Our "history" and our "historians" are surprising. It is clear that the winners write history, but here the question arises: in general, who won? And where? When did the war end, after which the total census of history began?
The fact is that, despite all the attempts to bring something into the constitution about history and heritage, what they do will be preserved. And they will bring in what they write. Including the brew of Solzhenitsyn, who is strenuously canonized by the modern government.
However, we have our own road, and we will walk along it, completely without looking at those who are interested in reading fairy tales about our past.
When writing the history of the appearance of the Tu-2 aircraft, it was impossible not to get into the sharaga, since it was from there that it (Tu-2) was rolled out. And there, in the material, I promised that I would return to the topic of sharashki.
In general, the phenomenon of sharaga itself is peculiar. But I want to consider it, perhaps from an unconventional point of view.
There are usually two points. The first is from the fans of Solzhenitsyn and Radzinsky, which says that the bloody executioners Stalin and Beria drove engineers and designers to the GULAG in droves, and there they invented something.
Second: sharaga is evil, but evil is necessary in the spirit of the times. "The time was like that, it was nothing else."
I don't really agree with both points of view, and here's why. With the followers of the Solzhenitsyn sect, everything is simple: they are plunged into the mud with facts and figures. With the Stalinists it is necessary to be more elegant.
There is an expression: "Winners are not judged." But, alas, it is completely inappropriate in our case, in the case of assessing the activities of Stalin and his associates, especially Beria, in organizing and implementing a powerful industrial upsurge of Soviet industry immediately before and during the Great Patriotic War.
If it were not for this colossal leap in the industrialization of the country, we would never have defeated this European team (and it is known that in equipping Hitler and America applied to the full), which used the potential of industry throughout Europe, and not only it.
Stalin and his associates are the undisputed organizers of the Victory. Unconditional. But they were tried and condemned. Almost immediately after Stalin's death. Yes, I can proudly say that not everyone in our country has taken the decision of this “court”.
And the sharaga was an integral part of that leap that broke the back of fascism.
The definition of sharaga is in Wikipedia, so if it matters to anyone, go there. Because, in my opinion, this is superfluous. Another question is whether these sharashka were a prison-hard labor, where the criminal Stalinist regime exploited the slave labor of prisoners, or whether it was a way to mobilize the "irresponsible" part of the scientific and technical intelligentsia to carry out vital state tasks.
I would like to say a few words about the so-called scientific and technical intelligentsia. Was it necessary to organize them or not?
In general, the idea of creating a sharag was pretty good. It turns out that under Stalin, the authorities were interested in the fact that a person of outstanding abilities could create, even after committing a crime and even spending time in prison. Even if not always, but at least in the notorious sharashkas, the authorities provided real opportunities for this.
Why? Everything is simple! Times were like that. And if there were no sharags, then designers, inventors, engineers would simply fell down the forest.
This is probably a secret for many, but if we are talking about the aviation industry, the sharag system was very useful there.
The fact is that in the 30s of the last century, as it were, it was generally accepted in the USSR to "knock". On a neighbor with his living space, on a colleague with his salary, and so on. With the help of slander and denunciations, people made their careers. Can't believe it? Well, of course, but what about the five-odd million denunciations in the FSB archive?
And in the aviation sphere, this business generally blossomed in a terry color. After all, a timely written complaint made it possible to push your project bypassing a competitor. What is a completed project? Respect, money, orders …
But the main thing is immunity to the fact that tomorrow they will believe the complaints against you.
Therefore, everyone or almost everyone wrote. More precisely, it is easier to say who among aircraft designers did NOT write denunciations. Personally, I have only two surnames: Grigorovich and Polikarpov. They were taken first. The rest are highly questionable.
Perhaps Yakovlev, who, moreover, had fought off denunciations against himself during his entire time as Deputy People's Commissar, and who had his own ways of annoying his neighbor. Okay, Mikoyan. With his support at the top …
So, in a sense, sharaga can be called an experiment for creative people, when a person is punished with imprisonment, but not excommunication from creativity.
Here, by the way, a striking example is Polikarpov, who, by the will of Tupolev, was excommunicated from the design of aircraft and forced to deal with some trifle. So for Nikolai Nikolayevich, a sharaga with the ability to build aircraft was definitely more acceptable than working at a plant by some unknown person.
Moreover, engineers and designers did not work in basements. And in the same workshops, laboratories, design bureaus … But under supervision. And they did not spend the night at home.
Well, of course, it's unpleasant. How unpleasant are the special effects associated with arrests, interrogations and the investigation.
But excuse me, but where was the NKVD to go? If denunciations, complaints, slander flowed like a river? Think about the figure "five million". This is not just a figure, it is a spent denunciation. How many were returned? And returned, especially clumsy and fantastic. Or ignored.
By the way, considering how literacy was in our country in the 1930s … In the republics of Central Asia, for example. There was not much to roam there, not everyone knew the letter. But where they knew - that's where they had fun to the fullest.
Sometimes the effects were very peculiar. I do not know who wrote to Polikarpov, it is unlikely that Tupolev himself is, most likely, one of his subordinates, but Korolev is a classic of the genre. It is known who wrote about Sergei Pavlovich. It is known why. Tukhachevsky's guys did not agree with Korolyov's policy, and here's the result. Kostikov, who is the "type of inventor" of "Katyusha", wrote on Korolev and Langemak. It cost the second his life, the Queen was more fortunate. Judas # 2, Kleimenov was not inferior to Kostikov in any way.
But we can talk about the affairs of the RNII separately, there are enough materials.
Who said it was different in other industries? I did not say. But in the dynamically developing aviation there were enough people who wanted to fight not at the drawing board, but with anonymous letters.
By the way, not everyone was pinned down on false charges. The same Tupolev got it rightfully for causing economic harm to the country. Well, you must admit that if you were sent to buy equipment (for gold and currency) for subsequent licensed production, then at least you had to arrange everything humanly.
And Tupolev brought thousands of technical documents not only that were not translated, although the American side was obliged to provide the translation at its own expense, also in the inch system. That is, the documents brought by Tupolev had to be translated twice. Loss of time and money. Tupolev was "presented" quite rightly. I had to go shopping less.
I cannot but keep silent about the scandal that thundered in 1938. When the magazine "German Weapon" published a series of articles on the military aviation of the Soviet Union.
Ours also got acquainted with the publications, after which, I suspect, the employees of the NKVD were not only ready to leave the designers with boots on the kidneys, but to strangle them in their workplaces. The author of the articles, Major of the German Air Force Shettel, published classified data on the production of Soviet aircraft factories.
Shettel cited many facts in his articles that directly indicated that classified data easily leaked abroad.
And here's an interesting situation. Designers, instead of calmly and thoroughly working for the good of their native country, by hook or by crook are trying to snatch privileges for themselves, for which they are simply engaged in denunciations of each other. And plus, in violation of the secrecy regime, either they simply disclose information about the Soviet military-industrial complex, or they do it from the worst intentions. For money, for example.
By the way, this reigned not only in the aviation industry. In the Red Army and the Air Force, things were no better, which is confirmed by numerous documents. Drunkenness, theft, denunciations have become commonplace.
Dear readers, didn't you reach for the TT? There were plenty of documents confirming the mess in the army.
In the industry too. Yes, in the USSR, where cadres were deciding everything, work with cadres was carried out very actively. The number of university graduates grew at an impressive rate, from 233,000 in 1928 to 909,000 in 1940. The only question is quality.
It is clear, where did the specialists come from in the agrarian country? That's right, from there. Where did the boy Serezha Ilyushin come from, for example, who worked as a digger on the construction of an airfield and fell ill with the airplane he saw for life? From village. And, fortunately, his path was somewhat non-trivial, but … However, everyone knows the biography of Ilyushin.
Well, it's true, why be honest, there were very few technical intelligentsia from the nobility. Due to the knocking out and dropping out of the nobility in Soviet Russia. And the merchants were also finished. So they took where they could and brought up. And this, in my opinion, was a very confident move.
But in terms of upbringing … It was more difficult with ethics. Hence the rat fuss for a warm place, and thousands of denunciations. And the disclosure of state secrets.
And we have an extremely luxurious situation. It seems that work is underway. Aircraft are designed, built, tested. But: there is a wave of denunciations, and half (or even more) of the designers should be put under investigation. And in the long term - send to build a canal or cut down a forest.
But who will deal with the planes? Those who wrote slander? Perhaps. But whoever writes slander well is hardly a good aircraft builder. Who doesn't write? Grigorovich? Well, for a long time he was alone in the seaplane. Mikoyan? Here he has nothing more to do with such relatives. Yakovlev? Well, with all the negative to Alexander Sergeevich, he knew how to build airplanes. Plus the post wow …
The question is, how much was written on them. Although I was, Grigorovich was imprisoned.
And we know who had a hand. VB Shavrov, a designer who worked under the supervision of Grigorovich.
“If Grigorovich was a pest, he could not have done worse. He has corrupted the matter so much, having lost four years, deceiving the hopes pinned on the department, that he deserves and deserves to be suppressed earlier … In this [he] was assisted by the enormous reputation and authority enjoyed by Grigorovich, and even in tsarist times, several successful planes. As a result - a complete crisis … the achievements of the Department are equal to zero. " [From Shavrov's denunciation.]
“Around this time, it seems even in August, the pleasant news of the arrest of Grigorovich reached us. The hated manager, who was the cause of many unpleasant experiences, who spoiled me, one might say, a whole period in my life, finally sat down, and seemed to be firmly …"
Well, more or less with Shavrov, everything is clear from his statements and memoirs. And what is the informer himself famous for? The Sh-2 amphibious aircraft, which was produced in a series of 800 aircraft. Shavrov was not alone in creating it, but for some reason the co-author Corvin-Kerber was planted …
Actually, after Sh-2, Shavrov did not notice anything else, wrote books, starred in a film, but did not build aircraft. Apparently, technical inspiration has run out. Or those who want to help him.
By the way, his statements may well become a picture for the era. Not always "testimony" was knocked out in the dungeons of the NKVD by executioners in uniform. They were not always given on pain of arrest. On the contrary, they were often given eagerly by the very technical, in our case, and in the rest both by the scientific and creative intelligentsia, which today Stalin's opponents present as an innocent victim of the era.
And yet they didn't really touch it. In sharaga TsKB-29 … 316 specialists worked! These are of all profiles: diesel operators, tank builders, aviation and others. Three hundred and sixteen people.
Where are the millions … Where are the intelligentsia, ruined at the root … Well, yes, at Solzhenitsyn's. But in fact - 316 people. That's the whole sharaga.
If you think that these are the "brightest minds" for whom the NKVD arranged a hunt, then you will be mistaken. The NKVD did not hunt for anyone, they took them from the workplace, but mostly on the denunciation of their colleagues.
But there were also exceptions. But don’t worry, that’s exactly what the exceptions are.
Lev Landau, the future Nobel laureate, who burned out on the production of anti-Soviet literature. He compared Stalin and Hitler and called for the overthrow of the government. Yes, maybe Landau did not write everything, according to some sources, he just edited it all. But he worked for the execution, no? And even then, under the word of Kapitsa and the intercession of Niels Bohr, he was released.
Try today to compose a flyer that compares Putin to Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein or bin Laden and a call for overthrow. And then get caught with her. On the way to the Kremlin. I would love to hear your stories about the delights of democracy and other pleasures of life. Then, when you are released.
Landau has only a consequence. Our aircraft designers have only sharaga. Moreover, as soon as airplane projects turned into airplanes, amnesties, money, orders, letters of the CEC and other pleasures began.
In general there was a stick, but there was also a carrot. Which of the participants in OTB or TsKB-29 died poor, humiliated and forgotten? Petlyakov? Myasishchev? Tupolev? Korolyov? Glushko?
Was Beria a stupid executioner? Judge for yourself. Here are excerpts from a special message to Stalin of 1939-07-04 "On prisoners-specialists used in a special technical bureau under the NKVD of the USSR."
“It is not advisable to resume the investigation of these cases and bring them to court in the usual manner, since, firstly, this will distract the arrested specialists for a long time from work on the design of important facilities and actually disrupt the work of the Special Technical Bureau, and, secondly, the investigation will not give essentially positive results due to the fact that the arrested, being in mutual communication for a long time during their work, agreed among themselves about the nature of their testimony at the preliminary investigation.
Meanwhile, the guilt of those arrested was confirmed during the preliminary investigation by the personal confessions of the arrested, the testimony of accomplices (many of whom have already been convicted) and witnesses.
Based on this, the NKVD of the USSR considers it necessary:
1) arrested specialists in the amount of 316 people employed at work in the Special Technical Bureau of the NKVD of the USSR, without resuming the investigation, bring to trial the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR;
2), depending on the severity of the crime committed, the arrested should be divided into three categories: those subject to conviction for terms of up to 10 years, up to 15 years and up to 20 years."
On the one hand, it seems to be luxurious. There is no need to judge, by a military court for 10 years for the trunk, the most distinguished up to 20 years. Ominous? Ominous. Whip.
But here it is, "gingerbread":
“… in order to encourage the work of arrested specialists in the Special Technical Bureau, to secure them in this work and create an incentive for further work on the design of the most important objects of defense significance, grant the NKVD of the USSR the right to enter with a petition to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for application to convicted specialists,who showed themselves at work in the Special Technical Bureau, both full parole and reduced terms of serving their sentences."
Well, actually …
It was on such a petition that in July 1941 Tupolev, Frenkel, Chizhevsky and 27 other people who participated in the creation of 103-U / Tu-2 aircraft were released with the removal of their convictions.
Controversial? Yes, it's debatable. Many can say: what, it was impossible to just screw everyone up and force them to do business? This is exactly what the NKVD did. It's just a matter of efficiency. To threaten with a finger and not take strict measures - do you know how it ends?
And it ends with the fact that a certain president throws up his hands and says that nothing can be done with the million-dollar salaries of top managers, otherwise they will scatter and there will be no one to work.
But Stalin did not want to run away. And I did not want lawlessness. Therefore, each cricket knew its own six. And they could come for everyone. And ask each one.
Badly? Probably.
But now it's good. They come, find boxes of gold, bags with millions, apartments. And they can't do anything. Because it is not 1937.
And these gentlemen will not rush to the front. They will flee to offshores and neutral territories if something happens. And now some of our people will say that they won't go away. They will go away. Classics of the genre, but will go away.
Okay, back to the topic.
Considering that L. P. Beria was a very good organizer, everything was fine with his reporting. Flash drives were not lost.
Therefore, in the summer of 1944, all directorates and departments of the central apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR wrote reports on the work done during the war years. And the reports did not burn, did not drown, and therefore today we can clearly imagine a picture of what was done by those who worked in the sharaga.
From the report of the OTB under the NKVD of the USSR.
For the period from 1939 to 1944. 4th special department on the instructions of the government and the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs comrade. Beria L. P. performed and commissioned the following works:
1. Pe-2 dive bomber (aircraft "100"). Head of the project Petlyakov V. M.
2. Front-line dive bomber Tu-2 (plane "103U"). Project manager Tupolev A. N.
3. Long-range high-altitude bomber (plane "102"). Project manager Myasishchev V. M.
4. Aircraft motors MB-100. Project manager Dobrotvorskiy A. M.
5. Aircraft jet engine RD-1. Head of the project Glushko V. P.
6. Armored turret BUR-10. Project manager S. I. Lodkin
7. Universal 152-mm artillery system M-U-2 for coastal and railway installations. Project manager E. P. Ikonnikov
8. Universal 130-mm artillery system B-2-L-M for ship and coastal installations. Project manager V. I. Kudryashev
9. Upgraded 45 mm M-42 anti-tank gun. Project manager Tsirulnikov M. Yu.
10. Tank 45-mm gun VT-42. Project manager Tsirulnikov M. Yu.
11. Regimental 76-mm cannon model 1943 OB-25. Project manager Tsirulnikov M. Yu.
12. Box 152-mm cannon BL-7. Project manager Tsirulnikov M. Yu.
13. Submarine S-135. Project manager Kassatsier A. S.
14. Long-range torpedo boat STKDD. Project manager P. G. Goinkis
15. Screw-press - new equipment and technology for the production of nitroglycerin powder. Project leaders A. E. Sporius and Bakaev A. S.
16. Universal absorbers UP-2 and UP-4 for military gas masks. Development manager Fishman Ya. M.
17. A new method for intensifying the tower process for the production of sulfuric acid. Project manager S. D. Stupnikov
18. Small-sized army radio station of the "Mars" type. Project manager Vasiliev A. M.
19. Portable radio station of the "Belka" type. Project manager Vasiliev A. M.
20. Device for night combat PNB. Project manager Kuksenko P. N.
In addition, the specialists of the 4th special department participated in the construction, installation, start-up and organization of production of six new plants.
Probably, for such a shock work, all participants of the sharaga received new sentences, were shot, drowned on a barge in the Moscow Canal?
Not at all.
For the successful work on the creation of new types of weapons and the conscientiousness and dedication shown at the same time, at the request of the NKVD of the USSR (!), 156 prisoners specialists were released with a cleared conviction, 23 of whom were awarded government awards.
After the removal of their criminal record, they were returned to the previous awards, which they had been deprived of by the court.
So, already in 1941, Beria applied to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the return of orders, medals of the USSR and certificates of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to amnestied aircraft designers.
Individual objects developed in the 4th Special Department were recognized as outstanding, and the Stalin Prize was awarded to their authors. Tupolev, Petlyakov, Charomsky became laureates.
Was it a contribution to the Victory? No? Well, you know better.
In general, in order to objectively answer the question about the role of sharashki, serious research is needed. Not burdened by the attitude towards Stalin as a whole. But in general, such a not unique phenomenon as sharaga can be explained from several sides.
By the way, why not unique? But simply, who is interested, let him find out how the Americans furnished their "Manhattan Project". And find three differences with our sharaga.
Now about the justifications and explanations.
Option 1. Since some scientists and engineers committed crimes under the Criminal Code, and were convicted, they decided to use their labor in prison wisely, for the benefit of the state and themselves, softening the conditions of serving the sentence.
We will not get too involved in this matter now, but Tupolev and Korolev got it quite reasonably. One for a poorly performed task, the second for waste.
Option 2. They set up cases on scientists and engineers on purpose in order to put them in sharashka and force them to do the same thing there that they did before. Like saving on wages.
Doubtful. Simply because the comrades Soviet designers themselves did a good job of sending colleagues to the torture chambers of the NKVD. I would say they did well.
Option 3. Sharaga is a special form of R&D organization that has its advantages in terms of efficiency and secrecy.
Yes, it is quite. After all, free specialists also worked in sharags.
Here is an interesting photo, where Menzhinsky, the organizer of the sharaga, was photographed with the participants of the sharaga. Yes, the photo was taken exactly there, and so the head of the OGPU was easily photographed with the underdogs. The photo was taken on the territory of Butyrka prison, where TsKB-39 was organized. Roughly 1931.
So, among those indicated in the photo there is under No. 10 Aram Nazarovich Rafaelyants, a designer from Yakovlev Design Bureau and chief pilot of the same Yakovlev Design Bureau, Yulian Ivanovich Piontkovsky (No. 6). These people were not among the specialists working in the sharaga and were not subjected to any reprisals. They just testify that people who were not burdened with terms and sentences were also attracted to work in the sharaga.
So personally, I am inclined to believe that sharaga is still a closed design bureau, in which the same developments were going on as in the wild. Only in a regime of increased secrecy and with those who either messed up or who they wrote a lot to.
Although it is quite possible to combine all the options. But I repeat, it is unlikely that the necessary engineers were specially planted. The salary in the sharaga was still paid, and as you can see from the photo, if you needed a chassis specialist or a test pilot, it was easier to borrow than to plant them. I do not think that Yakovlev strongly opposed Menzhinsky's request.
And yes, it is clear that a platoon of OGPU officers with revolvers could stand behind the photographer, but even in this case, the people in the photo somehow do not look like humiliated and beaten criminals. Yes, it is not pleasant enough. But also not a logging zone.
And the airsharaga does not look like a camp of many thousands, does it?
By the way, it really is worth comparing with "Manhattan". And at the same time, remember our closed cities of physicists and chemists.
And the last thing. The topic, perhaps, should not be closed. There will be a separate conversation about the Queen and his associates. As well as, perhaps, it is worth talking about who and when turned the sharaga of 316 people into a branch of the Gulag of 316 thousand people.
It is clear that now the Constitution will be made about the historical heritage. And they will protect and protect him.
So the question arises: who will inherit in history, those who are about 316 people, or those who are about 316 thousand and a million shot?
* * *
To anyone interested in the merits of the staff of the sharaga, I recommend this: t Kokurin A. I. Organization and activities of the 4th special department of the NKVD-Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR / Telescope: Scientific Almanac. Special issue: Historical and archival restoration of the names and achievements of the Fatherland. - Samara: Publishing house "STC", 2008. - 192 p. - ISBN 978-5-98229-188-2. S. 58-66.
