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Attempting to Fulfill the Plan MNKh Edition

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[X]Go With Abramov's Man

Given that Old Cadre Programs are definitely winning, better to cooperate on this option rather than pushing on both.
 
[]Go With Abramov's Man

The Bolsheviks aren't big fans of the peasantry, if we want to grind a political sausage that maximally improves agriculture we gotta commit.
EDIT: Having second thoughts
 
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I see the vote for Lidia has proven to be somewhat expectedly popular. Personally, I think this is very mistimed decision, and that right now we would be much better off promoting Abramov's man, and here's why.

To start with, let us remember our current situation. We still have four years of anti-corruption investigations ahead of us, which means twelve rolls, with each possibly causing a crisis that could go much, much, much worse than the last one. Even without a crisis, a low roll would damage our position and deplete our stores of political capital, while the reward for high rolls is, politically speaking, "nothing exploded". SupSov expects success while punishing failure. And speaking of failures, let us not forget that the anti-corruption investigation will by default not only lower the dice modifiers, but also increase the chances of critfails - which means next turn, we will have critfail if we roll 3 or lower and the turn after that if we roll 4 or lower. Of course, every critfail, beyond general damage and reducing the odds of completing the plan, will be harshly criticized by our political opponents, making our position even more untenable.

To sum it up, the situation is still quite dire. We had a good year, but we're not out of it yet, not by far.

Then, let us remember what exactly was and is our plan for getting out it. Namely, it is taking agriculture, the sector that was practically abandoned since the 30s, and championing its cause - that way, even if things go wrong in other sectors, in case of success we can always point at agriculture and say "Look at how much the sector that failed last plan has grown! Millions of people were failed by all previous ministers and are now brought out of poverty, isn't this the great success that excuses all other failures?". This is not a certain plan - it is, in fact, pretty difficult - but it's possible and it has the benefit of being resource-cheap - which allowed us to take the lesser funding option and leave the opportunity open for making deals with people who already hold positions within the ministry. Not the ministers and deputies save a couple of possible exceptions, as those are both too noticeable and did too much corruption, but other, lower-level people.

However, though resource-cheap, the difficulty of that plan lies in it being limited by both politics and time, which are two compounding problems. The delegates in SupSov who are moved by the plight of the rurals or see benefits in them are currently very much a minority, and there exists a deep-seated prejudice against the countryside. Some are straight-up ideologically opposed to resolving the situation there, and many more think it would be a waste to invest resources in them compared to other areas. To push through the necessary reforms despite that, we will need to expend political capital - and given the aforementioned unstable situation we're in, it is risky. Push too much in an inopportune time, and Klimenko might very well quickly lose his seat. Of course, we can't push too slowly either - any reform needs time to work, any reform in a sector as deeply fucked as our agriculture needs double the time and it is a naturally slow industry anyway. If we don't get enough reforms in time for them to have an impact and complete the plan goal, I wouldn't give Klimenko much of a chance to keep his seat anyhow.

Alright, now that we had a recap of where we are and what do we plan to do, how does Lidia Pavlovna Lykova fit into it? In my opinion, not well at all.

There are two reasons to vote for her as our pick for the deputy seat that I see - first, her personal qualities, whether work experience or gender. Second, there's a fact that she comes from Smolensk, which means she a solid political ally who will do what we want and promote people we want to see promoted. Let me address them one by one.

First, there can be a lot of argument about how helpful would her degree and social skills be for the job and whether it would outweigh the practical experience in running industrial plants Shulyakov - Abramov's pick - has, but ultimately I think it'd be misguided. Even if she is the best pick for the sector for practical reasons, it's not the sector that helps us complete our main plan goal. LCI is Light and Chemical Industry, consumer goods and petrofuel/petrochemicals, and though food is a part of that, it's a small part. She can do a very good job and it wouldn't affect agricultural profitability much, if at all. As for gender, though I do want more women involved in the ministry and the party, the issue needs to be addressed on institutional level, rather then through "exceptions that prove the rule". I won't say it wouldn't do anything, but it wouldn't do much beyond moving one individual.

Also, if Klimenko goes, no matter her personal qualities, Lykova would go with him. She's just too closely connected to be spared, and as I mentioned higher, our situation is still perilous enough that relying on long-term benefits of our pick is too uncertain of a bet for my taste.

Second, the benefits of having an ally as a deputy in one of the departments are not to be disregarded, but I do not they are relevant enough for our situation. As I mentioned earlier, LCI is not a sector that makes or breaks it for agriculture - we don't need to guide it closely to complete our goal. That leaves the general benefits of cadre raising and eventual independence and just having a voice on our side in the ministry, but we do not face the kind of internal opposition that makes it immediately necessary - managers are generally predisposed to work with us and there are no one left in MNKh who could move them otherwise - while other such benefits are long-term, and I already said that we might not have a long-term.

So, if Lykova doesn't help us complete our main goal, how does Shulyakov? Well, not much on his own - though I would mention that he also doesn't hurt, whether by presenting internal opposition or doing something silly with LCI - but the favour with Abramov we would get would be enormously useful.

Let me repeat it again, the favour with Abramov we would get would be enormously useful. I really can't understate this point - it neatly addresses all the main dangers we are currently in. With it, we can move his faction to support our push for reforms without expending our current sharply limited political capital, we can use it for protection if things go really wrong, if we're really lucky and succeed in necessary reforms without needing it, we can use to push for some other reforms that can do a lot of good, like Farmer-Programs we saw last turn. It can very much be the difference between success and failure, between Klimenko keeping his post/us getting to enjoy long-term benefits of a sociology-aware viewpoint and MNKh getting downsized with some patsy as a leader. Yes, it would be possible to succeed without it, but it would be much more of a gamble.

Personally, I am not in a very gambling mood, not when we already will have to roll so many dangerous dice. Let's have a little more certainty and vote for Shulyakov and the favour.
 
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My own thinking has been turning towards more conservatism in this situation.

I'm not a fan of Shulyakov however, since his experience will help us little during this plan. By contrast, I think plastic do-dad man and cranking up the profitability of our petrochemicals sector are better bets.

I am not convinced that a favour from Kosygin is less valuable than one from Abramov however, or at least, not so much less valuable that the added options for improving LCI profits would be offset.

And for those who say that picking Mikhailov is over-focusing on petrochemicals, the revolution in chemical industries in the 50s and 60s was a key area of economic growth and the Soviet disadvantage compared to the United States in chemical industry in this period during OTL was as serious as the gap in microchips during the 80s. And I've been doing him dirty by calling him "plastic do-dad man" - looking again at his description I see "His ascension would drive a large-scale focus towards improving the plastics and general petrochemical industry, adapting oil into higher value goods." - which implies to me less "plastic do-dads" and more "better plastics to make better do-dads with". And when plastics are key to everything from packaging food better to insulating electronics and shutting down the environmental disaster that is Central Asian cotton in favour of synthetic fibers so much focus on the petrochemical sector doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.

Also, the chemical industry has a bunch of outputs that get used in agriculture, so Mikhailov might suggest projects that are actually directly applicable to our rural goals, but I don't know for sure that he will be interested in those specific areas of chemical production, so probably best not to get our hopes up too much.

So I am changing my vote.

[X]Compromise with Kosygin

But since Mikhailov isn't popular with the threadviet, I'll also throw a vote towards what I am starting to think might be the second best option:

[X]Go With Abramov's Man

I still think that Lykova is a historic opportunity, however, we are in difficult times and what Klimenko is doing in the rural sector is ALSO a historic opportunity. We should prioritize the historic opportunity we have already committed to.

If nothing else, Lykova is the one choice we have right now that we might get another opportunity at. Klimenko probably will remain in contact with Lykova, so we may get the opportunity to bring her into the ministry again

Regards,

fasquardon
 
What is it with agriculture and standing in the way of our girlboss ambitions? First we have to decline a female agri deputy because her ideas like River Reversal would destroy the ecology of inner Asia, now we have to decline a female LCI deputy because we need to kiss asses to build up the political favors to clean up Soviet agriculture.

Actually, what ARE some of the major Bureaucracy reforms we need to do to improve agricultural profitability, that so badly go against the grain of conventional party logic that we'll need to pull favors with Abramov to get them done? I would like to know what exactly we'll be using this political capital for that we're throwing Lidia under the bus for.
 
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General_Urist said:
What is it with agriculture and standing in the way of our girlboss ambitions? First we have to decline a female agri deputy because her ideas like River Reversal would destroy the ecology of inner Asia, now we have to decline a female LCI deputy because we need to kiss asses to build up the political favors to clean up Soviet agriculture.

Actually, what ARE some of the major Bureaucracy reforms we need to do to improve agricultural profitability, that so badly go against the grain of conventional party logic that we'll need to pull favors with Abramov to get them done? I would like to know what exactly we'll be using this political capital for that we're throwing Lidia under the bus for.
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How would not promoting her be throwing her under a bus unless she needs it for political protection which would be very suspicious to need right now with the corruption investigations going on.
 
[X]Revive Old Cadre Programs
[X]Go With Abramov's Man
[X]Promote the Smolensk Minister
 
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General_Urist said:
Actually, what ARE some of the major Bureaucracy reforms we need to do to improve agricultural profitability, that so badly go against the grain of conventional party logic that we'll need to pull favors with Abramov to get them done? I would like to know what exactly we'll be using this political capital for that we're throwing Lidia under the bus for.
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Things that didn't appear last turn but we're hoping were unlocked by the combination of a favor/grain storage project. If you made me guess though, since our stated strategy is supporting small farmers/kulaks at the expense of the huge state grain farms... Things like a heavily reformed subsidy regime that's targeted at behaviors besides "grow ALL the grain," equal access to state agronomists + agrichemical sales for the private sector, good GosBank loans for the private sector. Depending on how much a favor with Abramov is worth, maybe even deeper things like restructuring grain SoEs directly instead of just attacking their subsidies, or revising official government rural development policy to force all the rest of the state to help instead of making it all MNKh's problem.
 
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the status of character and nation informational got updated.
Here is our plan goal progress.
Blackstar said:
State of the Eight Five-Year Plan:
35% Increase in MFPG Production Value: Slightly Behind Moving Target
20% Increase in Capital Goods Production Value: Behind Moving Target
50% Increase in Consumer Goods Production Value: Slightly Behind Moving Target
30% Increase in Agricultural Sector Production Value: At Moving Target
55% Increase in Service Sector Production Value: Ahead of Moving Target
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We also got new descriptions for our service and agri ministers.
Blackstar said:
Department of Agriculture

Head: Pyotr Petrovich Smolin(1961): A Zoologist that has so far served acceptably under Voznesesnky in the sense of not yet being found complicit in some novel form of corruption. Smolins promotion has been something of a fluke with the more senior head dying fairly soon after his apointment. Acceptable in managing the animal programs and one of the ministers advocating for more funding of technical development over expanding the general system of agriculture. His priority will likly fall to the meat industry over the general farm industry and that is considered entirly acceptable, as meat is one of the highest value increasing products the agricultural industry can produce.
  • Good Organizer
  • Zoologist
  • Rural Advocate
  • Overpromoted
  • Not Corrupt
  • Meat Program Proponent

Deputy: Igor Alexandrovich Skachkov(1961): A advocate for the massive intensification of agriculture through updated practices and increasing chemicalization, Skachkov is conventional and typical of much of the agronomy sector. Improved cultivars with a wider range of fertilizer response, improved herbicides, advanced pesticides, and an increase in fertilizer use are expected to solve every issue of land and water efficiency. Massive production increases are expected to be necessary to keep the gain going with both the extraction of conventional fractions and an increase in nitrogen fixation belived to be necessary. Far more a conventional agronomist then Smolin, the two are expected to significantly compliment each other.


Department of Education and Services

Head: Boris Vasilievich Petrovsky(1961): One of the largest advocates for an aproach towards a modernization rather then a direct expansion of healthcare, Petrovsky has been disapointed by plan allocations if understanding. Secondary projects towards modernization have to a large extent been over-riden by the need for developing the general service sector making him effectivly redundant. Replacing Petrovsky remains a large priority to put more experianced personel into the ministry and entirly seperate the medical programs from the direct spending of ministry funding. He'll serve adaquatly for now, but all means must be taken to consolidate the department and place someone more functional in charge.
  • Medical Reformer
  • Medical Doctor
  • Technocrat
  • Closely Tied to Voznesesnky
  • Likely Corrupt
Deputy: Lydia Vasilievna Sokhan(1962): Sokhan remains one of the standout personel of the department of education and a critical worker towards breaking the predominance of the hard sciences on the sector. Her plans for the development of wider educational programs have been pushed foreward along with an increase in sectondary education. She was almost certainly apointed for a relative degree of weakness as she will not be able to hold onto the larger chair if an opertunity presents itself, but that is more then sufficient. Out of everyone in the ministry, Sokhan has at least shown up to each meeting and done the bare minimum needed in the current reorganization.
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Seems the ministers are finally sorted out after that upheaval. Mostly, we've still no HI deputy. Our services guy is still listed as Likely Corrupt... if we can nab him and the deputy is not also in on it, we can promote Lydia from deputy to full minister and achieve proper Girlboss.

What the heck does "Struggle for energy" listed under Denisov mean? Could mean just his focus on securing energy resources (coal) but it's an odd phrasing.

We're behind on all our targets, except services thanks to the McStalin's shock. That's what losing almost half our capacity (between mali and the budget cut) does to us I guess.
 
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