In the 21st century, it is a shame to build for a long time and expensive
Enterprises and organizations are not just abstract places of work, where each of us, with one or another dedication, with pleasure or without, spends the hours prescribed by the Labor Code for the salary (in total, almost half of our lives), bringing more or less benefit, but city-forming organisms, determining the development of the region. And you need to treat them as carefully as possible, helping in every way, and not destroying and not interfering once again in their work.
Even in the Soviet unitary system, the party and the state gave a certain internal freedom to enterprises, realizing that there is a collective of a plant or institute, it lives its own life, this must be appreciated, respected and supported.
“Vladimir Alexandrov:
"The promotion of blue-collar occupations exists only on paper, and the average age of a high-class locksmith-toolmaker is over 60""
Recently, the former director of the Sevastopol Marine Plant, an excellent engineer and organizer, Anatoly Alexandrovich Cherevatyi, proudly recalled how they built dormitories and houses after the war, when Sevastopol was destroyed, how the plant and the city were raised. And Leningrad withstood the inhuman conditions of the blockade and quickly recovered thanks to the inhabitants, united by labor collectives.
But after the well-known events of 1991, we were told: nothing is needed at the factories, everything will be taken over by the city. We tried to argue: wait, the company lives, there are houses of culture and recreation centers, kindergartens and sponsored schools, hostels and entire factory microdistricts, industrial medicine, its own amateur activities, sports, tourism and much more. In response, they heard: nothing is needed, everything is there in the city. Transferring wealth accumulated over decades to the municipal balance sheet is a labor-consuming business, but simple. And then it turned out, as always: "sparkled" in the relationship between institutions and territories, the traditional ties between generations were broken, people scattered to their own corners.
From home to regional committee
Earlier, the centers of attraction in any city were enterprises. Parents worked for them and brought children who went to factory kindergartens, schools and vocational schools, spent their free time together, celebrated holidays, went in for sports and amateur performances, thought about the future, and solved emerging problems.
Young families received rooms in hostels, then - apartments in departmental houses. In this regard, the Admiralty Shipyards are one of thousands of enterprises. The last house we built, a youth housing cooperative, had 305 apartments. Helped with loans. Young specialists were told: pay the rent, and the bank interest will be paid by the plant. That is, if you work well, after five years you become the owner of the home. What's bad?
This was the case at every self-respecting enterprise. Hundreds of dynasties were formed in factories and institutions, the continuity of generations was brought up, the team was strengthened, there were no problems with young personnel. Today, the social sphere in production has been destroyed, municipal services are not always able to cope with a hectic economy, communication between enterprises and territorial authorities has been disrupted. And under the USSR, the coolest minister, when visiting the city, first of all went to the regional committee - to check watches with the local leadership, discuss the prospects for the development of this or that enterprise, and agree on cooperation.
I remember how many projects of nuclear icebreakers, cruisers, submarines, and other complex products were launched … Everyone understood perfectly well that the new production is directly related to the development of specific territories - with the creation of additional complexes and jobs, with the provision of energy, housing, transport, social service …
It is no coincidence that today, as soon as information about the re-profiling of the Baltic shipyard, where large surface ships are traditionally built, barely flashed through, the first question was for the governor. He reassured: first, new production facilities will be created for promising projects. This is a completely different matter.
Immersion in the specialty
The power of any plant is determined by two factors: its technical equipment and people. Obviously, you cannot master a new machine, breakthrough technology, or innovative production without specialists. And where to get highly qualified personnel?
We are proud that the Admiralty shipyards managed to preserve the former basic vocational school No. 25, now a lyceum. But how many departmental vocational schools are left in the city? The propaganda of working professions exists only on paper, and the average age of a high-class toolmaker, capable of shoeing a flea, is over 60 years. There are not enough working hands, you cannot lure young people into workshops. All are aimed at entering universities. If earlier hardly a quarter of school graduates became students, now it is four-fifths. And even then there are not enough real engineers. Although, unfortunately, the recruitment for their targeted training shrank even at the Maritime Technical University.
Well, you didn’t get your USE score - is it a tragedy if you gravitate towards shipbuilding? In addition, there are a lot of specialties that do not require super-deep knowledge of the theory of the ship, structural mechanics. Of course, there are professional heights at which calculations turn into art. Unfortunately, in today's education system there are no clear guidelines on who and how much to cook. The theory of bachelors and masters, maybe good, does not suit us. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had a solid system of personnel training - from vocational schools to universities.
Psychologists have long ago determined that in schools there are no more than 17 percent of excellent students and about the same number of good students who need to be really taught. The same number of poor students, they should not bother with science. And there are 49 percent of C-graders - people of the middle level, on whom vocational education is focused, giving blue-collar occupations with basic knowledge that allow a person to take a certain position, for example, an economist or a technologist. Then life puts everything in its place, only 10-15 percent of those who graduated from universities correspond to the high title of engineer - innovator, pioneer, creator. Moreover, all institutes used to train specialists. Nobody takes today's bachelors - they are dropouts. The guys have very little knowledge of mathematics, physics, and other exact sciences, and without this there can be no shipbuilding engineer. And the industry is quite rightly reproached that it has withdrawn from the training of future personnel. The long-term experience of the Admiralty Shipyards with targeted training of personnel is absolutely justified and should be extended to all science-intensive industries. The main advantage here is continuity and direct connection with the prospects for the development of production.
It is clear that life is developing rapidly, new equipment, technologies, materials are being mastered. This means that a system of retraining courses is needed. This is a costly business, but nothing can be done about it. A new ship is being prepared for production - chief designers are invited and talk about the specifics, about the hull, about new materials, about a promising power plant, and all the factory services understand what to look for.
Let's say new steel is being used. How to handle it is tested by the appropriate factory laboratory, after which the technological processes are adjusted. And so on in each production area. Thus, departmental training centers are fully justified, which help specialists to keep abreast of everything new and conduct professional attestations. Moreover, it is important to synchronize factory retraining programs with university programs. Because even such an advanced university as the Marine Technical University does not have the funds for such a deep immersion in the profession.
Yes, 66 thousand rubles are allocated for a student, but of this amount, almost nothing remains for scientific activities, and most of it goes to pay for teaching work, which, alas, is not appreciated now. How can a promising candidate of sciences live on 26 thousand rubles, and a doctor - on 34 thousand? But in the Soviet years, the salary of an associate professor, candidate of sciences was 320-380 rubles, like that of the deputy director of the plant. The professor received 500-600 rubles - on a par with the director. It was prestigious and high-status to work at the university.
Undoubtedly, it is necessary to raise the authority and salaries of teachers. And scholarships too. If a future specialist is forced to skip classes or work hard at night in order to earn money for semi-finished products, what will he learn? What is the use of points scored on the exam? You can't put them on bread. And you need to motivate to study serious sciences, although, of course, not all students have their eyes burning. Almost every third comes to a university just for a diploma, no matter what. But 40 percent are engaged diligently, see themselves in the profession, are preparing to make a career in the best sense of the word. It is important for them to provide starting positions. But they seem to want another 30 percent, but they have not yet fully decided. They are worth fighting for. The art of a teacher is to fall in love with your subject, to show its necessity and prospects, to help a young person choose a suitable path: to become a designer or a technologist, a master creator or a highly qualified performer. For this, it is not bad for a mentor to be a professional himself, who knows the intricacies of the industry coordinate system.
Manufacturers have calculated that today's Russian shipbuilding needs about a thousand young specialists annually. Almost two dozen universities are engaged in their training, and it is time for them to agree on who trains whom and to what extent. Indeed, in order for a graduate of a higher school to immediately join the technological process, powerful research stands, a modern experimental base are needed. And here both the enterprises themselves and the branch institutes, where, by the way, the salary is five times higher than in educational institutions, should lend a helping hand.
Scientific discipline
I am deeply concerned about industry science and our Russian Academy. They are now in a fever.
When in 1967, as a boy, he came to the Admiralty Shipyards, nuclear submarines of the 705th project were being built - small, with a displacement of less than three thousand tons, high-speed, capable of breaking away from any submarines, super-maneuverable, fully automated, with the most advanced and safe power plant with a liquid metal coolant … Who created this wonderful project? Academicians. The unique ship was assembled by Anatoly Petrovich Aleksandrov and Vladimir Nikolaevich Peregudov, the turbine was created by Vladimir Ivanovich Kiryukhin, the reactor plant - by Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal, the automation - by Alexander Ilyich Leipunsky. Outstanding scientists. Entire institutions worked. They had more than just theoretical developments - new electrical engineering and hydroacoustics. This really is science - the way it should be. Academic and sectoral research was then at an unprecedented level, determined the prospects for the development of all strategic directions, and the leading institutes were also responsible for the result, together with the production workers.
I remember well: 1979, the board of the Ministry of the Industry. Directors scold - such and such a ship on tests did not show the specified characteristics. They raise the head of the main board: how could this have happened, and then - each director of the branch institute: what are you doing if the ship does not fit into the established parameters. Two days later, the task force, headed by the deputy minister, flies to the ship, to the enterprises and a substantive investigation begins. And the most important thing is not that someone was removed and punished, but that things went well, pain points were eliminated.
Today it is of paramount importance to restore the proper status to the parent institutions and that they work hand in hand with enterprises.
A very recent example to support this idea. The ship missiles that brilliantly hit the positions of terrorists of the IS banned in Russia last fall are the brainchild of Pavel Ivanovich Kamnev, the Rubin Central Design Bureau, the Admiralty Shipyards and the Baltic Shipyard. In the late 1990s, we raised $ 30 million to create a missile that would dramatically increase efficiency and, therefore, competitiveness in the domestic and foreign submarine markets. Therefore, under current conditions, various research and production teams can effectively work on one task.
I would like to thank the President and the Government for allocating colossal money for the purchase of equipment, the creation of new technologies and design systems. It remains to put all this into operation as quickly as possible.
It is really a shame to build in the 21st century for a long time and uneconomical. In our country, traditionally, when marking materials, large allowances are laid, which are then almost manually removed and processed. That's up to 40 percent of unskilled labor, not to mention wasted materials. Our custom design standard is 10-15 percent more than the factory standard. These are all additional millions and millions …
Of course, building any ship requires strict planning and iron discipline. I tell the students: remember in the movies, when Marshal Zhukov takes command of the front, he signs on the map, where the combat situation at a specific hour is recorded, and from that time on he takes responsibility for the further development of events. So it is in shipbuilding. If you want to show off your knowledge, ask the shipyard for a technological schedule for building a ship. I wonder how many people will be looking for him. And this document should always be at hand, like an operational map for a commander. The entire production chain of the construction of the order is signed there, indicating the state at the moment, terms, forces, allocated funds, responsible.
By the way, I don’t understand my fellow shipbuilders, who all the time complained about the lack of funding. Even in the 90s, the Ministry of Defense gave 40 percent of the cost of the ship when the contract was signed. The minimum required is up to 20 percent to pay off the designers, purchase two thousand tons of steel, and advance the necessary equipment. So, the shipyards can do without loans at all with the further rhythmic flow of funds and strict adherence to the construction schedule. And since hundreds of enterprises and organizations are involved in the creation of a large project, continuous and clear interdepartmental control by the government is necessary.
We now have an abundance of inspection bodies with huge apparatuses - at the level of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Military-Industrial Commission, the United Shipbuilding Corporation, and other industry concerns. But it would be great if they could agree not only on control, but also on thoughtful coordination and joint planning in the production of strategic items such as ships. And the main thing is to outline the contours of promising developments of complex science-intensive technology for decades to come, which will ensure self-sufficiency, technological independence and, by and large, the security of our country.
The program for creating a transport fleet is drawn up until 2030, and for military shipbuilding until 2050. If, in the near future, a reasonable combination of a small apparatus of planning and control services is indicated, with the strengthening of the work of industrial institutes and educational institutions with technical re-equipment and putting things in order at enterprises and organizations, with timely funding, we will jointly achieve the revival of our fleet.
Private bussiness
Vladimir Alexandrov is one of the most respected shipbuilders in the country. For more than a quarter of a century, he headed the Admiralty Shipyards, under his leadership and with his direct participation, about 200 ships and submarines were built. Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor. President of the Association of Shipbuilders of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, head of the Scientific and Technical Society of Shipbuilders named after Academician Krylov. Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg.
