and Sophia in military uniform walked in from the outside with a folder in her hand.

"Victor, I have bad news," Sophia said, standing at the door, raising the file in her hand.

"Go ahead, there has never been any good news lately anyway," Victor said without looking back.