Chapter 1443 Surveillance
Belogoriye asked tentatively: "So, Mr. Hertas, do you think the economic system in East Africa was better in the past or is it better now?"
Regarding this, Hertas had no hesitation at all: "Personally, I miss the past anyway. The planned economy era was also the fastest period of national development, and everyone's sense of happiness was relatively high."
"Although the material standard of life has improved a lot, I always feel that it lacks a lot of fun. Young people nowadays are busy with life every day, which makes people less human."
At this point, Hertas's mouth curled up slightly: "In our time, the living atmosphere was better, and everyone had a stronger sense of family and country. Most people were more passionate and motivated."
Belogoriye asked: "In that case, have you ever thought about returning to that era?"
Hertus sighed and said, "It's not that easy, and the past wasn't completely flawless. We can only say that each has its own advantages and disadvantages!"
"For example?" Belogoriye asked.
Hertas recalled: "For example, in the past, when it came to bureaucracy, the state was too comprehensive in terms of everything from food, clothing, housing, transportation, and other aspects, and the corresponding freedom was also much less."
"In this environment, interpersonal relationships are more frequent. If you have connections, you will definitely be able to thrive, but this is obviously not fair to ordinary people."
"For example, the service attitude in state-owned stores in the past was very poor. Unless you knew the employees, you could not even think about service awareness. If you made them unhappy, they might even fight with you... Even a small waiter was like this, not to mention the factory directors and managers..."
"I have met many people who have no talent but have a better life because of their family background...Nowadays, companies are more concerned about performance, which is more friendly to many young people with talent but no background..."
"Besides that, not everyone lived comfortably at that time. In particular, the gap between urban and rural areas was quite obvious. A lot of industrial capital in East Africa came from agriculture... I made the transition from rural to urban class, and my parents..."
Then Hertus rattled off a lot of past shortcomings, but overall the merits outweighed the flaws.
Belogoriye frowned as he listened to Hertas's narration. He even took out a small notebook from his pocket and started writing it down.
What happened in East Africa in the past is of great reference value to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union should also avoid these problems in the future, Belogoriye thought to himself.
Of course, Belogoriye believed that the Soviet Union could definitely do better than East Africa. After all, according to Hertas, many of the main problems in East Africa during the planned economy era were due to East Africa's bureaucratic style and human weaknesses.
However, Belogoriye believed that these problems, while fatal to East Africa, were not a big problem for the Soviet Union.
After all, the Soviet Labor Party's awareness is not comparable to that of the East African government. Belogoriye believes that their Labor Party can overcome those problems because the Soviet Labor Party is a self-critical party.
As for human nature, Belogoriye was also optimistic that the Soviets would definitely have a brighter future than East Africa. As long as they continued to transform the thoughts of ordinary people under the leadership of their Labor Party and paid more attention to the education and training of the people, they would be able to solve the problem of human nature.
In general, Belogoriye is an idealist, which leads him to believe that there is nothing wrong with the planned economy, but it is the political system in East Africa that determines that East Africa cannot maintain this economic model for a long time.
But Belogoriye certainly could not deny that there were certainly many parasites and speculators within the Soviet Labor Party.
Such people will certainly cause trouble to the Soviet Union's economic and social development in the future, just like the East African bureaucratic groups in the past.
The so-called style group is obviously not limited to officials, but also includes some special professions or positions, such as the waiters, teachers, doctors, etc. mentioned by Hertas. They are actually ordinary people, but they can use the convenience of their positions to gain benefits for themselves or their relatives and friends.
For Belogiriye, this is ready-made material that is very worthy of reference, because these problems have already occurred in East Africa, so Belogiriye also wants to use this to give some preventive measures for the future economic and social development of the Soviet Union.
Belogoriye asked: "Have East African governments not taken any measures to eliminate these problems?"
Hertus waved his hands and said, "It's not as easy as you think. The government is not totally indifferent, but it's just that it can't handle this kind of thing."
“We can only restrict it through legal means to avoid personnel problems as much as possible, but we cannot solve the root cause.”
Unlike young people, Hertas' age and experience make him look at problems more rationally. So in Hertas's mind, human nature is one of the ultimate problems that humans cannot solve. However, if there is really no humanity, then what is the difference between people and stones?
Hertas did not want to discuss these issues in depth with Belogoriye. If he were a young man, he would definitely be willing to argue with Belogoriye, but the problem was that he was past that age.
"Young man, it seems that you are very interested in the problems of our time, especially the planned economy?" After chatting for so long, Hertas finally figured out some of Belogoriye's intentions.
Belogoriye nodded and said, "Indeed, this period of East African development history is of great reference value. It goes against the economic development model of the world at that time."
Hertus smiled and said, "You are a Greek, and you came across the ocean to East Africa just to learn about this."
"Why don't you tell me about Greece? After all, Greece is the birthplace of European civilization. Although your country is not big, its history must be very interesting!"
Belogoriye was not shy in the face of Hertus's question. Although he was not a real Greek, he knew a lot about Greece, which is recognized as the earliest birthplace of European civilization.
East Africans also have a certain understanding of Greece. During compulsory education, Greece occupies a considerable amount of space in the world history of East Africa, while the focus on the history of the German region begins during the Holy Roman Empire.
Although the East African history book is a world history, it can be divided into two major sections, one is German history and the other is the ancient history of the Far East.
As for East Africa itself, let alone history, there is not even any oral legend like Homer's epic. Modern East African history is not glorious due to colonial reasons, so the only historical content that is beneficial to East Africa can be drawn from Eurasia.
As the history of the German region is too short, it can only be traced back to ancient Greece, so that it can be referenced with the ancient history of the Far East. At that time, the Germanic people were still savages in the jungle.
…
The Soviet delegation collected intelligence in Dar es Salaam, which attracted the attention of the East African Defense Security Agency.
"This man is an official from the Soviet Ministry of Machine Building Industry. He actually came to East Africa for inspection in such a swagger. This shows that there is a big problem with this so-called Greek business delegation. They are not Greeks at all, but Soviets who sneaked into East Africa secretly. I suspect they are members of the Cheka. Should we arrest them?" An East African agent in Dar es Salaam reported to his superiors.
Cade, the spy chief in Dar es Salaam, showed no expression after listening to his men's reports and suggestions.
"Don't rush into action. Find out their personnel situation and specific activities first. You need solid evidence before arresting them."
"Trade between the Soviet Union and the Empire is also more frequent now, and there are many Soviets operating in East Africa. We cannot act on our intuition."
"As long as the Soviets have not violated the laws of the empire and endangered national security, we have no right to arrest them, even if their leader Joseph comes in person."
The scale of trade between East Africa and the Soviet Union was indeed in a relatively hot stage. After all, the Soviet Union was still in the new economic policy stage, and the Soviet Union even welcomed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union.
Similarly, there were also some Soviet people who went to various countries to engage in foreign trade and other activities, but their number was very small, and most of them had an official Soviet background.
During this kind of trade activity, there were many intrigues between various countries and the Soviet Union. Basically, everyone had ulterior motives and tried to infiltrate spies into each other's homes.
However, among the major countries in the world, the countries with relatively outstanding spy organization capabilities are East Africa, the Soviet Union and Japan.
East African intelligence agencies are the most professional, the Soviet Union's are the largest, and Japan's situation is rather special in that the number of its intelligence agencies is relatively diverse, but the professional capabilities of its personnel should not be underestimated.
For example, Japan's army and navy each have their own intelligence system, while the East African Army has only one Military Intelligence Department. At the same time, Japan also has a Special Higher Police Department, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs intelligence system, and so on. Almost every capable Japanese department has its own intelligence agencies and spies.
This also makes it difficult for other countries to figure out how many spy organizations Japan has. However, Japanese intelligence agencies are mainly active in the Far East and Southeast Asia. In addition, they also attach importance to intelligence work in the Soviet Union, East Africa, the United States and Europe.
There is no need to say much about the Soviet Union. It can be said that the Soviet Union is one of the countries that Japan attaches the most importance to. After all, in the Tsarist era, the Russians were the biggest obstacle for Japan to dominate Northeast Asia.
East Africa and the United States also have considerable influence in the Pacific region, and both countries have had conflicts with Japan. In Europe, Japan is more concerned about Britain and France. The common point of these countries is that they all have their own sphere of influence in the Far East, so they are all recorded in Japan's little notebook.
On the contrary, Japan would not be too wary of countries like Germany and Austria-Hungary, after all, they have no conflict of interest.
The Soviet Union's intelligence agencies were blessed with faith, and Japan was similarly blessed with a demonic spirit. This is an important reason why the two countries' intelligence agencies are among the best in the world.
After all, when it comes to funding and technical means, Britain is definitely much stronger than them, but it just can't achieve any results. Of course, it is definitely enough to deal with colonies and weak countries.
Cade said: "Let's keep these Soviets under surveillance first. Once we understand their specific situation, we will take the next step."
"At the same time, we should focus on strengthening our attention to the Tsarist Russian government-in-exile to prevent the Cheka from causing trouble in our territory."
Dar es Salaam was the seat of the Tsarist Russian government-in-exile, which forced local East African intelligence agencies to pay attention to the Soviet movements.
Three days later.
Soon, the intelligence of the Soviet inspection team was investigated by the National Defense Security Bureau and the results were obtained.
The subordinate reported to Cade: "With the help of other brother departments, we have figured out the identities of most of these Soviets."
"Most of them are well-known Soviet experts and scholars, and the rest are officials from Soviet industry and other departments."
"In the past few days, we have also found out the content of their activities. In addition to communicating with ordinary people on the streets, they focused on inspecting the railways, factories, power plants, etc. in Dar es Salaam."
"Moreover, the Soviet Union was particularly interested in some of our state-owned enterprises."
"We therefore concluded that these Soviet people were most likely not members of the Cheka. The Soviet Union would certainly not be willing to allow so many experts and scholars to work for the Cheka."
"Their purpose of going to East Africa is most likely to obtain information about our economic development. Combined with the intelligence we obtained from the Soviet Union, this may be the Soviet government's preparation to develop its own industry."
"After all, compared to the Soviet Union, East Africa is also a relatively industrially developed country. At the latest national conference of the Soviet Union last year, it has already made clear the goal of vigorously developing industry."
"So, these Soviets are most likely to come to East Africa to study and conduct research. Of course, we cannot completely rule out their suspicion. After all, who knows if there are Cheka members among them."
"This is the list of Soviet personnel we found, as well as their detailed files."
Cade took the file and flipped through it page by page. There was no doubt that the authenticity of the file was relatively reliable.
After all, the identities of experts and scholars are not easy to fake. Many Soviet experts in the archives have a certain reputation in the Soviet Union and even in Europe.
This made Cade's face relax. He tapped his fingers on the table and thought for a moment.
"In that case, let's send this intelligence to Rhine City first, and let the higher authorities make the final decision! In the meantime, all we have to do is keep a close eye on them."
However, Cade's idea failed because the Soviet delegation stayed in Dar es Salaam for less than a week before leaving.
Of course, this departure did not mean leaving East Africa, but leaving Dar es Salaam. Although Dar es Salaam is the most developed city in East Africa, it obviously could not satisfy the appetite of the Soviet inspection team.
They wanted to obtain more information and materials, so they had to visit more places, including other East African cities and even rural areas.
After all, in addition to the task of industrial development, the Soviet Union was also interested in agriculture, and East African agriculture was also a good reference specimen for the Soviet Union, especially when East African agriculture still retains a lot of characteristics of the planned economy era, the most typical of which are the large state-owned farms.
If these people leave the Coast Province where Dar es Salaam is located, it means that they are no longer under CapitaLand's jurisdiction. Dar es Salaam is East Africa's window city to the outside world, and foreigners come here every day, so it is basically impossible for CapitaLand's department to leave here.
As for the surveillance work of the Soviet delegation, it could only be handed over to other brother departments to complete. The Soviet delegation stayed in East Africa for nearly half a year. Their footprints almost covered the eastern, central and western regions of East Africa, and conducted in-depth investigations on East Africa's transportation, urban construction, industrial layout, economic system and history.
This also provided the Soviet Union with a large amount of reference data and experience for formulating its own industrial development plan, and subsequently successfully avoided some possible problems during the Soviet Union's first five-year plan.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
