"Pests" in the tank industry. History of the industry

76

“Clean as soon as possible”


In the previous part of the cycle about becoming tank industry, we only partially touched on the use of repressive organs in this area. However, this topic is worth a separate consideration.

"Pests" in the tank industry. History of the industry

Ivan Pavlunovsky




Already in the 1929 year, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a decree on the military industry, in which the majority of the blame for the numerous disruptions to the production plan lay with various "wrecking" organizations. In particular, among the “ringleaders” was the assistant to the chief of the Main Military Industrial Directorate (GVPU) Vadim Sergeyevich Mikhailov, who was eventually shot. The decision also indicates that part of the blame, of course, lies with the leadership of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office. This was almost a direct accusation of the head of the Directorate, Alexander Fedorovich Tolokontsev - he was charged with "insufficient vigilance for many years and obvious sabotage and omissions in the military industry." I must say that Tolokontsev at the beginning of the trial of "pests" tried to convince Stalin of the innocence of his subordinates, but was not heard. In the spring of 1929, he was removed from his post and transferred to the post of head of the Main Directorate of Engineering and Metalworking Industries - this was an actual demotion. On April 27 of the same year, the former head of the SPPU at a meeting of the Politburo, among other things, said:
“I don’t file and do not intend to ask for resignation from the work currently being performed, but if comrade Pavlunovsky is right that the military industry is hanging by a thread, then the conclusion should be the immediate removal of me from the leadership of mechanical engineering as the head of the military industry for 2,5 years . I cannot but inform the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council and the Politburo that what I am accused of is a monstrous charge, completely undeserved and extremely painful for me. The characteristic of the main points of the work of the military industry, presented in my report, leads to completely opposite conclusions, since the military industry has a number of serious achievements in recent years. ”


In the 1937 year, Tolokontsev will be shot.

In his report, the former head of the military industry sector mentioned Ivan Petrovich Pavlunovsky, who at that time was the deputy people's commissar of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspectorate. It was he who was put at the head of the commission to correct the situation with catastrophic delays in mastering the production of new tanks. In particular, the decree ordered "as soon as possible to clean the entire personnel of the military industry to the factories inclusive." It was clear that with his excessive zeal, Pavlunovsky, who, incidentally, was also shot in the 37 year, would chop wood, which would leave the tank industry without the last qualified personnel. Therefore, in a month's time, at least a hundred experienced engineers with a spotless reputation were mobilized into the military industry. They also decided to organize technical retraining courses to strengthen, as they would say now, the key competencies of the engineering staff of the industry. But it didn’t help much, and the acute shortage of personnel in tank construction was still felt. But on the front of the fight against "pests" things were going well ...

It turned out that "wrecking not only undermined the supply base of the Red Army, but also caused direct damage to the improvement of military equipment, hindered the rearmament of the Red Army and worsened the quality of military supplies." These are words from the Resolution of the Politburo of February 25 1930 of the year 500 "On the progress of liquidation of wrecking at the enterprises of the military industry." In particular, on the basis of this document, an understanding has come that it will not be possible to catch up on its own and will have to purchase equipment abroad. Allocated XNUMX thousand rubles for these purposes and equipped the procurement commission, which was discussed in the first part of the story.

Calm before the storm


The mastery of new foreign technology in the early 30s at the factories of the USSR was very dramatic at first, but the repressions somehow bypassed this process. It was necessary to solve a whole mass of the most difficult tasks and, quite likely, the country's leadership temporarily moderated its ardor of exposing numerous "pests" and "enemies of the people." One of these problems was the development of the assembly of engines for high-speed vehicles of the BT series, requiring powerful motors. Initially, there were enough Liberty power plants purchased from the USA and domestic aviation M-5, which were brought back to life after being used by the Air Force at the Krasny Oktyabr and Aviaremtrest factories. At the same time, it was even necessary to repair the M-5 (which were also copies of Liberty), collecting one or two workers from several worn out engines - they could not yet produce spare parts on their own. A chronic shortage of bearings, which had to be purchased abroad, created serious difficulties. Two domestic factories could provide the tank building program with bearings by only 10-15%! For the T-26 of 29 types of bearings in the USSR, 6 items were not produced, and for BT - 6 out of 22. Starters, generators, electric motors for rotation of towers and even simple fans were also imported in Soviet tanks.


Experienced T-46-1 wheeled and tracked, follower of Christie's dead end concept


In the 1933 year, Kliment Voroshilov reports that of the 710 BT tanks produced, only 90 have guns - the rest simply didn’t. During the development of new brands of armored steel, the enterprises again did not have time to deliver to the plants No. 37 and the Kharkov steam locomotive. By the 1934 year, the Yaroslavl rubber-asbestos factory was unable to provide tank production with Ferrado tapes, rollers, disks and other technical rubber. Because of this, tank enterprises had to independently master the production of such components. Catch was an aircraft engine M-17 - it was required for the BT, and for the T-28, and even for the heavy T-35. And Rybinsk Aircraft Engine Plant No.26 could produce only 300 engines per year. It was here that the most important shortcoming of Soviet strategists was manifested when the tank industry was created without regard to the capabilities of allies. Tank plants were being built, and motor production, for example, did not even appear in plans. The purely tank and legendary B-2 will appear only before the war itself, in the 1939 year. By the way, by that time the BT series will have time to become morally and technically obsolete. This tank, more precisely, its wheeled caterpillar mover, certainly had a negative impact on the development of the domestic tank industry. The leadership of the Red Army pushed the idea of ​​J. Christie into industry, ignoring the complexity of production and the enormous cost of finalizing this type of mover. The most unpleasant thing is that with a chronic shortage of qualified specialists in design bureaus and factories, a lot of time was occupied by deadlock work with a wheel-caterpillar mover. In November 1936, the director of the Kirov plant Karl Martovich Ots was barely able to abandon the production of the T-29 tank. This tank with a combined mover was supposed to take the place of the average classic T-28. One of the arguments of Ots in a memorandum to Stalin himself was the development of a new modification of the T-28A with reinforced tracks, so "you can guarantee long speed runs without damaging the track."


T-29. This tank became fatal for many engineers and enterprise managers.



Moses Rukhimovich talks with Khrushchev


By the end of the 30's, the government planned to produce 35 thousand tanks annually, and for this ambitious goal, additional armored production was launched in Taganrog and Stalingrad. However, these enterprises did not have time to put into operation on time, and production volumes even several years after the launch seriously lagged behind the planned ones. Obviously, this, as well as the stalled production rate of armored vehicles, became the last straw of patience in the Politburo, and the leadership once again lowered the chain dogs. In 1936, Yezhov “uncovered” a conspiracy at the Bolshevik plant, while unraveling a whole bunch of complex counter-revolutionary and fascist forces. It turned out that at the Kirov pilot plant, and at the Voroshilov tank factory, and at the gun factory No. 17, and even at the Artillery Research Marine Institute, whole gangs of “pests” were being wielded. It was they who were to blame for the failure of work on the T-43-1 wheel-track-floating tank, as well as the T-29 with the T-46-1. Karl Ots was reminded of his stubbornness with the T-29 tank and attributed the leadership of the Trotsky-Zinoviev group at his factory in Leningrad. On October 15, on October 1937, the People's Commissar of Defense Industry Moisei Lvovich Rukhimovich was arrested, who managed to work in office for less than a year. In 1938, he was shot. Both Innokenty Khalepsky and Mikhail Siegel, who stood at the very beginnings of Soviet tank building, were shot. Dozens of mid-level designers were sent to camps.

The 1936-1937 clean-up was the last major military action against the engineering and management elite of the tank industry. After two waves of repression (the first was at the end of the 20's), the party leadership gradually realized that the bloodlessness of tank building would lead to the inevitable collapse of the country's defense in the face of the growing fascism in Europe.
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  1. -7
    18 October 2019 15: 32
    the bleeding of tank building will lead to the inevitable collapse of the country's defense capabilities in the face of the growing fascism in Europe.
    You need to evaluate any work by its result: the appearance of the T-34 and KV by the beginning of the Second World War. And thousands of BT and T-26 burned down in the early days, as well as the T-28 and T-35 due to the complete "incompetence".
    And what would happen if instead of thirty-fours there would be t-29, SMK and a-32.
    1. +12
      18 October 2019 15: 40
      Do you think the tanks themselves are to blame, and not the people who created them, manufactured and operated them?
      And because the KV-1 was put on the conveyor, they stopped producing spare parts for the T-28 (three copies fought in the north in 1944)! And by the beginning of the war, they were "slightly worn out." We will not remember the lack of shells.
      In 1941 they abandoned everything - from the T-27 to the KV-2!
      Lack of fuel, ammunition, spare parts ...
      1. -8
        18 October 2019 15: 45
        the tanks themselves are to blame

        Respected! And then the tanks. Those responsible for the development and production of unusable weapons were punished. And they make "victims of repression"
        ps Read from V. Grabin how GABTU literally prevented him from making good tank guns.
        1. +6
          18 October 2019 15: 47
          Respected! Name "unusable weapon" at the time of its adoption by the Red Army!
          We won’t take T-35s - a wish of the leadership!
        2. +15
          18 October 2019 15: 54
          How lucky the British designers were - for their pre-war tanks (except "Matilda" MK2 and "Valentine") they had to be sent to the Holy Inquisition.
          1. +1
            18 October 2019 16: 27
            But nothing happened to them. As with their loved ones. All remained alive, healthy, and lived a decent life.
            Damned capitalism.
            1. +3
              18 October 2019 22: 37
              But nothing happened to them. As with their loved ones. All remained alive, healthy, and lived a decent life.

              You can not say about the British tankers who burned down in tanks at the battle of Es Sallum.


              If Rommel had no problems with the supply of the Stalingrad Ring, he would have reached Iran without any problems.
              1. +4
                19 October 2019 12: 55

                Infantry tank Mk II "Matilda II". 7th Royal Tank Regiment, France 1940.
            2. +5
              19 October 2019 12: 52
              Perhaps the British and American tank builders were able to correctly explain their capabilities to the military and the leadership of the country?
              And the military should not be written off - they had a lot of hoteliers without delving into the features of production.
        3. The comment was deleted.
          1. -5
            18 October 2019 17: 46
            The memoirs of V.G. Grabin were published in 1989. In the "heyday". Read it. There are many interesting things
            1. 0
              18 October 2019 22: 40
              I "uryaklam" answered a little higher. hi
        4. +8
          18 October 2019 17: 40
          Quote: Amateur
          Read with V. Grabin how GABTU literally prevented him from making good tank guns

          The "reading" of Grabin should be treated in a weighted manner like any memoir, which in the USSR was often subjected to literary processing and censorship.
        5. +13
          18 October 2019 18: 17
          Quote: Amateur
          ps Read from V. Grabin how GABTU literally prevented him from making good tank guns.

          It was only when they raised the documents on these guns, it suddenly turned out that they were good only in memoirs.
          Do you know why on the KV-220 before sending to the troops it was necessary to put a tower from the KV instead of the standard one with the Hrabinsk 85-mm F-30? Yes, because the first F-30 did not pass the test - a crack in the breech on the 90th shot. The second F-30 test did not pass at all: after installation in the tank suddenly it was discovered that the gun was not balanced.
          And here is the reason - why GABTU did not like Grabin’s gun:
          F-30:
          In 1940, on the instructions of the GAU KA, the design bureau of plant No. 92 developed an 85-mm F-30 cannon. Its dimensions turned out to be such that the Kirov plant had to redesign the turret first, and then the KV tank, the resulting machine received the T-220 index (the KV-220 index was also used).

          F-42:
          As prescribed in the requirements of the GAU KA, the gun was created using the barrel of a 107-mm divisional gun arr. 1940 (under this index M-60 was adopted). It was expected that the prototype F-42 will be ready by December 25, 1940, but the work dragged on. The new gun was supposed to be used on the basis of a prototype of the T-220 heavy tank, but this idea had to be abandoned. The T-220 tower was too small for the F-42.

          © Y. Pasholok
          Moreover, Grabin had a systemic flaw - during the war, his guns twice dropped out of competitions for artillery systems for self-propelled guns due to the too large dimensions of the breech. And for the armament of the experimental IS-100 (IS with a 100-mm gun), Grabin generally filed an artillery system with a mirror arrangement of crew members:
          The next two tanks in correspondence according to the People’s Commissariat were developed under the working index IS-100. Actually, the GKO originally intended to produce the IS-100, armed with the S-34 TsAKB gun, but V. Grabin, as usual, was carried away by the improvements without prior coordination with the tank builders. For the convenience of loading, he envisioned placing the loader to the left of the gun, respectively moving the gunner to the right, and thus the installation of the S-34 in the IS tank tower suddenly required to reconfigure the entire fighting compartment, since the tank commander’s place should also migrate from the port to the port. To do this, it was necessary to develop new devices and tools, change the mold, develop a new VKU.
          © M. Svirin
          It is not surprising that the GABTU was wary of the development of Grabin.
          1. -2
            18 October 2019 18: 23
            Do you know why on KV-220 before sending to the troops had to put a tower from the KV?

            Do you know that the Grabinskaya F-32 was on the HF?
            1. +7
              18 October 2019 18: 29
              Quote: Amateur
              Do you know that the Grabinskaya F-32 was on the HF?

              I know. And I even know why it had to be replaced in the war with the ZIS-5.
              In fact, Grabin had two good (for the USSR) tank guns - F-34 and ZIS-S-53. And then, the second got on the T-34-85 only from the second attempt, after refinement - so some of the tanks had to be launched from the D-5T.
              1. -1
                18 October 2019 18: 51
                And I even know why it had to be replaced in the war with the ZIS-5.

                It's hard with you. ZIS5 is also Grabin. drinks
        6. +1
          18 October 2019 18: 47
          Quote: Amateur
          Read with V. Grabin how GABTU literally prevented him from making good tank guns.

          so he and GAU prevented ... bully
        7. 0
          19 October 2019 17: 03
          Punishment ..... by shooting. Is it too much?
        8. 0
          20 October 2019 13: 31
          And who in the whole world knew what technique should be done?
        9. 0
          28 October 2019 17: 29

          And they make "victims of repression"

          Who are they? Enemies of the people / traitors? To blame for the fact that they could not fly into the future and find out how to spill it all? Now, if you shoot anyone, then people like you.
          1. +1
            13 December 2019 17: 04
            There they promised a lot, they asked for a lot of money, then they promised again, they asked for money again, in fact they got zilch, they were mad, Tukhachevsky their patron and boss burned out on all fronts, plus they didn’t tolerate competitors and there were many planted, shot. Everything was more complicated, they didn’t just take and shoot there, the war was on the nose, and they were driving by the nose, you can remember how such experts did not want to miss the prototype of the T-34, they wanted to accept a wheeled-tracked vehicle and only Stalin personally allowed to prepare two cars. Now that the archives have opened a little and then a lot of questions, and when they all were recorded as innocent victims in perestroika, then it’s time to stop exploiting this topic, we need to operate with some kind of documents.
    2. +13
      18 October 2019 15: 47
      Quote: Amateur
      Evaluate any work you need according to its result: the appearance of T-34 and HF to the beginning of the Second World War

      But they didn’t appear out of the blue, we had to "stuff cones" on different BTs and T-35s. This allowed the designers to reach just the optimal designs of the T-34 and KV. Other leading countries like Germany, not to mention France and Britain, had even worse. We started the war with working models. And talking about sabotage, this is a separate story with its negative and positive sides. But sabotage can not be denied, it was.
      1. +8
        18 October 2019 18: 17
        Quote: tihonmarine
        And talking about wrecking, this is a separate story with its negative and positive sides. But it is impossible to deny wrecking, it was.

        Finding the "pest" for the person responsible for the release of a particular type of product (from the nut to the final product) was a sacred duty !!!! "The leaders of enterprises with a 4-grade education, but with party experience in the RCP (b) since 1898, promising the party and the government golden mountains and milk rivers, having no idea about the development work, dumped all the blame for the failure of their own enterprise on the engineers and technicians so as not to fall under the firing squad themselves. ”And a young graduate came to the place of the arrested specialist, who again began to work by the method of a little scientific poke !!!!
        1. +1
          18 October 2019 18: 43
          Quote: sso-250659
          Heads of enterprises with 4's cool education, but with party experience in the RCP (b) with 1898,

          Yes, they are already ro 60 years was all retired. And Comrade Stalin knew how to select leaders, so I didn’t read that there were leaders with the formation of the Central School of Security, all this is the same nonsense as Russia wants to attack Poland, the Baltic States and, naturally, Svidomo Ukraine. Fantasy !
          1. +3
            18 October 2019 20: 39
            Meaning the general concept. The leader with the party card blamed all the failures on the non-party "bastard." Just not to answer yourself. Or, as in the case of S.P. Korolev, the denunciation of an envious colleague about the waste of state funds. It is also well described in Grabin's memoirs about the director of the plant, where he was GK. The director was simply afraid to rebuild the production technology. this entailed not fulfilling the plan. If interested, read it.
    3. +3
      18 October 2019 17: 58
      [quote = Dabbler] I agree, me too. But ... the T-34 and KV could not appear in 1932, in all cases. Thousands of BTs, T-28s, T-35s burned down in the first days, as did hundreds of T-34s and KVs due to the complete "professional unsuitability" of our generals. BTs were no worse than German tanks, and outnumbered in number. T-28, T-35 - unique, when working from an ambush ....... and all the tanks drove in continuous marches of 200-500 km, burned fuel, ditched equipment. With the complete absence of logistics and transport, the tanks were doomed, and the warehouses almost instantly fell under the Germans.
    4. +5
      18 October 2019 18: 03
      Quote: Amateur
      And what would happen if

      Yes, that would be what it was.
      T-34 and KV were in the border districts of more than 1800 units, against about the same number of medium German tanks T-3 and T-4, and even about 8000 BT and T-26, against a couple of thousand inferior to them in armor and weapons T -1 and T-2.
      True, the Germans still had many APCs, of which we did not have at all.
      We will not clarify the banal truths. That tank troops are far from being only tanks, and without comprehensive technical, rear, combat support they cannot successfully fight. As well as without a comprehensively trained l / s and understanding tank officers and generals at all levels.
      But ... and the tanks should not be "raw", but rather reliable. The industry could not provide either the T-34 or KV with reliable units. for example, the miserable unreliable gearbox T-34, where the gears were switched by a movable gear - a carriage, was replaced only by 1942, the resource of the first V-2 diesels is good if it was within 50 m / h, etc. etc.
      So the identification, landing in camps and executions of "pests" in the tank industry greatly helped the Germans to successfully overcome the quantitative gap in tanks from the Red Army ...
      1. -10
        18 October 2019 18: 12
        So the identification, landing in camps and executions of "pests" in the tank industry

        But as soon as the "pests" were dealt with, the mileage of the tanks increased from 200 to 2000 km. But you probably think that
        carriage, replaced only by 1942, the resource of the first V-2 diesel engines is good if it was within 50 m / h, etc. etc.
        exclusively made by the NKVD officers
        1. +3
          18 October 2019 18: 19
          Quote: Amateur
          only with the "pests" dealt with, and the mileage of tanks increased from 200 to 2000 km. But you probably think that
          carriage, replaced only by 1942, the resource of the first V-2 diesel engines is good if it was within 50 m / h, etc. etc.
          exclusively made by the NKVD officers

          I believe that the above-mentioned problems of Russian tanks have a reason, including because many (not all, thank God) smart people were destroyed, and mediocrity was put in their place.
          What many employees of the NKVD (again, not all of them) did, led by their people's commissars, is also no secret today, as well as the fact that many of them, again, together with the people's commissars, repeated the fate of their victims. Just, often, for "extermination of personnel". But ... the time was lost.
      2. +3
        19 October 2019 08: 14
        Quote: Alekseev
        for example, the wretched unreliable KP T-34, where the gears were switched by a movable gear - a carriage, was replaced only by 1942,

        Well, what do you want. Kharkiv residents used what they had debugged in production - a recycled box from BT (count Christie), but they did not take into account the increased weight and, as a result, poor performance of the main clutch (it is difficult to "squeeze" 22 discs to the end), therefore the box is an outdated scheme and could not work normally. here, no technological tricks for replacing the material and methods of hardening the gears helped. The same applies to the suspension, which "ate" the so small booked volume and to the bent frontal sheet, which was then replaced by two with a joint at the junction with a cast beam (a wonderful solution + 700-odd kilograms of weight, the sides were joined end-to-end). There were many BT-shny "birth" spots, because it was easier for the designers.
        Well, the new gearbox actually came in the year 43, the problem was, inter alia, the need to use needle bearings.
    5. +5
      18 October 2019 18: 46
      Quote: Amateur
      due to the complete "incompetence".

      Soviet command, above the level of the battalion commander ... request
      against the background of the German T-1 and T-2, our T-26 and BT are simply super tanks, and the T-3 and T-4 do not have superiority over -28 ...
  2. The comment was deleted.
  3. +8
    18 October 2019 16: 07
    This is psychologically understandable. Our party leadership was mostly poorly educated. They thought how: is this not sabotage? I fully admit that someone who deliberately slowed down could be in the leadership of the industry, but 2/3 were not to blame. The easiest to find is the "scapegoat".
    Let's not forget that N.I. Yezhov was still a goose. He may well have deliberately "cast a shadow on the slab" to prove his necessity
  4. +6
    18 October 2019 16: 14
    If only these methods could be brought into the current "department of" aircraft construction "! There, it seems," the enemy is on the enemy and is driving the enemy "!
  5. +3
    18 October 2019 16: 40
    Christie’s impasse is rather relative: as for the springs, they simply badly missed the front and rear shock absorbers; as for the caterpillar-wheel, then get rid of the steering wheels and turn, braking the side, quite nothing
    1. 0
      18 October 2019 22: 38
      It was not possible to slow down, the caterpillar was blocked, this did not allow to keep the trajectory of movement
      1. -1
        19 October 2019 14: 55
        actually I meant the wheel drive, with one driving pair it is enough to slow down just one wheel, within a reasonable 30-40 km / h, it will be quite tolerable
  6. -5
    18 October 2019 17: 18
    They shot themselves in the leg, it’s a pity that they didn’t.
  7. +12
    18 October 2019 17: 26
    The purely tank and legendary V-2 will appear only before the war itself, in 1939. By the way, by that time the BT series will have time to become morally and technically obsolete. This tank, more precisely, its wheeled caterpillar mover, certainly had a negative impact on the development of the domestic tank industry. The leadership of the Red Army pushed the idea of ​​J. Christie into industry, ignoring the complexity of production and the enormous cost of finalizing this type of mover. The most unpleasant thing is that with a chronic shortage of qualified specialists in design bureaus and factories, a lot of time was occupied by deadlock work with a wheel-caterpillar mover.
    The B-2 was also designed as an aircraft engine. This is one thing. Second, heavy and medium tanks also needed a powerful engine. Here correctly noted about the lack of bearings, armor steel, other products, but about the organization of production, or rather about the mess in production, professor-metallurgist V.S. Emelyanov wrote well in his book "How did it begin". This quote is about finding the reasons for the fracture of the gear teeth of the gearbox of the T-34 tank at one and the factories
    But one of the workers laid two steel billets on the trolley and moved with them to the next span, to the second press, where the gear disks were stamped, and laid these bars on the billets already there.
    I went to the worker and asked:
    - Why did you put these blanks there?
    - And a lot has already been delivered to other furnaces, now we will carry them here.
    - But this is a different metal, this metal cannot be added here, it will not work.
    - How not good ?! The size is the same - what is there, what is here.
    New workers worked in the transport department of the plant. Nobody really explained to them where and how to deliver the blanks coming to the workshop, but there was no control over their work.
    You can write a lot about pests in the tank industry, but for some reason it is not written that both the Americans and the British faced similar problems. The Americans also had problems with the engines and until they created, on the basis of the aircraft, the Ford GAA-8 tank engine. So there were many problems for everyone who built the tanks, they were only solved in each country by their own methods.
    1. +6
      18 October 2019 17: 52
      It is very similar to how during the war the "Stakhanovites", instead of tightening the screws, hammered them with a hammer, and then the skin on the fighters' wings peeled off in flight. As far as I remember, it was with Lavochkin's planes.
    2. +2
      18 October 2019 22: 36
      In the described situation, not everyone is to blame, the technologists should have foreseen the obvious difference in blanks
  8. +7
    18 October 2019 17: 31
    So we engaged in track-and-wheel tracks, because the tracks burst after 100 km of run, and there was a concept on a march on wheels in a battle on tracks. I think there were no wreckers, there were illiterate fools who were led to all sorts of crazy ideas like polygonal shells, etc. and accordingly crazy inventors. In general, the level of all personnel was low, plus a revolution and a civil war that put forward not quite adequate leaders, whom enemies everywhere seemed to be. Now, by the way, it’s no better, only rogues have come to the top and again low-skilled personnel and naive leaders who hang noodles on their ears, a classic example is our aircraft industry, here I agree. Christy was the right step with the T-24, we would have been busy for a long time. Without Christie and the T-72 would not have been. Multi-tower tanks were built, as they were going to fight with infantry and cavalry, they somehow did not think about tanks and anti-tank vehicles (did not predict).
  9. +9
    18 October 2019 17: 59
    Yezhov in 1936 "uncovered" the conspiracy at the Bolshevik factory, while unraveling a whole tangle of complex counter-revolutionary and fascist forces.

    Not everything is so simple. Arrests in the midst of the technical intelligentsia were often the result of internal clashes in the midst of this very intelligentsia. Previously, scientists and engineers carried denunciations to the Inquisition, and then to the NKVD.
    For example, Comrade Tsyganov, who led the work on the BT-2 IS and BT-5 IS, sent a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) As follows:
    Desperate N. Tsyganov went all-out and on October 26, 1937 sent a libel letter to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks stating that the remarkable BT-IS tank was not being produced because a cohort of pests interfered with it: “... the pest Firsov, the former chief Design bureau at the KhPZ plant, where it was transferred by the pest Neiman, the former head of the Spetsmashtrest; at the plant No. 48 (Kharkov), where the technical director was the fascist saboteur Simsky, who dragged the fascist Gakkel to the plant No. 48 and put him at the head of the production of BT IP ".
    © M.Svirin
    1. +5
      18 October 2019 18: 54
      Quote: Alexey RA
      Previously, scientists and engineers carried denunciations to the Inquisition, and then to the NKVD.

      Really in RI engineers wrote denunciations to gendarmes? Or was such a system created in the USSR?
      When people were forced to cover their asses from falling under repression for not fulfilling the plan ... moreover, the plan was obviously stupid - not provided with resources! Think about it - why 35000 tanks in peacetime every year? How to service them, where to get fuel and spare parts? Where to get trained crews, command and technicians? Where to get guns for arming these tanks? Etc. etc....
      Quote: Alexey RA
      Comrade Tsyganov, who led the work on the BT-2 IS and BT-5 IS

      had no engineering background ... request
      1. 0
        7 January 2020 05: 00
        Quote: ser56
        Really in RI engineers wrote denunciations to gendarmes? Or was such a system created in the USSR?

        The problem of Russia after 1917 is that later than this year the gendarme for social status began to occupy an inappropriately high level. Before the revolution, L.N. Tolstoy instructed the main gendarme Stolypin and determined his position in society, and after a simple gendarme Khvat, the fate of the chief geneticist Vavilov and the main results of his work (ordered to burn travel records of his travels). In addition, public opinion until 1917 was the arbiter of their controversy and put everything in its place during their lifetime (remember Stolypin ties), and Khvat was not intravitally called a pest and murderer. In a normal society, different team-firms work. An erroneous engineering decision leads to a political or economic solution, the collapse of one company and the prosperity of another, without executions, denunciations and camps for designers and workers.
        1. -1
          7 January 2020 15: 31
          Quote: gsev
          The problem of Russia after 1917 is that later than this year the gendarme for social status began to occupy an inappropriately high level.

          I don’t agree - you lose sight of the fact that in the Republic of Ingushetia the gendarmes simply defended the authorities, but in the USSR the status of the Cheka / OGPU / NKVD / KGB was different - the Party’s advanced detachment! request in other words - these are not excesses of performers - this is the policy of the ruling party! hi
          1. ssm
            +1
            7 January 2020 16: 01
            Quote: ser56
            in the Republic of Ingushetia, the gendarmes simply defended power, but in the USSR the status of the Cheka / OGPU / NKVD / KGB was different - the Party’s front line!

            Do not make up. The essence was the same, only the name was different.
            1. -1
              7 January 2020 16: 25
              Quote: ssm
              The essence was the same, only the name was different.

              you are mistaken - the Cheka combined various functions - the search, investigation, trial and sentencing (functions changed over time) ... as a result of arbitrariness .... the gendarmes did not judge!
    2. -7
      18 October 2019 18: 54
      Not everything is so simple. Arrests in the midst of the technical intelligentsia were often the result of internal clashes in the midst of this very intelligentsia.

      Not necessarily.
      When T-1943-34 got to the amers at the landfill in 76, they were tested both in the tail and in the mane. The main drawback of the T-34 in their opinion is that only a saboteur could design such an air filter. . They saw no other reason than sabotage in the design of the air engine.
      The V-2 engine failed after 240 km at the training ground, the reason is that the engine was clogged with dirt
      1. +4
        18 October 2019 20: 14
        Yeah. And no one in wild Russia until 1943 could have guessed that such a filter was made by a saboteur, only when they got one copy from the Americans, they understood everything right away, civilized people, opened our eyes ....
        Maybe the problem is different? Not until then, the factories demanded that the release, the more the better, and not thoughtful research, what is there and how.
        In addition to the filter at the American training ground did not find any flaws?
        1. -8
          18 October 2019 20: 28
          Yeah. And no one in wild Russia until 1943 realized that such a filter was made by a saboteur,

          Well, why - many got what they deserved ....
        2. 0
          22 December 2019 18: 17
          Found. But almost all the shortcomings are a consequence of the "military" release, plus this machine was, if my memory serves me, the sample of the beginning of the 42nd, when the tanks were driven on the principle "there is a gun, there is a harp - into battle." 240 km was enough - two, three attacks and no tank.
      2. +2
        18 October 2019 20: 48
        Quote: lucul
        The V-2 engine failed after 240 km at the training ground, the reason is that the engine was clogged with dirt

        And the fact that the front of the T-34 more than 100-150 km with the battles did not pass, the Yankees did not take into account?
        1. +2
          18 October 2019 22: 34
          The filter itself, of course, was not very good, but you still need to get to the battle.
          But the T-34 met the war raw and unfinished, and in 1941 and 1942 there was no time for frills, obvious flaws were corrected, the filter could not be calculated so easily without thoughtful tests.
          Otherwise, they fixed it a long time ago, if everything had been so obvious.
          1. +1
            21 October 2019 11: 03
            Quote: Avior
            But the T-34 met the war raw and unfinished, and in 1941 and 1942 there was no time for frills, obvious flaws were corrected, the filter could not be calculated so easily without thoughtful tests.
            Otherwise, they fixed it a long time ago, if everything had been so obvious.

            "Insufficient performance of the air cleaner" was on the list of the T-34's shortcomings and the necessary constructive improvements at the beginning of 1941. In April 1941, the plant reported that the new air cleaner was sent to Leningrad for state tests. And that is all.
            In fact, neither the new driver’s hatch with improved viewing devices, nor the new caterpillar, nor the new air purifier managed to get into the series by June 22, 1941
            © Ulanov / Shein. The first T-34. Combat use.

            I’ll tell you more - the same problems haunted HF. On the LKZ tank, the military representative generally wrote that the air purifier restricts the air supply to the motor (which prevents it from getting maximum power), but it does not purify this air at all.
      3. +1
        21 October 2019 10: 54
        Quote: lucul
        The main drawback of the T-34 in their opinion is that only a saboteur could design such an air filter. . They saw no other reason than sabotage in the design of the air engine.

        The exact name for this "sabotage" is low technical literacy. Often, designers simply copied successful and proven solutions from other tank models, without even thinking that the copied mechanism in the product they designed works in completely different conditions.
        In addition, the reliability of the turret swivel mechanism was noted, the design of which was largely borrowed from the swivel mechanism of the large turret of the T-28 tank weighing about 3 tons. And since the mass of the KV-1 tower was 7 tons, the KV-2 was 12 tons (! )
      4. 0
        7 January 2020 15: 47
        Quote: lucul
        only an saboteur could design such an air filter

        S.P. Korolev during the launches of his rockets to the moon did not bother to conduct thermal calculations of the electrical equipment of the rockets. If this were under Stalin, then the denunciation and accusation of S.P. Queen in wrecking. But I think that precisely because of the absence of mass repressions under Khrushchev, the USSR practically on an equal footing with the USA developed space, rocket science, military and civil aviation, in the USSR they ceased to die of starvation in peacetime ..
        1. ssm
          0
          7 January 2020 16: 00
          Quote: gsev
          under Khrushchev, the USSR practically on an equal footing with the United States developed space, rocket science, military and civil aviation,

          Rocketry, these are the Germans and the FAU. Grettrup and his group. Korolev is the same zits-chairman as Kalashnikov ("Kalashnikov" is the pseudonym of Schmeisser and his group).
          The same applies to military aviation, only there were more zits-chairmen.
          Civil aircraft in the USSR were never produced at all. But "Soviet civilian aircraft" were produced. Which only outwardly were slightly similar to real civilian aircraft.
          The first real civil aircraft made in the USSR / Russia is the SSJ-100. A normal plane in principle. But there are 70% of imports, because in the USSR, components for real civil aircraft have never been produced. Only for "Soviet civil aircraft"
          1. -1
            7 January 2020 17: 07
            Rocket building is the Germans and the FAA. Grettrup and his group.

            When our designers conducted an analysis of the Fau rocket, it turned out that 1500 different alloys were used in it. And just to pick up these alloys will require at least 20 years. I will draw an analogy with Damascus steel - the alloy is known - but it is extremely difficult to copy it.
            So it is here - all alloys in Soviet missiles were created from scratch.
            But how did Russophobe know these nuances, if he didn’t even know that Poland and Germany dismembered the Czech Republic in 1938 .......
          2. 0
            8 January 2020 00: 54
            Quote: ssm
            Korolev is the same zits-chairman as Kalashnikov ("Kalashnikov",

            The USSR was the first to launch a man into space, the first to be a satellite, the Soviet man was the first in space to go from one ship to another, Salute, unlike Scalab, was able to remain operational for several years and was drowned to please politics. The United States was able to create a workable space station only with the participation of Russia and even international, Progress with the Unions ensured its functioning. What designers from Germany participated in these projects?
            Automatic AK47 looks similar to the StG-44. But in their design completely different principles are incorporated - locking by turning the shutter and skewing the shutter. That is, they differ from each other like Macintosh, Elbrus and IBM computers. The AK-47 production has only one German feature, it was originally produced on German trophy machines. And TK for the development of a Soviet automatic machine implied the use of German equipment as more modern. Soviet civilian aircraft performed well and even the small civilian AN-2 after the liberation of Algeria terrified the command of NATO and changed the geopolitical situation. Then in Algeria, locusts multiplied and destroyed the crop. The French rubbed their hands in joy. Soviet agricultural aircraft were banned from landing in European countries, and by the time they could have been transferred by sea to Algeria, famine would have begun there and France was waiting for concessions from Algerians, if not surrender. At DMZ, fuel tanks were modified and the AN-2 flew to Algeria under its own power. NATO decided that the USSR had developed small-sized long-range bombers capable of flooding the whole of Europe with sarin .. The supeget cannot be successful. After the pogrom by the Gaidar gang of the Soviet civil aviation industry, under Putin, the civil aviation industry began almost from scratch. And in this case, usually only the third project is successful.
    3. +5
      19 October 2019 01: 16
      Quote: Alexey RA
      Not everything is so simple. Arrests in the midst of the technical intelligentsia were often the result of internal clashes in the midst of this very intelligentsia. Previously, scientists and engineers carried denunciations to the Inquisition, and then to the NKVD.

      In the same book, the quote from which I cited, it is described how the employees of the enterprise informed each other, so that the blame would not fall on them: “But the meeting did not explain anything to us. The reason for the marriage remained a secret.
      On the way from the factory to the visitors' apartment where we were staying, one of the factory workers caught up with me.
      “I want to give you my thoughts on the causes of tooth breakage,” he told me. “A German spy has undoubtedly entered the plant, and maybe not even one. “He” or even “they” throw small metal objects into the gearbox - a screw, nut, nail or something like that. These objects fall between the teeth, which leads to breakages.
      - But no one has ever found any foreign objects in these boxes!
      - And maybe the "one" who put them there and puts them, has time to clean them up. Who is this spy, where does he work and is he located - does anyone know this? I advise you to take a closer look at people.
      - Do you have any suspicions?
      - No, if they were, believe me, I would have already taken the necessary measures. Unfortunately, I am also in the dark.
      To me too, counselor! It inspires suspicion, but cannot say anything concrete. And it’s hardly a matter of some mythical spies. ”And yet the author cites several
  10. -4
    18 October 2019 18: 00
    We must all understand that the times were hard, and “enemies all around” was never a metaphor. On the one hand, Poland and Germany, on the other, Finland, which recently flooded all of Karelia with blood, on the third, Japan, and a little further from the borders - the Anti-Comintern (in plain text - "against the USSR") bloc and dearly loving England, France, and the USA. Time to wait until we learn how to make tanks - no, no one will give it to us! What measures will still work? Did you cut it? Oh, not on purpose? But excuse me, YOU HAVE CUT!
    What kind of victims are they? It required - was mandatory - a labor feat, and they did it - massively - and it worked! And those who were slandered by American Patriots for the Saudis - then they would have slapped just for stupidity. Wrecking is. Stupid friend - he is worse than a smart enemy
    1. +5
      18 October 2019 18: 58
      Quote: RWMos, kwa
      and “enemies all around” was never a metaphor.

      and what-for Russia it happened somehow differently? request
      Quote: RWMos, kwa
      YOU - and CUTTED OFF!

      Seriously? you were given a plan of 1000 tanks, but the components and raw materials were not supplied ... there are no qualified personnel, discipline after the revolution is lame ... and you cannot offend a "working man" - you are a contrarian from the former ...
      Read the biography of Polikarpov - one of the main "saboteurs" sentenced to be shot ... request
  11. -6
    18 October 2019 18: 33
    Quote: hohol95
    How lucky the British designers were - for their pre-war tanks (except "Matilda" MK2 and "Valentine") they had to be sent to the Holy Inquisition.

    JV Stalin had a very simple principle: "If you are so smart, here's a task for you." Completed efficiently and on time - get the "Stalin Prize" + "dacha, car and dog." Didn't do it - for the first time "sharashka". Completed in "sharashka" - see the item "Completed" (get the "Stalin Prize" + "dacha, car and dog")
    Didn't do it in the second - there could be a choice - from "basement" to "felling"
    1. -5
      19 October 2019 11: 47
      It was the same in the Ancient Egyptian kingdom. When ancient engineers built dams,
      canals, pyramids for the pharaohs. Or a palace as a gift, or to crocodiles.
      The classic slave system, which was revived in the USSR.
      1. 0
        24 October 2019 17: 57
        Either the case was in the Russian Empire under Nikolashka 2. Noble persons directly destroyed everything they touched and did not answer for anything. Then there was a paradise for you.
  12. +1
    18 October 2019 21: 47
    Very little time was allowed for the development of the country's defense power, and this was one of the reasons for the repressions, which, in general, corresponded to the spirit of that time
  13. +2
    18 October 2019 23: 15
    In the capitalist countries there were no pests and traitors among
    designers and engineers. The bad were fired, the good were recruited.
    But everyone lived to old age among families and children.
    Only in the USSR they were shot and put in camps.
    Not even that is scary, but the fact that now these savage measures consider
    completely normal.
    The consciousness of people lagged behind as in the days of the Inquisition. negative
    1. +2
      21 October 2019 10: 59
      Does it mean that "McCarthyism" cannot be equated with similar phenomena in the USSR?
      Since they happened in a democratic country of the USA!
      And the 1954 Act on the Control of Communists is a completely democratic document.
      1. -1
        21 October 2019 11: 43
        In the days of McCarthyism, people were fired from public service,
        if recognized that they are communist views.
        But they did not plant and did not shoot. These people got a job
        in the private sector and lived to old age.
        Only explicit Soviet spies, like the Rosenberg spouses, were executed.
        And, unlike the USSR, in the USA only 1% of jobs are state-owned.
        And in the USSR - almost 100%
    2. -1
      24 October 2019 18: 17
      All capitalist countries surrendered in unison to Adolf Hitler. And we probably had to surrender so that people like you, "geniuses" and "connoisseurs of history" were not born.
  14. -5
    19 October 2019 03: 11
    Stop chewing * again about what happened. Better about what will not be - about T 14.
    I will reassure everyone forever: I had to bring to mind the T-95 !!! T-14 is a dummy that was taken into virtual production by intrigue or direct betrayal. Where and when the T-14 was REALLY tested, fired upon. burned, blown up, drowned, buried, etc. etc.? In Syria, participated in fights, for example? And I don’t really want to, but you can hammer nails into the lid of the coffin: Germany and France, according to various sources, are going to develop a joint machine with a cannon of 140 ... Any questions? Even if they don’t agree on a joint option, the production of any of these countries with a 140-gun tank puts FOREVER a bold cross on the super-duper advertised, raw and completely unprepared T-14. Over these decades, the T-95 could be brought to the most advanced machine in the world, which would be at least a decade ahead of everyone !!! Congratulations to all the traitors (and stupid decision-makers) with a victory!
  15. +1
    19 October 2019 19: 35
    How, after so much time, and even without having absolutely all the information, hang or remove the label "traitor" and "saboteur and saboteur"? I think that 50 years later, our descendants will also argue about the personality of the head of RUSNANO or about the contribution to the rearmament of the Russian army, Mr. Serdyukov. And many volumes of memoirs will be written about Medvedev's creative work, etc. I believe that, adherent (s), and at that time and now there were and are obvious pests, hiding behind good undertakings ...
  16. -1
    28 October 2019 17: 30
    Stalinolizam read strictly required.
  17. +1
    22 December 2019 18: 36
    I would like to note that the 30s were the "time of search" - no one knew what concept the armored forces would come to. England went its own way, Germany went its own way. France had its own view of the problem. The USSR did not stand still either. The United States, however, before WWII did not come up with anything sensible, except for armored sheds. Yes, and America did not need tanks - this is the time of the fleet.
    As for the "bad, unsuitable, raw T-34 / KV" by the summer of 41, if at least a T-90 were in their place, the result would be about the same. In the summer of 41, initiative, tactics and strategy were decisive.
    As an excuse, I can only say one thing - no one better than those who burned out in frontal attacks on BT and T-26 would have done better than them. And those nameless heroes with every shot of the "forty-five" brought Victory closer.
    1. -1
      22 December 2019 18: 56
      Funny photo smile But it would be more effective if instead of the T-26 there was a thirty-four-pie wink Type of succession of generations soldier
  18. -1
    9 January 2020 02: 38
    It is clear that they didn’t shoot those who needed it. Each such moronic, initially, tank was preceded by TK. And who should give it out? NGOs, Tukhachevsky, Egorov, Voroshilov. Those who were from foreign teams were shot, but the People’s Commissar of Defense is not responsible for the result?
    And what were the designers and production workers responsible for? Did they not do what was ordered? And where did the military representatives look?
    In general, this is a dark matter.

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