In Comrade Stalin's office within the Kremlin, Kirov merely exchanged nods with Molotov and Grigory before turning his attention to Stalin. The current situation left none of the three with the option to sit; with the Politburo's decision to exile Trotsky now in effect, the atmosphere within the CPSU was a mix of considerable relief and tension.

General Secretary Stalin appeared calm and composed, his expression even suggesting a high degree of relaxation. He waved his hand, "Comrades, sit." Having said this, he began to pack tobacco into his pipe.

None of the three sat, continuing instead to look at Stalin. After lighting his pipe and seeing them remain standing, Stalin did not insist, but asked, "Comrades, what are your views on the handling of the Trotskyists?"

Kirov was reluctant to speak. According to the political traditions of the CPSU thus far, a purge of 'Trotskyists' within the party was expected. Kirov did not oppose this, but he felt that following the traditional purge model might cast the net too wide. Some domestic 'Trotskyists' actually possessed not insignificant working abilities. If they could be made to recognize their errors through their work, there was no need to drive them out of the ranks. However, such a suggestion was only appropriate if Comrade Stalin voiced it first.

Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, had a very poor impression of Trotsky. Trotsky, with his lion-like mane of hair, was not a leader skilled at uniting comrades—or rather, Trotsky took absolutely no pleasure in uniting comrades. In this regard, although Comrade Stalin was not perfect, he was at least much better than Trotsky.

But the most important issue was not their attitudes toward comrades, but that the Trotskyists were a trouble for the current Soviet Union. Trotsky's thinking was very simple; this early Soviet leader, possessing immense passion for communist revolution, believed that apart from retaining basic industrial and survival needs, every single ruble the Soviet Union had should be taken out to support world revolution.

The divergence between Stalin and Trotsky lay precisely here. Stalin believed that now was not the time to launch a world revolution, and the Soviet people could not accept the world revolution policy Trotsky had formulated for the Soviet Union.

The facts were indeed so. The Central Committee and the Politburo had decided by an absolute majority to expel Trotsky and strip him of his CPSU party membership. It must be said that the conflict between Trotsky and Stalin really was a struggle over the party line. Trotsky had indeed been rejected by the CPSU Central Committee; it was not that Comrade Stalin had played some political conspiracy to bring him down. Rather, the majority of the Central Committee members and Politburo members truly could not tolerate this creator of the Red Army, leading to his expulsion from the party and the decision to exile him abroad.

A major reason Molotov was unwilling to express an opinion was that among the Trotskyists, many were not Soviets. The majority of Trotskyists were Polish, and a relatively large portion were Germans. These people were communists who believed their own motherlands—Poland or Germany—should become socialist states. Those who held to this communist ideal did not necessarily truly subscribe to Trotsky's concepts; they had only been forced to turn to Trotsky's side because Comrade Stalin was unwilling to support revolutions in Poland and Germany.

From a cold political perspective, unless this bunch of Trotskyists completely defected to Comrade Stalin's side—thereby becoming Soviet citizens or becoming secret agents of the CPSU, fully useful to Comrade Stalin—Stalin could only watch them sink or swim. Or even accelerate their demise.

From the perspective of national security, Comrade Stalin could not allow Poland to feel that its country was full of subversives. For the current bourgeois government of Poland, if there was one Communist Party, they would be eager to propagandize that there were ten, or even a hundred. Only by shaping such a situation could they ensure Britain and France continued to invest in Poland.

Comrade Stalin had always wanted to ease relations with Britain, France, and the United States, which was why he proposed the concept of 'Socialism in One Country'. This was a form of domestic propaganda, but even more so a form of foreign propaganda. Since the Soviet Union was to build 'Socialism in One Country', it naturally would not consider overthrowing the capitalist systems of other countries.

Just as *Pravda* had cursed British colonialism two days ago. Cursing Britain was to gain moral legitimacy, to demonstrate that the Soviet Union walked at the forefront of human morality. But if asked to actually send troops to fight Britain to the death, Comrade Stalin would never agree.

So Molotov remained silent. At this moment, he could say nothing; anything he said would be wrong. Moreover, in Molotov's consideration, if the Trotskyists stirred up trouble around the world, it would do the Soviet Union no good and would instead implicate the Soviet Union. If Molotov voiced his own view, it would imply that he wanted to thoroughly destroy the Trotskyists outside the Soviet Union. This could not be said under any circumstances!

Only Grigory, after thinking for a moment, spoke up: "General Secretary Stalin, I firmly support your opinion. However, in my personal view, the Trotskyists have actually lost their backbone. Domestically, we should still focus on criticism and education."

Both Kirov and Molotov breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. Trotskyists belonged to a category of being detached from reality and overly radical. It did not mean they were all bad people. A small portion of Trotskyists were actually quite capable in their work; driving them out of the government would be a loss for the Soviet Union. And given Grigory's position in the Soviet Union—equivalent to the director of China's SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission)—he was naturally very suitable to say this.

General Secretary Stalin looked at the reactions of his three trustworthy subordinates and felt not the slightest surprise. Expelling Trotsky was the consensus of the Central Committee; purging Trotskyists was also the consensus. What Comrade Stalin was considering now was neither Trotsky nor the Trotskyists, but a more realistic threat—the likes of Bukharin.

At this time, the Soviet Union had not yet filmed *Lenin in October*, so the famous line "Tell Comrade Lenin, Bukharin is a traitor!" did not yet exist.

But for Comrade Stalin, a fellow like Bukharin who focused on the economic field was the greatest threat. As the saying goes, "Heretics are more intolerable than heathens." Bukharin had his own views and lines of thought regarding Comrade Stalin's economic policies, and this was already a threat!

Stalin actually envied his neighbor next door, China. The Chairman of the Republic of China, He Rui, possessed unshakable influence in China; his policies faced no worry of questioning or attack from anyone. Even as the leader of the Soviet Union, when Comrade Stalin analyzed He Rui's policies and the achievements they had garnered, he could find no fault in them.

Driving the Great Powers out of China, defeating geopolitical enemies like Japan and Britain, and then forcing these two countries to turn around and cooperate with China. Unlike the Soviet Union, which faced a blockade by countries across the world after defeating the interventionist armies, China, after completing its national independence, quickly utilized the world situation to make countries cooperate with it.

Comrade Stalin was actually somewhat puzzled why He Rui would tell such an obvious lie, claiming "China is a growth point for the world economy, and China is willing to share the benefits brought by China's development with countries around the world." At least Comrade Stalin absolutely did not believe this lie of He Rui's. Comrade Stalin believed that He Rui wanted to cheat the investment of countries around the world into China, and then annihilate it, absorb it, and turn it into China's capability.

But the governments of the world actually believed He Rui's lie, truly thinking they could gain benefits from China's development. Although Comrade Stalin did not understand, he also admired He Rui's ability to deceive the Great Power nations of the world. But such a secret must be He Rui's exclusive knowledge; even if the Soviet Union wanted to understand it, He Rui would not teach them.

At this very moment, Comrade Stalin asked, "Dear Comrade Grigory, what do you think is the appropriate course of action?"

People's Commissar Grigory dared not say too much. He was actually worried that Comrade Stalin would use the opportunity of clearing out Trotskyists to move against others. Now that Comrade Stalin did not mention that issue at all, simply asking what he wanted to do, if Commissar Grigory said anything, it might be misunderstood.

Thus, People's Commissar Grigory answered, "General Secretary Stalin, I fully support your viewpoint." After saying this, Grigory stood honestly before General Secretary Stalin, volunteering nothing further.

Seeing that these comrades had, after all, not made a mistake, General Secretary Stalin was very happy. Because the current situation, in a certain sense, was a bit like pennies falling from heaven.

Firstly, Stalin was responsible for trade with China. He had not really fought for this himself; it was Comrade Lenin's arrangement, and everyone within the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was very clear on this. So the comrades believed that under General Secretary Stalin's leadership, trade with China had borne sweet fruit.

Secondly, to deal with Trotsky, Stalin had proposed the theory of "Socialism in One Country", which was also forced upon him. Yet the theory of "Socialism in One Country", also under Comrade Stalin's leadership, had achieved immense success in recent years.

From 1922 to 1930, the Soviet economy developed at high speed, and the people's standard of living rose rapidly. The superiority of the Soviet socialist system in its distribution mechanism allowed Soviet society to enter an era of unprecedented fairness. Abundant light industrial goods also ensured that laborers who performed excellently and had higher production efficiency received the rewards they deserved.

Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad (named Tsaritsyn from 1589 to 1925; in 1925, to commemorate Stalin's contributions, Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad)—in these major cities, state-run stores were fully stocked with goods. Because Soviet distribution was so even, although residents of these cities also queued for shopping, they only did so when they heard a batch of new Chinese-made goods had arrived. On ordinary days, queues were not long.

And the grain-producing regions of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as various timber, mineral, and industrial regions—especially the Ukraine region—had become the elite regions of the Soviet Union. in the black earth regions, ordinary peasant households had bicycles, radios, and complete sets of clothes for all four seasons. Those households with extremely outstanding work even had all-terrain motor vehicles—that is, motorized tricycles.

Collective farms made up less than 8% of the Soviet Union, and it was precisely these 8% of collective farms that owned their own tractors, harvesters, and various feed processing equipment that was upgraded almost every year. To say their lives were better than those of the CPSU Central Committee members would be an exaggeration. But the standard of living of an ordinary factory director might not actually be much better than these collective farm members. Now, every region was petitioning the Central Committee to establish collective farms in their areas.

Comrade Stalin's daily work now was to ask staunch supporters like Kirov about the status of inspections in various regions. whether those regions possessed the conditions to build collective farms. Furthermore, Comrade Stalin recently greatly appreciated a young comrade named Beria. This young comrade named Beria possessed a firm will and was able to face all CPSU cadres who had problems with a mercilessly impartial attitude.

If Comrade Beria could prove himself more suitable for the Cheka's supervisory work, Comrade Stalin would be more at ease regarding supervision within the party. He would then dare to expand various approvals. After all, there was a saying in ancient Chinese wisdom: "To kill without having taught is called tyranny; to expect success without warning is called brutality; to demand results without giving time is called thievery; to give but to do so stingily is called being a mere functionary."

Currently, foreign languages in the Soviet Union were divided into three types: English, German, and Chinese. And more than half of Soviet cadres required their children to study Chinese. This sentence was one from the Soviet Chinese language curriculum, and at least after Comrade Stalin read it, he appreciated it greatly. He believed it had great reference value for building the Soviet socialist system.

So seeing the few comrades he had his eye on expressing obedience to his leadership, and not voicing any unreasonable views, even though such a situation was not what Comrade Stalin truly expected, he still said: "How to resolve the Trotskyists... I believe we must discuss in the Politburo what constitutes a Trotskyist. If they were merely comrades promoted by Trotsky, we should not crudely consider them to be Trotskyists."

Hearing this statement, which was like a pardon, Kirov, Molotov, and Grigory all breathed a sigh of relief. They did not wish to let off real Trotskyists, but General Secretary Stalin's words allowed them to feel his benevolence. Benevolence was not a very good evaluation in Russian tradition. It meant indulgence, lack of firmness. But for General Secretary Stalin personally, benevolence was an absolute good. If General Secretary Stalin demanded a thorough purge of Trotskyists, aside from Kirov, both Molotov and Grigory might very likely be purged.

So Molotov and Grigory immediately answered, "We firmly support General Secretary Stalin's opinion. We will absolutely not let off Trotskyists. Especially those liaison elements, we believe must be dealt with seriously."

Comrade Stalin was as tough as steel, and Comrade Trotsky was no saint either. After being suppressed by the Soviet Central Committee members led by Comrade Stalin, in the spring and summer of 1926, Trotsky formed a new anti-Stalin alliance with Zinoviev and others, the so-called "Trotsky-Zinoviev Anti-Party Alliance".

They provoked a debate on the question of whether socialism could be built in one country. The theories and practices they proposed, such as the "World Division of Labor Theory" and the "Super-Industrialization Plan", were naturally condemned and negated by the entire party at a time when the whole party was optimistic about the future. After the activities of the Trotsky-Zinoviev Alliance suffered a heavy blow, they temporarily restrained themselves.

With China launching a full-scale war against the United States diplomatically, and confirming cooperation between China and France, Trotsky intensified their activities again. They concocted and disseminated a large number of platforms and declarations, including the *Declaration of the Thirteen* (July 1926), the *Declaration of the Eighty-Three* (May 25, 1927), the *Platform of the Fifteen* (June 1927), the *Opposition Platform* (also known as the *September 3rd Platform*), and *Theses Submitted by the Bolshevik-Leninists (Opposition) to the Fifteenth Congress of the CPSU (B)*, etc., launching a comprehensive attack on the party's guidelines and policies.

Although Soviet economic development was going smoothly, the CPSU could bear it no longer. In response to these words and activities of Trotsky, the Central Committee of the CPSU (B) decided to successively expel Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev from the Politburo and the Central Committee, relieving Zinoviev of his post as Chairman of the Comintern and Trotsky of his post as candidate executive member. Finally, they expelled Trotsky.

Therefore, Molotov and Grigory's mood to liquidate the Trotskyists was not perfunctory or to please Stalin, but was their own view.

Comrade Stalin packed his pipe with tobacco again, took two puffs, and said amidst the fragrant aroma, "I believe we absolutely must not wrong a comrade."

Compared to the political system within the Soviet Union, Mr. Malon, Vice Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic, was much more relaxed. Even knowing that he had asked He Rui a foolish question, Mr. Malon still felt he had been misled by those inexperienced Chinese central personnel. If the Chinese Central Committee members had been able to state He Rui's views on Indochina, Mr. Malon would never have proactively mentioned the Indochina issue to He Rui.

However, Mr. Malon did not feel his political life was threatened. The French Third Republic was a semi-presidential country with a President and a Premier. The President had constitutional guarantees and did not need to worry about his term. The Premier's title was 'President of the Council of Ministers', following a cabinet system model. A party or coalition of parties that won half the seats in parliament would form a cabinet, and cabinet ministers were all MPs. France did not currently have a two-party situation; every cabinet had to be formed through a coalition of parties, to the extent that small parties could also topple the cabinet. This situation caused French politics to appear very chaotic.

Even so, between the President and the Premier, France still considered the Premier to have more real power. Malon felt that the reason He Rui spoke to him about this matter was naturally because Malon was something of a figure in the French political arena. The most important thing lay in the fact that Malon had proactively crashed into this by asking He Rui about his views on the Vietnam uprising. He Rui also needed a test subject to see the views of the French upper echelons regarding Indochina.

Now that Mr. Malon had fulfilled He Rui's expectations, everything that followed would wait for the French upper echelons to make their own judgment.