Chapter 347 Going Out

Su Cheng was so depressed in the embassy that he decided to go out and see if he could find some chance.

The counselor in charge of the mission strongly objected and reluctantly agreed after Su Cheng wrote the guarantee. However, he also sent a staff member to Su Cheng from the martial arts school and introduced, "Qi Xiaokun is a soldier sent from China. He is dedicated to protecting the safety of the embassy and the personnel in the embassy. If you are not familiar with the place, you'd better listen to Qi Xiaokun on the way. If he thinks there is a dangerous place, you The final decision."

The counselor has great power and responsibility in the embassy, and after saying that, he is also full of official authority.

Su Cheng can't play tricks. He smiled and said, "Let's walk around near the embassy area. "It's restless outside. We must pay attention to safety, especially don't publish inappropriate [words], and don't interfere in the work and life of Russians and gatherings, especially foreign journalists." The counselor repeatedly told him to allow Su Cheng to go out.

In fact, if Su Cheng didn't have an independent task and orders directly from the upper level, the counselor would not have let him go out. All the members of the delegation from China obediently stayed in the embassy, and there was no room for negotiation.

Their speaking skills came from Sikongguan of Guangtong Bank, and they asked to participate with great interest. Sikongguan is the deputy general manager of Guangtong Bank. He enjoys the treatment of the main hall level and is also an old qualification among the bank experts on this trip.

He had an assistant, and with the defense of the Guhong Army in Su City, the team immediately expanded into five Qi Xiaokun and hurriedly pulled them out. He was really worried that no matter how many people there were, they could not be controlled.

From the embassy to the bus, Qi Xiaokun consciously became a driver and walked all the way along the path where all the leaves had fallen. Su Cheng put his hands in his pockets and looked left and right like a tourist.

There are few people nearby, probably because of the embassy area, and cars with diplomatic license plates can be seen passing by from time to time. Occasionally, some people ride bicycles and rush forward.

It's not the first time for Sikongguan to come to the Soviet Union. He said close to the window, "There are fewer Soviets here, as if nothing has changed."

Su Cheng also said, "We are here to find the unstable factors, Xiao Qi, change the way."

Qi Xiaokun waved the front of the car without saying a word and slipped into another branch road.

After walking like this for a few minutes, bursts of slogans came to my ears, but it was a small gathering of hundreds of people. The leader held a loudspeaker and didn't know what speech he was giving. The audience blocked the crossroads, cheered, emotionally excited, and jumped up and shouted slogans.

If you only look at them, it will make people feel that the disintegration of the Soviet Union seems to be a very popular thing. However, roadside stalls and long queues of more than 100 people proved that the Soviet Union was indeed caught in the rhythm of economic collapse.

Most of the stalls are middle-aged and elderly people who sell small accessories, small household appliances, and the most sold old clothes and trousers. Russia, which is queuing up to buy bread and other food, has begun to implement the supply system again. It is said that the limit of some member republics is lower than the painful period after the war, which is ironic.

Where the car was stopped at the intersection, Su Cheng patted Qi Xiaokun on the shoulder and Wen Yan asked, "Can you go down and have a look?"

Qi Xiaokun looked embarrassed and said, "There are a lot of people, and this is a political rally."

"I just want to see the stall. I can't understand what the person holding the loudspeaker is saying."

"5 minutes, and you can't publish political [speaks]." Qi Xiaokun often does security work. He knows that it is very important to do defense with a service mentality, so he does not strongly stop it.

The gray Volga glided for hundreds of meters before stopping the Soviets along the street looked this way curiously, but had no intention of leaving.

By the end of the 1980s, Volga was still a good car in China, and many leaders still took it. In the Soviet Union, Volga cars once entered the life of ordinary people. However, with the acceleration of disintegration, the Soviets saw fewer and fewer Volga. It was not that there were fewer cars, but that the gasoline used to supply cars was less. The high cost of living also made driving an extremely luxurious thing.

Su Cheng casually walked to a stall and browsed around.

All the old clothes are sold.

The same is true for the several stalls next to it. Needless to say, these people took out the clothes at home and sold them.

A little further ahead, there are also small electrical appliances such as radios, tape recorders, and used goods such as sewing machines. Some may have a history of more than one year, and the signs of wear on them are very serious. In addition, children's toys, jewelry accessories, leather briefcases, and even [medicine] products are all sold on the stalls.

"How much is this?" Su Cheng pointed to a fur coat and asked.

The stall was set up by an old man with a white beard. He seemed to think he was a foreigner. He naturally stretched out a finger and said, "0 dollars."

Su Cheng nodded slightly and said in Chinese, "It's cheap to buy a thick leather coat at this price."

Qi Xiaokun smiled, shouted a few words in Russian, and then replied, "Sell it to you for 1 dollar."

Su Cheng was stunned for a moment. He took out a dollar of the old man and happily raised the green money. He looked at it carefully several times. After confirming that it was correct, he threw the leather coat to Su Cheng carelessly.

Qi Xiaokun said, "If you use the ruble, it will cost dozens of dollars, and it will be much easier to use foreign exchange. Barter is also allowed in many places. Look at the front, a bottle of ordinary liquor can be changed into a dress.

"In this way, isn't there no market for clothes?"

"How come, there are many people selling clothes because they sell the best clothes. Moreover, this is a relatively rich area of Moscow. It takes another 20 minutes to drive. In order to make a living there, it is estimated that the clothes have been sold out long ago. Qi Xiaokun breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The economic stagnation of the Soviet Union has not been a matter of a year or two. They used to sell it secretly. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they sold it brazenly."

"Are these second-hand dealers?" Su Cheng suddenly realized something.

"Of course. They exchange bread and cans for residents' second-hand goods, and then sell second-hand goods to people in need. They can always mix food and clothing inside and outside. It's different now. When I first arrived in the Soviet Union, I didn't dare to go out to eat with my domestic salary and embassy's subsidy. At that time, one ruble had to be exchanged for 27 dollars, and now 2 dollars can be exchanged for hundreds of rubles.

"You can exchange thousands of rubles in the future." Su Cheng said casually.

Si Kongguan said uneasily, "So, the Soviet economy has collapsed. If we give them a loan, can we pay it back?

"The Soviet economy has collapsed a long time ago." Su Cheng said indifferently, "If it hadn't been for the economic collapse, the Soviet Union would have fallen so quickly. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was not so much disbanded as being elected to power. The Soviets have been in a bad way for several years.

"At least, before the disintegration, the ruble could still be used, but now it can't be done." Qi Xiaokun provided as much information as possible and said, "I heard that someone exchanged rubles for something in the remote countryside before the news spread. However, most people's savings are ruined.

Some wealthy Soviets often save tens of thousands of rubles, that is, more than 100,000 dollars, which is no less than the property of ordinary middle-class families in the United States. But in this wave of disintegration, they were also the first to be hurt.

This is a very cold and interesting cycle. The people who expected the collapse of the Soviet Union for the sake of the sake of the [people] and [from] are mainly high-level bureaucrats and the middle class of the country that claims themselves as elites. However, when "from" and "people" came, the first to become poor and reduced to the lower class of society was the middle class in these countries. This is like a peasant uprising. The peasant army that revolts in order to survive is the executioner who makes more farmers can't survive.

The cycle of history always uses human life as a material for satire.

Si Kongguan looked around worriedly and then said, "When I was on the plane, I looked at the electricity consumption and power generation of the Soviet Union. In recent years, the annual power generation and electricity consumption of the Soviet Union have been reduced by more than 10%. The data for 1991 has not yet come out, but looking at the first three quarters, it is certain to reduce by 15. This is much more serious than the financial crisis in a capitalist country, which is the appearance that the country is out of control. We lend to the Soviets. What should we do if they can't recover for ten or twenty years?

"Within a year, Russia's industrial production is really difficult to recover, and it may not work for 20 years. However, industrial production is not the only way to get rich.

"What else can a country do?"

"For the exploitation of resources, Russia is quite rich in oil and natural gas. As long as they export resources, it is easy to earn enough foreign exchange and then return it to us. If it really doesn't work, let them pay off their debts with oil and natural gas.

"Even if their oil production can reach the highest amount in the Soviet era, it is estimated that it is not enough to accumulate reconstructed foreign exchange. The Soviet Union has been selling oil for a long time. Sikongguan's idea is to analyze the real situation, which is the most normal idea.

Before the early 1990s, the highest value of oil prices was a few hours during the Gulf War. At other times, crude oil was often kept in the range of $7 per barrel. Moreover, the price of crude oil in the Soviet Union is often lower than that of crude oil in the Middle East. It can be said that although oil has brought a lot of foreign exchange to the Soviet Union, it is not like the future generations, as if the golden river is flowing continuously.

Since the 7s, the Soviet government has long relied on the sale of oil to balance budget expenditure. One of their biggest expenses is to buy food from abroad, and most of the oil foreign exchange is consumed.

Sikong Guan takes it for granted that the price of oil will remain below $30 for a long time, which is enough to give some financial subsidies to Russia and other countries, but he will not agree to rely on oil to survive and even rebuild the country.

Su Cheng did not argue, but said, "In a country with oil, it will never die of poverty. Just put your heart in your stomach. Our task now is to find a way to lend money to Russia first.

... (To be continued