After a series of combined attacks by the Japanese army, the strategic situation changed significantly. Since most of the Far Eastern Army troops were concentrated between the Pochet Plain and Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, the defense in the north was not stable. As the Japanese army rapidly advanced westward from the Soviet port, the Komsomol Army
The fall of the city was only a matter of time. At the same time, with the successful parachute landing of the Japanese army, major flaws appeared in the Far Eastern Army's northern defense line. With the Japanese army's center blooming and the tactics of a north-south pincer attack, the prospect of Sakhalin Island was extremely bleak.
Suffering such a series of major blows on the first day of the war, the senior officials of the Far Eastern Republic were so nervous that they could not breathe, especially Marshal Yegorov, the Chief of General Staff of the Far Eastern Army who was specifically responsible for formulating the strategy, and General Fetiko, the Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Far Eastern Army.
General Leonid, Chief of Operations of the General Staff of the Far East Army, General Smirnov, General Political Commissar of the Far East Army, and others are facing unprecedented pressure and accusations.
At nine o'clock in the morning the next day, the top leaders of the Far Eastern Republic held an emergency meeting in Sverdlovsk (today's Yekaterinburg) to discuss the response of the Far Eastern government and the army in the event that Japan took the initiative to provoke a war, focusing on the three-month military expansion.
How to coordinate the more than one million Far East troops on the eastern and western fronts.
Marshal Blyucher, the People's Commissar of Military Affairs of the Far Eastern Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force, who presided over the meeting, looked grim:
"Comrades, the situation is more serious than we imagined. Due to the successful landing of the Japanese army at the Soviet port, Komsomolsk was directly under attack by the Japanese army. As we all know, since Stalin promised huge profits and colluded with Japan, the Japanese army After receiving intelligence reports that there may be a sudden invasion of my country's coastal areas, we have organized factories and enterprises in the area to carry out operations in Mongolia.
Relocation, but so far, less than one-third of the companies have been relocated. Previously, most comrades believed that after Japan gained vast land in Southeast Asia, it would be unlikely to reach out to our Far East again. After all, the harsh climate conditions here,
It once left an indelible impression on the Japanese army during the civil war, which was also the main reason why Japan withdrew from the Far East in 2022.
"However, the war inevitably broke out in the end, and the cunning enemy did not deploy troops according to our strategic deployment. Instead, he attacked east and west and aimed his spearhead at our back. I have ordered General Gayi, commander of the Red Flag Army, to dispatch troops to the station.
The three divisions defending Bolivia quickly moved northward to block the mountain passes of the Hotalynn Mountains, and provided supplies to Komsomolsk and the lower reaches of Heilongjiang, such as Dekastri, Sofiskoye, Ratsalev, and Nikolaye.
The strategic general retreat from Fusk (Temple Street) and other cities bought enough time.
"As far as I know, before this, the security forces and workers' pickets in Hutu, Tumnin, Gurskoye and other cities along the railway to Komsomolsk had begun to demolish the railways one by one, and built on the railway embankment and
Landmines were laid on major highways to try to slow down the Japanese army's westward advance.
"Comrades, although my reason tells me not to panic, I am still a little helpless now. Here I have a question: What to do with the garrison on Sakhalin Island? We have deployed two troops near the north-south dividing line.
Division, plus the security forces in various cities in North Kazakhstan, there are almost 40,000 people. Currently, they are facing the danger of being completely annihilated.
However, as the Japanese naval combined fleet moved north, the Tatar Strait and the Neveljek Strait have been blocked by the Japanese army. Our second fleet deployed in Temple Street had no choice but to set off again at midnight last night, heading for Petroba on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The transfer from Wlovsk, I believe everyone knows what this means, what should we do now?"
There was silence in the conference room, and the air was so tense that it was almost breathless.
General Fetiko, deputy chief of staff of the Far Eastern Army, broke the silence and said in an extremely heavy tone: "I once served as the commander of the Sakhalin garrison, and I am very familiar with everything on Sakhalin. The cutoff of sea routes, coupled with the
The Japanese naval and land aviation forces in the Harlem area have absolute air superiority, and the troops on the island actually have no hope of withdrawing. No.
But please rest assured, the commanders of the two infantry divisions stationed in Sakhalin are my old subordinates. When I was the deputy deputy commander of the Red Flag Special Group Army, they were battalion commanders. Later, when I served as the commander of the Coastal Group, they were promoted to regimental commanders.
, they are already division commanders now. I understand their character very well, and I believe they can stick to their ideals and fight to the end."
Everyone knew what Fediko meant. The Second Pacific Fleet was weak, and the First Fleet was blocked in the Amur Gulf, unable to organize ships to rush for shipment. In addition, it was impossible for the Air Force's transport planes to brave the artillery fire of the Japanese aviation force.
Surrendering and giving up is an inevitable choice. However, no one put the words to the point. The words are enough for this purpose, and everyone's mood is generally heavy.
Lyushenkov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Far East and General Secretary of the Central Committee, coughed lightly, and then said after everyone's attention was focused on him:
"Now we must consider the way out for the front-line troops in Vladivostok. Previously, our intention was for the naval fleet to cooperate with the fortresses and fortress groups around the coast to ensure the absolute safety of the Amur Bay and Vladivostok Port, and strive to kill as many Japanese troops as possible and force the Japanese troops to return
On the negotiating table. But now the Japanese avoid our attack and choose to break through from the Soviet port. This makes our previous strategic intention of fighting the Japanese army in the area around Vladivostok come to nothing.
"The Japanese army is approaching Komsomolsk along the railway. Troops from surrounding areas will inevitably gather in the Sikhote Alin Mountains to prevent the Japanese army from advancing westward. In this way, Nikolayevsk (Temple Street), Chumican and Shantar
The islands will be exposed to attack by the Japanese fleet, and the Japanese can attack them anytime, anywhere
Landings were carried out in the above areas. At the same time, the Japanese paratroopers were put into use, so that the rear areas that we thought were safe - Khabarovsk (Burli) and Zambirobi, Obluchi and other inner-city cities were also attacked by the Japanese army.
The entire northern line is actually open to danger.
"In this case, whether we should fight unswervingly in the area around Vladivostok or decisively withdraw to Khabarovsk is worth discussing. In addition, if the land war fails, the arrangement of naval warships is also a big problem."
Bukharin, Secretary of the Central Secretariat and People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs and Propaganda:
"It's easy to talk about warships. At present, the main force of the Japanese Navy's combined fleet has moved north. It is expected that what will be blocked in the Great Peter Bay is a small Japanese fleet. We can choose to break out. Now our ally, the Republic of South China, is not short of naval warships? We cannot guarantee surface ships.
, but the huge submarine fleet should be able to sneak out of the Sea of Japan, and we can sell them all to Nanhua in exchange for strategic material resources."
Everyone looked at each other, not expecting Bukharin to be so straightforward.
Chairman of the People's Committee Rykov asked hesitantly: "Is this okay? After all, the Pacific Fleet is the Soviet Union's years of hard work. Will this lead to attacks from Moscow? If they publicize it on the radio and newspapers, we will
It’s discredited!”
Bukharin waved his hand disapprovingly: "Don't be afraid, the Japanese were originally seduced by Moscow, and there is nothing wrong with our doing so. We can also announce to the outside world that due to the Japanese navy's surprise attack, our Pacific Fleet was caught off guard, and the entire army was annihilated.
Just put all the blame on the Japanese. The Japanese navy has the third largest fleet in the world. It is normal for us to fail.
, it would be unbelievable to say that when the main force of the Japanese Navy raided Vladivostok Port, we suffered no losses at all. In addition, the naval officers and soldiers are emotionally attached to their ships, and now we don’t have any use for the navy. We might as well even take the ships with them.
Giving it to Nanhua together can be regarded as preserving some naval seeds for the Soviet Union. Otherwise, being trapped in the port of Vladivostok will mean 'death' sooner or later.
"In my opinion, the focus of the current conflict is not the navy, but whether it is necessary to continue to deploy heavy troops around Vladivostok. Due to the sudden change of tactics by the Japanese on the entire coastal defense line, we have fallen into a great passive position strategically. If
If you don’t come up with a plan as soon as possible, arrange it in the sea
The ten armies in the surrounding area of Shenyang, including one tank corps and two cavalry corps, will be surrounded by the Japanese army. But if this powerful strategic mobile force withdraws to Khabarovsk, we can rely on the Siberian Railway to advance.
You can attack, retreat or defend, so it’s a good choice.”
There was a lot of discussion in the conference room. Many officials and generals whispered and exchanged views. In the end, they all believed that the gap between the Pacific Fleet and the Japanese Navy was too obvious. Rather than staying in the harbor and taking advantage of the Japanese, it was better to let them break out and find a way out. As for the long distance
The supply and supply issues going south are no longer under consideration.
Seeing that everyone had unified their opinions, Blucher asked the secretary to record the resolution, and immediately sent someone to call South China to ask if they were interested in purchasing warships from the Pacific Fleet? He was worried about the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Viktorov, and the political commissar Kireye.
Concerned about the mood of General Husband, Blyucher called the two men again and requested to arrive in Sverdlovsk as soon as possible to attend the military and political meeting.
At this time, General Hulin, the Soviet Minister of Economy, stood up anxiously:
"Comrades, there is a problem that we must face seriously. Previously, all our oil supplies came from Sakhalin, but now that the war in Sakhalin has fallen into an extremely unfavorable situation, a cutoff in oil supplies will be inevitable.
The direct consequence of this incident is that the oil inventory will become less and less until it is exhausted. In the end, we
The huge mechanized troops will be turned into fixed forts. Among the areas we currently control, only the Ishimbai area in the Ural Mountains has oil fields, but this oil field with an annual output of 200,000 tons of oil will be on Moscow's side at any time.
Under the attack. We must solve this problem as soon as possible, otherwise the war will be difficult to continue."
Everyone looked grim and relatively speechless.
Marshal Yegorov, Chief of General Staff of the Far East Army, finally couldn't sit still and stood up and proactively admitted his mistake: "I'm sorry, comrades, it was an error in the combat plan of our staff that led to the current series of problems.
I am willing to take all responsibility for this."
"Sit down and don't take all the responsibilities on yourself!"
Blyucher glared at Yegorov: "Who said you are responsible? It doesn't matter who makes the plan... Our troops in the Far East are limited, and we can't take care of the head. We can't take care of the tail.
There is no way to look back. Sakhalin Island is separated from the mainland by a strait. Once the Japanese army blocks it, no one can do anything to them!
At this point, Blyucher hesitated, but after thinking about it, he said it: "Comrades, I have an immature idea now. If it succeeds, it will reverse the current unfavorable situation in one fell swoop. But if it fails, we will
Lost miserably..."
Seeing Blucher's hesitant look, Radek, Chairman of the Far East Communist International, frowned: "Just say what you have to say! At this critical moment, if you have any ideas, just come up with them, and everyone will help give advice, and if they are good, we will implement them.
Just discard the bad ones, and you won’t lose a piece of meat by talking about them!”
Bluher said: "That's it. I'm thinking that instead of putting a lot of troops in the Far East and fighting with the Japanese army, it's better to shrink the defense line and retreat strategically... Think about it, there are eight soldiers in the Far East.
With 100,000 troops, we can shrink our defense line to Lake Baikal
line, destroying all railways and highways, leaving 200,000 troops to block operations in that mountainous forest area. The Japanese army will gradually lose their vigor due to the long front and difficulties in supply. The pressure on our troops will be much less. We have
Suddenly there were 600,000 more new troops.
"We have 1.2 million troops in Central Asia. Now that the war situation is basically clear, we can safely hand it over to our allies, the South China Army, to clean up the mess. After shrinking, this part of the mechanized army will be
Our most powerful strategic decisive force. In addition, we have 1.5 million troops on the Ural front. Calculating this, we can use more than 3.3 million troops.
"Affected by the Great Purge, the army controlled by Moscow has been inactive for more than a year, and the level of officers at all levels varies. We admit that there are some genius generals among them. After they were promoted and reused and occupied high positions, it greatly stimulated
In addition to the vitality of the troops under their command, the troops were full of vitality, but more commanders were inactive.
In the troops led by these people, the guiding ideology is confused, and the thinking and training are in a mess. For example, the more than three million troops on the Ural front line that went into attack were not strong in combat effectiveness. They attacked our army with twice the strength of mine.
The defense line has lasted for more than 20 days and no ground has been advanced, which makes people have to wonder whether our opponent is still the invincible Red Army?
"Just now Comrade Hulin said that with the blockade of the strait, our oil supply will be cut off, but comrades, it is not that there is no oil. The line from the Urals to the Volga River where we are currently fighting is the second largest oil-producing area in the Soviet Union.
, this area has large oil wells such as Romashkino, Orenburg, Duimaz, etc., with an annual oil production of up to 8 million tons, which is much better than Sakhalin.
"My opinion is to go west at all costs and attack Moscow all the way. Anyway, the worst case scenario is death. All of us here have experienced the test of the Great Purge. I believe that life and death have long been ignored. Why don't we fight?
What if we are lucky enough to capture Moscow and force Stalin to surrender?
What about? By that time, if we concentrate the power of the entire Soviet Union, it will be easy to expel the Japanese. Even in Central Asia, we can get them back from South China through negotiations. Although An Yi is me and Liu Shenkov,
We are friends with the students in Huangpu, but in the face of the interests of the country and the nation, there is no room for mercy."
Everyone started talking about Blyucher's proposal, and the conference room was buzzing with discussion again.
Yegorov's eyes lit up, he thought about it carefully, and stood up again: "I support Comrade Blyucher's view. Since Moscow can blatantly lead the wolf into the house and want us to fall into the embarrassing situation of fighting on the east and west fronts, why should we
Can't we choose to give up voluntarily? I don't know if you have read the military textbooks of the Nanhua Xufu Military Academy. I borrowed them from Comrade Lyushenkov and read them. Among them, the last sentence of "Tactics"
The words left a deep impression on me: Lose land and save people, and both people and land will be saved; Lose people and save land, and both people and land will be lost. This well illustrates the importance of mobile warfare and shows that it is important to fight a war of attrition under the enemy's superior strength.
It is an extremely irrational behavior. Under the current situation where the Japanese army has all-round advantages in land, sea and air, it is the best strategy to give up appropriately in the Far East, extend the front line to eliminate the enemy's advantage, preserve their strength, and then wait for opportunities to destroy the enemy.
"Comrade Blyucher's suggestion that we take advantage of the situation to attack Moscow is a stroke of genius. What do we lack now? Oil! Where is the oil? The line from the Urals to the Volga River, which is now our main battlefield, covers 700,000 square kilometers.
Underground, everything is oil. Since there is oil and we need oil, why not take the initiative to fight for it?
What? The Siberia we occupy now has a complete oil refining industry system. After getting the oil, it can be immediately converted into the fuel we need. Only then can our tanks, planes, trucks, and the cars that all of you are riding in have power.
Only victory in the battle can be guaranteed; otherwise, the battle will only become harder and harder, the more we fight, the less confident we will be, and collapse will happen sooner or later."
General Leonid, the Minister of Operations, was extremely excited: "Yes, go west, keep going west! If Stalin does not give up the fight for one day, we will fight all the way to Leningrad and the Baltic Sea coast. Previously, we had entered into a misunderstanding.
They believe that Moscow has an absolute advantage in manpower and material resources, and we can only take a defensive position. They do not realize that pure defense cannot prevent us. We can only fight out unswervingly, inflict pain on the enemy, and disrupt the enemy's strategic deployment.
Only then can we fundamentally reverse our destiny.
"We in the Far East have been insisting on the modernization of the army and the expansion of our armored forces, and training has not failed for a day. However, the army in Moscow has experienced ideological and cognitive confusion and has not restored the establishment of the tank corps so far. At present,
The balance of power is not that we are at a disadvantage, but our opponents!"
General Smirnov, the general political commissar of the Far East Army, has been in battle for a long time. He also expressed his views at the right time:
"Fundamentally speaking, we and the Moscow side have the same clan and the same belief, so it is easier for us to win the approval of the Soviet people. Our Political Department sent people to follow the South China side to implement land reform in Central Asia. After obtaining the land, the people there
the joy of giving us
The cadres were deeply impressed. Although agricultural collectivization can greatly stimulate industrial development, it is too cruel for farmers. If we want to gain political power, we must grasp the most fundamental thing-people's hearts, and land reform will
It will be the key to help us win the hearts and minds of the people."
"That's right, it's land!"
Upon hearing that there was a chance to take over Moscow, Bukharin also became energetic and said loudly: "We can use our planes to carry out the document made by Comrade Lenin in 1918 on equal distribution of land among all Soviet peasants.
Spread across the plains of Eastern Europe, promising to drive us away
Stalin and his lackeys will definitely implement Comrade Lenin's decision, so that the broad masses of farmers can be brought to our side. As for workers, we can increase wages and increase the supply of market goods so that our people can truly enjoy the benefits of socialism.
benefit.
"With the military victory and the follow-up of propaganda, we can deploy a small amount of troops or even no troops in the liberated areas, concentrate all the troops, and push towards Moscow with all our strength! When Moscow is captured, we will take the absolute initiative, and then the Stalin regime will
It will collapse and all difficulties will be solved!"
The conference room became lively, and everyone expressed their opinions. Originally, everyone was pessimistic about the war on the east and west fronts, thinking that the fall of the Far Eastern Republic was only a matter of time, but now they look at the problem beyond the confines of the country.
Many problems that have been troubled for a long time have suddenly turned around and found solutions.
With the current population of the Far Eastern Republic, even if it were all concentrated in the Siberian Plain, it could still be described as a vast land with a sparse population. However, such a concentration would allow the wasted troops to guard the long border to be integrated into a huge fist and punched outward.
Moscow seems powerful and can mobilize and build tens of millions of troops, but they need to deploy troops along long borders. Most of the Soviet Union’s territory was inherited from Imperial Russia, and almost all of Imperial Russia’s territory was acquired through
Neighboring countries have taken advantage of them. Once troops from the Baltic Coast Military District, Belarusian Military District, Carpathian Military District and Odessa Military District are deployed, the emptiness in border defense will inevitably lead to encroachment by neighboring countries, and may even cause
Germany's covetousness. Once Germany takes advantage of the chaos to launch an attack from the Western Front, it will be really over. Therefore, Stalin would not dare to move the troops on the Western Front no matter what. Calculating this, the Soviet Union can only organize four to five million troops to the Western Front.
Wire.
In an army group-level battle, as long as the difference in numbers between the two sides is not too big, the overall quality of the troops will determine the outcome of the battle. After all, those who fight directly face to face are almost the same in number. If the training level of one side is too different, it will not take long.
If it collapses and wavers, it will definitely lead to the overall defeat. If the victorious side is full of momentum and takes advantage of the situation to pursue, the result is self-evident.
Now the Far East Army has a huge advantage, that is, they don't have to be distracted from grabbing territory. Since the top leaders of the Far East are almost all revolutionaries of the older generation who are well-known to the Soviet people, many of them have served as the country's main leaders at the National Congress many times.
Prominent figures who gave speeches, the Soviet party newspaper "Pravda", the government's "Izvestia", the army's "Red Star", the General Engineer
The Communist Party's "Labor Daily" and other newspapers and magazines, Bukharin and others have long been the main position of public opinion propaganda, and they are almost household names. The Far Eastern Army only needs to unite as one and march towards Moscow. As long as it can reach Moscow, Stalin will definitely
He was overthrown due to a series of major mistakes he made during his tenure as national leader. Therefore, from this point of view, the future of the Far East Army is still very bright.
Lyushenkov hesitated: "Then the industrial facilities transferred from Vladivostok, Komsomolsk, Khabarovsk and other places will be moved to Siberia, right?"
"This is an inevitable choice!"
Pitakov, chairman of the Supreme National Economic Council of the Far East, took over: "In the future, the war between us and Japan will start in the area around Lake Baikal. Mongolia's main railway line to Siberia will be demolished. Our production base will be located in
Mongolia will face major difficulties in material transportation. In addition, Western Siberia has a good industrial foundation. During the First and Second Five-Year Plans, in order to change the problem of unbalanced industrial development across the Soviet Union, the Supreme Soviet
Key development has been carried out in the sub-region, and a large number of military and heavy industry bases have been settled in cities such as Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Omsk, Tyumen, Kemerovo, etc., from aircraft to artillery
Tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks can all be manufactured. If we add companies relocating from the Far East, we will not have any problems in replenishing our armaments. Moreover, due to nearby production and replenishment, we can also greatly shorten the time to equip our troops."
Afterwards, many officials and generals gave speeches. After listening to this, Lyushenkov always felt that something was wrong, but seeing that everyone was in high spirits, he did not think much about it.
The final meeting decided:
The Far East Republic's troops in Central Asia will be transferred northward in the next week; the Far East will plan to transport the troops gathered in the Vladivostok area to Western Siberia, but it must ensure that the Vladivostok defense line does not collapse within half a month.
, the final troops to evacuate will stay in Eastern Siberia to undertake the Eastern Front combat mission; in the direction of Komsomolsk, the troops must make every effort to block the Japanese army's westward advance and win precious time for the transfer of factories, enterprises and people.