Molotov had stated plainly that He Rui’s health was poor, which, in the context of Russian culture, was a form of mockery. Not only in Russia, but throughout the world, it was an accepted reality that a supreme leader’s physical frailty was a condition that invited skepticism.

The Soviet Central Committee was satisfied that Molotov’s preparations were adequate. Stalin said nothing, but he was preoccupied. In his view, while He Rui’s health might be failing, he had already completed the political transition. At the upcoming "Two Sessions" in early 1945, a new core leadership team would be established. Under such circumstances, if He Rui were still physically robust, it might actually trigger instability.

Stalin’s thoughts drifted inevitably to his own situation. He Rui was born in 1890 and was fifty-five this year—already able to smoothly hand over power. Stalin, born in 1878, was sixty-seven. Although Kirov was widely regarded as his successor, there was no movement regarding a transfer of power in the Soviet Union. Stalin simply had no intention of considering it.

Stalin had initially thought He Rui was stepping down out of weakness, a manifestation of personal fragility. But with the actual handover imminent, he began to doubt his own judgment.

As the war stood now, no one in the world could consider He Rui a weaker. In Russian culture, the victor is beyond reproach. Moreover, He Rui’s actions could not be deemed a political mistake; a transfer of power was not necessarily a bad thing for an organization.

The successor, Li Runshi, was fifty-two and in excellent health. In terms of age, fifty-two was quite young for a leader who had attained supreme power through personal ability and seniority. Under normal circumstances, a supreme leader could govern until seventy—meaning that for the next twenty years, the Soviet Union would have to deal with a thoroughly tempered leader.

Stalin was eager to see the meeting records between Molotov and Li Runshi.

The Red Army’s war preparations were complete. Since the signing of the Soviet-German armistice, the scale of the Red Army had actually been compressed. In 1943, it had once reached ten million; by February 1945, it had been reduced to six million.

Of these six million troops, 3.5 million were frontline forces, with 2.5 million earmarked for immediate replacement. Whether frontline or second-line, beyond meeting age requirements, all these units had received more than twelve months of military training.

In addition, there were six million reservists, including a large number of educated women. After completing six months of formal military training, these reservists were assigned to various factories or large state farms. They received two weeks of military training every month and were always ready to be integrated into the second-line replacement units.

After this reorganization, the Soviet Union could maintain 3.5 million troops in sustained, high-intensity combat.

Beyond personnel, the Red Army’s equipment had been thoroughly overhauled. Revolutionaries from Britain and the United States had transmitted data on British, American, and German equipment through various channels. Combined with intelligence obtained from China, the Red Army confirmed that all the world's Great Powers were striving for equipment standardization.

Even Germany, a nation that had previously produced a dizzying array of models to win the war, had mended its ways and settled on main battle equipment: the 40-ton Panther tank and the 30-ton Tiger tank, along with standardized heavy and light trucks. Even half-track transports and motorcycles had been refitted, reducing dozens of models to just two motorcycle types and three half-track variants.

With limited industrial R&D capacity, the Red Army chose the same path. Their main battle tank was the T-34/85, refitted with the latest 95mm tank gun—sufficient to counter the German 88mm.

Since China began large-scale aid to the USSR in 1942, they had helped upgrade Soviet industrial production. These upgrades were built entirely on the Soviet industrial base, meaning the USSR did not have to switch to Chinese military-industrial standards. Thus, the Soviet Union had developed its own heavy and light trucks, as well as military jeeps.

Half-tracks were too complex; although the USSR had imported ten thousand units from China and utilized them for several campaign-scale offensives in late 1942, their own industrial capacity was insufficient to produce them. They ultimately abandoned this equipment that performed so well in muddy terrain. However, the Red Army was set to fight in Poland, where marshes were fewer, so the lack of half-tracks was not a critical issue.

In the air, the Soviet Union had finally developed its own jet fighter, the Yak-15, and developed the MiG-15 based on it. Originally, the MiG-15’s engine had been unsatisfactory, but before the collapse of Britain, large numbers of British experts had scattered. While most went to the US or Germany, a portion of Rolls-Royce engineers, aided by British revolutionaries, had brought vast amounts of technical data to the Soviet Union. This finally boosted Soviet engine performance, rendering the MiG-15 viable.

Naval power had little impact on the war between the USSR and Germany; the Soviet Red Navy was confident it could hold the line at sea. Thus, the Red Army entered this offensive with considerable confidence.

At 8:00 AM on February 21st, the fully prepared Red Army issued a declaration to "liberate our Slavic brothers." The 3.5 million frontline troops were divided into three Group Armies—North, Center, and South—and began their advance.

Army Group North moved into the Baltic states; Army Group South advanced into Romania; and Army Group Center pushed into Poland.

The first progress was made in the Baltic states. The Soviet Union had annexed the three nations once in 1939, only to lose them to the German invasion in 1942, after which Germany had granted them a nominal independence.

The total population of the Baltic states was currently only three million, while the Soviet Army Group North numbered 690,000. Most of the Baltic public loathed the Soviet Union, but they loathed war even more and watched the events with cold detachment. This time, the Red Army emphasized discipline and did not harm a single hair of the population.

The 690,000 troops of Army Group North escorted the party and government leaders of the three nations, who had fled to the USSR in 1942, back home. They quickly annihilated the local German forces and announced the restoration of the governments.

Army Group North had never believed the Baltics—with fewer than 100,000 defenders—could offer real resistance. Their plan was to resolve the Baltic issue quickly, reach the Polish border, and join the offensive there.

By February 26th, Army Group North had completed its task. Leaving 190,000 troops to garrison the Baltics against a highly unlikely German counter-attack, the remaining 500,000 troops were transferred to Army Group Center. This increased the size of the Center Group from its initial 500,000 to one million men.

Army Group South numbered 600,000, bringing the total offensive force to 1.6 million. The remaining 1.4 million frontline troops were ready to rotate in, while the replacement units stood by to keep the frontline units at full strength.

Meanwhile, the Polish government-in-exile had lost confidence in the Allies. They knew China was too far away to help. Consequently, the government-in-exile that had fled from London merged with the resistance government within Poland and decided to cooperate with the Soviet Union.

The Poles understood Russian tradition well. Thus, when the Soviets proposed redrawing the border along the Curzon Line, the Polish government readily agreed.

The Curzon Line was a boundary proposed by Lord Curzon after World War I. Later, the Soviet Union had invaded Poland but suffered a catastrophic defeat at the gates of Warsaw and was pushed back. The final border had been set further east at Brest.

With the Soviet Union’s strength restored, the Polish government knew they would not be getting Lviv back. They had no choice but to make concessions.

However, a question was raised within the Polish government: of the hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers captured by the Soviets, tens of thousands of officers and intellectuals had vanished.

As a European Great Power, the Soviet Union could never acknowledge the Katyn Forest massacre. Furthermore, the NKVD personnel involved would never appear, and the military officers who had participated had mostly died in the war. Consequently, most of the Soviet representatives at the meeting had no idea what Katyn was.

Having already lost territory, the pro-British faction within the Polish government felt compelled to raise the issue. Katyn wasn't even in Poland; it was in the Smolensk Oblast of the USSR. It had been discovered and announced by the German government after they occupied the area during their invasion of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet government had immediately issued a denial. But when the Germans excavated the site, it had only been two years since the killings, and the corpses were not severely decomposed.

Moreover, the Soviets had used specifically purchased German pistols and ammunition to execute the Polish prisoners. This had led the German Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, to remark with disappointment: "It is a truly regrettable thing to find German weapons at the site of a massacre."

Thus, after the signing of the armistice, when the Soviets retook the area, they immediately dispatched an investigation team and announced that their findings proved Germany had carried out the massacre at Katyn and framed the Soviet Union.

Ultimately, the Soviet representative simply asked the Polish delegates with a stony face: "Why do you believe the word of the Germans so firmly? Is it because the ones occupying Poland are the Germans and not the Soviets?"

The statement was so quintessentially "Russian" that it convinced the Polish delegates of one thing: the Soviet Union had indeed committed the massacre.

Since the days when Poland was partitioned by Prussia, Austria, and Tsarist Russia, the Russians had a tradition of capturing and executing Polish patriots.

But the war was currently the priority, and the Polish government was forced to set the Katyn issue aside for the moment. From February 21st to 26th, the Red Army’s offensive proved effective. They employed a new "Grand Artillery" tactic: using saturation bombardment of the German front and rear lines to ensure the German defenses were pulverized and that their follow-up counter-attack units could not utilize the frontline fortifications.

This new tactic was highly effective. While the German counter-attacks were fierce, they were ultimately futile. This allowed the Red Army to advance approximately ten kilometers per day. By February 26th, the Red Army was prepared to launch a massive offensive to deal Germany a crushing blow.