Page 223 - The Chief Culprit
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Kremlin Games
e use of new means of struggle and new attack tactics has great value for our success.
Before the enemy finds a means of countering the advance, the attacker can make use of
all the advantages given by the element of surprise.
—G G. K. Z,
H C R A, D ,
conference of the High Command of the Red Army began on December 23, 1940.
It lasted nine days and ended on the evening of December 31. e highest-ranking
A leaders of the Red Army—274 marshals, generals, and admirals—attended.
e conference was convened in utmost secrecy. e generals arrived in Moscow in
closed railroad cars or in military airplanes. ey were met in remote places, and in closed
cars they were delivered to the inner courtyard of “Hotel Moscow.” e generals arriving in
Moscow from other places were forbidden to go into the city. e newspapers of military
districts continued to print the portraits of their commanders and reports about their daily
activities, creating the impression that they were not in Moscow but at their posts. Before
the start of the conference, the generals were led into buses in the hotel’s inner courtyard and
driven to the General Staff building. At the end of the day, they were returned to the hotel
in the same fashion. Understandably, the hotel itself was “cleared of outside elements” and
placed under special security and surveillance.
Zhukov delivered the first and most important lecture on new tactics of sudden attack.
Furthermore, most of the other speakers discussed only that subject. For example, Lieutenant
General P. S. Klenov, Chief of Staff of the Baltic special military district, who spoke following
Zhukov’s lecture, talked about special operations: “ ese will be operations of the starting
phase, when the enemy’s armies have not yet completed their concentration and are not
prepared for deployment. ese are operations of invasion, for carrying out a whole chain of
special tasks. . . . is is use of large air and, perhaps, mechanized forces, while the enemy has
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