Page 81 - The Chief Culprit

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Winged Genghis Khan

Logic hinted that we should not wait for the enemy to bring all his aviation into action,
but instead we should ourselves take initiative in the air and be the first to carry our mas-
sive strikes against his air bases.
—C M  A A. N,
 VOENNO-ISTORICHESKY ZHURNAL

talin” is not a real name. It is the most famous of many pseudonyms of a man who for thirty
years led the most criminal and most bloody empire in human history. But it is not
“Shis only pseudonym. Like every big criminal, Stalin had several different names and
nicknames: “Vasiliev,” “Chizhikov,” “Besoshvili” (“son of the devil”), “Ivanovich,” and others.
His closest comrades had the right to use the nickname “Koba” in their tight circle. Under this
name Stalin was known long before he came to power, when he was a simple bank robber.
In extraordinary cases, Stalin used yet another secret pseudonym: “Ivanov.” Sometimes
a minister, ambassador, general, admiral, or marshal received a cable, which began simply
and harshly: “Comrade Ivanov ordered . . .” e highest-ranking leaders of the Soviet Union
knew that this order must be obeyed at any cost, quickly, precisely, and within the indi-
cated deadline. ere was only one price to pay for an imprecise or untimely fulfillment
of “Comrade Ivanov’s” orders—one’s life. In turn, every high-ranking official—a minister,
ambassador, marshal, or other—could at any moment write a letter or telegram and send it
simply to the address: “Moscow. Ivanov.” Bypassing all steps, the letter or telegram with such
an address without any delays was laid directly on Stalin’s desk.
And one more fact which seems at first glance to have no ties to anything said above.
In the summer of 1941, the Red Army suddenly employed completely unusual weapons: the
multiple-launcher rocket weapons BM-8 and BM-13. ey entered history under the name
“Stalin’s Pipe Organs” or “Katyusha.” On August 6, 1941, the Red Army was equipped
with a multiple-launcher rocket artillery system, the BM-8-36, and in the summer of the
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subsequent year, 1942, the BM-8-48. A salvo from one BM-13 was sixteen rocket-propelled

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