Chapter 70

The plan to incorporate the Strategic Rocket Forces, reduce the military by 300,000 personnel, and include 100,000 officers under the KGB's jurisdiction did not encounter any opposition within the Military Administration Department. This was quite normal, as the Military Administration Department had only been established for a little over a year, with Yury Shelepov being its first director. The development of the Military Administration Department from scratch was entirely Shelepov's work.

Every department within the Military Administration Department, including their specific powers, law enforcement scope, and division of labor, was established by Shelepov. He led this institution, which had only been in existence for half a year, to take advantage of the opportunity to replace Zhukov. Using the pretext of Bonapartism, he removed the hats of over 70 generals. Following Khrushchev's resolution, he also dismissed a batch of officers who had reached retirement age and retired a batch of officers who did not meet the cultural standards.

It was Shelepov who transformed this group of people, who dared not speak in the presence of Red Army generals, into a powerful entity within the Red Army, overseeing both heaven and earth, and the KGB's military units. There was no one in the entire Military Administration Department who had any objections to Shelepov. The operation of the Military Administration Department was very simple: Shelepov made the decisions, and his subordinates executed them!

This would not change just because the director had been absent from headquarters for half a year. Moreover, with Shelepov's current perceptiveness, such potential issues were basically eliminated. He gave the departments about ten minutes to digest his instructions. After everyone had taken notes, Shelepov glanced around, lightly tapped the table twice, and asked, "The head of the conscription department, stand up and talk about your plans for the beginning of next year!"

The conscription order was issued by the Ministry of Defense and implemented nationwide by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it still fell within the jurisdiction of the KGB. The 11th Department of the Military Administration Department had the authority in this area. The head of the 11th Department stood up and introduced the specific situation, using several examples to illustrate. Shelepov listened attentively but did not admit that he did not understand.

He directly ignored the parts he did not understand and let the head of the 11th Department sit down. For the parts he understood, he offered his own views: "Actually, my proposal this time is not just about our department. Since it involves foreign advisory teams, I will communicate with the head of the First Department, Comrade Sakhatovski, later! In the conscription scope for next year, we need to focus more on Central Asia! Our troops in Egypt, Syria, and possibly Iraq, which is currently in civil war, and perhaps even Turkey in the future, what conflicts do you think there might be between our troops and these countries?"

"Religion? The religious atmosphere in these countries is very strong! If there are conflicts between our troops and the locals, it will likely be due to religious issues!" Shelepov took a deep breath and guided his subordinates, "These conflicts can be avoided. We can recruit soldiers from the Uzbek and Turkmen regions of Central Asia! These areas have a similar atmosphere to the Middle East, and we can use these soldiers to replace Slavic soldiers in the Middle East..."

"But, Director, the shooting incident in the Transcaucasian Military District at the beginning of the year involved Turkmen soldiers who were influenced by underground Turkish newspapers. If we send Slavic soldiers, they might avoid being influenced, but if we send Central Asian ethnic soldiers, the risk of being influenced by foreign forces is even greater," the head of the 1st Department, General Pavlov, raised his concern.

"Well said, enemies are enemies, whether they are inside or outside!" Shelepov first encouraged his subordinate and then explained his solution, "For foreign troops, specifically the advisory teams in Arab regions, the service period will be extended to five years, and military discipline will be relaxed! We can replace Slavic soldiers with Central Asian and Caucasian soldiers. It can be clearly stipulated in the foreign service regulations that they can marry foreign women, but not force them. After marriage, the local women will be given Soviet emigrant certificates, but they will lose their Soviet citizenship!"

"What is the specific purpose of this policy?" the head of the 3rd Department, responsible for monitoring Central Asia and the Caucasus, asked.

"The specific purpose is to reduce instability in our country!" Shelepov did not explain too much, but he could sense that half of the department heads already understood his meaning. So, there was no need to explain further!

By extending the service period for Soviet troops in Arab regions and encouraging international marriages, Shelepov aimed to reduce the number of young and energetic ethnic minorities, especially the rapidly growing Uzbek population in Central Asia. By removing the restrictions on international marriages, he was essentially setting a trap for young men. Losing Soviet citizenship was easy, but regaining it was very difficult, and the Soviet Union did not recognize dual citizenship. Otherwise, millions of White Russians would flood in, and the KGB would be overwhelmed.

In essence, Shelepov was setting a trap for soldiers who couldn't control their urges! And it was mainly aimed at ethnic minorities. If they couldn't resist the loneliness of military life and engaged in international relationships, they would immediately lose their Soviet citizenship! In simple terms, it was a case of one person taking the fall for another...

"If there are no objections, it's decided! Implement it directly during the conscription season! Dismissed..." Shelepov routinely expressed his willingness to hear opposing views but received the usual response: no objections!

The Military Administration Department had accumulated a backlog of documents for half a year, but fortunately, none of them were important. Shelepov quickly entered a state of non-stop work, "The Turkestan Military District, some soldiers wrote a protest letter about the use of lard in the mess hall?"

Holding a document from May, Shelepov maintained the same posture for several minutes before throwing the document away and shouting, "Can lard kill you? Send a telegram to the KGB representative in the Turkestan Military District, all involved soldiers will be discharged from the military, and local factories will not accept them as transferred personnel! The Red Army will feed you what it feeds you, and soldiers should not have conditions. If such incidents happen again, they will be handled the same way! A little lard causes so much trouble, what if there was a piece of pork in it, would there be a rebellion?"

The Turkestan Military District included the four Central Asian republics except Kazakhstan. The agricultural conditions there were not good, and unlike the rest of the Soviet Union, which used sunflower oil, they used more lard. It was well-known that pork had a high fat content! Such a trivial matter could be escalated to the Military Administration Department, and Shelepov was exasperated! If he had to speak on this, he had the most to say, as in his previous life, he had eaten soybean oil all his life, and the Soviet Union did not change that!

"These trivial matters are a waste of time!" Shelepov irritably handed the matter over to Isayev's secretary and put on his hat, preparing to go out for a walk. Before leaving, he instructed, "Call General Kadbov and have him pay attention to the work in Turkestan!"

General Kadbov was the head of the 5th Department of the 5th Directorate, and as the chairman of the Soviet Committee on Religious Affairs, he was a capable assistant to General Aleksey. Shelepov wanted the department to call General Kadbov to clean up the religious forces in Turkestan.