Torrential rain enveloped Lviv.
In West Ukraine, thunderstorms like this were rare in late summer.
In Douvanka Alley, behind Roztochye Street, a patrol of heavily armed soldiers in raincoats marched past the entrance.
From time to time, they stopped to question one or two passersby.
War had broken out.
Just two days earlier, the Germans had torn up all agreements with Warsaw and launched a surprise attack on the Polish Army along the German-Polish border without declaring war.
No one knew what the situation at the front was now.
According to radio broadcasts from Warsaw, the Polish Army was putting up stubborn resistance, and under the command of Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły, large numbers of troops were gathering in the west.
At the same time, Poland’s allies, the United Kingdom and France, were reportedly preparing to enter the war.
It was widely believed that Germany could not sustain the conflict for long and that defeat was inevitable.
Whether everything broadcast on the radio was true remained uncertain, but one fact was already clear to the citizens of Lviv: since that morning, German aircraft had appeared over the city and dropped a large number of leaflets.
The police and the local garrison were on high alert.
They confiscated every leaflet they could find and imposed a citywide curfew, casting a heavy atmosphere over the entire city.
Shortly after the patrol disappeared from the entrance of the alley, two people carrying umbrellas turned into it.
They were a man and a woman.
The man was tall and wore a suit with a gray flat cap.
The woman had golden wavy hair and wore a khaki trench coat over a white blouse, paired with a black knee-length skirt.
The two walked arm in arm like a couple, chatting cheerfully in a way that naturally lowered people’s guard.
After walking about twenty steps into the alley, they stopped in front of a residential building.
It was a three-story structure built along the alley and appeared to have a long history.
Perhaps someone important had once lived there.
Now, however, it had fallen into complete disrepair.
Its weathered, peeling walls made it look entirely unremarkable.
The woman with the wavy hair stopped at the door.
She first looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then raised her hand and knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern.
A moment later, the old wooden door clicked open, and a thin-faced young man peeked out.
His face lit up with unconcealed joy when he saw the pair.
Just as he was about to speak, the woman pressed a hand against his head and pushed him back inside.
Just beyond the entrance was a narrow wooden staircase leading to the upper floor.
The stairs were badly worn with age, creaking beneath every step as though they might collapse at any moment.
The three climbed the narrow staircase to the second floor.
The young man leading the way pushed open a door, and a cloud of thick smoke immediately billowed out.
The smell was so strong it was almost suffocating.
The woman with the wavy hair was clearly accustomed to such places.
She walked straight into the room without hesitation.
The man behind her, wearing the flat cap, was obviously less comfortable.
The room beyond the door appeared to be a storage room, with all kinds of items piled up haphazardly, leaving very little open space.
Four or five people, all around thirty years old, were gathered inside.
The moment the man in the flat cap entered, everyone’s attention turned to him.
“Comrades, let me introduce you,” the woman with the wavy hair said.
“This is Comrade Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Tarasev.”
As she spoke, the man removed his flat cap, revealing a face that looked warm and approachable when he smiled.
At the same time, the deep nasolabial folds on either side of his mouth suggested that, once his smile disappeared, his expression could become quite intimidating.
“Now, everyone, introduce yourselves,” the woman continued.
“I’ll start.
Comrade Lieutenant, I am Sofia, Sofia Krivoevna Sokolova.
I am responsible for intelligence operations in the Lviv region, including the management of our undercover personnel.”
Although they had already met once before, Viktor still smiled and shook her hand.
“Hello, Comrade Sofia.
Thank you for your hard work.”
“I am Kubkin, Kubkin Andreyevich Iskologov,” said a burly, fierce-looking man as he stood up and extended his hand.
“I previously served with the Nikolayev People’s Militia Main Directorate and was transferred here two years ago.”
“Hello, Comrade Kubkin,” Viktor replied, shaking his hand.
He already knew that Kubkin was responsible for coordinating the various partisan units operating around Lviv and was considered a highly capable officer.
“Antip Arkhipovich Glukhov,” said a mild-mannered man wearing glasses as he stepped forward and extended his hand.
“I am responsible for ideological propaganda.”
“Hello, Comrade Antip,” Viktor said with the same calm smile as he shook his hand.
“Boris Vladilenovich Borisov, responsible for logistics coordination.”
Boris was an especially important member of the team.
Organizationally, he had only been assigned to assist Viktor.
His actual affiliation remained with the Border Guard.
Although the Border Guard also belonged to the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, it was not part of the State Security Main Directorate, and the distinction was important.
That concluded the introductions.
The young man who had led them upstairs never spoke, presumably because he was only a clerk and not a member of the core group.
These people formed the core team for Viktor’s operation.
The situation was somewhat complicated for him, as he had never worked with any of them before.
He knew neither their personalities nor their working styles.
Fortunately, the recent purges within the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs had not yet reached Lviv.
As a result, everyone present was an experienced underground operative, capable of carrying out assignments independently.
In the future, once the Soviet Army occupied Lviv, Viktor would be able to use these individuals as the core framework for quickly establishing the Lviv State Security Bureau. Find the original chapter at novelping dot com.
This was considered one of his greatest advantages.
After a brief round of introductions, Viktor began reading the orders from headquarters.
Although they were called orders, they served more as reassurance.
The developments within the Soviet Union could not have gone completely unnoticed in Lviv.
At the very least, the people who had previously supervised those present had all become prisoners and could be sent before a firing squad at any time.
Naturally, everyone wondered whether they themselves might also become targets of the purge.
Now, Viktor had brought new orders from headquarters.
Besides assigning new responsibilities, the orders also outlined their future roles—establishing the Lviv State Security Bureau after the occupation of the city.
What did that mean?
Undoubtedly, it meant that their lives as undercover operatives were drawing to an end.
Before long, they would become official officers of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs and would no longer have to conceal their identities.
More importantly, these orders also meant that the ongoing purge within the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs would not reach them.
They were safe.
Because of this, after Viktor finished reading the orders from headquarters, everyone present became visibly excited.
They were already eager for the Soviet Army to cross the border and occupy Lviv as soon as possible.
After finishing the orders, Viktor moved on to explaining everyone’s assignments, focusing primarily on their roles in the Lviv Operation.
With the help of his subordinates, the entire operational plan became much simpler.
The manpower shortage that had troubled Viktor the most was no problem at all for Kubkin.
He could mobilize every partisan unit operating throughout the Lviv region in the shortest possible time.
As for weapons, equipment, and logistical supplies, Boris saw no difficulty either.
He could submit a request to the Border Guard and arrange for the necessary supplies to be transported through existing smuggling routes in the near future.
Intelligence work was assigned to Sofia.
The equally important propaganda and agitation campaign—intended to incite unrest among the Ukrainian population inside Lviv—was entrusted to Antip.
As a result, there was actually very little that Viktor needed to handle personally.
Of course, “very little” did not mean he had nothing to do.
His real responsibility was to oversee every aspect of the operation and ensure that the entire plan was carried out successfully.
If everything went smoothly, he would naturally receive the greatest share of the credit.
But if anything went wrong, he would also bear the greatest responsibility.
That was the responsibility of a leader.
For Viktor, Lviv was not a particularly safe place.
During this period, the Soviet People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs was still far less capable in counterintelligence than it would become in later years.
By comparison, the intelligence service of the Polish General Staff was far more effective in espionage operations.
Over the past few years, it had not only invested considerable manpower and resources in infiltrating and undermining the Soviet Union, but had also been able to send agents to the Far East to support Japan’s operations against China.
On the third day after Viktor went undercover in Lviv under the arrangements made by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, wanted posters bearing his photograph had already appeared throughout the city.
This could only mean that information about him had leaked from within the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs itself.
This clearly showed just how riddled with leaks the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs still was.